The River

The personal professional blog of Pamela Parker -- musings on marketing, advertising, media and technology.

Technology

How to Make Lists Look Better in HTML

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The other day, Muhammad Saleem, one of our contributors at Marketing Land, tweeted a question asking how a person might format a blog post and add regular left-justified text between items in an ordered list. This might seem like an oddball inquiry, but we come across this issue all the time, especially when columns have really long lists, or lists where each item is quite long.

We try to spread out our text pretty well, so it’s easier to read and just looks less daunting. Because this list issue is so common, I’ve come up with a few tricks to overcome the issues.

First, this problem that Muhammad Saleem mentions… How do you break up an ordered list by putting text between list items? The key is a maybe little-known modifier to the ordered (and unordered) list code in HTML.

[Read more…] about How to Make Lists Look Better in HTML

Surviving and Thriving at SXSW: Make It Your Show

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Photo Credit: Brittany Ryan via SXSW

I know everyone‘s doing it, but I can’t resist. I’ve only been to SXSW interactive a few times, but that’s long enough to make lots of mistakes and learn from them.

  • Prepare, But Be Flexible. Later on this list, I’ll suggest you disregard your carefully-prepared schedule, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need one. In fact, it’s best if you have a schedule prepared that allows for Plan B and even Plan C.Say, you’ve decided you want to go to one panel, or one party. If something doesn’t work out — and shit happens — be ready to move on to the next opportunity. Maybe you’re stuck on the wrong part of town, maybe you let yourself get caught up in conversation with someone you met, maybe a thunderstorm starts up just as you were heading out — whatever the wrinkle, don’t let it bother you. Just have Plan B ready to go, and pivot.
  • Take Care of Yourself. You’ll want to pack as lightly as you can, because you are likely walking everywhere you go, but be sure to have a few key items: Water, so you don’t get dehydrated. A snack (maybe peanut butter crackers or nuts), in case low blood sugar strikes at a time you’re not ready to go in search of food. And, this year, a small umbrella. Along those same lines, wear comfortable, broken-in shoes. There’s nothing worse than hobbling. The same applies to your drinking strategy (yes, you should have a strategy). I don’t agree with the “don’t drink” philosophy, partly because I’m a bit shy and having at least one margarita helps me make conversation with strangers. But, moderation is key. Don’t embarrass yourself, and don’t ruin the rest of the show for yourself. Perhaps set a limit of 1 or 2 drinks per day, and drink club soda the rest of the time.
  • Go With The The Flow. It’s easy to get uptight. Either you become too married to your schedule — so you spend your time rushing around from one event to the next. Or you become a party-chaser — always convinced that the best party is the one that the guy you’re following on Twitter is attending. Guess what? The best party is the one you’re at, right now. The best food truck is the one you stumble upon when you turn the corner. Allow yourself some serendipity. It’s your SXSW, and it may not be exactly as you planned, but it’s likely to be pretty darned good if you seize the moment.

I’ll be aggregating links and such to good posts I find on the subject, posting them below and continually updating. Feel free to drop more in the comments. Thanks!

P.S. On the beer subject, I’d recommend the Real Ale Brewing Company’s Fireman’s #4 — it’s awesome.

The Making of a Next Gen Video Consumer

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A few weeks ago, I got my husband to agree to cutting off our cable television service. See ya, Time Warner Cable. See ya, Time Warner Cable bill.

Reading about Fred Wilson’s thoughts on the subject (wow, that link is old and yet still valid), and hearing from @lieblink, it has long been obvious to me that the future of television-watching is digital and on-demand. Watching our household’s video viewing habits — a lot of Amazon On-Demand, some Netflix Instant Queue, a great deal of TiVo-ed kids’ programming, and some live TV here and there — I realized that, with just a few slight modifications, we could ditch the cable boxes and save $71/month.

The person for whom this poses the most difficulty (and he’s already asked me to call TWC a couple of times) is my husband. He’s fond of live sports and live sports news — some of which are actually available online, but he’s not accustomed to using these sources yet. For the kids and me, it hasn’t been a difficult adjustment, as there is still plenty of programming available with our new configuration.

Here’s our set up:


  • Analog TV set (vintage 2004 or so).
  • Digital to analog converter box
  • Amplified indoor antenna (“rabbit ears”)
  • Roku box for Netflix and Amazon On-Demand
  • TiVo for recording broadcast TV and a little on-demand (Series 2)

I’d love to have Apple TV or some other way to watch YouTube, Hulu, etc. on our TV, but we are getting along pretty well just now. The most challenging part, thus far, is when we hear about some kind of news event — a plane and helicopter colliding over the Hudson, for example — and want to turn on CNN or NY1 for the on-the-scene coverage. We’re trying to train ourselves to find something acceptable online. Wish us luck.

CrowdFire

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Battelle in AdAge on CrowdFire:

“We want to get a cloud of media to become something fungible that people can see and work with to create new things,” he said. “I want the performance to go from one-to-many to many-to-many.”


Very cool.

iTunes needs a Web interface

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Reading one of my colleague’s blogs today (FM is rife with bloggers, wouldn’t you know it?), I got interested in checking out a podcast he mentioned: a lecture by Michael Pollan, of The Omnivore’s Dilemma fame. But, that’s as far as I could get.

To actually listen to this podcast, I have to remember — when I get home, after a busy day at work — to fire up iTunes, search for this podcast, and subscribe. Yeah, that’ll happen. Not.

One thing I love about my TiVo service is that I can go to the Web interface (still not as good as the ReplayTV service was, but pretty decent), and subscribe to a season pass of a new show that I recently heard about. On Netflix, I can go over and queue up the newest, hottest independent film reviewed in the NYT, months before it’s actually released on DVD. On Amazon, I can impulsively start a TiVo download of a movie or TV show that I suddenly remember I’d like to see.

In all these case, my entertainment is basically sent to me, after a few keystrokes, and it’s ready for me to enjoy whenever I find the time. Why can’t I do this on iTunes? Am I missing something?

FM Holiday Gadget Guide

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I’ve been so wrapped up in the latest project I’ve been involved with at FM that I haven’t had time to post about it: the FM Holiday Gadget Guide.

Though it’s sponsored solely by Best Buy, the FM authors involved — some of the Web’s most well-known gadget aficionados — have complete free range, editorially. I’ve gotten a real kick out of reading their posts, and have developed a hankering for a couple of things featured. Anyway, it’s been fun, and it’ll be up and running through the end of the year.