Randy Pausch Last Lecture

Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose "last lecture" about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday. He was 47.

"Almost all of us have childhood dreams; for example, being an astronaut, or making movies or video games for a living. Sadly, most people don’t achieve theirs, and I think that’s a shame. I had several specific childhood dreams, and I’ve actually achieved most of them. More importantly, I have found ways, in particular the creation (with Don Marinelli), of CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center of helping many young people actually *achieve* their childhood dreams." - Randy Pausch

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E.T.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

I know I am one day late to comment on this.
(Well, I do have a day job).

What can I say.
Zoli saved me a lot of typing...
http://www.zoliblog.com/2008/07/21/the-techcrunch-fablet/




Maybe they would have called it redux-model-2...


UPDATE:
Ismael comments in his Blog:
http://itredux.com/2008/07/23/where-is-the-redux-model-1/



E.T.

BlackBerry Thunder | I know why...but why?!

I saw this post on Techmeme today.

It seems as Blackberry is exploring / going towards a touchscreen keyboard.



I know why... But WHY?!

I think that the Blackberry's keyboard is may be the last big advantage for business users, when it come to the Blackberry VS. iPhone question.

I hope the Blackberry Bold will be good enough...




E.T.

i<...>

The Blogsphere is full with echo of the iPhone G3 release fiasco, that could be summarized as:

• iPhone 3G
• iLine
• iFail
• iBrick
• iToldYouSo
  
• iDoNotCare...

E.T.

How to reduce noise in your Facebook homepage

Problem description:

You open your Facebook homepage in the morning and see that more than 50 new news/events/photos and other activities were added to your page.
You cannot find interesting updates from your friends...

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Problem source:

1-3 of your "friends" keep sending updates, links, posts, pokes and other "useful" inputs to you.

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Solution:

Find this "friends" and remove them from your list...

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Result:

Read updates and stay connected with people that care about you and appreciate your time. Some may define them as FRIENDS.

E.T.

FireFox 3...Not on my Mac (yet)

I did try.

I've waited to the 'official' version.

I've contributed to FireFox 3 download record.

I've updated all the add-ons what where available (based on my previous post).

I've re-installed Flash player and other tools.

And what did I get? A 'Windows Vista' experience... Crash after crash and ugly fonts in Hebrew sites.

Back to FireFox 2.

E.T.

Mac Tip: Display Date on the Menubar

In the recent years, more and more business people are using Mac for their daily activities.
I would imagine you would agree that viewing the current date on the screen is a common feature you would expect in the Mac OS.
Well, it is not a default feature.
(Maybe everyone should know the date or it is not cool to be in jet lag and loose your 'date anchor')

I found this post while searching for a solution:
http://lifehacker.com/software/mac-tip/display-the-date-on-the-menubar-316029.php

I would like to offer you the updated version for Mac OS 10.5.2.

Step 1: System Preferences > International > Formats >Customize...

Step 2: Select "Medium" and add "[" or "|". Copy the whole string.

Step 3: Customize Times.

Step 4: Paste the date string before the time setting.

Step 5: Click "OK" and see how it effected the menubar.

I hope that would help you.

E.T.

B1B = Blogging 1st Birthday

Mazal Tov! == Congratulations!

My Blogging 1st Birthday.

75 posts so far == once a week on average.

Thank you for your comments and feedback.

E.T.

Father's Day

This year for Father Day I got a special treat.
I flew with my kids to Israel to visit the family
(and to do some business as well).

There is nothing better for gaining back perspective than to spend 24 hours with 2 redheads... For example:

Strategic planning:
How to manage a 2 hours line(s) in LAX, while providing a hot lunch and 3 stops to the bathroom.

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Technical challenges:
Find a replacement for a Nintendo DS Lite stylus while your daughter's pokemons are under fire...

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Negotiations:
Manage expectation and execution of demands as 'I need to go...NOW!" while landing a 777.

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:-)

E.T.

Veodia won the Enterprise 2.0 launch pad!

