louisgray.com: live

I don't talk much about religion on the blog, but for introductory purposes, I'm LDS (Mormon), having been born into the church, raised in the church, and an active participant for the better part of my life, with a 4-year self-imposed sabbatical that overlapped my college years being the only exception. While I'm a typical Mormon in some ways, in that I don't drink, use drugs, don't swear often (that I know of), and attend services on Sunday, I'm also somewhat atypical in the way I vote, in that I don't exactly like Utah in any way, I didn't serve a full-time mission, and I don't have kids.

The church has been very impressive in the way that they have utilized new technology and especially the Internet. Unlike many churches, who preach from their meetinghouses and limit their sharing of the gospel with their attending members, the LDS church has a very-thorough Web site, targeting both members and non-members, with a fully searchable Gospel Library, including the scriptures (Bible and Book of Mormon), teaching guides and archived church magazines. While some non-LDS call the church a cult, the religion is in fact, the complete opposite, not hiding secrets within, but promoting openness and welcoming questions.

Beyond the centerpiece LDS.org Web site, the church operates sites for genealogy at www.familysearch.org, and a site for more curious visitors, at www.mormon.org. LDS.org also offers daily e-mails about church members in the news and streams the church's twice-annual general conference talks over the Web in a wide variety of languages. Additionally, the church-affiliated university system, BYU (Brigham Young University) also has adapted the Web, using some of the best streaming video technology I've ever encountered, on the university's BYU TV site, at www.byu.tv.

While for most, the world of online video is one full of stuttering stop-start performance, and inconsistent buffering, or small video windows, BYU TV offers visitors a rich, fast, streaming video experience for any operating system or browser, and lets people select not just from what's on the channel right then, but from a menu of the day's offerings, in addition to special features, including the aforementioned General Conference talks, where the church's leaders, including the prophet and apostles talk to its members. Just this morning, when we were looking at BYU TV, we were entertained to see a "classic" BYU football game against Oklahoma, or we could queue up aerobics videos, scrapbooking how-tos and gardening tips.

While the pedestrian content might not wow you, and trust me, I'm not bowled over by instructional sewing videos and arts and crafts, I was very impressed with the technology, and pleased to see the church and its affiliated university continuing to be on the cutting edge, taking advantage of what the Web has to offer. In an increasingly skeptical world, where many are either turning away from religion, or relying on religion as the basis to blame others or incite hatred, it's good to see a calm, consistent voice available to anybody at any time - and with good quality too.

Listening to ''Surrender'', by Depeche Mode (Play Count: 10)

Naked Conversations aims to demonstrate how businesses can change their communication model with customers by way of blogging. The book, a must-read for anybody interested in corporate communications or public relations, deftly illustrates best and worst practices in blogging - showing that if businesses can, with clarity, speak directly to their customers and partners without being blurred by "handlers" and marketing, they will be best suited for the often-skeptical audiences of today.

The book's authors, Robert Scoble & Shel Israel, set out in writing the book from the perspective that blogging is a must-have weapon in today's integrated marketing arsenal, and found only a small handful of cases where they discovered corporations were better off by being tight-lipped. The vast majority of case studies displayed that consistent, thoughtful, topical blogging can enable trust and rapid response to both positive and negative news. The book also showed that you don't need a C-title (CEO, CTO, etc.) to blog for the company. All you need is desire, the willingness to publish often, and to be interesting.

Some companies, including Microsoft and Sun (especially so) have embraced blogging. They recognize that employees are often as passionate about their products as one would wish, but that they are first truthful - that they can speak to issues and efforts to resolve bugs. Disagreement and debate is encouraged, though some, unaccustomed to "naked conversations" have put up roadblocks to open discourse. Other companies, like Apple and Google, most prominently, actively dissuade employees from blogging or in any way representing the company, as the corporate communications are channeled through a select few.

