get funky!

But it's better than TV

2010-03-16T17:07:00.003+13:00

Posted by Seth Godin on March 15, 2010 | Permalink

At the local health food store lunch buffet, they offer stir fried tempeh.

I never get it. Not because I don’t like it, but because there are always so many other things on the buffet that I prefer.

That's why I don't watch TV. At all. There are so many other things I'd rather do in that moment.

Broadcast TV was a great choice when a> there weren't a lot of other options and b> when everyone else was watching the same thing, so you needed to see it to be educated.

Now, though, you could:

Run a little store on eBay
Write a daily blog
Write a novel
Start an online community about your favorite passion
Go to meetups in your town
Volunteer to tutor a kid, in person or online
Learn a new language, verbal or programming
Write hand written thank you notes each evening to people who helped you out or did a good job
Produce small films and publish them online
Listen to the one thousand most important operas
Read a book or two every evening
Play a game of Scrabble with your family

None of them are perfect. Each of them are better than TV.

Clay Shirky has noticed the trend of talented people putting five or six hours an evening to work instead of to waste. Add that up across a million or ten million people and the output is astonishing. He calls it cognitive surplus and it's one of the underappreciated world-changing stories of our time.

Manny Pacquiao Customizes The Nike Sportswear N98 Jacket

2010-03-11T12:24:00.004+13:00

Manny Pacquiao, has become the face of boxing over the past couple of years and is arguably the world’s best pound for pound fighter. Pacquiao who will be fighting in the first ever boxing match at the brand new Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas this Saturday, March 13th, versus Joshua Clottey, found time to visit Nike Sportswear at the Montalbán in Los Angeles this past week to customize and create his own Nike Sportswear N98 Track Jacket. Manny went through a number of colors, fonts, and graphics before deciding to go with a White jacket that was complimented with a few other colors that represented his favorite basketball teams, additionally he added some of his own Nike logos to the jacket. The Montalbán will be customizing N98 Track Jackets every Saturday through the month of March, so make sure you stop by. via Nike Sportswear

Customization Saturdays
Nike Sportswear - The Montalbán
1615 Vine Street | Map
Los Angeles, CA 90028
TEL#: 323-461-0663

Event Dates: March 2010 (every Saturday) | 12 pm- 6 pm

You gotta love Microsoft

2010-02-08T07:04:00.002+13:00

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,

'If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'
In response to Bill 's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash......twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.
I love the next one!!!
7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.
PS - I'd like to add that when all else fails, you could call 'customer service' in some foreign country and be instructed in some foreign language how to fix your car yourself!!!!

Please share this with your friends who love - but sometimes hate - their computer!

Microsoft says Google was hacked with IE zero-day

2010-01-19T11:45:00.000+13:00

via @ryanaraine on ZDNet

This was confirmed by a Mike Reavey, a director in the Microsoft Security Response Center. “To date, Microsoft has not seen widespread customer impact, rather only targeted and limited attacks exploiting IE 6,” Reavey said.

Here’s the skinny from Microsoft’s advisory:

The vulnerability exists as an invalid pointer reference within Internet Explorer. It is possible under certain conditions for the invalid pointer to be accessed after an object is deleted. In a specially-crafted attack, in attempting to access a freed object, Internet Explorer can be caused to allow remote code execution.
The flaw affects Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, and Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 on supported editions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 are affected.

Here’s the danger:

To exploit, an attacker could host a specially crafted Web site, or take advantage of a compromised website, and then convince a user to view the Web site. In all cases, however, an attacker would have no way to force users to visit these malicious Web sites. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to visit the Web site, typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or in an Instant Messenger message, that directs users to the attacker’s Web site. It could also be possible to display specially crafted Web content using banner advertisements or other methods to deliver Web content to affected systems. The Microsoft investigation concluded that setting the Internet zone security setting to “high” will protect users from the vulnerability addressed in this advisory.

Microsoft is considering an out-of-band emergency IE patch to fix this vulnerability.

Sam and Esther

2009-11-25T18:51:00.001+13:00

One of two scenes....watch the follow up entitled "Sam and Esther Follow Up Story." This is a scene from the film "The Fragrant Spirit of Life," a San Damiano Foundation production released in 2008. We found Sam, Esther, and Jane outside the small village of Serere in eastern Uganda. They are being cared for through the amazing work of the nonprofit organization Village2Village (www.village2villageproject.org). Visit us at WWW.SANDAMIANOFOUNDATION.ORG

Anthony Robbins 5 Keys to Thrive

2009-11-18T00:45:00.008+13:00

Feed the mind with books, audios and videos
-- positive attitude and tools.
Feed and strengthen the body.
Find an inspiring role model.
Get a plan and take massive action.
Feed the spirit

http://tonyrobbinstraining.com/378/5-keys-to-thrive/

Help and Donate to the Flood Victims of Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy)

2009-09-29T12:36:00.002+13:00

These are some of the shocking and heart wrenching videos of the recent floods that hit Manila on September 26, 2009 . Most were taken by ordinary citizens who shot the videos of the scenes happening around them.

These pictures are closer to home. These were taken by the adventurous Salva brothers and posted on their facebook page and shared with everyone.

in front of GH West clubhouse

Wislon St. near P. Guevarra

Typhoon Ondoy or Ketsana has caused so much death and damage that hasn't been seen in Manila in decades. The cost of damages will not be known for weeks. I'm sure it will be a huge amount. An amount that the Philippines cannot afford. Several tv channels are trying to raise funds for the victims. You can also help wherever you are in the world.

A subterranean walkway in Makati filled with flood water

Car pile up after the flood waters have receded. A very common sight in many areas.

I compiled some data on how you can help the families affected by the flooding in Manila. (Constantly updated)

Most urgent needs

Food items: Rice, noodles, canned goods, sugar, iodized salt, cooking oil, monggo beans and potable water
Medicines: Paracetamol, antibiotics, analgesic, oral rehydration salts, multivitamins and medications to treat diarrheal diseases
Non-food items: Bath soaps, face towels, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, plastic mats, blankets, mosquito nets, jerry cans, water containers, water purification tablets, plastic sheetings, and Laundry soap

ABS-CBN HOTLINE: 416-36-41
SAGIP KAPAMILYA: 413-2667 / 416-0387
You can drop off donations at No 13 Examiner Street, Quezon City, Look for Ms Girlie Aragon
Bank: Banco de Oro, Mother Ignacia branch
Acct name: ABS-CBN Foundation Inc.
Acct no.: 5630020111
Routing code for international cash donations
BNORPHMM ABS-CBN Branch
ABS-CBN Foundation US Office: Toll-Free 1-800-527-2820
GMA Kapuso Foundation calls for donations for families affected by Typhoon “Ondoy”
The following donations are needed:
Monetary Donation
Rice
Canned Goods
Noodles
Clothing

you may drop your donations at:

GMA KAPUSO FOUNDATION, INC.
2nd Floor GMA Kapuso Center
GMA Network Drive cor. Samar Streets
Diliman, Quezon City 1103
Telephone Nos.: (632) 982.7777 loc. 9901 & 9905
Telefax: (632) 928.9351 / 928.4299

METROBANK
Peso Savings
Account Name : GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc.
Account Number : 3-098-51034-7

Dollar Savings
Account Name : GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc.
Account Number : 2-098-00244-2
Code : MBTC PH MM
BANCO DE ORO (BDO)
Peso Savings
Account Name : GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc.
Account Number : 469-0022189
Dollar Savings
Account Name : GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc.
Account Number : 469-0072135
Code : BNORPHM
More numbers and information from Manolo Quezon's site

More information on how you can help: (from here)

FOR THOSE OUTSIDE THE COUNTRY WHO WANT TO DONATE:

Friends in the US and Canada who wish to help in the rescue/relief operations,you may donate through the American Red Cross. Call 1-800-435-7669.

TXTPower.org has set up a paypal account for donations. Your money will be forwarded to Red Cross.
Kapuso Foundation is also accepting credit card donations.
2/F GMA Kapuso Center
Samar St. cor. 11th Jamboree St. Diliman, Quezon City
Call 9827777 loc. 9901/9904/9905.
accepts relief goods and cash
myAyala.com account for Philippine Jesuits – you can use your CREDIT CARD and donate ONLINE. Go to www.myayala.com/sjph/. On the line “I would like to donate to:”, write “xs4ondoy“.
Ayala Foundation USA is appealing to our fellow Pinoys in the United States to help our kababayans affected by Typhoon Ondoy!
You may send your donations through Ayala Foundation USA. Click on the link below and search for "AF-USA Typhoon Relief Fund" in the box marked "Donations For." http://af-usa.org/donate_now_form.asp
For Filipinos in other countries in the Middle East, they may contact Monterona via phone number (00966 564978012) or email (migranteme@gmail.com) and they would be referred to Migrante coordinators.
Worldvision Foundation – For $ donations, BPI:USD acct #4254-0050-08

In Kind donations

LOCAL: Please send in-kind local donations to The Philippine National Red Cross ? National Headquarters in Manila. They could also arrange for donation pick-up.
INTERNATIONAL:
1. Send a letter of intent to donate to the PNRC
2. A letter of acceptance from PNRC shall be sent back to the donor
3. Immediately after shipping the goods, please send the (a) original Deed of Donation, (b) copy of packing list and (c) original Airway Bill for air shipments or Bill of Lading for sea shipments to The Philippine National Red Cross National Headquarters c/o Secretary General Corazon Alma de Leon, Bonifacio Drive, Port Area, Manila 2803, Philippines.

Castles Made of Sand - Jimi Hendrix

2009-09-01T20:24:00.000+12:00

Appearing on Ukraine's Got Talent Kseniya Simonova, using sand animation , tells the story of Germany conquering Ukraine in the second world war. A couple on a bench become a woman's face; a peaceful walkway becomes conflagration; a weeping widow morphs into an obelisk for an unknown soldier. Please stick with it, it's breathtaking. The words at the end are 'You are always near'.

Kseniya Simonova tells the story of Germany's invasion and

occupation of her country, Ukraine, during the WWII using sand,

a giant light box, and music. People are obviously moved by her

performance - there are tears and applause.

A series of pictures on an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II.... The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine, resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths.

She won. Compelling...

WSJ - Jobs, Back at Apple, Focuses on New Tablet

2009-08-27T12:39:00.002+12:00

BY YUKARI IWATANI KANE

Just a few months after Steve Jobs had a liver transplant, the Apple Inc. chief executive is once again managing even the smallest details of his company's products, this time focused on a new tablet device.

Since his return in late June, the 54-year-old has been pouring almost all of his attention into a new touch-screen gadget that Apple is developing, said people familiar with the situation.

Those working on the project are under intense scrutiny from Mr. Jobs, particularly with regard to the product's advertising and marketing strategy, said one of these people. The people familiar with the matter ...

source: [The Wall Street Journal]

Are you an enlightened stupid marketer?

