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Stephen Pickering

Author: Stephen Pickering

  • Mylikes Update: A Retweet is All It Takes

    The Mylikes_Retweet account on Twitter. Makes publishing an ad almost effortless, and totally fun!

    Remember when I wrote about Mylikes, the social media ad platform, that allowed you to leverage your Social Media efforts? Well, I still love it, for all the reasons I mentioned in the post, but I noticed lately I haven’t been as active on it. There are more than a few reasons for this, but one of the biggest was LAZINESS. For one thing I got a new Mac, I didn’t remember my password, and I’d have to walk ALL THE WAY to the next room to log on. Just think of that: I’d rather walk to another room, boot up another computer, than simply reset my password! I just found out last night that I can log in to Mylikes through Twitter (or Facebook for that matter) but I was alway hesitant to do that because when I used that strategy with CinchCast, Cinchcast simply opened up another account for me, instead of linking me to my existing account. Not Mylikes. Simply logon through Twitter or Facebook and it links you to your existing account. Nice.

    But it gets even better, and easier.

    A Retweet is All it Takes

    I noticed the other day that they have set up a special account called @Mylikes_retweet that tweets ads, and all you have to do is simply retweet (use the twitter retweet button) and of course not only is that ad published to all of your followers, any time that it is clicked you earn money! Talk about removing any friction! Not only do you not have to go to Mylikes and pick an ad, the copy is already written for you. And it’s great, eye catching, fun copy that is more conducive to “clicking” (translate, good for publishers!) As a matter of fact when I do it, I almost have to keep myself from clicking the retweet in my own stream (which would be against the rules.)

    I love this feature because of its ease, but not only that, it interests me because it shows the innovative nature of the company. I mentioned in my earlier post that the founders, Bindu Reddy and her husband were ex-Googlers and that that fun, innovative approach was in their DNA, just like it is at Google.

    Fun is something that is way underestimated, especially in Western Culture. We tend to divide “fun” away from our business life. Almost a firewall between fun, life, and business. But I just finished reading Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose,and the secret to Zappos’ culture is just the opposite: Fun, social, caring are intrisic to Zappos’ DNA. In fact it is their business model.

    This theme struck a bell inside me earlier this week. I was chatting with a web developer friend. I mentioned that I was looking for a photo editing, creative application that wasn’t so intimidating (and expensive) as Photoshop. He mentioned Pixelmator and after telling me all the nice features about it, at the end in an unconscious exhuberence spouted, “And it’s fun!”

    Well, for all the philosophical debate we have over advertising and it’s place, especially in Social Media, what about the philosophy of Fun?

    If you are already a member of Mylikes, simply go to @Mylikes_retweet and pick an ad from their tweet stream. Simply retweet it, and see if you don’t have some fun as well as potentially earn some money.

    And if you are not a member go sign up here: Mylikes.com (It’s free, and if you sign up with that link, I have a chance to win an iPad2, which you can too once you are a member.)

  • 220lbs- 10lbs Lost in Under Three Weeks

    An important milestone to record. 10lbs lost. 220lbs. (From 230)

    Yeah! Well, I didn’t want to really blog every pound or did I? Maybe if I had something so say at every pound, but I thought 10lbs and 220lbs was an important milestone.

    Not really. Just eat less calories than you burn. Which is easy but tricky. The iPhone app helps a lot. Writing it down. Keeping track, but you still have to know how many calories are in a meal.

    I’ll probably have to move into the Livestrong app as I start eating at restaurants and such. At least to identify how many calories are in certain meals.

    I’ll let you know how that goes. For now I’m still using the Lose It! app, which I feel a certain loyalty to. It got me here!

  • 222lbs- 8lbs Lost in 2 Weeks.

    Finally I made some progress to 222lbs. Felt like I was stuck on 224 forever.

    Well this is cool. Seemed like I got to 224 really fast and then couldn’t budge from there for a while. Kind of frustrated me for a few days. I was counting calories diligently and always under for the day, but I still felt bloated and the scales didn’t budge. Finally yesterday and today they did. That was rewarding. I started taking 30 minute walks with my dogs every day since Spring has sprung. That feels good to get some exercise. I want to gradually increase it until I’m doing full workouts at the gym. I want those coveted “ironing board” or “six-pack” abs. I just want to know what that feels like. So obviously losing weight is not the most important thing. It’s losing fat. Plus, I learned that the more muscle you build the faster your metabolism burns. It has to burn faster just to keep up with the overall increase in muscle, keeping that muscle built. But I think losing those first few pounds to get some momentum going is important for morale. Getting some feedback on the scales.

    I think I went at it too hard in the beginning, hungry for results. I was only having about 1100 calories a day. Now I’m having more like 1500-1800.

    Interesting thing about this app: When I first programmed my numbers it gave me a calorie “budget” of just over 1800 calories. Then as I’ve lost a few pounds my new “budget” has decreased to 1799. That’s cool if it adjusts automatically like that.

    My diet has been pretty much the same. 3 boiled eggs and toast (whole wheat) at breakfast, half sandwich (freshly made at the Kroger deli and packaged) & apple for lunch, then one of those Stouffer frozen dinners at dinner. Those are usually around 400-450 calories. I’ll drink water, fat free milk or a Sugar free Verve with those meals. Then later at night I might have a Chocolate Myo-Plex shake with fat free milk and a banana.

    Looks like I started this on March 10th. So I’m right at the 2 week mark and 8lbs lost.

