All Soup, All The Time

Another best answer on ask.mefi!

soup — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:25:00 +0000

I don't answer many questions on ask.mefi but this response did get marked best answer. (Yes, I know I need a line editor.)

And yes, it is about something I'm an expert on--resigning. I've had 10 jobs since starting my software career in 1988, everyone one (except my current one) I've ended with a resignation. (I've dodged the layoff bullet a couple of times--as I like to say, the rats are the first to jump ship.) As I recalled my past resignations, I realized I followed my own advice--I once talked to the ceo about some job concerns, was told that those concerns would not be addressed. I resigned a week later.

Shortly before I left, the CEO backtracked and assured me that I misunderstood him and that we should continue negotiations. That move, based on the MSFT-YHOO talks, should be called the Jerry Yang.

soup — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:40:00 +0000

Often constraints or limitation can fuel innovation. Today, when you need to create a company or brand-name, you have to take into account the scarcity of internet domain names. This limitation, exacerbated by the practice of cybersquatting, has lead to some creative nomenclature: flickr, digg, netflix, google, del.icio.us.

I was reminded of this when I discovered muxtape.com, a web 2.0ish site that allow you to create an online mix tape. It's simple execution of creating a set of songs quickly became popular and the term muxtape entered into lingua franca of web 2.0. Had the mixtape.com domain been available to muxtape.com's creators, I bet they would have used it. But the side-effect of this limitation is they had to be creative and now muxtape is an unambiguous band-name for their service.

On the opposite side, some company's chose overloaded product names that may not cause as much confusion as demonstrate the lack of creativity. In fact, MBC pleads guilty here.

When faced with a company name, brand-name or feature name, use all the creativity you can muster to discover a name that both is sticky and unique and has a chance to to be an unambiguous term that will be associated with your company.

And here's a great example of a muxtape.

Whiskey Rebellion, Part Two?

soup — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:48:00 +0000

I was amused while reading Undaunted Courage that Pittsburgh was one of the flash points of the Whiskey Rebellion. With my fair city currently embroiled in a drink tax controversy, it's obvious that whatever is old is new again.

Reading a bit more about the whiskey rebellion, I found it interesting that the arguments against taxes that prompted the Revolutionary War were the same in the whiskey rebellion--except it was the newly formed US government playing the British role against the whiskey-drinking frontiersmen revolutionaries. And it seemed the US government acted without any acknowledgment of its hypocrisy as it attempted to crush the rebellion.

And it seems that the man has long, enduring roots of messing with your hooch.

Information Overload...TO THE EXTREME

soup — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:56:00 +0000

Boy, do I have some feed reading to do today...

[Yes, that's over a million items...]

Busted HTML

soup — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:31:00 +0000

Oops...in my previous post, I linked to what looks like (and I guess is) a site about [that little purple pill]. (The site is 32584 dot com.) Definitely a copy-paste mistake.

The site was a colleague's personal blog that appears to be have hijacked by pfizer. Or his career has taken a wild turn.

I can relate to this song...

soup — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:07:00 +0000

As my iPod nano woes continue, I take comfort in this song (youtube) (link fixed).

I've always thought that novelty songs must be witty and display decent musicianship--I think this song qualifies, as well as some of their other songs.

Another scary children show

soup — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 01:50:00 +0000

This time it's Yo Gabba Gabba from Nick Jr, including the phallic one-eyed monster.

Children Show Inspiration: Drugs

soup — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:13:00 +0000

I fell asleep watching PBS's Frontline last night and awoke to these creatures dancing:

Yeah, pretty scary wake-up call. And you can see them in full action here. (poor video quality, tho.)

And the Frontline show? It was part one of a two parter about the (second) Iraq War. And after watching it, I think the current administration should HOPE/PRAY/BEG that history deems them incompetent because their actions seem, damn, pretty evil. And yeah, I voted for the head ass. Twice. Proud. I'm not.

And I don't even play rugby!

soup — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 15:32:00 +0000

Empathy/apathy in Action

soup — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:52:00 +0000

There is a heated discussion over on mefi that seems to illustrate sociopathic behavior-although I can't disparage someone without the ability to show empathy for someone clearly outside their monkeysphere. To me, it's more interesting to see people that can clearly connect with people they have never met, will never met and become passionate about a situation that will never personally effect them.

To me, this situation falls into the "there is a lot of bad stuff that happens to a lot of people" bin that I tend not to think about all that much. Puppies are euthanized, children starve, old people die because they can't afford medicine. I'm not that concerned that I don't do things to help all these problems. But I am concerned that I don't do anything to help at least one thing. Maybe I should change that.

