Market Like You Mean It

At first I thought this video was kind of dumb, but it really grew on me. I can’t believe all the places this guy has been. I wish I’d been to a fraction of the countries this guy’s been. (Sigh… someday.)

Anyway here’s Where the Heck is Matt?

Who is this guy?

Okay now I’m sure you’re wondering “Who is this guy?” Well I’ll tell you. He’s a normal kid. He’s not rich or famous. His name is Matt Harding. He’s a left-handed “deadbeat from Connecticut”. Apparently his friend filmed him one time doing his silly little dance. He posted the video to his blog and it got kinda popular. This made him “quasi-famous”. Eventually it caught the attention of one of the awesome marketing guys at Stride Gum who suggested that Stride sponsor Matt to go do his dance all over the world. And the rest is history.

Matt took a six-month trip and visited 39 counties doing his silly little dance. Not surprisingly, that video got watched a lot too. Now he was “semi-famous”. After Matt’s return he got thousands of emails from people all over the world inviting him to come back and dance with them. In 2007 Matt approached Stride Gumand suggested the idea. They thought that would be cool too so off Matt went. This time he took 14 months and visited 42 countries.

All I have to say is, Stride is awesome.

Read more about Matt on his website.

I just heard (via) that 360desktop is now available in public beta. DON’T USE IT!

Okay fine, use it if you want to, but I’m pretty sure you’ll be uninstalling pretty quickly. Why? Because it’s lame.

First of all, who wants to scroll sideways anywhere, let alone on their desktop? Every time you want to switch to a different section, you’ve got to grab your mouse and go find it. (That’ll get old quick.) Second of all, why in heaven’s name would I want banner ads on my desktop? Isn’t the desktop supposed to be one of our safe havens away from advertising?

Here’s a better idea… use a multiple desktop program. You’ll be able to use quick keyboard shortcuts to jump directly to where you want. And there aren’t any ads. If you’re really dying for something new for your desktop, try one of these:

• Virtual Desktop Manager (see bonus item)
• Bumptop

Because 360desktop sucks.

I just read a blog post about a user’s experience with Mozy. He had great user experience. No problems installing it, configuring it, etc. Then he read the terms-of-service (TOS) and got scared.

C’mon people, do you actually think a company would just hand over your data to anyone with a badge that walks in the door? I don’t care what company it is. I don’t care what country its in. NO company would want the P.R. nightmare that would accompany giving up their customers’ data.

Of course Mozy’s TOS says that they will comply with a court order to hand over your data if subpoenaed. That’s the law. But here’s the thing… if you’re concerned about it… use the dang private key. Mozy offers it for a reason: IT REMOVES THE COMPANY’S ABILITY TO DECRYPT YOUR DATA.

So supposing a federal official did come along and ask for your data; and suppose he did have a valid warrant; and suppose Mozy’s lawyers were unable to contest the subpoena and had to had over your data… guess what that federal official would get… that’s right… a bunch of ones and zeros. It would be completely meaningless information and impossible to decrypt.

So go ahead and try Mozy. And if you’re still not satisfied… wait until the data center is open in Europe.

(Disclosure: Yes, I work for Mozy. No, this isn’t an official company blog.)

After nearly a year working for Mozy, I’ve discovered something important. Mozy sucks at softball. Sure, we’re dang awesome at online backup and even do quite well at Rockband and Guitar Hero. But there’s no getting around it… it turns out Mozy isn’t so hot after all at softball… in fact, when it comes to softball, Mozy sucks.

In other news… Mozy is hiring. If you’re a fan of things like: free snacks in the breakroom, Rockband/Guitar Hero, Pizza Wednesdays, Hawaiian shirt Fridays, and just working for an awesome company… leave a comment. (And if you’re any good at softball… you’re hired.)

(via) June 17th, 2008 will go down in history as the day Mozilla fixed the browser and broke the web. Firefox 3 may have drastically improved the browser, but they definitely broke the web today. I couldn’t access their “Download Day” site for hours. And my internet browsing in general was painful for the rest of the day.