2009-08-26T20:26:00.002+12:00

Posted by Jackie Huba on May 28, 2009 | Permalink

Kevin Nalty aka Nalts explains the difference between stupid marketers and enlightened stupid marketers. In this video, Nalts explains "A non-marketer might be looking at this and saying, 'Stupid Marketer...isn't that an oxymoron."
"I say no, enlightened stupid marketers are at a fork in the road. Keep being stupid or be stupid but conceal that fact. I have several proven strategies for this."
Check out the strategies in his video.

Note: long time readers of this blog will remember Nalts from our post about his "blogger buzz" video back in 2007.

No matter how succesful he gets, Black Eyed Peas' Apl never forgets his roots in a Filipino barrio, and his all-Tagalog hip-hop hit proves it

2009-08-18T20:35:00.000+12:00

Benjamin Pimentel, Chronicle Staff Writer

In the most offbeat selection in "Monkey Business," Apl.de.ap of Black Eyed Peas raps on a song called "Bebot" about the joys of eating with one's fingers, drinking with friends and a popular Filipino delicacy called balut.

You have to be a particular kind of Peas fan to completely get it: "Bebot" is in Tagalog.

Born and raised in the Philippines, Apl said he was encouraged to write the song after the incredible success Black Eyed Peas has enjoyed since their breakthrough album, "Elephunk."

"Since we've made it in the business now, I'm able to go back home," he said in a phone interview.

"I'm getting more practice in my Tagalog and Kapampangan," he added, referring to another Philippine language from his native province of Pampanga. "That inspired me to write more in Tagalog."

It is not the first time that Black Eyed Peas, who will perform this weekend with the Dave Matthews band at SBC Park, has experimented with Tagalog. "The Apl Song" in "Elephunk" featured a Tagalog chorus from a Filipino folk band.

But in "Monkey Business," Apl included not just a chorus but an entire song in his native tongue.

That underscores his attitude toward his ethnic identity. It's not just another footnote or curious factoid in Apl's career -- he embraces it, flaunts it and would willingly get onstage to sing loudly -- as he does in Bebot -- "Filipino! Filipino! Filipino!"

"I'm proud of who I am, where I came from, what I was born into, and I would represent that till I die," he said. "As much as I could put in this music business, I want to involve who I am and my culture."

As an immigrant who hasn't completely lost his Filipino accent, he said he never got seriously bogged down by the FOB -- "fresh off the boat" or "fresh off the Boeing" -- label.

"I know a lot of Filipinos are concerned of (being called) FOB," he said. "I see that as FOBulous, because you have a different sense in you. Being from the Philippines, you have a different way of looking at life."

For that attitude and his music, Apl has become a legend in the Filipino American community and in the Philippines, where he grew up in a poor, working class family in Sapang Bato, a small barrio in Pampanga, north of Manila.

It was a tough life, but one that he celebrates in "The Apl Song."

"Listen closely yo, I got a story to tell

A version of my ghetto where life felt for real

Some would call it hell but to me it was heaven ...

We makin' it happen, from nothin' to somethin'

That's how we be survivin' back in my homeland ..."

The song includes a Tagalog chorus from "Balita" ("News") by a well-known Filipino folk group called Asin (Salt) who, Apl said, was his favorite group in the Philippines.

Pendong Aban, one of Asin's members, said the group felt honored by Apl's acknowledgement of Asin's influence on his music. "We seldom hear how our songs impact our li'teners' lives," he said in an e-mail.

Apl has even helped Asin cross the Philippines' stiff class hierarchy. Aban said the group had been popular among the poor and working class segments of Philippine society. But "The Apl Song" helped expose the group to a new generation of young listeners, including those from rich families who embraced American hip-hop culture.

"Balita" is a political song that talked about the repression and violence many Filipinos endured during the regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The lyrics speak of a "land stained with blood" where "hearts are crying out."

Apl adapted the song to talk about his personal odyssey.

"Now that I'm able to incorporate all types of music into hip-hop, I had the idea that that would be a dope idea because it explains where I came from, " he said. "It's like I brought with me the 'news' on what happened to my own life."

Apl's biological father was a U.S. serviceman who left him and his mother, Christina Pineda, before he was born. Apl, a.k.a. Allan Pineda, grew up with four brothers and two sisters supported by his mother.

Growing up in a former U.S. colony, he was exposed early to American pop music. He said his mother liked listening to Stevie Wonder, the Beatles and Eagles, as well as to Asin.

"I would take the jeepney all the way to Angeles City, and that's how I got introduced to break dancing," he said. "I would see kids at the corner break-dancing and I'm like, 'I wanna do that.' "

At 14, he was adopted by a Southern California attorney. Apl still has vivid memories of his departure.

"I left in the afternoon, and it was the saddest sunset ever. I didn't know where I was going. I was 14, and I'm getting on this plane by myself, and I could see the sun set."

Growing up in the Los Angeles area, he struggled with life as a teenage immigrant.

"I would get chased from junior high school to my house every day," he recalled. "All these kids are like, 'Where you from?' And I was like, 'From Philippines.' "

He burst out laughing, then added: "After that, I was like, 'OK, that's not for me.' "

"You know, I could have easily joined the gangs that were surrounding me, " he said. "I was exposed to that. But I chose dancing instead. That led me in a good direction."

A friendship with William Adams, a.k.a. will.i.am, evolved into a showbiz partnership as the duo, who took on the name Atban Klann, hit L.A.'s hip- hop/break-dance circuit.

Taboo, a.k.a. Jaime Gomez, later joined the team which then took on the name Black Eyed Peas. After two albums, the group brought in R&B singer Fergie, a.k.a. Stacy Ferguson, for "Elephunk."

The album became a hit, and a selection, "Let's Get It Started," won the group their first Grammy.

For Apl, success has given him more time to reflect on his roots and focus on the family he left behind.

"Coming from the Philippines my whole goal was to support my family and have a better living situation," he said. "Trying to pursue my dream took up a lot of my time, and I got separated from my family a little bit ... I was separated from my brothers and sisters. Some good things happened to them and some bad things happened to some of them."

The most stunning blow from the separation was his younger brother's suicide. "The Apl Song" is also a tribute to Arnel Pineda. A line in the tune goes:

"Sometimes life's stresses get you down on your knees,

"Oh brother how I wish I could have helped you out...

"That's what made me write that song," Apl said of his loss. "He was growing up and I was growing up, and I had to do what I had to do to make it in this world. I just wish he could have waited a little longer."

Whenever he goes back home, the first thing he does upon reaching Barrio Sapang Bato is to visit the local cemetery to light candles and bring flowers for his brother and his late grandparents.

Then, he said, he asks his mom to cook shrimp stew and chicken adobo.

"I just go off on the food," he said. "She likes doing it. She wakes me up at 5 in the morning. It's like, 'Come on, we need to go to the palengke (market) and pick some stuff.' And I'm like, '5 in the morning?' But I guess that's when you get the fresh stuff."

He hopes to bring his mom and other family members to the United States. He has no plans yet for starting his own family, he said.

"Gotta save first," he said. "I still gotta bring my whole family here. That's my goal right now."

He doesn't rule out the possibility of returning to his homeland to live.

"I want to build resorts over there," he said, mentioning Boracay Island in central Philippines that reputedly has among the most beautiful beaches in the world.

Apl is also working on a solo collection of Tagalog rap geared to what has quickly turned into a solid fan base in his homeland.

"The reception is unbelievable," he said of how Filipinos have reacted to him and his music.

Eric Caruncho, a music critic based in Manila, said "The Apl Song" was a big hit in the Philippines and gave young Filipinos "someone to root for." Writer Jim Ayson said having a song with Tagalog lyrics in one of the biggest selling albums of the year was "mind boggling."

"It's good he never forgot his roots," he said.

In "Bebot" -- Filipino slang for "chick" -- Apl is clearly having more fun in looking back at his Filipino roots.

Hey friends, listen to me,

Here's a true Filipino

From Barrio Sapang Bato,

Moved to L.A.

To help out my mom,

For it was a hard life we led

But I'm proud of my color

To eat, I use my fingers

Rice and chicken adobo

Balut sold on the street corner

Pass the glass, buddy

Let's have a drink!

"I experienced that type of lifestyle, and when I go back home, that's how it is still," he said. "I like buying balut from the vendor at the corner of the street."

That's perhaps the clearest proof of Apl's connection to his homeland.

Balut is boiled duck egg with a semi-developed embryo. Although it is a popular Philippine delicacy, it is unappetizing to many, particularly non- Filipinos. Apl spoke proudly of his "expertise" on how to eat it.

"You shake it up then you suck the juice first," he said. "Then you break down the egg and then you eat the soft part and then there's the hard part at the end and you've got to dip that with some salt. ... I could do that with my eyes closed in the dark ... But you gotta have a beer with that."

How To Build COMMUNITY online :P

2009-08-17T16:21:00.001+12:00

Turn Off Your TV

Leave Your House

Know Your Neighbors

Look Up When You Are Walking

Greet People

Sit On Your Stoop

Plant Flowers

Use Your Library

Play Together

Buy From Local Merchants

Share What You Have

Help A Dog

Take Children to the Park

Garden Together

Support Neighborhood Schools

Fix It Even If You Didn't Break It

Have Pot Lucks

Honor Elders

Pick Up Litter

Read Stories Aloud

Dance In the Street

Talk to the Mail Carrier

Listen to the Birds

Put Up a Swing

Help Carry Something Heavy

Barter For Your Goods

Start a Tradition

Ask a Question

Hire Young People for Odd Jobs

Organize a Block Party

Bake Extra and Share

Ask For Help When You Need It

Open Your Shades

Sing Together

Share Your Skills

Take Back the Night

Turn Up the Music

Turn Down the Music

Listen Before You React To Anger

Mediate a Conflict

Seek To Understand

Learn From New and
Uncomfortable Angles

"Know that No One Is Silent Though Many Are Not Heard" - Work to Change This

EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ ALL OF THIS and HAVE CHILDREN READ IT TOO!

2009-08-12T19:34:00.003+12:00

After tossing her books on the sofa, she decided to grab a snack and get on-line. She logged on under her screen name ByAngel213.. She checked her Buddy List and saw GoTo123 was on.
She sent him an instant message:

ByAngel213:
Hi. I'm glad you are on! I thought someone was following me home today. It was really weird!

GoTo123:
LOL You watch too much TV. Why would someone be following you?
Don't you live in a safe neighborhood?

ByAngel213:
Of course I do. LOL I guess it was my imagination cuz' I didn't see anybody when I looked out.

GoTo123:
Unless you gave your name out on-line.
You haven't done that have you?

ByAngel213:
Of course not. I'm not stupid you know.

GoTo123:
Did you have a softball game after school today?

ByAngel213:
Yes and we won!!

GoTo123:
That's great! Who did you play?

ByAngel213:
We played the Hornets. LOL. Their uniforms are so gross! They look like bees. LOL

GoTo123:
What is your team called?

ByAngel213:
We are the Canton Cats. We have tiger paws on our uniforms. They are really cool.

GoTo123:
Did you pitch?

ByAngel213:
No I play second base. I got to go. My homework has to be done before my parents get home. I don't want them mad at me. Bye!

