Wii Fit Reviews

For Christmas we got our kids a Wii Fit. It's quite an amazing video game. My kids can't get enough. Here are our reviews:

Bud (age 9): It's fun. It makes you energetic and skiing is awesome. You can exercise without even leaving your front door.

Princess (age 7): It's really cool. Hoolahooping is really awesome. You have a piggy bank on it and you get money to get more games.

Tiger (age 5): Soccer is my favorite game.

Cousin Oshkosh (age 10): It's fun. My favorite thing is running. It sometimes hurts and you can trip.

Dad (age undisclosed): This is a great way to burn off all of the excess energy the kids have when you really want them to go to bed.

So there you have it. Our family gives Wii Fit it 5-stars.

E-mail Overload

I believe that communicating with each other has become MORE difficult with the advent of certain technologies. Is there a light anywhere in this dark abyss we've all fallen into?

For a long time now, I've wanted to calculate the number of e-mails I send and receive in any given year. So I just did. For the last 12 months, I sent 8,420 e-mails. I received 13,980 e-mails (not including all of the sp*m that ended up in my landfill account, a.k.a. Yahoo Mail). That means for every e-mail I sent I received 1.7 e-mails in return. Yikes!

Am I sick? Is everyone experiencing this amount of volume?

This pattern has got to stop!

It's taken me a long time to realize the benefits of IM. I know. I know. I've been a real laggard in the adoption of this technology. I text message like my thumbs are on fire, but the whole IM thing has taken some time to adopt.

However, today, when I had a server malfunctioning at a very inopportune time, and I needed to get a tech to troubleshoot it fast, I realized the true benefit of IM. [Tech geeks have used IM for years. What's taking the rest of us so long to widely adopt it?] With my server crisis burning, I was able to communicate quickly, effectively, and get the problem resolved without a single e-mail.

I just found an article written by By Anne Fisher, Fortune senior writer. She did a review of a book called The Hamster Revolution, written by some people that help "the sickies" cut down on e-mail.

Here are a couple of points that are sort of "duh" but it doesn't hurt to read them anyway.

Send less. Think hard before you use the "reply to all" and "cc" features, and use group distribution lists sparingly. By targeting your e-mails, rather than spraying them, you'll be more efficient and effective.

Quit boomeranging. Send 5 e-mails and you'll get, on average, 3 responses, most of which aren't necessary. If you eliminate just 1 in 5 of your outgoing e-mails, you'll instantly shrink the incoming volume, and save time on needless back-and-forth exchanges.

Stop - then send. Before hitting the "send" button, ask yourself: Is this information timely, topical, and targeted? Will it help the recipient do his or her job better? If not, skip it.

So, in short, if you need to communicate with me, please consider my plight.

He Tried It

I laughed. I cried. I'm glad he tried it.

http://hetriedit.blogspot.com/

This is a fun blog to check out: hetriedit.blogspot.com.

Useful Information for Web Developers and Designers

Here is another great site chock-full of resources: sixrevisions.com.

Here is a sample of things it offers to date, with regular additions coming I'm sure:

20 Exceptional Websites for Learning Adobe Illustrator
20 Websites to Help You Master User Interface Design
30 Beautiful Photoshop Illustration Tutorials
15 Tools for Monitoring a Website’s Popularity
6 Exceptional Web-based Image Editors
30 Beautifully Blue Web Designs
8 CSS Techniques for Charting Data
6 Tools to Help You Analyze a Web Host
30 Beautiful Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials
Useful Cheat Sheets for Web Designers

Lessons from a Mexican Restaurant

Five years ago a friend and collegue of mine recommended that when in Chicago I eat at a restaurant called Frontera Grill. I then got a second recommendation from another co-worker that this is the best Mexican restaurant north of the border.

As luck would have it, I'm in Chicago and the Frontera Grill is only two blocks from my hotel. I got there at five o'clock. It didn't open until 5:20. But that didn't stop the fifty people lined up to get inside for dinner.

The restaurant is in a very non-descript part of town. It's about six blocks off of Michigan Ave. And there aren't any big attractions nearby to draw patrons. Yet, by 5:30 the entire restaurant was full and people were waiting for tables.

So, how come so many people know about this place? Well, my guess is it's word of mouth. How else would I, a guy thousands of miles away, know about this restaurant and wait in line to get in? Especially when I have so many other dining options.

