MikeCampbell's Posterous

Another thing I've noticed about lists is than I don't see any
built-in retweets and I like it. When I do jump over to the full list
timeline, I see a ton of retweets. At first, I don't realize they are
retweets. I see an unfamiliar avatar and wonder, who in the hell is
that. I don't remember following them. Oh yeah, that's because I
didn't follow them. Someone I'm following retweeted them.

I built my following one person at a time. I don't follow just anyone.
I look at their avatar, their bio, their page of tweets, and then
decide whether they fall within my Twitter goals before following. In
other words, I have built a following list of people I trust; people I
would like to meet offline.

So when I see a bunch of people I don't trust, I don't like it. I
prefer to see the avatars of someone I know, RT, and why it's worthy
of retweet.

A couple weeks ago, I bought a new hard drive for my home PC and reinstalled Vista. I wish I would have done it a while ago because the old PC feels like a new machine. I haven't reinstalled the HP Photosmart B209a-m printer/scanner software and wanted to scan a couple of documents. I installed the driver without installing the 170MB software. I browsed to the printer/scanner's IP address. There I discovered "webscan". It worked on my PC and I figured it should work on my iPad. And it did. Here's how:

1. Type the IP address of the printer into a web browser. I used Perfect Browser because Safari would not allow popups.
2. Click webscan.
3. Place the document on the wireless printer.
4. Click scan.
5. Tap and hold the image to save to pictures on your iPad.

I used my iPhone to record these steps and through together this YouTube video.

The kids were playing in the background, so I uploaded cheesy YouTube autoswap music. I also did not edit out me dropping the document.

Google asked, “If email were developed today, what would it look like?” The answer, they claimed, was Google Wave, a revolutionary way to communicate. Today, I read on Twitter that Google is abandoning Wave and it may not even be around this time next year. Here’s why it failed:

• Email isn’t broke and doesn’t need fixing. Email is still the most popular business communications tool. Sure, Wave can do a lot more, but we don’t need it to do more.
• The best feature, collaboration tools, was killed by a pathetic rollout. When I finally got my Wave invite, I tried to beta test it in the office, but there was nobody to collaborate with. Since Google rolled it out one person at a time, the collaboration feature was DOA.
• The rollout took way too long. I signed up for my invite and waited and waited and waited. When I finally logged in, the product already had a bad taste in my mouth.
• The invitation process was seriously flawed. I had the opportunity to invite five people to join, so I sent and invite to my other gmail account and to two co-workers. None of us could get logged on. Major fail.
• Poor Gmail integration. I forgot about Wave and had no compelling reason to log in. Why not add collaboration to Gmail?
• Too complicated. Seriously, a twenty minute video introducing the product?
• No Google Docs integration. I can already share a Google doc and invite anyone to modify it. Why do I need Wave?
• Facebook. The number one reason Wave failed is because of Facebook. If email were developed today, it would look a lot like Facebook. Anecdotally, young people no longer check email, they check Facebook.

There may be some good come out of Wave. The ability to drag and drop attachments is awesome. I hope to see it integrated with Google docs and Gmail. I hope to see the collaboration features also.

When we exercise, such as running, 70% of the energy produced by
muscles is lost to heat. The human brain measures the temperature of
blood and if it gets too hot, the brain tells the sweat glands to
release sweat, which is primarily water. It also tells the
capillaries, which are on the surface of the skin, to expand. As the
water evaporates, it cools the skin and the blood near the skin. The
cooled blood is then circulated back through the body.

Dew point is the temperature at which water condenses. The closer the
dew point temperature is to air temperature, the more humid it is. In
other words, the more the air is saturated with water. The more the
air is saturated, the less water will evaporate and the less effective
sweating is. That’s why in the dog days of summer the sweat just rolls
off. This puts a lot of extra stress on the heart and lungs as the
body tries unsuccessfully to cool a body that's exercising in
temperatures that are near or greater than average body temperature.

