News

It’s Been 13 Years Since Layne Staley Left Us

A few days ago (April 5th), it was the 13th anniversary of the day Layne Staley, the lead singer of Alice in Chains passed away due to a drug overdose. Staley had a unique voice which matched up perfectly with the grunge rock era of the 90s. However, the MTV Unplugged session the band recorded in 1996 would be remembered as one of his best and last performances of all time.

Although it’s a bit late, here is the entire MTV Unplugged session from 1996 with high quality audio. The performance was one of the band’s final appearances with vocalist, Layne Staley. R.I.P. Layne, I miss your voice man, you left us too soon.

P.S. I’ve determined that there is no volume level too high for Nutshell.

Lyrics to Nutshell. Song by Alice in Chain

We chase misprinted lies
We face the path of time
And yet I fight
And yet I fight
This battle all alone
No one to cry to
No place to call home
Oooh…Oooh…
Oooh…Oooh…

My gift of self is raped
My privacy is raked
And yet I find
And yet I find
Repeating in my head
If I can’t be my own
I’d feel better dead
Oooh…Oooh…
Oooh…Oooh…

The Rise of Social Co-working Spaces in Exotic Locations

‘More young people want work-life balance,” she said. “Maybe vacations completely unconnected are not feasible anymore; maybe people won’t take traditional vacations. But they can go to work in paradise for two months.’

Companies, too, are drawn to the intimate communal areas, amenities and activities of co-working/co-living spaces. Nine remote-working employees of Automattic, a web development corporation gathered for a work meetup this month at the Surf Office in Gran Canaria, taking over the 10-room property for six days “to build relationships, have real-time interaction and also work on projects that are best done in person,” the company said.

The New York Times on the rise of social co-working spaces in exotic locations. Co-working in nice places is a treat for distributed workers, but I bet having people with similar interests in the same space exponentially enhances a person’s productivity instead of being a lone wolf. Maybe I just like saying I work alone with my most badass voice.

90s Kids Win, Surge Is Back Baby

Surge In 12 Packs

Surge Available In 12 Packs

The soda I used to drink by the 2 liter in the 90s is coming back. Surge, produced by Coca-Cola, is available exclusively on Amazon.com. Since coming back, the product has sold out at least twice. For once, a huge brand has listened to their customers and brought back a product people are dyeing to buy.

The movement to bring back Surge is largely thanks to a large Facebook group named The Surge Movement. Formed in 2011 and with over 140K likes, the group and its members have been instrumental in bringing back the fizzy beverage. Watch as the three administrators of the group announce the return of Surge from Coca-Cola headquarters.

I loved this stuff as a kid and would drink it by the 2 liter during the hot summers. Maybe that explains a few things but I digress. I’m waiting for it to come back in stock so I can relive the 90s one 16 fluid ounce can at a time.

Now is the time for PepsiCo to relaunch a 90s brand of their own in Josta. They too have a Facebook page and campaign to bring it back but it’s not as popular. There is renewed hope however that with the return of Surge, Josta can return as well. Although it’s crappy quality, here is a commercial for it from the 90s.

This stuff had a unique, fruity flavor thanks to the Gurana Berries used. These berries are also the reason it was labeled as a high-energy drink. Its seeds contain about twice the concentration of caffeine found in coffee beans (about 2–4.5% caffeine in guarana seeds compared to 1–2% for coffee beans). Nothing in the soda market today tastes like Josta.

One reason PepsiCo may not bring back Josta is because it could eat into their Mountain Dew segment of the market. However, since it’s a totally different soda with a unique taste, I don’t see why the company can’t offer both.

At the end of the day, the 90s kids have a victory to cheer about!

BAWLS Is Back Online

I’ve been following the story of BAWLS ever since I discovered that the parent company had filed bankruptcy and the board members ousted the CEO along with a few other people. According to BevNet which is a great site that covers all aspects of the beverage industry, Bawls is back online and is resuming operations.

