…I join Dave Winer in putting my hand up for a review copy of iCon. [here]

Tags: HTML, HTTP, IE, IP, it, Om, pr, review

If you are a Performance and Measurement geek like I am, this looks to be a new and possibly interesting organization — Apdex

Scott Haugdahl of WildPackets gives us his thoughts about it. [WildPackets is one of the charter members of Apdex]

Pete Sevcik is interviewed about it here. Peter’s paper is published in the Business Communication Review and CIO Today (complete with a call for folks to join the organization). [here]

Tags: app, application, ASP, business, content, HTML, HTTP, IE, it, measurement, Om, One, performance, review, web, XHTML

Stephen O’Grady describes “continuous partial attention” in this post. He notes Scoble’s decision to retire the link blog and try and devote more time to his life.

How much is too much? That is a question we all fight with daily. I currently have a half-finished Zen book, Beyond Bullets, and a long article out of the Harvard Business Review in paper reading.

I track 143 blogs…which makes me a lightweight, I know. But it is amazing how much I have learned and absorbed by doing this. How this has changed my view on things I look at every day.

But SO’Grady also talks about having times when you aren’t connected; where you can be free of the shackles. I read about folks who suck down a book a day. I am lucky if I can string together enough time in a day to read 5 pages.

I definitely suffer from “continuous partial attention”, a cousin of ADHD.

Even Steve Rubel is detecting the trend of blogging burnout. [here and here]

Tags: attention, blog, Blogging, book, business, cro, current, EAD, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, it, Om, Pages, pr, review, web

Via AdRants

Either a joke or a simple error, Amazon has listed a Viewsonic monitor as a computer having a 10GB chip, 2,000 DIMM, a 30,000 GB hard drive and weighing 14 hundredths-pounds. All for $2,312.95. Certainly, there will be computers that powerful someday soon but not right now. One reviewer raved about the “product,” writing, “This laptop is the bargain of the decade. 10.00GHZ of power. I use one to currently calculate the meaning of life, the universe and everything. I even caught it calculating on how to make the perfect cup of tea. The speed that this laptop can move at is nothing short of outstanding. Shame it doesn’t have legs though.”

Another one of the comments on this product.

I got one of these for the multi-OS capability. So far, it runs HP-UX, Red Hat, BSD (2 flavors), XENIX, OS X, AIX, AppleDOS, Solaris, DG-UX, Netware, Debian, Mandrake, CP/M, QNX, Win 3.11, Win95, Win95b, Win98, Win98se, WinME, WinCE, Os/2, NT [34], Windows server 200[03], DR-DOS, & BeOS, all in separate windows. Couldn’t load SCO - licensing issues. We also managed to get Lotus Agenda working pretty well; we dumped the entire Internet into Agenda and were able to solve most of the world’s crimes and determine who on the planet is related to whom. And we were able to use the included Cray Supercomputer Simulator (4 instances simultaneously) to beat Deep Blue and Baby Blue at chess, at the same time. Nice machine. But I think soon I’ll need an upgrade.

Tags: app, Apple, current, HTTP, IE, IM, Internet, IP, Issues, it, LAN, Mac, media, Om, One, PHP, pr, review, run, server, views, window, Windows

I am glad to see the 4th Estate re-invigorated and challenged to go get the story again. Since the end of the Nixon debacle, the media has been slowly sliding into the lazy habits of the well-fed and pampered. Now that the barbarians are pounding at the gates (an analogy I will not use again), the media is being forced to find stories.

Their will be an increase in partisanship and subjectivity. However, if you look at the long history of the media, this is not new. It’s just that there is a generation who has seen the rise of a relatively independent media, followed by it’s slide into debauchery and depravity.

I gained my knowledge of the behaviour of the media from the writings of Hunter S Thompson. Some will say that this is a bad source, but I learned about the pyramid, and other journalistic terms while wading through his vitriol and disdain for the mediocre.

For me, the newspaper is simply a bulletin board. It tells me about happenings, but rarely takes the time to do much else. The question is: what is the newspaper’s market? What is the niche that they are serving?

I can get all of the stories in the newspaper on-line. In fact, not just from one newspaper. And with blogs and feeds, I can get more detail than I have ever imagined, or am able to process.

So, I ask the newspaper “writers” and “editors”, why should I pick up your paper? Beyond the portability of your product, an advantage that is diminishing by the second, is there a sound economic reason for newpapers to continue to exist.

I am sure that there are deeper thinkers than I, who have considered this, and have deep philosophical thoughts on this. But, how do you convince me and my ilk, the iPod-wearing, laptop-toting, instantly-gratifiable leading edge to buy your product?

What makes a newspaper sexy? What about a newspaper makes me want to pick one up on a daily basis?

Answering that “I am not your target market” is no longer viable. Joe Lunchbucket wants his scores now to track his pools. Reviews are plentiful, and targeted; the local critic no longer can control a market. Recipes and home ideas? Please!

Is there a reason, beyond the persistence of memory, for newspapers to exist as physical entities in the digital age?

Tags: app, ARIN, blog, control, EAD, feeds, IE, IM, IP, it, media, Om, One, pr, review, views

As a consumer of SSRIs [here], this piece of news REALLY concerns me.

Antidepressants increase risk of suicidal behaviour: study

Suicide, depression, and antidepressants

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and suicide in adults: meta-analysis of drug company data from placebo controlled, randomised controlled trials submitted to the MHRA’s safety review

Suicidal Behaviour Caused by Antidepressants “Cannot Be Ruled Out”

Thanks GSK….

