Author: nchenga

Rant ahead.

I have an old Yahoo email address, where I keep (or better kept) old emails for reference purposes. Mostly for nostalgic reasons. From dotcom times. From 1999 or 2000. None of it mission-critical.

Gone. I logged into Yahoo Mail the other day and was greeted with a smug everything’s deleted message, asking me if I’d like to re-activate my account.

Granted. I only logged in once every six months or less. But they could have sent me a couple of warnings on the alternate email I listed.

It also shows that there isn’t much Yahoo-wide interaction, ‘cos if they would have looked across to Flickr they would have seen that the same ID is still in use.

For me that’s the huge downside of online apps: corporations decide at will what they can do with your content.

It’s happened to me before by smaller companies as well. My old blog disappeared into Nirvana. Cos I didn’t get around to downloading the data fast enough.

I just read Seth Godin’s post on monopolies:

Welcome to a new century. In the new century, we all have the same goal:
1. Establish a direct and positive relationship with the end user.

I feel that tech. companies are using “user generated content” as a way to build their business, but forget that there are real people on the other side.

Keep going down this road. And I’ll move on.

Jahuuuuu.

a favorite photoset is:

I See Faces by Dave Gorman

You still have 29 days left to finish up your 2007 New Year’s resolutions. Stop slacking.

slightly slanted cos the world is round

new word:
“VapoGurus” – People who seem to make a living solely by attending “2.0” conferences.

seen in Gapingvoid’s Twitter stream

I’m kind of busy at my day job and I didn’t get around to post my regular weekend post. So here’s a short blog post to say hi.

And btw – about 20 years after everybody else – I’m discovering Twitter: Call it pseudo-blogging for busy knowledge workers. Or a quick way to communicate my jogging achievements.

So far Autumn 07 has been great for jogging. The dry, fresh weather is just right. I’ve been running regularly in a running club (the corresponding German word is Laufverein) since last summer and I can wholeheartedly recommend it. I’m still a slow coach, and don’t have any marathon plans (gory details how toe nails come loose and fall off are enough to scare me off 😉 )

A couple of running tips of the top of my head:

1. Start slowly but be persistent. If you’re just starting out this means 1 minute running, 1 minute walking for about 1 hour. Extend the running period slowly from week to week. I’ve been part of several beginner groups in the past year and some people start off much too fast.
2. The bad news for our instant gratification generation: you need to run at least twice a week for at least four to six weeks to see any improvement.
3. Get some good running shoes. Don’t worry so much about the clothes. The functional shirts and running tights will somehow find their own way into your wardrobe. Plus running is a good place to wear all of those over-sized IT conference t-shirts.
4. There is a phenomenon within our running club that I can’t quite understand yet. When it comes to forming running groups, there’s usually two groups: a fast one and a slow one. And about two to five people that don’t want to go along with the fast guys, don’t want to form their own middle-fast group, and end up running with the slow coaches (MY group). Inadvertently making the slow group faster. Too fast for the newbies. Instead of feeling discouraged by the middle-fast guys, keep going at your own pace. Be self-confident. Know your true performance level. Say what you want loud and clearly. For example, tell the middle-fast guys to form their own group or live with the slower pace.