The brand had been in limbo since founders Hoby Buppert and Christina Staalstrom were forced out by investors late last year. In January, the company slashed staffing levels and effectively ceased operations as investors sought a buyer for the brand.

My hope is that the Speedway just down the street from me will once again, carry the unique blue bottles with the 16oz cans of an energy drink that is in a class of its own.

One Interview – 25 Things

Recently, I participated in an interview with Jade Craven for JadeCraven.com. You can check out the interview here which contains juicy information as to why I quit writing for Performancing.com. Jade also did a great job putting together a post called 25 Lessons you can learn from Jeff Chandler which compiles tips, tricks, suggestions based on my previous two years of writing about blogging and related subjects.

Google Just A Bunch Of Marketing Gimmicks?

Mike Elgan over as ComputerWorld.com let loose on the fact that Google slings around the terms ‘beta‘ and ‘experimental‘ only to get around blame and criticism. I tend to agree.

Just like Microsoft and many other software companies, Google designates a huge number of its many online services as beta, and many features as merely “experimental.”

For example, did you know that Gmail is still in “beta,” and has been in the “beta” stage of development for five years?

I’m pretty sick and tired of seeing the word Beta whether it deals with Google or some other Web 2.0 site. To a point, I think it’s embarrassing to have the word displayed on a product or service for five years. At face value, you would begin to think that the software would never reach a point of completion. However in Google’s case, they can use that term Beta as a defense against criticism considering end users don’t pay a dime to use their products/services. After five years of being in beta, I throw that line of thought out the window.

Mike sums it up pretty well in one of his closing statements:

New rule: If a “product” is attracting eyeballs and making money, if the users don’t know they’re beta testers, if the beta is unlimited in time and in scope, and if the product will never, ever be offered for sale anyway, the words “beta” and “experimental” have no meaning at all. And the products are open to criticism.

So when everyone is wondering why the word ‘beta’ has been devalued to the point where it means nothing, I hope they do a Google search to find the answer.

WPTavern Design Almost Done

Wow, been a little while since my last post. Here are a couple of updates for you.

Last week, I sent in my letter to relinquish myself from my duties at BloggerTalks, Problogger, BloggingTips, and other duties to give myself more time for WPTavern.

I thought I came across an awesome theme to use for WPTavern. It’s called Arthemia Premium.. Now, the theme still looks great but it was a pain in the ass for me to mess around with. I thought about using the featured post section from that theme and transferring it to a new theme but it’s deeply integrated within Arthemia and so, I wasted $70.00. However, perhaps at some point down the road, I’ll redesign WPTavern.com again and that will be the design I go with.

So what does WPTavern look like right now? Have a look.

wptavern

Yes, the WPTavern theme should look familiar as it’s a hacked version of the theme I use on this site. As it stands, I really like a lot of the things as well as the layout of this theme on Jeffro2pt0. I don’t want to hack up another theme to add these features so I decided to just hack up a version I could use for WPTavern. I did add two more widget spots near the footer that I plan on using and I also added the 5 featured posts block along with post thumbnails to give it just a little bit of a magazine look.

Right now, this should hold me over until I gain some momentum and get things going. I’ll worry about a proper/unique identity once the time presents itself.

With the majority of the design out of the way, my focus is now on plugins and the forum. I’m still on track to open the site up for public beta on February 1st. Until then, the site will open with very little content.

Because of this, if anyone is open to writing a guest post to be part of the launch of the site, please send the HTML version of the post to my email address or through the contact form on this site. If you have images that go with the post, label them accordingly in the HTML file and I’ll add them in on my end. Don’t forget to email me the images as well.

I’ve been working like mad between the two podcasts I produce and getting things set for WPTavern. However, It’s been exciting and my head is continuously overflowing with ideas for the site once it launches. Stay tuned for more info as I get time to publish it.

WPTavern Updates

Just wanted to pass along a few updates for those wondering about the progression of WPTavern.

