After 3+ years in the trenches on the topic of local + online content and advertising at Judy’s Book, I’m fascinated by the possibilities for what Alex Iskold has called “Life Digital“, a location-specific data and functionality overlay on our physical lives. (I imagine it as an invisible location grid sitting over the entire earth, continue…
Like any couple that’s been together a while, my wife and I have a large vocabulary of stock jokes and catchphrases that we use semi-ironically whenever we’re recounting a recent experience that fits a familiar pattern. One of my favorites is: “The Internet Rules!” used triumphantly (usually by me) whenever we use the Web to continue…
This isn’t exactly the kind of question I was expecting, but hey, it’s the first (and only) one I’ve received so far via my new question button, so here you go: Q: Chris – I just came upon your blog from another source, and tried to subscribe using Newsgator Online, but it says that the continue…
I’ve just created a new sidebar widget that showcases my (extremely limited) technical skills. Just below my photo on the right you’ll notice a blue rectangle that reads “Ask Me a Question”. Clicking on this launches a mailto: (assuming you have a local mail client configured), routing any resulting messages to a Gmail account I continue…
I love words. When I was in college one of my favorite procrastination methods was to grab a random volume of the OED off the shelf and flip through it, following each word back in time from its current meaning to its etymology and first appearance in print (a magical feat of research that still continue…
I’ve been thinking about new business ideas recently and a phrase from early in my work life keeps popping into my head. The speaker was Jim Barksdale, who ran what became AT&T Wireless after the McCaw Cellular empire was acquired by AT&T. (I worked for a McCaw-funded project called Claircom Communications in the early 1990’s, continue…
As a part of the Judy’s Book wind-down process our core management group (Andy, myself, Dave, Rahul and Erin) did a debrief on our mistakes and lessons learned from the past three years. The full list was too long to cover in one post (if you’re curious, Andy’s been blogging some of the major themes continue…
I love to dip my toes into unfamiliar disciplines, partly out of pure curiosity, but also because I so often discover new concepts that shine fresh light on familiar ideas. Last night was a great example: My wife and I have just started to think about schools for our son, Parker. A close friend of continue…
I have a hard time living in the present. I’m always looking ahead, trying to figure out what the future will look like given what I know about today. Sometimes it’s a useful habit: as a relatively mundane example, even when I don’t feel like going out for a run or a ride, I think continue…
I’m a terrible stockpicker. On the (very) rare occasion that a I make a bet on an individual public company stock, I always feel like a country rube wandering the streets of the big city, certain that he’s about to be hustled but not at all confident he’ll spot the hustle when it comes. But continue…