Rex Hammock's RexBlog

Links for 2009-07-06 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Is MagHound.com a dog? | paidContent
Quote: Time Inc. has a major campaign set to go once it feels the service is up to par, with plans that include a word-of-mouth campaign, a wider direct-mail and e-mail promotion and some more banner ads.

links for 2009-07-06

Rex Hammock — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:02:58 GMT

Is MagHound.com a dog? | paidContent

Quote: Time Inc. has a major campaign set to go once it feels the service is up to par, with plans that include a word-of-mouth campaign, a wider direct-mail and e-mail promotion and some more banner ads.

(tags: magazines)
Mediate Launch | Fimoculous.com

Gist: My friend and fellow-Rex, Rex Sorgatz writes his longest post ever (typically, his "posts" are a sentence or two long) to announce the launch of Mediaite.com, a project he's been working on.

(tags: fimoculous mediaite.com media)
Only the Nosy Are Fixated on Steve Jobs’s Health | NYTimes.com

My take on this column by David Carr: Columns about Steve Jobs liver seem so two-weeks ago. Also, when a writer's first sentence contains a factual error anyone even remotely familiar with Apple would know, it doesn't give the reader much faith in the writer's grasp of the facts related to what he's writing about.

(tags: apple)
The Devil Wears Tommy Hilfiger

Gist: The story's about Vogue and is, frankly, not that interesting — I just wanted to write that subject line.

(tags: magazines)

The Apple rumor of the day is #9, not #3

Rex Hammock — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:49:52 GMT

Ever since I posted my three-year old All the Apple Rumors You’ll Ever Need, I’ve been doing all I can to champion Rumor #3, the perpetually rumored oversized iPod Touch (Media Pad, Touch Book, etc., etc.)

However, another item on that list is Rumor #9, a small device about the size of a mouse that utilizes a laser projector.

I threw in that rumor as an exercise in fan fiction — a complete figment of my imagination. Recall, my list came out before there was such a thing as the iPhone and iPod Touch.

So it was with amusement that I saw a rumor bubbling up today (via: appleinsider.com) that suggests Apple and other manufacturers of smart phones “reportedly all plan to launch handsets with built-in micro projectors by the end of this year.”

That’s cool, but I’d rather have a Media Pad.

This month, you have free access to over two million free eBooks

Rex Hammock — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:25:38 GMT

From now through August 4, you have access to over two million free eBooks through a project called The World eBook Fair. The project is a cooperative effort of various organizations and programs focused on collecting and making available open source and public domain eBooks (Alphabetical list of eDocument collections.) Many of the books are available free throughout the year, but at least 500,000 are typically only avaiiable through the World Public Library, which has a small annual fee of $8.95.

The project, in its third year, was co-founded by Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg.

Note: You don’t need to have a Kindle or other brand of eBook reader to read an eBook (although these free books work on those devices) — nearly all of these books are available in both text and PDF versions and many are available in a format specifically designed for smart phones. Lots of open source audio books and music are also available.

(via: ResourceShelf.com.)

Links for 2009-07-05 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Seth Godin's sheep theory of why people read certain publications
Gist: The internet eliminates the friction and the barriers that made it natural for there to be just a few media outlets per sector. This change led to an explosion in choices. But as things settle down, we're busy searching for the thing that 'everyone else' who matters reads.The moment 'everyone else' stops reading Conde Nast magazines or Publishers Weekly or other trade journals, they fold. It'll happen almost overnight, because reading them in isolation, without a connection to the community just isn't worth it.
Amazon Kindle competitor eReader slashes ebook prices | Gravitational Pull
Gist: Aaron Pressman is disappointed that new lower prices at eReader.com don't seem to be putting pressure on Amazon. However, maybe the words not out to enough folks. Here, I'll do my part: Go buy ebooks at eReader.com. By the way, this is a similar reason I buy MP3s at Amazon.com and not iTunes. But that doesn't seem to put downward pressure on iTunes, come to think of it. I guess the convenience of doing the direct to Kindle download is a value customers may think is worth the extra cost.
Architecture Groups on Flickr
If you're ever looking for a list of groups on Flickr that are devoted to sharing photos of a specific type of architecture or anything related to that topic -- even remotely so -- the person who maintains this group has done you a favor. Scroll to the bottom of the page for a long list by topics.
Only the Nosy Are Fixated on Steve Jobs’s Health | NYTimes.com
My take on this column by David Carr: Columns about Steve Jobs liver seem so two-weeks ago. Also, when a writer's first sentence contains a factual error anyone even remotely familiar with Apple would know, it doesn't give the reader much faith in the writer's grasp of the facts related to what he's writing about.
Mediate Launch | Fimoculous.com
Gist: My friend and fellow-Rex, Rex Sorgatz writes his longest post ever (typically, his "posts" are a sentence or two long) to announce the launch of Mediaite.com, a project he's been working on.

