Basically, we got the new Roku all connected. We fired it up and started the setup process. The Roku recognized her Wi-Fi, and once we put the password in, it was able to connect to the local network. However, when it tried to connect to the Internet (essentially the outside world), the process failed. Red light! I’ve set up three Rokus in three different houses. I’ve never encountered this problem before. My immediate suspicion was that my friend’s router was somehow denying Roku’s connection to the Internet.

Before taking the plunge into full-on troubleshooting, I wanted to make sure that Cox hadn’t set up the router, or her service, in a way that might prevent the use of a streaming player. So we called Cox. After about 45 minutes with the rep, who was really nice by the way, the Roku was still FUBAR. However, right after hanging up with Cox I stumbled across what turned out to be the root cause of the problem.

The quick fix: make sure your router’s DNS settings are properly set to an External IP address. If DNS1 or DNS2 show  up as internal IPs such as: 192.168.1.x, then your Roku won’t connect to the Internet.

Here is the detailed fix:
1. Login to your router. (typically this is done through an internal ip address like 192.168.1.100). You enter this IP address directly into your web browser same as you would a website. **NOTE some people actually enter web addresses into Google, and then navigate that way. This won’t work. Enter the IP address directly into the browser’s Location or Navigation bar at the top. This will take you to your router’s login screen. *NOTE sometimes the router’s default password is “password”. But it’s possible that your password was changed during installation. If you don’t have your router’s password, contact your Internet provider.
2. Once logged into your router, navigate to its DNS settings. My guess is that if your Roku isn’t working, it’s because rather than an external IP address being used for your DNS, the router is set to use an internal IP address. (Your computer is able to overcome this because it has built-in DNS settings, but the Roku looks to the router for this information.)
3. Replace the internal DNS address with a public DNS address. What worked for us was using Google’s public DNS. So set DNS1 to 8.8.8.8 and DNS2 to 8.8.4.4 .
4. Save your settings.
5. Run the Roku setup again. If you still aren’t able to connect to the Internet, then bounce (unplug) the router. Leave it unplugged for 15 seconds. Then power it back up. Try again with the Roku. If that doesn’t work, bounce the Roku. Leave it unplugged for 15 seconds, plug the power back in. The 15-second rule with computers and hardware is surprisingly effective.
6. If you’ve set the DNS properly, your Roku should now (finally) connect to the Internet. When this happens, it will complete its setup process and you should be good to go.

 

7. Get the popcorn, it’s time to find out what heat gorgeous Betty McRae gets into…

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Fortunately, the Disqus team made turning off these ads very easy.

My apologies to whomever will open the Comments I sent. I realize that I could have been less of a dick. But to be honest, I was pretty alarmed when I read my client’s email. I’ll get over it. But friends, check your WordPress for these Disqus ads. These are no bueno on corporate sites.

Here is the fix for the self-hosted WordPress blog:

1. Login to your WordPress Dashboard.

2. Click on Comments>Disqus  (you may need to login to your Disqus account)

3. On the Disqus dashboard, click on the Settings tab

4. Click on the Discovery tab

5. Select Just Comments (see screenshot below)

6. Save the update. Now when you go back into your post you should not see those ads.

NOTE: I have to admit that the “Increased Traffic” option looks interesting. When you select it, you see  ”The Discovery box will be used to increase your referral traffic by recommending content from your site to your readers.” Content from my site sounds good to me. I’m going to test this feature on scottallen.com first. Not sure if it’s appropriate for  a corporate blog.

Send to Kindle

Here is the fastest way to add Send to Kindle to your self-hosted WordPress blog:

1. Log into your Admin screen

2. Click on Plugins

3. At the very top of your Plugins page, click Add New

4. Search for Send to Kindle

5. Look for the plugin from Amazon

6. Install and activate the plugin

7. Before the button will appear on your posts, you need to configure it. Look at your left-hand navigation. You should see Send To Kindle (below Settings) as an option. Click that.

8. Choose Placement, either top or bottom. Once you set the placement and Save this screen, the button should appear. You can fiddle with the other settings in this config as you see fit.

Here is another example. Click the image to visit this blog:

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LEGO Harry Potter years 1-4
$4.99

This game is super fun. I’m totally embarrassed to admit it. I’m not exactly playing with Legos any more. (not since I turned 40 anyway). So what works so well here? The premise is that you navigate Harry through level-after-level of Hogwarts and its surrounds as solve one challenge after another. Sometimes you do this alone. Sometimes with your compatriots.  Mix potions, learn spells, find a missing key, feed the Hippogriff without pissing it off, defeat Boggarts. The entire layout is built out of Legos. Everything. From the start, the renderings are beautiful and the sound effects are fantastic. Aside from following the “story” you can also unlock levels and get into free play–which I did not do–the story was enough for me. When you execute a spell you have to draw that spell’s particular shape on your screen. The puzzles in the game are not that challenging. But they are fun enough for the casual adventure gammer.  The game kept me coming back for more. What I really like is that I can consume this game a level at a time, and a level doesn’t take very long to get through. So sitting waiting for a flight, I can finish a level and a beer.  The nice thing is that there are LOTS of levels. Lots of scenes, lots of scenarios, lots of variety. It’s an amazing amount of entertainment for just 4.99. I was actually a little sad when I finished this game, 11 hrs 32 minutes after starting it.