GoTo123:
Catch you later. Bye

Meanwhile.......GoTo123 went to the member menu and began to search for her profile. When it came up, he highlighted it and printed it
out. He took out a pen and began to write down what he knew about Angel so far.

Her name: Shannon
Birthday: Jan. 3, 1985
Age: 13
State where she lived: North Carolina

Hobbies: softball, chorus, skating and going to the mall. Besides this information, he knew she
lived in Canton because she had just told him.
He knew she stayed by herself until 6:30 p.m. every afternoon until her parents came home from work.
He knew she played softball on Thursday afternoons
on the school team, and the team was named the Canton Cats. Her favorite number 7 was printed on
her jersey. He knew she was in the eighth grade at the Canton Junior High School She had told him all this in
the conversations they had on-line. He had enough information to find her now.

Shannon didn't tell her parents about the incident on the way home from the ballpark that day. She didn't
want them to make a scene and stop her from walking home from the softball games. Parents were
always overreacting and hers were the worst. It made her wish she was not an only child. Maybe if she had brothers and sisters, her parents wouldn't
be so overprotective.

By Thursday, Shannon had forgotten about the footsteps following her.

Her game was in full swing when suddenly she felt someone staring at her. It was then that the memory came back. She glanced up from her second
base position to see a man watching her closely.

He was leaning against the fence behind first base and he smiled when she looked at him. He didn't look scary and she quickly dismissed the sudden fear she had felt.

After the game, he sat on a bleacher while she talked to the coach. She noticed his smile once again as she
walked past him. He nodded and she smiled back. He noticed her name on the back of her shirt. He knew he
had found her.

Quietly, he walked a safe distance behind her. It was only a few blocks to Shannon 's home, and once
he saw where she lived he quickly returned to the park to get his car.

Now he had to wait. He decided to get a bite to eat until the time came to go to Shannon 's house.
He drove to a fast food restaurant and sat there until time to make his move.

Shannon was in her room later that evening when she heard voices in the living room..

"Shannon, come here," her father called.
He sounded upset and she couldn't imagine why.
She went into the room to see the man from the ballpark sitting on the sofa.

"Sit down," her father began, "this man has just told us a most interesting story about you."

Shannon sat back. How could he tell her parents anything? She had never seen him before today!

"Do you know who I am, Shannon ?" the man asked.

"No," Shannon answered.

"I am a police officer and your online friend, GoTo123."

Shannon was stunned. "That's impossible! GoTo is a kid my age! He's 14. And he lives in Michigan !"

The man smiled. "I know I told you all that, but it wasn't true. You see, Shannon , there are people on-line
who pretend to be kids; I was one of them. But while others do it to injure kids and hurt them, I belong
to a group of parents who do it to protect kids from predators. I came here to find you to teach you
how dangerous it is to talk to people on-line. You told me enough about yourself to make it easy for me
to find you. You named the school you went to, the name of your ball team and the position you played.
The number and name on your jersey just made finding you a breeze."

Shannon was stunned. "You mean you don't live in Michigan ?"

He laughed. "No, I live in Raleigh It made you feel safe to think I was so far away, didn't it?"

She nodded.

"I had a friend whose daughter was like you. Only she wasn't as lucky. The guy found her and murdered her while she was home alone.
Kids are taught not to tell anyone when they are alone, yet they do it all the time on-line. The wrong people trick you into giving out information
a little here and there on-line. Before you know it, you have told them enough for them to find you
without even realizing you have done it. I hope you've learned a lesson from this and won't do it again. Tell others about this so they will be safe too?"

"It's a promise!"

That night Shannon and her Dad and Mom all knelt down together and thanked God for protecting
Shannon from what could have been a tragic situation.

Jimi Hendrix

2009-08-10T17:56:00.001+12:00

Born	November 27, 1942 in Seattle, Washington (1942-11-27)
Died	September 18, 1970 (aged 27)

In 1966, he arrived in London an unknown. A week later, he was a superstar

By CHARLES R. CROSS

Jimi Hendrix took his first footsteps on British soil on Saturday, September 24th, 1966, arriving at Heathrow at nine in the morning. As he walked off the plane, he carried a small bag that contained a change of clothes, his pink plastic hair curlers and a jar of Valderma cream for the acne that still marred his twenty-three-year-old face. These few items, along with his precious guitar, were all he owned.

Escorting Jimi was Chas Chandler, formerly the bassist for the Animals, who was launching himself as a manager. Chandler had come upon Jimi in a Greenwich Village club and spilled a milkshake on himself, convinced that Jimi was his ticket to riches. Jimi was penniless at the time, having spent the previous three years as a backup musician on the chitlin circuit. Though Jimi had been born in Seattle, and didn't even begin to play guitar until he was fifteen, by the time Chandler met him he had already toured the nation with countless R&B combos, including Little Richard and the Isley Brothers. In Greenwich Village, fueled by both LSD and Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, Jimi was attempting to re-create himself as a solo act. He was playing to twenty teenagers when Chandler arrived, yet Jimi still only agreed to follow him to England if he promised to introduce him to Eric Clapton.

Once in England, Chandler immediately set out to turn Jimi into a star. On the way from the airport, they stopped by the house of bandleader Zoot Money. Jimi attempted to play his Stratocaster through Money's stereo, and when that failed, he grabbed an acoustic guitar and began to wail. Andy Summers, who a dozen years later would help form the Police, lived in the basement and heard the commotion. When he came upstairs to join the informal party and found himself mesmerized by how Jimi's huge hands seemed at one with the instrument's neck, he became the first of Britain's guitar players to be awed by Jimi's phenomenal skill.

Also rooming in the house was twenty-year-old Kathy Etchingham, who would soon also be smitten by Jimi. She worked as a part-time DJ and had dated Brian Jones, Keith Moon and a few other rock stars. Money's wife tried to wake her to tell her about the new sensation in the living room. She said, "Wake up, Kathy. You've got to come and see this guy Chas has brought back. He looks like the Wild Man of Borneo." The tag would later end up as one of Jimi's nicknames in the tabloids, a consequence of his unkempt physical appearance and his race, both of which were so unusual on London's music scene that he might as well have been a new anthropological discovery. The name was racist, of course, and the description would never have been used for a white musician. Still, Jimi enjoyed the nickname, as it sounded mysterious and foreign, qualities he hoped to cultivate.

Etchingham was too tired to take a peek at the so-called wild man, but later that evening she went for a drink at a club and discovered Jimi onstage. As he started to play blues tunes, the club went silent and the crowd watched in a sort of shared rapture. "He was just amazing," Etchingham recalled. "People had never seen anything like it." Eric Burdon of the Animals was one of the many musicians at the club that night. "It was haunting how good he was," Burdon said. "You just stopped and watched."

Walking out of the club, Jimi -- unaware that British cars drove on the left side of the street -- stepped in front of a taxi. "I managed to grab him and pull him back, and the taxi just brushed him," Etchingham said. Later, Jimi asked her to come to bed with him. She found him charming and handsome, and consented. They would stay together for the next two years, and Etchingham would be one of Jimi's longest-term girlfriends. She knew everyone on the scene, and she became his entree into Swinging London and friendships with the Who, the Rolling Stones and many other bands.

Jimi had been in England less than twenty-four hours and he'd already wowed a key segment of London's music scene, bedded his first English "bird" and narrowly avoided death. He had spent twenty-three years of his life struggling in an America where black musicians were outcasts within rock music. In one single day in London, his entire life had permanently been recast.

Chas Chandler's partner was Michael Jeffrey, the Animals' manager and a former British intelligence officer who did little to defuse sinister rumors that he had killed people as a spy. They placed a "musicians wanted" ad in Melody Maker, which drew in a twenty-year-old guitar player named Noel Redding. He had never before played bass, but Jimi liked Redding's frizzy hair, which reminded him of Dylan, and he was hired.

Even after Redding was hired, Chandler phoned Brian Auger, who led the blues-based jazz band the Brian Auger Trinity, and proposed a radical idea. "I've got this really amazing guitar player from America," Chandler told him. "I think it would be perfect if he fronted your band." Auger declined. As a fallback, Chandler asked if Jimi could at least jam with the Trinity at a show that evening. To this, Auger agreed.

The Trinity's guitarist, Vic Briggs, was setting up his gear when Jimi came onstage. Briggs was using one of the first Marshall amplifiers, an experimental model that had four six-inch speakers -- smaller than the later Marshall stacks but still capable of tremendous power. When Jimi plugged his guitar into the amp, he turned the amplifier volume knobs to their maximum, much to Briggs' amazement. "I had never had the controls up past five," Briggs said. Seeing Briggs' look of horror, Jimi said, "Don't worry, man, I turned it down on the guitar." He shouted out four chords and began.

The sound was a wall of feedback and distortion, which itself was enough to turn every head in the club; the moment also marked the beginning of Jimi's love affair with Marshall amplifiers. "Everyone's jaw dropped to the floor," Auger said. "The difference between him and a lot of the English guitar players like Clapton, Jeff Beck and Alvin Lee was that you could still tell what the influences were in Clapton's and Beck's playing. There were a lot of B.B. King, Albert King and Freddie King followers around in England. But Jimi wasn't following anyone -- he was playing something new."

Just a week after Jimi landed in England, Cream were playing a show at the Polytechnic in central London. Chandler bumped into Clapton a few days before and told him he'd like to introduce Jimi sometime. Meeting Clapton, of course, was the one promise Chandler had made to Jimi before they left New York. Clapton mentioned the Polytechnic gig and suggested Chandler bring his protege. In all likelihood, Clapton meant he would be glad simply to meet Jimi, but Jimi nonetheless arrived with his guitar. Chandler, Jimi and their girlfriends stood in the audience during the first half of the show, and Chandler called up to the stage and summoned Clapton over to ask if Jimi might jam. The request was so preposterous that no one in Cream -- Clapton, Jack Bruce or Ginger Baker -- knew quite what to say: No one had ever asked to jam with them before; most would have been too intimidated by their reputation as the best band in Britain. Bruce finally said, "Sure, he can plug into my bass amp."

Jimi plugged his guitar into a spare channel and immediately began Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor." "I'd grown up around Eric, and I knew what a fan he was of Albert King, who had a slow version of that song," recalled press agent Tony Garland, who was at the show. "When Jimi started his take, though, it was about three times as fast as Albert King's version, and you could see Eric's jaw drop -- he didn't know what was going to come next." Remembering the show later, Clapton said, "I thought, 'My God, this is like Buddy Guy on acid.' "

When Bruce told his version of the fabled event, he focused on Clapton's reaction and alluded to graffiti in London that proclaimed, "Clapton is God." "It must have been difficult for Eric to handle," Bruce said, "because [Eric] was 'God,' and this unknown person comes along and burns." Jeff Beck was in the audience that night, and he, too, took warning from Jimi's performance. "Even if it was crap -- and it wasn't -- it got to the press," Beck later said. Jimi had been in London for eight days and he had already met God, and burned him.

