Facebook is fast

So I finally created my Facebook profile and added some friends.  What's interesting is that everyone pays attention to Facebook in near-real-time; I got friend additions within minutes of sending the requests . . . from the same people that took days to respond to LinkedIn requests and have never responded to Plaxo requests.

Here's my take-away: if Facebook is important enough to important people (think C-Level executives) that they prioritize communications from Facebook to be important enough to instantaneously respond and react to, then I totally understand why Microsoft spent so much money to invest in it and why BlackBerry released an integrated Facebook app and why everyone is developing for Facebook.

Follow the link below -- if you're a reader, I'll be your friend.

Link  

Facebook logo graphic from AJC1  

Tags: facebook, Strategize, Ross+Hollman

Set up Gmail IMAP with BlackBerry BIS

If you use a BlackBerry and want to access your Gmail via IMAP, I found the instructions.  Follow the link below to the full instructions direct from Google (note that right now BIS will not auto-configure for IMAP access, so you have to follow the instructions until RIM upgrades BIS).

Link  

Tags: Gmail, IMAP, BIS+Gmail, Strategize, Ross+Hollman

IMAP not yet active on Google Apps

Ok, so I lied -- I logged into my Google Apps Free account and IMAP is not active.  Total bummer as I've been waiting for this to happen so that I could turn my Google Apps account into my master e-mail account; I have to assume that they'll be turning on IMAP pretty quickly for Google Apps as it is definitely an enterprise-class feature that will increase their competitiveness with Exchange.

Link  

Tags: Google+Apps, Google+Apps+IMAP, Strategize, Ross+Hollman

Gmail enables IMAP -- makes Gmail so much more useful

It's official: here's a screen capture from my settings this morning:

This makes Gmail and Google Apps so much more useful and is especially important for Google Apps Premiere as far as becoming a more robust enterprise client.

The link below is the Google Help page for IMAP configuration.

Link  

Tags: Gmail, Gmail+IMAP, IMAP, e-mail, Strategize, Ross+Hollman

Take your travel organization problem and make it someone else's

Tripit is a service that aggregates all of your travel data and creates itineraries for you.  The service is quite simple: you forward any travel-related confirmation e-mails to Tripit and it extracts the data to create your detailed itinerary.  You can add mulitple source e-mail addresses to your account to allow you to forward from anywhere -- for example, all of my United confirmations go to my personal e-mail while most of my hotel confirmations go to my business e-mail.

There are some other cool features that Tripit utilizes that I find pretty cool:

• Calendar Feeds.  Tripit publishes a feed that can be subscribed to in Google Calendar, iCal, Outlook 2007, etc.  You get to manage whether this feed can only be read by you or if you want to be able to share the feed with other authorized users; think about this in terms of assistants, etc.  Speaking of which, how much time does your assistant spend putting together detailed itineraries for you?


• Web Information.  Links to Google Maps, SeatGuru, and all kinds of other conextually-relevant sites based on the itinerary information -- a lot of this is stuff that I look up independently anyway, so this is very useful to me.


• Access.  The ability to access the itinerary information from anywhere with an internet connection is very useful.

Link 

Tags: Tripit, travel, itineraries, Strategize, Ross+Hollman

Fake Steve Jobs post on Intercasting

This is too funny -- here's an excerpt:

Here I am on the balcony saying, “Let them eat cake for the low price
of $299,” and what happens? A fucking blogospheric revolt of customers
who were perfectly happy with their elitist touchscreen device they
were smugly using just a week before to demonstrate their consumer
electronic buying power and hipness. And all of a sudden I'm the
asshole? What gives? So then I offered a store credit so these bitches
could buy a bluetooth headset or some other sort of white plastic
accessory or whatever. That sort of shut them up, but I still had the
other lawsuit to deal with. This time, I was named personally along
with my company and AT&T for “price discrimination, underselling,
discrimination in rebates, deceptive actions, and other wrongdoings”
all because I lowered the price because I was trying to be a nice guy.
“Other wrongdoings”? Can you really sue someone for that? WTF? “Yeah,
so, I am suing Bob for just generally being an asshole. Gretchen in the
cube next to him totally agrees, so I think we have a strong case.”
Seriously. They might as well add "mischief and buggery" to their list
of asinine claims. Welcome to my world.

Go read the whole thing.

Link

Picture from acaben.

Tags: fake+Steve+Jobs, Intercasting, mobile.+Strategize, Ross+Hollman

Big Lou's Pizza in San Antonio

Went to Big Lou's Pizza in San Antonio and have to say that it's pretty good.  As you can see in the picture to the left, they are holding the 37 inch; pizza, which, when I saw it last night, had to be carried by the waiter with both hands and be balanced on top of the guy's head; apparently it takes 2 people to actually make the thing.  Furthermore, there isn't a pizza box big enough to fit the 37 inch; pie, so it has to be eaten in-house as opposed to the popular 16 inch; and 20 inch; pies, which are available for take-out.

The dining area is very mom and pop with lots of old signs on the wall and the bar serves the traditional Texas-size 32oz draft beers if you're in the mood for that -- the bar area is actually rather small; most of the restaurant is a family-friendly seating area.

I had a 14" pizza with a couple of folks and it provided plenty of food for all of us at the reasonable price of around $13.00.  The main crust is good, has a little butter on it, and I believe that I detected a hint of garlic salt as well; the end crust is substantial and chewy with good flavor.

Big Lou's is certainly not on the main drag and you may even get a little hesitant about the area if you cruise up Ww White Road to get there, but take my word for it: it's worth the trip. 

Link -- Big Lou's Pizza via Google Maps 

Tags: Big+Lou's+Pizza, restaurants, San+Anotnio, pizza, Strategize, Ross+Hollman

Flu Shots

So I recently got my anual flu shot -- I've gotten it a few times at the immediate care clinic up the road from my house and a couple of times at Costco, but regardless of the location, I don't like the shot for a few reasons:

• I can feel every last drop of liquid that goes into my arm.


• My arm is sore for at least a day after the shot.  Yes, I felx my muscles and all that, but it never seems to make a difference.


• I usually get some sort of minor head cold-type feelings following the shot.

With the amount of travel that I do, the detractors above do far outwiegh the benefit -- I've done high volume travel without getting the shot and have been far more ill than the years that I have received it.

One thing to think about when deciding on a flu shot is the fact that the shots use a mercury-based preservative called thiomersal.  If you're getting the shot, or, perhaps more importantly, if you have a child getting a shot, you may want to read up on potential affects of thiomersal.  Some doctors have tied thiomersal to incidences of autism and one of my very good friends was able to actually reduce and nearly eliminate autism symptoms from his son through the culling of heavy metals from his bloodstream.   Check out the Wikipedia link below to get started.  Note that many vaccines, flu shots included, are available by request in thiomersal-free versions. 

Link -- thimerosal on Wikipedia 

Tags: flu+shots, thiomersal, Strategize, Ross+Hollman

The clock ticks for the recording industry

From the official Nine Inch Nails blog and posted by Trent Reznor:

Hello everyone. I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the

following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally

free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have

been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the

business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very

different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a

direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.

Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008.

Exciting times, indeed.

Tick tock . . .

Link  

Tags: nine+inch+nails, music, recording+industry, Strategize, Ross+Hollman