Greg Hartnett

A couple of months ago, I stumbled across some funny photos in Flickr. Some people had taken some “I crush your head” photos, and created a group - a tribute to an old Kids in the Hall skit. I got a kick out of it, saw some traffic opportunities, and took some pictures of my own (these pics have brought me over a thousand visitors, BTW).

Somebody in the group had pointed out that last week, Yahoo’s The 9 had run a spot about the Flickr group. Too funny - unfortunately none of my pics made the video spot. Aside from the fact that the name seems like a rip off of Scoble’s Channel 9, I am impressed with the offering. Though the product seems a little cheesy now (that girl reminds me too much of the ever-annoying Jillian Barberie), I admire the effort, and I think they’ll improve upon it over the months to come.

I have become more and more impressed with Yahoo over the last six months. Their bold 2.0 strategy seems to be making significant strides, and I would venture to guess they will use their recent successes as launching pads for future endeavors.

Until M$FT gets their act together (they will), it appears to be a two pony race. Yahoo and Google battling for the user experience. I find myself becoming more of a Yahoo person that a Googler. Though I believe Google’s search to be superior to Yahoo’s, I think Yahoo beats Google in almost every other contest.

So hypothetically, if you HAD TO choose one site, which would it be - Google or Yahoo?

Regular readers of this blog, and those who know me personally, know how I feel about torture and human rights, in general. I have written here, and on my linkblog, about Guantanamo and various other atrocities committed throughout the ages. Most in the name of safety, freedom, and/or religion.

I stumbled upon some reading tonight, and it compelled me enough to action. Bloggers Against Torture is a site committed to spreading the word about torture worldwide - “A blogger alliance against torture”. So I figured… I blog. I’m against torture. And I signed up.

I also pledged to sponsor them in the 24 hour Blogathon - July 29. Proceeds going to Amnesty International USA. If you are so inclined, the sponsorship process is very easy, and you don’t even have to part with any of your cash right now.

How many jobs have you had? How many jobs or tasks have you taken for which you were completely unqualified?� Back in the day, I was the king of “fake it until you make it”.

Until I started my own company, I made the rounds working for the man. I tried my hand in various industries, mostly white collar, though I was no stranger to menial labor.  I always had high aspirations. I knew that there was no way that I was going to be working in the mail room for a living, and without the fancy Ivy League degree, I was looking at a low ceiling in corporate America. So, I learned pretty quickly that in order to get ahead, I’d need to do a little bull-shitting.

Fortunately, I was born with the gift of gab - a talent further developed by my love of reading. I mastered the art of the interview, and was able to quickly identify the qualifications that I needed to possess, and subsequently portray, in order to get the job. You need somebody with software experience? I got it. Team player? That’s me. Sales experience? You betcha. Supervisory talents? Out the wazoo. Got some puzzles or problems? Bring ‘em on.

By listening intently to what the other person says during the interaction, you should be able to identify what they need to hear in order to close the deal. Nine times out of ten, if you listen properly, they will tell you exactly what they need to hear, and feel, in order to give you what you want. By focusing in on those factors, and manipulating them to your advantage, you should be able to snag the prize.

Sometimes, it works out. Sometimes it doesn’t. If you are sharp, and learn quickly, you should be able to fake your way through the first steps. Most of the times, you get some slack for taking on the new role. However, you’ll need to get your shit together quickly, and follow through on your promises.

So don’t be afraid to reach for the golden ring. Go for that job or project that is completely above you. Start the journey- maybe you’ll try, fail, and even get fired. Better than wasting away in mediocrity.

For those of you in the SEO industry, Shoemoney has become a pretty popular name. For those of you in the real world, Shoemoney is the pseudonym of affiliate marketer extraordinaire, Jeremy Schoemaker. I met Jeremy at SES San Jose 2005, and we really hit it off. I remember that he had brought his mother-in-law with him to the show, and I thought that was pretty cool. We had a bunch of drinks, talked some shop, and have stayed in contact ever since. I now count Jeremy as not only one of my work acquantainces, but one of my friends as well, and always look forward to seeing him at the conferences.

