Stories

Kin Lane

Gmail is a Resource Hog Today

What is the deal with Gmail today? Both my free gmail and google apps for my domain are total resource hogs.
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Kin Lane

LinkedIn Better Organized for Reaching Audience

I am spending about 30 minutes each day extending my companies reach onto popular social networks LinkedIn and Facebook. I reallky find LinkedIn is much more organized for such business efforts. It is much easier to reach people through LinkedIn QA. It allows me to ask questions and answer questions on topics that are relevant to my industry and company. Facebook is great for interacting with friends, but LinkedIn is just better suited for business networking. I don't ...
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Kin Lane

Domain Names

So I am continuing cleaning up my world. I recently let probably 20-30 domains expire. In the past I have had a domain adiction....I just buy them thinking...someday I will do something with that. I know plenty of other geeks who do this. You just think....$10.00 for a domain...I can afford that! Then 50-100 domains later you start questioning. What is wrong with me. Then you check-in to Betty Ford Clinic.

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Kin Lane

Building a presence from ground zero

After I deal with all emails, fires, top requests, and spend a large amount of time on all my top projects I try to work on areas that are going to move my company forward. Creating a presence on the Internet is priority one. WebEvents Global is 10 years old, has a very mature software package, and handles some large events for prominent names such as SAP, Google, Schwab. However our web presence is non-existent. The event planning industry is a very incestual industry where most peop...
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Kin Lane

Play with Obama Poster Icon

I was just playing with uploading pictures and making Obama posters out of them. Check it out: http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/entries/new.html
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Kin Lane

GTalk / XMP PHP Class

I am getting to know the Google Gtalk API a little more and playing around with automating GTalk communication using bots and other web-based tools. I came across a nice XMPPHP class that works great....saves me a lot of work. Check it out: http://code.google.com/p/xmpphp/
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Kin Lane

Tune in to The McKinsey Quarterly

I read the McKinsey Quarterly from time to time. It comes into my inbox and when I see a title I like I tend to download and read further. Looks like they are getting into employing various social media marketing techniques as well, here is an email I got in my inbox. Tune in to The McKinsey Quarterly

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Kin Lane

How to get Retweeted

Was just reading a great article on how to get retweeted on OPEN forum. Great advice on how to effectively use twitter and spreadh your message or knowledge.
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Kin Lane

Terminating Amazon EC2 Instances

There are many features that operating in the clouds using Amazon EC2 brings to the table.
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Kin Lane

Living the Life in the Country

I have moved out to the woods to live for a while. After living last summer in Bend, OR I have decided to live a little more remote.
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Kin Lane

Importing All Those Business Cards Into Your Database

I was reading a blog about a new service that will scan your business cards and import into a database for you. Here is their pitch: CloudContacts takes your business cards and puts them to work for you. Instead of storing your business cards in a pile on your desk or in one physical location, CloudContacts allows you to access your contacts at any time. You can import your business cards into many email applications and connect on most business social networks. Connect your contacts today w...
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Kin Lane

Credit Cards

I have to admit things are getting tight. I have taken all my credit cards out of my wallet so I don't spend on them. I pretend they don't exist. I just had one credit card I noticed raised my interest from 7.99 to 29.7 because my payment posted on 11/12 instead of 11/11. I understand they have to make money....that they are making interest off of me, but that is ridiculous. I called them and told them how stupid this was, and I decided to do to other cards. ...
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Kin Lane

Updated Wordpress for My Site

Updated my Wordpress version for www.kinlane.com and it killed my theme....so there was some custom work I had done that was lost.
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Kin Lane

Updating My Status

Was just playing around more with helltxt which is a multi-social network status update tool. I had come across it a long time ago but never really got the time to play with it. Now I update my status enough across Myspace, Facebook, and Linkedin enough that that the tool sounds intriguing. I tend to star and label new applications I find in my
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Kin Lane

