Helping you get more done…even if it’s by accident.

MILO Chat Weekly - Episode 6b - "I'm All Air All The Time" - Part II

Regular crew: Ben Steven, Finis Price, Grant Griffiths, Victor Medina

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If there’s a cliche that is the cliche that cliches all cliches in the world of blogging, it is

“Content is King”

And so, many a blogger go on his or her merry way writing, stealing, pimping and posting “content” because it is the magic elixir that gives you life everlasting. Listen, boss, slow down for a second.

Yes, content is very, very important. It’s as important as design, but - wait for it - it has to be good content.

Go West Young Blond

Look, this is no different that the hoards of hopefuls that flood Hollywood in search of fame and a paying gig. Just like LA, the Internet is full of would-be dot-com millionaires looking for the next Internet company - just in the blogging world (you know, because of the lower overhead).

You need to be where the action, you need to have the right look, you need a little bit of luck and you need to be a good actor.

In the blogging world, this translates into (1) being on the Internets, (2) good design, (3) er…uh, well…being lucky and (4) having good content.

“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” vs. “Shell-Shocked”

Well, if I were only given two words to some up the post, it would be “Don’t suck.” Brutal advice, but solid, clear and unequivocal. (George Carlin would be proud.)

It’s not very helpful to tell people to write better and have interesting things to say. But, the blogging world is not a paint-by-numbers project. You might make something resembling a watercolor, but no one will mistake it for art. The craft part of it is important because you are creating something - not just running TPS reports. (Peter, don’t forget that we’re putting new covers on our TPS reports.)

Work on your craft. Read books on writing. Stephen King’s On Writing is a perfect primer. Accessible and practical.

Instead of writing the next “$number Things that $dosomething” post because it’s easy - put down the Cheez-Whiz and start sauteing some garlic. First, because you can never go wrong with garlic. Second, because having a take on something - your own take - will distinguish you from the crowd.

Try to make what you post interesting and good, but if you can’t paint a Monet every single time - I understand. In that case, be original. Stop retweeting, reposting, blind linking the same story found in 6 other places on the Net.

Rubies Are For More Than Rails

Setting yourself apart from the crowd is important because things that are scarce have value. The world’s rules are the same for rubies as they are for bloggers. Even the perception of scarcity implies that something is in demand.

Look, I guess there are some minimum requirements for how to create and sustain a successful blog. You can learn those in a few hours worth of research on the web. But, beyond that - if anyone is telling you there is a magic blueprint to follow - run in the opposite direction.

Be remarkably uncommon.

Okay, maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about. I mean, I only have 35 subscribers as of yesterday, and 15 of those are subscribed by iTunes (including me and my mom). But, mark this date down, come back to me in a year and let’s see where everything is at. If I’m unsuccessful, it will have been because I did stuff that was unremarkable and uninteresting. Not - repeat, NOT - because I failed to write a “Top 10″ post a week, a review, then post a screencast, etc.

Add witty tag line here….

MILO Chat Weekly - Episode 6a - “I’m All Air All The Time”

Regular crew: Ben Stevens, Finis Price, Grant Griffiths, Victor Medina

Comments?  Send them to milochat@macsinthelawoffice.com

Subscribe to this podcast using iTunes! 

Embedded player here:

Download the podcast directly by right-clicking and saving this link

MILO Chat Weekly - Episode 5 - “Louisville, KY”

Regular crew: Finis Price, Grant Griffiths, Victor Medina

Special Guest: Jason Falls

Comments?  Send them to milochat@macsinthelawoffice.com

Subscribe to this podcast using iTunes! 

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Download the podcast directly by right-clicking and saving this link

I don’t care who you are - if you do any writing at all, you’ll agree with the statement that it is far easier to edit a page full of words than it is to fill that same page with words. This universal truth harbors so much pain within it that people are compelled to repeat the statement whenever the subject of writing/editing/drafting comes up. Seriously, folks, cut it out.

But, that’s not the point of my post for today. Today is really about the incredible resource that is the GoogleDocs Template library. One of the ways to short cut your writing is to start with a good form. Lawyers know that little secret, usually fueled by the desire to avoid malpractice, but when you start with a form to edit, suddenly your writing becomes a lot easier.

If you have any understanding of your voice and what you want to say, a quick scan of a form will highlight where the form deviates from your language and direction. You can go in and edit to your heart’s content. In the end, you may end up with something completely foreign from what you started, but the process is overall a better one because you didn’t have to invent the wheel, you just shaved off the rough edges.

The GoogleDocs Template library is up to more than 300 templates. You can choose from Event Planning to Fantasy Sports (not every fantasy is available). More importantly, you can alter the template Google gives you to something that you’ll use in the future. Do you keep generating the same packing list over and over again? Save it as a template. Google will even track the templates you’ve used before. And, of course, given the nature of spreadsheets, documents, and presentations - you’re not married to using GoogleDocs (even if it is kickass). You can “Save File to Desktop” and use Microsoft Word if it prevents that shock collar from going off.

By the way, this little “shortcut” applies to the creative stuff as well. There are a whole bunch of invitations, presentations, albums, etc. available that will give you the starting basis from which to go forward. Borrow the layout, but change the graphics. Keep the artwork, tweak the font. You get the idea. But it will save you loads of time starting from a form.

Time is precious. Like the One Ring….