If corporate blogs are to survive and thrive, they need to exist outside of the corporate spin zone. Though they can greatly augment the company's public relations and marketing efforts, the discussion should flow freely and honestly, and not sound canned, for if it does sound contrived, the blogger and company will immediately lose credibility with a fickle blogosphere, who has established higher expectations.

Naked Conversations clearly makes a case that today's businesses need to rapidly adapt to a world where blogs have tremendous influence. Positive or negative mentions in the blogosphere can have reach far beyond traditional print media, and to be silent  may as well place you with the dinosaurs. A press release can only go so far. As Naked Conversations preaches, it's time for corporations to open up, or the blogosphere will speak for them.

Listening to ''I'm a Big Sister, and I'm a Girl, and I'm a Princess, and this is my Horse'', by Underworld (Play Count: 2)

It's interesting how easy it is to grow accustomed to software and its functionality, to the point you don't even think about it, except in the rare situation where you find a computer where it's not installed. For me, a small utility for Mac OS X called "X-Assist" is the very definition of this - as it's the first application I'd go out to the Internet to find to install on any clean, new, Mac OS X machine.

When Apple moved from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X in the 2001 timeframe, users lost a feature known as the "Application Switcher", where you could go to the top-right corner of the screen and select open apps, and move between them. Also - the application you would be using would be represented by its name and icon. While it could be argued the "Command-Tab" functionality replaced this to some degree, to me, it's not as flexible as X-Assist, which does all of this and more, including listing recent applications and gaining one-click access to control panels.

Unlike most pieces of software, which make incremental point upgrades on a semi-regular basis, X-Assist met my needs right away, and hasn't needed a new version for three years - last being updated in November of 2003. A lot has happened since then, even as Apple moved from Mac OS X 10.2 to 10.3, 10.4 and is now previewing 10.5, but X-Assist continues to be an integral part of my productivity, and the program has integrated seamlessly with each new generation of the OS.

While Steve Jobs and the Apple team have done a fantastic job introducing greater simplicity to the Macintosh over the years, the wholesale elimination of functionality isn't always a good thing. Lucky for us, independent software developers are often there to help to fill in the rare gaps.

Listening to ''DJ Urban - Jack Your Big Booty'', by Dave Clarke (Play Count: 5)

In 2004, Electoral-Vote.com burst onto the scene by graphically tracking the presidential campaign by state, and indicating trends by state or nationally - as tracked by a host of national and local polls. Updated daily, the site would give you a snapshot of how many more states had to go Kerry's way or Bush's way to cement the nomination, and indicate the true battleground states.

With the 2006 senate races coming to a head with votes being cast in only two months, the site is back in action, prepped for what should be a close battle to see if the Republicans can keep their hold on the Senate and House chambers, or if the resurgent Democrats can ride the wave of anti-incumbent fever and tip the balance their way.

Today's score: GOP 52, Democrats 48. Should be an interesting few months.

Listening to ''Assorted Trance Volume 17'', by DJ Irish (Play Count: 3)

Although it has been a while since we officially endorsed another site, it's certainly not for a lack of quality reading, learning and entertainment out there. Though I've referenced Guy Kawasaki's excellent site off and on since the beginning of the year, he's not received the official louisgray.com stamp of approval - until now.

Kawasaki, who rose to prominence as the chief evangelist at Apple Computer during the iconic computer maker's earliest times, has tremendous credibility in the Silicon Valley marketplace, and continually offers advice to those who want to break in or expand in the market. This evening, he posted a great "how to" on obtaining a job in Silicon Valley. Both informative and humorous, the piece gives job prospects that edge that may mean the difference between winning a position, and finding yourself back on the street.

As I had commented on the blog, one of the major things to do before any job interview is research the heck out of it. Learn as much as you can about the company and what they do before setting foot in the office. Make sure you not only can discuss their product, but also their market. Learn who their potential customers are, and why they have advantages over the competition. If you're just there because you badly need a job, and you haven't done your homework, that will be quickly discovered.