Jetpack Joyride
FREE

I stumbled across a Facebook wall posting from a friend the other day. She mentioned that she had been up all night long playing this game. I was immediately intrigued. Gladly my masochism was well rewarded. There is something strangely addicting about this game. The screen scrolls to the left while you navigate your jetpack buddy further and further into this…what….tunnel? You are rated for how many meters you get in. How many coins you pick up, at lot of other stuff. Level up by near missing missiles, or using your gravity suit to change from ceiling to floor 30 times in a single game. There are lots of meta challenges in this game. Then there is the chance to win more stuff by playing the slot machine at the end of a game (if you picked up a Free Spin coin). Visit The Stash to use your fake winnings to buy clothing, jetpacks, vehicle upgrades and yes…even a pair of Air Barrys. Arcade-style game. Fun and funny to play.

Tank Hero
$0.99

Ever since my Atari days i’ve loved tank games. I still have an original full-size Battlezone arcade game sitting in my storage locker. I don’t know what it is about tank games. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be in a tank in a real war. Spam in a can. However. Virtual tanks turn my turrets. In Tank Hero you navigate your tank through levels an enemies that get progressively harder. This is a top-down 3/4 view of the play field. You steer the tank with your left thumb and aim and shoot with the right. It takes a little dexterity to get your guns pointed in the right place, but not much. Very fun. The explosions sound real. This is not a simulator. It’s an arcade-style game that’s hard to put down. Die red tank die!!!

StormRaiders
$4.99

Oh my god, this is a dangerous game for your–iPhone. If you like flight simulators, and WWII, this is the game for you. Total fun. Fly all sorts of aircraft as you dogfight, protect bases, capture the flag and just try to survive the skies over Hawaii, the Pacific, Europe and more. Control a variety of aircraft through the phone’s accelerometer. Banking, pulling up is all done by moving the phone around. I’m thinking of putting out a video that turns this into a calisthenics class. “Strengthen your core with StormRaiders!” Seriously, you’ll find yourself gyrating like a mental patient as you play grab ass with your enemy, get in behind and hose him down. Or he helps you “buy the farm.” Either way, game play is great. Bullets splash in the water. Lot’s of different games, single play and death match-style games as well.

I think Mashable turned me onto this… I hate them for it. No, just kidding. This is NOT a game you can play in public. People will think you’ve lost your mind. Also, as you’re trying to catch that bastard that just cracked your windshield, try NOT hitting the lock button at the top of your phone. And…do not play this game while seated on the can. Kerplunk!!

Send to Kindle

A few years ago through Audible and Kindle my consumption of books was radically increased. I started keeping lists of the books I read so that I could have ready access to potential gifts for friends a family. Those lists have evolved into blog posts. Here is what I’ve written in the past:

Click here for my list from 2010.

Click here for my list from 2011.

Below, is what I finished reading in 2012. This is the first year I’ve been able to publish this this before Christmas. Yay!

And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life
by Charles J. Shields
I got this book at Christmas last year from my sister. Yes, an actual, physical book with real paper pages and all. I got half way through and couldn’t put it down. So then I purchased it on the Kindle. You want to know more about Vonnegut? This book delivers. It’s a fun romp through the life of one of America’s most famous authors. Tortured soul that he was. Personally I found the story about Vonnegut more interesting than most of his fiction. However, if you’re a writer, or want to be a writer, this book will give you hope. Or, it might make you want to kill yourself. Either way, sharing in the life experiences of this nut is well worth your time.

Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War
By Robert Coram
The other day someone asked me what my favorite book of 2012 was. I’d have to say Boyd is definitely up there. This is a book that details the professional life of Colonel John Richard Boyd, a died-in-the-wool Air Force maverick who turned everything and everyone he met inside out. Some loved him and attached themselves to his vision. Others hated him. But why do we care about this guy? The premise of this book is that Colonel Boyd was responsible for re-writing the rules of modern air combat  (aka jet fighting) and aircraft design to the extent that his “Acolytes” consider his work as important to warfare was Sun Tsu! Now those are some mighty big slippers to fill. Decide for yourself. This is a great read. But you military families or families that have a military history will recognize some of the challenges that come with loving those whose first love is their love to the service. This is also a great story about discovering what you’re good at and being brave enough to follow that path no matter what obstacles are thrown in your way. A great read my dad turned me onto.

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
By Tony Hsieh
If you’ve ever purchased shoes from Zappos, or you’ve heard of Zappo’s unique approach to customer service, you need to check out this book. Written by one of the guys that bankrolled the company at a time when Zappos was just barely getting off the ground. This book walks you through the beginning as the company struggles to find itself. In these pages we get to see a company that has placed the customer (both internal and external customers) at the front of the product that it delivers. If you’re going to talk the talk of great customer service, then this is the book to help you walk the walk. A must read for anyone in business.

Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies
By Ben Macintyre
Warning: reading this book will turn you into a serious paranoid–and that’s what I liked about it. I told myself that I was going to take a break from WWII books in 2012 since enduring William L. Shirer’s 3rd Reich epic (see below). But that’s just not how 2012 turned out for me.  Double Cross is a detailed account about the network of double cross spies that were responsible in large part for creating some of the biggest deceptions of the Germans during WWII. Leave it to the Brits to be so fricken cunning. Basically, take a person that has been hired by the Germans to spy on the British and turn them. Then have them feed the Nazis a healthy diet of false and real information designed to keep them from really knowing what the truth is. Totally amazing. Some of these agents were so important to the Germans that they were awarded the Iron Cross. That is to say that the Germans though the information that they were being given was so useful that they rewarded some of these spies for their work. Now that’s irony! Pigeon lovers will find something special just for you. For the birders out there I could not help but be reminded of the movie called Valiant.  The author dedicates a bit of space to the topic of carrier pigeons and the scenarios actually put into action to protect against and thwart German carrier pigeons. This is a fun read.  Takes a little bit of effort to keep all the names and code names straight in your head. James Bond eat your heart out.

Earth Under Fire: Humanity’s Survival of the Ice Age
By LaViolette, Paul A., Ph.D.
Holy freak show Batman. I’ll tell you what I’m reminded of when I read this: Battlestar Galactica. Why? Because I think the writers of the new BSG series read this paper. Why? The notion that some super being placed that zodiac in our skies as a celestial warning of a coming galactic calamity is just too similar to what happens in the new series of Battle Star. Aren’t they following some soft of celestial road markers to find earth in BSG? Yes. I believe they are. Anyway, you uber geeks out there will get a kick out of this paper. The detail this guy goes into supporting his thesis will blow your mind. I’m totally borrowing some of this for my sci fi. Hell, Number 6 can’t have all the fun.

Endgame: Bobby Fischer’s Remarkable Rise and Fall – from America’s Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness
By Frank Brady
I’ve had this ongoing love affair with the idea of chess even though I don’t play. I know that sounds totally hypocritical  but there it is. The notion that a nation’s pride can be wrapped so completely up in the intellectual brinksmanship found in chess astounds me. While this book focuses on the amazing (and unfortunate) life of Bobby Fischer it also demonstrates the paranoia that permeated the US and the USSR during the cold war. Can you blame Bobby for feeling like men in black suits are always watching him? After reading this book you see it’s no wonder he went a bit funny. When your brain is a chessboard and your mind is filled with every major chess move from every chess master that had ever played, you’re going to be a little weird. It’s an unfortunate tale. Hard to put down. Break out the chess board and get ready to be absorbed into a world few mortals will ever experience.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
By Jonathan Safran Foer
I simply loved the writing in this book. There was something so touching and connected that sets this piece off in my list of favorites. There is a feeling here. It’s hard to describe. But the book works its way into you so strongly that it becomes a part of you.  This is literature that breaks some rules and creates some new ones. Not a straight forward read. You might have to take a second look at how the narrative and some of the character backgrounds are woven together. But when you come out the other end, it  just feels really good. Those of you who think this book (and likewise the movie) are all about 911, please reconsider. 911 is just the backdrop. This is a book about the purest most persistent of human conditions: Love. It’s just a wonderful read. By the way, not sure what they put in the water at the Foer house. This guy’s younger brother wrote the amazing Moon Walking with Einstein a book I reviewed in last year’s list…and one that has totally (and positively) impacted my ability to use visualization for remembering.

Fontains of Paradise
By Arthur C. Clark
I’ve spent the last year (cough, 2 years) writing my next novel that includes a space elevator. I figured I might as well go to the king of sci fi to see what he had to say about this fantasitcal and highly unlikely method for moving people and cargo in and out of space. As it turns out, the idea is less impossible today than it was when Clarke wrote the book in 1979. A lot has changed in the world since then. I have to say, and I understand and appreciate “historic” science fiction, but sometimes I just can’t stomach it. It’s like appreciating old movies, but even some of those classics are just so terrible: Bad sets, bad acting, bad everything. I know I’m not supposed to besmirch the glory of Gone with the Wind, but jesus, I wish someone would redo that film already. I have the same reaction to old science fiction. What was the deal with making everything so mystical? I am hungry for some new science fiction, and I’m ready to put the classics on the shelf for a nice trip down amnesia lane. I appreciate the era in which Fountains of Paradise was written and how forward thinking it was. And it’s a good book. But I’m on the lookout for some modern sci fi.

Journey to the Center of the Earth
Jules Verne
Now this is a great book. I know I just spent the review railing on 1970′s era science fiction, but this is an older, less mystical romp through the earth’s underbelly–as totally unscientific and impossible as it is. Reads fast. It’s a lot of fun. Written in 1871 this is filled with good old fashioned Brittish stiff-lip, imperial austerity. When you read Verne you see his influence bubbling up all around you. I know you’ve heard of this book. But actually sitting down and reading it is a real treat. You’ll be surprised how many assumptions you have about this book, which are formed by new versions of the story being told by others. Get back to the roots with the original article.

Kill Decision
by Daniel Suarez
I’m discovering for myself a genre of tech thriller by authors that fully grasp technology. How sick are you of reading (or watching) anything that has technology in it that’s written by the technically ignorant? I’m not technically ignorant and I don’t want my fiction to be technically ignorant. Thank you Mr. Suarez for giving it to me hard and fast. Without apology. The first two authors that really did the tech thing right for me were Tom Clancy and a Michael Crichton. But now Daniel Suarez takes the baton as my favorite tech author. This is a writer that’s unapologetic about weaving story around solid tech. He doesn’t need to apologize for writing about stuff that’s over a lot of people’s head, because he knows who his audience is: ME! Stories are tight, and get rolling right from the beginning. Check out Deamon and Freedom by the same author. You’ll get the bug just like I did. Mr. Suarez, I’ll read anything you write. I’m so totally jealous!

Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
By Ben Macintyre
I really got stuck in WWII this year. Strangely enough I had no idea that the guy that wrote Double Cross wrote this book. How stupid of me not to recognize that. What a maroon I can be some times. It’s like yesterday I got on my flight home and didn’t even realize that I was in first class until I got to my seat. But I digress. This book is totally awesome. Again, we see that absolute brilliance with wich the British played their cards as they were the last line of defense against Hitler. How close history was to going the other way. Fortunately for U.S. the roots of James Bond were planted in reality. If you like 007 and want to get into some of the stories that fueled that fiction, read this book. Yes, sometimes reality is stranger (and more exciting) than fiction. How much effort has to go into a deception that involves a dead body? This book delivers.

Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100
by Dr. Michio Kaku
Back in 2010 I gushed over Physics of the Impossible by the same author. Now I’m gushing over Physics of the Future. What do you get when you mix a real theoretical physicists with speculation about future tech? Physics of the Future. Almost impossible to put this book down. This is a great gift for those technically inclined still in school who are seeking some guidance on what to do with their lives. Strangely, while reading this, I found myself lifted out of what was happening to and around me during the day and placed in this sort of hyperbolic reality. The TV blew up? Oh shit, well, it doesn’t matter. The future TV is going to be so much cooler. We need a new filter for the refigerator? Oh that’s no problem, in the future we’ll be able to download plans for that filter and print one out. Reading a lot of future tech can be great for your attitude, but it can drive those around you nuts while they wait for your feet to get back down to the earth. Lots of stimulating notions in here to get your synapses percolating. For instance, if scarcity can be eliminated, doesn’t that then end war?

Red Moon Rising:Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age
by Matthew Brzezinski
Definitely my favorite book of the year next to Boyd (see above). I’m too young to know first hand about the impact of Sputnik but I know enough about it to know that Russia’s launch bascially turned the United States inside out with fear and jealously. I loved this book. Not only because I grew up with a father that was part of the US response to Sputnik, but because to read what the other side thought about Sputnik, namely the Russian side of the story, it’s almost too good for words. If you have any interest in the space race, get this book. You won’t be able to put it down. Strangely topical in today’s world as North Korea pushes ahead in their own space program.

The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security
By Kevin Mitnick
If you run a company, manage IT or have anything to do with users, data or computers, you have to read this book. Written by a notorious hacker this book is the best thing I’ve ever read describing how your company can be compromised by a targeted attack. Not a technical run down of firewalls and arcane hacking techniques, this is a collection of real attacks that were engineered against the people, and data of real companies. This is about how social engineers are tricking people into coughing up passwords, source code and product plans every day. Don’t have a security policy in place at your company? Read this book. It provides the blueprint for developing one. The really important message in this book is that technology alone will not stop the attacks. The irony is that strong technology might actually undermine your security if your people and vendors are not constantly educated about what social engineers (aka con men) are able to do. If your life is digital or you are responsible for a company whose lifeblod is binary, you owe it to yourself (and the rest of us) to read this book. I hope it scares the shit out of you. It sure woke me up.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
By William L. Shirer
You might notice that this same book appears on my 2011 list as well. To be honest this thing is 72 hours of audio. I mentioned in 2011 that if you listened to this  (or read it) straight through, you’d lose your mind. I had to take a break. But I finished the book (strangely while I was on my way to Germany for Carnival). There are images in this book that I just can’t get out of my head. Murderous. Horrendous. Unbelievable. A well crafted account about a despicable time in the history of humanity. It’s an important piece to read. When brutality reigns, the stupid rule.

The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
By Ray Kurzweil
If you have any interest in what the future will look like, you have to read this book. Written by one of the few people who has been fairly accurate in his predictions of how technology will evolve, this book gives you a snapshot into a plausible future of mankind. More to the point, this book describes in detail how human life will be (can be) augmented with breakthroughs in nano technology, and the point when machine processing is as powerful as human thinking. What will happen to our world when we transcend the computational power of a bug (where we are today) to the computational powerhouse that is the human mind? What will happen when human thinking can be enhanced with the efficiencies of non-biological processing? This is one of the few books I purchased on Audible as well as from Amazon as a physical book. It’s like a road map to future tech. But, when you read this, you’ll also pick up that you’re experiencing the future from a philosophical standpoint as well. I can see this book being the basis of advanced study in both tech and (dare I say) religion? I know. I used the “R” word. But if it’s possible for our minds to be ported into a computer, do we live forever? Doesn’t that then speak to the heart of existence? What happens to the notion of heaven, if people can live forever through technology?

Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator
By Ryan Holiday
This is another book that should put the fear of god in you. One of my clients was kind enough to give this book to me. I think she was afraid that I was one of these “manipulator” types. I’m not. I might put a spin on a story, but I don’t manipulate the truth or the customer by pushing out lies. However, that’s just me. This book should be required reading for every person of voting age. The manipulation of people and the press is nothing new. But today, there are new ways to do it; namely blogs and social media. If you feed bullshit into a blog, and that blog is the trusted resource to say CNN or FOX, then you’re manipulating the choices people make. How malleable are facts? When are facts only opinions? When I read this book my skepticism of everything that I read was further inflamed. How many decisions do we make in our world that are based on lies? What is a lie? How do you get the information you need to be a critical thinker rather than just a lemming following pseudo news? You can drive yourself crazy just thinking about it. This was definitely one of my favorite reads of 2012. I had more to say on this topic in my article Why We Cannot Blindly Trust the New Economy of Trust.

Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln: 21 Powerful Secrets of History’s Greatest Speakers
by James C. Humes
Brilliant! I got a hold of this book just in time. It really saved the day for me. I was able to directly use the advice given in this book to turn a speech from bad to good. Amazing. This has to be in your library if you are doing any sort of public speaking. Even if you are talking to a couple other people, reading this book will help you get your point across without losing your audience or sounding like a dick. Chock filled with real speeches but not at all boring, this book belongs in every thinking person’s library. Snap this one up and read it. You’ll be glad you did.

Steve Jobs Biography
by Walter Isaacson
Seriously, just like everyone else on the planet, of course I read this book–though I actually finished it this year. Since discovering the Mac for myself in the late 90′s I’ve been a fan of the Steve Jobs version of Apple Computer. So when he died I was worried about the future of my favorite computing platform. I don’t know why it’s so difficult to convince people that Apple is the only company that really took computing and made it human. It’s so patently obvious to me when comparing Windows and OSX. Just the fact that when I buy a new Windows machine I have to spend 1/2 a day deleting all of the shitty 3rd party software from the computer to so the thing is useable reinforces my distain for Winblowz. Why do I care? I care because I watch people every day struggling with their computers and thinking that “it’s a computer, it’s supposed to be this way.” Bull shit. It’s a computer and it’s supposed to make you happy. That’s what Steve Jobs brought to the desktop: A humanized computer. As a custom software developer I want my software to make people happy. I take a page directly out of the Apple playbook on this front. I just wish to god more developers would do the same. Life is just too short for crappy software! By the way, the author of this book Walter Isaacson also wrote
Einstein: His Life and Universe and Benjamin Franklin: An American Life two amazing books. Mr. Isaacson, your work about these incandescent lives has been greatly influential to my own. Thank you!

The Best of Philip K. Dick
What can I say? If you’re going to write scifi, you need to read scifi. PKD’s work is some of the best weirdest shit you’re going to get your hands on. This guy was a mad genius. There is a darkness about these stories that’s difficult to shake off. Really, that’s the case with everything I’ve read from PKD. If you’ve seen Blade Runner, Total Recall or a Scanner Darkly, you’re more familiar with the fantastic and involved works by this author than you thought. Here again, we find this historic science fiction depicting the world through the bleeknes of a dystopian lens. How come the technological future was so dark for so many authors? Maybe it makes me a stupid optimist, but I see the future as a bright world, not a faceless drug-induced, government-controlled, slavery run by machines or big corporations. Reading PKD gives you a good dose of how it could be. Not exactly un-useful information and well worth your time. Crazy, brilliant and disturbed.

The Moon: Resources, Future Development and Settlement
By David Schrunk, Burton Sharpe, Bonnie L. Cooper, Madhu Thangavelu
This is a textbook about the moon and how we might colonize it. Not something you want to read while sipping cocktails on the beach. But if you’re into this topic and need a nut-and-bolts examination into what’s needed, how colonies will form, what a government might look like, what technologies and industries can exist, where the best communications spots are located and how lunar lava tubes might provide excellent natural habitats for humans, then by all means park your geek on this one. This has definitely been my go-to resource for my writing about the moon.

The Wooden Horse
By Eric Williams
This book is not about the Trojan Horse. This book is about a daring escape of British prisoners from a German Stalag in WWII. Have you ever seen Hogans Heros on TV? Watched the Great Escape? This was one of the books forming the foundations of those shows. Yes, Nazis are dumber than fuck, but the people that took advantage of them had some seriously great big balls–and smarts. This is the story of one of the largest prison breaks during the war. The details and ingenuity behind the breakout are are all surfaced for your enjoyment and wonderment. Digging an escape tunnel under an exercise horse that’s placed in the yard each day? Brilliant. Hard to believe it actually happened. Written by one of the guys that was there and partook. If you like any military history, you have to check this out. Some of it is pretty funny. I particularly like that the Völkischer Beobachter served only one use: swatting flies.

Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization
By Dave Logan, John King, Halee Fischer-Wright
Here we go again. Another book about business. I was lead to this one via the Zappos book about happiness mentioned above. I actually have found myself really appreciating this work. I have a significant amount of distain for books and programs that try to build teams around consensus and singing koombiya around the camp fire. Blech! I’d rather attend an AA meeting. I’m happy to say this book is quite refreshing. It gets down to brass tacks with statements like “tribal culture exists in stages, going from undermining to egocentric to history making.” Basically by understanding the different stages that individuals can reach, and how to help them move from one stage to the next you can vastly improve the outcomes of your company’s efforts. After reading this, I’m a believer. I’m applying the principles from this book into the work and people that I’m managing. I’m already seeing progress.

