The last time I went to the market I allowed myself to be dazzled by the über cute packaging on Kotex Tampons. I thought ooh, they’re bright and cheerful, and since getting your period isn’t exactly bright and cheerful I bought a box of them.
Without being overly graphic, I kept having issues. I thought that maybe I was having a particularly heavy month, or that the tampon wasn’t doing it’s job because the string looked like it was involved in a low grade accident.
I’m just wondering what brain trust came up with the idea of a pink string. Do they have any women of childbearing age involved in R&D?
I got the following message from a friend on Facebook last week:
I have a friend who just set up his business as a Facebook Person as opposed to setting it up as a Fan Page. Is there any reason I should tell him it’s better to go it as a Fan Page? I’m racking my brain and can’t really think of any reason why it would make a difference, but the profile looks a little goofy for a business.
The Social Web has embraced Netiquette just as Emily Post would clutch her pearls and Thank You Notes. I’m on facebook, and I’ve established a page for my blogging. There are a number of reasons that your business shouldn’t pose as a person on Facebook. Let’s look at a few of them.
It is Against The Rules: Yes, really. I pay a lot of attention to rules (terms of service TOS). It’s not because I’m such a fan of rules, it’s because it’s absolutely critical to operate within the rules on a site you don’t own. If you don’t like the rules, buy the site or make your own. Here’s a screen grab of Facebook’s tutorial for reporting accounts.
It will not build community: If your business is thinking of a Facebook presence I’m assuming that it’s because you would like to either build community to build search. Facebook is used by groups of people to talk about themselves. Occasionally folks talk about what they buy, but rest assured Facebook exists for people to talk primarily about themselves. Your brand can be part of the story, and the best way to be part of the story is to have a brand page (fan page) that shares content people care about. What you care about (as a business) is not what other people care about.
Although it’s nice to share coupon codes and whatnot, it’s much nicer to ask people to talk about themselves. Are you selling chairs? What about a gallery of people sitting in your chairs? Do you teach drums? Think about a gallery of videos of your students performing.
Building community means talking about other people.
It won’t sell product:People will feel a little put out if you’ve created a personal page for your business (as opposed to a business page), and in addition to them not buying from you here, you run the very real risk of losing the goodwill you’d previously built up.
I see a number of businesses hopping onto Facebook (and other social media sites) very enthusiastically. Which is great. But sometimes not so great. Ideally brands come to places like Facebook to listen and respond first to their community, and secondly to message them.
If every post is “Enter coupon code WETALKTOOMUCH to get 10% off today only!” There isn’t any real value for you to be there. However, if you were to notice that your customer Jill Jones has a red sofa, and she’s on Facebook, you could point folks to it, and ask them if they are bold enough to have a red sofa. A longstanding coupon code for all facebook fans that doesn’t expire is likely worth more than the daily 10%ers that I see dotting the web.
If you’re in the social web (and not using Groupon) you’re probably looking for loyalty and not coupon clippers.
You Could Lose Everyone: Let’s say that you have created a fake person on facebook, and that you’ve maxed out at 5,000 friends (there is no maximum number of fans). Let’s pretend that you’ve built meaningful relationships with a few of those 5,000 friends, and that your message and image is being posted to their walls.
Now imagine that a few folks get grumpy and report you for being an impostor. *Poof* Gone. All that work, all those relationships will be gone instantaneously, and there’s no way to rebuild a list like that.
There’s a lot of value in building these things right the first time.
At some later date I’ll talk about why you need a Facebook Page, and the very real possibility that you don’t.
I ran all over town wearing my fabulous new boots, and a pair of jeans.
I had a little swagger in my step, beause I knew I looked good. In fact, I caught a few men and one woman checking out my butt. I was pretty sure I was having a good butt day (which is way cooler than a good hair day).
I picked the kids up from school, feeling pretty darned good about myself, and when we got out of the car Jane just laughed and pointed.
Big hole, and I was wearing red underwear. Mercifully not awful thongs.
If you’ve turned on the news any time in the last few weeks you’ve heard of Julian Assange and Wikileaks.
Julian Assange is the site owner of Wikileaks, and has published more than 250,000 classified US Documents. They have ranged from benign to downright embarrassing.
Watching our leaders scramble to understand the internet at this point is little like watching Keystone Cops. Lieberman and some dopey anchor can’t understand why Assange wasn’t charged with treason in the US.