I believe the same goes for website traffic. Word of mouth is one of the three keys to web traffic: 1) Search Engines, 2) Direct Traffic, 3) Referrals (i.e. word of mouth).

Case in point: I dig through Google Analytics tied to my websites several times a day. I also watch my wife's blog analytics on a daily basis. With her stats lately I've noticed something very interesting . She has several friends who link to her blog from theirs. One of these blogs has gained dramatically in popularity, and in kind these visitors have found my wife's blog. Just by having that referring link, my wife's visitors have practically doubled. Why?

One could say they came from a "trusted" source. But many of these people were just "surfing" and found the first site (that of my wife's friend) through a search engine. Is that enough to make is a "trusted" source? Perhaps. Regardless, a simple link on other high traffic sites, will most certainly provide a new channel for traffic. I'm beginning to wonder if a linking strategy trumps a search strategy. I don't think you can ignore either, but it sure seems that getting your link on more relevant sites will bring fantastic traffic -- both in quantity and quality.

And by the way, Frontera Grill had the best taco's I've ever eaten in my life. If you happen to go there, tell them I referred you.

SEO Gurus

For the next 12 months I want to learn as much as possible about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing). As I discover great resources, I'll post them for all to see.

Here are a few that I've been reading lately:

Occam's Razor, written by Avinash Kaushik

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash

Bruce Clay, SEO expert

http://www.bruceclay.com/

Matt Cutts, head of Google's Webspam team

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/

Converting MSS2 and wmv9 files to mov

After weeks of research and e-mails to many different vendors, I've finally figured out how to convert an MSS2 file into a format that I can modify in Final Cut Pro. I'm still a bit uncertain about the relationship between MSS2 and wmv9, but there was a relationship in my files. I believe (and I could be incorrect) that MSS2 are essentially screen sharing files. Which would make sense because my files are webcast archive files produced with Citrix (Go-to-meeting).

So here's what I found.

1. You need to download Windows Media Encoder 9 onto a PC (it's free).
2. Click on "Convert a File".
3. Locate your original file and name your new file.
4. Continue to follow the simple onscreen steps until your file has been saved.
5. Transfer your file to your Mac.
6. Buy and download Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro ($99).

[note: Flip4Mac doesn't support MSS2 files yet. That's why you'll have to go through the Windows Media Encoder steps. In the encoder you'll be saving your file out as a wmv3, which IS supported by Flip4Mac which enables you to complete the following two steps.)

7. Open your new wmv file in QuickTime.
8. Export your file as a mov file.
9. Import into Final Cut Pro and edit as needed.

I'm continuing my process by squeezing my final files into flv using Sorenson Squeeze.

It's a relatively painless process, but it does take some time to do.

Just you you know, I've also tried to convert the wmv3 files to mov using ffmpeg on my PC and ffmpegX on my Mac but keep getting a bunch of errors. If I find a fix to that I'll post it as well.

The Final Episode of Seinfeld

So... Microsoft clubbed Jerry Seinfeld.

That happened much faster than I thought. My friend Eric brought this up tonight at a party.

The initial focus group results must have been absolutely dismal for the Evil Empire to have dumped him that fast. I mean, they spent millions on production for these spots. And they dropped them faster than the stock market. (Quick tangent: About 20 years ago I learned about short selling and was amazed that this was even legal. Today we learn that this is one of the main reasons our financial institutions are crashing -- lousy short sellers. They come in like sharks smelling blood. They short a stock and when the price falls, they profit. Over the past few weeks these financial stocks have been easy targets for short sellers and they have driven the prices into the ground. End tangent.)

So, should Microsoft have kept Seinfeld on for a longer run? Despite my initial reaction that they should never have hired him, no. They did the right thing. If they're going to keep placing media buys, they should get a strategy that works for them. I understand they are now going to attack the Mac ads. Bad move. They need to fortify their strong holds and play them up. Don't go on the defense. Stay on offense. Aim their cannons in a different direction. (Perhaps they should aim them at the Vista product division and blow that up first.)

Matt's Recommendation to Microsoft (Bill, if you're reading, take note): If I were you I would first try and find out why your fans love Microsoft products so much and then blast that message loud and clear. This should at least stop the slide you're seeing from your brand to Mac. Then, once the bleeding is stopped, fire your product development team. Hire someone that can actually read the marketplace and do some research on trends. Find someone who will create products that are easy and enjoyable to use. Then, compensate them in a big way to create a trojan horse product that your users love and can't live without (ahem...like an ipod). Once your users are hooked on this gateway product, you can lure them into bigger and better stuff.

