Sweeney Todd - A Cut Above

Sweeney Todd - A Cut Above

Review of: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

By: Kim M. Bayne

Rating: 4 stars

I saw "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" on a Saturday night with an audience full of teen Thespians who had performed the stage play in a high school production. The teens "ooo'd" and "ahh'd" when the young men sang. The teens giggled and guffawed when throats were slit. It sure took the edge off an otherwise dark storyline.

Is Twitter Left Twiddling Its Thumbs?

All the buzz about Google buying Jaiku has users wondering if Yahoo will grab Twitter. The big players have tapped into social media, especially the kind that has a "Flavor of the Month" sensibility like 140-character IMs. Is anyone really surprised at how the microblogging world is playing out?

Online Community Summit 2007

Last week, I attended the Online Community Summit in Sonoma, California. I came away with a renewed sense of purpose in launching two forums. View an excerpt from the final session on BlogTV (above) and view some photos taken during the OCS 2007 conference in my Flickr photostream.

Just Shut Up and Sing

As my daughter and I ponder which city to attend for the next round of American Idol auditions, something more daunting is being tackled in the U.K. for geographically-dispersed vocalists.

Apparently, a lecturer at The University of Manchester is studying how to create an Internet choir. Gee, and I thought the network delay on BlogTV was annoying.

The type of super-fast low delay broadband network needed for the study is currently being delivered for some limited applications - and Dr Cheetham hopes ambitious initiatives such as the Virtual Choir will drive the future development of Internet communications. ~ in A Cappella News, by way of Tim Stahmer on his blog AssortedStuff.

8 Random Things About Me

I have been tagged by the author of Goldie's Gabs to post eight random things about me. Okay, fasten your seat belts.

Play Sink the Putt from Orbitz

Normally, I hate pop-up ads. But this one from Orbitz was kind of fun!
See how well you do...

[ tags: Games, Golf ]

Future Displays Will Be Bigger...No...Smaller

I have a real bad case of technolust. I've seen the future of color displays, whether for computers or television.

Microsoft Surface Computing Devices: "The software giant has built a tabletop, multi-touch computer that talks to phones, cameras and credit cards," reports Popular Mechanics magazine.

Toss those keyboards and mice. My living room needs a new coffee table, anyway. Oh, and it's coming soon to a casino near you! Video blackjack, anyone? (taps tabletop) Hit me.


Sony's Flexible OLED Thin Monitor: Meanwhile, some folks think smaller is better. Perhaps they'd prefer a next generation of monitors that is amazingly small (2.5-inch), thin (0.3mm thick) and flexible. Think 16.8 million colors and a 120 x 160 pixel resolution and you're on the right track. Organic LEDs are totally tubular...or not, actually!

Related buzz is all about video phones and TVs, but I can imagine future teens sporting one of these appliquéd to a T-shirt or jacket. Imagine being sent home from school for wearing one, especially during exams. Ha! Sure would beat skimpy straps and short skirts for distracting apparel.

Hmmm. Where's that Target or Wal-Mart flier from the Sunday paper? Can I get these yet?

Online Community Unconference

Check out my Webcast segments from the Online Community Unconference, held at the Computer History Museum today in Mountain View, California. I recorded them on BlogTV.

The Online Community Unconference is a gathering of online community practitioners - managers, developers, business people, tool providers, investors - to discuss experience and strategies in the development and growth of online communities. ~ Forum One Communications

After the conference, I noticed that my session on Twitter was tied with the Webcast of a baby on BlogTV. (sigh) Oh, well. I just can't compete with animals and children for real crowd appeal.

Ode to Justin.tv

This morning, Justin Kan posted a call for poems via his Twitter account.

Well, I wrote a poem about Justin, knowing full well it is lame and unoriginal. I emailed it to Justin for the ephemeral glory of hearing him read it on his show, but alas, I didn't make the cut.

Obviously, I didn't submit it for the prize, "as if" I could actually win one. I just wanted to see if I could write a coherent poem, regardless of its literary value. No such luck, apparently.

Help me fix my bad poetry by adding your own verses to the comments for this post.

Ode to Justin.tv
Started by Kim M. Bayne

Justin streams his daily life to all
In answer to the Web Glitterati call

A subtle reminder of the Truman Show
We live each minute blow by blow

Broadcasting his life in wireless mode
Streaming must be a lonely road

Flies on the browser wall are we
Yet, we see no earthshaking activity

'Til one night did someone call the fuzz
Bringing the wrath of landlords with Net voyeurs abuzz

Yet, as I watch the potpourri of his open source existence
My envy is heightened by my technical ignorance

How could I to stream the same and how would I to spend my day?
Surely not to work at all, but merely to play

*** To be continued ***

Minced Media on Ustream, BlogTV and Stickam

Everywhere I surf, someone is playing with a webcam. If it isn't someone broadcasting the boring details of her work day, it's someone making a fool of himself mugging at the screen.

