Steve Hart's Blog

Adopt New Ideas Quickly and Retire Failed Ideas Swiftly

stevekhart — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 20:34:43 +0000

Here’s a great article for the Harvard Business Review about process improvement, where they come from, and quickly adopting new ideas and quickly killing ones that don’t work as planned.

The article: Three Things Your Company Can Learn from a Bottle of Water

“In fact, the research for our book Repeatability shows that more than 80% of companies are too slow to adapt to the changing demands of their markets. But the relative handful that do learn rapidly hold interesting lessons for all of us. These companies work with their front-line employees to create repeatable routines that foster continuous learning, improvement and adaptation. ”

“3 lessons learned:”

Set simple targets, and assign clear owners
Codify the tools that work
Create platforms for best-practice sharing

We’ve adopted this strategy within my teams. We work collaboratively with the resources doing the work. They are the best one’s to make recommendations. We adopt quickly and retire swiftly. Not all ideas are going to work, but the few that do will make a big difference. Creating an environment of continuous improvement from anyone in the organization is critical to your business success.

Twitter is tracking your web activities, learn how to stop it

stevekhart — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:11:00 +0000

Twitter recently, and quietly, launched a new feature that provides suggestions on people you should follow.

Sounds great, right?

The catch is: to do this they track websites you visit that use the Twitter tools (buttons and widgets). The problem I have is they’re assuming all twitter users want their web activities tracked, stored, and used by a Twitter as they want. By default, your enrollment for this feature is turned on (see image to the below).

With Twitter’s personalization and Facebook’s “frictionless sharing” (see my previous article), social networking sites are overstepping the privacy rights of their users. No one should assume I want giant information gathers (like FB and Twitter) to be capturing my activities – unless I give them specific authority to gather and store this information. While it may be good for building a better social experience for you, it would be bad if they use the information inappropriately, or hacked (that will never happen) and the data is stolen.

To turn off this feature, edit your Twitter profile, click on the “account” tab. Down this page you will find the personalization check-box. Un-check it and save your changes.

They provide a link to “Learn more“. I suggest you read up on it and decide for yourself.

Facebook is sharing your activities and you don’t know it!

stevekhart — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:01:00 +0000

You don't want to be this guy...

Please update your Privacy settings. Here’s a “How To Stop Facebook From Sharing Your Activities” set of instructions.

Ever hear of Frictionless Sharing? Its where your activities are transparently shared with Facebook. These are the “Mike just read…” or “Mike just watch this video…”. Mike may not know I see these, but we all see them.

After seeing this happen to my friends and realizing most don’t know its happening, I put together a basic privacy set of instructions everyone should be following.

Click the “home tab” at the top of this page, select “privacy settings”

First, set your “Control Your Default Privacy” to Friends. Not public. This will keep the stalkers away.

Second, edit the settings for “Ads, Apps, and websites”. Now, edit the settings for “Apps you use”:

1) Delete any app you don’t recognize or use.

2) On the apps you use like Socialcam, edit the settings. On the “Post on your behalf”, set it to “Only Me”.

3) Additionally in the App settings , the section labeled “This App can”, remove the “post to my timeline” – and any other non required access (denoted with a “remove” link).

Go back to your Privacy setting under the Home tab at the top of the page. Edit the settings for “Timeline and tagging”

1) Turn on the “review posts friends tag you in…”

2) Turn on the “review tags friends add to your own posts…”

Even better, when you’re asked by these apps to allow Facebook to use your information, click “don’t allow”. Also the defautl setting is to all the app to post to your activity log and allow the “public” to see it. Change this setting to “only me”.

These settings will protect your activity on the internet and not share it with friends or your timeline. No one needs to, or should, know what article you just read or video you just viewed. Most of you are doing this and don’t even know about it.

If you have any other privacy suggestions, I’d like to hear them. Leave a comment.

Flipping the Classroom – Khan Academy

stevekhart — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:59:20 +0000

Here’s an example of one person changing the world – the world of education.