We had a great time at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston.

This year, most of the energy was focused on 'how to' enable companies with 2.0 methodologies and capabilities and not just 'what is E2.0?'.

Many great vendors and a lot of the big players were presenting applications and services.

We were happy to have the opportunity to present as part of the launch pad, together with GroupSwim, NewsGator, Project SocialSite (SUN) and Spaceo.us.

The demo went very well. We streamed live video from the session as well as demoed or plug-in for Jive Clearspace.

Many thanks to the Veodia team in San Mateo for their support !! and to Tom and Guillaume for a great team work!!


Thanks to the audience - we received 39% of the votes and won!


(Photo by Alex Dunne)

View the demo, the votes and an interview with Sam Lawrence, Jive's CMO.



Some nice links and quotes:

Veodia Wins At Enterprise 2.0 Launchpad

The people have voted, and Veodia won at the Enterprise 2.0 Launchpad an hour ago. Congratulations to them, and best wishes to them and the other four finalists.

The finalists:

Veodia -- 'live streaming video that puts your work in motion'
Project Socialsite -- 'delivering social networking functionality by adding social networking platform support based on the OpenSocial standard to any community site.'
Groupswim -- 'On-demand Social Collaboration and Community for Your Business'
Spaceo.us -- 'Bringing the REAL Enterprise 2.0 to your business' (they need a better tagline, I think).
Newsgator -- ' Deliver social computing business value with NewsGator Social Sites for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007'

The process worked pretty well, although I think next year we might start with a Twitpitch as the first round.

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Veodia Blog

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ondemandbeat
"...So, this was a contest, consisting of brief (three minute) elevator stories presenting their products by five of this week's vendors. The winner was to be voted on by the audience ("crowdware") using cell phone texting. The first four presenters did high-speed runthroughs of their highlight PowerPoint presentations. The last one, Veodia, a provider of high definition video as a service, featured live video of the event and the audience, very high definition. By far the coolest, and the audience agreed, voting them the winner with 39% of the overall vote, a 2:1 margin over the next highest score. An exhilarating way to end the morning..."

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Wins Launch Pad Competition at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference.

Large crowd nominates Veodia via live voting

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Enterprise 2.0 conference ‘Launch pad’ contest winners

"...Veodia were the victors in the Boston Enterprise 2.0 conference ‘Launch Pad’ contest for up and coming technologies, beating a strong field. Here’s Etay Gafni of Veodia, who recently left SAP to join this promising start up, demonstrating their winning technology with his opinion of why their enterprise video service won…"

It was a great show case for our capability to contribute and to provide video capabilities to vendors and customers.

Thx,

E.T.

Education.com - new design

Education.com, an education & child development site for parents, with parenting & educational resource, just got a new homepage design.



Good work Eliad!


E.T.

Veodia at Enterprise 2.0 + New Website + New Product

So, we finally made it to the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston.

It was a long week+weekend but we have a lot to show, so all is good.

Some updates:

We updated www.veodia.com.





We also partnered with Jive Software and released the Veodia Plug-in for Jive Clearspace.


(demo, press release).

Tomorrow we will present in the launchpad.
We plan a live demo and some will share additional information about Veodia's services, products and directions.

Thx,

E.T.

10 Minutes eMail = 0 minutes for spam

http://www.10minutemail.com

This is a great service for all of us, who are 'forced' to have spam eMail accounts to be used in all kind of eMail verification processes for 'I just want to test it' kind of services, applications and sites.

(Very good for parents who need to sign in for every Webkinz/Penguin/Toon there kids would like to have - and to forget after 2 weeks... While the parent get alerts that the poor thing is dieing / alone / sad...)



It takes just one click to get a temp eMail and you can use it for 10 minutes (or more if you really need to...). The service is so simple, you actually receive the eMails within the same page, so we can access them and do what you need to do, without even deleting them...

Check the Video Tour (QT).


E.T.