Resources:
http://www.psoriasiscafe.org/sweat-works.htm - stolen from howstuffworks.com

http://physics.suite101.com/article.cfm/physics_of_sweating -
evaporation requires heat. Our bodies have excess heat. Water uses
body heat to evaporate.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/basics/wsweat.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5213134_evaporating-sweat-cool-down_.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporation

http://www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_evap.html

http://www.kidzone.ws/water/ - water cycle

http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_is_evaporation.htm - maybe the
most important process

http://www.spineuniverse.com/wellness/exercise/sweating-your-bodys-cooling-sy...

http://www.drmirkin.com/fitness/8934.html

http://www.faqs.org/sports-science/Ce-Do/Core-Body-Temperature.html

A lot of distance runners don’t believe they can improve their speed. Many think that you are either born with speed or you or not. Speed can be increased no matter where your speed is right now. Speed is not just about muscle fibers and leg turnover. It is about form, power, and stride. Here are ways to improve your speed:

• Strength training. Your thighs and calves power running. The stronger they are, the farther you go with each stride, thus increasing speed. While one leg is launching you forward, the other leg is lifting your foot off the ground and pulling it forward. The stronger your hamstring, the faster you can pull your foot off the ground; simultaneously propelling you forward and lengthening your stride.

• Flexibility. Distance runners are generally not very limber. I’ve know many who can’t even touch their toes with their hands sitting down and legs straight out. Whereas sprinters often times need someone to help them stretch because they are so limber. Flexibility increases stride. I generally stretch my hamstrings and calves, and do 3-4 sets each leg holding for 30 seconds.

• Posture. Lean slight forward and let gravity work for you. Run tall with your chest forward and shoulders back. Watch professional runners, find videos online, and learn their form. (One exception is Michael Johnson who leans back when he runs.)

• Form. Your knees, ankles, and arms should move back and forth in a straight line. The more efficient your movement, the faster you’ll go. Don’t let your feet and ankles swing outside your shoulders. Don’t let your arms crossover your chest. Keep your hands inside your shoulders and elbows about 90°.

• Relax. Loosen your shoulders. Occasionally dangle and wiggle your arms to your sides to release shoulder tension. It’s okay to be limp-wrested. Don’t clinch your fists.

• Head still. Like any sport, one of the most important techniques is to keep your head still. Don’t let your head sway from side to side. If your head is swaying, so is your whole body losing tons of energy. Try to keep your stride as smooth as possible so that your head does not bob up and down too much.

The pool is one of the best places to work on strength and form. Run in the water or practice leg motion in the pool. Use the pool wall to brace yourself with your back to the wall. Mimic a running stride bringing your knees slightly out of the water. Turn around and hold the wall, kicking your feet behind you.

Practice classic exercises like lunges and high-knee kicks. I’m sure there are some YouTube videos with these exercises and more. This is just what I was thinking while running this morning. It was inspired by an article in a Dick’s Sporting Goods catalog I received in the mail plus a couple of online articles on speed. Moreover, it’s what I remind myself when running, especially when I get tired or see the finish line.

With the explosion of social media, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, I
decided to start using my given name for personal branding. My name is
my brand. Since it is already taken on just about every web site, I
had to come up with a suffix or some way to differienate my name form
all the other Mike Campbells of the world.

I started using MikeCampbellCPA because that is what is on my business
card, Mike Campbell, CPA. It didn't take long to realize that CPA is a
brand in and of itself. The AICPA and state CPA societies have done a
phenomenal job of promoting and protecting the CPA brand. Although it
is a well-respected and trusted brand, it is too often associated with
public accounting. That's not a bad thing, but it is not my brand.

Then I started using the next title on my business card, CFO. Chief
Financial Officer, or CFO, also carries a certain brand. This brand is
a little more elusive based on individual experiences with CFOs. It
coiled be bad from reading about Enro or conjure up images of Scrooge
or Potter. Although they weren't CFOs, they were 'finance guys' and
influence what a lot of people think about finance guys. Not only can
I not control how people view the CFO brand, I don't want to be a CFO
forever. I may want to become a COO, CEO, or even start my own
business. Even if I stay in the finance role, my title may change to
VP of Finance or other.

CFO arbitrarily narrows my brand. Being the CFO of a small business, I
have taken on many roles in the Firm. I am the IT director and chief
compliance officer. At one time I founded and developed the human
resources department. I grew it to the point of being self-sufficient
and answering directly to the CEO. At one time I even did some
marketing during a few week hiatus between marketing directors.
Furthermore, my online brand is also includes being a husband, father,
runner, blogger, and avid reader.

