Ok, so I need to clean out my starred items from Google Reader as they've built up over the last several months. Generally I star items that I want to share with you, write about in my blog, etc., but if I don't do a big post dump, I'm never going to be able to get through them, so here goes:
- End-user manifesto. Found on the Gaping Void, this is a multi-point manifesto that anyone who is creating software, web sites, and really anything that requires and ultimate end user should read. Certainly the post has a technical/software slant, but it is some points are applicable to things other than software and websites.
- The Chin. Seth Godin discusses how people that aren't used to using computers tend to stick out their chins while they are using them and how there is a whole generation of "Chinless" kids growing up behind them. Here's the one thing that Seth doesn't touch on: every generation eventually becomes The Chin because technology speeds along faster than the innate ability of older people to grasp it.
- Boot your iPod into diagnostic mode. I'm not sure that you really would ever need to do this unless your iPod is totally screwed up, but Lifehacker provides instructions on how to put your iPod into diagnostic mode. Repeat after me: it is not funny to put peoples' iPods into diagnostic mode to fuck with them.
- Robbie's Assembly Service. The Business Opportunities Weblog details Robbie McGregor's business of assembling toys for people during Christmas. Think about how easy it would be to set up a seasonal business like this with some of your friends, especially if you are good at putting together things from Ikea.
- The Tao of Warren Buffett. BusinessPundit shares some of the learnings from the book The Tao of Warren Buffett. I'll have to put this on my list of books to read. Here's my favorite one from the post: "What we learn from history is that people don't learn from history."
- 15 Lawyer Tips. Following his 15 Client Tips post, Matthew Homann at the[non]billable hour has posted his list of 15 Lawyer Tips. The list of tips is a worthy read for anyone in the law profession and some tips are applicable as simple business tips. Hey, Matt, you should submit these tips/manifestos to Hugh over at the gapingvoid .
- Tips for Dealing with Naive Prospects. Seth Godin has a great list of tips for dealing with people that are niave about the product that you are offering. The big takeaway is that intimidation is not going to win you business.
- Live Concerts on Lala.com. TechCrunch reports that you can now listen to live concerts on Lala.com, the $1 CD swapping service. How long until the bands realize that Lala.com has an inventory of their fans that the could sell live CDs to? At that point, you might as well cut out the middle medium and just sell live tracks to download. What's that you say? Selling live tracks isn't what Lala.com does? It didn't think that serving up live concert recordings was either, but they're doing that.
- OSXStartup Key Sequences. Useful if you want to boot from something other than your Mac's built-in hard drive or do other funky things when you boot up.
- FlickrBooth. A plug-in for Apple's Photo Booth that allows pictures taken with the built-in iSight to be sent directly to Flickr. If you didn't understand any of the last sentence, you probably don't use a Mac.
- Companies Making Holiday Donations on Your Behalf. Seth Godin details how Young Isaac creates its own holiday cards inside of which are checks for $8 that the person receiving the card can fill in and send to their favorite charity. Quite the novel idea.
- DIY Laser Hair Removal. It doesn't seem like it's been all that long since laser hair removal has been available in clinics and now it's about to be available at home -- the cycle of professional to do-it-yourself becomes shorter and shorter.
- Phling. Phling allows you to stream music from your home PC to your phone, which is pretty cool -- I wonder how long the carriers will let this operate through their walled gardens. Phling also has some social features.
- iPhoto2Gmail. Does what it says: allows you to simply send e-mails with pictures directly from iPhoto using your Gmail account.
- Zappo's 10 Rules for Customer-Centricity. If you've never used Zappos, it's hard to explain their dedication to customer service, but believe me, this list of 10 rules is a worthwhile read for anyone in the customer service business.
- MS PST Back-up Program. Your Exchange account usually only stores 50 or 100MB, which means that if you are not deleting all of your e-mail, you are probably storing it on your hard drive in the form of a PST file. PST files are notoriously hard to back up and/or forgotten about until it's too late, but Microsoft has released a free tool to address this issue.
- FLV Online Converter. YouTube to your iPod through an online interface.
- 22 Ways to Overclock Your Brain. Give it a read.
- 250 Free Office Templates. Chances are good that if you need a document template, you can find it here.
- True Cost of Being Overweight. Yes, the true dollar cost of being overweight can be calculated and Getting Rich Slowly has done it.
- Windows Local Street Level Views. You should really check this out -- it shows views of streets as if you were driving through them yourself.
- Kill It. Seth Godin points out that Google is shutting down Google Answers because it's not hitting Google's success metrics -- the takeaway is that you have to be willing to kill things that aren't working especially if you're in a business that releases lots of things.
- 7 Google Reader Tips. Sure, why not?
And now the starred items area is relatively clean for the new year.
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