A few years ago, when speaking with a prospective employer, I was asked if I felt I could take on the task of running the Web site of one of their competitors - a major public company. If I said I couldn't do it, it would show weakness, but it was a large proposal. When I said, "Yes I could do it, but it would be a major cleanup job," the interviewer said, "That response just earned you an offer." That showed me that a little bravado can do you well, especially if you not only show the willingness and energy to excel, but the knowledge of the competition, to say what you believe they would want to hear.

Guy Kawasaki is a guy (no pun intended) who knows his craft, and is doing a great service by extending his consultancy to the blogosphere. If you're interested in business, technology, marketing, presenting or venture capital, his site is a must read.

Listening to ''Primer'', by Christopher Lawrence (Play Count: 6)

After a 75-episode run on Jeopardy, trivia genius Ken Jennings has opted to enter the world of blogging in an attempt to continue his 15 minutes of fame. His site "Confessions of a Trivial Mind" covers family issues as well as all things peripheral to Jeopardy and trivia games. As you may remember, the LDS software engineer from Utah completed an unprecedented run on Alex Trebek's quiz show, garnering more than $2 million in winnings.

His run drummed up significant levels of interest in Jeopardy as he won, 10, then 20, and more, consecutive contests. In fact, shortly after Ken's time on stage, I tried out for Jeopardy myself in San Francisco. Though I felt I did well on the quiz, I fell short, and had to leave a loser, while only a small handful were asked to move to the next round. While those of us who missed were told to let everyone know we had only "missed by one", nobody ever gets their scores.

In reality, as you can probably tell from this site, my interests aren't nearly broad enough to support a consistent winning streak  - for once you get outside of A's baseball, Apple Computers, and techno music, I'm pretty much lost.

Listening to ''Dark Heart Dawning'', by BT (Play Count: 4)

Does it seem hot where you are? It's in the 90s here in the Bay Area, and that's downright stifling, especially anywhere we don't have air conditioning. But unless things change, we might have to get used to ever-hotter temperatures, and can expect that the unprecedented string of natural disasters we saw in 2005, which culminated in the shock and horror of Hurricane Katrina, will be more and more common if the facts leading to global warming are not stopped.

That's the premise of what I can unequivocally say is the best movie I've seen all year - An Incovenient Truth, which we saw this evening. If you see just one movie this summer, this is the one. The bare bones, documentarian "An Inconvenient Truth" offers enough drama to outpace Hollywood, and stars the greatest cast out there - you.

I'm not going to debate the issue here. It's not a political issue. It's a moral issue, one that is unanimously agreed upon by the scientific community. It's an issue that if left unchecked can have devastating consequences which will affect us all without question. The film makes that very clear. It's not a bleeding-heart liberal, tree-hugging, spotted owl protecting, ode to Greenpeace. It's the facts - laid out directly and stunningly through charts, statistics, photography and film.

Al Gore may never be part of public office again, and though he is the film's major star, it's not about him and not about his story. It's about this cause that consumes his every minute, and how he is taking this cause from the thousands of seminars he has given around the world to a city theater near you. Go find where it is playing near you and see it. See if you can watch this story, learn from it, and not feel like you've been hit with a wave of emotion and hope that you can affect change. And if you don't see it, you have only yourself to blame.

An Inconvenient Truth: Site | Reviews | Theaters

Listening to ''Switch On (Featuring Ryan Tedder)'', by Oakenfold (Play Count: 4)

If you took a look at my bookshelf, you'd learn a few things about me - I can't get enough books on technology and the world of business, and like to surround myself with baseball stories and stats. In fact, the bookshelf is a lot like this blog. But one thing that stands out on the bookshelf, but is missing here, is my decades-long obsession with Stephen King. Starting with "IT" and "The Stand" in the 8th grade, I've consistently sought out everything King's ever written, from the old-school horror books, to his instructional book "On Writing", an instant classic. While others may think of macabre and darkness with King's work, I simply treasure his wit and humor. He is a hilarious, outstanding writer - a living legend.