Now I have the dilemma of having four brands out here in cyberspace:
remnants of LouisvilleSoup, MikeCampbellCPA, MikeCampbellCFO, and
(rarely) MikeCampbell. I own and have been using the URL
MikeCampbellCFO.com, but recently purchased MikeCampbell.biz. Then I
played around with forwarding and realized that it doesn't matter what
username I'm able to obtain for these web sites because I can just
create a forward and use MikeCampbell.biz for my brand. For example,
here are a few forwards I setup:

http://blog.mikecampbell.biz
http://twitter.mikecampbell.biz
http://linkedin.mikecampbell.biz
http://books.mikecampbell.biz
http://youtube.mikecampbell.biz
http://dailymile.mikecampbell.biz

This looks so much cleaner on a business card or on email signature
than the full URL; and it promotes my brand. Plus it enables me to
broaden my brand beyond CPA or CFO. My online goals are still
primarily business related, so I am okay with dot biz. Plus, my blog's
mission is to share thoughts and ideas about small business growth and
leadership. I think I have finally settled on an online brand name I
can use for a while.

I installed a new hard drive on my Acer Aspier home PC. I bought it a couple years ago with only an 80 GB hard drive. But now, with a five-year-old and seven-year-old our digital photos have taken over the PC. We only had a few gig left to work with. It was time for a new hard drive.

I bought a 320 gigabyte internal hard drive for $63. Instead of browsing and ordering online, I called a computer outlet to make sure I bought the right drive.

I considered two options for installing the new hard drive. Installing a new hard drive is one of those things that can go really good or really bad. It’s important to at least think through the steps before proceeding.

First, I considered using Acronis True Image or PC Mover software to create an image of my hard drive and restore that image on the new hard drive. This would give me an exact replica of my current hard drive. I would not have to install programs or updates. On the other hand, I would have an exact replica of all the junk apps installed over time including the cluttered registry that goes along with it.

Roughly, the steps to burn an image are: (1) Download and install image software. (2) Create an image and save on an external hard drive. (3) Create a recovery CD so that the PC will boot with a blank hard drive installed. (4) Remove the old hard drive and replace with the new hard drive. (5) Boot the PC with the recovery CD and follow the on-screen instructions for restoring the image.

Second, I considered installing the new hard drive with the original image of the PC. In other words, setting the computer back to factory settings. This would give me a clean install without all the junk accumulated over time. However, I would have to reinstall all the apps we use. Since so much of my computing has moved to the cloud, this was the best option. The few apps that we use like Picasa, Tux Paint, KeePass, LogMeIn, are free and easy to download.

Roughly, the steps to reset back to factory settings are: (1) Click Start, Type eRecovery, and follow the on-screen instructions to create a factory-settings DVD recovery discs. (2) Backup C:\users\MikeCampbell which contains all docs, pics, and vids. (3) Remove and replace the old hard drive. (4) Boot the PC with the DVD recovery discs and follow the on-screen instructions. (5) Copy files from the backup to PC. (6) Reinstall apps.

Now that I’ve done it, I wish I had done it a lot sooner. It took about an hour but most of that was ‘sit and wait’.

I searched the web for "How to backup up Posterous" and it led me to
this Posterous help page: http://posterous.com/api/reading. Simply add
?hostname=yourposterous to the end to retrieve the past twelve posts.
Fore example:
http://posterous.com/api/readposts?hostname=mikecampbell

You can also add &num_posts to the end to retrieve more posts. Fifty
is the max but you can choose any number under 50. For example:
http://posterous.com/api/readposts?hostname=mikecampbell&num_posts=50

You can also add &tag=tagname or &site_id or &page. I've yet to try
these, mainly because I'm bad about adding tags.

Using Internet Explorer, click File --> Save As to save the XML file
to your computer.

Using GoodReader on your iPad, enter the URL and a copy will be saved
to your iPad. You can then email a copy to yourself.
One last note is that the XML files contains the post.ly short URL for each post.

Update 1/13/2011 - Automate Posterous Backup

I did a little digging after yesterday's comment to find a simple script to automate this backup. All you need a wget.exe file, which is a command line tool. You can get it from SourceForge or Ugent.be. I like Ugent.be because it is just the executable file. Here's how to automate the backup:

1. Download wget.exe.
2. Save wget.exe to c:\windows\system32.
3. Open Notepad and copy paste the following:
   wget http://posterous.com/api/readposts?hostname=yourposterous
4. Save the file as a batch file (ie. posterous.bat)
5. Add this file to scheduled tasks.