I installed Sunbird and Sugarbird (aka Asertiva Extension for Sugar CRM) for Thunderbird. Even though I’ll probably need to go thru the process again in a couple of weeks.
Blog
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Postcard from Basel
Print it out and send it home:
I took a couple of spontaneous snapshots in St.Alban. Mostly stuff I see when I go running along the riverbanks. Like this graffiti. Or this analog sms.
BTW, you can see my recent Flickr pics on black.
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DSLR fun
Listening in to several videos on DSLRs and lenses…
Nikkor DX lens tour:
Nikon D80:
Canon EOS 400D:
buon weekend,
nchenga -
Tweet
Freaky-flash.de is an old favorite site of mine, which I found about 5 or 6 years ago. Nice to see that some things last.
Here’s a fave.
Turn up the volume and move the mouse over the birds.
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sakku.worker
Via this Flickr comment I heard that there’s a Sakku competition for bloggers…
I already blogged about Sakku bags some time ago. And I would love to win a bag. As a knowledge worker and digital nomad, I believe I’m the right candidate 🙂
I’ll write a review.
Take photos.
And test the solar cells where ever I go.
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Who participates?
Stumbled across this Businessweek chart on what people are doing online:
via Lift Lab.
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Corporate Blogging Experience
useful:
What others are saying about corporate bloggingI like this:
Actions always prove louder than words. Lead by example. Give people something to aspire to but don’t make it so daunting that they will be easily discouraged.
This holds true for a lot of other things as well, not just blogging…
Apparently the number of blogs is peaking and the hype is starting to move on. Meno male. I’ve always had hype antibodies. On the other hand, I’m not a sceptical late adopter either…
Blogging isn’t easy. It’s time-consuming. And results will not be immediate. But it’s a good way for small and medium-sized companies to bypass the media gatekeepers and spread their message faster. The publishing world has changed / is changing.
Another useful article I found (while writing and editing this post) is Quick Tips on Corporate Blogging:
- Designate an editor.
- Don’t be too precious about it, but do have a purpose.
- Content is king.
- Develop a content engine.
- Have an editorial policy.
- Experiment, learn, and evolve.
- Make it a core part of your marketing strategy.
- Be patient and watch your audience grow.
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Twittering Retro Style
I’d just like to check in and report that the Neighborhood Information System (NIS) is working great here…
This morning I had a small note pegged to my bike’s brake wires, asking me if my neighbor could borrow my 2nd bicycle for a visiting family member. No need for Twitter, Jaiku, Facebook et al….
Total electricity consumption: 0 kW
Internet connection cost: 0 CHF
Depreciation of computer equipment: 0 CHF😉
Have a good weekend!
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Basel artist Martin Gyger
Basel-based artist and illustrator, Martin Gyger, has launched a website:
The site uses Satellite and a Flickr account to display the artwork. Simple.
Couple of my favorites are [1] [2] [3]
Browse thru the site, send a friendly welcome email, or leave a Flickr comment…
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Recent cultural activities
Saw the play “Angst” at Theater Basel. It’s a kind of like a mashup with glimpses of 3 separate households on one stage, which then interweave towards the end. Entertaining. But it is not really deep or philosophical or thought-provoking. Covers all types of fear…
Saw the movie “The Namesake”. Sad and moving. Great mood. A topic I can relate to. Recommended.
Went to Grönemeyer’s concert in Bern. Fun.
Went to the Schaulager exhibition on Robert Gober (sinks, sinks, sinks). And to see the architecture of the Herzog & de Meuron building.
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Laptop choices…
Just 4 months after the motherboard was replaced in my workplace laptop: end of life. I couldn’t start up my laptop yesterday morning. The 3 year service guarantee has expired. Which means I get to order a new one.
The choices:
It’s Dell or MacBookPro with Parallels. -
The way I see PR – or parts of it
A regular Chiperoni reader asked about my opinion on Scoble’s recent post on PR and developers.
Not an easy question to answer. I’ve been following a pragmatic way. And I’m in a smallish company where I need to generate interest rather than block off journalist queries. A very different situation.
I would tend to agree more with Guy Kawasaki’s DIY list of PR tips. I’ve had good experiences with being authentic and sticking to the truth. There’s so much marketing glib out there. In my experience, journalists prefer talking to somebody that knows the product 😉 but can explain the big picture. Some PR folks want to control the message yet know too little about the product.
