Chiperoni ku Basel

Category: General

  • Today’s link

    Stumbled across this – very high-level but might be a useful reminder. Esp. the remark “life is short” in bullet no. 5.

    1. Don’t worry about being perfect. There are never right or wrong answers to complex business decisions. The best that you can do as a leader is to gather all of the information that you can (in a timely manner), do a cost-benefit analysis of potential options, use your best judgment ”” and then go for it.

    2. Learn to live with failure. Great salespeople are the ones who get rejected the most often. They just ask for the order more than the other salespeople. You are going to make mistakes. You are human. Learn from these mistakes and move on.

    3. After you make the final decision ”” commit! Don’t continually second-guess yourself. Great leaders communicate with a sense of belief in what they are doing and with positive expectations toward the achievement of their vision.

    4. Show courage on the outside ”” even if you don’t always feel it on the inside. Everyone is afraid sometimes. If you are a leader, your direct reports will read your every expression. If you show a lack of courage, you will begin to damage your direct reports’ self-confidence.

    5. Find happiness and contentment in your work. Life is short. My extensive research indicates that we are all going to die anyway. Do your best. Follow your heart. When you win, celebrate. When you lose, just start over the next day.

  • Impatient new-media pundits

    Quote of the day:

    One of the things slowing tech uptake by the rest of society is that you new-media pundits get so impatient you have moved on to the next thing before we’ve had a chance to digest your last idea.

    via Scoble’s “Why I don’t use Google Reader anymore”

  • Intro to SEO and SEM

    I am faced with the challenge to explain SEO and SEM in a 1 hour presentation. The audience consists of business folks.

    Where to start explaining is the hard part.

    Also there are so many myths in this area – garnered by SEO vendors selling their services as a “Wunderwaffe” for instant web traffic success.

    As is typical at Chiperoni headquarters, here are a couple of ideas and a rough outline for my presentation.

    Ideas and links

    I liked this section of Derek Powazek’s recent criticism of all things SEO:

    The One True Way

    Which brings us, finally, to the One True Way to get a lot of traffic on the web. It’s pretty simple, and I’m going to give it to you here, for free:

    Make something great. Tell people about it. Do it again.

    That’s it. Make something you believe in. Make it beautiful, confident, and real. Sweat every detail. If it’s not getting traffic, maybe it wasn’t good enough. Try again.

    Then tell people about it. Start with your friends. Send them a personal note ”“ not an automated blast from a spam cannon. Post it to your Twitter feed, email list, personal blog. (Don’t have those things? Start them.) Tell people who give a shit ”“ not strangers. Tell them why it matters to you. Find the places where your community congregates online and participate. Connect with them like a person, not a corporation. Engage. Be real.

    Then do it again. And again. You’ll build a reputation for doing good work, meaning what you say, and building trust.

    It’ll take time. A lot of time. But it works. And it’s the only thing that does.

    ‘Cos it explains why you can have all the SEO you want but without personal drive, it will take you nowhere. It’s the content that matters.

    Within a larger organization, this personalized focused drive isn’t always possible and needs to be planned and managed carefully.

    Derek’s approach misses some aspects. As pointed out by Danny Sullivan at “An Open Letter To Derek Powazek On The Value Of SEO”. Many aspects that long-term bloggers learnt between the lines while trying to google-bomb their way into the top 10 are unknown to website owners and need explaining. (May I take this opportunity to remind my blogging friends that I am still the top hit for “boring flower snapshot”? Yes, I may).

    Rough outline
    Here’s a first outline, which I’ll convert into PPT slides on Monday:

    1. SEO – from directory lists to a secret search algorithm

    2. White hat SEO vs. black hat SEO
    Goodbye to link farms, Keyword stuffing, Cloaking, Redirects

    3. Myths and legends

    4. Technical Aspects of SEO

    5. The Google Webmaster Guideline
    Web developer must clearly have SEO thoughts in mind when building the site:

    • Title tag
    • Meta description
    • Keywords
    • Clear navigation structure
    • Readable URLS

    But this is only the basis…

    6. Writing for the Web and SEO

    How to get into the top 10 search items for a search phrase:

