Todd Wickersty

bdotdub: bryan: Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:44:40 -0400

bryan:
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in Monday’s Tumblr for iOS update. You can now prefix a URL in Mobile Safari with tm to easily create a link post in the Tumblr app.

If you’re into bookmarklets, you can save yourself the trouble of typing tm and bookmark the following JavaScript instead:
javascript:window.location='tm'+(window.location.href);
Some more:

Tap and hold the reblog button to quick reblog

Swipe left on the compose button to reveal new text post

My fave: swipe up on the compose button to reveal camera!

Very nice.

Yahoo for the Tumblr Community

Sat, 18 May 2013 20:40:00 -0400

staff:

Are you sick and tired of seeing all of these big city slicker tumblr meet ups?

Be there this Friday, May 23.

5 years ago, Marco reblogged this post from my blog to the Tumblr staff blog. It was about a meetup that I organized, which only 2 other people attended (thanks Dylan and Brian). But shortly thereafter I got to meet Marco, and then John, Jared, Marc, Thomas, and even David. I also got to meet Jeff and Garrett, creators of the first Tumblr mobile app. I’ll never forget when I met Jared and he heard of my music tumblelog back in the day - The Butter Room. I thought we were Tumblr famous before there was even such a thing. I guess I’m name dropping, but my point here is that the Tumblr staff were one of the main reasons why I’ve always loved Tumblr.

But they are just a part of a large and wonderful community I look forward to interacting with every day.

Tumblr is a super simple platform. The reblog feature was genius. It’s meant for creative individuals and it’s beautifully designed, But what made and continues to make Tumblr are the people.

It’s a platform that brings out true emotion because its so easy to post, but much more expressive than 140 characters, a status update, filtered photo, or checkin.

It’s also so positive. When my oldest daughter had heart surgery 4 years ago, the reaction and support from people I had never met was amazing. Just days before her surgery, the Obama inaugural blog posted my photo of her and then Fred Wilson reblogged it, both unaware about that photo’s double meaning. I felt Tumblr famous again, but more importantly that little act of reblog meant a whole lot to me during a very stressful time.

Then there was the time I discovered Streampad for Tumblr. I had to reach out and thank the man who created it. Because of this gift to the Tumblr community, I got to know Dan along with Charles, Jess, Marshall, and the awesome exfm team that he helped start shortly thereafter.

Then there are the friendships that have really grown over the years thanks to Tumblr. Gary, Kirk, and Matt are just a few examples. I feel very fortunate that I’ve been able to become friends with these guys and I have Tumblr to thank.

Finally there are the people I’ve followed for years and vice versa who I’ve never met (and might never will), but get a lot of joy out of “seeing” every day. You know who you are - briancolligan, kimbaland, twohippiechic, marksbirch, newspeedwayboogie, stormsequalrainbows, whitneymcn, guy, ianbroyles, sarahchristine, phenthouse - I could go on and on.

But when someone I follow stops posting on Tumblr, I’m a little sad inside. I can always follow that person elsewhere, but it just isn’t the same experience. Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, Instagram, nor LinkedIn can replace it.

I have a lot of reasons to root for Tumblr. My business sells premium themes and we’ve seen an increase in brands contacting us for custom Tumblr experiences. So, I’m obviously very interested in the Yahoo! rumors.

But I’m a user first and that’s the main reason why I care what happens to it. I’m skeptical if Yahoo! does take it over. It’s super easy to be skeptical for obvious reasons, but I think it’s a good time for Tumblr to sell. I know if it does happen, I’ll continue to use it because none of this news will have an impact on my use of Tumblr.

Only you, the people I enjoy “hearing from” each day, will have an impact. Once that stops, then I’m bound to as well because that’s the #1 reason why I’m still here after 5 years.

Snail Mail

Sat, 18 May 2013 07:05:00 -0400

I was filling out a contact form at the vet’s office yesterday. I looked at the question, “Would you prefer to receive reminders via email?” and thought about it seriously for the first time in 10-15 years.

My answer was no.

Even though most of my snail mail is junk mail, my inbox is very manageable. I can go through all my snail mail once a week in about 10 minutes. I can’t process some emails in that time.

Have I’ve reached a point where I prefer receiving snail mail over email? I’m not sure, but if you want to get my attention, snail mail is the way to go.

No Repeats

Sun, 12 May 2013 23:01:39 -0400

I have been slowly tweaking my use of various social networks so that each one has a specific purpose that is not duplicated elsewhere. I’m sure I will continue to tweak because I am a constant tweaker, but I feel like I have a good set up going on right now.

The Place(s) for Content

Tumblr and Twitter continue to be my main networks of interest with each providing more content than interaction. So while the purpose of these two networks are similar, the overlap is minimal. I don’t follow many people on Twitter who I also follow on Tumblr unless the content on Twitter is different. Both networks have replaced my RSS reader and email newsletters. I also don’t use Facebook for content (more on that below). I’m pretty loose with following on Tumblr. I follow around 300 blogs and am always thirsty for more. On Twitter, I’m much more pickier - under 100 - because Twitter, frankly can be annoying.

The Neighborhood Bar

Instagram is my social network of choice for friends. I follow over a hundred people on Instagram and many are people I’ve met in person. They might be cousins, college friends, fellow Phishheads, or work colleagues. More than any other network, I use Instagram to document my life. I also try to interact the most on Instagram since I know a lot of my followers. When I post, I typically share with Twitter and Facebook, but not Tumblr so those who follow me on both don’t get a lot of overlap.

