Blogs and Bandwidth

I woke up this morning in a half daze thinking about all the data inputs I have and the blogs that I read today. I did a quick walk through memory lane and remembered the card catalog at the public library, the micro fische tapes you would load into a machine with a 20 inch CRT, and what I thought was nirvana at the time, LexisNexis. Things have definitely changed in the last 15 years. The access to data, and the ability for any individual to publishing data have exploded. I worked for a guy named Rob Tercek at PacketVideo who would talk about the impending explosion of user generated content, and how it would be a good thing and a bad thing. He was certainly right about that. There is some stuff out there that leaves you scratching your head, both because there are wickedly smart people out there, as well as an equal number of those who are obsessed with... well just about anything.

A year ago, I would check in with one or two blogs periodically, but stuck to traditional media outlets or other places for information and research. Since coming to Lijit, with our focus on online publications, my information acquisition and processing paradigm has definitely shifted. Like anything new, there is a period of over-exuberance, followed by a retraction to a self/organically-defined optimal level. Looking at my Google Reader sidebar I seem to have acquired an eclectic group of publications, for different purposes including, work, entertainment, education, and simple interest. Now it is time to figure out which ones to cull. As it stands today, the list is as follows:

Blog Maverick
Calculated Risk
Cleantech News
ClickZ News
Colorado Green Tech Meetup
ColoradoStartups.com
Compete Blog
Efficient Frontier
false precision
Feld Thoughts
Foundry Group
GigaOM
Green Inc
HotSauceDaily
Learn to Duck
Lijit Blog
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Passive Aggressive Notes
Stock Car Science
Tech Crunch
The Silver Fern
Yield Blog

This list is hardly an exhaustive list of all things that I may find interesting, and there are probably better sources for the same topics, but before I start adding more to my list, I need to cut the dead weight. The sole criterion will be to ask myself if I actually read the posts, or do I skim at about the same speed as I do my spam folder.

With all the sources out there, managing them in an effective manner on an individual basis will become more and more of a challenge for just about everyone with a computer and an Internet connection. There are good tools out there like Google Reader and Filtrbox to help with customized data management, but I'm not sure anyone has effectively nailed it yet.

The pattern of the day is the Muddler Minnow, provided by the folks at The Fly Fishers' Republic



Tight Lines,

Dave

Long Term Value of a Customer

A few weeks ago, I went to Lowes to pick up some baseboards to complete a flooring project I have been working on in my house. While I was there, I also picked up some odds and ends, as one is wont to do in a hardware store.

When I got home, I realized that I had tied the baseboards to the top of the car, and forgot to throw the bag of odds and ends into the car. So I went back to the store and before going an buying the items - AGAIN - I went to the customer service counter to see if someone had turned in the bag. Of course nobody did. I'm sure whoever found the bag was looking for some wood putty, some razor blades and whatever else I had in the bag. As I was about to leave the counter, the customer service agent told me that the store would replace the items for free. I must say that this was a complete surprise.

On my way home, it occurred to me why they did it, and why it was a sound business move on their part. From this point going forward, I will always drive the extra 4-5 miles to go to Lowes, instead of Home Depot. My lifetime value as a customer, being an admitted tool junkie, will go well beyond the $38 (retail) of the items that they replaced. I'm sure my name is on some list of potential fraudulent clients, but that's ok, I'll be more careful about putting everything in my car from now on.

Granted, I will still go to McGuckins, a local Boulder hardware store, because their service and inventory kick a**. But when it comes to making the big ticket purchases that you have to go to the big box retailers for, Lowes is the default choice.

The fly of the day is the Texas Bullfrog, quite possibly one of the ugliest flies I have ever seen. It is provided, courtesy of the nice people at Fly Anglers Online



Tight Lines,

Dave