tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68958702011-04-21T19:03:41.730-04:00Random ideas and links from Todd Sampson, Managing Director of cloudspace.Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.comBlogger431100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1123640407582579782005-08-09T22:17:00.000-04:002005-08-09T22:20:07.586-04:00

This blog has moved to http://loudspace.typepad.com/loudspace/ Please update your bookmarks and rss/atom feeds.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1123616156099817022005-08-09T15:18:00.000-04:002005-08-09T15:35:56.106-04:00

(Tags: OPML | Dave Winer | Steve Gillmor | Blogrole)Dave Winer shares his conversation with Steve Gillmor on what can be done with OPML - a simple XML format for sharing standard, hierarchical and other elements as outlines. OPML is commonly used for sharing Blogroles.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1123614062820793522005-08-09T15:01:00.000-04:002005-08-09T15:08:24.836-04:00

(Tags: Internet | cloudspace | Netscape | IPO)The Guardian has posted a piece on the internet's 10th birthday (via Smart Mobs)since it exploded on the public consciousness:The 10th birthday of the internet as a mass phenomenon is rightly being celebrated this week to mark a decade since the explosive stock market debut of Netscape, which triggered the dot.com boom and unleashed a friendly browser

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1123602397678834022005-08-09T11:46:00.000-04:002005-08-09T12:11:25.143-04:00

(Tags: Online Advertising | Ad Revenue Maximization | Pay Per Click | PPC | Newspapers)From the Wall Street Journal Online (via PaidContent.org): Newspaper sites increasingly are adapting their advertising services to compete with other portal services from the likes of Google and Yahoo. More than a half dozen regional papers have recently begun allowing advertisers to bid directly on their sites

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1123566745214162312005-08-09T01:52:00.000-04:002005-08-09T14:46:43.483-04:00

(Tags: Web 2.0 | AJAX | Web as Platform )For all the talk of Web 2.0 as "bad packaging" (which I completely agree with) there are some really cool, important things happening online. As Tim O'Reilly writes in response to a Tim Bray post: "A meme is a pointer, and as long as it points in the right direction, so that the listener recognizes what is being pointed at, it works." Faux-meme be damned

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1123553351284756052005-08-08T22:09:00.000-04:002005-08-08T22:20:24.446-04:00

(Tags: Blogosphere | Blog Tools)comScore Networks has published a new report: Behaviors of the Blogosphere - Understanding the Size, Composition and Activities of Weblog Readers (PDF). The report was sponsored by SixApart and Gawker Media. It has quite a few interesting facts:50 million people in the U.S. visited blog sites in Q1 2005. (30% of internet users and 1/6th of the U.S. population)Of

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1123603682438245682005-08-08T12:01:00.000-04:002005-08-09T12:08:02.440-04:00

(Tags: Online Advertising | Online Marketing News)JupiterResearch has forecast:...online advertising will continue steady growth over the next five years, eventually reaching $18.9 billion in 2010, compared to $9.3 billion at the end of 2004. This growth reflects not only advertiser confidence in the medium, but also the strength of advertising on search engines in 2010. Search engine

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1097516535150251962004-10-11T13:42:00.000-04:002004-10-11T14:21:13.933-04:00

Keep reading - this is not a political discussion! I hate when bloggers with expertise on various subjects I am interested in feel the need to throw in their two cents on the upcoming presidential election. (In fact, I have unsubscribed from the RSS feed of every blogger who has started discussing the election – no matter which side that person is on.) This however is an entirely different animal

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1092783252088336772004-08-17T18:50:00.000-04:002004-08-17T18:54:12.086-04:00

To paraphrase Frank Costanza, "We’re BACK, Baby!!" Power and internet access have finally been restored at cloudspace. Hurricane Charlie knocked out both when it attacked on Friday. Since then, cloudspace team members have been roving Central Florida looking for ways to get work done with the area’s sporadic power & internet services. Thanks to everyone who wrote to check-in; and to our