While on a business trip in Las Vegas late last year, I found The Colorado Kid, a much thinner piece, that bore his name, and added it to my "to do" pile. Having taken it off the pile this last week, there's a good reason why it hasn't raced to the top of the charts or been turned into a full-length feature film like so many of his other pieces. The story, discussing a legendary unsolved murder in a small New England town, is told from the vantage point of the small-town reporters, now ancient, who recalled the case's detail, and the fogies love the story telling. But it doesn't go too far. Sure, there are unknowns and curiosity to the tale, but if you are the type who likes tidied up loose ends and resolution, this isn't the story for you. If you are the type who likes excitement and being scared or thrilled, again, not for you. It's for people like me who would feel lost without having Stephen King's full library - and now, that book is checked off the list, but the piece isn't in his top 40.

Listening to ''Someone Like Me'', by R–yksopp (Play Count: 1)

I'm unapologetic in my dislike for almost all things Microsoft (MSFT). With the exception of their Webmail version of Outlook, I am generally unimpressed with their product line - from their Operating System to their office suite, Web browser, E-mail clients, online communities and whatever else they choose to cook up. I don't know when my dislike for Microsoft started, or if I was raised to think this way by a horde of Apple (AAPL) bigots, but in my decades of impressionability, the software behemoth/monopolist hasn't done much to make me change my mind, and their leadership doesn't exactly inspire good will and warm feelings.

It's easy to think all these things as universal - and ignore the fact that the global company employs thousands of intelligent, hard-working individuals who truthfully want their products to be top-notch and care about the consumer (or most do anyway). Of late, I've enjoyed reading the unsupported, non-sponsored "Mini-Microsoft" blog, which has become a sounding board for the company's employees on recent management trends, memos and news. In the site's most recent post, titled "Passionate Microsofties", the anonymous author shows that the company's army of coders and marketers cares about the company - the way we've always expected Apple and Google (GOOG) (among others) to have their own monopoly. Instead, we get a clear view into the struggles and triumphs and wishes that are true in any corporation - small or immense. People want to be proud of what they do and be recognized for it. It's that simple.

Listening to ''Europop'', by Eiffel 65 (Play Count: 27)

For those of us who toil full time in the Silicon Valley, it's obvious we take ourselves too seriously - holding our long work hours and lack of social lives as a badge of honor (or at least that's my excuse). But some are looking to add the same levels of gossip and intrigue so common in entertainment and politics to our technology-focused lifestyle, giving Page Six a run for their money.

Valleywag is rising to the top of the Silicon Valley's rumor rags, ranging its coverage on which Web 2.0 company News Corp. is looking to acquire next to polls on who the most beautiful women at Google are. In true Matt Drudge fashion, Valleywag doesn't argue to have all the scoops, so if you have news and tips for Valleywag, it's just a click away, and you could see your rumors take hold in Silicon Valley consciousness.

Every minute I'm not on the Internet looking for new data, I'm falling further behind - or so it seems, and with every new site visited, I find content that it seems the masses have had access to for quite some time, information that I've been lacking and they had kept to themselves. Rather than do the same, I thought I'd display the most recent bookmarks I've taken down and will be following over the coming months, so that you too can be fulfilled.

AdWeek's AdFreak: AdWeek features a blog that summarizes interesting trends in the advertising world with quick two paragraph clips and summaries. Penned by multiple authors, each gets the chance to analyze branding highs and lows, new commercials and campaigns. Somehow, in two paragraphs, AdFreak captures the key elements and stays amusing at the same time.

TechCrunch: Quite possibly the top authority on Web 2.0, TechCrunch profiles and reviews new Web 2.0 products and companies. Many a service has debuted its wares through the site. TechCrunch has already introduced me to some interesting companies I may never have heard of without their quick hits.