Zero Day
by Mark Russinovich
Oh yea baby, more geek fiction! I mentioned before how I’ve discovered for myself a genre of geek fiction that makes no bones about talking tech. This book is no exception. When does terrorism move to our computers? What does that look like? Zero Day paints the picture in a terrifyingly real way. I was flying while reading part of this book and got a chill when I thought about the idea of some worm getting inside of the computer system inside the jet cruising me across the Atlantic at Mach .832. What if? What if an attack can be launched at the same time across all the disparate computer systems on which we’re so dependent? Dams, banks, nuclear reactors and yes commercial jet aircraft. This book is a reminder to us all that ignorance of how computers function is a risk to national security. We can never completely trust computers and security policies. Humans are part of the equation and we all need to be better educated about this electronic world we inhabit. We can never let our guard down. Get a healthy dose of a reality we never want to have to live through when you read this book. For more about improving our level of awareness see my notes about The Art of Deception, above.

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Take a moment to watch this video:

http://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_botsman_the_currency_of_the_new_economy_is_trust.html

Part of me says “I’ve seen the future and the future is trust.”

But then, a little warning light goes off in my brain. Like that distant flickering of a train lamp thundering my way. And, to be fair, Rachel adds this disclaimer in this TED video. But I want to just say:

The trust economy is also a roadmap for defining a new class of disenfranchised consumers and the gray (or black) market that will support them.

Fast forward 5/10/50/100 years into the future. Put yourself in the shoes of those the system blows out…because…for one reason or the other….their reputations gets detonated.

Gattica takes this concept to an extreme… how big will the collaborative networking systems, those same systems that funnel $$ our way based on our social scores, become? Maybe the question is better asked, how vital will those systems become?

Today I know of a number of systems that are absolutely the financial lifeblood to those that use them. The TED video mentions AirBNB. Another of these online systems is Elance.  There are literally hundreds of these systems fueling cottage industries all over the world. The earned reputations of the buyers and sellers within these networks adds a layer of trustworthiness to these collaborative environments that makes them work. You score ok, and you get the job. You don’t score, nuts!

What happens if your reputation gets hijacked? Or if you have a bad day? Or a bad week? Or you accidentally go off your meds? Or you’re targeted by a group because they don’t like you? What happens when the system is turned against you? What happens when we begin to fear making mistakes?

It’s very easy to see this leading us blindly off a cliff.

People can opt out of this sort of economy. Sure. But isn’t that where the money will be? Will my resume be replaced by my Klout score? It’s already happening!

How much pressure will there be on individuals to engineer their “social” scores? How can the system be duped? What happens if you have a bad day, get black balled and essentially cut off from your source of income if it’s derived from one of these collaborative systems?

When everything is working fine, these concepts seem logical and good. But you cannot leave it at that. You have to consider concepts such as the “trust” economy through the lens of “what happens when the system breaks down?” What happens when the algorithm funneling your trust score gets hosed?

That’s where the ugly lives.

Life has never had an UNDO key. But now, systems like these have the potential for eliminating a RECOVERY drive too.

Algorithms don’t currently have the capacity for forgiveness.

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes” Oscar Wilde

“To err is human. To forgive, divine.” Alexander Pope

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Now the question becomes how to install the mobile redirect code / script into your hosted WordPress?  For those of you who use WordPress for sites other than blogs, adding this code might be a head scratcher. The instructions from your mobile platform say “just paste this code between your <head></head> tags.” Right? But in a Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress where are the <head></head> tags?

I got stumped on this for a while this morning. Google, I have to say, wasn’t much help. I, like many of you, naturally assumed this feature would be handled with a plugin. When I Googled the issue, I did indeed find plugins for just this purpose. But some were $12 and others were $45. Which is not a problem, I don’t mind purchasing a plugin, here and there. But. Something was nagging me. Why would I need to buy a plugin? If anything, a plugin for handling such a simple task should be free.

Then I had a lightbulb moment. You don’t need a plugin in order to add mobile redirect code to your WordPress site!

All you have to do is find out which file WordPress places the <head></head> tags. Obviously, if you’re not using a CMS, these tags are contained in your index.php or index.html file. However, in CMS land, it’s a little different.

Do you already have your redirect code? Lately I’ve been testing bMobilize to build out my mobile sites. So far I’ve been really happy with the results. I’ve tried Wapple and Mofuse, but bMobilize has my undivided attention right now. But let’s save the mobile platform review for another time. For now lets say you have your redirect code in hand…and you’re ready to place it into WordPress.

Here’s how: (you need to have a little HTML code under your belt. Basically, can you cut and paste? Yes? Good. You’re qualified).

Fig 1.1 Click to enlarge

Log into your WordPress dashboard. Under Appearance, click on Editor. Then, along the right-hand side you’ll see a list of files. Click on Header (header.php). The code for this file will appear in the middle of your screen. (see fig 1.1). Scroll down inside the code until you see the open <head> tag.

Paste your redirect code just below that first <head>tag. Save. Go to your phone, pull up your website and you should be redirected to the mobile version of the site.

Of course, if your site is functioning as a blog and not a site, then you don’t really need redirect code…here is an article I wrote about making your blog mobile friendly. 

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Prepare to be amazed. I’m about to show you one of the best tricks for getting your writing done no matter how busy you are.

Under water? Overwhelmed? Doesn’t matter. If you honestly apply this technique, you’ll be knocking those pesky writing projects off your to-do list lickity split.

This technique, developed by one of my favorite copywriters Eugene Schwartz, hinges on the idea of working intensely, in spurts, rather than long swaths of time. I call it the 33 Minute Copywriter.

Here is how to become a 33 minute copywriter.