     

  • What to do when your iPad’s Home Button Stops Working

    A few days ago my iPad’s home button stopped working. Seems like it happened right after I upgraded to iOs 4.3. The only thing I could do to use it was turn it off and back on. Mine’s a first generation that I got at Best Buy the first day it came out on April 3rd, 2010. I searched the web. There was a blog post where a lot of people who were having the same problem talked about solutions and whether it was hardware or software caused. Some found answers. Most didn’t and ended up taking it back and getting it replaced. Since mine is almost a year old and I didn’t buy any of the warranty from Best Buy or Apple, I figured I would have to take it back, they may send it off and that it would cost me something.

    Anyway on this blog post I know one guy mentioned that his would work in Portrait mode. I tried portrait mode, still nothing. So I let the thing sit for a day. I’d thought about a hard reset, but how are you going to do a hard reset if the home button doesn’t work?

    Anyway, yesterday, even though it was still not working, I found something funny: I noticed that when I held it in landscape mode, pushed the button, held it, then rotated it to portrait mode, then released, it started working, maybe half the time. I thought, “OK, I can live with this for a few days until I take it up there.”

    Then later on, I had the iPad sitting flat on my wooden desk next to my desktop. I pushed the button. It worked every time. I thought, “Hey this is cool. OK.” I thought maybe it had something to do with the hard surface. Now my iPad is not in a case, so I don’t know if that may make a difference.

    Now, a day after that, it seems to be totally working again like normal.

    This could be totally anecdotal and have nothing to do with my exercises. Maybe it was just a glitch in the software that some how “healed” itself. But its worth a try if you find yourself in this same situation.

    So try this:

    • Hold the iPad in front of you in landscape mode
    • Push the button and keep it held while you gently rotate it to Portrait mode, then release.
    • See if you get any response: 1 out of 2 times, 1 out of 3, etc.
    • If that works, or even if it doesn’t, lay the iPad gently on a hard, smooth surface, so there is even resistance. (If its in a case, I’d recommend taking it out) Push the button, hold it in a second longer than normal, then gently release.
    • This may be totally anecdotal but it “feels” like it started responding when, after I pushed, I kept it pushed for a second, and then gently released.

    Well maybe this is totally luck and yours still won’t work or maybe there’s something to it, and either the maneuver or the slight resistance somehow put it it back in place (assuming it is hardware related) or somehow fixed the “glitch” if it is software.

    Either way, what I’m describing above is in no way harming the iPad. I wasn’t pushing any harder than normal or trying to shake it or anything like that. No need to push harder. Although it did seem, at first, that when I would hold it pushed in for just a second longer than normal and then gently released, it started to respond.

    Don’t do anything that could damage your iPad, but try the above and see if it works for you. Give it a day or two. Maybe you’ll have the same “luck” that I did, and it’ll start working again.

    If not of course take it back to the Apple Store. But either way, if you are one of the unfortunate ones like me that this happened to let me know how it works out. I’d love to hear your experiences. And learn.

  • 226lbs – Lost 4lbs in 5 Days!

    Eat less calories than you burn. Get an app to help you keep track.

    Look at me! Give me attention! Isn’t that what it’s all about these days?

    Well that’s the “shadow” part of what’s going on, but still, if something you are doing, some part of your story is of benefit to others, or even telling your story is of benefit to you, by recording it, writing it down (Don’t all the success books tell you to write things down?) then the benefits to society of the internet far outweigh the egotistical sides of it.

    Well I’ve eaten about the same thing the last four days. If I get up early enough, boiled eggs, toast with sugar free strawberry jam, orange juice. Lunch is a half sandwich made at Krogers and packaged with an apple and a glass of at free milk. Dinner is one of those Stouffer’s frozen dinners. They are generally 400-450 calories with a Sugar Free Verve to drink or once again milk.

    I’ve been averaging about 1100 calories a day, which is too little, and 4lbs in 5 days is too fast, but I haven’t been starving myself. When I’m hungry I eat, but simply conscious of how many calories in the meal.

    The iPhone app certainly helps. Maybe it’s the key in getting me kick started. Forever I’ve been thinking, “I’ll start the ‘Body for Life’ program next week.” But that’s such a large undertaking of planning and getting everything ready it created a roadblock.

    The app has got me started. Got me excited of success with immediate results. I feel like from here I can gradually move into more “Body for Life” features.

    I can’t stress enough how I feel the value of a meal including a protein and a carb. Even in smaller portions it makes me feel more satisfied than just having an apple by itself, for instance.

    I’m also taking advantage of those Myoplex Nutrition shakes in time limited situations. And the key there is they contain protein and carbs which keep me feeling satisfied and good to go for a few hours.

  • Astonishing Six Minute Amateur Video of Japan Tsunami

    In case you can’t view this video because of the country that you are in, here is a direct link to the .MP4 file.

    I saw this as a tweet from Jeff Jarvis. I threw it on Youtube because it enlarged it. Youtube said that it may be the property of TV Asahi Corporation. So they may pull it down, and they said it may not be viewable in other countries.

    Update 3/28/11
    The youtube version of the video has now been taken down, I am not sure why. The video can still be viewed on the Bulgarian site Vbox7.

    Here’s another amazing one from Tokyo showing cracks opening and closing and liquefaction: I saw this in a tweet from Chris Sacca

    And another I just saw tweeted by Jimmy Pethokoukis saying “More than any other video i have seen, this shows the terrifying power and speed of the Japan tsunami”

    Saw this one today (04-19-11) from the site Newser.com entitled “New Japan Tsunami Video Shows Town Washed Away as Residents Flee”