    • Technical aspects – is your website conform with Google Webmaster Guidelines?
    • Keyword research – identify 5 to 12 keywords that users will enter to find a service or product
    • Content – write copy that supports the buying process and incorporates your main keywords, see “Content drives action”. Write for people not search engines. Incorporate keywords intelligently. At the end of the day, it is people that will read and share your link.
    • Coherence – the whole site with its meta tags and content must fit together – in German we say the site “muss stimmig sein“.
    • Frequency – the Internet has become more dynamic than ever. The real-time web is here to stay. The companies and the technologies may/will change. But the concept will remain. It is like an ocean of data, seeping around us. Create a flow of articles, news items and events at regular intervals. To continue the analogy – offer a stream of data that grows into a river and forms a wide tributary when it reaches the ocean.
    • Outposts – Google decides how important a website is based on the number of back-links. Strive to get listed within your industry sectors leading websites and online directories. Publish articles at external news sites. Use online PR distribution services such as PRWeb. Build your online reputation. Links from non-relevant, off-topic sites will have no impact on your search engine ranking.
    • Patience – it takes time to build web reputation. No instant fix.
    • Old “traditional” media vs. new “online” media – don’t neglect one or the other. Use all distribution channels to make your marketing message known. But – an important but – read the TOS at Facebook, Twitter beforehand. Maybe your company cannot afford having its data locked in by some of the TOS we see these days. Just like with print, be aware that some new media may not be beneficial for your product or service.

    What do you think?

    Other aspects to consider?

  • Moving WordPress from Server to Server

    I found this video explaining how to import large MySQL using Big Dump

    And Yoast explains how to change the domain names here.

  • sunset



  • cook a lot



  • Marc, Macke, and Delaunay



    I liked this show at Sprengel Museum.

  • looking up



  • Rhybadhysli



  • Study weekend + Long walk

    I spent most of my weekend working and discussing my MBA homework.

    Learning about:

    • the exchange equation
    • money supply
    • the monetarists’ first and second proposition
    • the cause of inflation
    • incremental cash costs
    • motivating employees – “interesting work” seems to be a universal motivator

    This afternoon I went for a long walk up to St. Chrischona (522 m. above sea level). Lots of bikers and hikers and joggers and nordic walkers were out there as well. There are some beautiful wheat fields. Need to go back with a camera

    Watching youtube videos on Milton Friedman that @lotm sent me.

  • Wasser



  • Blogging is Dead. Long Live Blogging.

    This morning I read a phrase which captures why I blog:

    “…now my attitude is that if I’m not blogging for myself it’s not worth it” (seen at ma.tt)

    Between you and me, I don’t care if blogging is dying. Let the social media experts decide. What I do care about is writing. I like the way I can capture and organize thoughts through writing.

    Maybe one day I will become a writer. Maybe not.

    In the meantime this is my niche at Chiperoni.ch.

  • Cloud spotting: the pointing finger

    the pointing finger

    I took snapshots of clouds (and pool water) at the local swimming pool (in Swiss German: that’s a Badi…).

    This looks like a hand raised at school to answer a question, or maybe somebody is pointing out something:

    “Can you see the silver lining? Every cloud has one”

  • Malawi Twitterers

    As Malawi celebrates independence day tomorrow, here is a list of Malawi twitterers you might like to follow:

    Vincent Kumwenda – currently at Muloza border, Mulanje; topics include Malawi news, world news, interesting Malawi web pages, and soccer. He also writes a blog.

    Fred Bvalani – in Blantyre; tweets about mobile applications and phones, Oracle training in freezing cold Cape Town, Manchester United, movies, church, Escom power cuts, and Malawi news and websites. Check out his blog.

    Dannie Grant Phiri – first started twittering during the recent Malawi elections; writes about Malawi and soccer in his blog at http://daniso.weebly.com/.

    Soyapi Mumba – well-known Malawi blogger and twitterer, software developer, volunteer developer at Ushahidi, lives in Lilongwe. He writes about software development, interesting mobile and web applications, Malawi news. He is the programmer behind Owinna – a web app on Malawi football league fixtures and results, as well as the Premier league and other international championships. You can access this information through the website or SMS by texting FOLLOW owinna to +447624801423 or on Twitter.