Couldn’t they have better anticipated the response they’d get? After all, they made their “pledge site” available weeks ago. Didn’t that give them some idea of how much traffic they’d need to sustain?

Here’s a little shameless self promotion. I just released my new CMS tool “Starpointe CMS“.

It’s an easy-to-use content management system that anyone can use (but it’s specifically helpful for managing small business websites). You don’t have to switch hosting companies or anything… just tell me you’re interested and I’ll get it installed on your website so you can begin managing it yourself.

If you’re interested in trying it out, leave a comment below and I’ll waive your setup fee.

Because my post “Pimp Your PC to Simulate Vista” has been so popular, I’ve decided to do a follow up.

Ever see your Apple-luvin’ buddies using Quicksilver on their Macs and felt a tiny twinge of jealousy? There’s a solution. Get Quicksilver for Windows. Okay it’s not really “Quicksilver” but it accomplishes much the same function (and even comes with a variety of sexy skins). It’s called Launchy.

If you’re completely unfamiliar with Quicksilver, here’s a brief explanation. Quicksilver and Launchy are program launchers. That means that with a quick keystroke (”alt” + “spacebar” by default) you get a simple little search box in the center of your screen. Start typing a program name (or website) and Launchy will suggest the most likely program. If it’s not quite what you hoped for, wait a second and it’ll suggest some alternatives. And the best part is…the longer you use it…the smarter (i.e. more accurate) it gets.

What other programs do you like to use on your PC? What do you wish you had? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

This post has moved to the Starpointe Marketing blog.


Mac users, rejoice! The moment you’ve been waiting for is finally here. MozyHome for Mac is making its 1.0 debut as the first unlimited online backup service for the Mac.

Backing up your files has never been so sexy.

UPDATE: Use code MACMOZY to get a sweet discount on 1- and 2-year plans (expires at midnight on May 8th).

I would like to give a round of applause to Ben Stein’s movie Expelled for exposing a serious problem: the refusal of scientists to accept a rivaling theory. In fact, not only are they unwilling to accept it, they’re downright unwilling to co-exist with it. I’m talking about the theory of creationism.

Why is it such a problem to believe that a supreme creator may have created this world? This doesn’t (necessarily) contradict your theory that animals evolve and the fittest will survive. It actually has the potential of meshing with it quite seamlessly. (Does anyone know how God created the world? For all we know…it was by placing a little amoeba into a drop of water and commanding it to grow and evolve. And after we die and figure that out, he’ll say, “Boy what of bunch of bickering kids you are.”)

Mr. Stein’s movie has been panned by almost everyone that calls himself an evolutionist or Darwinist and I’m not in the least bit surprised. In fact it only goes to prove his point even further…that these people are absolutely unwilling to even consider coexisting with such a line of thought. STOP THE BICKERING!!! Let’s just all smile at each other and say, “You know what? I might be wrong, you might be wrong, we both might be wrong, or we both might be right. Let’s work towards developing a process for teaching both views, and let individuals choose for themselves what they agree with.”

And by the way, go watch Ben Stein’s movie and visit the Expelled website for more information.

I’ve been in the process of redesigning my business site for a little while now. It’s not quite ready yet but it’s almost there. (For those of you who don’t know, I do marketing and design for small business on the side.)

As part of that redesign…I’ll be attempting to start doing any business related blogging over there at the Starpointe Marketing Blog. That should free up this blog to be more of my fun/random blog.

I hope you like the changes.

Just wanted to take a moment and wish everyone a happy Earth Day. Now I’m no hardcore environmentalist or anything. I’m just as wasteful as the next guy. But I do think it’s important to take a moment to consider our impact on the world around us.

For about a year now, my wife and I have been looking for tiny, painless ways we can reduce our wastefulness. For example, we’ve started declining plastic bags at the grocery store whenever we feel like we can carry what we’ve bought in our hands. We also try to bundle up a little more at home rather than keep the heater running non-stop.

What else can we do? I welcome your recommendations in the comments.