Leaving a Trail

I was working in my Google Docs, creating a couple new writings. Then I remember a couple other items I had written before and decided to look for them. Instead of seaching I just started scrolling down. And down... I saw things I haven't seen in a while. It made me think about a topic I seem to think...
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Kin Lane

Bundling Amazon Web Services EC2 Instances Kills Certificates

Yeah you heard me! Bundling Amazon Web Services EC2 Instances can kill poor innocent SSL certificates. I had it happen the other night...thought I'd bundle all my instances....had done a bunch of configuration changes and thought it would be good idea. When came back up. 6 instances with SSL certs all down. I didn't get into too much detail, but has something to do with the permissions the are entered in the certificate store with. So reinstalling your SSL certificate works.
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Kin Lane

Going green when finding directions...

So I just did it....I was googling an address of a table I"m buying off craigslist. I typed the address into Google Maps and it already had my home address. Clicked submit..... Saw the directions to my location...very nice. Noticed the Also Available: Public Transit option above my directions. Very cool...if I had more time. (nice excuse buddy) Next time though. Right. Wen...
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Kin Lane

Role Based Server Architecture

I am really finding one consistent them across my cloud server architecture lately. It is was I am calling roles. These are server roles that meet specific business goals, such as: PHP Web Server Read more →
Kin Lane

The Battle for Email

Email has become my number one enemy lately. It is sure tough to ensure the quality receipt of emails when your are doing large email blasts. You have to start at the DNS and Server Configuration and make sure your domain email records are setup correctly to reflect your email send / receipt infrastructure. You have to make sure your server is configured correctly and IP Address, naming ,etc is all in sync with your DNS records. Then we start talking content, what cont...
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Kin Lane

Keep on Blogging and Twittering

I am finding renewed energy for blogging and twittering lately...mostly because I have more time on my hands living way out in the woods. I used to really worry about the traffic to my blog and building a following, etc. That really gets in the way. If I just focus on what I am working on and what is important to me it seems to work better. Then like minded people tend to find my postings on search engines, twitter and other places. Last night I was working to recover fr...
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Kin Lane

Amazon Web Servers

I really love the Amazon Web Services platform. It brings some really valuable tools to the table for deploying a companies infrastructure. However there are some areas that really can throw you for a loop. I create bundles and then ultimately AMIs from my core instances. It makes it so I can restore to last nights complete server if I want...with settings and all. I do individual bunlidng then AMI creation of instances all the time. Tonight I thought....oh I will go a...
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Kin Lane

Twitter as a Measuring Tool

I am seeing Twitter used as a tool for measuring the buzz around an event or topic. It definitely has become an effective way for measuring the number of people talking about a topic and the tone of that conversation. It also allows you to dive into the detail of what people are saying and get some valuable feedback from your potential customers and fanbase.
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Kin Lane

Office and Google Docs as System Indicator

Working with my current company I really notice you can use Google Docs and Office Docs that are setup and circulated regularly are a good indicator of potential systems that need developed or possible 3rd party systems that need researched. When you see a spreadsheet that is commonly used or passed around it may signal a need for new feature in existing system or a completely new system. A spreadsheet or other office document can really be a basic prototyping process of new s...
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Kin Lane

Following the Dalai Lhama on Twitter

I started following the Dalia Lhama on Twitter today. He already has 11K followers and they seem overwhelmed by the response somewhat. You can follow the Dalai Lhama at http://twitter.com/ohhdl I had a funny thought as I was following. Not saying the Dalai Lhama has any relation or similiarities to God, but in my limited religious experience when I was a kid I envisioned praying very much like Twitter. With god following all of us and we follow h...
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Kin Lane

Netflix on Demand

I finally signed up for Netflix again to get movies in the mail. What spurred me on was hearing they had done PLay on Deman. I was taking a break in a lodge in Southern Oregon the other day and needed to watch movies so I kicked it on. I have been on it ever since. I tend to really like a separate distraction as I work. For some reason it helps me focus? Not sure why. Usually I listen to NPR while working...but there are only so many programs. So I move onto This Ameri...
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