Each new service that debuts is like a Flavor of the Moment, so of course, I sign up immediately. Excessive? So sue me!

Check me out on Ustream.tv, BlogTV.com or Stickam -- I'm probably broadcasting somewhere!

Warning: Objects in your browser may be closer than they appear.

Claiming Your Twitter on Technorati

A Twitter Fan Wiki user posted the instructions for how to claim a Twitter stream for one's Technorati Profile. Gee, I had forgotten about doing that. Isn't user-generated content wonderful? I love shared learnings.

Technorati Fools Around

Blog search engine Technorati, goofs it up for visitors to its site today by rearranging the letters in its name. You get a new variation each time you go to a different page.





Meanwhile, Woot offers a deal no one can refuse. If you're not familiar with Woot, they offer one deal of the day and that's it.

Google Goes With The Flow

The folks at Google share an awesome sense of humor. Today -- April Fools' Day -- I came across a few examples of Google pranksters at work (play). Here they are...

Google TiSP: Through a link from the Google home page today, I discovered that Google TiSP is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines.

Gmail Paper: As posted to both Digital Media Wire and Google Operating System blogs, Gmail paper is revealed to be a new service that allows you to request a hard copy of any message with the click of a button and receive your print out in snail mail.

Gmail Paper is a scrapbooker's dream. I paper archive all of my son's emails, cut them out in creative shapes, and paste them in my binders. ~ Beta User Testimonial

Google Romance: For you Internet history buffs, I found this via Google Operating System, which led me to Google's official news release from 2006. Google Romance lets you "tell the world who you are, or, more to the point, who you’d like to think you are, or, even more to the point, who you want others to think you are." Not only can you post a profile, but Google's new dating service lets you "post multiple profiles with a bulk upload file, you sleaze." BTW, the unofficial blog also turned me on to hidden Google pages, which were more useful and less funny.

and finally...from 2005, this has yet to show up on local store shelves, so I'm calling it a prank. If you've had a bottle, prove me wrong and give me a cap so I can claim coolness, too.

Google Gulp: A line of "smart drinks" designed to maximize your surfing efficiency by making you more intelligent, and less thirsty. My thanks goes to Danny Sullivan who posted this on Apr. 1, 2005 at Search Engine Watch.

Twitterisms - Random Observations

I guarantee you'll get sick of this topic long before I do. Yep, I'm blogging about Twitter again. Don't worry. I'm sure I'll get it out of my system eventually.

I caught myself on Twittervision recently. It's like walking by a row of TV sets at Sears. Sure, you're trying not to notice a camera is pointed at you, but you can't help yourself. Gee, is that broccoli in my teeth?




The Twitter spam has started already.

You knew it would, so stop pretending it wasn't going to happen.

Hey, Twitter head honchos. Now would be a good time to put some user-optional filters in place. Or not.


I've noticed lots of people using facial parts for their Twitter profile images...like Yours Truly. Ever wonder what happens in the public timeline when two face parts appear together?

So much for originality on my part. Funny, I never thought of myself as a "lowest common denominator" type of person, but I guess we all have our moments. Ironic how part of the other screen name matches my real surname.


And speaking of moments, the following Tweets -- found courtesy of Twittersearch -- fit in the category of "Too much information."

I draw the line at Twittering while on the toilet. Not gonna happen. Nope.

48 Hours in Twitterland

Twitter allows employees to live a day in someone else's cubicle, so to speak, and share learnings less obtrusively.

I am addicted to Twitter. Twitter is a "service that allows you to post short little posts under 140 characters," according to an Ask.com-retrieved definition from blog.zemote.com. This week, I've been using Twitter frequently, just to experience for myself if there exists any real business apps potential here. You see, I just joined a new project team and I decided I needed some high-tech, fast on-boarding. Twitter is a great way that co-workers can shadow each other and learn. I asked co-workers to sign up and Twitter about their day, so I could get a feel for their hour-to-hour activities. Meg accommodated me and signed up immediately. She Twittered about meetings and conversations and I soon realized that people-to-people interactions take up a good portion of her day.

As for me, I Twittered tweeted about a combination of one-sided MeetingPlace calls and Web slide presentations, amidst intermittent tasks like customer care by email, software training, and little unrelated observations. I tend to be more "heads-down," burrowing into the guts of the work like a tech-loner. I'd make a lousy manager that way.

Sometimes conference calls are the background noise I need while I dual and triple process. I rarely pick up a phone to chat with a colleague, because email is just an extension of my whirling fingers. Maybe that's not so great, especially since I work remotely much of the time, and my over-dependence on technology makes me a corporate wallflower -- invisible too often. If my co-workers in other cities were on Twitter, perhaps I wouldn't feel so isolated.

