Central Perk

joi, 9 decembrie 2010

Damn Cool Pics

Japan for World Cup 2022
Awkward Christmas Photos From 1992
Instant Virgin Detector: The Hover Hand
Chinese Hairstylist Does Giant Haircut
The Return of the Riot Dog
Interesting Microsoft Facts

Japan for World Cup 2022

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 02:30 AM PST

This video clip presents Japan with its modern technologies to bring FIFA 2022 realism to every country in the world. Too bad, Japan lost their bid .

Awkward Christmas Photos From 1992

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 01:40 AM PST

A collection of awkward Christmas photos from 1992.

Instant Virgin Detector: The Hover Hand

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 01:05 AM PST

These guys really feel awkward standing so close to girls. Why? Are they too shy or do they lack confidence or just scared by the beauty they see? I don't know, but this collection of hover hands is funny. So close, yet so far away..

Chinese Hairstylist Does Giant Haircut

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 12:43 AM PST

Hairstylists use a giant comb and scissors, both 1.3 meters long, on a girl in Changsha, Hunan Province. The comb and scissors are the largest ever used by Chinese hairstylists.

Source: imaginechina

The Return of the Riot Dog

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 12:35 AM PST

It is obvious now, this dog simply love riots. It's not the first time he rebels against the authorities in Athens together with other people. If you want more of riot dog, check it out in here:

This Dog Loves Riots.

Source: rebeldog.tumblr.com

Interesting Microsoft Facts

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 11:37 PM PST

The big ol' bad days of Microsoft may be over but they are still the number one company out there for many things. Check out this cool infographic that lays out some of the facts and figures behind this behemoth.

Click to enlarge.

Source: onlinemba

Video: Tax Cuts Clearly Explained

Your Daily Snapshot for
Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010

Tax Cuts Clearly Explained

In this edition of White House White Board, Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, discusses the President’s compromise framework on tax cuts, unemployment insurance and job creation.

Watch the video.

Here's the Deal

Good morning,

Earlier this week, President Obama laid out a framework for a compromise with Congress that ensures that middle-class families don’t get a tax increase, extends unemployment benefits for folks who are looking for work, and gives our economy a shot in the arm.

Like anything in Washington these days, there are a lot of opinions about this flying around. But it's always important to start with the facts. To help you understand exactly what is in this framework Austan Goolsbee, one of the President's chief economic advisors, took some time to break it down:

There are some things in this agreement you'll like and some things in here you might not. There are things in here that the President and I don’t like – like the temporary extension of tax breaks to the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans and a more generous treatment of the estate tax than is warranted.

But what is at stake is the strength of our recovery and much needed relief for middle class families. The bottom line is that if Congress does not act to extend unemployment insurance, 2 million Americans will lose their unemployment insurance this month alone. And if we don’t extend middle class tax cuts, millions of families will see a spike in their tax bill when they can least afford it.

With that in mind, President Obama reached across the aisle to ensure that middle class families get a fair shake. Here are a few important points:

No tax hike for middle class families. This proposal would prevent a tax increase of over $3,000 for the typical family.
Money in your pocket through a reduction in the payroll tax. About 155 million workers will see a 2 percent reduction in their payroll taxes and American families can take advantage of the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and the American Opportunity Tax Credit.
Extension of unemployment benefits. Folks who have been looking for work in these tough times won’t lose their lifeline. This is also good news for local economies because unemployment insurance dollars are among the most likely to be spent quickly.

That's the deal, folks, and it's a good one for America's middle class. Take a moment to watch Austan break it down, and I think you'll agree:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/whiteboard

Sincerely,
Vice President Joe Biden

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SEOptimise

How to Turn a Loss into Something Positive

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 08:19 AM PST

The UK SEO community was so inspiring during the last several days. After the sudden death of Jaamit Durrani, one of the most popular UK SEO specialists the community has proven that even a huge loss like this one can have a positive impact. The way people have come together to support Jaamit and his family and to spread the love all over the Web and in real life as well has made the virtual tubes feel a bit warmer this winter.

I’m probably not the right person to commemorate Jaamit though, others who have known him better than me already did write some powerful tributes.