links for 2009-07-05

Rex Hammock — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:02:00 GMT

Architecture Groups on Flickr

If you're ever looking for a list of groups on Flickr that are devoted to sharing photos of a specific type of architecture or anything related to that topic — even remotely so — the person who maintains this group has done you a favor. Scroll to the bottom of the page for a long list by topics.

(tags: research resources architecture flickr search photography)
Amazon Kindle competitor eReader slashes ebook prices | Gravitational Pull

Gist: Aaron Pressman is disappointed that new lower prices at eReader.com don't seem to be putting pressure on Amazon. However, maybe the words not out to enough folks. Here, I'll do my part: Go buy ebooks at eReader.com. By the way, this is a similar reason I buy MP3s at Amazon.com and not iTunes. But that doesn't seem to put downward pressure on iTunes, come to think of it. I guess the convenience of doing the direct to Kindle download is a value customers may think is worth the extra cost.

(tags: ebooks ebookreader ereader.com kindle amazon)
Seth Godin's sheep theory of why people read certain publications

Gist: The internet eliminates the friction and the barriers that made it natural for there to be just a few media outlets per sector. This change led to an explosion in choices. But as things settle down, we're busy searching for the thing that 'everyone else' who matters reads.The moment 'everyone else' stops reading Conde Nast magazines or Publishers Weekly or other trade journals, they fold. It'll happen almost overnight, because reading them in isolation, without a connection to the community just isn't worth it.

(tags: magazines)

How free online tools and “social running” are helping create fanatically loyal customers

Rex Hammock — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 02:22:51 GMT

My favorite gizmo is a 3-year old
GPS heartrate monitor that keeps
getting more valuable to me
because Garmin has recognized
the value of giving me free online
tools that keep me addicted to it.

A couple of weeks ago, I read an extremely fascinating article from Wired magazine about Nike+, one of those ideas that makes me marvel at how much brilliance is involved in making something that seems so simple and obvious.

I strongly recommend reading the article to anyone who…

(a) works in product development
(b) is in marketing
(c) runs or is into fitness
(d) is a metrics nut
(e) believes social media is “silly stuff” like Facebook and Twitter
(f) believes social media is only about sharing words and, perhpas, photos
(g) thinks an iPod is just for listening to music
(h) thinks that the key to successful products is more features
(i) doesn’t comprehend how companies can make money by giving away something free
(j) wonders why Apple and Nike are two of the most powerful brands in the world.

Here’s a sample quote from the piece:

What’s more interesting is what Nike+ isn’t. There’s no GPS that automatically tracks your routes—if you want to map your run, you have to do it manually on the Nike site. There’s no heart rate monitor, so even though you know how far and how fast you’ve traveled, you don’t know what level of cardiovascular exertion it required. “We really wanted to separate ourselves from that sort of very technical, geeky side of things,” (Michael) Tchao (a former Apple executive who now is general manager of Nike Techlab, a sports technology innovation group within Nike) says. “Everyone understands speed and distance.” In other words, Nike+ isn’t a perfect tool; it wasn’t designed to be. But it’s good enough, and more crucially, it’s simple. Nike learned a huge lesson from Apple: The iPod wasn’t a massive hit because it was the most powerful music player on the market but because it offered the easiest, most streamlined user experience…Nike has discovered that there’s a magic number for a Nike+ user: five. If someone uploads only a couple of runs to the site, they might just be trying it out. But once they hit five runs, they’re massively more likely to keep running and uploading data. At five runs, they’ve gotten hooked on what their data tells them about themselves.

Nike+ features include ’social running’ (although they don’t call it that).

I’ll confess: I purchased a Nike+ device when they first came out, but I never made it to “five.”