Salman Khan holds three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: a BS in mathematics, a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, and an MS in electrical engineering and computer science. He also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Salman was working as a hedge fund analyst when he started tutoring members of his family in mathematics using Yahoo Doodle notepad over the internet. He began to record his tutorials and post them on YouTube. The ‘Khan Academy’ channel. The views on his videos grew rapidly, but it was the comments from viewers that changed his life.

After reading the comments from views across the world and the impact his videos had on their lives, he decide to quit his hedge fund analyst job on focus his efforts full time on the Khan Academy. In 2009 he envisioned the following ‘With so little effort on my own part, I can empower an unlimited amount of people for all time. I can’t imagine a better use of my time.’
Fast forward to today, his success skyrocketed when Bill Gates said his kids used the Khan Acadmey. Bill Gates saw the potential of this ‘free school’ and it’s ability to reach individuals globally.

Teachers in Mountain View CA, tested this new teaching tool. The teachers ‘flipped’ the education process. Instead of lecturing during the class time and homework after school, the teachers have the students review the material (outlined in a curriculum) the night before class at their own pace. During class time, the students work on exercises with the help of peers and the teacher. Salman has created a dashboard that helps the teacher determine the individual students progress.

Check out this video from the TED conference in 2011:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM95HHI4gLk

The New iPad

stevekhart — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:36:51 +0000

The “new iPad”, as its branded, was introduced today.

More Powerful Processor - A5X processor with quad-core graphics.

Retina display - twice the resolution of the iPad 2.

Improved camera - 1080p HD.

4G Internet Connection via AT&T and Verizon.

Battery Life - weighs 1.4 pounds, and is 9.4 mm thick and can run up to 10 hours.

Pricing - 16GB $499. 32GB is $599 and 64GB is $699. With 4G, $629, $729, and $829

Available March 16.

Price on iPad2 will drop to $399

How To Tweet Your Facebook Status

stevekhart — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:03:56 +0000

New methods for Tweeting you Facebook status:

Facebook has a feature to allow you to tweet your facebook status update. Here’s how: go to facebook.com/twitter, then link your profile (or page) to your Twitter account.

Once linked, your Twitter account will be updated every time you post a public update to Facebook. Note: Only posts whose privacy you set to Public.

Other methods:

Tweet 2 Twitter Facebook app
Tweeter Facebook app

Here are some of my other favorite Twitter and Facebook recommendations:

The method below is outdated, but check out some of my other post about Facebook and Twitter

–Outdated –

Part I – Find your Facebook status RSS Feed

1. Login into Facebook

2. Go to this link: http://www.new.facebook.com/minifeed.php?filter=11

3. On the bottom right of this page you’ll see “My Status” with a RSS icon next to it. Click this link.

4. At this point, you should be at a listing of you statuses. Copy the URL of this page. It should read something like this (but not this one): http://www.new.facebook.com/feeds/status.php?id=615109271&viewer=615109271&key=e351bebc8c&format=rss20

Part II – Set up and configure Twitterfeed

1. Set up an account on www.Twitterfeed.com. Twitter feed uses OpenID to log in. You can use your existing login info from sites like Google, AOL, Yahoo, or any others listed.

2. Click “go to my twitter feeds (or create a new one)”.

3. Click “Create a new twitter feed”.

4. Paste the RSS URL (from Part I).

5. Uncheck “Include item link (if unchecked, sends tweet without the link)”. There are other options you can set. Change the “check for updates” to 30 minutes.

6. Click “Create” and you’re finished!

Twitterfeed will check for updates every 30 minutes and publish your statuses to your twitter page. It does take a bit (over an hour) for you first statuses to show up as tweets.

-Steve Hart

Gas prices at a all time high, welcome Gas Buddy app

stevekhart — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 01:49:00 +0000

From the Orange County Register - Gas prices up 8 cents since Wednesday

With gas prices rising faster than we can fill our tanks, now is the time to find the least expensive gas in your neighborhood. Welcome to the iPhone Gas Buddy application. You can find this free app in the Apple app store.

Gas Buddy will use your current iPhone location, and find gas prices around your location. If you’d like, you can enter an address to search by. Select the grade of gas (regular, midgrade, premium, or diesel) then filter by price or distance. I find the display by price to be far more useful.

