Wick.me

Getting the most out of Twitter

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:30:00 -0500

Every couple months I write an article for Happi.com, which is a publication for the Household and Personal Products Industry. Here is my latest article about why businesses should use Twitter.

ExtensionFM New Release: Auto-Updating Sites and the Music Activity Stream

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:30:00 -0500

ExtensionFM New Release: Auto-Updating Sites and the Music Activity Stream:

ExtensionFM is another great Google Chrome extension that I wrote about a couple weeks ago. It is in beta so it can be a little buggy, but @dankantor is very quick to respond to issues and push out new releases. His latest release delivers a ton of value to the user. You can now remove blogs/sites that you do not want populating your library. In addition, all new music from the blogs/sites in your library will be automatically added without having to visit those sites again. That last feature might be the most valuable enhancement since I started using the extension several weeks ago.

If this is the first time you have heard of ExtensionFM, it is for Google Chrome only and it allows you to “suck” in music/mp3s from any website that you visit. Therefore, you can listen to all of your favorite music blogs/sites from one source.

Now with the latest release, I have better control over the music in my ExtensionFM library. This solidifies ExtensionFM as my go-to library and player when I want to listen to new music, which happens about every day.

BTW, I have a few invites left. If you want one, leave me a comment below.

The latest release (3.2) introduces auto-updating sites. This means that songs will automatically be added to your library, from the sites you have already visited, as those sites post them. You do not have to re-visit sites to get new songs. This all happens in the background.

The All Songs List…

Trying out the Tumblr Dashboard Chrome Extension

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:30:00 -0500

Google Chrome became my primary web browser ever since the Mac version supported extensions. I just installed this Tumblr extension that mirrors the Tumblr for iPhone app.

Clicking on images within the dashboard view brings up a larger view as one would expect.

You can listen to audio files within the extension. Click on the Listen link and the player below appears.

Another nice feature is the Tumblr bookmarklet built in.

The only negative is the lack of video support within the dashboard view, but you can navigate to an author’s blog to view video posts.

Overall, the extension gives you an even quicker way to scan your Tumblr dashboard, but it’s not a replacement for your dashboard (nor I doubt it was meant to be). Try it out here.

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cold Roses Cold Roses

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:25:00 -0500

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cold Roses
Cold Roses

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Go Easy Cardinology More from...

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:44:00 -0500

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Go Easy
Cardinology

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Stella Blue 10.16.06 -...

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:30:00 -0500

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Stella Blue
10.16.06 - Muffathalle - Munchen, Germany

So I am starting a new thing here on this new internet tumblr thing … every weekend, I will post three songs from one artist. I will always kick off the weekend early by posting a cover on Friday. Got it? Good.

I’ve been on a Ryan Adams & The Cardinals bender this week. Downloading show after show. I’ve posted a couple nuggets in the Butter Room earlier this week. I’m starting off the weekend with the Cards’ cover of the Grateful Dead’s Stella Blue. Cheers!

Thanks Gordo. You rock too.

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:49:00 -0500

Thanks Gordo. You rock too.

I love how my iPhone knows mattsimpson

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:53:00 -0500

I love how my iPhone knows mattsimpson

First-Time Owners Find Management Comes With Headaches

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:30:00 -0500

First-Time Owners Find Management Comes With Headaches:

This is a great article about one result of running a business that most entrepreneurs don’t think about when they get into startup mode: managing employees. Yet it will turn out to be the most important facet of your job.

I am very thankful to have the opportunity to manage a team in my last job at Musictoday. It was the most challenging and rewarding part of my position. People don’t realize how much time it takes to manage employees. You have to be a good listener and be prepared for anything that could get thrown at you. The key is to be fair, supportive, and decisive. Treat your employees equally, encourage them to achieve their goals even if that means leaving your team or the company, and make educated, but quick decisions that are communicated clearly.

If you are considering going out on your own, read this article and think hard about whether you want this.

thebutterroom: This is the inspiration for our little website....

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:08:00 -0500

thebutterroom:

This is the inspiration for our little website. It is the real butter room.

Full

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:16:00 -0500

Full

Low Country Shrimp and Grits @ Boudreaux’s Blacksburg

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:09:31 -0500

Low Country Shrimp and Grits @ Boudreaux’s Blacksburg

Bye Roanoke. See you next time.

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:17:00 -0500

Bye Roanoke. See you next time.

Back in the Big Lick for the afternoon. First meeting of four.

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:54:00 -0500

Back in the Big Lick for the afternoon. First meeting of four.

So yesterday I got a call from CBS19 to comment on the launch of...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:30:00 -0500

So yesterday I got a call from CBS19 to comment on the launch of the Virginia State Police Facebook Page and their plan to use it to broadcast information to the public about unsolved cases. It was the first I had heard of the initiative, but if done well, it will be a great use of social media and public service to the community and Commonwealth of Virginia. Follow them at http://www.facebook.com/VirginiaStatePolice.