Two co-workers in the same company or group can have and act upon different concepts of work day effectiveness. After comparing our Twitter posts (Meg and mine) for the past 48 hours, I felt like my day was fragmented. It made me think about better ways to organize my tasks around bigger chunks of productivity and, of course, people. So, in a way, being on Twitter caused me to up my game, mainly because I was broadcasting to the world. Now if every person behaved that way...

As a side note, while reviewing emerging presidential candidates, I found myself gravitating toward certain candidates for technological reasons. Now I'm wondering if I can separate the medium from the message. I noticed that Barack Obama and John Edwards both have MySpace.com & Twitter pages. No, I don't think having a "cool" Web presence is necessarily a requirement of U.S. leadership. They're just tools (she tells herself), not qualifications for vote-getting or indications of competence. But I'm getting sidetracked again.

Anyway, back to the business hook for Twitter. Twitter allows employees to live a day in someone else's cubicle, so to speak, and share learnings less obtrusively. For WAH workers or those in another city, Twitter can also help convey ideas and atmosphere in real time -- something most distance workers wouldn't normally experience in such an informal manner.

So...if you've questioned whether or not Twitter has any real use, I can answer that. There are real time implications for corporations interested in adding more social media tools to their internal communications mix. It's giving me a better perspective on how I can best work on this new team, too.

Here's a list of business applications for Twitter:
· Attracting event sponsors - whether planned or spontaneous
· Media outlet news feed
· Event channel - i.e. film festival mini-reviews, sports play-by-play and so on
· Informational and real-time updates for users - system outages, server issues, product releases, and product updates
· Radio station play list - with updates on what track is now playing
· Team updates for a geographically diverse workforce
· Marketing or PR ticker directed at journalists or analysts
· Feedback channel for customer care purposes
· Blow-by-blow notations of usability studies for PD teams
· SEO strategy tool for enhancing an online community presence

Can you think of more? Comment on this blog post and/or add a link to Twitter Fan Wiki on Business Uses.

~ Kim

Teens Know Best -- Getting Started Early in Business

I love fusion words. They illustrate how flexible we've become and how we continue to evolve. For example, first came the term entrepreneur, to designate a person who "organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture," according to the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language. More recently, we've heard the term Mompreneur, which is a fusion of "Mom" and "entrepreneur." These are female business owners with children at home. Many of these mothers are work-at-home parents.

Recently, I discovered the term Teenpreneur and a blog devoted to the concept of teens in business. The Small Business Association knows many kids start businesses long before they graduate from school. These days, teen entrepreneurs have advanced well beyond babysitting, mowing grass and after-school fast food jobs. Thanks to organizations like the SBA and Junior Achievement, teens are getting the support they need while starting some amazing business ventures.

As a high schooler, I was very active in Junior Achievement, even winning a few sales contests (see picture). Being able to combine sales acumen, speaking skills and financial management at an early age contributed to my future success. I'm glad to see J.A. is still around and keeping up with the times.

All these teen business resources make me wish I was more motivated at sixteen...I might have become a female Donald Trump or Bill Gates. Well, without the bad hair, anyway. You know, in today's crazy job market, learning about business is essential for future career development, regardless of one's focus. Kudos to Web sites who recognize the value and cater to teen visitors.

Truthiness is Now a Flavor

I often tune into Comedy Central to watch "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." If it weren't for Jon, I wouldn't have been introduced to omnipotent satirist Stephen Colbert. Yes, I admit, I was watching "The Colbert Report" when Stephen made a mockery of Wikipedia's user-generated greatness by coining the term "Wikiality."

Here's the scoop. Apparently, I wasn't the only one impressed by Stephen's glib information refactoring. Ice cream moguls Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s just announced a new flavor called "AmeriCone Dream," dedicated to Stephen. Proceeds from the sale of the ice cream "will support charities...such as food and medical assistance for disadvantaged children, helping veterans and their families, and environmental causes."

Ben & Jerry's new flavor is a decadent melting pot of vanilla ice cream with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and a caramel swirl. It’s the sweet taste of liberty in your mouth.~ Official B&J corporate news release, February 28, 2007 05:11 PM ET.

Ben and Jerry are scheduled to festively debut the ice cream with an appearance on Stephen's show. To hear about Stephen's plan to "save the world," tune in to "The Colbert Report" on Monday, March 5 at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT. Now if I can only get my hands on a pint to enjoy while pondering my liberal bias.

Yum!

Hit the Space Bar to Drop Your Poop

The World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund) has expanded its environmental games arsenal with a scatological take on unsustainable fishing issues called "The Seagull Strikes Back." Fecal freaks of the world can now rejoice...virtually, anyway.

TurboTax Gets a Bad Rap

First, let me disclose that I work for Intuit. You can decide for yourself whether or not my comments are unbiased.