Could it possibly be because Assange isn’t American, therefore his acts cannot be considered treasonous?
Sweden has issued a warrant for Assange’s arrest for sexual assault. Since I can’t read the original documents I’ll have to rely on the *gasp wait* Today show anchor who says that it’s really about the women wanting him tested for STD’s. I have a hard time trusting the Today Show with my news, and an even more difficult time believing that INTERPOL would go to these lengths to make sure that Assange doesn’t have a sexually transmitted disease. I’m sure we’ll have details of the Assange arrest and extradition, I’m equally sure that his life will be destroyed before we get that data.
To those who value secrecy (which should not be confused with the reasonableness of privacy) Assange is evil incarnate.
For the citizens of the world who believe that their governments should practice transparency, and serve their citizens, Assange is a demigod, and Wikileaks is their chapel.
Assange’s Swiss Bank Post Finance came under attack first by members of Anonymous and 4chan when they closed Assange’s accounts. There have been massive denial of service attacks on Paypal and Mastercard.com as well. Neither Paypal nor Mastercard will allow for donations to WikiLeaks. Operation Payback is claiming victory.
I expect we will see Visa.com shut down at some point today, and Amazon was already crippled by attacks.
If this isn’t a war I don’t know what is. Governments and corporations around the world have made a concerted effort to hide information from citizens, and then to financially destroy any place where information is shared. Hackers have organized and, in turn, shut down the financial institutions that the Governments used as weapons.
You can follow Operation Payback on Twitter at @Anon_Operation and their Wikipedia page will fill in some of the gaps for you.
PandaLabs.com has a page about Operation Avenge Assange, but of course their host is down too. You can see a cached version here.
When I think of our Country’s humble beginnings, with a bunch of pissed off settlers dumping tea into Boston Harbor, and I try to find a modern day correlation this is it.
Since most of us slept through Net Neutrality hearings in 2006 and most recently this summer, I’m going to have to ask you to get involved. It’s critical that the Net stays open and neutral. Google has a good starting point, and Wikipedia will probably continue to be a great source.
Is Assange a hero or a heretic? I don’t know.
I do know that we have an open web, and I’ll fight like hell to keep it that way.
What about you? Are you looking at the web differently today? Do you have cash on hand?
Shira Abel (of Abel Communications) isn’t a mom blogger, but she’s a mom, and she’s got quite a way with words.
I’ve never had a guest blogger here before, but Shira is understandably outraged after reading an article about cyberbullying. I think you’ll enjoy what she has to say. I’ll be the first to add a me too. If you enjoy this, follow Shira on Twitter.
I’m angry. I’m angry at the parents of bullies who shirk the responsibility of parenting. I don’t like lazy parents in general – but this group gets a special award. On December 4, 2010 the NYTimes published an article about cyber bullying, As Bullies Go Digital, Parents Play Catch-Up and not surprisingly – how it’s often worse than the offline version. People often go further than they would, had the victim been directly in front of them.
Kids bully. I get that. I don’t like it though, and I certainly don’t think it needs to be an absolute in childhood. Assuming parents actually do their job. However it seems like much of the time, the parents of bullies don’t. Take one of the examples in the article, “…the mother of the third girl, the instigator, called. “ ‘It isn’t her fault,’ she said to my wife,” Major Woodson said. “The mom said: ‘I think this is way overblown. My daughter is being punished and she’s not the only one who did it.’ The mother did not apologize.”
Pardon me ma’am, but do you realize what type of example you are setting? Whether other children behaved poorly as well is really irrelevant. By making excuses this child will learn that bullying behavior is ok (her mother doesn’t seem sorry – why should she be?) And as a result we’ll have another stupid, selfish badly behaving adult in this world. And that, that makes me angry.
People – parenting is a job. If by chance your kid doesn’t have the wherewithal to make certain decisions on their own you need to teach them. And occasionally your kid will screw up. And when they screw up you have a responsibility. A responsibility to be the cop, judge and jury and yes – a responsibility to punish your child when they have done something wrong. You are not your child’s peer, nor should you be their friend during childhood. You are the caretaker, the protector and even their mentor. Friendship comes when the kid grows up (or so I’m told – my boys are 5 and 7).
I don’t believe in spanking, but I sure as heck believe in taking away privileges, grounding, extra chores and even a good old fashion public humiliation where the bully has to apologize in front of his or her peers. I’m tired of parents sloughing off responsibility because they don’t feel like putting in the work that’s necessary to raise a nice child. Kids need to know the difference between right and wrong. They need to know compassion.