My first domain name, which was the home of my first website...

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:50:00 -0500

My first domain name, which was the home of my first website back in the mid-1990s is now mine again. Now what to do with it … probably nothing.

So I signed up for foursquare yesterday

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:13:00 -0500

I tried posting from the iPhone app several times last night and every time the app responded that I did not have a connection (which was total BS because I could post with the Tumblr app and I had 4 bars on 3G) or it would crash. I even reinstalled the app last night while I was out, and it still didn’t work.

That’s an awesome introduction to your service, foursquare.

Taking advantage of the Live Music Archive

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:21:00 -0500

Taking advantage of the Live Music Archive:

Marc Whitman, who writes for Live Music Blog and I know through Musictoday, published a recent interview with the developers of Music Archive, a new iPhone app that enables you to browse and listen to all of the free music on archive.org. One catch though: it costs $1.99. I have not tried this app and am only basing this opinion here on Marc’s great article, but it just doesn’t feel right to me. I know there are plenty of costs that go into developing an app, but there are/were more that went into the development and growth of the LMA that artists generously donate their music to. Maybe I’m just old school here, but I just don’t think anyone should make money off the content (artists) and the effort (tapers) that is being donated to the general public. Read Marc’s interview and decide for yourself.

Grateful Dead - Jack Straw Europe ‘72 We can share the...

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:21:00 -0500

Grateful Dead - Jack Straw
Europe ‘72

We can share the women
We can share the wine
We can share what we got of yours
‘Cause we done shared all of mine

Thought it would be appropriate to post this as my first song on my new blog, which was also the first song that I heard in the car today.

I Blew Up My Blog (revised)

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:12:00 -0500

This is a revised version of a post I wrote about a month ago when I actually did blow up my blog. I’ve had some time to reflect on the changes and put together a less emotional and more accurate post on why I did it and what I want to do with this blog.

I was an early adopter of Tumblr and started my personal blog on Tumblr in December 2007. At the end of January, I blew it up. My children are the main reason why I blew up my blog. Like most parents, I love sharing photos and videos of them, and I would use my personal blog as an outlet to do just that.

Over the past couple of years, my blog accumulated over 300 followers on Tumblr. In the beginning, I developed a sense of trust in my followers because they would share as much, if not more, of their lives on their blogs as I did. I realize the naivete in this thought process, but the Tumblr blogging community has been responsible for introducing me to some really wonderful people. Friendships have developed and new business has been secured because of the Tumblr community. But over the past 6 months as my blog grew, my concern over privacy increased significantly. I accumulated a lot of followers that are not as engaged in the Tumblr community or don’t appear to have anything in common with me. Irregardless of that assumption, my blog was a public website that anyone could view. Point being that you don’t have to follow my blog on Tumblr to view my blog’s content. However, it took the social media concept of following to lead me down the road of blowing up my blog.

For those of you who don’t use Tumblr, following a blog on Tumblr means that you will receive all of that blog’s posts on the Tumblr dashboard, which is similar to the Facebook Live Feed. The main difference between Tumblr and Facebook is that you can follow anyone on Tumblr - there is no concept of approving “friendships” or “followers”. I am ok with that. Frankly, there are a lot more interesting people that I follow on Tumblr or Twitter who I don’t know in real life than some of my “friends” on Facebook. But there are also a lot of people out here on the interwebz who I will never know, not even over social media. When some of these strangers begin to follow my personal blog, which contains a lot of family memories and information, it makes me uncomfortable.

So I had a choice: do what my friend Gary did and convert all family posts to private posts or delete my blog. I admire Gary’s patience and due diligence, but I just didn’t have it in me to go through all 1400 posts (for the record, Gary went through 1700 posts). Ok, blowing up a blog is not that big of a deal, especially since I downloaded all of the content and saved it on my hard drive. But, it has given me an opportunity for a clean start. I also lost all 332 followers in the process, but I consider that a good thing. A month into my new personal blog, I am at 9 followers.

My new blog will be a lot like my old one, but there will be little focus on my family life. It won’t have one topic or be niche blog. It’s about me, and what I like. Thus the use of the domain, wick.me. At first I thought I would post about my adventures as a small business owner, but I’ve moved that to the @BusinessBullpen twitter account. Then, I had the idea to blog only using my iPhone. It’s doable. I have a good system down actually using several iPhone apps: Reeder, Instapaper, Pano, two Tumblr apps, the Camera app, and Evernote. But, I love posting music and outside of reblogging, I can’t post music via the iPhone. So, I’m almost back to where I started with a bit more privacy. That’s cool because it’s what I enjoy, and that’s the most important thing to me about this site: that I enjoy it.