RE: Global reality

One sure sign that people are getting into real-world web services projects is when you start to see timezone awareness ...

[Via Loosely Coupled weblog]

coordinating TimeZones are hard, then add in Daylight Saving Time, when or if it takes effect, and except to go completely insane! I've donate a few handfuls of hair to this.

here's a couple of reference links :
http://www.timechange.com/dls/dls1.html
World Time Server : http://www.worldtimeserver.com/index.asp (Time Zone Database by subscription for ~ $400 year)
This site Daylight Saving Time is one of the best I've seen explaining the history and "Why". Plus a chart of DST around the world with links to some explaining to the how it gets decided for each country.

After looking over this you 1) go out and get really really drunk, 2) try to talk for boss (and or the customer) out of it 3) decide that 400 dollar is not that much to pay to keep track of this all 4) go out for more drinking cause you still have to find a good way to implement this.

again from Loosely Coupled weblog:

Why is timezone awareness such a big deal? Because it only becomes a problem in a highly distributed, decentralized environment. So long as there's a single, central point of control, then it's easy to wriggle around timezone issues by pretending they don't exist. You can always decide that, since the data center is in Colorado, all transactions will logged using Mountain Time. Or if the company headquarters is in New York, you can decree that everything happens according to Eastern Time.

Behavior versus Context

A article [Via A VC] on "Behavior versus Context". Can you say Permission Marketing

I think the Internet is slowly becoming the medium of choice for almost all marketers.

Why?

Because it has the reach, the frequency, the measurability, and the ability to target like no other medium. And its incredibly easy to buy. More reach. More frequency. More accountability. More efficiency. Easier to buy. How can you beat that? You can't.

what's in an IPO?

Wired has a good article in their latest issue: The complete guide to google, which actually starts by talking about the challenges any company goes through when pre-, in- and post-IPO. Just the first section alone makes it worth reading. Oh, yes. It talks about Google too. :)

[Via d2r]

Explaining RSS to your Boss

Via Scripting New: Forbes comments on The Coming RSS Revolution and does a reasonable job explaining what RSS is (in terms non-tech people can understand), as well as sources for Feeds Yahoo! has separate RSS feeds for national, international and politics news sections, to name a few. (Yahoo! is very well done, see this link, available on their main news page, currently bottom left. )

The answer to the "Why RSS news feeds" question is: control. Rather than what for email newsletter to come to me (push) I can poll a larger number of sites an at a glance see if there's anything interesting to read. A good feed has a title which lets me know if care about the topic. My News, My Way, on My Timing. (There are news readers for Outlook, to make it intergrate with your email program, and any corporate site (intranet) can easy have a RSS feed(s) added.)

The article also mentions several RSS New Readers, (good lists are here or here ) and RSS Aggregator sites such as Feedster.com (with more than 500,000 RSS feeds) which lets you search RSS feeds to get new and opinion much faster than the mainstream media sites can.


More on Feeds :
Get IT news in RSS form from InfoWorld,
IBM developer info from IBM developerWorks RSS feeds,
A R R A S @ o n l i n e is maintaining a list of Lotus Notes/ Domino Blogs and their news feeds,
and Sun's Java net has a list of Java related feeds here
and BlogStreet is a directory of Blogs (and notes their feeds) with a few interesting slices and dices on the Blog ecosphere.

Memorable Quotes from Life of Brian (1979)

Memorable Quotes from Life of Brian (1979), because " No one expects The Spanish Inquisition!'"

MySQL Profits From Open Source

Another MySQL database server article :Wired News: MySQL Profits From Open Source as the mainstream discovers that you can get what you need for $500 a server rather that thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. Also mentioned are other alternatives DB's such as PostgreSQL, Berkeley DB, and Firebird. These may not yet be ready for running your ERP systems today but they will be in a couple of years (which is why SAP has invested in the company behind MySQL AB)

What's up with blogging, and why should you care?

The current state of Blog-dom (Bloger-hood? Blog-osphere?), both out side and within (or from) the corporate world (which is a more recent event). Via What's up with blogging, and why should you care? - TechUpdate - ZDNet

What's all the fuss about blogging? It looks and smells mostly like writing, self-expression conveyed in a chronological format that invites comments and the inclusion of a variety of media types and links, similar to a Web page or e-newsletter. In fact, blogs (weB LOG) provide a way for non-programmers or HTML jockeys to present their writings, ramblings, diaries, rants, marketing spiel, political advocacy, research or whatever online communication with simple, yet increasingly powerful tools.

It also notes the development of RSS new readers, and RSS search engines:

The combination of blogs, RSS and intelligent searching--and future generations of those technologies and concepts-may not be the 21st century equivalent of the Gutenburg printing press, but they will play an increasing important role in forming the opinions that lead to decisions big and small across personal and professional spheres.

All in all a good article from Dan Farber.