First off, my “running” is not actually “running.” In the words of Ron Burgundy, “I believe it’s jogging or yogging. It might be a soft j. I’m not sure but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It’s supposed to be wild.”

Second, I don’t typically like music with jogging (or yogging). For me, jogging is, more often than not, a quiet thing — a thought sorting-out activity, a cob-web clearing time. Once in a while, I get an urge for a jogging soundtrack, but not often enough to make an iPod a part of my routine. (I know there are devices now that use Nike+ without an iPod, but those came after my experience with it.)

Third, and this is the real reason: Back up there where Michael Tchao says, “we really wanted to separate ourselves from that sort of very technical, geeky side of things….” Well, I don’t. In fact, the technical, geeky side of things often gets me motivated to start back exercising when I go through periods of “letting it slide.”

My “gadget” in this case, is a GPS/heart rate monitor device, the Garmin Forerunner 301, one of several Garmin running devices. When I received the device a few years back (as a gift from some wonderful people I work with), my ability to even upload data to my computer was limited as Garmin was not then supporting the Mac OS. At the time, a third-party web application called Motion Based was the state of the art web platform for organizing and displaying data from the device. Soon thereafter, however, Garmin purchased Motion Based and tweaked it along for a couple of years.

Recently — and I assume because of the success of Nike+ — Garmin rebranded and rebuilt Motion Based into something that is actually rather remarkable, a web application that’s like Nike+ for the metric-obsessed: Garmin Connect.

I won’t go into a full review of Garmin Connect because, frankly, I’m neither geeky enough or a fanatical enough runner to understand all the features. However, below, I’ve posted a screen grab of one of many pages on the site — one that displays some of its “Wow!” factor. For instance, you can see on this page how it lets you “replay” your run — a push-pin moves along the route you ran and you can see the fluctuations in heart rate, speed, elevation. (It also displays other things that are over my head and perhaps are beyond the grasp of those who don’t work at NASA or the Olympic Training Center.)

Did I mention the web application is free? In fact, it’s a great example of that whole “power of free” thing working.

In this case the “free” model works because Garmin is a hardware company (like Nike and Apple). They (Nike+ and Apple were good teachers) realize that “content” (personal metrics) and “social media” (tracking all this data and sharing it with others) are things that add value to their products and motivates people to join a community with other customers who share a passion — motivating them to participate more (and buy more stuff). As with Nike+, I can share my running data with others (but, in my case, I choose not to).

Because of the free services Garmin provides me via Garmin Connect, I come in contact with the company almost daily in a way that provides me a valuable service — while proving them direct access to me in a welcome way where they can introduce me to new “pay” products and services. (Apple and Nike do the same — new shoes or special training programs from Nike or iTunes workout mixes and iPhone apps from Apple.)

One day, I’m sure Garmin Connect will make me want to purchase the next generation of device that will track even more data.

In the meantime, I’ll just keep letting them help me enjoy the product of theirs I already own.

(Note: I realize that some privacy advocates are wary of web applications that encourage individuals to share data that could hypothetically be used by insurance companies or other entities. Frankly, I find that aspect of this a little creepy myself — but that’s because I watched the movie Gattaca back in the day.)

One of the features of Garmin Connect allows the user to “replay” a run,
an animated review of the route and metrics related to elevation, speed, heartrate and other data.

links for 2009-07-04

Rex Hammock — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:02:15 GMT

College stars sue over likeness in video games | NYTimes.com

I think the players are correct. Then again, I think the big-program football and men's basketball players are exploited in lots worse ways by their schools and the NCAA.

Fly high, Steve — your fans

Rex Hammock — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:34:34 GMT

My son, 2006

Former Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair died today. Those who have read this blog know that I have written about Steve as long as this blog has been around. A Google custom search of the term “Steve McNair” on RexBlog.com has ten pages of search results.

I never actually met Steve, but my Titans season tickets used to be on the row behind his mother and family. I’m thinking about her right now. She is a wonderful person and it was always a joy to cheer along with the large group of McNairs who would travel from Mississippi to Nashville for the games during the years he played for the Titans.