But Kawasaki also says you should try to find an interesting story. Just presenting the tech. specifications or technology highlights isn’t really going to thrill anybody. And that’s a pitfall some developers may fall into. And many small IT companies want to appear serious and established. Whereas looking dynamic and fast-moving would scare the established competitors more.
As the comments show being secretive isn’t going to work the same way for all companies. And IMHO, Scoble profits more from developer or entrepreneur interviews than polished PR interviews.
In our fast-moving world, bad or inaccurate press stories may also generate good attention. Cos some people will look closer to form their own opinion.
This sums up my current strategy.
With the usual disclaimer: off the top of my head and unreflected….
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Windmill builder
Lunch over IP on young Malawi windmill inventor:
See also Soyapi’s blog, another Malawian TED attendee.
(update)
And William’s own blog at: http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/ -
PR and developers
Scoble says:
But PR departments keep the developers away from the press because the PR departments know that developers:
1. Are likely to tell the unvarnished truth.
2. Aren’t skilled in explaining/demoing what their product does.
3. Might be boring or unprofessional on camera. -
The most interesting pictures
The most interesting pictures by nchenga
Cos I don’t have a Pro account at Flickr, the above link only finds the most interesting based on my last 200 snapshots.
BTW, it seems there’s a viable alternative at Ipernity. At least it loads a lot faster than Zooomr, it offers a tidy layout, and the texts have a European feel:
Attention, do not load another page while the upload is processing, it would crash it.
Greater firms didn’t await us to launch services that are now mainstays of Web 2.0.
Bundled with a bilingual French / English company blog. Nice.
It feels a bit like Vox, which I’m testing over at nchenga.vox.com. You can upload photos, videos, and audio and setup a blog. Maybe Ipernity is a subsidiary of 6A?
Yay for European english…!
(update) LOL. I just found this quote:
If Yahoo really want to annoy people, they could wait a month or three, then buy Ipernity – and immediately announce that they’re merging it with Flickr…
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in the summertime
I tried to capture today’s awesomely red fireball of a sunset in Basel. My cameraphone snapshot doesn’t quite do it justice. But heh, that’s one moment in time captured and stored and uploaded and tagged and online.
Stumbled across this blog entry:
We googled you!And it definitely raises an important discussion point… what will recruiting employers do with all the data they find on a job applicant.
Easier.com has published some interesting travel tips on Malawi. For example, spending vacation on a tea estate in Thyolo:
More visitors to southern Malawi are discovering the delights of staying in one of the colonial ‘managers’ bungalows on the Satemwa Tea Estate with its views of Mount Mulanje in one direction and the Lower Shire Valley in the other. Now, the UK national newspaper, The Independent has ranked Satemwa among the world’s top five ‘tea hotels’. And there’s more good news. Satemwa is now a certified Fair Trade producer – the only one in Southern Africa.
It’s possible for guests to sample a selection of black, green and white (yes, white) teas as they look across the neat tea gardens and try to identify the birds from the hundreds of species that are resident or passing through the area. You prefer coffee? No problem, coffee is also grown here.
The Satemwa Tea Estate is a wonderful place to stay if exploring in the Thyolo and Mount Mulanje area. They have a new and very informative website: Satemwa.com
A family favorite is Lujeri Tea Estate at the foot of Mount Mulanje.
Which reminds me that I wanted to write a blog entry on Club Makokola. I’ve uploaded a short film I took on the beach, but for some reason the Flash movie only shows 4 secs. The corresponding Quicktime movie is fine. I tried re-exporting with a shareware tool I found, but it’s too lossy.
Any tips on open source video editing tools are greatly appreciated…
Regarding audio, I found that Audacity is useful. -
Nutella Alternatives from Italy
Here are a couple of Nutella substitutes I found at the Coop just across the border in bella Italia, right in the homeland of Nutella and gianduja:
😉
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Situation Report
United Nations Regional Inter-Agency Coordination and Support Office (RIACSO) on Malawi:
Malawi will produce bumper crops of maize and other food crops this year. Some of this surplus will be exported to neighbouring Zimbabwe and other countries to address expected wide-spread food shortages.
via ReliefWeb