Much of what is clogging up your mailbox (the real kind, kids, with the flag on the side) these days are statements from vendors (fancy term for people taking your money). And, if you’re anything like me, you’re looking for ways to reduce the amount of paper in your life. How else am I going to justify the cost of a Macbook Air or whatever fancy thing that Steve Jobs is going to sell me in October?

Whether you’re eco-conscious or looking to reduce overhead, paperless is the “wiki” of 2008. And, much like the wikis produced by big companies, they’re fouling it up as usual.

Most companies are happy to send you an email to let you know “Your Statement is Ready.” Of course, this means that you have to go their site, login, retrieve the data, save it to .PDF and the work with it.

WAY TOO MANY STEPS.

Even when I get the information, btw, it’s in an unusable format. I can’t import the phone numbers from my cell phone bill, I can’t import the charges on the company credit cart and I can’t import the information from my monthly Staples account.

Here is my alternative:

Part I - If you’re concerned about the security of email (which is the Chicken Little cry of the last 5 years), then let’s agree on a secure place for you to drop my statement. I’ll give you a public key and you go drop it off at the secure hosting site of my choosing. I’ll use my private key to go get it when I need it. Just, hold on to a few years’ worth of statement in case something catastrophic happens.

Part II - let me set up a few categories and filters for my statements. I’ll give you a list of numbers and you help me tag them to clients so I can see where I spent my time this month. I’ll let you know what my accounting categories are, and you assign them to those categories or let me filter them in QuickBooks as soon as the statement arrives.

Wrap-Up

That means, of course, that you’ll have to change the subject line of your email from “Your Statement is Ready” to “Your Statement is Now Useful”

OR

“Sometimes the shortest distance between points is a straight line in the opposite direction.”

If you’re like me, you’ve been furiously downloading iPhone applications. Some of the applications have been good for about a minute or two of fun (see the Hold button game) others have been hours of worthwhile fun.

To wit:

One of things I’ve found frustrating has been the way that the iPhone just places the downloading application at the end of the final page of applications, and does a poor to middling job putting the application back in place.

If your experience is anything like mine, you spend a lot of time re-arranging icons across two or more pages. This can to lead to minutes of frustration as you displace icons and have to rearrange pages unrelated to the program you just downloaded.

Here’s a quick tip for a little ninja move to make this process easier. Make room in your bottom dock to hold the “on-the-move” application as you swipe from page to page.

Then, when you’re on the page you want the application to go, just bring it back up and, voila, you haven’t displaced any application on an unrelated page.

Let me know if this little tip helps you.

With the launch of the AppStore came the not-so-funny proliferation of tip calculators.

Of course, not one to be picked last for the kickball team, I chose mine early (”Check Please”) and I’ve been a loyal apologist (is that being redundant?) ever since.

Last night, I fired up by iPhone to learn that there was an update for CheckPlease. What, praytell, could they be doing to improve on that little piece of magic that tells you what to tip. Thankfully, they told me before had to decide whether I was tight-rolling my jeans, or leaving them cuffed….

Oh, golly jee - Expert Mode! Whatever could that be? Now, I had chosen CheckPlease specifically because of simplicity. So, I’m wasn’t sure I wanted to venture into Expert land with too much bounce in my step. I mean, look at this -

What else could I possible need? And, to boot, I own a Bank of America Visa card shown at the top. (How did they KNOW?). But, valiantly, I figured I’d fire up Expert Mode to see what all the fuss was about. I mean, I’m not above learning something new…

Lo and behold…Expert Mode….

Yup, you got it. Expert mode is deducting the sales tax before you calculate the tip. In essence, leaving less money than if you just calculated the percentage tip off of the check total. Now, I’m not going to lay this at CheckPlease’s doormat. I’ll assume that they were kowtowing the pressures of consumers demanding an “expert mode.” But, you - consumer? - if you’re using Expert Mode, you’re a tightwad. I won’t argue about this.

Agile Web Solution’s hugely popular 1Password launched its iPhone app partner yesterday. 1Password is the go-to password/secret manager for Macs and can now be called the best password manager for the iPhone.

Initial Impressions

When you first launch the program, it prompts you to set an 4-digit unlock code to access the main program and another “master code” to access some of the more sensitive information contained inside the program. This can include everything from your login information and saved forms for websites to secure notes to “wallet” type information.

To use the program, you enter your 4-digit unlock code and then you view some of the saved content. You can choose whether to have that saved content be subject to entering the master code or now. By default, anything that is imported from your 1Password computer information is tagged to be “master-code” dependent. This is helpful because otherwise you’d have to go into every saved item and configure it. Truthfully, if you’re serious about security, there is absolutely no reason why every item in there should be anything but master-code locked.

Like a few of the iPhone apps out there, 1Password makes wonderful use of the ability to open a browser page. That permits you to the website (in all of its Safari-like glory) using your secure login information, without switching applications.

While I would like to see something stronger than a 4-digit passcode to access 1Password, that concern is mitigated by the ability to lockdown absolutely everything in the program with the master-code (which can, and should, be long, complex, etc.)

It looks like Agile Web is looking to make the iPhone version of 1Password a paid-for application. Fine, I guess, if people are buying it standalone. The fact that it is an iPhone application also means that hoards of Windows users will now have, er, access to this great application, but I think that the iPhone version should be free to existing Mac 1Password license holders. Let’s see if they do the right thing.