Jeremy now hosts the NetIncome show on WebmasterRadio.fm, and was kind enough to invite me to be his guest this evening. We’ll be talking about what’s new in the search industry, million dollar ideas, conferences, BOTW, and much more. The show airs tonight, 6PM EST. If you haven’t tuned in to WebmasterRadio before, you should. Tonight

If there is anything you’d like me to cover, let me know, and I’ll try to squeeze it in. Feel free to call in to the show, or hop into the chat room during the show. I know from previous shows that it can get pretty busy, so get there early.

It would appear that Sifry and company have completed the anticipated redesign of the popular blog search engine Technorati. Though they are a competitor of our blog search engine, I must admit that Technorati is definitely the market leader in technology, quality of product, and market share. They definitely know their shit, and continue to make advances in their offering.

I like the overall layout of the new site, and am digging on the new bells and whistles. While the core functionality remains the same, there are significant upgrades to services, as well as some new features. Instead of trying to go over everything here, simply take a look at the screencast they put together.

Kudos to the entire Technorati team. I look forward to trying to catch you.

Have you heard about WordCamp yet? If you use WordPress to power your blog, you may have seen mention of it on your dashboard (what an awesome feature for those guys) - there has been ongoing discussion for the last two weeks on the WP Blog. Between the off-track posts from the WP hipsters, there seems to be some useful information.

I have decided that since I am now only a couple hours away from San Francisco, I will try to make the trip down on the 5th. I love the idea of meeting some new people and finding out about all the cool shit going on at WP. I have been a huge fan of the WP platform for awhile now, and the WP community intrigues me as well. The people behind the whole project seem particularly smart and interesting, and it will be nice to put some faces with the names that have become so familiar to me.

The only wrench in the works being my pending trip to San Jose on the 7th. The SES show starts that Monday, and I was hoping to just cruise down early that morning. We have a new booth that is going to kick ass (goodbye to the bed sheet booth), and I’d like to arrive in time to help with the assembly. So, if I can figure out what to do about the time gap, and the extra days away, I will definitely make sure to attend.

If you plan on attending WordCamp, let me know. I’d love to get together and talk shop, and/or anything else that you find interesting. Additionally, if you plan on being at SES, please make sure to stop by the BOTW booth - we’ll have a cool new booth, lots of t-shirts, and discounts on all products and services. Hope to see you.

As I sit here this morning, catching up on some work related reading, I have CNN on my office TV. Of course the big news is the crisis taking place in the Middle East, and the talking heads have no shortage of theories to explain the controversy. The one thing I have yet to hear though is the role of the US in the growing hot-bed. Outside of the occasional discussion of whether or not the US will get involved (only if Israel asks for help), there seems to be no discussion of the responsibility of the US in the conflict.

Let us not forget that were it not for the US military industrial complex, the conflict in the Middle East would be fought with sticks and stones. Almost 80% of all casualties thus far have been civilian - women and children killed with missles and bombs manufactured here in the USA. Pennies per share for Lockheed Martin, earned with the blood and tears of brown women and children. A smalll price to pay to help hit the earnings numbers.

As the violence continues to escalate, and the troops progressively mount on the border, I wonder how this will turn out. How many additionl lives will be lost? How many shells will drop on Haifa, destroying families and infrastructure? How many Lebanese refugees will flee for their lives? Where will all these innocents go, and who will take them in? Who will be the first to flinch and proceed towards a peaceful resolution?

Further reading:

The Real Ugly American - Lebanese Government is Complicit; Cowardly

Shandyking - WWIII Has Started - Be Afraid, Very Afraid

HomeboyMediaNedws - Refugees find safe haven in Cyprus

NY Times - US Plan Seeks to Wedge Syria From Iran

A Gathering of Fools - Children Always Die

Safe and sound in sunny California. Thus far, the move has been a success - the only hitch when my POD was delayed for a day. Regardless of my yelling and screaming at any rep I could get, the delivery of my worldly possessions arrived one day late - providing not much more than a minor irritation for me and mine.

