Word of mouth marketing

Came across a free PDF for The Word of Mouth Manual Volume II via Guy Kawasaki's interview with the author, and it's just brilliant.

"the recommendation of a friend, family member, acquaintance—or even a stranger—is a primary driver of most purchase decisions"

As I read that I remembered going into the beer fridge of a bottle shop on the weekend to pick up a case of James Squire amber ale. I'd tried a six-pack the weekend before and loved it enough to happily invest the $50 in a case this time around.

I was with my son actually, and as we went in there was another father and son about the same age browsing the selection. Maybe he noticed me beeline the amber ale, but for whatever reason he said he'd been thinking about trying it and asked me what it is like, what other beer you might compare it to.

As we left with our purchase I looked back to see him proceeding to the counter with a six pack himself. My guess is that if his tastes are anything like mine he'll be back for a case next weekend too.

Believers as a percentage of global population 2002

From http://www.rayfowler.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/map_world_religions.gif

19.8% - Muslims
17.4% - Roman Catholics
15.5% - Other Christians, Protestants, Orthodox Christians
14.9% - Agnostics, Atheists
13.3% - Hindus
13.0% - Other...
5.9% - Buddhists
0.2% - Jews

Six years ago, nearly one third of the world's population weren't sure, believed something else, or believed in the non-existance of any divine entities.

Tibetan Buddhism stresses the importance of empathy and compassion regardless of religious belief.

There's hope for us yet. For as long as we can maintain separation of church and state anyway.

iTunes - I want to love you, but you make it so hard!

Here I am listening to Groove Salad when a song comes on, Universal Traveller, that I remember wanting to add to my playlist. Legally. No, seriously.

So I hit up the iTunes store, find the album, and click buy. Reset my password (again), and verify PayPal as my payment method. Go back to iTunes, hit the buy button again, and am rewarded with this:



It says:

"This recipient requires that you have a valid funding source from the United States in order to complete this transaction."

WTF? They're a French band! Seriously, I'm so tired of trying to buy media legally and having it thrown back in my face, just to hear the recording industry crying about file sharing eating into their business.

Money created from debit - oil prices continue to soar

Just saw an article about Spanish hauliers on fuel strike where it says:

"The Spanish government says it is preparing a package of measures to assist the transport sector.

These measures include emergency loans, more flexible contracts and cash payments to older lorry drivers who are willing to retire."

The fractional reserve banking system just found more fuel for the fire:

In short, there are two types of money in a fractional-reserve banking system:

1. central bank money (physical currency such as coins and paper money)


2. commercial bank money (money created through loans) - sometimes referred to as checkbook money

Expect prices to get higher

Aussie taxi drivers

Some quotes I found interesting from a recent Triple J TV interview with some local taxi drivers:

"The worst passengers are people affected by alcohol. Like this clown here getting out of a cab in the middle of the road. I mean, he wouldn't do that nine to five. I'd much rather carry a junkie. People on drugs don't want any trouble. They just want to sit down, shut up, and get where they're going. They don't want to end up in the police station."

"I've had people shooting up in the car, that's a bit scary. I worry if they're going to drop off the perch. I just tried to make light of it pretty much, make a joke out of it and say "you watch yourself there". They're just trying to do their thing as I'm trying to do mine. As long as we don't come to grief over it, it's all good."

storage of information

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA

The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information

Some random (semi)inebriated thoughts on the flow of information and the futility of continued attempts to profit from it:

• Information subverts control


• Information subverts hierarchy


• There seems to be a relation between the increase in entropy and information - the less able our universe is to to do work, the more we seem to know about it


• We are ourselves products of the free exchange of the information stored in our DNA - limiting this flow of information, for example through in-breeding, has detrimental effects such as a higher frequency of recessive, deleterious traits


• Attempts to stem the flow of information for any reason are probably an anomaly


• This tends to suggest that ultimately all information should be shared, freely


• Secrecy and privacy are an illusion


• Information is not owned, it is only exchanged.