STILL LOOKING FOR A DRUMMER, Chandler phoned John "Milch" Mitchell, who had just left Georgie Fame's band, and asked him to audition. From its first rehearsals, the newly formed trio was startlingly loud. At one early practice, composer Henry Mancini appeared at the studio door and asked them to keep it down. Jeffrey came up with the name the Jimi Hendrix Experience. "We really were 'an experience,'" Redding said.

A month to the day after Jimi's arrival in England, Chandler took the band into the studio to cut "Hey Joe," its first single. For the B side, Jimi had suggested "Mercy, Mercy," but Chandler told him he'd have to write material of his own if he ever wanted to make money from music publishing. Though Jimi still felt unsure of himself as a songwriter, with Chandler's encouragement he wrote "Stone Free" in one evening, his first complete song.

The Experience then traveled to Munich, where Jeffrey had arranged a four-night stand at the Big Apple club. The band played two shows a night, common for its bookings during the next year. Jirni did his entire routine — which included humping his guitar, picking the guitar with his teeth and playing behind his back - twice each evening, and with each show the crowds were more enthusiastic. "That was really the first time we all knew something big was going to happen," Redding said. Making use of a long guitar cord, Jimi walked in the audience as he played. One night when he went to get back onstage, he threw his guitar ahead of him, and in doing so cracked the neck. Upset about the damage, and knowing that it would cost him two months' pay to buy a new instrument, he grabbed the neck of the guitar, raised it above his head and brought it down on the stage with a violent fury. It may have been one of the only moves he made all night that wasn't rehearsed.

The audience went mad and dragged Jimi offstage. Seeing that response, Chandler determined then and there to have Jimi smash more guitars. The destruction of a guitar -many times the same guitar patched up nighht after night - became an occasional part of Jimi's set, done when all the other gimmicks had failed. It became his great exclamation point and a way for him to exorcise years of anger and frustration. A boy who had waited so long for his first guitar was now onstage destroying them.

JIMI TURNED TWENTY-FOUR IN NOVEMBER 1966. Despite his growing fame, he carried a wadded-up bill in his boot, a remnant of his years of poverty. He had originally used a silver dollar, back in his chitlin-circuit days, but in England he substituted a pound note and moved the cache to the brirn band of his hat. He told Etchingham, "When you've been penniless, you never forget it."

Four weeks earlier, while checking out a recording studio, Jimi met the Who for the first time. "He looked scruffy," Pete Town-shend said. "I was very unimpressed." Jimi tried to ignore drummer Keith Moon, who was in a foul mood and kept yelling, "Who let that savage in here?" Townshend gave Jimi a few hints on where to buy amplifiers but also wondered whether this Yank really needed top-rated equipment.

A few days later, Townshend saw Jimi perform and finally understood what the fuss was about. "1 became an immediate fan," Townshend said. "I saw all of Jimi's first London shows. There were about six." Those dates included club gigs at Blaises, the Upper Cut, the Ram Jam Club, the Speakeasy, the 7 1/1 and the Bag o' Nails. Though all of these were smallish venues and none paid more than twenty-five pounds, Jimi was already being touted as the hottest guitar player in London. Members of bands far more famous than the Experience - including the Rolling Stones and the Beatles- began to chat him up. Brian Jones became Jimi's biggest booster, dragging other stars to come see him play. At one gig, Clapton and Townshend stood next to ach other in rapt attention. As Jimi played Red House," their fingers accidentally brushed. Clapton grabbed Townshend's land the way two schoolgirls might while matching a particularly gripping film.

Another night, Clapton invited Jimi back to his flat. Jimi came with Etchingham, and though the mood was friendly, neither Eric nor Jimi was particularly talkative. "It was a very strained meeting," Etchingham recalled. '"They were both in awe of each other. We had to center all the discussion around music." As Jimi left several hours later, he remarked to Etching-lam, "That was hard work."

LSD WAS ONLY THEN MAKING its way through London, and initially it wasn't a common drug in the Experience tour van. Instead, the group members favored cheap speed, which helped them stay up all night. That winter they played numerous dates all over England, trying to raise money to pay for studio time. It was not uncommon for them to perform in northern England, then rush back to London for a graveyard studio session, when time was less expensive, "We'd be playing in Manchester, and then we'd drive back to London," Redding said. "We'd get back at three iri the morning and put down the tracks. And then we'd go to bed at five and get up the next morning only to have to go back up north again for another show. And we'd be back in London that next night doing more recording. That was how we made the first album."

On the day the band taped the television show Ready, Steady, Go'., it later went into a studio and cut "Red House," "Foxey Lady" and "Third Stone From the Sun." Studio engineer Mike Ross was dumbstruck when their roadie brought in four twin Marshall amplifier stacks. Ross asked Jirni if he should mike every one, but Jirni suggested puttinga single rnike twelve feet away. Once the band began to play, Ross was forced to retreat to the control room because of the deafening volume of the band's sound. "It was the loudest thing 1 ever heard in that studio," Ross said. "It was painful on your ears."

"Red House" was one of many songs that Jimi had been working on since his New York club gigs. During January 1967, driven by a desperate need to finish an album quickly, he was writing a song every other day. He felt that winter as if the songs simply came to him, almost unconsciously.

The best example of his mysterious muse was the song "The Wind Cries Mary." On the afternoon of January 10th, Jimi did an interview with Melody Maker in his apartment. That evening, he insulted Etchingham's cooking. Her meals were a common cause of their fights, but on this occasion, the scene turned ugly. "1 started throwing pots and stormed out," Etchingham said. When she returned the next day, Jimi had written "The Wind Cries Mary" for her. Mary was Etchingham's middle name.

The recording of this song was equally easy for Jimi. They had twenty minutes left in a session, and Chandler asked Jimi, "You got anything else?" Jimi produced the freshly written song, and the band learned it on the spot. "We simply didn't rehearse," Redding noted. "For The Wind Cries Mary,' Jimi just basically played the chords, and being an ex-guitar player, I could pick up the stuff really fast, and we got the feel, and we put it down. We weren't rushing it, but we son of knew that we had to throw it down quickly." That twenty minutes of recording time even included Jimi's guitar overdubs. The song became their third single.

No day in the entire history of the Experience was as productive as January nth, 1967. The hand's session at London's De Lane Lea Studio produced several tunes, among them "Purple Haze."Jimi had drafted the lyrics to the song backstage at a concert two weeks before. Though the tune would forever be linked in the popular imagination with LSD, Jimi said it was inspired by a dream he had that mirrored the novel Night of Light: Day of Dreams, by Philip Jose Farmer. In an early lyric draft, he included the line "Jesus saves." He later complained that the version of the song that was released - and became the Experience's second successful single - had been shortened. "The [original] song had about a thousand words," he told an interviewer. "It just gets me so mad, because that isn't even 'Purple Haze.'"

After that long studio session, the band had two shows at the Bag o' Nails. The Bag was a legendary dank basement nightclub that looked like something out of a Charles Dickens novel. The crowd gathered that night was a who's who of London's rock elite: According to most accounts, it included Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Mickjagger, Brian Jones, Beatles manager Brian Epstein, John Entwistle, Donovan, Georgie Fame, Denny Laine, Terry Reid, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Lulu Hollies, the Small Faces and the Animals.

Singer Terry Reid, the British I prodigy, had not yet seen the Expert-and recalled that at the show, "it was all the guitar players in the world shown up." When Reid sat down, he surprised to find McCartney sitting to him. "Have you seen this guy yet? He’s amazing," McCartney said.

Jimi started by announcing he was to cover a song that was Number One on the charts. "We were thinking," said Reid," if it’s Number One on the charts, it's not in our hearts, because if it was over Number Ten, we hated it." Jimi then introduced "Wild Thing." " 'Wild Thing' was pop throwaway, and it was what every stood against!" Reid observed. "And Jimi played it, and banged the shit out of bloody thing, and takes off into outer space.” Reid went to the bathroom at one point and coming back, bumped into Brian Jones. “It’s all wet down in the front," Jones warned. Reid replied, "What are you talking about? I can’t see any water." To which Jones said, "It's wet from all the guitar players crying.”

Jimi was living with Etchingham, but he seemed incapable of fidelity. Matters weren't helped by the fact that Chandler thought it better to present Jimi as a bachelor in the press, so whenever an interviewer showed up at their flat, Etchingham was hustled off. Sometimes the journalists would be females, and there were more than a few times when Etchingham returned to chase half-disrobed girls out of the flat. Jimi also suffered from tremendous jealousy, -which was ignited -when he drank -he imagined every man was after Etching-ham, even as he bedded other women himself. One night at the Bag o' Nails, Etching-1 ham was on the phone and Jimi thought she | was talking to another man. He grabbed the receiver and began hitting her -with it. She screamed. At that moment, John Lennon and Paul McCartney walked into the club and calmly took the phone away from him. It was rare for Jimi to be violent, and most aggression -was linked to his excessive drinking. But his mercurial, almost childlike nature could be painful to anyone -who cared for him. One night, Etchingham caught Jimi having sex in a women's restroom -with a girl he'd met after the show. She had already become hardened to such betrayals. Her only response was resignation: "Hurry up or we'll miss the train back to London." Jimi's excuse: "She wanted my autograph."

The Experience ended January with two shows at the famous Saville Theatre on a bill -with the Who. These were attended by Lennoon, McCartney, George Harrison and the members of Cream. At the end of one show, Jack Bruce left the theater, went home and wrote the riff for "Sunshine of Your Love," inspired by Jimi.

THE EXPERIENCE FINISHED their debut album that spring and titled it Are You Experienced? The album had been recorded in several different studios, whenever the band could cobble together time. To speed up sessions, Chandler would trick the band into thinking it was rehearsing when he was actually recording. "Chas would always say, 'OK, lads, let's run chrough it,'" said Redding. "And we'd run through the track, and then Chas would say, 1DK, do it again.' But he'd actually already taken the first take without us knowing. And then after the second take, we'd walk out, have a smoke, and he'd say, We got it.' And we'd say, 'What do you mean? We haven't even started it yet.'" When the album finally came out, it would go as high as Number Two on the British charts, kept out of the top slot only by the Beatles.

Before the release of the alburn, the Experience went on a tour of English cinema houses with orchestral-pop act the Walker Brothers, future Vegas headliner Engelbert Humperdinck and a young Cat Stevens. The Experience were the opening act in this odd spectacle, and Jimi did everything he could to upstage the better-known bands. Backstage on the first date of the tour, he joked that "maybe 1 should smash an elephant. "Journalist Keith Altham had a better idea. "It is a pity," Altham said, "that you can't set your guitar on fire." Jimi immediately sent a roadie for lighter fluid. When showtime came around and the Experience ended their short five-song set with the song "Fire," Jimi poured lighter fluid on the instrument and threw a match at it. It took three attempts, but eventually the guitar burst into flames. Jimi twirled it around like a windmill before a stagehand rushed onstage and doused it with water. Acity fire marshal was backstage, and he lectured Jirni for several minutes. Only a couple of thousand people had witnessed the flaming guitar stunt, which lasted all of thirty seconds, but once it was in the papers, it became legend. By the middle of 1967, everything Jimi did in England drew a headline in the papers. On one date of the Walker Brothers tour, a erased fan chased Jimi with a pair of scissors and managed to cut a lock of his hair-even that made the papers. Advertisements for his shows now touted, "Don't miss this man who is Dylan, Clapton and James Brown all in one."

