Dave Made That : New Media Musings by Dave Delaney

Build it before you actually need it

Dave — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:37:45 +0000

On the recent episode of Media Hacks, Julien Smith spoke with Mitch Joel about building your community. It’s a great podcast which I highly suggest you check out.

During the thirty minute conversation Julien said, “You have to build it (community) before you actually need it. If you don’t need it, now is the perfect time.” He was bang on the money with this point.

We often get complacent when we’re in a good place. When everything is lovely, we don’t want to think about things getting bad. The truth is that things will get bad, for everybody. You’re not alone. So plan for the bad before it gets bad, so it’s not as bad. Get me?

The point to this is that you need to be building your community now. Strengthen the network you have. Get out there and be social, tis’ the season to.

What are you doing to build and strengthen your relationships?

Photo on Flickr by: Bryan Person

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Where’s the love for Robert Englund?

Dave — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:47:22 +0000

My mum emailed me today to remind me that the premiere of V was tonight. My brother, mum and I watched the show regularly when it originally aired back in (gulp) 1983. We were all fond of Willie, the innocent alien played by Robert Englund.

When I was a teenager my friends Skinny, Sims and I were really into horror movies. We even went to Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors in Toronto in 1991. The horror movie convention featured my favorite make up artist Tom Savini, Kane “Jason” Hodder from Friday The 13th VII and VIII, Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead 1 and 2), scream queen, Linnea “Queen B” Quigley and the Godfather of Gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis (Blood Feast). The only person missing was Robert Englund who we all knew and loved as Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street, but we didn’t hold it against him. The guy had a busy schedule back then!

We were all huge Freddy Krueger fans. The cool thing was that Robert Englund always returned to play Freddy in each of the many sequels. Englund was everywhere as Freddy. He attended countless horror and sci-fi conferences, television shows, movie cameos and even charity events.

And now history is being re-written without him.

In an interview with TV Guide, Englund said that the remake of V makes him “feel pretty old”. He added that, “My two biggest hits are being remade so there’s kind of a perfect storm right now.”

V premiered tonight as a remake without Robert Englund. I didn’t have the heart to tune in. The remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street is slated for next year without Robert Englund. Seriously, who else could play Freddy freakin’ Kruger?

What’s the world coming to?
While I’m on the topic, can somebody please put a stop to lame remakes of classic horror films?

Photo by: AP

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You Need To See This For Yourself

Dave — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:38:57 +0000

Each Halloween I try to find a creepy video to share with you. This is one I often return to, because it’s puzzling. Normally I don’t believe in Big Foot or Sasquatch, but you have to admit this video really raises some questions. Especially when you hear the creature’s strange sound.

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How Not To Get Locked Out Of Twitter

Dave — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:20:14 +0000

Have you ever been in a sudden state of shock from finding yourself locked out of Twitter?

This has been occurring quite a bit lately. Instead of logging in to my profile after I enter my credentials I see the message:

Well, I’ve finally figured out why this is happening thanks to Jenni Leeds and Dave Beronja. The problem was occurring because I was running too many Twitter desktop clients at once.

I usually use Tweetdeck and DestroyTwitter as my two main Twitter clients, but lately I’ve been playing with Tweetie and Seesmic again. Having more than two of these applications running and then logging in from the browser is a bad idea. It raises red flags when a user keeps logging in, that makes sense to me.

I’m happy to report that this was simply a case of user error, I have no one to blame but myself.

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Nashville Technology Council Feel The Beat Awards

Dave — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:33:47 +0000

Last night Heather and I got to attend the Nashville Technology Council’s “Feel The Beat” Awards. The red carpet gala event was held at the Schemerhorn Symphony Center, which is a gorgeous building in downtown Nashville.

I had the thrill of being nominated as Nashville’s Social Media / Blogger of the year. I shared the honor of the nomination with Kate O’Neill of [meta] marketer and Rex Hammock of Hammock Inc., both people I really like and admire.