Photos

I still use Flickr. It’s not going away anytime soon for me. Their iPhone app has improved. Timehop uses it and Instagram is not going to replace Flickr for me because its more of a social than photography app. My use of Flickr is first and foremost a photo repository. I also use the privacy filters quite often so I can upload lots of photos of the kids to share with family. I don’t use it as a social platform. I have some contacts, but I haven’t added any new ones in years.

Lately, my wife and I have also been using Photo Stream via iCloud to share photos with our immediate family since everyone has at least one Apple product. This has turned out to be great. It’s simple for us and fast. We can send shots to grandparents the moment they happen many miles away.

Archiving

Foursquare is one of the few social networks that I haven’t changed my use of since I opened an account. I’d like to use it more for recommendations, but it’s always been an archiving tool for me. With the use of Timehop, I get updates each and every day reminding me where I was last year and the year before. I like reliving those memories every day. I don’t check-in everywhere. I still don’t understand why some people check-in to the most mundane places like the grocery store or gas station. I try to only check-in to memorable places that were highlights of my day. Like many people, I only friend people on Foursquare who I’ve met in person. No exceptions.

LinkedIn

I’ve been on LinkedIn since 2005. It’s not extremely valuable to me, but I keep it up to date check it a couple times a week. It’s been my resume for years now although I haven’t needed one since I opened my LinkedIn account. I use it mainly to check out profiles of people I just met. It’s a great tool for a 60 second background check and that’s what I use it for. I’m pretty loose with connections on LinkedIn because its my professional network and I’m in sales. Therefore, I connect with almost anyone whom I’ve met in a professional or personal setting, online or off.

Facebook is for Family

Over the past couple of months, I’ve decreased my Facebook friend count from 350+ to 22. I unliked every single Facebook page except my own business. Now my news feed consists of just updates from family (aside from the occasional annoying advertisement).

I’ve quit Facebook before. The one thing I missed were the updates from my family. Facebook is the only network that most members of my extended family are on. I come from a pretty big extended family, but we were all very close growing up. Most of my aunts, uncles, and cousins lived in New Jersey so we would spend many long summer vacations renting a house at the Jersey shore. Then I went off to college and began to lose touch. After awhile, I would only see everyone at a wedding every several years.

I’m thankful that Facebook has reconnected me with family. Many family members don’t even post, but it’s nice knowing that I have their contact information right at my fingertips. Fifteen years ago, I couldn’t tell you what state some family members lived in.

For those family members who do post, it has resulted in the most interaction I’ve had with them since those summers at the shore. Even better, it’s pushed me to see them more. I’m meeting up with my cousins in July. The last time I met up with them was for a funeral and before that a wedding. It shouldn’t take a life event to trigger these meetups and Facebook has enabled me to make sure of that.

I realize that I’ve cut out a lot of good friends on Facebook, but I never got anything out of Facebook from my closest friends. Most of them didn’t post or if they did post, they also post elsewhere. I certainly don’t like losing touch with my good friends, but I don’t believe Facebook is the place to “hang” out with them. I’d much rather do that in person.

See you online.

"Mailbox simply perfected the game of Whac-A-Mole that we all play."

Sat, 11 May 2013 19:15:55 -0400

“Mailbox simply perfected the game of Whac-A-Mole that we all play.”

- Email, Still A Sonofabitch | TechCrunch

marksbirch: “What It Takes to Create a Start-Up Community” via...

Sat, 04 May 2013 10:30:17 -0400

marksbirch:

“What It Takes to Create a Start-Up Community” via The New York Times

What, no Nome, Alaska? But seriously, while I cannot quibble too much with this map as that is where much of the VC activity occurs, there are plenty of whitespaces where startup are happening in a big way.

For example, where is Utah which has had an active tech scene for a couple of decades? Why no representation south of the Mason-Dixon line? There are plenty of startups in Atlanta and Raleigh, while areas around UVA and VT are perking up. Michigan, once dominated by the auto industry, is experiencing a startup innovation Renaissance in Detroit and Ann Arbor. Even places you may not think of as tech hotspots like Des Moines and Montana are showing an uptick in tech startup activity.

As I maintained before, it does not matter where you start. New York may be hot, Silicon Valley might be king, Boston may be the old stalwart, but there is no requirement to move yourself to one of these locales. You can make it happen anywhere.

Lots of good people are trying down here, Mark!

This is a sweet app.

Thu, 02 May 2013 19:50:39 -0400

This is a sweet app.

Jesus Christ, Silicon Valley

Wed, 01 May 2013 08:09:23 -0400

Jesus Christ, Silicon Valley:

New favorite tumblr.

"I owe a lot of my success to people who were kind to me, even though they had absolutely no..."

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:45:23 -0400

“I owe a lot of my success to people who were kind to me, even though they had absolutely no obligation to be so. Now, I make a concerted effort to reply to every single cold email I receive. To be honest, I don’t get a ton, but there are definitely moments when I do get one that I think to myself, “I don’t have time to respond to this,” which I immediately follow up with, “But that was me a few years ago.” And I respond. Because you never know who you’re responding to or what difference even the smallest gesture will make in someone’s life. Being kind isn’t always easy. Or convenient. But it has the potential to change everything.”

- Be Kind | Cap Watkins

The Truth About Entrepreneurs: Twice As Many Are Over 50 As Are Under 25 | PBS NewsHour

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:19:59 -0400

The Truth About Entrepreneurs: Twice As Many Are Over 50 As Are Under 25 | PBS NewsHour:

Myths abound about the young entrepreneurs who dreamed up crazy ideas while in their dorm room, raised millions of dollars in venture capital, and started billion-dollar businesses. But these are just the outliers. The typical entrepreneur is more like Albert — a middle-aged professional who learns about a market need and starts a company with his own savings.