BY EARLY 1968, THE JIMl HENDRIX Experience were superstars all over the world, but the one audience Jimi had yet to face down was his family back in Seattle. He had not set foot in his hometown for nearly seven years, since he had left to join the Army to avoid a jail term foe riding in a stolen car.

The band's first 1968 U.S. tour took it to forty-nine cities in fifty-one days, but Seattle, on February nth, was the one show that made Jimi nervous. Since he had last been in Seattle, his father, Al, had remarried, and Jimi now had a stepmother along with five stepsiblings. Jimi's brother Leon had been a kid when Jimi left; Leon was twenty now and working out of a downtown pool hall as a hustler. It was not lost on Jimi that a similar fate had in all probability awaited him without music. To add to the pressure, the Seattle show - despite being a last-minute booking, advertised with just a week's notice — was sold out.

The week before the concert, Seattle promoter Pat O'Day phoned Jirni and asked if there was anything special he wanted to do in his hometown. Jimi said he wanted to play a free show for students at Garfield High School, his alma mater. Jimi came away from the conversation with the impression that he would be receiving the ceremonial key to the city, though O'Day didn't recall this being discussed. Nonetheless, when Jimi did an interview that week with the Sunday Mirror, he referred to what he thought was this upcoming honor, saying how surprised he was that his luck in Seattle had so drastically changed. "The only keys 1 expected to see in that town were of the jailhouse," Jimi remarked.

When the band's plane arrived in Seattle, Jimi was the last person off the jet, Leon, like the rest of the family, was surprised at his big brother's appearance: "He had on this giant hat and a red velvet shirt. He had all this hair and he looked just wild!" Before arriving in Seattle, Jimi had mentioned to one interviewer that he was fearful his father might grab him and cut off his hair. Instead, Al took Jimi's hand, put his other hand on his back and said, "Welcome home, son." It was a warm reunion, and the new marriage appeared to have softened Al. Jimi met his new stepmother, June, and took a liking to her.

While the rest of the band went to a hotel, Jimi was whisked to his father's house, where the new star held court for friends and neighbors. Some of the gathered throng began drinking Al's bourbon, but before Jimi took a sip, he asked Al for permission, a sign of how much, even at twenty-five, he still deferred to his father. Jimi's Aunt De-lores came by, and Jimi began telling stories of Swinging London. "He looked so grown up," Delores recalled. "He was likeahippie!" Jimi asked about his friends from the neighborhood and found that many were serving in Vietnam. African-Americans made up a disproportionate percentage of the soldiers in Vietnam, and it was never far from Jimi's mind that he might have been stationed there had he not left the service.

When it came time for Jimi to get ready for the night's concert, he asked an old neighborhood friend, Ernestine Benson, to curl his hair. The problem with my life today," he told her, "is that I have to take a pill to sleep, and a pill to perform." When he complained of touring, she feared he might start to weep. She helped curl his hair but also offered him advice: "You got to take some time off." Though Jimi was an adult now Benson came away feeling as though he wasn’t all that different than the latchkey child she had once baby-sat - he seemed just as lost.

At the show that night, Jimi's entire family was seated in the front row. One of Jimi’s new stepsisters held up a sign that read, "Welcome home Jimi, love, your sisters.” While the seating was arranged to honor the family, it put them directly in front of the speakers, and Jimi's father watched some of the deafening show with his fingers in his ears. As for the performance, the band played a standard nine-song set, with the greatest crowd reaction coming when Jimi named off the area's high schools.

An after-show party was held at Seattle’s ritzy Olympic Hotel. As the most posh hotel in town, it was a far cry from the fleabags Jimi had lived in as a child. Jimi ordered steak from room service and insisted his family do the same on his tab - it may have been the first time in Jimi's life he ever bought his father a meal, and that alone offered great personal satisfaction. Jimi gave Leon fifty dollars and told Al that if he needed anything to let him know. Around midnight Jimi's manager reminded him of his appearance scheduled at Garfield High School at 8 a.m. Disregarding the suggestion that he call it an early night, Jimi and Leon played Monopoly throughout the night and joyously drank their father's bourbon.

At 7:30 a.m., Jimi's ride arrived for the Garfield assembly. He had yet to sleep and was wearing the same clothes he'd had on at the previous night's concert. At Garfield, Jimi discovered that Redding and Mitchell could not be woken up, and his already cranky mood - furthered by still being intoxicated—turned sour. "He was not capable, or able, to play, or really to speak," said Garfield principal Frank Fidler, who had known Jimi since junior high. The idea of having Jimi perform was abandoned; promoter Pat O'Day suggested Jimi speak and answer questions from the students.

The assembly was held in the Garfield gymnasium. It began with ashort introduction from O'Day, who told the kids thatjimi had once been a Garfield Bulldog but had gone on to international fame, "Kids had already begun to heckle," said Peter Riches, who photographed the event. "Many obviously had no idea who Jimi was."

Jimi, who often found his music too white for black radio and too black for certain rock stations, encountered a more racially divisive atmosphere at the school than when he had attended. "At the time, Garfield was highly politicized, and the Black Power movement was blooming," recalled student Vickie Heater. 'To have this strange, hippie musician come along bothered kids." It also bothered the students when Jimi mumbled, "I've been here, and there, and everywhere, and it's all working." He then paused for a long time before stating that he'd written "Purple Haze" for Garfield - the school colors were purple and white. And with that, Jimi's short speech came to an end. The audience began to whistle and heckle.

O'Day grabbed the mike and entertained questions. One boy raised his hand and asked Jimi, "How long have you been gone from Garfield?" Jimi had been gone for exactly seven and a half years, but the question stymied him. He put his head down and mumbled, "Oh, about 1,000 years." Another student asked, "How do you write a song?" Jimi paused for a moment and looked at the floor. "Right now, I'm going to say goodbye to you, and go out the door, and get into my limousine, and go to the airport. And when 1 get out the door, the assembly will be over, and the bell will ring. And when I hear that bell ring, 111 write a song. Thank you very much." With that, he walked out. The entire assembly had taken less than five minutes.

by APRiL 1968, jimi was Living at the Warwick Hotel in midtown New York and working on his third album, Electric Ladyland, at the Record Plant, Though the album would later be remembered as Jimi's masterpiece, it was a Sisyphean recording effort that threatened to destroy the band and Jimi. Jimi would record at all hours, and then later use his hotel room for parties, like one particularly wild evening that included both guitarist Mike Bloomfield and writer Truman Capote.

Though the Experience's records were still selling well, they were burning through cash and spendinga fortune on studio time. Unhappy that his previous two albums had not captured his work as he intended, Jimi had begun to insist on multiple takes for every song. The strong work ethic that had carried the Experience through their early records was abandoned in favor of a laid-back, jam-heavy approach to recording, and sessions were filled with hangers-on. Even on days when Jimi completed a full eight hours of recording, he'd still go out to jam in local clubs, sometimes inviting the entire club audience to the studio.

Redding stormed out of a session in early May after such an occurrence - and increasing conflicts within the band — consequently missing the recording of the magical "Voodoo Chile." This session, typical of many in this period, sprang from a jam at the Scene club earlier in the night. When the club closed, Jimi's full entourage moved to the Record Plant. "Jimi invited everyone back to the studio," recalled Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady. "There were at least twenty people, and most of them didn't belong there." At around 7:30 a.m ., the formal recording for the day started with a lineup of Jimi on guitar, Mitch Mitchell on drums, Traffic's Steve Winwood on organ and Casady on bass. The song took only three takes, though they were lengthy: The released version would clock at fifteen minutes, the longest official Hendrix studio cut.

By mid-1968, Jimi's entire life revolved around music. If he wasn't in the studio, he was at a jam session. If he wasn't jamming, he had a concert to do. He was adrift without the guitar or without a concert stage. It was not unlike the period early in Jimi's career when a friend once observed him going into a movie theater with his guitar in hand, unable to put the instrument down long enough to even watch a film.

The Experience ended their U.S. tour with a planned show at the Miami Pop Festival. When that date was rained out, Jimi initiated a jam in the hotel bar that included Frank Zappa, Arthur Brown and John Lee Hooker. "It was probably the best music I've ever heard in my life," recalled Trixie Sullivan, an aide to manager Michael Jeffrey.

The rained-out show only added to the madness that was typical of the Experience on the road. Though the bandmates earned half a million dollars on that tour - making them one of the best-paid bands in rock -they were spending money at a faster rate than they could make it. When the organisers of Miami Pop were unable to pay the band that night, Jimi had to climb out of a hotel window since he couldn't pay his hotel bill. Much as he had arrived in London, just two short years before, he walked out with his guitar in his hand and little else.

charles R. cross is the author of the Kurt Cobain bio "Heavier Than Heaven."

Stand By Me | Playing For Change | Song Around the World

2009-08-06T18:36:00.002+12:00

"No matter who you are, no matter where you go in your life, at some point you're gonna need somebody to stand by you!"

so TRUE‼

One good example is what we are seeing and gonna keep seeing in a "social media" network community.

JK Wedding Entrance Dance

2009-07-31T13:31:00.002+12:00

This just got into me ;), I wish I could have tought of this before my wedding day‼

5 Best Ways to Absolutely Destroy your Personal Finances

2009-07-08T19:41:00.001+12:00

Submitted by G.E. Miller on Sunday, 5 July 2009 5 Comments

Most of the advice you’ll find on 20somethingfinance is geared towards best practices when it comes to your personal finances. Not this one, my friends. Through personal experience and witnessing worst practices from others, I’ve compiled a list of the 5 best ways to destroy your personal finances. Learn what to do through the avoidance of these practices.

1. Borrowing from the Credit Card Company (and Holding a Balance)

I’ve used credit cards to help establish a credit history and to gain from rewards. Used in these ways, credit cards can be part of a healthy financial picture. Used in just about any other way, they can wreck your financial house of cards. If you carry a balance from month to month, there’s a lot of things you can assume - first of which is that you aren’t saving any money. If you are saving money, you’re doing so foolishly. There are few places that you can get a return (and none without high risk) of over the typical 12%+ that credit card companies charge on balances.

2. Buying More House than you Can Afford

As a general rule of thumb, you should not spend more than 30% of your take home income on your housing. With both houses that I’ve owned, I’ve pushed to about 30%, and when my wife lost her job in January, we were definitely concerned about what a prolonged layoff might mean for our ability to make our house payments without significantly cutting into our savings. If you can, I’d recommend keeping your housing expenses to below 25% of your take home income.

3. Not Funding an Emergency Fund

Before paying off good debt, funding your IRA and/or 401k, or saving for other long-term goals, establishing an emergency fund is essential. If you lose your job, have a serious medical complication, have to fund replacement transportation in the event of major vehicle repair, or run into other unexpected financial hardship, you need to have some cash on hand to throw yourself a lifeline. Unfortunately, those who have not run into one of these situations often think it will never happen to them. This is especially true for twenty somethings. Don’t let this happen to you.

