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Feb 28 10

Weekend Reading and Five Cool Houses

by Michael Mayes

In an effort to share more of what I find interesting as I 'browse the web,' here's a selection of weekend reading you might like. Use the comments below to let me know what you think.

After I found those articles, I got side-tracked and thought I'd share this week's five cool houses:

Feb 10 10

My buzz is huge! Google Buzz hurts like a hangover

by Michael Mayes

Checking my email a week ago I was invited to start using Google Buzz – since then there has been a lot of chatter about Buzz so I'll just wrap up my thoughts here.

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase

What I like so far:

  • The UI is nicely integrated with gmail as are most google products – they keep I clean and simple (with a place for text ads)
  • Auto following friends – this made sense at first until I heard about the privacy concerns
  • Auto suggesting others to follow – Suggested contacts helped get the site going (although there were inherent privacy issues)
  • Asking me about showing my profile – this was a key feature for me as I wasn't sure if I wanted to include this yet in my google profile or on other related web results

What Im not sure about

  • Why it's with my email – as a core daily task, I don't like messing wih my email. I don't use chat or any addons or mix email apps. It's a business task and it's about GTD so I like to focus
  • Connecting other streams – I already have services linked with Twitter facebok tumbl friendfeed feedburnr and tweetstream. I am about at my limit for channeling my social graph to new places. And why do I need to send it thru buzz when the same people are seeing it elsewhere?
  • Giving google more data – I didn't used to care about this. But now that google is the new Microsoft I am getting concerned about how much I willingly give them in terms of my user data. They already have me for email search docs maps reader and more. Just like an investing strategy you don't want all the eggs in the same basket.
  • Is there a community – I need to wait on this one. I am noticing some buzz from a few new and intresting people that I see thru some of my more savvy friends. I like that. But I can easil get to some great content via Tumblr or the blogs I follow or best so far via Twitter and allthe freqt things that people are linking. I only need so much of this and Buzz isn't doing anything else for me

For now I am peeking at buzz once or twice a day to see what's happening but I expect it to drop off soon. Interested but not adopted.

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Jan 22 10

Idea: work-at-home wednesdays

by Michael Mayes

Yesterday and today were meeting days – 14 hours of meetings from Thursday morning at 9am to today at 4pm. Makes it hard to get things done.

Caroline (@mentalkitchen) said "You should ask for Work At Home Wednedays. You go to the office Monday and Tuesday and then you get the next day to do some work at home based on what came up those first two days. Then you head back in for the last two weekdays ready to make progress and take care of business."

Love the idea – has elements of Four Hour Workweek all over it. Just not sure how to make it happen in my office. But at a minimum, I am going to try to keep my Wednesdays meeting free.

BTW – for more of Caroline's ideas check out her blog over at Mentalkitchen.

Jan 5 10

Starting from zero in 2010

by Michael Mayes

I finally got myself an iPhone. But that's not the point here. It's about this blog being an active place. Keep an eye out for updates from me on lots of things including:

  • websites and technology that I am using and testing
  • product development ideas and innovations
  • NYC and west village culture and events
  • travel, photography, music and design
  • productivity and process

I'm looking forward to writing on weekly themes and sharing with you. Leave me some comments and let me know what you want to see.

/mm