GigaOm: Authored by Om Malik, a senior Business 2.0 reporter, GigaOm similarly tracks next generation technology, with a focus on networking and Internet trends and innovation. If you're even a bit curious about the world of VoIP, cable, and DSL, this is one to stow away.

Last year, on a lazy Saturday, I read a product review on Plasq's Comic Life, which was one Mac OS X application, unavailable for Windows, that took advantage of the Mac's inherent tilt toward design, and mimicked the ease of use and layout of Apple's iLife applications, enabling users to create their own comics from photos on their computer - using iPhoto. Bored, and amused by the idea, I downloaded the product, and quickly whipped up my first comic - featuring our 16-year-old beagle. Comic Life was easy to use, letting me add captions and word art, even though I don't have any kind of creative skills.

While that was fun, I felt I had to stretch to find another use for the inherently enjoyable product. I needed something that would be interesting, and where photos were readily available... which led me to the Oakland A's. Every A's game and practice yields dozens of AP or media photographs, and innumerable amateur photos. Within hours, I had downloaded enough photos to have my first attempt - a caricature of then-A's outfielder Eric Byrnes, cast as "Eric Byrnes - Superhero!". Eric was a perfect candidate, a player who gave his all into every play with sometimes hilarious outcomes - whether that meant body-crushing dives at missed balls into the outfield, taking the extra base, or tackling unruly, inebriated fans.

I took the new comic and posted it to Athletics Nation, hoping someone would find it amusing. Some did, demanding more. By the end of the day, I posted a follow-up, but there was no way to keep up the pace, with focus on a single player. Even worse, Byrnes was traded later in the week. I was foiled, but did a third and final comic as an epilogue. But by now, AN and I were hooked. I had the Comic Life bug, and launched from my experience covering Byrnes to what eventually become the ANtics - posted weekly, and set to continue through the A's 2006 season.

I don't consider myself a comic. I just happened to be the first to leverage some outstanding software and focus it on the A's. If I can do it, you can do it. Just download Comic Life yourself and get started. You'll be a pro in minutes.

Related Links: Plasq Comic Life | Flickr Gallery of Comic Life Art

On Thursday, I had the chance to read The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, by Al and Laura Ries. Over the last few years, I've had a lot of opportunities to read technology, business and marketing-oriented books, and while most had some great qualities, there tends to either be too much fluffery without specifics, or dry tales that don't seem to relate to today's business world. In stark contrast, The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR eloquently and directly stated its hypothesis and purpose, then went out and backed up the comments with detailed examples covering a wide variety of industries, from foods to automotive, through technology and the Internet.

Al and Laura, through a series of company-driven stories, explain how while much of companies' marketing budgets are allocated to wide-spread advertising campaigns that are difficult to support by real business growth, more significant results can be seen through deliberate, focused execution on public relations. They argue that public relations needs to be the first move, followed by advertising to sustain the brand, not to create the brand. Yet, advertising firms are lauded for their creativity, even when it can't be tied to business benefits, and woe be to the CEO or marketing executive who proposes unfocused advertising without first claiming success through PR. They give several examples where those who signed off on the big checks weren't there to collect their own in the end.

If you're in the business of promotion, or any business, really, the book is a great kickoff point for strategy and budgeting. Buy it on Amazon.

In the late 1990s, not many financial analysts were more prominent than Morgan Stanley's Mary Meeker and Merrill Lynch's Henry Blodget. The pair could make or break an Internet stock with a single forecast, and made headlines that were self-fulfilling, on eBay (EBAY), Amazon (AMZN), Yahoo! (YHOO) and many others. But Blodget went down hard, going to trial for conflicts of interest.