Unlike Dave Ramsey, I don’t think it’s realistic or wise to pay off ALL of your debt before saving more than $1,000. Focus on paying off high interest debt, but when it comes to school loans and mortgages, paying all of those off first before adding to your emergency savings is not a good idea. Once you’ve paid off high interest debt, then shoot for a minimum of six months of expenses, but preferably 8 months to a year’s worth.

4. Wasting your Money on School

Getting a solid BA or BS degree from a reputable university would be difficult to argue as a bad investment. Sadly, this can often lead people astray as they take this fact and convince themselves that additional degrees are going to be the ultimate path to financial riches. Convincing yourself that a second undergrad degree (unless you need it to completely change careers) or staying in school an extra year or two can be downright devestating for your financing.

But surely, MBA’s an other advanced degrees must be a good investment, right? After running the math, I’m not so sure. If I were to leave my job to pursue an MBA at the two most reputable public universities in my state of residence, I would shell out at least $80K for the degree. Additionally, I’d be giving up significantly more in salary over the two years. I figure that it would take me almost two decades to pay back my investment and make up for the lost salary, and that’s only if I were to find a higher paying, higher stress job. That entire time, I’d have the burden of that debt on my shoulders. I’m going to pass for now.

5. Rolling the Dice

No, I’m not referring to gambling, although that certainly would make a top 10 version of this list. I’m referring to not paying for your basic insurances: home, auto, medical, and life. This is another one of those ‘you don’t know how important it is until something bad happens’ necessities. We’ve all seen someone lose their homes, their vehicles, or their savings due to not having their basic insurances covered. ‘It’ CAN happen to you. Don’t roll the dice.

To the Readers:

What have you learned from your financial mistakes?
What would your top 5 be?

Why exercise?

2009-07-06T21:06:00.000+12:00

Now winter's here, has your exercise routine taken a back seat in favour of sitting huddled on the sofa with a hot water bottle and a bag of chips? It's easy to find excuses to avoid exercise - ‘There's not enough time in the day', ‘I'm too cold and tired to get to the gym', ‘I'll do it tomorrow' - and it can be easy to forget the reasons why you were going to the gym in the first place. Read on to remind yourself why that fitness regimen was a good idea after all.

Lose weight

When exercise is combined with a balanced diet, it can help you slim down and keep weight off in the long-term. It raises your metabolic rate (the speed at which your body burns energy) and helps build muscle. The more muscle you have, the more kiloujoules your body burns - and the sooner you'll fit back into those skinny jeans.

Improve cardiovascular health

Your heart is a muscle, and, as with other muscles, regular exercise helps to strengthen it, so it can pump blood more efficiently and with less effort, delivering nutrients and oxygen where they're needed in the body. Exercise also lowers blood pressure and helps clear fatty deposits out of the arteries, preventing blood clots that can lead to a heart attack or stroke.

Sleep better

Exercising the right amount at the right time of day improves your quality of sleep and makes you feel more awake during the day. Avoid too much activity within the three hours before bedtime as it will stimulate your brain and raise your body temperature, making it more difficult to drop off, but after that time, your body temperature drops lower than if you hadn't exercised, improving sleep.

Manage stress

By increasing blood flow to the brain, exercise helps you think more clearly and work through problems more efficiently, reducing stress. Many people find exercise can be an outlet for frustration and stress, easing these negative emotions. On a more physical level, exercise helps relax the muscles in your neck and shoulders that tighten during stressful times, leading to tension headaches.

Prevent osteoporosis

Weight-bearing exercise, including walking, running and stair climbing cause the muscles and tendons to pull on your bones, stimulating the cells to produce more bone. This leads to stronger, denser bones, and less of a risk of developing osteoporosis in later life.

Build confidence

As well as making you slimmer and more toned, exercise helps improve your posture. Your clothes will look better on you and you'll generally feel fitter and healthier. Plus, knowing that you have managed to achieve your exercise goals when you look in the mirror or step on the scales is a real self-esteem boost.

Reduce diabetes risk

The body stores sugar in the muscles and burns it off as energy during exercise. A lack of activity means the muscles have no room left to store sugars from food, so this goes straight into the bloodstream, sending your blood sugar levels soaring, which can lead to type-2 diabetes. Exercise also helps reduce body fat, which makes your cells more resistant to insulin - the hormone that helps regulate the amount of glucose in the blood.

Improve mood

Exercise releases ‘feel-good' chemicals called endorphins into your blood, giving a feeling of happiness and increasing your overall sense of wellbeing. So what are you waiting for?

Michael Jackson is dead at 50: His Four-Decade Career

2009-06-26T10:09:00.005+12:00

Photograph courtesy of Getty Images/Michael Ochs Archive

I am a fan of his music and I just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50.

Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.

Once at the hospital, the staff tried to resuscitate him but he was completely unresponsive and one of the staff members at Jackson's home called 911.

La Toya ran in the hospital sobbing after Jackson was pronounced dead.

Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince "Blanket" Michael Jackson II.

Ten years ago Michael Jackson was the most famous Star in the world. Now, when we look at the strange person, we ask ourselves, is it really Michael Jackson?

Jackson has spent most of those years under heavy scrutiny in one of the more intense public spotlights in music history. Click below for an in-depth gallery of Jackson images, including little or never seen early shots of Michael and his siblings care of the Getty-owned Michael Ochs archive.

• Michael Jackson at 50: A Look Back at the King of Pop’s Four-Decade Career

The capsule landed safely and the duo could even sing and dance their little hearts out. Now if we could only move that thing forward,,,

Michael Jackson and Britney Spears "The Way You Make Me Feel"

Farrah Fawcett dies at 62

2009-06-26T08:57:00.001+12:00

FARRAH FAWCETT, 1947-2009

By Ray Stubblebine, AP

Actress Farrah Fawcett, seen here with Ryan O'Neal, has died after a battle with cancer.

Feb. 2, 1947: Ferrah Leni Fawcett is born in Corpus Christi, Texas, to James and Pauline Fawcett.

1966: Enrolls in University of Texas at Austin, with the intent to major in microbiology or art.

1967: Moves to L.A. to pursue an acting career.

1967-1969: Lands various guest-starring roles on TV shows including I Dream of Jeannie and The Flying Nun.

1968: Begins a romance with actor Lee Majors.

1969: Makes her film debut in Italian feature Un homme qui me plait (Love is a Funny Thing).

1970: Films her first major role as Mary Ann Pringle in Myra Breckenridge with Mae West, Raquel Welch and John Huston. There is much feuding reported on set, and the film, well behind schedule and considerably over budget, is a flop.

July 28, 1973: Marries Lee Majors and becomes Farrah Fawcett-Majors, a name she keeps in film and TV credits until they separate in 1979.

March 1973: Appears in the TV movie The Six Million Dollar Man with her husband. She picks up the nickname "The Bionic Wife."

1973-1976: Has guest-starring roles on a number of TV shows, including recurring roles on The Six Million Dollar Man and Harry O. Also appears in a supporting role in the 1976 sci-fi film Logan's Run.

1976: Cast as beautiful private detective Jill Munroe on Aaron Spelling's new TV show Charlie's Angels, alongside Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith. The show, which has high ratings and poor reviews, introduces both Fawcett-Majors and "jiggle TV" to the world and becomes a cultural phenomenon. Fawcett-Majors poses for the now-famous red bathing suit poster that went on to sell more than 8 million copies and make her a superstar sex symbol. The layered hairstyle she wears in both the show and in the poster, known as "The Farrah," starts a trend for young girls (and sometimes boys).

1977: Leaves Charlie's Angels after one season, breaking her contract with the show. Among the reported reasons were dissatisfaction with both her salary and the material, plus frustrations with balancing the show's duties with her struggling marriage. Spelling threatens a lawsuit for breach of contract, but the parties settle out of court; Fawcett-Majors agrees to make several guest appearances in upcoming years. She is replaced by Cheryl Ladd.

1978-1980: Makes three big-budget films: Somebody Killed Her Husband, Sunburn and Saturn 3. All three are box-office disasters.

1979: Separates from Majors.

Feb. 16, 1982: Divorces Majors. Sometime between 1979 and 1982, she begins dating Ryan O'Neal, an actor best known for the movies Love Story and Paper Moon.

1983: Fires her manager, changes her hairstyle and seeks more dramatic acting roles. For the next few years, she sticks mainly to TV movies. One of her most successful is The Burning Bed (1984), which earns her Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. She also stars, to rave reviews, in the highly successful off-Broadway play Extremities.

Jan. 30, 1985: Son Redmond James O'Neal, with Ryan O'Neal, is born.

1986: Stars in the feature film version of Extremities.

1991: She and Ryan O'Neal star in a short-lived TV sitcom Good Sports as former lovers/cable sportscasters.

1995: Returns to film with Chevy Chase in Man of the House, directed by her future lover James Orr. Fawcett also poses topless in Playboy, one of the magazine's best-selling issues of the decade.

1997: Breaks off her relationship with O'Neal, stars in her own Playboy video and begins dating Orr.

1998: Turns down Orr's marriage proposal; he severely beats her, is tried and convicted of assault and battery. Over the next few years, Fawcett keeps a low profile but continues making both feature films and TV movies.

2001: Returns to the world of television series with a recurring role on Spin City. Former lover O'Neal is diagnosed with leukemia, and the two rekindle their romance after she offers to help him through the disease. The reconciliation doesn't last.

2002: Earns another Emmy nomination for guest-starring on The Guardian.

2003: Comes close to a Broadway debut with Bobbi Boland, but the audience response is so disastrous, the play does not open.

2005: Stars in the TV Land reality series Chasing Farrah that shows her daily life.

Aug. 27, 2006: Appears at the Emmys with fellow original Charlie's Angels actresses Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith after the death in June of Angels executive producer Aaron Spelling.

Oct. 4, 2006: Announces she has been diagnosed with anal cancer and is undergoing treatment. She and O'Neal begin living together again.

Feb. 2, 2007: Celebrates her 60th birthday with the news that she is cancer-free.

May 16, 2007: Reveals that doctors have found a malignant polyp near where her initial cancer had been treated. She says she is weighing treatment options with O'Neal and their son, Redmond, by her side.

May 15, 2009: NBC airs Farrah's Story, a video diary shot by Fawcett and her friend, Alana Stewart, about her cancer treatment. Nearly 9 million people tune in.

Sources: Imdb.com; biography.com; nndb.com; eonline.com

10 Ways To Put Your Content In Front Of More People

2009-06-19T18:08:00.000+12:00

Which is more important, driving traffic to your website or encouraging as many people as possible to see your content? Believe it or not, they are not one and the same.Too often, we as website owners live and die by web analytics applications. We fret about bounce rates, unique visitors and dwell time. However, when we focus so heavily on the performance of our website, we miss a fundamental point: we should aim to expose users to our content, not our website. The website is a tool to showcase our content, but it is not the only tool that does this.

