Track your comments part 2- IM Tracking

Here’s the quickie of the idea: InstantMessenger Comment Tracking

Having recently come across the news that Feed Crier (RSS updated via IM) has been acquired by IMified (a lot of things via IM), it sparked an additional thought from my past post on how tracking your blog comments could be appropriately expanded into a service. Before I begin: congrats to them on that :)
By creating something that does a parsed feed (if necessary) of the comments of posts you’ve commented on, IMified (with Feed Crier) would be able to IM you whenever a new comment was added to a post/discussion you’ve taken part in. An additional awesome point would be to allow you to comment to that post through IMified, turning it into IM comments.

[Update 1]
Adam from Feed Crier/IMified was awesome enough to respond to this post. In his comment, he brought up 2 good points:

1. Blog comment spam prevention goes to great lengths to prevent spam… which makes the proposed idea difficult.
2. Users can already use IMified to do a trackback to the post and write a post on their blog in response to the post or comments.

My response: I know that some blogs publish comment feeds. However, and this may already more or less be in place, I was meaning getting a feed only for a post you have commented on, not on all comments being made on all posts from that blog. Eg: You would be notified of my comment here because you commented on this post, and thus are getting a feed for the comments for just this post as it’s one you are actively discussing in.

Shoot. That’s a good point on the spam prevention. I hadn’t considered captcha and its effects.

Trackbacks through IMified could be a solution, yes, but perhaps a bit over the top if you don’t consider your own comment worth an entire post (as is the case for me, commenting quite frequently). While you could take the tag type approach and auto set its category or tag as “Comment response” it would still be something that “pollutes” your blog. On the other hand, it may provide an interesting way for others to see continued thought. The main concern there would be a disconnect between the location of discussions, that is a blog and its comments compared to a blog and others blogs posting comments. Somewhat inconvenient to follow that many trackabcks. This returns us to my “Blogging The Wish” post on improvements either on the feed reader end or in a social network.

Google web history needs the social web

Slight off topic to my usual stuff… A while ago I had the idea and did a little development with a few friends on what we called WebBrayne. That is, your brain on the internet. The whole idea was the logging of your search history and being able to search that history. Basically a Google for where you’ve been, or stated differently, a much more advanced History button because you can search all the contents of where you’ve been, not just the title. This makes for even more accurate results as you already have a conceptual idea as to what you’re looking for and what it says, and the result is going to be more accurate based on where you’ve been as opposed to everywhere on the net.

Well, the bandwidth requirements among other things was too much, so WebBrayne never came to be… from us at least. But Google has now taken a big step in creating it in a web form (it was in a desktop form via Google Desktop before, but limited imo) via the new viewing and managing of your web history. Seeing as how they’re already on it, and how I’m obsessed with a social web, I’ll pass on a few ideas I had been thinking for WebBrayne.

How big is your brayne?
With WebBrayne, the idea was to add a few “fun” widgets in. So logging certain things like the number of times you search your Brayne (how much you use your brain) and how much was in your brayne (how many sites you’ve been to) would be logged in a fun kind of fashion. In this case, the widget would follow with the size and activity of your WebBrayne. This could be expanded to the amount of “intelligence” gained based on a site, etc.

Share the knowledge
Sharing is caring! At least that was the case in kindergarten, and it’s coming back around a bit more now… or something. With this thought, you could do something I only wish you could do in real life. Link brains together I think I’d link up with someone like Seth Godin and one of my favorite designers. Anyways, the idea is to have a friend on WebBrayne and give him permission to link brains with you. With this, you could search your linked brains for what you’re looking for, possibly coming up on someone else’s knowledge, or you could simply search your own. Better term? Search Telepathy.

Keep the bad stuff out
Let’s face it- some people have things in their Brayne they don’t want others to know about. Thus filters become important. Adding filters to certain things burry them deep in your subconscious, so deep no one who is linked to your brain could find it… only you. Or remove it from your searches, too! Be careful, though! Who knows when you might have a Freudian slip! Haha. Just kidding.

Creative With Boredom

Boredom is a fantastic thing. I think there aught to be something special said about it. Don’t confuse boredom with relaxation, though, no. Boredom is something much more spectacular than relaxation, much different. I am not exactly sure how to describe it, but I think boredom is something like the mental anxiety of the potential of too much of nothing to do, or too much relaxation… and those special bored moments are choice. They’re the times of creative bliss.

What’s the point of all that? I had spring break this past week and unlike my friends who are from around here- I am not. This means that most everyone I know, including my girlfriend, are gone leaving me with, for the most part, no one around. Now, I did some socializing over spring break, but for the most part I did very little… which let the boredom creep in. Let me tell you, it was magnificent.

I haven’t been bored in a while. When I get bored, my mind gets hyper-creative, over working, over thinking, over dreaming, over everything as it stresses to come up with something to occupy the too much time it has. Because of this, I had quite a few strokes of creativity and also had the time to practice my artwork (which needs practicing). It was awesome. The boredom allowed for some great insights on game design (something I am sure the Fractured Universe team is secretly crying about), artwork (something I am sure anyone who sees will be crying about), and a great many other things.

I think I may look to add an hour of boredom to my week to help ensure the creativity is flowing, or for some “power creative” moments. People take power naps. Why not do power boredom?

Embrace the niche

There are ~300,000,000 people in the U.S. alone.

I garuntee close to none of them are normal.

Not only are every one of those 300 million people not normal, they all have a need that isn’t being met as well as they’d like, and they could all use something to make their life better or express themselves better.

Be creative. Stray into the weird, be unique. Chances are there is a niche waiting for just that. Find the opportunity, find the niche, and embrace them with your creativity.