Or, you can sell all of your stock and by Apple (NASDQ: APPL). If there still is a stock market.

I have a friend, Curtis Morley, who knows everything. He's a total braniac. I called him the other day about how to compress a .wmv9 video to a .mov. Within a couple of minutes he had a recommendation - FFMPEG. He also had a recommendation on how to navigate around the MIT-stumping installation instructions. He said he'd post these instructions in the near future.

I joked with my wife yesterday that if I knew 10% of what Curtis knows I'd be a genius.

Thanks Curtis!

Here's his bio (which is unaltered):

Mr. Curtis Morley joined Agilix as vice president of interactive development, leading the company's interactive development efforts around BrainHoney, a web 2.0 new learning community. Mr. Morley founded mediaRAIN and musicRAIN after emerging as one of the world's leading Flash experts, ranked second on Brainbench's Macromedia Flash Certification. He has subsequently been the writer of other certifications including the most recent exam. Mr. Morley has been the technical reviewer for Flash related books and continues to receive local and national recognition for his contributions to the Flash industry. Mr. Morley received the coveted Senator Reed A. Smoot "Entrepreneur of the Year Award" from the Utah Chamber of Commence. Mr. Morley was honored in both of Utah's Business magazines, "Utah Valley Business Q" and Utah Business Magazine, as "top 40 under 40" businessman an entrepreneur.

With a desire to spread his passion an understanding, Mr. Morley became one of the first instructors to teach Flash at the collegiate level. He has taught numerous classes in Web Design, Programming, Usability, Rich Internet Applications, Business, and e-Business. Mr. Morley has taught at multiple colleges and universities. including teaching in the Masters program at the largest private university in the country. Mr. Morley sits on advisory boards for several universities and businesses.

Mr. Morley has been honored with distinguished awards including a Flash Forward Finalist Award, Macromedia site of the day, and was deemed Webby Worthy by the Webby Awards for its web-based sheet music delivery applications. mediaRAIN/musicRAIN is one of only a handful of companies in the world that are Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash Alliance partners, and assisted in the development of Flash, by being on the beta team.

Microsoft and the courting of Jerry Seinfeld

So, I just read that Microsoft is hiring Jerry Seinfeld to pitch their products. Although I'm a devoted Seinfeld fan and I love the show (even in syndication), I find it odd that Microsoft would hire someone who's past their prime, especially since they are trying to "be cool" like Google and Apple. It continues to reinforce the brand image that Microsoft is still living in the 1990's.

Although it might have some pull with older demographics, if Microsoft is truly trying to reinvent their brand they should look elsewhere. When I was in college, I learned about a thing called Q-report that rated a person's popularity. Here is a sample of some other people they could've used that would have been a better spend for their $10 million:

1) That kid from High School Musical. All he'd have to do is dance a bit and say the word "Vista" and you'd have millions of 18-24 aged girls lined up at Best Buy.

2) Simon Cowell. He could call the spots, "America's Idle." At least I'm idle for about 20 minutes every morning when I turn on my Vista machine. (Can someone tell me how to speed this thing up???)

3) Elvis. He's dead. 'Nuf said.

4) Fred Flintstone. Ok, a bit cliche... I won't say anything more about dinosaurs.

5) Gilligan. Because you need a professor, a skipper and a millionaire just to keep the machines running.

So, Mr. Seinfeld, enjoy your money. I hope the gig with Microsoft works out well for you. But hey, if you look closely at that picture above, am I mistaken or is that a Mac in your apartment?

Business Card Envy

Here are some great business card designs I stumbled upon. Click Here. My favorite? The pop-up cards (#4). Although, who wouldn't like a tasty snack like a peanut with your phone number on it... or is it your fortune?

Apple iPhone 2.0 Download Problems? Cut Steve Jobs some slack!

I, just like 6 million others, tried to download the new 2.0 iPhone software on Friday. The result? I just about bricked my iPhone. Luckily I had Googled a bunch of articles as my download was churning away and I was able to stop it and roll everything back to my original state before things got ugly.

To quote my wife, "You know better than that! Always give it a couple of days when a new release comes out."

So, today (Sunday) I tried again. and voila! It worked seamlessly. Everything went just as Steve Jobs planned -- just 48 hours too late. But I'm happy.