With my phones scheduled for installation tomorrow, my new home office is up and running. Though I’ll still need to properly furnish it, after tomorrow’s visit from Sure West, I should be rocking and rolling. It’s nice to be able to catch up with work, and get back into somewhat of a routine.

My digital camera is still packed away in some box, so I have not yet been able to take any pictures of the new pad. Once I locate it, I will shoot away.

I am very grateful that the move went pretty smoothly, and I plan on not doing it again for at least a decade. I once read some list of the most stressful things in life, and I recall moving being on that list. Now I know why…

I have always been a pretty avid reader. Encouraged to read at an early age, I spent many a childhood afternoon laying around the house reading a good book. I always saw my mother reading, and at the age of 11 I started dipping into her stash. It started off innocently enough, with a taste of William Golding and the occasional dose of Stephen King. Before too long I stumbled upon classics ranging from Faulkner and Hemingway to Salinger and Orwell. For my twelveth birthday I received the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I was officially hooked.

Fortunately, I have carried my love of reading into adulthood, and I actively encourage my little ones to read as much as they can. I find that I feel better about myself, and my brain actually functions better when I turn off the idiot box and grab a book to read. Now a bit more than half way through the year, I have finished reading 15 books - an assortment of business and other non-fictional offerings.

Hopefully after my move is complete, I will be able to resume a less frantic lifestyle, and get back to my books. So what are you currently reading, and would you recommend it to others?

My move to Roseville approaches rapidly. Now officially t-minus 10 days, the vast majority of the move related work lays behind us, with only a handful of issues unresolved. If I could just find a buyer for my old Explorer, I’d be groovy. I have a couple of leads on the sale, and if those fall through, I believe I’ll donate it.

With most of the hard stuff behind me, I have had the opportunity to spend some time reflecting on my pending move, and my time spent here on Long Island. While I am very excited to be moving, I find the pangs of nostalgia hitting me in the gut more and more frequently. I have spent a lot of time living on Long Island, and my family has now been here for 4 generations. It’s going to take some time to get used to not being here, and calling a new area our home.

Now that I have only a few days left at HQ, I have definitely been getting more and more nostalgic. For instance, I have been driving the same route to work for the last four years, and I took the exact route to college for almost six years. I have now been driving for almost 19 years (damn), and I have been cruising along the same roads 50% of that time.

I’ll miss how the Meadowbrook opens up after Roosevelt Field, permitting me to cruise the rest of my journey. I’ll miss that long stretch of Rt 106 - a five mile run of lightly populated road past multi-million dollar homes in Brookville and Muttontown. I’ll miss feeling like a genius when I hop off the Northern State Parkway at Post Ave when I see a glut of brake lights. I’ll even miss the frantic, side of the highway piss-stops, when that extra cup of coffee just refuses to stay put.

I will definitely miss spending time with my boys at the office. I have been truly blessed to have people to work with that I both respect and enjoy being around. Brian and I have been sharing an office for three years, and the thought of not being able to easily bounce an idea off him will take some getting used to. I’ll miss the sarcastic banter, and the sophomoric humor. I’ll miss the lunches (but not the cafeteria), the office basketball games, and the boardroom meetings. I know that things with the company won’t miss a step, but I do feel a bit sad about not being able to spend time with Brian and Jared - my coworkers and my friends. Luckily, our conference schedule will permit us to get together a handful of times every year, and I am sure that we will continue to snowboard and vacation together as well.

Even though we plan on staying in touch as much as possible with my mother and sister, I know that all of us will miss them dearly. My mother has played such an important role in both of my children’s lives, and I am sure that they will both miss her very much. Moreover, it will be difficult to know that my god-daughter Kiera will be so much bigger the next time I see her. Being so far away from my family will indeed be the most difficult part of our move.