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1091463812970776972004-08-02T12:23:00.000-04:002004-08-02T12:23:32.970-04:00

We have this weirdness in our business," [Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos] says. "The raw ingredients that make our business -- things like CPU processing power, bandwidth, and disk space -- get twice as cheap every 12 to 18 months. Disk space is 30 times cheaper today than it was five years ago. Thirty times cheaper! So the real question becomes, What can you do with 30 times as much disk space,

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1091461938306482252004-08-02T11:52:00.000-04:002004-08-02T11:52:18.306-04:00

Great Hackers is a recent post from Paul Graham. He takes a look at programmers and how to create an environment that is conducive to achieving great results. A lot of the office/Microsoft stuff meshes well with the ideas of Joel Spolsky - whom I admire a lot. The section on the "Nasty Little Problems" is especially useful. We at cloudspace begin structuring ourselves similarly to the

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1091022036720843202004-07-28T09:40:00.000-04:002004-07-28T09:40:36.720-04:00

The Cassini space probe has taken pictures of Mimas - a 250 wide moon of Saturn that looks remarkably like the Star Wars Death Star. Scientists have assured us that we are not in danger of attack. ;^)

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1090939834306495222004-07-27T10:50:00.000-04:002004-07-27T10:50:34.306-04:00

Francois Briatte has posted (extensive) results of a Web Design Survey he conducted. He analyzed what 10 top web designers and bloggers are currently doing on their websites in both layout, content and the code behind the scenes. Most of the results fall in line with trends that you would expect to see, but it is interesting to see the details compared head-to-head.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1090340756929910922004-07-20T12:25:00.000-04:002004-07-20T12:25:56.930-04:00

NewScientist.com is covering a new report from Jeng-Yi Tzeng on how people respond to polite computers.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1089730080722166502004-07-13T10:48:00.000-04:002004-07-13T10:48:00.723-04:00

Internet Retailer is reporting that nearly half of U.S. homes now have Broadband access. This is up from 9% in 2000.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1088084465889420982004-06-24T09:41:00.000-04:002004-06-24T09:41:05.890-04:00

Olate has posted a new script called phpFS that adds a PHP Function Search (one of cloudspace's favorite programming languages) to your browser search box. Currently, this feature only works with the Mozilla Firefox browser.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1088024233680665032004-06-23T16:57:00.000-04:002004-06-23T16:57:13.680-04:00

NewScientist.com is reporting that a naturally decaffeinated coffee plant discovered. It is Coffea Arabica - the same strain as today's top coffees. Maybe decaf will finally stop giving me a headache.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1087852795942481472004-06-21T17:19:00.000-04:002004-06-21T17:19:55.943-04:00

For those who have missed the last week of posts over at Joel on Software I would highly recommend checking them out. Start with How Microsoft Lost the API War for a look into the future of API's and then the following posts (and feedback) about Web-based interfaces.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1087308734749392462004-06-15T10:12:00.000-04:002004-06-15T10:12:14.750-04:00

Here comes the proof.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1086112914475649412004-06-01T14:01:00.000-04:002004-06-01T14:01:54.476-04:00

I am off to New York to attend this year's Lake Placid Film Festival. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone from Lake Placid again and getting the opportunity to see my favorite actor/writer/director Jon Favreau interview Martin Scorsese.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1086056921044049702004-05-31T22:28:00.000-04:002004-05-31T22:28:41.043-04:00

This is an interesting idea. Combine RSS feeds and Bit Torrent file distribution to create a personalized broadcast system - much like TIVO has done for your TV. While not in wide use yet, Broadcatching (as it is called) shows some great potential for changing film, music and other entertainment distribution - not to mention millions of possible business uses.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1086052753098348862004-05-31T21:19:00.000-04:002004-05-31T21:19:13.096-04:00

From The New York Times: High-speed connections have been around for several years, but Americans like Ms. Gellerman have been signing up for them at record rates recently, thanks to falling prices and a growing number of options. After years of hiccups, broadband providers have also streamlined the application and installation processes and, crucially, expanded the coverage areas. As of the end