Organizations with truly successful websites understand this principle. Take, for example, the following: Amazon’s primary objective is to sell stuff. YouTube aims to use video content to carry advertisements. Twitter facilitates “tweeting.” (Who knows what its business model is!).

In each case, the content matters, not the website. That is why each company provides numerous ways to access its content beyond the website. From Amazon’s affiliate scheme to YouTube’s embed feature, these companies can reach audiences that may never visit their websites.

Twitter is probably the best example of all. How often do you actually read or post tweets via the Twitter website? If you are like me, the answer is very rarely.

The majority of users do not read tweets via the Twitter website.

The lesson here is obvious: as website owners, we need a broader Web strategy to release our content from the shackles of our websites. How do we do this? Below are 10 opportunities that you can integrate into your online strategy.

While the points mentioned below will refine your strategy to deliver content to more people, they can not serve their purpose without an appropriate environment. In the age of social media and the rise of interactive web-applications such as Facebook, Twitter etc. building a community around your website is the most important way to drive traffic and keep the users coming back.

Using forums, polls, comments and engaging users in the global conversations via external services turns out to be a silver bullet for gaining more exposure and winning more loyal visitors. Once you are building a community around your site, it’s time to think about more refined strategy that will help you to put your content in front of more people – and this is where the tips below will come in handy.

1. Target The Desktop

eBay recognized that it needed a desktop application. Many people make a living selling on eBay, and these people need desktop software that streamlines their business processes. They need desktop notifications, faster and more desktop-like interaction and easier access to eBay features.

eBay Desktop: eBay saw an opportunity to bring the functionality and content of its website to the desktop.

Using a platform such as Adobe AIR, you can easily put Web-based content and functionality onto the desktop. This is exactly what eBay did, and it has proved very successful among the company’s power users.

As a website owner, you should consider whether a desktop application is right for you. Do your users need desktop features, offline access or better integration with the operating system?

2. Going Mobile

It won’t be long before the Web is accessed by more mobile users than PC users. In many countries, this has already happened. Traditional websites often render poorly or are hard to use on mobile devices. They do not take into account the context in which a mobile user browses the Web. Approaching the mobile Web as a separate channel to your traditional website, then, is critical.

Here are some methods of delivering content on the mobile Web:

Create a mobile website.
Mobile websites take into account small screens, different input devices and the numerous other unique characteristics of the mobile Web.
Use text messaging.
Text messaging is ideal for notifications and updates. It is a perfect complement to your website and a way of keeping users informed.
Build mobile applications.
Mobile platforms such as the iPhone and Android make it increasingly easy to build applications that run directly on mobile devices. They allow you to make your content available even when the user is not connected to the Internet or away from their PC.

Video-streaming service uStream makes its content available on the iPhone.

Pushing your content to mobile devices is ideal if your target audience is often away from the computer or requires access to your content “in the field.”

3. Start Tweeting

Twitter has so much hype at the moment. However, it does provide a unique opportunity to reach a larger audience with your message. The question is, how best to use it? Some organizations use Twitter as a broadcast tool, turning it fundamentally into an alternative to RSS. An example of this is BBC News or CNN, which provide latest updates via the service.

CNN uses Twitter as a broadcast tool, turning it fundamentally into an alternative to RSS.

However, using Twitter as a broadcast tool misses its true power. Organizations that really “get” Twitter include Zappos and Omnifocus. They use Twitter as a way to engage with their followers and even provide customer support.

Use Twitter as a way to engage with your audience. If a number of people work on your website, encourage them all to tweet, rather than having a single branded account.

4. Write For Others

Writing for other websites is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and spread your message to a larger audience than would otherwise be possible through your own website.

Do not limit your words of wisdom to your own website. Look for other editorial websites and blogs that speak to your own audience and offer to write for them. After all, your audience visits many websites other than your own. Why limit your writing skills to your own blog when you can reach new audiences by writing for others?

Whenever I write for other websites, they almost always include links back to Boagworld and Headscape. Here an example from one of my previous Smashing Magazine’s articles.

Of course, any article you write for others should be more than shameless self-promotion. The owners of those websites will want quality content that fits their website and is of interest to their audience. For example, I recently wrote an article for a website whose audience consisted of franchise owners. If I had simply written about how great Headscape was, I doubt the article would have been published. Instead, I shared a case study of our experience in working with a franchise-based business. The content was both relevant to the publication and useful to its audience. However, it also raised our profile among a base of potentially new customers.

What websites exist that reach your target market? Would they consider publishing some of your content? How could you rewrite your content to make it more appealing to them?

5. Embrace Facebook

Another option for expanding your Web strategy beyond the website is Facebook. Explaining the importance and reach of Facebook is surely unnecessary. However, you may be tempted to dismiss it because your target market is not teenagers, who are normally associated with these kinds of social networks.

What may surprise you is that Facebook is no longer confined to a younger demographic. Over the last year, the number of users between 35 and 54 has jumped 276%, to over 6 million people.

Carsonified Fan Page on Facebook: Facebook has introduced fan pages, which are public-facing profiles for organizations.

So, how do you reach your audience on Facebook? Here are three good starting points:

Create a group.
Groups have been around for a long time and are ideal for building a dialogue with those already interested in your product or service. You can easily invite people to participate, and those people in turn can invite others. This makes groups ideally suited to viral marketing.
Create a fan page.
Fan pages are basically public profiles for organizations rather than individuals. Unlike groups, pages are public-facing. This means they can be seen by non-Facebook users and are indexed by search engines. Fan pages are perfect for building long-term awareness and for reaching people both inside and outside of Facebook.
Create an application.
Facebook allows third parties to build applications that can be added to user profiles. These range from games to RSS feeds. Unlike with pages and groups, building applications requires some technical skill. However, the possibility of users embedding your content in their profiles makes this an attractive proposition, if you have appropriate content.

Of course, Facebook is not the only social network. But it does have considerable reach and provides some the best tools for reaching its massive audience.

6. Develop A Widget Or API

The ultimate way to distribute content has to be by providing an API or widget.

An API gives other Web developers access to your content, allowing them to build applications and websites around it. Using an API, developers can do anything from embed your content on their websites to build desktop applications that offer advanced functionality.

Twitter really gets APIs. When was the last time you viewed or posted tweets from the Twitter website? Chances are, a long time ago. Because Twitter offers a powerful API, thousands of developers have built all kinds of applications that allow you to view and post tweets. The actual service that Twitter provides is in fact very basic; but its API makes it possible to do everything from viewing tweets on a Google map to posting photos, video and audio.

Tweetdeck is just one example of the powerful applications that can be built using the Twitter API.

Unfortunately, APIs have some drawbacks. They require a considerable level of technical expertise to implement. As a result, they are of use only to developers. What about the rest of us? How do we add third-party content to our websites? That’s where widgets come in.

A widget is typically a small piece of code that you can copy and paste into your website. Literally thousands of widgets are available. They allow website owners to use the content and functionality of other websites quickly and easily. Widgets are used to embed YouTube videos, show your Amazon wish list and display your location on a map.

Widgets are powerful because they are easy to implement. This means anybody can add them, thus allowing you to distribute your content much more widely. Widgets are also easier to build than full APIs. This makes them a good starting point for those wanting to put their content in front of more people.

7. Offer Better Feeds

Not all approaches to putting content in front of more users have to be as time-consuming and complex as developing an API. Doing one other thing could increase your views within minutes.

Users increasingly rely on RSS feeds to consume content from websites. This is especially true for news, articles and blog posts. However, some website owners are so obsessed with driving traffic to their websites that they provide only teasers of their posts via RSS. To read a whole article, the user is forced to click through to the website.

This approach to RSS is counter-productive. When a user is browsing a large number of feeds, they are less likely to read your content if they have to leave their news reader to do it.

To maximize users’ exposure to your content, ensure as much of it as possible is displayed in the RSS feed itself. Require users to click through only when absolutely necessary.

Google Reader displaying a partial RSS feed: many websites truncate their content in RSS because their advertising revenue is based on page impressions. They see driving as much traffic as possible to their website as being in their interest. This is a short-sighted.

It is also important to note that when users read content from an RSS feed, they do not have the context of your website. Ensuring, then, that your content stands on its own and that your copy incorporates calls to action is necessary.

8. Use Multimedia

Of course, limiting your content to the written word is becoming increasingly unnecessary. Creating audio and video content has become a trivial task. Services such as YouTube and applications such as AudioBoo make production and hosting easy.

Also, pioneers like Diggnation and Wine Library TV have shown that users care more about quality content than high production values. Both shows essentially have presenters speaking to a single locked-off camera. This kind of production value can be achieved with a consumer camera and basic editing software.

That said, creating popular content is harder than it appears at first. Many organizations believe that simply uploading their latest product demonstrations to YouTube will generate millions of views. That is simply not the case.

Good rich media content has to be engaging if people are expected to watch it and, more importantly, recommend it to their friends. This can be done through a passionate host, great content, humor or shock value. With thousands of videos uploaded everyday, standing out from the crowd is important.

Wine Library TV proves that great content and a passionate presenter are more important than production values.

However, don’t forget that your content has to be appropriate to your target audience. Shock tactics may work well with a teenage audience but may not go down so well with middle-aged business executives!

9. Start Streaming

The next wave of multimedia on the Web will be not pre-recorded material but rather live streaming. Services such as Ustream, Qik and Justin TV are all fighting to dominate this space. Each offers the opportunity to stream live content on the Web at zero cost. This makes the barrier to entry extremely low.

The main benefit of this approach over pre-recorded material is interactivity. The live format allows viewers to engage with the presenter in real time via chat. This brings a host of opportunities, including, but not limited to, the following:

Live product demonstrations
Live streaming allows you present your products and services while taking questions from the audience. This is considerably more powerful that showing pre-recorded promotional videos.
Community sessions
If you run an online community, live streaming gives you the chance to engage with that community on a much more personal level than with the written word. Social news website Digg has run a number of “Town Hall” meetings in which its user base engages directly with the CEO and founder.
Online training
Finally, live streaming is a perfect environment in which to provide remote training. Whether the training is on using your product or selling online workshops, live streaming allows users to both hear and see what you are doing.

Social news website Digg has run a number of Town Hall meetings in which its user base engages directly with the CEO and founder.

Live streaming is still relatively immature, and few are taking advantage of this new opportunity. Your company has a real opportunity to differentiate itself through its use.

10. Don’t Forget Email

Amidst all this talk of video, audio and APIs, it is easy to forget the tools we have always had for reaching beyond the confines of our website. Although not the sexiest tool on our list, email had to make it on before the end of this post. Email should be a key tool for keeping your content in front of users. Obviously, email can be used for a lot more than syndicating content. However, for the purposes of this article, it can be used to subscribe to your content. If users can subscribe to your content via RSS, they should be able to do it also via email.

ProBlogger allows its readers to subscribe to his RSS-feed via e-mail.

Fortunately, there are services such as AWeber and MailChimp that make this easy. FeedBurner is an option, too; however, it lacks subject line customization and has very limited design customizations available. You can find more information about why FeedBurner isn’t good enough in the article FeedBurner’s Free RSS-to-Email Syndication: Why You Can’t Afford It. With one of these services implemented, users can subscribe via email with a single click of a link on your website.