When Rex’s name was called I was so happy for him. Many people don’t realize that Rex has been blogging about news and social media, community and technology since before we called it blogging. Congrats Rex!

Tod Fetherling, CEO of the tech council, did an incredible job putting together the first of many future Feel The Beat awards. The location, food, audio and video were all top notch. I should add that it was fun being seated at table 15 (the little guitar table) with some old friends and fellow nominees like: Marcus Whitney and Clint Smith, Alex Ezell and Sara McManigal.

I truly appreciate the recognition from being nominated. Thanks.

Photo by: MiiA Communications

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Your Library On Amazon

Dave — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:35:54 +0000

What if you could search for a book on Amazon and the results included availability in your local library? You can.

The only stipulation is that you need to be living in one of the cities where a script is available. If you’re a developer in Nashville PLEASE create this for us too!

Here’s an example of the script developed by Stv. for the Vancouver Public Library. I recorded this screencast so you can see it in action. So cool!

Be sure to watch this in full screen screen mode.

To run this yourself:

Install the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox (use Firefox)
Install the Amazon Library script of your choice.
Visit amazon.com and wait for the magic.

Chris Brogan also has an awesome post about the library of today, he raises some interesting questions about the future of the library as we know it.

Photo by: slimninja on Flickr.

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How To Avoid Online Scams

Dave — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:58:59 +0000

If someone you know contacts you and tells you that he has a guaranteed way for you to make money online, it’s probably a scam. I’m not accusing your friend of trying to rip you off, it could be that he has been duped into believing in the scam himself. Be careful.

Here’s eight ways to avoid being scammed online. Anyone looking for a job should pay close attention to this post too. Scam artists are after you first, then you do their dirty work and your friends become victims too.

These scams both online and offline tend to make victims waste so much of their time, and in some cases their money, that they can’t admit to themselves that they are in too deep. It’s part guilt and part denial. A great film about this seedy technique is Great World Of Sound, but I digress.

Today I was contacted by someone I don’t really know on Facebook via chat. He told me about a new great service being launched today that would definitely make me money. I researched it for him, because it didn’t sound right.

If you’re given an offer that sounds too good to be true it most likely is. However, if you really want to test the legitimacy of the offer keep reading…

1. Search for the company on RipoffReport.com, Snopes.com and Scams.com. Also, a simple Google search for the company may raise some red flags right away.

2. Look at the company’s website footer. They will likely have copyright information, perhaps a parent company. Note the parent company name and domain. (Repeat Step 1. and search for the other company name).

3. Read their privacy policy and terms of service. While these documents are often painful to read, it’s a lot more painful to have your time and money wasted.

4. Find out who owns the company’s domain by visiting:
www.whois.net/whois/ENTER_URL_HERE.com. The results should reveal who owns the domain and contact information. Is there a person’s name? Google the name of the person who owns it. The results may find the person’s LinkedIn account, personal website or other businesses. Search for those businesses in the same way as above. Anything shady? You should also note the email address on the person’s contact information, if it’s JohnSmith@BLAHBLAH.com, you should also search BLAHBLAH.com.

5. Use the power of social media to find out if it’s legit. Search for the company name on Twitter Search and Facebook’s search engine. What are your friends, fans and followers saying?

6. Search the company name in Google Blog Search. See what the blogosphere is talking about.

7. Check Yahoo! Answers and Get Satisfaction. If the answers to questions about the company are supportive and positive, you should pay special attention here. Click on each user who has posted something in the company’s favor, note how many questions they have answered previously. If it’s their first and only answer, or if they have answered many questions about the company then they may be a shill.

8. Go with your gut. Ask your loved ones and friends what they think.

Have you ever been a victim of an online scam? Do you have any tips of your own?

Photo by: Greything on Flickr

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Nashville Technology Calendar

Dave — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:44:51 +0000

During BarCamp Nashville I enjoyed being on David Ledgerwood’s State of the Community: The ‘Venn Diagram’ of Nashville’s Tech Organizations panel.