Why should we assume everything will work out OK. Think about what Apple was trying to do. I commend them for doing things that are different than the rest of the digital world. I mean, how many of you tried recently to update new software on a 6 million revolutionary hardware devices? So there were a couple of bugs and you weren't able to call your office for a few hours. Big deal. Think about what Apple has done to improve your life up to this point. I think they deserve a big break on this one -- even though I'm sure we'll hear about it in the press for weeks and months to come (primarily from non-iPhone using luddites).

I find it interesting that on Friday there were about 3,000 hundreds of articles written about the disaster that Apple was having. But when I Google how great the new tool is I only get a couple hundred articles.

The moral of the story is this: if you want to have cutting edge technology that does cutting edge tasks, cut the inventors some slack. No one's ever done this before.

Pre-packaged or from scratch?

Lately we've been perplexed with something at the office. Is it better to find a vendor with a web-product that is close to what we need or develop the code from scratch and have it be exactly what we need.

There are strong opinions that could fight for either side of the argument. Here are a few:

PRO - USE A PRE-PACKAGED SOLUTION:
They already have some core competencies in the arena.
They probably have some sort of support structure.
You can leverage future dot-revisions.
They've already overcome a lot of the obstacles.

CON - USE A PRE-PACKAGED SOLUTION:
Sometimes you can't get exactly what you want.
If you want customization you'll pay handsomely for it.
Your competitors have access to it and you may lose your competitive advantage.

PRO - BUILD FROM SCRATCH:
You get what you design.
You can keep your competitive advantage.
You can own the code and make modifications whenever you want.
In the long run you'll probably save money.

CON - BUILD FROM SCRATCH:
You get what you design. (You sometimes don't have the wisdom of others who have crossed this bridge before you.)
You have to maintain it and support it.
You have to wait for it to be developed. If you need it fast, this isn't the best option.

I've had good experiences on both sides. It really depends on your personal willingness to design and manage the process of building something from scratch, plus the timeliness of your project needs.

I'm in the process right now of creating a webinar tool that is custom built for my needs. In the short term it's been a lot of work. But once it's done, it will be built precisely for the vision that requires it. (I'll blog about it another time.) Plus, over time as we make dot-revisions and add functionality, it should be an amazing tool.

Websites for Web Development

I just stumbled upon this great site on Digg: Websites for Web Development. It's a fantastic list of web resources that Jacob Grube follows. His goal is to read something new everyday to keep fresh on web development. Excellent idea!

Creative Juicer

At the office lately we've been debating the question of "what is creative?" We're in the midst of a major transformation of our organization and we have an opportunity to launch a refresh of our brand on our website. So, I've been researching a lot of creative sites and seeing who's really pushing the envelope.

I found this site quite appealing. I found it on Digg. It's a conglomeration of the simplest thing on your site: Web buttons. These designers have taken this often overlooked item on websites and and really done some amazing things with them. I especially like the illustrative look of the Asian-esque buttons. The time creating these must have been quite a commitment.



Another great site that I've been lost on lately is deviantart.com. Type "web designs" in the search bar and you'll get some impressive, cutting-edge design work. Some of the best I've seen. It will get your mind thinking differently about what your site should look like and how it should function. Here are some that I found appealing (click on them to enlarge):

My Mac

For years I did graphic design work. Every day I sat down at a Macintosh computer. Since then I found that my PC would run most of the same programs (Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, etc.) and I was happy. At least I thought I was.

At work I recently purchased an iMac so I can do some high-end video and audio editing. I fell in love again. I retained my PC laptop to do everything else.

You've seen the commercials -- the ones where there are two guys standing there (one representing a PC and one representing a Mac):


You can view them here.
They are so right on the money!

I'm now on the verge of giving my PC laptop the boot! I can now get my e-mail on my Mac; I have all of my Microsoft Office programs on my Mac; I don't have any of the problems of virus' and malware like that on my Mac.

My only regret is not getting the 17" MacBook Pro so I can travel with it. I just didn't know how much I was going to enjoy it! So, if you're looking for a new computer, take it from me, go with a Mac. You will NOT regret it.

Technorati

So, I've heard a lot about Technorati. In my quest to deeply understand blogging and SEO, I've signed up with them (it's free) to see if my ranking jumps at all.

Here's a bit about Technorati:

"Currently tracking 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media.
Technorati is the recognized authority on what's happening on the World Live Web, right now. The Live Web is the dynamic and always-updating portion of the Web. We search, surface, and organize blogs and the other forms of independent, user-generated content (photos, videos, voting, etc.) increasingly referred to as citizen media."

