Disqus - Latest Comments for firewallender

Re: Why Speakers Shouldn’t Be Paid

firewallender — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:19:22 -0000

"I'm against the dogpile of every social media consultant demanding payment without bringing things to the table."

Totally agree. One joy of paying for something is you totally have the right to likewise fire their arse if they are doing a terrible job. I'd say if you run into these types of speakers, be sure to give feedback (in a kind, constructive criticism sort of way, of course) to the event organizer so they know not to bring those people back.

Re: Why Speakers Shouldn’t Be Paid

andrewhyde — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:00:28 -0000

Love your comment.

I'm not against paying spears at all, I'm against the dogpile of every social media consultant demanding payment without bringing things to the table.

That, I think, is my biggest gripe. Go to conferences and the people you see the most not attending anything are the people doing the most amazing things. The content is uninteresting and bland. Public enemy #1 of this is the paid mediocre repeat speaker.

Or so I thought this morning.

Love your last comment. There is room for a lot of types / ways to do a conference. What I like everyone else doesn't... but I have to keep wondering how to make things great :)

Re: Why Speakers Shouldn’t Be Paid

firewallender — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:33:52 -0000

I dunno, Andrew, I think I'm with Jeremy on this one. Painting paying speakers as a bad idea is a bit too broad. And this is coming from someone who loves the unconference community and is on the BarCamp Seattle organizing team.

First of all, time is money, and you're taking this person's time. Just because they need to go home at the end of the weekend and pay a mortgage or put their kids through school doesn't mean they aren't passionate about a subject. If a person's good at sharing information and they want to share that information and people would pay to hear that information, why not pay them to do it? It's not selling out just because you're paid - it's enabling the person to do something that everyone wants them to do. It's a win-win situation. As soon as it's not a win-win situation, that speaker stops filling seats. The market adjusts itself. We pay for things when we feel they bring us value.

And who cares if they've said it 40 times? Students pay teachers to say the same things they said to the class before them every year. If the speaker's doing a bad job or coming off as uninterested in their own subject matter, you can bet people will be not excited to see them and vote with their feet.

The unconference model is great - but, they each have their own strengths. You don't have to pay with your money, but you're expected to pay with your involvement - come more prepared to share something interesting just like those around you. You don't get a guarantee that the speakers are going to talk well, or on something you find fascinating, because it's not public information before you come. But, a little uncertainty is a fair trade for the awesomeness you're *probably* going to find in some of the sessions.

Different people enjoy the different approaches. I enjoy both. It's like the difference between trading baseball cards and buying comics. We don't need to dislike one to enjoy the other.

Re: Eliminate the 'sleaze' factor on your next date with Date Check

Marc — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:47:09 -0000

I agree with Firewallender. In addition, I think if you're hanging out places where your potential dates have criminal records, then you have problems Naveen Jain cannot solve.

As for the business practices of Intellius and Jain, I suggest readers "look up before you hook up." If they were subjected to the same test they wouldn't get very high marks.

Re: Why Apple nixed my iPhone app

firewallender — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:17:00 -0000

LOL

Re: Eliminate the 'sleaze' factor on your next date with Date Check

firewallender — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:11:04 -0000

It's kind of creepy in and of itself to run background checks on people. I mean, I have a clean record but if I sat down to dinner on a first date and my date leaned over and said, "So, in your background check it said..." I would probably walk away as soon as possible.

Re: Daily Burn iPhone App

firewallender — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:49:12 -0000

Nice! I've been waiting for this app for a long time - downloading now!

Re: Too Small a World

firewallender — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:18:30 -0000

I also thought of this book as soon as I saw this post!

Re: Gas station murder suspect ‘armed and dangerous’

firewallender — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:04:02 -0000

Fear is a natural response of a body made to fight for it's own survival. A healthy dose of reality that other people are willing to hurt you is fine. Being afraid isn't being a "bad citizen" unless by citizen you mean sheep.