    Clement Nyirenda – blogs and twitters from Tokyo, where he is doing a PhD in computer science. He covers many IT and development topics related to Malawi. A good resource to learn about projects such as Seacom. He discusses entrepreneurial ventures and their effect on Malawi. Read his blog post on Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter stunt to raise awareness about malaria.

    There are many more, which I might mention in a second blog post.

  • Requirements

    This web project manager had a requirement blackout today. In a meeting at the day job somewhere in Switzerland, I seriously couldn’t remember if the tool that I evaluated six months ago – and which I am now using – runs on a Microsoft server.

    (Err… Microsoft server? Was that a requirement? )

    Sometimes memory fails. I haz a sad.

    And time to start planning the vacation…

    Bonus link on an unrelated topic:

    The cathedral plus the bazaar

  • red and white



  • Connections

    As social media is becoming more mainstream, I find I am discussing various tools and voicing my opinion in many daily situations.

    Half-geek that I am, I have explored quite a few tools over the years.

    For instance I find myself explaining:

    • Why I deleted my Xing and LinkedIn accounts. Why it’s not such a good idea to list all of my customers on Xing. That I didn’t really get any good networking results on Xing and LinkedIn. There’s a lot of showing off and spam. Cos of my Marketing IT profile I was contacted by dozens of IT outsourcing providers.
    • Why I am wary of Facebook. It’s a closed garden. I haven’t forgotten the recent TOS uproar regarding content rights.
    • Why I still like Flickr. After so many years.
    • How Twitter is establishing itself as a news channel. And how I can see scenarios where people blindly re-tweet propanganda and myths.
    • Why I believe a consolidation phase is bound to happen ‘cos many tools haven’t really figured out their business models.
    • That building communities is hard work. And requires lots of time. It doesn’t happen out of the blue.
    • While Scoble and his followers are discussing the real-time web, I find myself trying to explain how I use Google Reader. And that it’s about the flow rather than individual static web pages.
    • Why I sincerely believe that everybody on the Internetz needs to develop media skills. The Internet does not forget.

  • Google Mail Tips

    I discovered a couple of very useful lists of Gmail tips

    Gmail: Tips

  • Ted Video on Creativity

  • The Five-Step Decision-Making Process

    From my Cost Accounting textbook:

    1. Identify the problem and uncertainties
    2. Obtain information
    3. Make predictions about the future
    4. Make decisions by choosing among alternatives
    5. Implement the decision, evaluate performance, and learn

    straightforward…

  • Van Gogh Läckerli



    27.20 CHF

  • Mindblogging

    Inspired by lots of fresh air

    After lots of hours cramped in front of my books, trying to catch up with my studies, I went jogging for a couple of rounds on the Finnenbahn ( a sawdust track ) in the woods. Usually I find running around in circles boring. But today I didn’t mind cos my head is full of unprocessed data.

    And while I plodded around the loop, I thought about:

    • Twitter and the Iran election and the video of the dying woman.
    • Thoughtless re-tweeting. I find it scary the way people follow others blindly. With good intentions. But without thinking and researching for themselves. I thought of setting up a slogan such as: Think before you re-tweet.
    • How the initial design of ARPANET, to compensate for network losses, probably explains why people can still find ways and means to send out tweets and photos and videos out of Iran.
    • My Macroeconomics homework about inflation and interest rates.
    • The soothing effect the colour of green leaves has on my mind.

    The term mindblogging was coined by fellow blogger Persillie and refers to the writing of virtual blog posts while doing something else such as jogging. By default mindblog posts are always better than their written equivalent.

    Congratulations to Mlle. A.! Her blog Handmade 2.0 is featured in the current edition of t3n, a German IT and web magazine.
    Way to go!
    Next in Brand eins?

    I talked to my mom about internet connections in Malawi. She says that prices for mobile internet are getting more affordable. TNM offers USB modems. I need to research this…

  • the red crane and the white chimney



  • chirsimarkt



  • Test, Test, 1, 2, 1, 2

    Looks like my blog is back. Yay.

    Missed it. Especially in a time where I feel the return of the personal website is imminent.

    nchenga nchenga (nchenga) on Twitter

    Recommended link of the week:
    Wordnik

    Can’t wait to try out the new WordPress…