One thing I brought up is a need for a single, universal, open calendar of technology events for our community and for visiting geeks to access.

Tod Fetherling has been doing a good job with his calendar on the Nashville Technology Council’s website, as has Elin Mulron’s calendar on Digital Nashville.

But I think we need something simple that everyone can access and subscribe to in GCal and iCal. When a change is made to said calendar, that change will appear for everyone subscribed.

Here’s my stab at this. Subscribe by choosing XML iCal or HTML. Or visit the Nashville Technology Calendar directly.

You can embed the calendar in your blog using the following code:

To prevent spam I am only giving access to edit this calendar to a select number of people who have items to add regularly. Please let me know if you have something you wish to add. If you plan on adding items frequently please contact me for editorial access.

I encourage you to leave me comments here. Your feedback is needed to be sure this works. Thanks.

Photo by: Keso on Flickr

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Please Support My Upper Lip

Dave — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:05:14 +0000

When I was about 19 I grew my hair long and had a Lincoln beard for about a year (don’t look for the photos, they were all destroyed). I quickly learned that I should never grow long and facial hair again. It was a sad and lonely year. Why wouldn’t girls talk to me?

Now I am older and wiser. My hair is usually pretty short and I have no facial hair. However, I am now married, surely my wife wouldn’t leave me for growing a mustache, right? What if the mustache was for a good cause? Well then there’s no way she could leave me, right?

A Mo Bro starts Movember – the month formerly known as November – clean shaven, and grows a mustache all month long, garnering support from friends and family in the form of donations. What’s more, a Mo Bro is a walking billboard for the cause as his new look opens the door for him to talk about cancers affecting men – making the mustache a symbol, much like the pink ribbon is for breast cancer. Each Movember culminates in a Gala Partè in major cities around the globe where Mo Bros dress up to match their Mo, channeling the likes of Tom Selleck, Ghandi and Ron Burgandy, vying for the ultimate accolade: Man of Movember.

This Movember, the money raised in the U.S. will be split between the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation will use the money raised by Movember to fund research to find better treatments and a cure for prostate cancer.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation will use the money raised by Movember to fund:

• the LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance program which has the goal of improving survival rates and quality of life for young adults with cancer between the ages of 15 and 40.

• research initiatives to further understand the biology of adolescent and young adult cancers.

To date, Movember has raised $47 million globally making it the world’s largest charity event for men. Significantly, awareness of men’s health issues has improved with Movember helping to spread important health messages directly to millions of Mo Bros & Sistas around the world.

This is where you come in. Please make a donation to show you believe that I can do it.

I need your help and support in my quest to grow something furry on my face. All proceeds go to a great cause!

You can follow along with my progress in my Movember Flickr set.

Thanks.

No related posts.

We’re All Going To Die | Exploring Your Digital Legacy

Dave — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:39:08 +0000

Here’s my presentation from BarCamp Nashville. I entitled it We’re All Going To Die, Exploring Your Digital Legacy.

I want to take a moment to thank some people for the inspiration of this topic: Nora Young, Derek K. Miller, Renee Wathelet (RIP) and Adele McAlear. Thanks also to Gavin Richardson for recording the video.

This is how I described it on the BarCamp Nashville site:

Yes, that’s right folks. You heard it here first. It’s true. We’re all going to die. We don’t like talking and thinking about it, but it’s inevitable.
What happens to our content when we leave this place? Who will manage our blog posts, photos, videos, audio, tweets, etc.?
How will future generations find and access your digital estate?
It’s time to start giving this some thought kids. Death waits for nobody.
Hey, don’t let the topic get you down. We’re not dead yet, right?

Below you’ll find the video from my presentation and the slides. I hope it sparks some thought and conversation.

Here’s some feedback from Twitter during my presentation.

What are you doing to ensure your online content is preserved for the future?

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