The domain is up and running with a fresh install of WordPress 2.7. The first plugin I installed was Maintenance Mode so that I can work on the site in public without the dust getting in everyones eyes. Next up, I tried my best to install PHPBB3 but for whatever reason, I couldn’t get the installation to accept my Database credentials. I tried every combination known to man. After 30 minutes of trying to figure it out, I went and installed Simple Press which was recommend to me via Steve Hodson of WinExtra.com.

The installation was flawless and I’m going to give this a go. Now, I have to go through and configure the WordPress installation to my liking and then the next thing on my list is to work on the design for the site. Once I get the design finished which is going to be a variation of the one used on this site, I will incorporate the site design into the forums. Once that is finished, I will look at installing plugins for the site and getting the functionality I want up to snuff. During this time, I will also be trying to get my hands on OIO Publisher to manage advertising on the site. I’m hoping to have WPTavern publicly launched in *BETA* form by February 1st. Time will tell though if I’ll be able to make that deadline.

Last but not least, I have created a Twitter account for the site. Please follow @wptavern on Twitter as that will my method of communication to fans of the site. I’ll also be setting up the RSS feed to publish to Twitter for all articles published on the site.

Again, I’d like to thank everyone for their continued support. At this time, if anyone feels like they will be able to contribute some of their time to help me manage the WPTavern community via the forum, let me know as I want a few moderators already in place before the site launches.

Podango Might Fold Is Talkshoe Next?

Podango LogoPodcastingNews.com has has a report out regarding the recent announcement made my Podango regarding their future. Based on the announcement, things don’t look very good for the company:

We at Podango believe that you, our customers, are our most valuable asset. Given this belief, we have always done our best to be honest and forthright in our dealings with you. The current uncertainties of the financial market has affected many of us in this nation. As of this morning, Podango is no longer immune to it’s effects. Our ability to continue operations past the end of this year (2008) is in question. We do not want any of you, or any of your shows to be negatively affected by this uncertainty and so we are encouraging you to begin taking all necessary steps to secure your data or begin moving to another hosting provider. On Monday we will have a more definitive direction. As of today, the last day to move or secure your data is December 31st. RSS feeds will need to be redirected by this date as well. It is our hope that the events of the next few days will allow us to continue providing you a service based upon a subscription fee. Again, we will know more on Monday and you will be notified of any changes to the above plan as soon as we are made aware of them.

We will have a link in the My Podango section of the Podcasters login page by Monday which will allow you to redirect your RSS feed off of the Podango feed to a new feed. Instructions will accompany that tool. Also on Monday we will provide you with alternatives for show hosting.

Inactive accounts, those without recent uploads or downloads, may be already been deleted from the system. If you need to contact us, please use info@podango.com.

Again I personally apologize for this notice of caution. We truly appreciate your business.

With Podango possibly going down the tubes, I am now wondering how well Talkshoe.com is doing. I host two podcasts through Talkshoe.com, one called Perfcast which deals with all things blogging and the other, WordPress Weekly which is a WordPress centric podcast.

At this point, I pretty much have a vested interest in Talkshoe.com surviving. There are many things which can be improved upon within Talkshoe but overall, I’ve been very happy using the service for my podcasting needs. My worry is, Talkshoe.com does not offer any type of (PRO) account or package. In terms of monetizing, I know they have a few Google ads on the Talkshoe site and you can also pay to be featured on the front page but that is about it. I also know based on what a representative of Talkshoe told me, they make money whenever someone calls into the site.

I’d hate to see Talkshoe fall from the wayside and honestly, I’m willing to shell out some cash to continue using Talkshoe if the opportunity pops up. I hope that Dave Nelson who is the CEO of Talkshoe takes this opportunity depending on the final outcome of Podango to come out and make an announcement regarding the future of Talkshoe and put the minds of its users at ease. Hell, it would also be a nice time for Dave to capitalize on the fall of Podango to see if he can’t reel in some users from that service to Talkshoe.