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1086052009829582522004-05-31T21:06:00.000-04:002004-05-31T21:06:49.830-04:00

HP has announced that they are going certify and support the MySQL and JBoss open source applications on their servers. MySQL is a great piece of software and has become the favorite database at cloudspace. From a business standpoint, MySQL has a really interesting licensing/business model too.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1085783471302371092004-05-28T18:31:00.000-04:002004-05-28T18:31:11.303-04:00

This rolling advertisement for the new Mazda RX-8 is one of best visual street marketing ideas I have seen in a long time. It plays with your eyes; and really makes you stop & take notice.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1085782256533096052004-05-28T18:10:00.000-04:002004-05-28T18:10:56.533-04:00

According to an article in The Moscow Times today: To launch a Minuteman in (the Cold War Era), one had to 'unlock' the missile by dialing in a code -- the equivalent of a safety catch on a handgun. However, Blair reports, the U.S. Strategic Air Command was worried that a bunch of sissy safety features might slow things down. It ordered all locks set to 00000000 -- and in launch checklists,

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1085697900296994552004-05-27T18:45:00.000-04:002004-05-27T18:45:00.296-04:00

For a quick introduction to Extreme Programming check out this video by Jim Newkirk and Ward Cunningham over at Microsoft's Channel 9. Also, be sure to check out the rest of the Channel 9 site. It is an amazingly cool concept - letting people look under the hood at what makes your company tick. Double bonus points for letting those outside the company post feedback and ideas. Great for

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1085696927091275472004-05-27T18:28:00.000-04:002004-05-27T18:28:47.090-04:00

For those of you who haven't been following it, Mark Cuban (founder of MicroSolutions and current owner of the Dallas Mavericks) has been offering a glimpse into how he got started in business. These will probably become the first chapter of a future biography, but you can get the preview today for free. The fourth segment has just been posted. It is definitely worth a look. In addition to

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1085577792703153972004-05-26T09:23:00.000-04:002004-05-26T09:23:12.703-04:00

Scientist Fred Hutchinson has been conducting an ongoing cancer research study using dogs. (I first heard about this a week or so ago on NPR news.) His latest finding is that Chihuahuas are not really dogs, but large rodents. I wonder if this will change the way people react when someone brings their Chihuahua into a store?

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1084888895002780962004-05-18T10:01:00.000-04:002004-05-18T10:01:35.003-04:00

Too cool. Someone has created a Rubik's Cube solver out of LOGOs.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1084541164886466222004-05-14T09:26:00.000-04:002004-05-14T09:26:04.886-04:00

Ok, so I know that the use of Macromedia Flash is always a hot topic for debate. The people who see the Web as the world's largest database hate the load time issues - though some interesting content work is being done now in Flash that offers a high return on bandwidth. The Web as entertainment guys think that Flash is "cool" and makes the Web a better place to visit. (I won't even start on

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1083944962903352522004-05-07T11:49:00.000-04:002004-05-07T12:02:25.403-04:00

Sam Arbesman has published his initial report from The Memespread Project. The project began as a post on kottke.org requesting people link to his test site. As the links began to spread, and people started clicking on them, he viewed his site logs to analyze the incoming traffic. While it is probably a little skewed due to the testing method, the results are still interesting and definitely

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1083893604109775922004-05-06T21:20:00.000-04:002004-05-07T12:02:54.670-04:00

Most people in the blog universe are familiar with the BlogThis! bookmarklet. (For everyone else, this is basically a simple bookmarklet that lets you post selected text from a website you are viewing to your blog.) A bookmarklet is JavaScript code that is stored as a bookmark in your Web Browser. When you click on the bookmarklet the JavaScript functions on the current page you are viewing.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1083889614606532972004-05-06T20:26:00.000-04:002004-05-06T20:35:10.793-04:00