Today I want to write about another case of loss many business people will face online. The loss of reputation. A by now infamous New York Times article dealing with an ecommerce vendor who even provoked bad reviews to get better rankings on Google has highlighted this topic last week. So what do these two quite different negative news have in common? People are dealing with problems or even downright tragic events and are trying to turn them around to have a positive impact in the end.

Of course I don’t compare the overwhelming and uplifting reaction by the SEO industry to the tragic death of one us to the awful “any publicity is good publicity” attention whore the NYT describes.

The point here is this: You can turn a big loss into something positive but you can also mess up like the guy the New York Times features. It depends on you and how sincere you are. It happens all the time: Disgruntled customers vent their anger on the Internet after they have been treated badly, or simple because the service or product they paid for was poor.

Google reacted quickly and made an “algorithmic change” to prevent webmasters from taking advantage of this loophole. Now you can’t get higher rankings by collecting negative reviews anymore according to Google itself.

Now that I have witnessed that even a tragic death can make people come together and act together on behalf of those who suffer it seems far easier to deal with common problems people encounter in their daily life and on the Web. You have to act though. Or rather you have to find out there is a problem in the fisrt place and then act.

Find out who suffers:

There are plenty of tools by now that allow yo to listen whether someone suffered because of your poor service or low quality product. You need to at least search twitter one in a while for your name or arther brand name on Twitter to find those who did.

React accordingly:

When someone suffers you need to stop the suffering. When someone is angry or sad because your product failed you need to help. At first you need to communicate your desire to help. Even that you listen and notice is sometimes enough to alleviate the suffering your failure in the past has prompted.

Make sure there is no repeat suffering:

When one person voices a problem with your product or service s/he is probably not the only one who actually suffers from it. Either find the others who do (aka recall) or inform potential victims of that issue and how you deal with it. It might be an outage, a data loss, a security breach where people need to be warned and informed to prevent repeat suffering.

Myself I’m on both sides of the table. Quite often I consider an angry blog post or at least a tweet to vent my anger and frustration with some awful company or utility. In most cases I don’t write anything. Sometimes I do. These week I did write two blog posts powered by deep disappointment. On the other I do client ORM (online reputation management), listen and care for disgruntled customers myself. I know that even behind some awfully misguided rants there is always a true true story of disappointment.

Always remember: An angry and frustrated customer is better then no customer at all. Any publicity is not good, but any feedback is good feedback. It’s like a pain in the gut which tells you that you’re sick. Without it you wouldn’t go to the doctor. On the Web you need to listen to the pain of your customers to heal your business and to fix your products or services.

I use blogs in this way: I blog about the product and encourage all kinds of feedback. It’s better the people have an option to voice they’re concerns in the first place. Facebook and Twitter are fine but not enough. Encourage the feedback where you are and where you can help best. Set up a feedback community or site. There are plenty of services out there where customers can make their voices heard even without badmouthing you on third party social media.

You can use online tools like Uservoice and Get Satisfaction or software you install on your own servers like OpenMind and Vox Populi. Listen up, reply and repair. Negative feedback and even loss of your online reputation can lead to sigificant improvement.

* Image by Benson Kua

Seth's Blog : The appearance of impropriety

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The appearance of impropriety

Marketing is actually what other people are saying about you.

Like it or not, true or not, what other people say is what the public tends to believe. Hence an imperative to be intentional about how we're seen.

It may be true that the effluent from your factory is organic, biodegradable and not harmful to the river. But if it is brown and smelly and coming out of an open pipe, your neighbors might draw their own conclusions.

I know you washed your hands just before you walked into the examination room, but if you wash them again, right here in front of me, all doubts go away.

Yes, Ms. Congressperson, I know that lobbyist is your good friend, but perhaps someone else should host you on vacation.

Your brother-in-law may very well be the most qualified person on the planet to do this project for us, but perhaps (unfair as it might be) it would be better marketing to hire the second-most-qualified person instead.

Sneaking around is a bad strategy. You will get caught. Ironically, it's also a bad strategy to not sneak around but appear to be.

You will never keep people from talking. But you can take actions to influence the content of what they say.