One of out Ten Software Developers are Psychopaths...

soup — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:12:00 +0000

If you have nine co-workers that seem okay, guess what?

Rickard Öberg writes an interesting debrief on the Zed vs. the Rails Community fallout where he identifies psychopathic behaviors and their effect on teams.

I agree with one of the comment to the blog that sociopath is probably a better term. And probably beyond that, we probably need something like sociopath-lite to describe people that aren't sociopaths but exhibit sociopath behaviors. Of course, some of the most successful (by some definition of successful) engineers and managers I've seen demonstrate sociopathic behaviors.

And I'm thinking maybe we all need to browse through a book I recently noticed: 'The No Asshole Rule'.

Free Wedding Photos!

soup — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:07:00 +0000

If anyone is looking for a wedding photographer, a friend of mine is giving away a wedding photo session. David is a great guy and an extremely gifted photographer. Definitely worth checking out!

MetaChat Card Exchange

soup — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 12:35:00 +0000

My daughter, under the nom de plume MadiAve, participated in the MetaChat Xmas card exchange this year, getting a dozen great cards from other MetaChat users (including two from the UK). I thought hand-making a card might be fun and after a round of brainstorming Madi decided on a picture of Rudolf on the side of a carton of eggnog. The message inside said something like "OMG Rudolf! Hope nothing goes missing during your holiday!" or something to that effect. Madi's cards turned out pretty good, and Madi even got a shout-out from one of her recipients! It was great fun opening the deluge of cards--each and every one of them were fantastic! This might be a new xmas tradition!

And may the holiday cards be with you!

Easy Web Screenshots with kwout

soup — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:03:00 +0000

If you need a screenshot of a web page, kwout makes it pretty easy. It's a browser-based alternative to snapping the screen and opening the snap in a tool for cropping. One important feature is missing, tho, the ability to annotate the image. (Like the screen shots on the kwout homepage, ironically.)

Merry Christmas!

soup — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:34:00 +0000

And here is a great Christmas song rendition I heard this year... (or at least part of it.)

we three kings (direct link to mp3 file).

Hi, I'm Soup and I'm an addict

soup — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:04:00 +0000

If I ever wondered how depended I am on morning coffee, I had my answer this weekend (with coffee out of reach). And that answer was A LOT. And if you look thru the answers to this ask.mefi question about simple daily pleasures, coffee shows up often. Looks like we're quickly becoming a nation--if not a world of coffee drinkers.

Hunkahunka

soup — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 15:41:00 +0000

The description of the photo shoot that resulted in this Bill Murray cover shot sounded much like the photo shoot in 'Lost in Translation.' After the shoot, Murray went to the roof of the studio and shouted at passing cars.

Thumbs Down

soup — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 16:29:00 +0000

Apples's Support of Java 1.6. Netflix's support of Mac. K-Mart Tea Pots. All the songs in 'A Year Without a Santa Claus" except for the Heat/Snow Miser ones. Irreplaceable iPod Batteries. Hunger. The BCS.

look! feedhub for snail mail!

soup — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:43:00 +0000

41pounds.com purports to reduce your junk mail overload. Well, I guess it's more like a spam filter for snail mail, not exactly feedhub. I definitely would sign-up for it if they could keep people from throwing newspaper on my lawn.

In Pictures: Bush and the Gulf Vets

soup — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 13:08:00 +0000

I generally don't like to post links I found on metafilter's front page but I found this link so extraordinary it was worthy of breaking the rules. But beware, it's not for the squeamish.

PGH: Home to famous Twitterers.

soup — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 10:23:00 +0000

Not until I found this was I aware that Pittsburgh was the home of a twitter celeb of sorts. iJustine has almost as many followers as Scoble.

Jumper

soup — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:41:00 +0000

What do you get if you take one of the coolest action movie openings and turn it into a feature? This.

Apple Employees the Pre-Cogs?

soup — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:09:00 +0000

Check out the order and ship date...

http://flickr.com/photos/johnnyfan/1803243729/

Private Equity CEOs=A-Holes?

soup — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:05:00 +0000

From Business Week...

CEOs who bring "hard" qualities such as aggressiveness, persistence, insistence on high standards, and the ability to hold people accountable are significantly more likely to succeed. Those who offer primarily "soft" skills that are often effective at public companies—like listening, developing talent, being open to criticism, and treating people with respect—are unlikely to work out.

Double Feature Suggestion #1

soup — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 17:21:00 +0000

F for Fake
The Hoax