Six Word Story

Over on Middle Zone Musings is a creative challenge to write stories in only 6 words. Sounded like a lot of fun, and seeing as how I like creativity, and I like challenges, I thought I’d write up some quickies to add.

I’m cold. The new fireplace? Anarchy.

Keep laughing. I drop-kick puppies.

Walking alone, I stop. A puddle!

“… but in the best way possible.”

Cat like reflexes. I’m no cat.

Have you seen my pants? Really?

“Cut the lights.” They did. Laughter.

Love at first sight? My ideas.

Not enough time? Only sleep Sundays.

You poked me in the eye!

Internet. Cellphone. Laptop. Don’t unplug me.

I wiggled my fingers. Like pineapples.

Update:

Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! I lost.

Empty bottle. Empty promises. Empty night.

Flaming pillars. Unique memories. Happy birthday.

“Moo, Oink, Woof,” said the goose.

“Ouch! My finger!” I hate geese.

Unique shape. White blanket- new experience.

I’m king. Bounce, bounce. You’re out.

Red light. Green light… Red light.

You collect $200… oh, pay up.

Enjoy!

Link 11-24-06: Stealth Disco

Saw this hilarious video over at Jaffe’s Blog. To me, this is what it’s all about (not just the disco, the community with the hilarity of the stealth disco).

http://www.jaffejuice.com/2006/11/stealth_discoin.html

Perspective Can Make All the Difference

I read a lot of books, usually several at a time. One which I’m currently reading is Seth Godin’s small is the new big. I go through one of his riffs daily. One such riff really hit me, it’s titled “Do you cling to your job title?” It’s about how we all wear multiple “hats” (do multiple jobs a day) so we really don’t have one single job title. I’d quote it all, but I’d be doing you a favor by just leaving it for you to buy the book. The book is great. It’s a perspective changing book, and perspective can make all the difference.

So what perspective did Seth Godin change for me today with “Do you cling to your job title?”? I wanted to become an expert in marketing. But then I realized something. I should aspire not to be the best, but the most passionate. Because while people look up to the best, they flock to the passionate.

That change in perspective makes a phenomenal difference to me.

Perspective isn’t merely the way we see things. It’s the way we live the things we see.

I believe I can accomplish anything I put my mind to. That’s my perspective. The difference between me and someone with a contradicting perspective? Huge. It’s the difference between someone who actively pursues their passions and someone who figures they’re going to eventually be learning about it anyways. It’s the difference between Virgin Atlantic and American Airlines. It’s the difference between the iPod and the MP3 players that came before it.

Here’s a perspective of mine I’d like to share with you:

Dreams are something you wish you could accomplish. Goals are something you know you can accomplish. Have goals, not dreams.

 

Passion & Ambition… Caesar Style

“When he was a young man on assignment in Spain, Caesar came upon a statue of Alexander, who died at roughly the same age that he was then. Upon regarding his image, Caesar wept, not because he had no more worlds to conquer, but because he hadn’t yet conquered any.” (108 Rome Inc.)

The perfect quote. I love it. It’s motivating. It’s passionate. You can feel the desire. It resonates with me. It’s on my wall. It keeps my passion aflame.

Are you like Caesar? Do you have that passion? That desire? That something that draws people near? Who helps you keep that fire going? Thank them.

For me, it’s my parents, it’s everyone willing to listen, it’s every person on my blog roll (and for honorable mention: Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, Tara “miss rogue” Hunt, David Armano, Jake, Those at Brains on Fire like Spike, the people over at Marketing Profs: Daily Fix, and really… the rest of my blog roll). They educate me, inspire me, and help keep my passion for business burning.

Burn hot.

Do You Set Yourself Apart?

While this is a few days old, I thought it was worth sharing. One thing I always talk to people about is how having a distinct identity isn’t a bad thing. That those that set themselves apart (in a good way, not Hitler style or anything) are those who have the right idea- those who will be noticed. Here’s a great example of setting yourself apart. The article is from Breitbart.com. It’s about a guy who dropped a $20 over a 50ft ledge and jumped over after it.

Then he swam about 100 yards to fish the bill from the water.

“I got my money back, hell yeah,” Giorgio told the Sarasota Herald- Tribune. “Twenty bucks is a lot of money when you’re broke.”

What do you do to set yourself apart? I play freeze tag in hurricanes.

The Brain is Inefficient

I am a tech guy. I grew up with the Internet. You could probably say I’m addicted to the Internet. Not just to the concept, or to the people I can communicate with because of it, but because of the knowledge I can tap into and how easily I can find it. The only problem I find with this is that between reading blogs daily, reading business books daily, communicating with people, and attending my classes, I begin to forget just where I learned something. Generally speaking, it’s quite easy to rule out my classes. But it becomes much more difficult to rule out a book, a blog, or conversation. If it is a book or a blog, it then becomes more difficult as I have to figure out just which blog it was on. If it is a conversation, it’s not so difficult as we all have people ’stored’ generally by there interests. A friend of mine who is a Spanish major probably wasn’t the person who made good points about The Long Tail (It would be nice to have a discussion about the Long Tail with any of my friends, actually).

Fact of the matter is, I need a way to index all my knowledge. I need Gooble. Google for my brain. If I had that, I would become much more efficient.

Talking purely idea here, all you need is a refined Google. Disregard privacy issues for the moment, but it makes me wonder about the possibility of a software that could record every site you go to. It could strip the text of the site, remove unimportant graphics, and compress all this into a single search able database for you. From there you could do a search for a word or phrase, like any search engine, and it would return a list of sites you’ve been to that have this keyword. Really, this “brain” search engine would be much more effective than Google. Not because the algorithms would be more capable, but because often times when searching for something we’ve already read, it becomes much easier to recall a unique phrase from what you’re thinking of to bring up the exact result compared to taking a generalized guess.