Though I feel this growing sense of sadness, I am fully aware that it shall pass. My sadness is brought upon by my fear of the unknown, coupled with the inclination to grasp onto the things that you leave behind. I understand that all things must change - that change is the only true constant. Our move is just such a change, as are the emotions associated with the move. And both of those states will surely change in the months and years to come.

For the remainder of the time that I will call Long Island my home, I plan on carrying along as usual - spending time with friends and family for the upcoming holiday, and tying up as many loose ends as I can at work. I have a couple of special events planned before we get out of Dodge, and then the next chapter begins.

I cranked up my iPod this weekend to help with the tedium of packing. I have been exploring a bunch of different bands lately, but have neglected some of my favorites. Yesterday, I spent the entire day listening to the Beatles and the Grateful Dead - my two all time favorite bands.

While listening to some live Dead circa 1990, I caught a really good version of Throwing Stones - a Bob Weir composition examining the human condition. The lyrics are insightful and the music is vintage Dead. Check out the recently updated Official GD Site, and the home of GD Radio - 24/7 streaming Dead.

———————————————

Picture a bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free
Dizzy with eternity.
Paint it with a skin of sky, brush in some clouds and sea
Call it home for you and me.
A peaceful place or so it looks from space
A closer look reveals the human race.
Full of hope, full of grace, is the human face.
But afraid, we may our home to waste.

There’s a fear down here we can’t forget hasn’t got a name just yet
Always awake, always around singing ashes to ashes all fall down.

Now watch as the ball revolves and the nighttime calls
And again the hunt begins and again the bloodwind calls
By and by again, the morning sun will rise
But the darkness never goes from some men’s eyes.
It strolls the sidewalks and it rolls the streets
Stalking turf, dividing up meat.
Nightmare spook, piece of heat, you and me, you and me.

Click, flashblade in ghetto night. Rudies looking for a fight.
Rat cat alley roll them bones. Need that cash to feed that jones
And the politicians throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes all fall down.

Commissars and pin-striped bosses role the dice
Either way they fall guess who gets to pay the price.
Money green or proletarian gray, selling guns instead of food today.
So the kids they dance, they shake their bones
While the politicians throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes all fall down.

Heartless powers try to tell us what to think
If the spirit’s sleeping, then the flesh is ink.
History’s page, it is thusly carved in stone
The future’s here, we are it, we are on our own.
If the game is lost then we’re all the same
No one left to place or take the blame.
We will leave this place an empty stone
Or this shinning ball of blue we can call our home.

So the kids they dance, they shake their bones
While the politicians are throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes all fall down.

Shipping powders back and forth
Singing “black goes south while white comes north”
And the whole world full of petty wars
Singing “I got mine and you got yours.”
And the current fashions set the pace.
Lose your step, fall out of grace.
And the radical he rant and rage, Singing “someone got to turn the page”
And the rich man in his summer home,
Singing “Just leave well enough alone”
But his pants are down, his cover’s blown.

And the politicians are throwing stones
So the kids they dance they shake their bones
Cause its all too clear we’re on our own
Picture a bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free
It’s dizzying, the possibilities.
Ashes, Ashes all fall down.

Thanks to Dave for sending this my way.

The big news throughout the social networking crowd is the launch of what some are dubbing “AOL’s Digg-killer”. While I doubt that the launch of the new Netscape will spell the demise of Digg, it is indeed an impressive entry to the social arena.

I signed up for an account and have spent a couple of hours giving it a test run this afternoon. Here are 10 impressions that I have picked up from a cursory run. In an effort to show both sides, I have chosen 5 good things, and 5 things that need further work.

The Good:

1. Lots of categories. While Digg appeals to the geek crowd, Netscape promises more diversity of content with categories including Sex, Celebrities, Money, Sports, Videos, Technology, and many more.
2. Personalization. When you are signed in, the page displays the local information based upon the zip code you provide during the sign up process. Local information includes weather, and local news.
   
