natalalala in seattle: Blog

moblogging

Tue, 01 May 2007 16:54:33 GMT

i am now mobile blogging to spaces from my blackjack. sweet.

twittering

Tue, 01 May 2007 02:43:16 GMT

So i have become completely addicted to twitter. AND i was super excited to find out that I could add a twitter module to my space! just added :) check it out.

p.s. yes chris i also added the comments thingy too.

MGB = Super Excited

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 17:47:34 GMT

I'm currently in Hotlanta for the 2005 Microsoft Global Briefing. Last night Steve Ballmer spoke and he was amazing! This has been a really fun and worthwhile trip and I'm glad i got to attend. Hearing the overview of all of our products and where we are at and where we are going has been incredible.

more to come....in the interim, just know that we are all SUPER EXCITED.

WMW: John Batelle Keynote

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 16:43:09 GMT

It is Day 1 of the WebMaster World Conference. I'm planning to blog intermittently throughout the conference on the sessions I attend -- so here goes with the first update.

John Batelle just gave the Keynote and introduced his new company, FM Publishing. John talked a bit about Search, Web.20 and the transformation of web publishing.

Introduction / Web2.0:
- we used to think that whomever won the browser wars would win the internet...not the case, MSFT is still playing catch-up on internet services
- what we have found is that people search: "what you are trying to get to is what is important"
- it is about "content and services" not the software that gets you there
- he believes that companies that win are the ones that leverage the architecture of participation - they let their customers build their business for them.
- The value that is provided is not the content per se, but rather the innovation in assembly / organization and accessibility of the aggregated content
- and of course, like jason fried, he talked about the importance of utilizing small teams to accomplish big things and the value of the long tail.

Search:
- Search is our navigation tool
- the cultural impact of search has just began (i totally agree with him here -- we're still in the early ages of discovery...that's what makes this all so interesting!)
- Safa Rashtchy (lead investment analyst on search) thinks that the search advertising market will be ~$25B in 2010.

Publishing:
- Marketing in post search world: intent before content (are they looking for you?)
- Blogs are the ultimate definition of long tail
- A good blog has great editing/filtering, is deep linked and conversational. Currently they aren't monetized well -- but he expects the commercialization of blogs to come and that their current unmonetized state isn't a required attribute of good blogging
- He gave a great slide indicating the readership of some top blogs / aggregation sites:
   o BoingBoing 1.7 million
   o waxy.org - 700K
   o Searchblog = 90K
- The essence of great publications: conversations between Publisher-marketer-audience

He also talked a bit about Blog monetization and the opportunity for advertisers to connect with this massive publishing base -- and the complexity due to scale. He asked: How do you get your movie promo on 10,000 blogs targeting men 18-24,and make it easy to manage? Good question :) The key thing he notes is that bloggers want to be part of the conversation around which ads are shown on their site - they want to select the ads themselves. He also talked about how AdSense isn't really working for this market.

Federated Media (FM Publishing):
- authors own their own site and their own content
- music label for blogs
- very selective -- start w/ tech culture, then going to games etc.

I was surprised that John's new company doesn't leverage the long tail in a deep way-- it would seem to me that he would want top blogs as sort of premier distribution partners but then through affiliation he could leverage a large network of categorized blogs -- maybe letting people categorize their entry and if it relates add that content to his publishing / ad connection platform. hmmm.

Going to New Orleans

Mon, 20 Jun 2005 01:11:52 GMT

I will be at the WebMasterWorld conference this week (Monday June 18 afternoon thru Friday June 22). I plan to update my blog with coverage on the sessions and general information about the conference.

Update: I just checked the weather forecast...and uhm, i think i may melt. The forecast has it in the 90's every single day i am there! i heart air conditioning...

Blue Scholars - Friday Night

Thu, 16 Jun 2005 19:49:19 GMT

I'm heading out to see Blue Scholars (my new favorite local band) tomorrow night at Chop Suey. Details below. I think we are meeting for drinks somewhere before -- i'll update the space with that info. If you are interested in coming, please join me!

Blue Scholars @ Chop Suey
Friday, June 17, 2005
10:00 PM Show
Tickets are $5, $8 at the Door.

I've blogged before about how great these guys are, but in case i haven't enrolled you, here's a snippet from the review in the stranger:
" The group's political commitment is matched by a strong commitment to place-to Seattle's streets and neighborhoods, particularly the University District. Their new track "The Ave" is not only about the life that streams through that corridor of restaurants and stores, but is also composed of samples from LPs purchased on the Ave. The group's masterpiece, however, is "Inkwell," which is both hiphop art and social document-a local history of rap "since big butts and teen spirit" dropped in the early '90s. The track has a delicious Latin guitar lick and a booming drum loop that offers Geologic firm ground on which to travel from past to present. " (Read more...)

another quote i like:
"THE VICTOR: SEATTLE If Seattle hiphop is going to blow up, it's going to happen soon. The Boom Bap Project and the Blue Scholars are part of the hiphop revolution that will transform the sound of our city for years to come. "

anyways, if you are in seattle, show your sea-tac pride and support the local boys in their hippity-hoppity re-release album party.

Talking about My house

Tue, 31 May 2005 21:30:09 GMT

Quote

My house
If you are on the Microsoft corpnet, check out this place: My house

i heart...

