A Common Cold

Fortunately being ill is rare for me. But this week I've been suffering from a cold. Nothing too serious, but it has wiped me out for a few days. It does make you realise how a very minor illness can change your mood. It must be absolutely awful to go through any form of serious illness.

This lead to a couple of notes to self:

1. When feeling good, be mindful of this and enjoy the moment.
2. Don't take feeling normal for granted.
3. Be compassionate to others that are not feeling 100%

I'm bouncing back and can feel my strength returning every hour. Look after yourself.

Nested Cloud Storage

I have used free cloud based file sync services for years.  These services offer various levels of free storage depending on provider: Dropbox 5GB, Box 10GB, Onedrive 25GB and so on. For a number of reasons Dropbox is my favourite. But I have used different providers for subsets of my data that I need in the cloud. This has always had the drawback of not having a complete set of my cloud data in any single app.

So today I decided to nest my cloud drives. This is done by simply relocating the synced folders for each provider. My set-up is as follows:

Google Drive (30GB)
...>Onedrive (15GB)
    ...>Dropbox (5GB)

There are few advantages to this approach:

1. It is easy to navigate through all files.There aren't separate cloud folders scattered in the installer's default location.
2. Multiple cloud providers for backup. Using nested folders all subfolders are backed up to the next level up. Dropbox is backed up to both Onedrive and Google Drive.
3. The top level sync contains all files. I know where my cloud files are. I'm organised. But if I wasn't organised, I'd know that all my cloud files are in Google Drive, because of the nested folders.
4. Saving a file to dropbox makes it available to all services. This makes dropbox a good "inbox" for making files available for all services.

I'm not the first to do this, but this new trick (for me) is working pretty well so far.

Motivation to exercise outside on a winters night

The following is to remind me to keep motivated to leave the house and play football.

It is sometimes difficult enough to find motivation to exercise. On a cold Monday in January it is even more difficult. I haven't played football since before Christmas. At least six weeks have passed since I had a decent game. Even though the Monday evening football is a real highlight of my week. My brain starts demotivating me around lunchtime. I think if I hadn't committed (by replying to the "are you playing text") I would often bail out.

Why does my brain do this, when I love Monday footy once I'm there? Here are a few thoughts and counterpoints that jump to mind:

- Its cold outside. It really isn't, this has been such a mild winter. Besides I run hot when exercising. I'm soon in shorts and T-shirts.

- It will rain. Sometimes yes it does, but it always looks worse from the window of a house or car. The rain can be a bit of fun with the right outlook.

- I'll just chill and watch TV. Is that even a real reason? My brain does try and present this as the better option.

- I didn't play last week so I'll be out of shape. Yes and if I don't play this week, I'll be even more out of shape.

- I'll exercise later in the week Maybe I will, but no time like now.


There are a lot of other reasons that my inner self gives to bail out. All of them seem so valid at the time. I really need to remember the follow reasons why I should ignore my brain:

1. Being outside is fantastic. I spend so much of my life inside a house, office, train, or car that if forget just how much I love being outside. Even on a cold, windy and damp floodlit pitch being outside is glorious. Just breathe it all in.

2. Team sports make me smile. I enjoy exercising on my own, but a team sport is so much fun. Winning together is great, but even losing as a team you feel a sense of pride that you have tried your best.

3. I haven't ever regretted going. I've only ever regretted not going.

4. The happy chemicals kick in. Whatever they are; endorphins, adrenaline, or something else. I'll have a shot of them please. It feels great.

5. I know about it the next day.  When one gets to my age, one feels the slight pain of a good workout for at least a day. It's a gentle reminder, that it was worth it (I think!).

So there we have it. Enough amazing reasons to get out into the dark cold winter night. No good reason not to. Next Monday, I'll take a look back here and won't even question my decision. I hope.

Having a play with BBS

I recently discovered  [textfiles.com](http://textfiles.com). This site is was new to me, and the technology of BBS passed me by. Apparently it was a tool of the 1980s, that through dial up let people communicate and post files. Textiles.com hosts some of these old classic forgotten text files. Some of them are pretty amusing. It's a glimpse back into a different time of computing.

As I'm curious, I wondered if this technology is still running?

Apparently, yes it is. A quick google search brings up a few old websites with information.

Getting access:

I followed these steps to get access. It wasn't difficult:

1. Install Virtualbox for Mac (already had this)
2. Install Windows XP in Virtualbox
3. XP already has Telnet installed, just click on the link from this server list and you are away. It fires up a command window and connects to the BBD

The experience was pretty awful if I'm honest. Although this really should be expected from technology that is 30 years old. It felt a bit like teletext but slightly faster, and more confusing.  Here is how the experience went:

1. Clicked on link and the command box popped up.
2. A connection established and some ASCII art header popped up.
3. Promoted with a message of new or exiting user.
4. New user, so had to go through an interrogation into name, location, password etc.
5. Finally in.
6. No clue how to access anything.
7. Randomly hitting ESC and other keys finding a few messages and logs.
8. Quitting without really actually getting anywhere.