3. Pictures with Stories. It’s nice to see the picture to the right of each story that makes it to the front page. Used properly, a picture is worth a thousand words.
4. Usabiity. I like the simplistic colors, the navigation, and the use of the technology. Everything comes together nicely for a good overall experience. The “Related Stories” and Tag Cloud are both nice touches.
5. Anchors. Netscape’s version of an editor, the anchor serves to keep things moving along nicely, moving stories to the front page, helping with the conversation, and fostering the community. With Anchor Chat (soming soon) users will be able to “Chat live 24/7 with Netscape anchors on the day’s top stories!”

The Bad:

1. Owned by AOL. Even though the brass brought in 2.0 poster boy Jason Calacanis to run the show, the campy smell of AOL is hard to shake, and it permeates through here as well. Case in point - the cheesy avatars.
2. Limited Commenting. Current commenting does not allow for insertion of any HTML. Additionally, you can’t reply to other’s comments, making a coherent string of commenting nearly impossible.
3. Exiting to Story. It’s a bit cumbersome to get to the site that is being discussed. There is no access from the main page - you must navigate to the story’s individual page on Netscape, and then follow one of two little links. The more prominent option leads to a horrendous framed page. They definitely need to lose this.
4. Who’s Voting? There is no way to determine who is voting for any given story. you can see what stories a user has voted on by looking at the profile, but there is no way to see all the people who voted for a particular story.
5. Us and Them. Historically, most social networking sites tend to be very clique-ey, and Netscape’s offering doesn’t promise to break the mold. Already the flame wars begin, with a divisive attitude taking hold. Hopefully they will succedd here, while so many others have failed.

See what others are saying about the New Netscape:

Jeff Beckham The New Netscape - The New Journalism?
Steve Rubel First Look: Netscape’s Hybrid Journalism Site
Silicon Valley Sleuth AOL Takes a Shot at Social News
Search Engine Journal Netscape Relaunched as AOL Digg
Mashable Netscape’s Digg Clone - Good, but Needs More Ads

Approximately six months ago, I was speaking with a friend about how much information I consume on a daily basis. There is so much to digest, and with my interest in RSS and blogging, the amount has only increased exponentially over the last year. As I come across useful and interesting material from authors across the globe, my feed subscriptions grow daily and I find myself getting my news from an ever-widening circle of sources.

Back in February, I decided to start tracking the stuff I read. Part reference for future reading and part mindfulness training, I use my linkblog as a quick place to log what I read online daily. Thus far, it has worked out pretty well. Unfortunately, I don’t use it quite as much as I thought I would. I typically only throw in a handful of the highlights on a daily basis - I find that I get too distracted throughout the day to keep a truly accurate picture.

While doing it the past few months, I have learned a few things:

Another reason I like using my linkblog: I think it’s much better than merely commenting on somebody’s blog. If the author has taken the time to write something from which I have benefited, I feel that the least I can do is repay the author with the little bit of web currency that I have - a relevant link. When you comment on a blog, while you participate in the conversation, you don’t really help the author with any link building. Instead of simply commenting on the author’s blog, by using my linkblog I can have the same participation in the conversation, and show the author my appreciation for the information with a link from my linkblog. Furthermore, I am creating content on my own blog, while sharing a snippet of the content on the author’s blog. So, it works out as a win-win for each party.

Some notable linkblogs:

Jeremy Zawodny’s Linkblog
Erik’s Linkblog
Nelson Minar’s Linkblog
More Linkblogs

While we pat ourselves on our collective backs, celebrating the awesomeness of US military might in what our leaders are calling a major victory in the war on terrorism, we should take a moment to pay homage to all the others that have died during the illegal war in Iraq. But exactly who, and how many of them, should we mourn?

I was talking a couple of days ago with some friends, and we started discussing US soldiers wounded in Iraq. I wasn’t very surprised to learn that neither of them had an accurate idea on the number of casualties. The DoD is reluctant to release fully accurate data, and the media is happy to fall into line, but there are plenty of non-traditional resources out there to get some ideas. Even though it would appear that our leaders “don’t do body counts”, others are keeping track.

