Yald - Patrick Grote's Technology Notes - Technology

Freeware in out board that is web based

Patrick Grote — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:00:41 -0500

Today I began rolling out the transparency thoughts to the managers on my team. One of the things that caused concern was the in out board idea. I had to explain a few things concerning my concept for the in out board:

It's not micromanagement: The goal isn't to micro manage the technician's time nor is it to prove when someone worked. It's about enhancing our customer's trust and allowing them to understand the ebb and flow of our daily work. I made a mistake in the way I brought it to the team, but I was very quickly able to see my error.

Crunchbase has a spam problem

Patrick Grote — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:28:23 -0500

TechCrunch is great and their resource of CrunchBase is a great way to follow the life of a Web 2.0 company. Mike Arrington really found a great way of tracking these things. I've noticed lately that some of the companies are gathering spam as part of the user review process.

The user review process of CrunchBase allows people to enter their own thoughts of the services listed. It's an attempt to capture user generated content that is helpful to other people. While the Crunchbase spam problem hasn't moved to cesspool level yet, it has become more and more aggressive.

Copyblogger gets the Hire a Helper makeover wrong

Patrick Grote — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:56:50 -0400

Copyblogger is an excellent site that looks at copywriting skills for online ventures. Recently, they featured a makeover for a site called Hire a Helper. The makeover was limited to the landing page only, and it featured some good suggestions. The funny thing is that the makeovers were not from the perspective of someone wanting to actually use the site.

Here is what Copyblogger missed:

Look at all open requests: When I go to a site like this I want to get a feel for how busy it is. I'm not going to waste my time with a site that isn't attracting service providers. Look at Rent a Coder and you'll see what I mean on the right hand side. When I get into a site like this I can instantly see I won't be wasting my time.

How to copy website pages

Patrick Grote — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 19:38:00 -0400

The internet is an amazing system. One of the chief reasons it works is that there is a collective trust that people extend to one another. Driving is like this. You trust that others on the road no how to operate their vehicles, that they don't want to run into you and that paying attention to your own driving is important.

On the internet many of those things come into play, but there are times when people break that trust. One of the more unfortunate things is when people copy website pages that aren't their own. Each of us that adds to this collective called the internet should be able to stake ownership to our creations. Unfortunately, there are people out there who simply scrape this content, check the display and tack ads onto it.

Scraper site screenshot

Patrick Grote — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 19:26:43 -0400

How Stuff Works original page

Patrick Grote — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 19:20:59 -0400

Challenges faced when using a wiki for a knowledgebase

Patrick Grote — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 10:01:35 -0400

We're over a year into using a wiki as our knowledgebase. We have over 2,400 pages in our knowledgebase now, and we're working to finish porting over the rest of our articles from the former, forum driven, knowledgebase.

We have three teams in three different parts of the country hitting the wiki all the time. We use it as our primary distribution point for presentations and file, as well as making sure that project updates and status reports are completed. If you think about what you can do with a wiki, we've probably tried it all.

Microsoft's killer application for Surface should be porn

Patrick Grote — Wed, 30 May 2007 08:09:16 -0400

Microsoft unveiled their Surface platform early this morning. I don't think I've been more excited about a technology since the internet. It brings a whole new way of interacting with your data that is the next step in the evolution of interfaces.

Popular Mechanics has a great behind the scenes look where they show off the touch screen and some of the data control you can do with it.

The plans are to roll this out to T-Mobile, Sheraton and Harrah's. Each are good ways of showing of connectivity, guest relations and pleasure, but the real killer application for this is porn.

Why I am concerned about Windows Vista early adoption

Patrick Grote — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 22:23:50 -0500

Windows Vista was years in the making, and it's about to be released to consumers. I haven't really gotten excited about it. When Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT and Windows XP was released I was pumped. Playing around with early betas showed me the differences and why it was important to upgrade. With Windows Vista I could care less.

An early review from Walt Mosberg of the Wall Street Journal really sums up my feelings about Windows Vista:

Did Yahoo sign a deal with Getty Images

Patrick Grote — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 22:06:47 -0500

An odd thing happened when I was looking at sports photos in Yahoo. The associated press and reuters photos disappeared. You can see for yourself that only Getty Images are shown. Typically, you would see a photo stream from associated press, reuters and Getty Images.

After poking around a little more, I did see where associated press and reuters photos still appear on Yahoo, but they are outside the normal photo stream.