Thu, 07 Apr 2005 06:28:07 GMT

this t-shirt would look bad on women.

however, it got me to wondering about the demographics behind ipod users -- are there more women or men with ipods? what's the lifestyle of the average user? are they scappy music fans or bach-loving-reformed geeks? all things considered, i'm betting men and mostly gay men. I'm basing this on no data whatsoever -- other than that the ipod is a metrosexual gadget --it is really more of an accessory.

updated space

Thu, 07 Apr 2005 06:20:18 GMT

it was almost balmy today in seattle, and so to celebrate the rise in temperature, and the new spaces release, i've updated the look and feel of my blog with the "simple green" theme.

i swear i will start blogging more soon.

mixulator

Mon, 07 Feb 2005 15:59:06 GMT

this "mixulator" by joto/ bblsp is just plain fun. http://www.jotto.com/bubblesoap/mixer.html

Tsunami Relief Resources

Tue, 04 Jan 2005 17:14:56 GMT

International aid organizations:
UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund)
United Nations' World Food Programme
Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors without Borders (donate!)
CARE International
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

UK/Europe:
Disasters Emergency Comittee (DEC) - comprises a raft of aid agencies, including the below and others
British Red Cross
Oxfam
Save the Children UK

North America:
American Red Cross
Canadian Red Cross
Save The Children
Oxfam America
Trackback: Anders Jacobsen: Webloggers: Give to tsunami victims and I'll give too!

or Donate via 1-click: here.

sunset tavern

Wed, 15 Dec 2004 08:33:10 GMT

Andrea & jenilee invited me to see their friend, Sara Cahoon, sing tonight at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard. I had never been to Ballard before so this was something of a new experience for me. They described the area as "minnesota-like" which means something to us as we all lived in Minneapolis at one point. and, in fact, Ballard did remind me of MN -- it has this sorta folksy-artsy-homey feel to it. and it was cold.

The tavern was fun - a good crowd of people showed up to support their friends and Sara was *awesome* -- even though she said she was "fu@#&ing nervous" she really didn't seem to be that way to me. She has a truly beautiful voice.

however, the one thing i have to say that I can't stand about bars in seattle is that they permit indoor smoking and that is just gross. you end up coming home and reeking. ick. it's horrible. it needs to stop. Give the smokers a heat lamp and an outdoor patio...i'd be ok with that. If NYC -- New York City!!! -- can get rid of smoking in bars (as does the state of CA) then little seattle should be able to do the same. I am assuming that there must be a huge dry-cleaning union that makes a ton of money off of people having to get their coats cleaned often to get rid of smoke that keeps this awful system in place. I really hope it changes soon.

enough ranting. on another note, I'm totally addicted to Jem. Listen!

how popular is your name?

Thu, 09 Dec 2004 16:49:39 GMT

Enter in a name into this tool and it shows the popularity rank for that name in each decade over the last 100 years. It is a fun, slightly addictive tool with a couple of notes: (1) it's US centric (i.e. there will be zero results for amit - probably the most popular indian name) and (2) it will list your searches on the right in the "names you've tried" section.

it takes time for the ship of culture to change course

Wed, 08 Dec 2004 09:29:41 GMT

I read this post from john batelle month's ago, and it still strikes me as one of the more important statements to come from David Filo at Yahoo:

From the entry (filo makes a point)on batelle's blog:
[John Batelle] asked if they still believed in the vision and hype of the mid 90s - about how the internet was going to change everything... Filo came out with a great line about the early promise of the internet - that we'd all become creators and producers of content - and how long it takes to fulfill:

That was the promise of the internet from day one -when Mosaic came out the whole idea was that anybody could publish now, that was the new thing ...yet it took this long to get to simple blogging... If you said ten years ago that you could have blogging in ten years, and that will be the extent of it, people wouldn't have been that impressed.

Indeed. In 1994, anyone claiming that in ten years, we'd have a robust self-publishing movement like blogging would have been drummed out of the room for a lack of vision.

----
10 years!!

first assistant secretary to the under secretary of the secretary of the ...

Wed, 08 Dec 2004 03:19:59 GMT

Over 1/2 of President Bush's Cabinet has left....leaving many a secretarial position open. All Things Considered played a bit by satirists Bruce Kluger ans David Slavin -- where they've created a mock commercial for White House secretaries. Listen to the clip...it's quite funny.

my eyeball

Sun, 05 Dec 2004 02:03:54 GMT

i debated not posting these pictures to my blog, since well, they could be perceived as being a bit graphic / gross. but well, i just think they are so interesting!

scoop: i went to get my vision checked at the bellevue vision clinic (thanks vladka for the tip). It looks like i'm becoming near-sighted from all my time on the computer. yikes! My doc has prescribed reading glasses so that we can maybe correct it....we'll see. (bad pun... i know).

anyways, what impressed me most was the technology! all the tests they did were automated and produced really accurate results -- and there was so much data! One of the cooler things was that they actually took a picture of my retina -- thus the creepy picture below. I recommend clicking on the picture and seeing it on Flickr -- as i've posted notes on the picture to highlight some of the cool details.

note: duplicate entry from natala la la.

provo pet laws

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 00:09:28 GMT

i just posted on my main blog about Provo's law that prohibit's households from having more than two pets. Yep. Click HERE to read my post.

my other blog...

Thu, 02 Dec 2004 04:07:36 GMT

is located on blogger: http://natala.blogspot.com

testing 1.2.3..

Thu, 02 Dec 2004 04:01:41 GMT

well...check this out....here i am, taking space...