Deys.ca | Bill Deys

So I had a little weekend project. I’ve been on the whole local and organic kick for the past while and you can’t get more local or organic then growing your own! Now my garden isn’t up and going yet, I had to do a little construction. Why? Well a few years back we tried a garden. We pulled up sod, put a little divider fence in, got a nice selection of stuff all planted, and… Well we have rabbit, we have pet rabbits but, they aren’t the problem. Our neighborhood is crawling with wild rabbits, and they loved our veggies. Might as well have set a table setting out for them! We tried marigolds to no avail. So I build a 4′ X 8′ wood frame, 1′ deep and put a 3′ removable fence around it. Hoping that will keep them out. Now I need to get a load of dirt to fill it up! I am going to cheat this year and get some veggies that have already sprouted but next year I’m going to do my homework over the winter and get things going early!

My next step is to grab an old pool filter from for to convert to a rain barrel and plumb it up to the down spout and get a watering system hooked up! Pics of that when it’s in!

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Technorati Tags: garden

Who really wants to be marketed to?

We have things like TiVo to skip ads on TV, and ad blockers to hide the banners on websites. I think that is some proof of my point.

So why do people think it could be even remotely effective to JUST push ads on social sites? Really think! We don’t like to be interrupted when we can’t control it so we build new tools to gain back the control. With all these social sites the control is baked into them from the start. That is where the phrase “permission based marketing” came from. Users who choose to follow you are giving you SOME permission to market to them. Abuse the privilege that the user has the control to unfollow you.

So how do you get, and keep, followers. We first let me ask you a question. Don’t you like to support that guy you know in the shoe business more then the chain store that interrupts the finale of LOST? Be that guy you know. When you’re on Twitter don’t just push links. Be a real person, talk a bit about what you are having for lunch, about the hockey game last night. If people see you as that person, then you are that guy they know who is in the shoe business and when they go looking for shoes guess whose name will pop up!

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Technorati Tags: friend, marketing, permission, tivo, Twitter

So far the iPad is one slick device. The keyboard dock makes it very compelling as a laptop travel replacement. I’ve actually been using it that way at work for most of my email and a lot of blogging!

Spell check is genius. It should have been on the iPhone from the start, so much so that I’ve had it thorough a jailbreak for a long time.

It is however one heavy unit. That is part of the reason I still like my Kindle for actual book reading. I’ve found that after about twenty minutes of reading, while holding the iPad without resting it on anything it starts to wear on the hands and arms.

I also think as a book reader there are two other issues. One is that the screen hurts my eyes, especially in the dark. I’m OKay reading email and feeds on it, it the long term page after page reading of a book that gets to my eyes. It also does to much. Too many distractions that just are not there on the Kindle. I used to think a clock on the Kindle would be nice but I kind of like that it’s not there to distract from the mission when picking up the Kindle. Neither points are a big deal, don’t get me wrong I love the iPad. It just isn’t a book reader replacement for me.

While I was first setting up the iPad I did find the App compatibility frustrating. One app doesn’t work at all, some work with scaling, some are universal and some are iPad only. Just sorting it out is a job, don’t know how this can be made easier. I also think there are some apps that are not universal that are a rip off. The iPad version doesn’t add functionality but you have to pay, often more, to get a version that works. This isn’t Apples fault but cmon guys, give me something extra or make it free.

There are a lot of things about this thing that are just magic! It’s an amazing device in a lot of ways. I’ll be working on some write ups of some of the things I’ve learned. I can do a lot of neat tricks mashing up a few apps and other tools that I’m looking forward to sharing. Probably in the near future so stay tuned.

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Technorati Tags: apple, iPad

Ok, the title is a bit misleading.

This isn’t about how to get successful fast. It is, however, one of the keys to success.

Don’t worry so much about everything being 100% perfect. The key is to do something to your best  and if your are going to fail, fail FAST. Do what you think is right, measure the feedback and change as fast as possible.

It’s the fast change part that matters.

From experience in my daily business to special projects I’m involved with I can see the difference. In organizations that have the will and ability to change fast and those that don’t. The ones that don’t (or can’t) are not necessarily the ones that fail long term, they just tend not to have the same overall success, suffer more during downturn, have less fun and work on boring projects.

Iterate, iterate, iterate. It’s all a process of launching, gathering feedback, change and relaunching!

Be nimble, be quick and fail, FAST!

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So I’ve made a pile of changes.

First, I’ve decided to give the Nexus One a real go. For the past couple day’s it’s been the only phone I carry. I’ll probably keep it up for a week or so. I really want to like it I just have a lot of my life set up on the iPhone. I just figure I should give it a fair shake since I have the phone and all. So far so good, I’ve found a good set of apps to replace the stuff I really miss on the iPhone. The only thing I find lacking is a notes app that syncs to the cloud and multiple Macs. Got a suggestion? I do really want that Kindle App I’ve heard about and I’d be over joyed if I had the 2.2 update pushed to me! Oh, and I find I spend less time on the phone, just less to do. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, I can probably stand to spend less time connected!

Second, I’ve jumped to Chrome as my browser. Nothing against Firefox, I’m just loving the speed. Part of that move also means I bit the bullet and stopped using delicious for ALL my bookmarks. I’ve done the export and pulled them all into Chrome. I kind of liked having them all, or mostly, public but I doubt to many people actually used my sharing. The syncing features of Chrome seam to work great to keep all my Mac’s up to date, just the same as I had set up on Firefox, all I really want now is a 1Password plugin to make my logins easier!

Third. In light of all the privacy concerns surrounding Facbook, I’ve spent a bunch of time sorting out my friends list and setting group so I can pick who can see what. I removed a lot of people and cleaned up my profile. I’ve never been all that concerned with the privacy stuff my self, I tend to not put anything in networks that I wouldn’t tell someone I’ve just met over a beer. I think I’ve got it to the point where there is actually some value in using Facebook and I might actually spend some time there!

Lastly, I upgraded to the latest version of TweetDeck. I’ve always like TweetDeck and I think they’ve knocked it out of the park with this last release. With my cleaned up Facebook account in there and the Google Buzz integration I think I can better keep on top of the info from the folks I care to follow!

So, how are you improving your online existence?

PS: #GDLDN moved! We’re at Gigs now, info on the meetup site

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I run into this all too often. I buy something from you, or just as simple as sign up for your newsletter and I’m on your list. Some time later I decide I’d like off the list. Great there’s a handy unsubscribe button in the email. I think I’m all set but…

You need a username and password to “update your profile settings” to stop the email. WHY???

It’s always some weird domain to login to and, when you try and reset the password, that email takes a day to get in. By then you’ve forgotten why you even were doing it in the first place!

It shouldn’t be that hard to simply get off the list. Just removing that address isn’t  a huge security threat. I’m not trying to buy something without a password here. It’s just a list. There is more value to making simple options easy and accessible then one more address on the list and it’s not worth filters getting trained to mark your messages as spam.

Bottom Line, don’t frustrate your “customers.” You can’t afford that anymore. Everyone has a voice and they are willing to use it!

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If you’ve spent 2 minutes on an android phone you may have noticed that you have five home screens. The main screen, the one that the hone button gets you to is in the middle then you have two screens to either side. It seams kind of backwards at first but after a limited time on my Nexus One I’ve realized that its far better. You see it minimizes the number of screens you have to flip through to get to either end.

I’ve already set up my iPhone sort of like that. Eight screens, main is the third, two to the left and four to the right. Double tap the home button jumps to the search so that isn’t an issue.

I just need to find a jailbroken app that let’s me set the screen a single home button press goes to!

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Technorati Tags: android, iphone