1. Get a timer. Any timer will do. Personally I use the Timer function on the Clock app on my iPhone. Mr. Schwartz recommends an egg timer. Whichever type of timer you select, make sure you can set this timer to 33 minutes and that it’s not too distracting as it counts down.

2. Place the timer on your desk next to your computer–or wherever you’re writing. Set it for 33 minutes. No more. No less.

3. Start your timer. And write. This is the most important part of this technique. When that timer starts it’s only you and that blank page. There is nothing else. Write. Don’t worry. Don’t think. Don’t fret. Turn off the phone. Don’t get up to make tea. Don’t play with your nose, or the pencils on your desk. Write. Type. Make sure the dog is already out. The world is on hold for 33 minutes. This is your 33 minutes. That’s it. For these few short minutes the timer is your complete and total master.

4. When the timer reaches 33 minutes and the alarm goes off, stop writing. Even if you’re in the middle of a sentence or a thought, stop. Save your work. Get up. Leave the computer. Don’t sit there and monkey around with email, Facebook or minesweeper. You must physically leave the computer. This is very important. Walk to the kitchen and refill your beverage. Stay away from your computer for at least 5 minutes. Take a break.

5. If you have the luxury of running two or more of your 33 minute sessions w/out being disturbed, do it. But if you only get one 33 minute session in a day, don’t dispair. Do one session if that’s all you can do. You’re 33 minutes closer today than you were yesterday! Before you know it, the project will be done.

That’s it. Set the timer, start the timer, write for 33 minutes. Bing! Take a break. Wash, rinse, repeat. I promise if you try it, you’ll be amazed at how effective this little trick can be. Now stop reading this and go write something!

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Sir Winston Churchill, whom you may be surprised to know wrote a number of books, had this to say about the process:

“Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public.”

Dare I sir to have a hope?  I, who seems to hover in the neither regions of being reconciled to my servitude more often than not? Reconciled to your servitude…this is also known as beating your head against the wall. Ow. Stop. Ow. Stop. Ow. Stop. Are we there yet? Ow. Stop. Because it feels so good.

I’m in the cold, dark slog of the hunt. It’s raining. I’m alone. My boots are leaking and I’m far, far from my home. Withering uncertainties, debilitating insecurities are jackals of the mind waiting to devour me. Woe, is me. Why dear god is THIS my hobby? Why couldn’t I have stuck with building model WWII aircraft? Or something less…how do I put it? Enslaving. Isolating. Maybe S&M would have been a better hobby. Who is to say?

It’s all consuming. It’s annoying to my friends and family. For trust me. It’s annoying as hell to my friends and family. Even my girlfriend winces every time I open my mouth to shake out what’s rattling around in the chambers between my ears. Dear god. Have mercy. This is the worst possible time for a writer. I’m in a leaky boat betwixt the shores of oblivion and hope. Instead of oars I have threads; a veritable gordian knot of threads.

The threads are the filaments of the story, its mesh, its rigging, its spine, its characters, its point, its climax, its essence, that I hold dear like a parched man to a canteen, a sailor to his Mae West, a dog to his paddle. Then in the murky waters below my rickety skiff the timeline slithers by. It wants to devour me. That evil little worm that tosses obstacle upon obstacle at me, must be caught. It must be tamed or it will dash me to bits upon oblivion’s unhappy shores.

However. Hope is not just a small town in Idaho. Hope is that one glimmer of possibility that keeps you on the march. It’s that moment when, filled with thirst and fatigue, you hear water rushing on the other side of a stone wall. It’s there. You can hear it! You can almost taste it. You just have to get to it.

Then there is inspiration. If hope is hearing the water on the other side of the wall, inspiration is reaching and drinking that water. This is where Jack London’s quote about inspiration is recalled to mind. He said, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” A fitting motif. Whatever it takes for you to land the inspiration, do it. But do it you will. Go after it. Inspiration that comes while you’re brushing your teeth is not enough. How can you hope to feast on such meager scraps? You have to slog. You have to be the aggressor. You have to fight. You have to hunt inspiration with a club, or a crowbar, or a bazooka, or a 24 pack of Red Bull.

I have a blank page before me. Not a jot. Not a tittle. Not a noun. I have a blank page, the next page of my latest manuscript that is pushing 150 pages now and a self-imposed deadline. Where is my club now?

How, when all seems for nought, when the trail is just too steep, the canteens long emptied, the blisters too great, how do we get up and keep going?  The road is so littered with pilgrims what can we possibly do to survive? There is but only one thing to do. To fight. To finish. The blank page is my friend. The blank page is my enemy. The blank page is my friend. I’m not good enough to succeed. I’m good enough to succeed. She loves me. She loves me not. She loves me. She loves me not.

I carry with me a few items: A dry erase board, eel-skin notebook, Kindle, Google, a host of magazines, my Save the Cat books. But here too don’t I also have my club? I do. For my club is a computer program known as: Scrivener.

Scrivener. Without this program I would be more adrift than I am. So many writing programs to choose from. God knows how inadequate a standard word processor is when you’re hundreds of pages deep and no hope in the making. Scrivener is like air being pumped into the subterranean tunnel you’re carving out of the living rock. It lets me be my disjointed, forgetful, confused, lost, happy, lonely, self-loathing, ugly, beautiful, hopeful, drunken self. It let’s me dream of the day when I can point to the story and say, “She’s done. Here you go. Read in good health. I’m flinging her to the public. Goodnight.”

