Forget snakes on a plane, there are coyotes on the loose in downtown Chicago! The capture of a coyote in a Quizno’s sub shop the other day apparently is not an uncommon occurrence, as several are usually sighted here every year.

After living in the suburbs and in the mountains, it’s when I live in the city that a coyote is in my midst!

Diversions • (2) Comments • Permalink

After taking a long weekend away from the computer (note PC, not Treo for email) I went back to check on the status of The Hot Iron and see if anyone posted any comments while I was away. While I checked this information, I also caught up on reading blogs that I subscribe to.

Here are my results:

• 92 comments posted since last Thursday morning
• 1 legitimate comment (thanks Adam!) meaning 91 were pure spam
• 100+ new blog posts were in my Google Reader, as it only displays accurate numbers under 99. For some reason, they can’t count in Mountain View

Where my blog is new and I am not expecting zillions of hits and comments, getting them from the far-away spammers was not a welcome after the weekend. As I do have moderating turned on, these were only my problem and did not impact any readers.

Technology • (5) Comments • Permalink

One of the largest consumption of my time, next to delivering Internet solutions to my clients, is following the news and trends in the Internet space. It is tough to keep up with all that is new, some of those things more relevant or interesting than others. Twitter has been in the headlines since the recent South by Southwest (SXSW) conference. I won’t rehash what Twitter is, and fellow Chicagoan Andy Wibbels wrote this good overview of Twitter.

To me, the fact that someone will care about what I am doing right now, the core of Twitter, is as much fascinating as it is odd. However, when I hear of new services or gizmos such as Twitter, I tend to think of more practical implications. Perhaps knowing what I have been doing all day, at the end of the day, would help in accounting for my time? And in addition to logging what I am doing, could I also log what I just did or notes on something I need to do? Could an application like this replace scraps of paper and sticky notes all over my desk?

Twitter has inspired me in this regard. But I won’t be using the application itself, as I don’t want the world to know what I have been doing all day. A small enhancement to an existing custom Web application could just do the trick. I’ll let you know how this plays out.

Business • Technology • (2) Comments • Permalink

Many times we instinctively do something that, if we take a step back and observe ourselves, we didn’t realize we do. I found when I go to search the Web for some topics, the first place I go is Wikipedia and not Google. I have Wikipedia in the search engines in Firefox, so it is as easy for me to search Wikipedia as it is for me to search Google using the Google search bar. The picture below shows my Firefox setup.

So what am I searching on Wikipedia? Proper nouns – names, cities, companies and even some words I need the definition for are what I am entering in the search box to the right. If I am looking for a technical solution, then I am most always searching Google.

A few things come to mind as a result of this search. I am not viewing any ads on Wikipedia that in some cases may give me a link more relevant to what I may be seeking. I am also relying on the editors of Wikipedia to provide me information. But am I taking anything I see on either search as gospel? Of course not!

What are you using to search, and for what?

Technology • (4) Comments • Permalink

How would you expect a widely-popular email mailing list with thousands of subscribers, where people would post requests for information on a wide variety of personal and business topics, to shut down? Not to mention that it was shutting down altogether, without any justification other than the fact that the owner was “moving on.” Then take this confusion and multiply it by dozens of cities around the world, and you are wondering, as I am, why the ChicWIT mailing list and its "owner" WorldWIT are really shutting down.

WorldWIT, by their own description, was "the free, friendly online and offline resource for women in business and technology." That being said, men were never excluded from joining their mailing lists or participating in their events. In Chicago, the “chapter” was called ChicWIT, and the name refers to the first four letters of the city, not women. Its most outward function was its email mailing list, where at last count had over 6,000 subscribers. It was an eclectic list of requests, everything from requests for Thai restaurants to pet psychics and everything in between. It was a moderated list, and it required things like event tickets be sold at face value and it would not promote events for other organizations. ChicWIT’s own events were every few months, from paid topical events to open socials.

On Wednesday, March 21 someone posted to the list that they read that the mailing list would cease to operate on Friday, March 23, two days later. Upon further review, this message was posted on the WorldWIT Web site’s home page, on the right under the heading of “What’s New.” The reason given was “WorldWIT founder Liz Ryan’s demanding speaking and training schedule prevented her from taking the self-funded WorldWIT to the next level.”

Where we all wish Liz Ryan the best, why just shut it down? I had no idea that she was the sole owner and was footing the bill herself. Why didn’t she remove all transparency and reach out to the community and ask for help – either to fund it, or to sell it? And I intentionally use the word community, as she had truly created a virtual community of people, and their connection was the several-a-day email messages, as well as the events. I emailed Liz Ryan yesterday to ask why, and as of this post I have not received a reply.

The ChicWIT list was a tremendous resource for me. I can trace most of the connections I made here in Chicago over the past 3 years to that mailing list, whether directly or indirectly. It was a resource not only for specific questions I wanted an opinion of from the community, but to keep a pulse on what others were looking for and thinking of. For a professional “organization” its demise is anything but.

Business • (8) Comments • Permalink