This American Idolesque contest by TurboTax is the single, most hilarious thing I've seen come out of marketing since I started working here. It's so bad, it's got virality written all over it. How I wish I'd thought of it!

The middle-aged mama rapping in her kitchen made me laugh so hard, I almost fell out of my chair. TurboTax has a channel on YouTube for submissions, so if you want to shill for TurboTax, write and enter an original music video, and compete for the $25,000 grand prize (rap legend pretender Robert "Vanilla Ice" Van Winkle picks the winner), get out your digital video camera and start rapping. The contest ends March 30.

~ Kim

P.S. You get free TurboTax software, just for uploading an eligible rap video so you've got nothing to lose but your dignity. Give it a shot! (Yeah, I'd do it, but I'm not eligible. Darn!)

Wal-Mart Destroys Society -- No Fooling

A recent study of the impact of Wal-Mart stores in communities has negative implications. The study concluded that the presence of Wal-Mart depresses social capital stocks in local communities
* Communities with Wal-Mart stores had fewer non-profit groups and social capital-generating associations (such as churches, political organizations, and business groups) per capita than those that did not.
* Wal-Mart's presence depresses civic participation, namely voter participation

Yeah? And I just thought it was because of all the cheap and tacky teen clothing they've been selling lately.

Working with VCs For Your Start-Up Business

Last month, while browsing Yedda, I came across a question about venture capitalists and start-ups.

What is the right time to incorporate a vc in the start up?

I couldn't resist providing the Yedda user with some meaty links to help him out. Here's what I wrote...

There is no "right time." It depends on your business and well, you! Everyone has different timing. Make sure you have a rock solid business plan before you approach a VC. Many VCs look at your track record, either as a previous employee or business owner, but product or service potential and projected return on investment is a big factor. Some VCs specialize in start-ups, and some business owners get funding at the onset, so your question about the timing may be moot.

If you'd like to read about a start-up entrepreneur who attracted VCs early in the game, check out this blog article.
Ramit Sethi, co-founder & VP of Marketing for PBwiki, presents Friday Entrepreneur: Joyce Park, Renkoo posted at I Will Teach You To Be Rich. Ramit interviews Joyce, co-founder and CTO of Renkoo, about her decision to fund her start-up "almost immediately ($3 million in VC)."

There are also some step-by-step articles on eHow.com about getting money from VCs.

• How to Secure Venture Capital Money
• How to Prepare a Pitch to a Venture Capitalist

There's a nice article on CNNMoney titled What a VC wants to see in you, that talks about wooing "even the fussiest venture capitalists." And don't forget to read "Top Ten Lies of Venture Capitalists" by Guy Kawasaki, to help you put things in perspective.

Meanwhile, if you're interested in getting additional help with business planning, reading case studies, and finding other entrepreneurs like yourself, check out JumpUp. JumpUp is a new site by Intuit for small business owners and start-up entrepreneurs. I've added several links under "My Saved Bookmarks" for help in starting a business, so start with my Profile on Kim's JumpUp Page. By the way, just so you know, I work for Intuit...

Good luck!

~ Kim

Naming Your Web Site

About a week ago, while browsing Yedda, I came across a question about naming a Web site.

I am developing a site for students, somebody has a suggestion of a name for the site???

Of course, a couple of users immediately started throwing out cute ideas. That's where I decided to step in. Here's my answer, as seen at Yedda.

Before you start coming up with cool names for your site, think about what you want to convey about it. What types of services are you going to offer? What features and functions will the site have? What type of site is it -- social networking, educational, or something completely different?

Sure you can come up with a name that has nothing to do with its purpose -- obviously Amazon.com and a host of Web 2.0 properties have done it. You could coin your own phrase by inventing a pseudo word for a site name, which might start a verb trend (ever heard of "googling"?). GoDaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons talks about strange domain names on his April 6, 2005 podcast, if you're interested.

Keep in mind that you want your domain name to be brandable and memorable. I'd be glad to give you some ideas, but it would be better to know -- what is the site's purpose or, better yet, (aside from the "funny" tag in your question) what do you want the user community to remember?

If you really want to create some buzz, stage a contest to name the site. You might even be inspired by this guy who offered to change his name for the highest bidder.

Meanwhile, while you're trying to figure it all out, here are a few helpful links to get you started on domain name brainstorming or "namestorming." These sites have wizards that combine words and can suggest domain names.

Domain Name Wizard

Domain Twister

DomainGen.com

Domain2Trade

123Finder.com

There's also an article on JumpUp called Winning the Name Game. It's a two-part article on what to look for in a name and how to reserve it for your business.

By the way, I work for Intuit, so visit my JumpUp profile for more helpful links under "My Saved Bookmarks."

~ Kim