I thought about showing you a screenshot of my current Scrivener, but then I held back. Just a single look and you’d see all my chapter headers, you’d see the notes for the particular section that I’m currently revising. You’d peer into the inner workings of my story; the messy place that is my inspiration. But that’s not fair. It’s not time. I’ve not yet killed the monster. The slog continues. I have my club.

Good luck finding yours…

“Et quacunque viam dederit fortuna sequamur.”

 (“And whichsoever way thou goest, may fortune follow!) from Jules Verne’s “A Journey to the Centre of the Earth.”

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Versioning your software is absolutely necessary. Versioning your website is equally as necessary. Sure, sure you’re always going to have complainers. I can’t wait to hear what people are saying about the new look of LinkedIn. What the hell is that all about? Versioning a website is one thing. Who cares really. But when you start monkeying with people’s native applications, the tools they rely on to make money every day, that’s when the long knives come out.

People have visceral reactions to their faith in the stability of something being shaken. Don’t get hoisted by your own pétard!

1. First of all, what you know about versioning you already learned in wood shop.  (yes one of my summer jobs was working in a shop that manufactured wooden crates. That was fun until I put a 2″ staple under 80 lbs of pressure in the back of my ankle. Hence my next job inside assembling computers. But where was I?)

Measure twice. Cut once.

Every aspect of a new release needs to be tested within the confines of your beta testers (let’s call them Betas). This includes all email messages, support messages, links to pages and how to’s. Betas need to experience your release like it were a live-fire roll out. “This is a drill.” That’s the only way to get a handle on the multitude of elements impacting whether or not a roll out is going to have a shot at success.

Don’t assume. People need to opt-in to be your beta testers. 

2. Don’t violate your user’s trust by making them unintentional testers. Subscribe key people to become part of the beta testing experience. This marks them, segments them, within your database so that they are the only people that receive your updates and patches prior to those bits going live. The way Betas receive the update will be identical to how the general populace will receive the updates–same messages, same timing, same everything– except Betas will be aware and be OK with the fact that that they are your guinea pigs.

Test the updates but don’t forget about the supporting messages & pages. 

3. Patches and Updates are generally preceded by and followed up with notification emails. So why aren’t these notification emails tested too? They should be. Every message that has anything to do with a release needs to be tested against your Betas. What’s the best language to use in an email that informs that your software is going to stop working the way it used to? What subject line are you going to use to make sure that people actually open your email? You won’t know unless you’re testing messages (constantly) and gathering open and click-through rates.  Emails sent to Betas should have the “BETA PROGRAM” masthead on it, but that will be the only discernible difference between an email going to the Beta, and the email going to your general audience.

Encourage feedback with links to surveys.

4. Provide your Betas with links to online surveys to help qualify and quantify their responses. Encourage feedback with links to surveys. Not controlling what you’re looking for in feedback loops (to a certain extent) makes no sense. Everyone is going to hit your software from a different place. That’s good. Serendipity is vital in testing. But so is getting 100 pairs of eyes focused on the same issue. Ask for structured responses, grading different aspects. Include comment text boxes to capture the organic flybys as well.

For instance when you join the Beta program at GotoMyPC, a company that I recently interacted with and was VERY pleased with the outcome, they send you feedback links like this: https://www.gotomypc.com/betaFeedback.tmpl. This is good. For me on the outside looking in, it seems like an obvious thing to do. They make it clear. If you want to be our guinea pig, opt-in. Take note.

Promote your beta program.  

5. People have to know and WANT to be your beta testers. Otherwise ALL your customers get co-opted into being your beta testers and that’s ugly! Promote your beta program. Let people subscribe. Manage them as you would any other segment of your database (you are segmenting your database right?). If you’re not subscribed, then you don’t get to test the new software that might hose your machine. Or you might be able to get a hold of some great updates that your neighbor won’t have for another 30 days. Either way, you enter the beta program with eyes wide open. You can’t beat in-situ for surfacing the junk, however; a User does not a Tester make!

Create a launch & support roadmap.

6. Create a Patches and Updates release roadmap. This is the recipe book that lines out exactly what messages and activities are going to precede the update and those that will follow it up. This cookbook also includes any supporting webpages, surveys, articles and posts that you’ll be using in support of the release. Get it up on a dry-erase board, build it all out BEFORE you launch that release.

Have a checklist to make sure all systems are a GO!

7. When an update is ready to go live it means it has been fully tested AND met with all of the checks and balances that govern what is deemed to be a proper roll out.  The devil isn’t in the details. The devil is in the assumptions!

Keep your wits about ya… 

No rollout is ever perfect. You’ll never have 100% control, peace and contentment. But adding some basic procedures to the plan does more than cover your ass. It supports your customer’s belief that you’re not going to pull the carpet out from under their feet the next time they aren’t looking.

The ideas here are more than just lists in books. They require technical solutions. Get with your systems people and work it out. Create a campaign that invites people into your beta program. Segment your database so that Betas are easy to message when the time comes.

The biggest mistake you can make is to be unplanned when you make the cut. Measure twice. Cut once. Your customers’ trust is fickle. Don’t screw with it. Prevent the disaster. Don’t be that wreck on the track.

What do you think? I’d love to hear from you about your opinions on how to improve software launches for your customers.

*Photo credit. I found it here: http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soubor:Train_wreck_at_Montparnasse_1895_2.jpg

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