Scobleizer Weblog

Daily link Saturday, June 11, 2005

Are you a European blogger? Loic is looking for help in building a European weblog wiki for a session he's giving this afternoon. Looks like it'll be a good resource.

7:24:27 AM    comment 

Rick Segal has been doing some very interesting blogging from the Reboot conference. Here he handed his Tablet PC to Hugh Macleod (the guy who draws cartoons on the back of business cards) and Hugh did his first TabletToon.

Yeah, we should get him a Tablet PC.

6:27:27 AM    comment 

Loic Le Meur caught me talking with Nokia's Christian Lindholm at the Reboot conference yesterday. Heh, Christian and I were joking about merging our two companies. Yes, this is how rumors start. Don't worry, we're not.

Christian is extremely smart -- one of the most interesting people I've ever met. At lunch yesterday he talked to me about Nokia's latest phones and what he sees happening in music, podcasting, and RSS aggregators. He was responsible for Nokia's series 60 phones and runs their LifeBlogs.

I'd hire him in an instant.

Steve Jobs should spend time worrying about Christian and Nokia. Christian's plans are to go after the portable media/music market and the portable camera phone markets -- all at once. He wants a Nokia phone to be the only thing in your pocket and he doesn't have Steve Jobs' aversion to video.

The phone he was showing me, by the way, had a 4GB hard drive built in, a 2 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens.

Hmmm, I gotta go and ask the SmartPhone team what they have to say about that.

5:17:48 AM    comment 

Alex King announces a new RSS aggregator: FeedLounge. Very cool. Nice use of AJAX technology. Works like Bloglines on steroids. Requires the Firefox browser.

4:25:25 AM    comment 

Technorati has a new beta. Nice looking. Here's the Reboot page.

You know, I've always wondered what the business model is for Technorati. Here's one: time-based advertising.

See, Technorati is all about stuff that's newer than Google has access to.

So, why not completely change the advertising model? Google brings you ads about things that aren't time oriented. Search Google for digital cameras and you find ads for camera stores and camera companies.

But, search Technorati for stuff and you find out what is going on RIGHT NOW. So, why not ads like this:

ADVERTISEMENT -- $.50 off of BigMac. Bring this code into any San Francisco-based McDonalds in before 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 11, 2005 and you'll get $.50 off of a Big Mac.

Now, hook Technorati up with a Map service like that Switzerland one I linked to the other day. Hook in a new time-based advertising service.

NOW you have something really interesting, no?

Hmmm, maybe I should write up a business plan.

4:11:05 AM    comment 

Doc Searls has links to all sorts of Reboot stuff, including links to other bloggers who wrote about my talk and his at Reboot.

4:00:11 AM    comment 

Gretchen Ledgard took a risk and exposed some problems inside Microsoft's recruiting department (and got Slashdotted, and written up on News.com in the process). Kudos Gretchen! Why? Because the way you improve a company is by putting its problems out on the table where we all can work on fixing them.

I so so so prefer working at a company that's always trying to improve itself than one that just wants to present a happy face and hide from its problems.

Gretchen, I'm glad you're watching our front door (she's in the hiring department and is one of the first faces that potential employees see).

Gretchen, changing company culture is not easy. Anyone who thinks it is should put their own careers in risk and live in Gretchen's shoes for a day or two.

Gretchen, very few people can say they've changed a major company. You have. Many times. Kudos!

I hope every Microsoft employee reads her original post, titled The talent landscape, and why I'm ready to lose it and works to improve things that she exposes.

3:42:29 AM    comment 

Last night at Reboot Plazes was shown off and they announced a few new features. Lots of people have emailed me this already, so know it's making its way through the networks. I got a short demo. Lots of fun things to do on it, it's very cool. Marketing copy says: Plazes is the first global location-aware interaction and geo-information system, connecting you with the people and Plazes in your area and all over the world.

3:30:16 AM    comment 

Robert X. Cringley's opinion piece on Apple trying to dethrone Microsoft has made a stir at Reboot. His point? That Apple and Intel are merging.

I've gotten a few emails asking what I think. Sorry, I'm on vacation and I've been drinking too much beer to have a cogent thought this morning.

My first reaction is: interesting theory. I guess I'll have to keep my resume ready and convince Steve Jobs that blogging is OK. Heh.

3:24:27 AM    comment 

A note to Steve Rubel, in reaction to his post about a UPS executive's remarks: it's worse than it appears. Yeah, UPS's director of interactive communications, takes a swing at blogs.

But, here's the rub: UPS is #1 on a Google search for "Shipping."

So, let's try a fun little meme. Let's link to FedEx with the word "Shipping" in the link. Like this: shipping.

Let's help Robert Manning, the UPS executive, see the business value in joining into the blog world instead of fighting it. Let's link to his competitor and see if we can move FedEx up the Google list.

Update: my readers have convinced me this is a juvenile thing to do. So, I'm striking it out.

2:56:25 AM    comment 

Lots of news in the Longhorn shell world is coming through my aggregator. Mary Jo Foley's report. Lee Holmes has a Monad blog here.

2:49:24 AM    comment 

New York Daily News: Nerds make better lovers.

:-)

2:42:35 AM    comment 

I'm in Malthe Sigurdsson's talk at the Reboot conference. He's the brand guy for Skype. He joked around when I asked him about the Yahoo rumor, as reported on Engadget. He did say, however, that it's his personal opinion that right now is not a good time to sell out to a bigger company (if ever).

2:34:29 AM    comment 

Scott Hanselman has a cool list of 10 useful tools for .NET developers.

2:12:50 AM    comment 

June 2005
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
      1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30    
May   Jul

Blogroll
(On Bloglines)
Blogroll
(From NewsGator)
Photoblog
(On TextAmerica)
Naked Conversations
(Book blog)
Main Feed
Link Blog
Microsoft's Channel9
Comment Feed
Referer Page


Click here to visit the Radio UserLand website.

Click to see the XML version of this web page.


© Copyright 2005
Robert Scoble
rscoble@microsoft.com
My cell phone: 425-205-1921
Are you with the press?
Last updated:
7/1/2005; 3:37:22 PM.

Robert Scoble works at Microsoft (title: technical evangelist). Everything here, though, is his personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is posted. No warranties or other guarantees will be offered as to the quality of the opinions or anything else offered here.


Be the first to comment! Free real-time blog alerts via MSN Messenger, mobile, or email.
Technorati search


PDC'05 - Developer Powered