• Gatekeepers of information hold a precarious position - information by it's own nature strives to be shared by all


• secrets are just information that is temporarily shielded from de-centralised systems of information exchange


• Profiting from restricting the flow of information through controlled pipelines is temporary


• Sharing information freely is priceless


• Enabling individuals to exchange information freely should be more valuable than attempting to restrict it's flow to those who pay to access it (such restrictions can only ever be temporary)

Girls claim to want a guy with a good sense of humour...

...but always go home with his better looking mate.

This photo of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniac,



reminded me of this billboard poster:



(sorry about the crappy photo, my camera phone sucks)

My sense of humour is often remarked upon. Admit it, which guy are you?

OmniFocus sync to a generic WebDAV server

This in from Ethan Schoonover of The Omni Group:

Just wanted to note that we've built OmniFocus sync so that you can use either an existing .Mac membership or a generic WebDAV server (often much cheaper than a full .Mac membership). We've also added the ability to sync via a disk so you could also use a USB thumb drive, for example.

Yay! Now that's what I'm talking about.

Genetically pre-disposed to be susceptible to advertising

Testicles are proof! From http://www.nyu.edu/classes/neimark/evolution.html

...in any encounter in animals where advertisement is important--and that's very, very often--an advertisement is only believed if it's validated by being costly.

Translated into English, what the male is saying is, `Look how powerful a male I am, because I can afford to wear my balls outside my body, in the most vulnerable position. You'd better not mess with me because I am proving my strength and my ability as a fighter.'

Photo by 512 Photography - CC Attribution

BitTorrent for legitimate file distribution

Over 1MB/sec, with zero load on the software vendor's servers.

Cloud Computing

Was just thinking about how much I love cloud computing, and how some people are still opposed to the idea.

The advantages as I see it are not having to store countless GB of data on your own computer, and being able to access your data anywhere. Not to mention leveraging the huge computing grids it's hosted on to perform CPU intensive operations like searching your data.

The disadvantages I think are moot, namely that an active internet connection is required to access your data. To draw an analogy, I think it would have been like arguing against the introduction of the motor car by saying they're only useful wherever there are paved roads.

Internet access will become ubiquitous. The limiting factor is bandwidth. Using the motor car analogy again it's like the number of lanes limits the traffic bearing capacity. It will be a long time before we can store our entire digital libraries online, but for now I'm happy keeping my media locally, and my email, RSS feeds, notes, and bookmarks online.

OmniFocus gets sync... soon

From http://blog.omnigroup.com/2008/05/09/omnifocus-sync-its-alive/

Sounds like sync is already in the internal test versions of OmniFocus. I had tried messing around with Automator scripts and rsync to no avail. The first out of Omnifocus and Things to get full synchronization will be the one I'll start using again at work. It will most likely depend on .Mac membership which I'm disinclined to pay the $130 or so per year for.

Perspectives: contexts vs tags

I had recently switched from OmniFocus to Things for a trial comparison of the 2 main GTD apps for Mac. I have a purchased copy of OmniFocus, but was finding it a little frustrating trying to track multiple home & work related projects, and using it as a system you can trust to store ideas and someday/maybe tasks using only a single context to identify each task.

After using Things for a few weeks now it feels like a breath of fresh air. It's tagging system is very simple, but incredibly powerful. I love being able to process my tasks and quickly move a bunch to the Today focus, and then using the tag filter further refine my next actions down to either general work/home related tasks, or a specific context.

It also has a strong someday/maybe and scheduled concept. Tasks in the Someday focus don't vanish completely, but appear in a collapsed section beneath your active tasks. Scheduled tasks automatically move into the Today focus on their scheduled date.

I'm also loving the Projects and Areas features. Projects can have tags which automatically apply to any tasks added to them, but can also be assigned to an area such as Work or Home. For me it's more in keeping with the GTD definition of a project being any action that requires more than one step to complete. OmniFocus on the other hand left a lingering feeling of hierarchical structure makes tasks less accessible.

Anyway, there's a perspectives screencasts video for OmniFocus out that made me think how much it points out the difficulty in accessing tasks in Omnifocus.

Pictures in books

I can't remember how the conversation started. We were driving home from spending the day dressed as Ninjas, I think the place was called Iga-shi but I'm also equally suspicious of being completely wrong about that. At some point though, he asked "don't you believe in god?"