Technorati Profile

SEO Resources

SEO is tinged with mystery, intrigue, and an air of impossibility. At least that's what every web marketing firm wants you to think.

I'm embarking on an SEO journey and recently found this blog listing a bunch of great resources.

I'll report frequently on my findings and if all of those web firms I've talked to are just a bunch of liers.

Podcasts 101 (part 1)

At my current job I have to be quite creative with my marketing budgets and resources. I don't have a broadcast or print budget. I mainly help drive leads to our sales force through webcasts and in-person events. Relatively low-cost or break-even activities.

Lately I've been thinking about getting into the podcast business. I figured they probably couldn't cost a lot to produce, as long as I did the production work. So I've jumped feet first into this fun medium hoping I can drive more leads to our sales force. At a minimum I'm having fun doing it.

Because I've had so many people ask me how to do I've decided to share a step-by-step guide to creating an audio podcast. I'll cover how to post them to iTunes and other engines in another post.

Basically all you need is 1) a computer and software, 2) a microphone, 3) a host, and 4) a topic.

1) The computer and software:
I use a Mac for this but you can do this on a PC just as easily. Don't get sucked into the argument that a Mac is better. Granted, there are some shortcuts by using a Mac. I also use Garage Band, which comes free with Macs. On PC you can use Audible which is a free download and a great piece of software.

When you start up Garage Band, just select the Podcast option and you'll be on your way.

2) The microphone:

For a microphone I purchased a Blue Snowball ($99). It's a fantastic USB mic that is essentially plug and play. It produced great sound quality, plus it looks cool sitting on it's neato stand.

After I purchased it I realized that I needed to be able to do telephone interviews for these podcasts. I purchased a little device from Radio Shack that plugs into the headset of your telephone and then into the microphone jack of your system. But, it wasn't until this time that I realized I had a problem. To get it to work you have to have a mixer where you can plug in the microphone and the telephone device. So I had to give the Snowball mic to a co-worker and run to the local guitar shop for some extra hardware. Remember, if you don't need to do any telephone interviews, you can just use the Snowball.

I walked out with an M-Audio Firewire 410 recording interface ($299). A Sterling Audio ST55 Condenser Microphone with shockmount ($130). A mini-boom stand ($59). And a pop-filter ($69). I also picked up a couple of 1/4" male adapters for the Radio Shack device to plug into the recording interface.

The plug-and-play of the Snowball mic was sorely missed.

NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER BEFORE YOU PLUG IN THE M-AUDIO DEVICE OR YOU MAY FRY YOUR SYSTEM!

If you're using a 6-pin firewire cable, you won't need to use the M-Audio power source. Your computer will power it. Once youit's plugged in, plug the mic into input 1 and plug the telephone device into input 2 on the back. You're set to go.

3) The host:

Here's what I know so far. The better the production of the podcast, the more people will listen. I realized early on that I needed to find the best host possible. I have a good friend at FranklinCovey (Jennifer Colosimo) who I've used in the past to interview some big name people, like Jack Welch, she's really intelligent, and very personable. I contacted her to see if she would be willing to do this. Luckily she agreed and she's been fantastic. So my advice is if you're not a natural in front of the mic, find someone who is, or learn to do it well.

I've heard some podcasts that are so tired and boring that I will never listen to another one. Make sure your podcast has some life!

4) The topic:

If you can find a narrow topic to address, that's best. My podcasts are called "Greatness on the Go" where we help people improve their personal and professional lives through short tips of effectiveness. I have my host interview other subject matter experts on a specific topic (i.e. leadership, time management, building trust, etc...). When you save your podcast, make sure the topic is represented clearly in the title. That way when people are subscribed to your podcasts and they are uploaded on their iPod, they can see which topics interest them quickly.

I've tried to keep my podcasts under 30 minutes. They average about 20 minutes each. I'm able to get a short message about FranklinCovey (2 minutes), cover the interview (15 minutes), and have the host provide her "tip of the day" (3 minutes). I figure most people can easily listen for 20 minutes during a commute.

In my next post I'll cover how I'm getting these posted to podcasting services such as iTunes.

Tons 'O Design Resources

I just found this great blog post at crestock.com. It's a jam-packed toolbox for all things design. I've been looking for a great aggregation site for this type of info. It covers everything from basic design, to color, to graphics, to photos, to CSS, to fonts, to layouts, to a ton of other great links. Enjoy.