Last September, I posted an excerpt from a book called Tales from the Titans Sideline by Jim Wyatt that includes an item about what has to be the craziest “fan thing” thing I’ve ever done. It grew out of my frustration with some booing of Steve among Titans fans during the first games of the 1999 season — games the team were winning but games in which the offensive plan was, in a word, boring. Along with some colleagues, I rented one of those banner-flying planes to circle the Titans practice field displaying the message: “Fly high, Steve — your fans.” Not because of the banner, but a nice follow up, nonetheless: That year, the Titans made it to the Super Bowl and Steve McNair’s performance in it is considered one of the most memorable in Super Bowl history.

There was something about McNair, the player, and his quiet determination on the field that made me shelve any pretense of being a mature, grown-up man when the topic turned to him. When the subject of Steve McNair or Eddie George come up, I’m about 12-years old.

But the grownup in me makes me understand that hero football players, in real life, are people with frailties — that and week-after-week of having NFL and other professional athletes prove it over and over. So I keep my hero-worship of athletes on the field and court.

Being a grownup also suggests to me that as details emerge about the circumstances of his death, there may be some I do not want to hear.

But the me who is that fan in the stands cheering on Steve — that me is very sad right now.

That me will always remember him flying high.

Links for 2009-07-01 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Hammock Builds Social Network for SNAP Conference | FolioMag.com
It's great to see Folio: Magazine publishing the kind of story I'm sure its audience can't get enough of -- a case study about a recent Hammock project. (Filed under: Shameless linkage to article quoting me.)

links for 2009-07-01

Rex Hammock — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:03:15 GMT

Hammock Builds Social Network for SNAP Conference | FolioMag.com

It's great to see Folio: Magazine publishing the kind of story I'm sure its audience can't get enough of — a case study about a recent Hammock project. (Filed under: Shameless linkage to article quoting me.)

(tags: magazines hammock publising)

Nick Bradbury says goodbye to the old Homesite.

Rex Hammock — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:12:43 GMT

Nick Bradbury
(credit: Will Pate)

My friend, Nick Bradbury, writes about the discontinuation of HomeSite, an HTML editing software he developed before most people ever heard of HTML. He created the software in 1995 and sold it in 1997, so it has been a while since he’s been involved with the product. (After a few sales and corporate consolidations, the software ended up at Adobe.) Nonetheless, the announcement by Adobe provided Nick with the opportunity to reflect on the early days of the software’s development and how he depended greatly on the users of the product to shape it — something else he helped pioneer.

I especially like this quote:

“Sometimes in this blog I’ve made disparaging remarks about HomeSite, but that’s not because I disliked it. It’s just that it’s hard to look at something you created so long ago without seeing all the mistakes that you’ve learned not to make since then. I’m actually very proud of HomeSite, and very thankful that it enabled me to quit my job and work at home. And, funny enough, HomeSite is also what paid for the home I’m living in now.

I’ve never used HomeSite. Heck, I’ve never even used Windows. But I’m grateful for the software. Why? Because when Nick quit his job and started working at home, he decided that home would be in Nashville — making him the Jack White of web software developers.

Links for 2009-06-30 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Seth says Malcolm is wrong, Chris is right | Seth Godin
In the Free vs. Paid debate, Seth is clearly on the Free side.

links for 2009-06-30

Rex Hammock — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:04:03 GMT

Seth says Malcolm is wrong, Chris is right | Seth Godin

In the Free vs. Paid debate, Seth is clearly on the Free side.

(tags: magazines)

Links for 2009-06-27 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Will Hotel Guests Like Free Digital Magazines? | Springwise
Question: Will we get to see what percentage of Starwood guests download more than five magazines? Why five? I think 2-3 magazines would be a trial -- 5 would mean they like it.

Links for 2009-06-26 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Noteworthy blog: The News from 1930 Weblog
A blog that has daily posts that summarize news from Wall Street Journal articles on that date in 1930. A great exercise in using the blogging format in a creative way -- and in reminding us that history is very illuminating.
Helpful hack: Google will now text you a password
Note to self: To set up password recovery via your mobile phone, just sign in to your account and click Change Password Recovery Options. Enter your mobile phone number and current password and then click Save. If you lose access to your account for any reason, you'll be able to regain access by entering a code they'll send in a text message.

Links for 2009-06-25 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

The Fake Steve Jobs on Why We Need the Real Steve Jobs | Newsweek.com
I never knew he was such a fan-boy.