I always wanted to put this disclaimer on a Web site, “No stock media was harmed in the creation of this Web site.” Where there is some sarcasm in the message, it also shows my preference to not use stock media, whether they are drawings, photography or video. Why you ask? A major reason is that somebody may notice, which only gets magnified if it is shown on national television! This video below is from The Jay Leno Show where someone sent in print advertisement with the same stock photo of a family used for different companies.

If you don’t see the above video, you can view it with this link.

There is demand for stock media as it is much less costly than custom-created media. Depending on the purpose, it may make perfect sense to use stock media. Do you want to use the skyline of a particular city on a Web site? It makes more sense to pay a few dollars for an image than to hire a photographer and an airplane to take the shot. For other “generic” items the same reasoning can apply. You most likely will not find specific items, such as brands, available as stock media.

So why is stock media much less expensive than custom media? The reason is non-exclusivity. This means you purchase the license to use the media for a particular purpose, such as on a Web site, and somebody else can do the same for their Web site, or brochure or other display purposes. The reason the family was shown in the video for 3 different insurance companies is because it was probably categorized as such, and when a search was performed it came up under the insurance category.

As cost is a deciding factor, stock media is often chosen if the budget does not allow for custom media. Note I am not criticizing the quality of the media itself – it is most all done by professionals and is of high quality. However as it is created to be used for many purposes, it can look very generic and not specific to a locale or industry. As Web users become more sophisticated, they can often recognize a photo that doesn’t look like it completely fits on the Web site. A good example is when a company shows photos of its management team, yet none of them are in the photo of people sitting around a table on another Web page.

In addition to the photos themselves appearing in multiple places, many times you can even recognize some of the people in other places. At a former employer stock photos were used on the Web site. Shortly after I saw one of the women from the Web site in signs in CVS and Staples stores! Granted I worked on the redesign of the Web site that used these photos and was much closer to them as well. For our budget, we could have taken photos exclusive for our use, and they would have also been more realistic looking as well.

When it comes time to design or redesign your Web site, think about the media you will be using as much as the content. If you can afford it, go with custom media. You will get greater control of the scenes as well as have a completely unique user experience.

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As I recently upgraded to a new notebook, it is time to find a new home for a perfectly good workhorse, my Sony VAIO V505EX Notebook PC, which is up for auction on eBay through next Sunday, October 18. The notebook is pictured below.

This PC was a workhorse for me, as I ran my little Internet consulting firm off it for the first several years. You can view the V505EX specs in PDF format here, and full support information is available here on Sony’s Web site. In addition to the specs I upgraded the memory to 2 GB and the hard drive to 100 GB. It also includes a port replicator/docking station and the restore CDs.

Bidding starts at a penny for this great buy in a notebook PC.

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Today, October 12, is Columbus Day. Where it commemorates Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the New World, it is also a day to celebrate Italian heritage. As a 100% Italian American, it is a time to think back reflect on my heritage and what it means to me, and now to share it with my daughter. It is a holiday in the US, but not everything is closed – even my firm Dunkirk Systems, LLC is still open for business today.

In my effort to keep it light today, I am sharing a picture of a sign I took this summer when on a getaway to La Porte, Indiana. We stayed at this Holiday Inn Express and seeing this sign with its message, “Service is no Big Thing, It’s a lot of Little Things,” obviously caught my attention.

Just a little food for thought today. Other food to have today includes my favorite pasta, gnocchi! To my follow Italian Americans, salute!

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Imagine a journal where for an entire year where each day is chronicled by somebody different. If you can envision it, or even if you can’t, you can follow it starting in January, 2010 with the3six5 project.

The idea for the3six5 came from Daniel Honigman and Len Kendall, 2 fellow Chicagoans who come up with a lot of great ideas. When I heard they came up with this, I had to get in on it.

In their own words, this is what the3six5 is all about:

Everyday for 365 days, a different person will write an entry about their experience that day. It doesn't have to be about a specific topic, the key is that it somehow relates to what is happening in the world that day and how it relates to them. By doing so, starting from January 1 to December 31 of 2010, we will have a snapshot of the entire year, told from the perspective of 365 individual voices. 365 days will be made available and volunteers from across the country will be able to pick a date of their choice. There is no guarantee that any day will be better than others, because no one can predict the future. Regardless if the selected day in 2010 brings something newsworthy, everyone has a short story to tell that will help create the experience of living through a year in this country.

Each author will write a 250 word reflection which will be posted to "lifestreaming" site Posterous. Posterous.com was selected over a typical blog or website because of its simplicity and its ability to distribute content across all the major social networks. You can access this page by simply going to www.the3six5.com. If all goes well, my dream would be to publish the posterous stream as a book. I suppose you could call it a crowdsourced journal of 2010.

Where it’s first-come, first-serve for dates, each day of the year means something different to different people. By people, located in all parts of the world, writing a short reflection after that day happens, in the end there will be a unique journal for the year.

I will be writing an entry for August 19, 2010. I have also made a contribution – US$5.00 – to the fundraising to make a book of all the entries. I will not receive any compensation for this project, which is fine as money is not why I am involved in this. Being one of 365 people contributing to this body of work is thrill enough. There are still dates available, and details on the project and information to signup is available on the site.

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Have you ever felt that all of the sudden you hear about someone who has done something great and then wondered, where did they come from? The term “overnight sensation” is commonly given to these people. But is their success truly something that materialized over the course of 24 hours? This is the idea behind the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

In Outliers, several categories of people are analyzed as well as famous people who fall into those classifications. Gladwell is seeking to find out why they are successful – is it by chance, or were there contributing factors to their success? The book is told in a narrative, non-intimidating style for a book that presents a lot of data and unique scenarios to consider. He makes conclusions based on his research which in the end are rather simple – I won’t give them away as I don’t want to spoil it if you decide to read the book!

There were a couple of takeaways for me from Outliers. The greatest was we don’t often know the whole story behind a person’s success. Many times when a person’s story is told, you hear their achievements and perhaps some obstacles they had to overcome, but not much more. This is no fault to journalists or whoever is telling the story, as these are the most interesting parts. Many other events occurring in a person’s history may not even be interesting; however they may have contributed greatly to their success. In the book Bill Gates is highlighted. Where most people may know he dropped out of Harvard University, most probably don’t realize the high amount of access he had to computers as a youth, which Gladwell contributes to his success.

Another takeaway from the book was there could have been other titles for this book. I assume “Outliers” was chosen as the people highlighted are considered outliers from the mainstream of society. Another good title could have been “Chances” as many of the people in the book had chances and opportunities others have not which contributed to their success. Another title could have been “The Rest Of The Story” which though is probably trademarked by the late Paul Harvey’s estate would have fit as it does tell the rest of the story of those featured. I’ll admit the given title did not compel me to read the book as much as who wrote it, as I have liked Gladwell’s other books.

I enjoyed Outliers and would recommend it to anyone in business or beyond, as the back story of the book helps remind you there is probably more going on or has gone on than you may realize. And to fully disclose, I was offered this book by a colleague, and it was shipped to me directly from either the publisher or a publicist at no cost. I was not asked to write a review or takeaways on it. Note the links to the book within this story are affiliate links to Amazon.com, where I would earn a few pennies if you did buy the book from one of the links.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Book Take-Aways • Business • (0) Comments • Permalink