“There has been much discussion lately, most of it negative (you can read more comments on Technorati), about the comeback of boo.com and once again, I find myself on the opposite side of the shared wisdom. Before I go into reasons as to why I think a comeback by Boo.com (a boo.comeback?) makes sense, let me first go into my unique qualifications to make such an assessment: I happen to have worked at Boo.com in the past and I was the insider who exposed some of the challenges the company had faced. I spent a fair amount of my time, in 2000 and 2001, talking at conferences about the lessons learned from this failure and I think that some of those are now fixed.”

“It is time to admit what many security professionals already know: We, as security professionals, are drastically failing ourselves, our community and the people we are meant to protect. Too many of our security layers of defense are broken. Security professionals are enjoying a surge in business and growing salaries and that is why we tolerate the dismal situation we are facing. Yet it is our mandate, first and foremost, to protect. The ramifications of our failure are immense.”

“I’ve used advertising at this site since its inception. The income keeps me motivated to provide quality content. I experiment with different ad formats from time-to-time, but I try to keep them as innocuous as possible. My greater concern is screening inappropriate advertisers. Because the words ‘get rich’ are in the name of the site, Google Adsense frequently sticks ‘get rich quick’ ads in my articles. I hate this.”

“So, now heads must roll at Yahoo!. If so, I’d like to nominate the first one: Brad Garlinghouse. Who is Brad Garlinghouse? He’s the Internet’s own Charlie Brown, a Yahoo! senior vice president prone to griping about peanut butter in his fatuously titled ‘Peanut Butter Manifesto,’ in a stark revelation of the managerial crisis that has swamped Yahoo!’s headquarters, is being taken far too seriously.”

“The benefits of working from home are obvious. If you’re a regular employee: you skip the commute and there are no office distractions for the day. If you’re an entrepreneur: reduced overheads, no commuting and a congenial working environment.”

“If your email volume is anything like mine, it’s totally insane. Thousands of messages constantly streaming in and, only a tiny fraction of those are messages you need to see. Surprising then, that only a few years ago I was literally living inside Microsoft Outlook. Rigid folders, the nightmarish rules ‘wizard’, and that annoying inbox chime that dings regardless of which folder your new distraction message ultimately wound up. I completely believe that Gmail saved my life. Okay, that’s pushing it. Gmail didn’t save my life. What Gmail (and a little bit of GTD-inspired respect for my own time) did was save my attention span. Some careful filtering and a bit of common sense returned a half hour or more of uninterrupted concentration per day. “

“You’ve gotten into the habit of stowing away information into text files. But how do you make sure your todo.txt doesn’t languish in the dark depths of your hard drive, untouched? If you keep your daily worklog, grocery shopping list, todo’s, project ideas or even your calendar in text files, you can embed that information right onto your Windows desktop automatically with free Windows system monitoring software, Samurize.”

“There are thousands of blogging related resources on the Internet which can create an overwhelming experience for anyone looking to get into blogging. Because of this I created a list of blogging resources that I use on a regular basis. Here is a list of 50 blogging resources that can be helpful to any individual and corporation looking to get into blogging or wanting to learn more about it.”

“People pay attention to graphics. They respond to graphics. They learn from graphics. If you want your readers/learners/audience to ‘get’ something as quickly and clearly as possible, use visuals. And you don’t have to be a graphic artist, designer, or information architect to put pictures in your presentation, post, or book. This post is my first attempt to categorize the kinds of graphics I do here, and offer tips for creating visuals that tell the story better and faster than words.”

“This critical, internal Yahoo memo was being forwarded all over the place late yesterday, and made the WSJ this morning. The author is allegedly Brad Garlinghouse, a Yahoo senior V.P. I’m guessing this was written with full knowledge it would be forwarded outside the company, but it still has some strong statements about Yahoo’s fuzzy strategy, its duplicate properties, and its messy structure. Among other things, it calls for 15-20% cut in headcount, which should get traders busy on Monday.”

“Here’s what entrepreneurs and bizdev folks ought to remember before they do a deal: First, doing a deal is a good thing. Despite my warnings below, you don’t get anywhere if your idea is a secret. A leveraged idea is worth sharing. That said, please remember that the idea isn’t what is worth anything. It’s the effort and the cash and persistence that pays off.”

“Liberty Mutual dropped his home soon after he canceled his auto policy.”

“In case you’re wondering where I’ve been all day, the answer is a plane. Based on that statement, and the title of this post, the logical conclusion might be that I’ve been delayed. That conclusion, however, would be false. I actually arrived in Boston well ahead of schedule (by my standards, anyhow, as we were only a couple of minutes behind). My problem with United is instead its propensity to nickel and dime customers.”

“Design Schools are the new Business Schools, according to the October 9, 2006 issue of BusinessWeek magazine. Traditional business models are failing in the face of global competition, and American companies are scouring design schools for design-innovators to lead them into the twenty-first century with creative strategies. Great. But the question is, where will these young designers lead us?”

“How to make sure people will pick up your ad? Put it inside a lost wallet. This one from Sao Paolo is for their version of Wall Street Journal (I think). Wallets were scattered around the city and contained a sticker that said something along the lines ‘You found the wallet. Now find out how to fill it up’.”