Here is a leadership top 10 ten list for you... Jeff Immelt gave Fast Company his "Things Leaders Do" checklist which he teaches up-and-comers at GE's the famed management-development center. A good look at the basics.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1083791646819258882004-05-05T17:14:00.000-04:002004-05-05T17:21:05.153-04:00

MACCAWS (Making A Commercial Case for Adopting Web Standards) has released their new white paper on The Way Forward with Web Standards. It doesn't get too technical, but it is a bit long. For those interested in a business level executive summary, you should check out their Web Standards Primer.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1083765411633933542004-05-05T09:56:00.001-04:002004-05-05T10:06:29.233-04:00

Need a good (sick) laugh to start the day? Check out the T-Shirts by Stuct.com. Their tag line is That's Just Wrong - a pretty good summary. I especially like this one.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1083734124250305902004-05-05T01:10:00.002-04:002004-05-05T01:34:51.046-04:00

Interesting new post from Seth Godin: …We realize that consumers get their cues primarily from visual stimuli. Except they don't. We all are driven primarily by the interpersonal and the interpersonal is frequently verbal... Basically, he is talking about the often ignored auditory impact on people who interact with your brand. Interesting idea. Even excluding his regular posts like the one

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1083731610130205522004-05-05T00:22:00.000-04:002004-05-05T00:40:06.310-04:00

Check out the Phone Worder - a fun little widget that some of our guys at cloudspace put together in their nonexistent "spare time." Click (or type) in your phone number, click submit and the Phone Worder will tell you all the words you number will make. WARNING: It quickly becomes addictive.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1083725942520506882004-04-22T22:56:00.000-04:002004-05-05T01:35:17.420-04:00

I just finished the book Emotional Design by Don Norman, co-founder of the human-centered products consulting firmNielsen Norman Group with usability guru Jakob Nielsen. Don argues a point that must balance “design” and “usability” when we are creating products and services. I have been making this point as it relates to balance in website development for some time now. The dissenting views

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1083730494030443702004-04-21T18:11:00.000-04:002004-05-05T00:20:43.356-04:00

Jon Hicks over at hicksdesign has given us a "behind the scenes" look at the creation of the new Thunderbird logo. Thunderbird is Mozilla's new email client. Absolutely beautiful work.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1083727321922409522004-04-14T23:20:00.000-04:002004-05-04T23:26:26.496-04:00

Singularity Sky by Charles Stross - I have a hard time reading fiction, but I try to read one fiction book every quarter. I chose Singularity Sky due to some reviews that I read on Slashdot and the interesting concept of "Singularity" – the coming ability (due to nanotechnology, computers and other scientific advancements) to replicate any physical object on-demand at no cost via a "cornucopia

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1083727429802306042004-04-04T19:22:00.000-04:002004-05-04T23:32:51.640-04:00

Mentored by a Millionaire by Steven K. Scott – While I don’t usually pick up "millionaire" books, I am always looking for ways to increase my productivity. Based on the Master Strategies of Super Achievers subtitle the book looked like it would fit the bill. This book is organized into a series of 15 mentoring sessions from the millionaire marketing wiz Steven Scott, many of which I have not

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1083721525774837672004-03-26T18:20:00.000-05:002004-05-04T22:03:04.420-04:00

After years of dating, my brother younger brother John and his fiancé Shay Renner tied the knot today at a beautiful ceremony in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. In addition to being my brother, John has been the Development Director at cloudspace for nearly seven years. He is also the founder of the wildly popular website The DJ List. Like any good tech guy, John has setup a website for the event.

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895870.post-1083721051267867882004-03-24T02:25:00.000-05:002004-05-04T22:03:25.390-04:00

My name is Todd Sampson. I am a co-founder and Managing Director of the Orlando, Florida based website & software firm cloudspace. Over the past several months I have really been enjoying reading other blogs from leaders in the business and technology worlds via RSS feeds. I thought it was time to join the global discussion and throw in my $.02. Hope you enjoy. . .

Todd Sampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06920850247577498614noreply@blogger.com0