The Social Media Movie

This is a very nice movie that explains Social Media IN simple English.
At almost makes sense...
:-)




Social Media in Plain English from leelefever.

E.T.

Veodia @ the Enterprise 2.0 conference Launchpad

Thank you for all your support.
Veodia was selected to present in the Enterprise 2.0 conference launchpad.



If you are in Boston - please come and see Veodia at booth 207



Thank you,

E.T.

Live and on demand Video from French TechTour (2/...)

In case you do not attend this event, you could see live broadcast of it on Veodia.

Latest updates on http://frenchtechtour.wordpress.com/

Live videos here:
http://veodia.com/site/portal_scroller2.php?portal=4809
and
On demand
http://veodia.com/site/portal_scroller2.php?portal=4750




Cool and useful.

E.T.

Notes from French TechTour (1/...)

At Veodia we have many French team members.
Recently I attended several events around the IsraelWebTour and now it is time for the French Tech Tour.




Engaging with Analysts and the Media

Panelist guests:

• Carla Thompson, Senior Analyst, Guidewire Group
• Michal Lev-Ram, Fortune Senior Writer, Fortune
• Rafe Needleman, Editor, Webware/CNET
• Dean Takahashi, DigitalMedia Lead Writer, VentureBeat

Moderator: Jeff Clavier, Founder & Managing Partner, SoftTechVC

Notes:
There is a blur between the 'official' journalists and the bloggers.

Consumer product - should be focusing on traditional channels (NY-T and such) as the bloggers are focusing on early adaptors and not on the mass audience.

Do and Don't on how to contact press and bloggers

- Introduction eMail - provide information about the company/product and how to reach you
- Contact from the CEO. Do not hide behind the PR team.
- No 25Mb PPT in eMail
- No embed video in eMail
- Make sure the mailing list does not include everyone on the TO field.
- Make sure you include the right person name and do not miss-spell the name of the Blogger...
- Embargo - control the process. In case there is a ... Notify all the bloggers who still keep it.
- Do not ask for a flow-up based on a competitor story
- Have a media kit (images, bio, white papers, demos) ready for a follow up.

To be continued.

E.T.

Jing and Skitch - Screen Capture Tools

"An image worth a thousand words" (as long as it does not take too much time to produce...).

Screen shot and screen cast (movies) are one of my key tools to communicate, design and share ideas and content.

It use to be hard to capture a good snapshot, clean it, resize it and then add some text and other graphics to support your message.

Not anymore.

In the last few months, I've been using Jing from TechSmith.

It is a great tool that allows me to take snapshots as well as movies and to save them locally or on their hosting service. Very easy to use and the latest update include copy to clipboard and some other features, making it powerful and simple to use.

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Sam Lawrence recently introduced me to Skitch.




Skitch has a clean UI and very simple and powerful features, such as resizing the snapshot and saving in several formats to the desktop (by D&D) and to a hosted service.



It also supports taking snapshots from the Webcam.



Introduction movie:




Two great tools to use on a daily basis.

E.T.

Veodia - 'Business Ready' at Enterprise 2.0

Enterprise 2.0 conference is few weeks away and Veodia is getting ready.

We are going to announce some exciting news and to show you how to bring video to your business processes and daily activities.


+ I got a new suite...


But first...

We need your help. Please vote for Veodia to be part of the launchpad.
(We already won the first round...)

Please vote here:
http://launchpad.enterprise2conf.com/node/38

Thank you,

E.T.

Piposh / פיפוש

Blast from the past...

Many years ago I used to work with a great designer and animator.
Renard (Renan) Gluzman.


I remember working with him on Macromedia Director 4 and looking how he drew and animate amazing screens pixel by pixel.
Long time since we last met.

Anyway, for Israel's 60 birthday, he decided to share his famous games for free.

• http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3540692,00.html
• http://piposh.vgames.co.il/

And even on facebook...

• http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13843284369

As I said, blast from the past.

Kept me smiling the whole day...

E.T.