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portentint

487 karma · joined December 3, 2010

Marketer. Nerd. Nerdy marketer.
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portentint··on Amazon Glacier
Worst. name. ever.
portentint··on Lie More, as a Business Model
BECOMING a business model?

The liars tend to win, because they make the superior claims. And for whatever reason, the customers can't give up on the idea that maybe this ONE outrageous promise, this ONE time, is actually for real.

It's like playing the lottery: Statistically you're better off running outside and screaming "THROW MONEY AT ME". But people still play.

portentint··on Your infographic isn't an infographic. It's just a crappy graphic.
It wasn't 10, honest. I just can't count. Which is why I use computers and stuff. They count gooder than me.
portentint··on Your infographic isn't an infographic. It's just a crappy graphic.
A bit ironic that I mis-counted in the URL, I know. Sorry about that.
portentint··on Your infographic isn't an infographic. It's just a crappy graphic.
Also check out "Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis". Another great one.
portentint··on How to make a site really freaking fast
Well, of COURSE as soon as I say we made it faster, we screw something up. It's some kind of blogging rule.
portentint··on How to make a site really freaking fast
Don't mean to overhype, xamuel. For us non-geeks, this is pretty mind-boggling stuff.
portentint··on Information is free. Knowledge is not.
Yup. The 'build it' approach assumes that having a blueprint means you're the best person to do the job.
portentint··on Google's Kenyan ripoff?
Seems a little too clumsy for Google. I WILL say, though, that their PR handling of late makes them more vulnerable to this kind of BS. "Don't be evil" only works if you aren't, well, EVIL.
portentint··on Bullshit
At, [insert airline name here], we care about you.
portentint··on Sleep Deficit: The Performance Killer
Thanks. I actually run a company - I have to constantly watch people and make the effort/results separation. Folks never understand when they get a negative review "for putting in 12-hour days." See, it's because you spend 4 hours/day running in circles.
portentint··on Sleep Deficit: The Performance Killer
In corporations this is a classic prisoner's dilemma: If EVERYONE agreed that they'd be sane and work optimal 40-50 hour weeks, it'd be great. But someone always 'defects', going to 80+ hours in an effort to show off. The result is actually lower efficiency, but since most corporations do very little track efficiency and results (they track effort, instead), it doesn't get caught.
portentint··on Eager Android fans line up for Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus
Must be a really slow news day. What are there, 20 people in line?
portentint··on Hey Google, thanks for making my daughter cry.
Not sure I'd blame Google as much as COPPA, and the politicians who think parents can't make this choice on their own.

Of course, our kids can still find p0rn, violence and who-knows-what-else online with no filtering whatsoever. But at least they can't blog about it.

portentint··on Open Source Needs a New UI
It's all about time. You're writing an open-source project - I know SOME lucky folks get paid to do it, but not most - and you have to just get the damned thing working. Once you do, you have to go back to your job, or whatever else feeds your face. The UX has to wait. And wait. And wait.
portentint··on IBM Watson to battle patent trolls
They actually have a significant interest in fighting the trolls. They have a LOT of legit patents, and little to gain by trolling.

Go Watson!

portentint··on Save the Internet - the pressure is working
Just curious: Who's going to read them?
portentint··on Save the Internet - the pressure is working
It's by design. Our system is built to prevent what the framers of the Constitution called 'tyranny of the majority'.

A small group can, if it's sufficiently organized, stop something like SOPA.

portentint··on Basecamp Next
They're going to add secondary mailing addresses!!!!!!!!!!!!!
portentint··on NASA Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star
When do we leave? Oh, yeah... WE DON'T HAVE A MANNED SPACE PROGRAM ANY MORE. Grrrrrrr.

Yes, I know it's impossibly far away. I just find it harder to get excited about this these days. And yes, I know that's not totally rational.

But yeah, what cletus said. Depressing.

portentint··on ME student discovers a unique fact about polar bears
So, if you see nothing, there could be a polar bear RIGHT THERE.
portentint··on NYC Man Earns $55,000 A Year Peddling Candy On Subway
This guy is selling through pure hustle. I find it hard to criticize him when he's working his ass off, every day, to earn a buck for his family. He's not mugging anyone. He's not stealing. He's not, in fact, doing any harm at all.

I bet most of the people bitching on here would complain even more if this were a story about how he's collecting welfare.

portentint··on Is Firefox Doomed?
Google's developing Chrome as part of their 'headless' browser, which now powers their crawler. If I had to guess, they'll keep Firefox around as a partner to cover all their bets. Between that and Chrome, they have a nice chunk of market share to compete against Internet Elephant.
portentint··on I too know the websites you visited
Missed about 75% for me.
portentint··on Rand Fishkin: Inbound Marketing for Startups
"You can't just do awesome shit in your products"

Amen!

portentint··on The Golden Age of Internet Marketing?
Really well put. The author's right, but I'm sensing he feels this is revolutionary. It's not. It's been coming for a long, long time, as display gets moved more to the 'branding' column and paid discovery, paid search and other technologies get more and more love from marketers.
portentint··on Average webmaster dumber than rocks: Response code survey
Drives me nuts, too. Plus .NET overrides default server settings, which I've never understood. Why make things even more complicated? Oh, wait. it's Microsoft...
portentint··on Galaxy Nexus Review
Great. Another blindingly fast phone that sucks batteries dry. I love the zippiness, really, but I need a phone that runs longer than 4 hours, K? I actually use my phone TO MAKE PHONE CALLS.
portentint··on Mathematical Analysis of Newt Gingrich Twitter Follower's
Without knowing WHEN folks joined, it's hard to tell. But the real point of the article is that Newt's followers don't stink any more than anyone else's.

Trust me, I am NOT A FAN. When I started doing the research I really was hoping to help blow Gingrich's campaign apart. But there's just nothing going on here.

portentint··on The Google+ project: Real life sharing, rethought for the web.
Destined to eclipse even Google Wave, I'm sure.
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