Empathy isn’t very fashionable these days. I think it’s time we bring it back.
Recently I was given the Audi A8 for a five day road test. I drove the car for five days, and only one night.
Why one night?
The Audi A8 has LED interior ambient lighting that I found extraordinarily distracting, particularly when changing lanes and looking over my right shoulder. Had I actually examined the car’s dashboard I might have noticed that the lighting could be TURNED OFF. The car I drove was stickered at $78,000. I’m not certain that drivers of $78,000 cars are looking for ambient lighting.
Argh, I wasted three good nights of driving. At least I had good days.
The Audi A8 is redesigned for 2011, and for the most part I think they did a fabulous job. You can see from my video that there is tons of interior space. This is a big car, and it feels big.
The A8 has an overall length of 202 inches, that’s only 10-11 inches longer than the Cadillac CTS V and three inches longer than the 2011 7 series BMW, yet it feels like a much larger car. It handles beautifully, you can accelerate like a jackrabbit, and U Turn easily on city streets. The car feels big in a good way, like an I am so rich I have a giant car way.
One pitfall of an oversized luxury sedan is that the doors are heavy. If you’re moving from a midsize sedan to an oversized sedan you will find youself slamming car doors and hoping they stay shut, or gingerly closing them, and then slamming them when the first attempt fails. Audi clearly sees that size is an issue and they have added a trunk closure button on the interior of the trunk.
Give a little, get a little. If you want a big car, you get a big car.
Now let’s talk about driving the A8. The cabin is all but silent. German engineering leaves you with an incredibly smooth ride (should you want one) or a ride where you can really feel the road, the ride that every auto enthusiast loves. The Audi A8 goes from 0 to 60 in 5.7 seconds. I *might* have experienced that. Perhaps equally importantly the A8 features 328 lb-ft of torque at 3,500 RPM, and 372 hp at 6,800 RPM.
If you’re not a gearhead these numbers may not mean a whole lot to you, what they mean is that as the vehicle approaches the redline the engine has 372 hp, however at a much lower RPM (revolutions per minute) the engine has maximum torque of 328 lb-ft. This means that the car is fast off the line, and powerful when you’re cruising along at middle speeds, and you want to accelerate quickly.
Try this, the next time you’ve got your car comfortably moving at about 45 MPH give it a little gas and try to bring it to 65, or even 85. In the time it took you to read this the Audi A8 could have made the jump smoothly and efficiently.
That is torque, and this engine has a whole lot of it. Some would argue that Torque matters more than Horsepower.
The front seats have five styles of built in massage, Air Conditioning and Heat. The rear seats only have heat.
I digress.
The Audi is a splendid oversized sedan with an oversized engine to top it off. The handling is supreme, the styling is sublime. It is near silent, as you are encapsulated in a luxury cabin with only muffled growls from an agressive engine marring the silence.
The question isn’t, “do you like the Audi A8?” The question becomes, “How much do you like the Audi A8?”
I like it quite a bit, but I”m not a fan girl. Were I looking for a car in the $80,000 range this would be one of three that I would consider, but I felt like the A8 was missing a lot of features that luxury car geeks like me are looking for.
The A8L has a wifi hotspot built right into the car. I can’t see myself buying the A8 when I know that a few extra dollars will get me mobile with the A8L.
The A8 has a very basic navigation system, and in a city like Los Angeles it’s a little complicated to use. Rather than entering your destination number, street and then city, the A8 has you entering your destination city first, then street and number.
I don’t always (or even often) know the city I’m headed to. This may sound strange if you live outside of Los Angeles, but we are just a large group of suburbs slapped together to make a city. The lines are wiggly and I don’t know Van Nuys from North Hills, or West Hills from Cheviot Hills. City should be the last filter, but never the first.
Technologically I wasn’t shouting from the rooftops, but it’s not an unmitigated technological disaster area (like our 2011 Jaguar). Much of this is preference.
I don’t like i drive. I enjoy separate controls for separate parts of the car. I don’t get that with this car. Some folks love the i drive. I’m not one of them.
The Audi A8 is a fast and sexy sedan, I’d suggest you test drive one, and pay very close attention to the details. The drive is guaranteed to delight you, but the trim levels could leave you cold.