According to some of the data I have found, as of today, the grim numbers look something along the following:

US Deaths Confirmed by the DoD - 2480
US Deaths since “Mission Accomplished” - 2343
US Wounded According to the DoD - 17,869
Iraq Coalition Casualties - 4769
Iraqi Civilians Reported Killed - 38,254 to 42,646
Estimated Civilians Killed - more than 100,000
Women and children accounted for almost 20% of all civilian deaths
Cost of the War - $287,012,509,117 (that’s 287 billion)
Estimate Total Cost of War - over $2 trillion

While the above numbers are alarming on their own, they do not reflect the number of deaths that could have been prevented had the funds spent on the war been directed to health programs or feeding the poor. What type of strides could we have made in the advancement towards a cure for cancer or HIV had we dumped almost $300 billion there? How many children could have been fed with that money? How many schools could have been built? How many immunizations distributed? Factor in the implicit deaths that may have been averted, and the numbers grow considerably.

Even though Bill O’Reilly would have us believe that “everybody who is a loyal American should be celebrating, and not doing this other stuff” I would argue that it is at these times that we need to stand up and remind our leaders that we have not forgotten the others that have fallen. It is at times when we are feeling our most self righteous that we must stand back and put things in perspective. Dropping half a ton of explosives on a handful of bad guys doesn’t justify the carnage that we are unleashing on an undeserving people. The tens of thousands of casualties can’t be washed away, or blown to bits, with the obliteration of Zarqawi. A few dead bad guys will not wipe out the sins of the fathers.

How high does the casualty count need to climb before we decide to pull out? Perhaps that is the wrong metric to judge. Perhaps a better question is how much money do Haliburton and Bechtel need to make before we can stop the carnage? Once the US has a couple of new military bases set up, then can we pull out? Will another notch in the imperialistic belt be enough to satisfy the war lords? How about a Starbucks on every corner?

Bush and friends continue to maintain that we will continue our operations in Iraq. According to our current administration, the end is definitely not in sight. So, how high will the casualty count get? At this rate, the sky is the limit. Maybe 50,000 Americans wounded or killed in combat. Maybe 250,000 or more Iraqis. But hey, we can’t put a price on freedom, right?

And in the midst of our celebrating, let’s not forget the most recent atrocity - the slaughter at Haditha, where two dozen civilians were murdered in cold blood by a Marine unit from Camp Pendleton. Should we cry more for the 24 civilians that met such a brutal demise, or for the poor boys from the Southern California military base? Those poor boys - most of them barely old enough to legally buy alcohol, their lives forever shattered. Their souls lost in the sands of some godless desert. How will they ever be able to come back into society and not lose their minds? How will you greet them when they return? What will you say? Do you have an apology ready?

Or the wretched townspeople of Haditha, which will now live in the history books alongside My Lai, Wounded Knee, and other sites where massacres have been committed upon an innocent population. Who cries for them? Who will mourn the children who were savagely murdered? In one house, little girls - ages 14, 10, 5, 3, and 1 - all died after being shot to pieces. One girl suffered nine bullet wounds, and others were torn apart by exploding grenades. What type of apology can we give to these people? What type of justice do they desrve? Do they not deserve the same happiness and protection that you and I deserve? Are their lives any less precious than ours?

What type of apology are you prepared to give them? Start thinking, because they’ll deserve one. Each day that passes, we will owe more and more apologies. I fear more than we will ever be able to dole out.

References:

Washington Post - Enemy Body Counts Revived
Daniel Bacher - Bush’s Illegal War
Iraq Body Count
Wikipedia - Casualties of the War Since 2003
Iraq Coalition Casualties
Lancet Study (PDF)
Guardian Unlimited - Body counts
The Globalist -The Cost of War in Iraq: A Checklist
Daniel Bacher -Bush’s Illegal War
ImpeachPAC - Who Really Killed the Civilians of Haditha?
Noam Chomsky - After Pinkville
Wikipedia - List of Massacres