PHP script for notifying Weblogs.com of an update.
September 30th, 2001
PHP script for notifying Weblogs.com of an update.. Weblogs.com is changing the way they read updates from blogs. Now you need to notify them, by sending an XML-RPC message, that you've updated and they need to come by and fetch the update.
To that end, I've written a quick and dirty PHP script using the PHP [...]
News.com
September 30th, 2001
News.com (slightly old): G.SHDSL is a new form of DSL that offers symmetric 2.4 Mbs speeds. It can also reac 18,000 ft (finally something that can reach all your people that are currently out of range of current service). True to form, the Regional Bells have no intention of offering this service to consumers anytime [...]
John Robb's Radio Weblog">Customer e-mail. What's the best thing a company can do to build grass roots support for its product or service? Answer customer e-mails. When I was at my last company (an online research company with a focus on financial services), I must have answered 30,000 e-mails sent to us by consumers, business people, and professionals. I answered them all by hand with specific personalized responses. It worked. Our consumer research site grew in popularity until we reached our apex of 30 k unique visitors a day. That initial active support by e-mail helped us build a business unit around the site that generated $500 k a quarter in profit (which was rare on the Web, particularly at that traffic level and the focus of our content).
Many of the e-mails were off topic and not something we could make money from. No problem, if I could provide an answer I did. If not, I pointed to resources that could provide the answer. Regardless, this extra effort helped build trust with the person on the other side of the SMTP connection and more often than not generated a relationship that led that person to use our services when they did need something we provided.
So, why do so many popular sites refuse to answer e-mails? The portals are the best example of this practice. Try to find an e-mail address on Yahoo, Excite, or Lycos where you can connect to a live employee. [John Robb's Radio Weblog
September 30th, 2001
Customer e-mail. What's the best thing a company can do to build grass roots support for its product or service? Answer customer e-mails. When I was at my last company (an online research company with a focus on financial services), I must have answered 30,000 e-mails sent to us by consumers, business people, and professionals. I answered them [...]
OmniOutliner
September 29th, 2001
Mac OS 10.1 is noticeably faster, especially if you are running classic applications. The DVD player runs much better than the OS 9 DVD player. I can work in a foreground application like Mail or OmniOutliner while a DVD plays smoothly in the background. I'm a bit disappointed with the Microsoft Word test drive. There [...]
only facility in the U.S. with FDA approval to manufacture Anthrax Vaccine
September 29th, 2001
Anthraxination – A friend of mine worked for the only facility in the U.S. with FDA approval to manufacture Anthrax Vaccine. After he left, the company went through a good deal of turbulence and was eventually privatized (they were originally run by the government). This testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives shows [...]
JY
September 29th, 2001
JY takes on yield management at the airlines.
“Do you know Yield Management ? I didn't. Qantas states that “Airlines adopted yield management systems, also called revenue management systems, to maximise seat sales at the optimal (not necessarily highest) price – to maximise revenue return from each flight”. Here is another piece that explains Yield [...]
John Robb's Radio Weblog
September 29th, 2001
Another problem with the airlines before 9-11: ineffectual anti-terrorist proceedures. The only check the airlines made of passengers before boarding (outside of the security check point) was to check IDs at the gate. Why did they check IDs? Certainly not to find out if you were a terrorist, it checked to make sure a market [...]
“'If somebody wants to do it, you can't stop them,' says [Kathleen C. Bailey, a former assistant director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.] 'If it is a terrorist group, you may be able to infiltrate them. But if it is a single individual, it is going to be extraordinarily hard to know in advance what that individual is doing in their garage, closet, or basement… There are no emissions. With current technology, we have no way of sniffing out who is making anthrax in their basement.'… Even if Congress burned the Constitution and turned the U.S. into a police state, it could not eliminate the bioterrorism threat. 'Do you really think that you could catch the individual who wants to terrorize the population by making biological weapons? How are you going to know?'” [via A Boy and His Basement
September 29th, 2001
“'If somebody wants to do it, you can't stop them,' says [Kathleen C. Bailey, a former assistant director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.] 'If it is a terrorist group, you may be able to infiltrate them. But if it is a single individual, it is going to be extraordinarily hard to know [...]
DayPop
September 28th, 2001
DayPop. DayPop—Interesting News and Current Events Search [Eugene Pervago Web Log]
Fidelity makes big XML conversion investment
September 28th, 2001
Fidelity makes big XML conversion investment. IDG Sep 28 2001 2:57PM ET [XML and metadata news]