Misaki and I exchanged glances. I employed an extreme amount of mental effort to carefully time and calculate my responses, a rare occurrence for once as myself who usually lacks so much as an inner monologue. I said "Why, do you?". The exact words of our exchange have lost me, but it was something along these lines. "Yes, of course", he said. "Why?". "Because I've seen pictures in books". An interesting response for a six year-old who has never been to church, seen a bible, or been to scripture class. At least not in my presence...

"Grandma and Grandpa told me about Jesus, and God. They had a book with pictures". Another calculated pause... "Can you remember any of the pictures?" He couldn't. When asked if he believed them, he said he loves learning because it makes him smarter. Not what I asked, but an excellent answer. He instinctively trusts knowledge passed on to him from people he trusts and admires.

"Don't you believe in god?". What could I say, isn't it about ten years too soon for this conversation? "Which one?" I reply. Learning what I believe is of less importance than discovering the ability to discern right from wrong independently. The concept of multiple gods was new and intriguing... you mean there's more than one?

It depends who you ask, I explain. There are many people in the world, some people believe in Jesus, some in Muhammad, some follow the teachings of Buddha, while many once worshipped Amon-ra. Most of them believe that their beliefs are right however, while everyone else's are wrong. "I just go one step further - maybe we're all wrong. The important thing to remember is: don't believe everything you read in books".

I don't want to influence my son's religious views one way or another. Actually, that's not true, I do truly want to protect him from being blinded, but I have to trust that he'll open his own eyes in time and see, see whatever he chooses to see. I hope he never looses his child-like sense of wonder though, his empathy and compassion for all living things, and his joy and humor. If he has to learn from pictures in books, may they be photos that are true to life without any bias or opinion, that invite him to explore and discover for himself.

I don't fear answers, only that we forget to ask the right questions.

love, peace

East of Everything

It's rare that I switch our large LCD TV over to the digital tuner and actually watch terrestrial broadcasts, as opposed to watching DVDs or browsing the web with our Wii, but a couple of weeks ago I did. On such rare occasions I'll gravitate straight to the ABC or SBS, emulating the way your eyes are drawn the the center, advertisement-free section of a web page to avoid the banner ads while it loads. I don't even see them anymore, just like the commercial channels 7, 9, and 10 don't exist in my world.

The reward this time was a new show on ABC called East of Everything. Set in Broken Bay, it follows the stories of two brothers acting as the executors of their recently deceased mother's estate, once a tropical resort which has since degenerated into disuse. It really strikes a chord with me somehow, and I'm really enjoying it.

A couple of quotes:

East of Everything reminds us that whatever our past, for most people there is the opportunity to recognise something good in it, which we can take and move on

It's a show about characters in large spaces. People are trapped by circumstance rather than geography.

Ultimately, we wanted to create a series that was very hopeful, which recognises that there is a melancholy sadness about life, but there is also a fantastic joy.

The last quote means the most to me. Fortunately, it's available as a podcast which suits my viewing habbits.

Nan, dearly departed

My name is Mark. I'm Marjory's grandson from her son Barry. To her was I was always called 'Beet', and to me she was, and always will be "Nan".

We Four grandsons, David, Matthew, Philip and I are no strangers to loss, even from a very early age, but that has made Nan's passing no easier to endure. Now we grieve a source of joy, humour, compassion, and understanding that we've depended on thru-ought our lives.

It's hard to comprehend living on without her, but I know that what Nan shared with us so openly, lives on as part of us today. I'm also honored that my wife Misaki, and our son Tyler who is one of Nan's three great-grandchildren along with Amy and Ace, were able to share some of their lives with her too. We each will hold a part of her in our hearts always.

Nan once observed while Tyler was just little: "I'm ninety years older than you - you're two, I'm ninety two!". She went on to live to ninety six, giving selflessly to those around her, and will be missed by many. We will miss her good natured humor and wit, and her many stories from our youth. In many ways, she knew us better than we know ourselves, and could impersonate any one of us perfectly - when the one being impersonated was not in the room of course.

To live on without her, we can try to honor her memory though celebrating the love and joy the she gave, by making the most of what time that is now left to us. I'm proud and honored to have shared my life, my wife Misaki, and my son Tyler with Nan until now. We will think of her always with love.