My advice? Let your fear motivate you to protect yourself, so that the killer has a reason to be afraid of the law-abiding citizens. Don't just put your head in the sand, do something to sure up your confidence and calm your fear. What you do depends on you personally, but you could install a security system, take self defense, arm yourself with an alarm/pepper spray/a concealed weapon, etc.

It's true, the chances of you being attacked are very, very slim. However, being a "good citizen" will not protect you.

Re: DailyMile (I love this site)

andrewhyde — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:30:11 -0000

Both are great. This is only for tracking running / biking / swimming while DailyBurn helps with weights and nutrition.

Re: DailyMile (I love this site)

firewallender — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:16:15 -0000

How's it stack up to DailyBurn? Or is that just apples vs. oranges?

Re: On the Heroism of Cassie Wallender

firewallender — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:55:24 -0000

The articles and letters I've received have floored me. It's not everyday you wake up to find yourself quoted on major media outlets, I am completely humbled. Some of the letters brought tears to my eyes.

Seriously, I would wish that no one would be impressed that I stood up to racism, as it is a normal humane reaction. I am no hero. Hundreds of YRs are outraged at this behavior. I am not an exception. She is the exception, not the rule.

Re: A Medieval Translation of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”

firewallender — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:01:07 -0000

Epic!

Re: I think you might be confusing ‘tyranny’ with ‘losing’.

firewallender — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:27:34 -0000

While Jon is hilarious, and always cracks me up, like Rush Limbaugh (ugh) he is firstly entertainment, and secondly actual political reporting. Tea parties were not about targeting Obama alone, they are the result of 8+ years of overspending, this last stimulus package push was just the straw that broke the camel's back. The media on the left has twisted it into some Republican anti-tax movement as a strawman argument, and the media on the right has claimed it as it's own to try to steal some glory from it. But it's really been a grassroots movement, started by a few people here and there around the country (one of the first was my friend Keli in Seattle, a math teacher who was fed up).

Re: Twitter Tattoo Contest

firewallender — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:14:04 -0000

ZOMG.

Re: RT @billnordwall: Well-played, Guild 45th....

firewallender — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:44:27 -0000

AWESOME.

Re: Mashable on Tumblr - Bill Gates Releasing Mosquitoes on Audience A...

firewallender — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:52:29 -0000

Thanks for sharing.

Re: Where The Fun’s At 2

andrewhyde — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:04:44 -0000

Oh, yeah, will do that!

Thanks for the feedback.

Re: Where The Fun’s At 2

firewallender — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:48:51 -0000

Fun show, good topics, clear audio, and love the cabin background!

My only suggestion is to have a list of links after your embedded video to the things you've mentioned... not because we can't Google, but because it makes it easy on the watchers and people are laaaazy... and if you make sure they open up in a new window people can click about while watching.

Re: A Message To Twitter Spammers:

firewallender — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:24:04 -0000

It would be nice in the email notification one receives from Twitter if they listed the stats you mention above, Andrew, as well as the person's bio and last ten or so tweets with timestamps. Then you wouldn't even have to leave your email if they appeared spammy, you could just delete the email and be done with them.

Twitter also needs a "friends you have in common" feature, which would help you determine if the person is someone you might bump into in real life or online in your field of interest, without having to dig deep into the person's tweet history and list of who they are following.

Re: My Mining Cabin

firewallender — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:11:16 -0000

This just cracks me up. I love it.

Re: President Bush, Santa do the “Terrorist Fist Jab”

firewallender — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:40:16 -0000

Did the Republicans really coin that phrase?

Re: Ignore Early Adopters

firewallender — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:07:01 -0000

Plurk. Ughhhhhh. So unsightly.

Another thing to keep in mind - first adopters are first quitters as well, one only has so much time to spend on these things.

Re: Tricking gmail into talking to itself.

firewallender — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:49:37 -0000

Yay! Creating infinite loops is fun for the whole family!

Re: Exclusive: (Fake) Sarah Palin Twitter Interview

Cassie — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:48:27 -0000

Dumb. Not news. Not funny.