I'm sure the experience was pretty decent back in the 80s. It hasn't aged well. As an experiment it was interesting, but I can't see a BBS revival anytime soon.

A few simple goals for 2016

There are no real surprises here. Generally standard goals that anyone could have.

These goals are very top level for the year.

* Walk and cycle more
* Be less wasteful
* Photograph more
* Sleep better
* Read more / write more
* Improve diet

These goals are a little flaky

* Unclutter more stuff. Both physical and digital
* Become me more minimal
* Take a few risks
* Be more confident
* Be more creative

Have a fantastic 2016

On being selected a top10 engaged marketer by LinkedIn

I recently received the following message from LinkedIn.

Hi Mark,
I'm excited to let you know you've been selected as one of LinkedIn's Most Engaged Marketers in the UK for 2015.
Our list of the top ten Most Engaged Marketers was determined based on a number of engagement factors including connections, group membership, companies followed and content sharing on LinkedIn.
We are finalizing a media advisory to share with marketing trades our 2015 list. Would you have any concerns about being mentioned in our media outreach? We may also want to use a quote from you so let me know if you'd be amenable to that.
We'll be in touch soon regarding details on a celebratory gathering at our office where we'd love to welcome you and the other Most Engaged Marketers this year.  Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions at all, and once again congratulations!

This was quite a pleasant surprise. I was not expecting this news. Naturally, I responded by confirming I would be delighted to accept, and happy to meet up.

The meeting was at the LinkedIn offices in London. The offices just off Oxford Street were very swanky. They had just been refurbished, and had all the funky design of a tech company. Including classic red London telephone boxes, free food and drink fridges, chill out zones and mood lighting.

I spent around 40 minutes with them. The meeting was essentially a product workshop. They gave a bit of insight into the roadmap. They also wanted feedback on how we were using the platform. It was good to connect with peers from different industries. The breakfast was also decent. Before departing we were given our gift of an umbrella, moleskin, pen and a year's subscription to LinkedIn Premium.

How do I think I achieved this? Here's the lowdown:

1. Used many LinkedIn tools. This year I was pretty active using all of the tools LinkedIn had to offer. I started using Sales Navigator and also took a trial of Recruiter to hire. This in addition to generally good discipline to keep networking and connecting.

2. Hired through LinkedIn. I think this was a pretty big contributor. I used LinkedIn to get in touch with potential candidates. This put me in direct contact with a lot of people. It was a successful project, although more time consuming than using an agency.

3. Published an article. I only posted one article. It got a few likes, comments and views. It didn't exactly go viral. I assume it did so enough to bump up my ranking.

4. Changed jobs. At the start of 2015 I moved roles. I think a combination of congrats, views and recommendations would have bumped up my rankings.

I don't think there was any more to it than that. I don't spend all that much time on LinkedIn. I think that the activity was across all of the tools on the platform probably met LinkedIn's 'engaged' criteria.

Simple tips for using periscope at events

I've started using Periscope at the last few business events I've attended to broadcast live video. If you are new to live smartphone broadcasting, two of the popular apps are Meerkat and Periscope. I won't go into the details here, but my app of choice is Periscope. Here are few observations and tips from a novice smartphone broadcaster.

Observations using Periscope at events

- There are usually few people periscoping at the business events I attend. Even the organisers are slow to adopt this tech. I'm not suggesting I'm a trail blazer, but by day two of the conference I occasionally see the event organiser starting to stream. Could it be because they clocked me periscoping? Either way, it's a good way to get conversations started.

- Viewers peak at 10- 15 minutes then start to drop off. Even with the most compelling of speakers or topics, viewers are very transient in nature. Short and sweet is good.

- I've made business connections just by Periscoping. Several occasions delegates saying "I was sat behind you - that is cool you were presicoping - hi how are you?"

- I've had a few viewers who couldn't attend the event express thanks for sharing a broadcast.

Here are my 10 tips:

1. Get on the venue wifi or have unlimited data. Periscope chews through around 400mb of data every 30 minutes.

2. Find a decent location. Periscoping from the back of the room isn't great for anyone.

3. Be prepared. Fire up the app before the speaker, get the hashtags and title ready to go.

4. Get the event hash tags in - otherwise how will people find your broadcast?

5. Make sure you have "post to twitter" and "your location" enabled, again to maximise your coverage.

6. Hope that a good friend with lots of follows retweets you. Or tell them beforehand.

7. Make sure you are pointing at something relevant at the start of the broadcast. Otherwise you will have a shoe or the back of a head as a thumbnail for the broadcast.

8. Consider taking a old smartphone phone for periscoping. This leaves your main phone for tweeting or checking comments.

9. Show the face behind the camera. Viewers want to see who's broadcasting too.

10. Don't worry too much about the quality. This is live and raw, it doesn't need to be a polished production.

That's it. It's simple tech, experiment and have fun.

I'd love to hear your tips, or experiences with Periscope or Meerkat . I also have an interest in how "OTT" broadcasting like Pericope is disrupting the traditional models. Particularly for broadcasters and content owners. Happy to chat.