Now in 2006, Henry is freed to write on basically anything he likes, on his own blog, Internet Outsider, where he gives his honest opinions on tech stocks, just like the old days. In recent weeks, he's covered the latest happenings at Google (GOOG), Amazon's ill-fated idea to launch a music service to compete with Apple's (AAPL) iTunes and iPod combo, and continued issues at Time Warner (TWX) and AOL. While he now lacks the big name of Merrill Lynch as a backer, his comments still ring true and are an interesting take. Whether he should have been banned from the world of financial analysis is a different issue, but it does seem after so many made and lost millions in the market so quickly, a scapegoat was needed.

Check out Internet Outsider. Bookmark it.

Several years ago, in what now seems like the dark ages, a friend/former coworker came to me looking for help on how to best create a site logo for a new venture he was pursuing - a Web log devoted to television news and gossip. Only half-heartedly trying, I gave him some feedback and wished him well, but didn't expect the site to do anything, thinking he'd consider it a fad that took too much time and had no money in it. Now more than five years later, with Web logs being hugely popular, it is obvious that Norman was ahead of his time, as the site is thriving and one I consider a must-click.

His site, TV Tattle, publishes regularly five days a week and can be counted on each day to offer dozens of links to critics' pieces on tube fare, and offers so much detail about shows I both watch and ignore. What's great about his site is that even though I'd never consider myself a potential TV Guide subscriber, I can't remember the last time I checked his site out and came away without having two or three pieces to read - whether it was learning new plot twists from my favorite shows before they were to air, salary conflicts, or quick hits on what shows were going to be renewed or canceled.

I honestly don't know how Norman finds the time to peruse all these sites and post his daily news, though from what I remember, he was quite the night owl, and it wasn't too uncommon to have my phone ring at 3:30 in the morning with him wanting to share the latest on news, gossip or his efforts. With search engines and news crawlers from Google, Yahoo! and others simplifying things in recent years, I can see how he would benefit, but I don't go anywhere else to find out the news on TV. If it's not on TV Tattle, it's probably not important anyway.

I figured if this is my blog, then I should be able to feature those things I like - so I've set up a new category called "Endorsements", effectively sharing sites, movies, books, etc. that have strong qualities you just might like as well. First on this list is the service LinkedIn. LinkedIn functions as half job site, and half online address book. If you join LinkedIn, you can post an online resume, link to other colleagues or partners you know (assumedly they approve of you or your work), and can post or beg for endorsements, to flesh out your information.

Once on LinkedIn, you can track colleagues' or partners' comings and goings. As people take new jobs and update their profiles, their information changes in your "Connections" page. Also, if you're a sales or marketing type, and want to find somebody at another company, you can find out how many "degrees" you are away from them, and the right path through which you can gain contact. Taking things a step further, if you are looking for all the people on the LinkedIn network with the same job title or industry as someone you know, it's just a click away. Quickly, you can find all the System Administrators who work in Colorado, for instance, and then perform your own due diligence to contact them, should you choose.

There's some silliness to it, of course. Is it a race to see who can get the most connections, like it was in high school, when you got quasi-friends to sing your yearbook? Probably. But it doesn't take a brain scientist to determine it has some strong potential.

Related Links: LinkedIn | My Web Profile | Full Profile

When I was in junior high, my grandparents got me an alarm clock with AM/FM radio, and that radio made it with me all the way through high school, college, three moves and the first two years of being married. Surely, it was a lot more dingy looking and unimpressive, but when the thing went off - I woke up. That's what it was supposed to do.


This Christmas, when shopping for others at the Apple Store, I picked up something that would immediately obsolete that old thing - the iHome iH5. Forget the name for a second... think of an alarm clock that works with your iPod in the morning, waking you up to any song you have, and then doubles as a soundsystem for the iPod the rest of the day. It's great. And the sound is very good too - Volume 10 is good enough for filling a room, and the sucker goes all the way up to 40 - not that the neighbors would be too happy about that.

If you have an iPod already and haven't given much thought to taking your alarm clock into the digital age, it's time. Check it out.