David Byrne is angry with me

I recently bumped into David (he of Talking Heads fame) at a conference. Our paths have crossed before, we share a few friends, I’m a big fan and he uses permission marketing to sell his records now. I said “hi.”

David’s eyes flashed, he turned his shoulders, muttered something and rushed away.

What did I say? What did I do? Why he is upset with me?

Of course, David Byrne isn’t angry with me. David Byrne doesn’t even remember who I am. In fact, David Byrne was busy, or late, or trying to figure out where he was supposed to go next. The last thing he wanted to do was patiently spend a few minutes figuring out who I was and then a few more minutes making promises he wouldn’t be able to keep.

The next time you’re sure someone is angry with you, perhaps it’s worth considering that you might be mistaken. Perhaps that customer or prospect or boss has better things to do than being angry with you. Each of us has a huge agenda, and while it’s comforting for some to jump to the conclusion that we’ve offended, it’s far more likely that the person you’re talking with merely has something else going on.

In a digital age, our cues for social or marketing missteps might be mistuned. Sometimes, believe it or not, it’s not (always) about us. (On the other hand, and just as often, people are annoyed and don’t have a clue…)

Source: Seth Godin

KickPort drum insert: A must-have accessory to boost your bottom end [review]

When it was launched in 2009, the KickPort created a genuine buzz within the music industry. A simple device that is easily fitted to the front bass drum head, it claims to ingeniously enhance low frequencies. While its rise seems to have been meteoric, its development was anything but, as the small US-based team responsible spent years perfecting the design before marketing it.

The KickPort is made of acoustically-specified plastic, rubber and foam. Its main component is a 4″-long pipe which flares out in the style of a horn at the front end to a diameter of 5.25″. A rubber cup is attached to the outside of the pipe half way along its length. The cup is shaped to follow the contours of the flared section of the pipe. [read]  :: KickPort Official Site

MailWing archives and organizes e-mail

If overflowing and chaotic e-mail folders are the bane of your existence, there may be help. The just updated MailWing 4 is handy organizer and archiver for Apple Mail, linking your mailboxes and mail folders to matching folders in the Finder.

MailWing, created by developer Luther Fuller, used to be called Mail Saver. The latest version rebrands the app, adds support for Snow Leopard, and fixes a few bugs. Like Mail Saver before it, MailWing creates copies of your messages as documents that live independently from Mail. [read MacWorld]

8 Reasons To Use Google Chrome As Your Primary Browser

Google Chrome, the web browser by Google, has been gaining market share steadily since the day it was introduced. And rightly so. It’s by far the best browser I’ve used (and I have used a number of them). I think my productivity has increased significantly since I switched to Google Chrome as my primary browser.

In this article, I give 8 reasons to persuade you to switch to Chrome if you haven’t yet. Now, nothing is perfect and there are some caveats here too, but, the pros definitely overshadow the cons and hence I recommend using Chrome. [read]

The coming melt-down in higher education (as seen by a marketer)

Interesting – Sad – Unfortunate

For 400 years, higher education in the US has been on a roll. From Harvard asking Galileo to be a guest professor in the 1600s to millions tuning in to watch a team of unpaid athletes play another team of unpaid athletes in some college sporting event, the amount of time and money and prestige in the college world has been climbing.

I’m afraid that’s about to crash and burn. Here’s how I’m looking at it.

1. Most colleges are organized to give an average education to average students.

Pick up any college brochure or catalog. Delete the brand names and the map. Can you tell which school it is? While there are outliers (like St. Johns, Deep Springs or Full Sail) most schools aren’t really outliers. They are mass marketers.

Stop for a second and consider the impact of that choice. By emphasizing mass and sameness and rankings, colleges have changed their mission. [read Seth Godin]

Can balanced power solve your ground problems?

Q: How does balanced power help to solve ground loop humming?

A: Using balanced power can help solve certain ground loop problems because it takes its ground from one source, thus having no potential difference.

You can do this yourself simply by taking all your power from one outlet or circuit. If your equipment “leaks” to the ground, meaning current is flowing to the ground wire, then balanced power might be helpful. [read]

11 Tips for Band Promotional Photography

Knowing your gear and how to achieve a correct exposure is the basis for every picture you take, no matter what kind of photography we are talking about. When it comes to band promotional photography, it is but a small part of the equation.

There’s a lot of factors that you need to take into consideration in order to get the pictures that you want. 80% of the work is done during the preparation of the shoot. The better the preparation the smoother everything will work out on the day of the shoot. The following tips are not about what gear to use, or what settings are better suited, but rather about organization and how to use the available time in a most effective way as to get the best possible pictures and still have fun during the process. [read]

Free Plugin Of The Week: Elysia – Niveau filter

It’s been a while since I’ve come across a nice cross-platform FREE plugin so when I heard about this today I knew I had to spread the word. Elysia makes some very cool hardware & software so getting just a taste of that for free is fantastic.

Niveau filter is a balance control over bass and treble. Simple layout and operation with only a few controls. VST, RTAS, AU – Mac, PC

Here’s what Elysia have to say about the Niveau filter:

Get the niveau filter section of our famous mpressor plugin – it’s free! Add punch to muffled snares, reduce the harshness from active pickups, create some wonderful Dub and LoFi sounds… there are so many ways to benefit from this little tool. It’s fast, efficient, and most important: it sounds great!

This filter is a specialist in changing the overall sonic character of a signal with ease. It features two comprehensive controllers and is capable of producing convincing results in no time at all. Whenever a classic shelving filter would be too limited and a fully parametric filter would be too much, the niveau filter is the perfect tool.

Its main function is to change the proportions between high and low frequencies. The principle is quite similar to a pair of scales: Dependent on the gain setting around a variable center frequency, the high frequencies are boosted whereas the low frequencies are attenuated (or vice versa) at the same time.

The center frequency can be shifted continuously between 26 Hz and 2.2 kHz or between 260 Hz and 22 kHz respectively (when the x10 switch is activated). The characteristics of the filter change in the extreme positions of the EQ Gain controller: the fully counter-clockwise setting will give you a low pass filter; fully clockwise position will result in a high pass filter.

Get it here: http://www.elysia.com/software/niveau-filter/

Source: AudioGeekZine

The Hard Truths About Building Your Own Success

Have you noticed that society often looks at successful people in hopes of somehow copying their magic formula? I know I have done this and fallen into the trap – the trap of thinking, praying even, that there is one magic solution for success and that it can be replicated by anyone with enough sheer will and desire. Clearly this is not true.

I don’t want to miscommunicate here; of course it makes sense to learn lessons from people who have achieved the goals we want. They did something right and some of their ingredients may indeed work in your success recipe too. As Tony Robbins says: “Success leaves clues”. [read]

Carrying capacity [business]

An organization with eight people in it might be happy, profitable and growing. The same business with twenty might be on the way to bankruptcy.

Ideas, markets, niches and causes have a natural scale. If you get it right, you can thrive for a long time. Overdo it and you stress the inputs.

The earth has a carrying capacity, certainly. It might change as a result of technology (we know how to grow food more efficiently than we did a century ago) but in any moment of time, there’s a limit beyond which degradation kicks in. I don’t think many would say that we currently have a people shortage. (Impossible to pull off, but worth considering: what if we skipped a growth cycle in the population and everyone in a generation had just two kids? Or even one…) [read]