Thank you.

Demovibes 8

From Demovibes Google Groups:

Hello, this is the Demovibes newsletter !

Demovibes 8 is now released, ready to be downloaded.
Here's the tracklisting :

01. Carlos & Norfair - Another kind of beauty
02. Irvin - Gamma
03. Gloom - D and B
04. Little Bitchard - Schooled in the methods of murder
05. Keito - Route 1066
06. Takomo - Projections
07. NF - Yellow rose of Texas
08. Amb - Emoparticle
09. Dixan - 80's
10. Reed - Dead ringer
11. Virgill - Elements (Willbe remix)
12. Kaktusen - Take a deep breath
13. Paniq - Barcode anxiety
14. Deetsay - Quarterna
15. Ronny - Debris
16. Blaizer - Starstruck
17. Neurokin - Tokyo
18. Moonove - Neja
19. Raytrayza - Weide 65
20. Looza - Exospect
21. Bay Tremore - Beats 2
22. Lug00ber - Out the exits

Get the full MP3 at : http://www.demovibes.org/dv8.htm

All the best,

Willbe
www.demovibes.org

values

I was just reading on Fortune where Steve Jobs speaks out about all things Apple when I realised what it is that I love about Apple so much - we share the same values.

Life is short, and too precious to expect anything less than beauty and perfection from how we invest ourselves in the things we do. That's not to say that as individuals we should expect to be perfect and never make mistakes, but we should strive for that little something more from ourselves.

Apple push the curve. They don't just make stuff to sell, they create things you can get passionate about, and passion is what drives us to not just do well, but to excel.

When will real estate agents get real?

There was once a time when lawyers were despised as the scum of the earth for their deceitful, contemptuous ways. It seems they may have been dethroned from dubious position by an even greater evil - the real estate agent.

Sydney city Australia is a beautiful city. Green and picturesque, with a booming cafe culture. It's also one of the most expensive parts of the known universe to own land in. While a re-enactment of the US sub-prime crash seems unlikely down-under, with interest rates hovering around 8-9% and average property values of over half a million dollars, it's definitely not a buyer's market.

In fact, the fallout of the decline in first-time home buyers has led to hugely over-saturated rental market. And the real estate agents hate it.

Gone are the days when they would spend their time romancing prospective property buyers with the promise of a sizable commission glinting in their eye. Today the average real estate agent is all but run into the ground opening rental properties up for 15 minute inspections, and attending vacating inspections as previous tenants flee in terror from how much their rent gets hiked-up between contracts.

All of this for a measly 7%.

They radiate contempt, exhaustion, and disinterest. It's clear when they arrive 5 minutes late to open a 15 minute inspection how much they loathe the work that will be created by the 30, 40, or 50 eager applications they will have to process for a tiny cut of the rent.

Phone calls go un-answered, emails get ignored, but the rent keeps steadily climbing up while the agents sit on the one month's bond paid in advance as a right of passage. Even still, the number of prospective tenants continues to increase, while the amount of available rental properties plummets down to 1%.

Here's a shout-out to Sydney's embattled real-estate agents: if your business card says "property manager", then prove your worth by demonstrating the ability to manage in a saturated rental market. Find your way clear to returning people's calls, or even answering emails with just a simple acknowledgment.

Or just kindly fuck off. Let the tenants talk to the strata and have them copy a key for us. Allow us to call a certified phone technician to fix our noisy line. Don't leave a bin full of garden refuse in the backyard and then refuse our offer to have it taken away.

Scratch the "property manager" off your business card and let us manage affairs ourselves. Let us send you a bill, or deduct it from our next rent payment. Don't treat us like shit from the moment after we sign the lease and pay the bond with nothing less than a bank cheque, lest your title as the new scum of the earth be forever associated with the lowly real estate agent.

Comcast suck balls

That's right, they suck testicles, short curlies and all. Comcast, and their co-conspirators in their quest to capitalize from restricting internet access are a bunch of soulless mother fuckers. Why? The internet must be unrestricted to all. But comcast paid people to cheer at a net neutrality meeting.

Fuck you Comcast, and your fellow would-be gatekeepers of information - AT&T, Verizon, and Time Warner.