Listen and you shall learn
I know I was planning to revolutionize this blog, and haven’t forgot yet, it’s in progress - but, I stumbled upon this amazing video of J.K. Rowling speaking at the Harvard Commencement a year or so ago.
Now, quite a few people around me have ideas of what I should do, what I could do, and what I’m doing with my life - I suppose that’s how it is when you got caring friends and family around you. Their arguments vary though, but all of them are based on experiences; what else is there to base your advice on? If you follow the tree of argument, it will always lead to an experience (if we can agree on the definition of an experience), some experiences better than others.
When other people give me advice, I appreciate it, I really do. I mean, people sharing their knowledge and experience of life, for me to take advantage of, you cannot buy that for money, such advice costs time and effort, years and hard work. Looking back at some of the advice I’ve got, I can’t stop wondering about the way people serve their advice, and I think it is at least as important as the advice itself - something that I’ll remember from now on, something that you as an expert on life should also remember. I was moved by the way J.K. Rowling serves her advice; watch the movie below and you shall learn.
Time for a change? Why not…
I’m such a lazy young prick, and then again, everybody have their excuses - they might not work in other peoples’ ears, but they surely work in mine at the moment.
This blog is dead; as a matter of fact, it was. I have not updated it for over a year, and there are reasons for that (my excuses you know). I totally understand that my readers left this black hole; they would get kinda bored staying wouldn’t they?
People who come here are disappointed because I tend to be pretty up-to-date everywhere else online, moreover I’ve lost clients due to this blog: “Marc, you suck at web design.”, “Why doesn’t your blog show correctly in Internet Explorer 6?” etc. It must be time for a change - I’m much better at web design now, and I make websites which show correctly in Internet Explorer 6 (not that I’m a fan!).
So, here I’m sitting…writing the night before the big crucial almighty night, new years eve. A night I know means everything (or nothing) to a lot of people - some change their lives, some doesn’t. Thinking about it, I don’t see myself as a person who needs a special day of the year to start getting things done, but if you don’t want to miss the chance of getting motivated on such a day as tomorrow, some might accuse you of needing it - it doesn’t bother me, as long as I’m moving forward, isn’t that what life is about?
Ehm, so what are you getting out of this? Well, during the next month or so, I’ll have a kick ass (it will literally kick an ass or two - pictures to be uploaded) update for this website. Will start to focus more on a personal touch, web design, what really rocks my world, and tips for online outsourcing/money-making. If you’re interested in such subjects or phenomenas, my guess would be that you already have a ton to read each day - that’s fair, I understand (been there done that). But! I wouldn’t mind having a visitor or two now and then, and I’d be glad to see you here again some time - I promise to share whatever I know in return.
Happy new year! It will definitely bring miracles along, I can feel it…
Yours truly,
marc f
SEO; is it worth the $$$?
SEO (search engine optimization) … what the #¤%”? Well for those who don’t know, find the wiki-explanation here, it’s actually worth a read, even if you know what SEO is. You could also take a look at Googles definition here.
Being a Search Engine Optimization Company or SEO Expert is a tough and complicated business? I don’t know. I considered an SEO-expert to be a person who’s looking at a website, and going through a checklist of requirements which needs to be fulfilled, if the site is going to have a chance in the search-rankings.
By closer study, and experience with my own blog, I discovered that it’s not that simple. SEO is a lot more than just fixing some code here an there, adding URLs to exclusive directories, changing the text to feature keywords etc. It’s also about representing your blog, website or community in other places on the web, it’s about analyzing your competitors, and reaching out for new ways to promote ones website.
When I first started this blog (1½ year ago), I didn’t focus on SEO. Therefore, I got lucky when I wrote this post and got a lot of attention for it (compared to the other posts that I’ve written). It’s actually the only thing I’ve done to gain More Web Site Traffic, writing posts I think (some) people like. It hit the Digg frontpage, which gave me 12.000 visitors in 30 minutes, it also made my host suspend my account because of too much traffic…so there is also downsides (if you got the wrong host, now I’m using BlueHost instead).
Anyway…I’m thinking of spending more time on my blog, on quality-posts, linking, networking etc. so I got this idea of hiring a company to deliver the SEO-part, which hopefully will make my blog more visible to people! Then I have time and energy to focus on the posts, instead of the code, other sites etc. aka “all the technical stuff”.
So I want to hear you guys, do you have experiences with Search Engine Optimization Services ? What do they offer? Are they reliable? Is it worth it?
I mean, they must have some knowledge and expertise..
Drop a comment or mail me 
What’s next in social media?
Social media huh? Get an explanation here.