In a search from my current location, the price range for premium gas goes from $4.27 to $4.79.

You can update gas prices while you fill up and help out other users. I found most prices in my area to be correct within about 3 hours.

Looking to find inexpensive gas before you get in your car? go to www.gasbuddy.com

Pinterest.com, the next social platform

stevekhart — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:27:29 +0000

So, think of Facebook without the status and only sharing photos. Sounds lame, right? It’s not. Pinterest.com happens to be the hottest growing social platform. Over the past 6 months, Pinterest has become the premier site for women. While it is not exclusive to the female persuasion, it is currently dominated by them.

From Pinterest…Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

The concept is easy and addictive. Looking from the outside in, you’d say “I don’t get it”. Once you’re in, your hooked. You create categories of pinboards for your interests. Then you browse through pinterest.com for things you like. You can add your own original content, or add a browser extension that creates a “Pin-it” link. Once you see something on the web you like, “Pin-it”.

They’ve taken the Google+ signup strategy – make the site exclusive, you’re put on a waiting list, and they allow Pinterest users to send out invites. Once signed up, you’re asked about your likes. Pinterest matches you up with a group of like users that you must un-follow or they’re automatically added to your account. Not a bad way to start.

I contend that the “Share it” features on webistes will soon include Pinterest along with Facebook and Twitter.

The hot topics on Pinterest today: Baking, Fashion, Beauty, Style, Quotes, Wish lists, Travel and Crafts. I setup my Pinterest boards with testosterone filled categories: Sports, Cars, Technology. Give it a look http://pinterest.com/stevekhart/ As a professional in the industry, I have to try everything. Welcome to Pinterest.

Time’s Top 50 Sites of 2011

stevekhart — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:54:28 +0000

Here are a few of my favorites from their list:

Here’s Time Magazine’s top 50 websites for 2011 sorted by category.

Music & Video

Family & Kids

Sports

News & Info

Financial & Productivity

Shopping & Travel

Health & Fitness

Social Media

Games

Education

Got an iPad for Christmas – 15 Must Have Free iPad Apps

stevekhart — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:44:12 +0000

It seems like everyone got an iPad for Christmas this year. Here’s my list of must have free iPad apps in no particular order:

1) Facebook This is a must have for any Facebook user. The iPad layout makes it easy to use and follow your friends.

2) Yelp Looking for a good place to take your car, go out to eat, or any local business, then Yelp is your must have app. Yelp provides user reviews and details about the business.

3) Flixter (from you iPad)

Going to the movies, then you can’t live without Flixster. The Flixster app gives you all the box office movies in your area. You can set your favorite theaters for the ones close to your home. The Rotten Tomato rating and users reviews will help you in selecting the best movies.

4) Skype With the addition of FaceTime from Apple, Skype has become less important. It is still in my top list of apps for its text and video chat features. Remember, not everyone has FaceTime and FaceTime only works when connected to WiFI. Give Skype a try.

5) Calculator Pro A simple but useful tool.

6) Stop Watch Another Simple but useful tool

7) Pandora For the best in personalized internet radio on your iPad.

8) Zite Best news reader customized to your reading habits.

9) HBO GO If you’re an HBO customer, get all the HBO shows directly on your iPad.

10) Zillow The best in real estate monitoring and shopping. Housing, apartments, and land. Make use of the advanced filtering to power up this app.

12) Words with Friends If you like Scrabble, and who doesn’t, then connect with fellow Scrabblers and play Words with Friends.

13) News app A shameless plug for the Orange County Register.

14) Find My iPad It will happen and you’ll be glad you have this app.

15) Any game Come on, have a little fun. There are a lot of motion sensor games that will give you a new appreciation of the capabilities of the iPad.

For the developer or techie here are a few others

1) Testflight Tesing iOS apps, then this is your test partner.

2) UUID Viewer UUID Viewer is a simple app to allow access to your iOS device information that is most often needed to allow your device to be added as a development item

3) DropBox With a free Dropbox account and the Dropbox app for the iPad, you can export and import files easily via Wi-Fi and 3G access.