A word of warning, though. If a user subscribes to your content via email, they are not giving you permission to spam them indiscriminately. If you fail to respect their email subscription, you are in danger of losing that user and inciting them to post negative comments on your website, which could put off others.

Conclusion

There was a time when a website was enough. Now, your website needs to be just one small part of your overall Web strategy. Expecting users to come to you is naive. Instead, take your content to them, whether on a social network like Facebook’s or a mobile device like the iPhone.

About the author

Paul Boag is the founder of UK Web design agency Headscape, author of the Website Owners Manual and host of award-winning Web design podcast Boagworld.com.

Another Reason to fly Singapore Airlines....

2009-06-17T07:25:00.002+12:00

Credits: James Parkinson

I came across the announcement a while ago that Singapore Airlines was going to embed StarOffice in their seat back entertainment systems on many of their refurbished 777-300ER planes, but I didn't know when/where we would start seeing this .
Well...

Chuk-Munn Lee (one of Sun evangelists) was flying back to Singapore from JavaOne and was on one of the planes. He snapped a couple of images to show StarOffice available on the entertainment system. Below is one of the images - he launched Star Impress to see if he could work on some of his slides (you can plug in your own USB key to edit/save files) - he said the system worked well.

What If Microsoft Buys eBay?

2009-06-16T07:05:00.001+12:00

Microsoft has $44 billion or so burning a hole in its pocket, but there’s one little hitch: There are few companies that the software giant could buy to get scale quickly. Enter eBay. Enter speculation. Enter eBay as the acquisition target.

Sure, eBay has opened up its platform to third party developers. And eBay even opened up PayPal too. The eBay announcement gave me a headache–I hit my head on the keyboard after falling asleep reading the statement (Techmeme).

But eBay as a takeover target? Now things get interesting even though analysts are largely guessing.

To wit: Stifel Nicholaus analyst Scott Devitt says he thinks it’s possible that Microsoft would acquire a stake in PayPal and Skype (see Tech Trader Daily for the details). Devitt connects Microsoft’s cash-back programs for folks that buy goods through MSN have shown up on eBay. Microsoft also offers PayPal deposits.

Thin evidence of a brewing deal? You bet. Worth making the connection. Yup.

This eBay-Microsoft line of thinking isn’t uncommon. Bernstein Research analyst Jeffrey Lindsay makes the same point in a research note Monday:

We think that eBay could potentially attract a Microsoft-like suitor in the future, especially if performance in the core business fails to improve; this is primarily because PayPal or Skype could be potentially spun out to make the economics of an acquisition work.

Add it up and one analyst has Skype as a reason for a purchase and another citing the service as a spin-off. Bottom line: Microsoft is buying something–and eBay is a big something.

Meanwhile, eBay may be a better idea. Consider the following stats via Yahoo Finance:

eBay’s market cap is higher than Yahoo’s ($37.6 billion to $32.3 billion);
eBay has more revenue than Yahoo a year ($8.1 billion to $7.1 billion);
Forward price to earnings ratio for eBay is 14.63 while Yahoo’s is 38.45;
Quarterly revenue growth year over year is 8.7 percent at Yahoo while eBay is posting growth of 24 percent;
eBay has annual EBITDA of $2.71 billion compared to Yahoo’s $1.38 billion.
eBay’s operating cash flow is $2.84 billion a year compared to Yahoo’s $2.27 billion.

Sure eBay has its problems and is in the middle of an overhaul. And yes, eBay isn’t the display ad/search Google gap closer that Yahoo may be. But clearly eBay as a business is less worse than Yahoo. I always assumed eBay would wind up with Amazon, but Microsoft would be justified writing a big check.

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

Credit: ZDNet

Paul McCartney launches campaign for everyone to go meat-free on Mondays

2009-06-15T23:36:00.000+12:00

Credits: somewhere on the internet ☺

SIR Paul McCartney and his family were joined by Yoko Ono and other celebrity guests today as they launched a campaign urging people to go vegetarian once a week to help combat climate change.

The former Beatle and his daughters Stella and Mary and a host of stars want people to consider giving up meat on Mondays.

The aim of the campaign, called Meat Free Monday, is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the world's livestock population, thought to be a major cause of global warming.

VIP guests including Kate Bosworth, Kelly Osbourne, Lauren Laverne, Monty Don and Moby walked down an appropriately-coloured green carpet to the launch event in St James's Park in London.

Ono's relationship with John Lennon has in the past been cited in some quarters as a factor in rifts between the Beatles.

But Ono and Sir Paul were all smiles today as they posed together for pictures in the middle of a big group of celebrities.

Addressing his guests, Sir Paul said: "I thought this was a great idea. To just reduce your meat intake maybe by one day a week and this would seriously benefit the planet."

He joked: "My family have been this way for years - vegetarians, that is."

According the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, meat production is responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. This compares with an estimated 13 per cent from transport.

Sir Paul's late wife Linda, who died in 1998, was a noted vegetarian campaigner, and a range of meat-free dishes bearing her name are still being sold.

Ono, dressed in a sailor-style black and red hat topped off with an anchor, praised the meat-free Monday idea while speaking to reporters on the green carpet.

She said: "Give up one day and then it will be two days maybe. It's a very, very intelligent idea."

Other celebrities also voiced their support.

Kelly Osbourne said: "It's just an easy, simple thing to do."

Moby said the idea was about encouraging people rather than pointing the finger.

He said: "If I point my finger at someone, saying, 'You should be a vegetarian,' they're just going to get annoyed.

"There is definitely a risk (of) alienating people."

But he added that the new initiative was saying: "Maybe one day a week, consider what you are doing.

"We're saying, do this for your personal health and in the process you help animals and you help the environment."

Coldplay's Chris Martin, Hollywood stars Kevin Spacey and Woody Harrelson are among those backing the campaign along with actress Joanna Lumley and Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson.

The launch in the busy London park surprised and delighted tourists who whipped out cameras and mobile phones to take shots of the celebrities.

10 Things I hate About Your Business Plan

2009-05-30T12:27:00.002+12:00

*got this somewhere from a business guy ☺, if you know him, well good on you ☻

Turnabout is fair play, right? I’ve been writing business plans and writing about them for 30 years, so it’s more than fair that I should read a lot of them. And this Spring, between joining an angel investment group, judging two MBA-level intercollegiate and one campus-level business plan contest, plus my normal email flow off of my blog and ask-the-expert work, I’ve read more than six dozen business plans. So far.

And before I begin, the very worst plans are the ones that don’t exist. People think business plans are for startups or raising money; it just isn’t true. Business plans are for managing a business. You set goals and priorities. You allocate resources. You record dates and deadlines and budgets. The business plan is the first step towards planning, and planning is vital. Even though all business plans are wrong (and they are), they are still vital, because without a plan you can’t review plan vs. actual results. There are no course corrections without a course.
Still, back to reading those plans, and 10 problems I see way too often.

1. Straightjacket plans

All business plans are not alike. One size doesn’t fit all. What’s supposed to happen is that form follows functions, so a good business plan includes only what makes the business better. If you’re not dressing the plan up to support your efforts to raise money, for example, then don’t bother to do a document describing your company for outsiders. Do only what you need, and not one thing more than that.

2. Pollyanna Profits

The business plan proudly brandishes 40%, 50%, 60% profits on sales and the entrepreneurs congratulate themselves on how good their business will be. Not hardly:plans projecting making 50% on sales three years later aren’t showing me how good the business is, but rather that the planners don’t know the business. Nobody makes 50% on sales. You’ve underestimated costs or expenses. Go back to the drawing board.

3. Vertigo

I’m reading along and suddenly whoosh, the plan sweeps up into the air as it glides over all the details from a mile-high level. Just when I adjust to the new level, zoom, it dives back down into detail. I get dizzy. What’s happened is somebody’s so in love with one part of it that they relish all the detail in one part — often the science or technology, sometimes the marketing or sales, occasionally even the finance — and then they gloss over other parts where they really don’t know.

4. Potholes

Then you’re rolling along with a business plan and you fall into a hole. Different holes for different plans, obviously, because the context is so important. But a plan for seeking investment has no exit strategy or management backgrounds? That’s a big hole. Or the plan says so-and-so has startup experience and doesn’t mention when, or what company? Pothole. A plan for business-to-business has no cash flow to cover receivables? Big hole? A plan for consumer marketing has nothing about customer profiles or segmentation? No way.

5. What’s the story?

Business plans should tell stories. What better way to explain a business than to tell a story of how this person had that problem and found this solution? Make it come alive, make it real. This is especially true of the business plan for outsiders, raising money; help them see what you’re doing, and for whom.

Stories are the most powerful tools in communication. They make it much clearer than facts, numbers, or bullet points.

6. Hockey Sticks

A venture capitalist friend sat down for lunch one day, and told me: “I’m getting sick of all the hockey stick plans I see.”

I asked him: hockey stick? He said:

“Yeah, hockey stick. The sales line is almost flat and boring, but turns up wildly ‘as soon as we get your money.’”

There’s irony there, because investors want big growth rates. Flat and boring isn’t better. But the good plans have good reasons, documented reasons, for growth rates turning up.

7. All those Cs

Do me a favor: if there’s just two or three or four of you, don’t give yourselves the titles CEO, COO, CFO, and CTO. Sure, name a president and make it clear who’s in charge of marketing, finance, sales, and production. Lately I see business plans for companies with only three or four people, and one of them is “Chief Strategy Officer?” Doesn’t anybody have to take phone calls and take out the trash?

8. Lowball pricing

When the economists said lower price means higher volume, they were talking about undifferentiated coal, not 21st century business. Price is the strongest message you send about quality. High volume low cost pricing strategies work well for giant brand-name retailers whose names are household words. I like business plan that uses segmentation and differentiation to price for quality. Give the market a better product and price accordingly. Or, at the very least, don’t think that your small startup will sell more volume because it has lower prices.

9. Working for free

Before I say this, just for the record, I understand how you can end up working for free in the early stages, when you have to. You have no choice. You’re building the business. What I don’t get is those seeking-investment plans where young entrepreneurs boast that they’re working for free. They act like it shows how much they believe in the idea. What it does for me is make me wonder how long they can last without lives.

Investors don’t want people working for free; they want businesses that can afford to pay their people fairly.
And even with all the rest of the business plans, those simpler and less formal plans that aren’t going towards investment, put your salary into the projected expenses. Even if your accountant says your taxes will end up as draw against profits, show your salaries. Otherwise you give a false picture of profitability; you understate the real costs of running the business. That’s poor planning.

10. Dead Scrolls

What I hate most about business plans is how often they end up gathering dust somewhere. The become relics, historical oddities, or just plain forgotten. That’s a damn shame.

Business plans are supposed to be a step in a planning process. Eisenhower said: “the plan is useless, but planning is essential.”
I don’t care if it’s on your computer, or a blog, or if you have to print it out. Make it concrete and specific, and then follow it up. Review the plan, check the changing assumptions, and expect to revise.
Planning, not just a plan.