The “Create. Discover. Collect. Share.”-term is widely spread, and we’ve seen that kind of concept a 1000 times in different categories, just to mention a few:
Videos: YouTube, Vimeo, Sclipo
Images: Flickr, Contakme, OuStory
Websites: Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon
Friends: MySpace, Facebook, Virb
And of course we are going to see a lot more of it in the future, hopefully in new exciting flavours (browse through CrunchBase, follow KillerStartups or take a look at the Go2web2.0 directory and you’ll find a lot of strange and sometimes useful concepts)
Beneath, I’ve collected some people who has, in my opinion, interesting assumptions of where we’re going with all this, and I think they’re quite fascinating!
Happy socializing!
Characterize your web application!
What do you do to characterize your web application?
I’m not talking about building a specific service, having a great concept or catching the latest trends. I’m talking about the feeling and character of your web application, what do the users feel and think about it? Does it have any character at all?
One of the things I’ve experienced as a web designer is that, as long as the graphics looks good, it’s cool. But from the time where the designer is done in Photoshop till the actual site is up running, a lot of design decisions is probably made without approval from the designer. Unfortunately, animation and control of forms, effects, buttons etc. is not available in Photoshop yet (THERMO will hopefully solve that problem), so the programmer is left with different design decisions unless he’s told anything else. Therefore (no offense programmers), the right feeling and character of the web application often get lost in the code, so to speak.
Besides all the visual elements, characterization is also about knowing your target audience. Which kind of worldview are they carrying? Are they into rock, fuck and roll? Or are they more the kind of jazz, conversation and chill? If you don’t understand your audience and their worldview, how can you design a useful web application for them?
A woman who practice characterization is Denise Wilton, designer at Moo.com. In this talk, at Future of Web Design London 2007, hosted by Carsonified, she talks shortly about some of the fields of characterization of web applications.
The powerpoint used in the talk is available here in .pdf
Zamzar; convert files on the run
You’ve all been in the situation.
You’re on the run and you got this file which you just have to open, but the computer you’re are sitting in front of doesn’t have the tool(s) to open it with, so… what do you do?
You can excuse yourself, fix a ride home, and convert the file. You can ask if you can have permission to install some programs, which in most cases will put a thought in peoples heads; spyware, virus etc. Or you can use Zamzar!
Zamzar is a rather fast and simple service which lets you convert most fileformats into something else. E.g. yesterday I had this Microsoft Word 2007 Document (.docx) which I had to have in a format which was able to open in Microsoft Word 97 (.doc). So I simply uploaded the file at Zamzar and chose my fileformat, 50 mins later I got the .doc-file I needed. Perfect!
You can convert files up to a 100 mb without creating an account, and you can convert between .gif, .jpg, .ico, .png, .doc, .xls, .ppt, .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .mp3, .wav, .ogg, .ac3, .avo, .mpg, .mov, .wmv, .ipod, .iphone, .rar, .zip and a lot more! With a basic (7$), pro (16$) or business (49$) account you get even better service.
The service has helped me, and now I’ve spread the word 
Good service = more customers!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
I just want to wish everyone a merry christmas and a happy new year! Thanks to all the people who has read my blog. I’ve enjoyed the experience it has been so far. Also a special thanks to the people who I’ve discussed different subjects with, after we’ve got to know each other through this blog. Thanks.
May you have a nice time, everything is possible. Remember that
Where I’ve been?
Well, if you’re interested in my life, read on. If not, read it anyway…It might give you some ideas
I’ve been away, on the trip of my life…or the trip of my future I guess? The question “What am I going to do with my life?” has suddenly become much more difficult to answer, but at least I’m aware of that. The last 1-2 months I’ve been thinking of, experimenting with, and exploring the opportunities I have in this (my own) world. What I’m capable of and what I can expect Marc Falk to develop into.
Since I graduated and took some life lessons in the sense of getting some “real” I-don’t-want-to-do-the-rest-of-my-life-jobs, I realized (at my stage) that this is where life begins. It’s now that I have to fight for everything I want. Before, I wasn’t used to that. I was covered by the shield of society and education. As long as you study (in Denmark), you have a future and all is going to be just fine. But when you graduate and the world and your future are the only things in front of you, you suddenly understand that you can do whatever you want with your life. Nothing is random and thoughtless anymore, everything is deep serious and considered carefully.
Everyone (those with insight and life experience) says that if you are enthusiastic enough, you’ll reach your goals. Enthusiastic people have a great balance between themselves and their interests. But who actually knows what they are interested in? Personally I’m confused…I don’t know if I’m interested in Web 2.0, Marketing, Web design, Music Production, Dj’ing etc. because other people find some of the subjects cool or because I, from the bottom of my heart, love those subjects?… I can’t feel my passion at the moment, so I’ve decided to do SOMETHING! To find out if this is what I’m going to do the rest of my life? Actually that’s a narrow-minded mans word; the rest of my life… I believe in change, and you are always able to change your direction in life. So instead I say; I’m going to find out if it’s the mentioned subjects that I’m going to deal with in my life right now. It basically comes down to what I want at the moment, and now it gets confusing. So…back on track.