More. [here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here]

Tags: analysis, blog, cbc, content, control, data, EAD, HTML, HTTP, IE, it, live, Om, PAXIL, PHP, pr, review

eBay woke up. What a concept! A real person answering your e-mails. Now, of course, the downside of this is that the e-mails will be answered in Bangalore and Mumbai, and will still be from controlled response scripts.

But still, it’s somewhat of a concession from eBay that they stumbled a bit…and that the response to the latest earning results may force them to re-think their end-to-end response.

Oh, and in case eBay missed it, the “Lincoln Fries” were auctioned at Yahoo! Auctions…And JupiterMedia is talking about alternatives to eBay. [here]

Re-invention is a wonderful thing. And the response from the community is likely to be…when will eBay begin encouraging its leaders and evangelists to take to the Blogosphere?

A Message from Bill Cobb

Since becoming the President of eBay North America in December, I’ve spent a lot of time listening to you, our Community. There’s a lot on your minds right now. I’ve been taking it all in and thinking hard about how we can make sure eBay remains a fun, safe place to trade, and a prosperous home for our many dedicated sellers.

One of the issues I’ve heard a lot about is our recent fee increases, particularly the increase in Store Inventory Format final value fees. I’ve also heard concerns about customer support, the amount of change we make to the site on a regular basis, and trust and safety. We’re listening to everything you have to say.

eBay has become a hugely successful marketplace as a result of the innovation, enthusiasm and hard work of our Community. The site has also become more complex as it has grown to meet many of your needs. So our challenge is to keep pace with the Community’s changing requirements, while preserving the things that make eBay so special. With that in mind, I’d like to give you a preview of some upcoming changes for the United States and Canada.

eBay has a fantastic Customer Support team, but Meg and I agree we haven’t invested enough in giving our CS reps the flexibility and tools they need to really take care of you. So, to start, within the next 90 days, we’ll shut down most of our automated email responses. Our users will get a “real” e-mail response to their questions - you’ll hear from a human being who will try to help you with your problem or question right off the bat. We will only use auto responses to acknowledge receipt of spam or policy violation reports.

We also think the time has come to expand phone support. Currently phone support is available only to Silver, Gold, Platinum and Titanium PowerSellers. Starting April 1, all eBay Stores owners also will have access to phone support. We’ll provide details on the benefits of phone support to Stores owners soon.

We know pricing is a critical issue for our sellers. While we stand behind our decision to increase final value fees on Store Inventory Format listings - because they make sense for items that list with insertion fees of two cents - I know this increase has been difficult for some of our sellers. To reward our eBay Stores sellers, we’ll be crediting $15.95 - a month’s Basic Stores subscription - in May to all sellers who operated an eBay Store for the month of April. Stores owners will receive more details on this soon.

We also want to do something for the rest of our sellers. I’m happy to announce that effective at midnight tonight, eBay.com and eBay.ca will reduce minimum insertion fees for Auction-Style listings, Fixed Price, Motors Non-Vehicle and B&I non-Capital Equipment Categories from 30 cents to 25 cents (CA$0.35 to CA$0.30). eBay Germany has always used this pricing, and users there have benefited from higher conversion rates on items with lower starting bids.

One of the great things about eBay is the candor and passion of our Community. Your input keeps this company focused on what’s right and important. Later this month, I’ll be hosting an online meeting to hear more from you. You’ll see more details on the Announcement Board soon. And I’ll periodically post notes like this one to talk about issues of importance to all of us.

eBay has never stopped listening to our users and we never will. I know many of you already have Meg’s e-mail address and frequently send her messages about things you care about. I hope you will do the same with me. My e-mail address is billcobb@ebay.com. I promise I’ll read every e-mail. And most of all, I’ll listen.

Sincerely,

Bill Cobb
President
eBay North America

Tags: API, app, blog, Canada, community, control, conversion, critical, current, EAD, Germany, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, IP, Issues, it, media, North America, Om, One, online, pr, president, review, spam, United States, users, web, Yahoo!

Just before bed, I had to add this.

Obviously, this person has not seen this.

Would love to see his updated review!

Tags: blog, HTML, HTTP, IE, IP, Mac, Om, PHP, review, update, web

Read this. You will understand.

I have been lucky to be on the good side of performance reviews for most of my career. And, when I don’t have to deal with them every single hour of every single day, I lavish instense attention on those customers that I speak with, write to, and meet with. I treat them as though they are the only customer I have at that moment.

But the other side of the coin is that the customer has to give me 100%. I have been learning that there are some customers you can’t help because they are not ready to be helped. The hard part for me is learning to say no.

Tags: attention, customers, EAD, HTML, HTTP, IE, it, Om, performance, review, the other, users, views

Just read an article in the dead-tree version of the Web Host Industry Review on Monitoring Performance. Interesting quotes in the article on why it is good for setting SLAs. My former employer is also mentioned.

Fair enough. But, SLAs are only one aspect. How do these solutions help you improve and more effectively manage your Web performance?

No discussion of that. Oh well. Maybe people wil get it eventually.

File Under: Web Performance, Performance Monitoring, performance, Web Hosting

Tags: ASP, EAD, HTTP, IE, IM, it, Om, One, performance, pr, review, Technorati, web, Web Performance