This blog will from now on mirror a new person, though I don’t think you’ll be able to notice it. I’ll give marcfalk.com a new design, it’ll be online in near future.
What I ask you to? If you’ve read so far, I just want to thank you for your time. I hope you got something out of it and I’ll be pleased to hear from you, whatever it might be, I’m up for the chat
Regards
Marc F
Tout est possible! - Everything is possible!
Perspective (an example)
Do you have perspective? Or are you like all the other fools?…
Don’t get offended, I’m just trying to get your attention and make my point clear
At the moment I’m working my ass off at a cold store. For me, who has just graduated, it’s quite a radical change to go home every morning (night work) with pain in my bag and legs (the last thing I want you to, is to feel sorry and pitty for me…cause that’s not what I want, sorry). I’m working with a bunch of guys who’ve been at a work environment of this quality all their lives. In the breaks, the only thing they talk about is how unfair the world is, and the products we manage in the store.
I don’t know these guys that well (yet), so to break the ice of sadness and narrowness, by throwing some philosophic life questions at them, in my consideration, would be a tough start. A tough start because they seem to be very shielded and prejudiced. Therefore I’ve decided to use this experience only in my own life, so far.
What I’ve learned from this experience can’t be bought for money. The people I’m working with have been slaves of our society for years, and they are the products of a long life in this type of work environment. Therefore I’m glad to see the sadness and narrowness in their eyes everytime I meet at work. Because it tells me that Marc Falk never in his whole life want to end up like that! It motivates me to develop, educate and see other possibilities in my life. In some way it actually scares the hell out of me…I’m thinking: “How on earth are these human beings able to live a normal happy (?) life under these circumstances? Will I ever be in that position?” … Hell no! I’m ready to do whatever it takes not to end up like that!
If I hadn’t had the opportunity to discover this “unknown world”, I hadn’t been afraid of it. I hadn’t been given the perspective of how these peoples’ worlds looked like. I’d still believe that no matter what I did, I would live happily ever after…
Now this is just an example of getting perspective, normally I gain perspective everyday, and so can you. You are able to gain perspective in all kinds of situations! The most important thing is that you notice the development of your perspective. That you notice the difference between you and other people (actually that you listen to and respect them). That you are able to decide whether you want to adobt or filtrate (in a sensible way) other perceptions of the world. Good luck!
- What you see without perspective
- What you see with perspective
The more perspective you have, the wider the world is…
the SMART is smart
This is a post about finding and utilizing a need…
Some weeks ago I went to Hamburg in Germany. I was there for a week, and I enjoyed to see how a society, which in some way is like mine, differently solved problems and obstacles. E.g. it is inspiring for me to see how Germany manage taxes compared to the way we do it in Denmark. In Denmark we pay extremely high taxes compared, and still… Germany is just around the corner (geographically speaking). Germany is a lot bigger though, so… it might not be the best comparison, I apologize for that.
Anyway!
For years parking space has been a problem in capitals and large cities. We all know how it is when you can’t find a place to park, and you’re in a hury. It’s an experience, but when you’ve tried it once, the outcome of it is limited.
They do also have parking-problems in Hamburg. And one thing I noticed when I was there was the amount of SMARTs. The SMART-car itself belongs to the category; microcars. It is tiny, and you can park 3 SMARTs within the space you need to park one normal car; see that’s what I call optimization.
So, the need of the SMART exists…that’s a good thing.
It all began in 1993 when Mercedes-Benz (a german carmaker) decided to study the possibilities of a subcompact car. They teamed up with Swatch Group Ltd. and founded Micro Compact Car AG in 1994. Three years later the SMART was launched in 25 countries, and it was sold in 750.000 copies the first year.
They found a need, and fulfilled it…
Now, I’m not that much into the world of cars. But to me, 750.000 copies in 25 different countries (30.000 cars per country) is nothing! I actually don’t know how the numbers look today (I guess they are increasing!)… but that is not the important thing.
The important thing here is how Mercedes-Benz in 1993, saw the increasing need for a subcompact car, and by that discovery became the first to launch such a unique car in our days; and that brings Mercedes-Benz (and the SMART) to the front.
So, the point of this post?… FIND NEEDS and fulfil them! If people is struggling with a need, they’ll be ready to pay if you got a solution for them. Why not utilize that?
(CREATING a need is, in some cases, a much greater idea, but I will comment that method later on…)
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