I like to listen to music while I work… sometimes I get stuck on a song that I like to hear… here’s what I do so that I can hear the same song over and over.  Note that I normally hate repetition but I put one of these songs on while I work and it’s nice background noise… with no distractions, and no need to hit replay:

Step 1

Open a notepad file and save it as an html file.  In Notepad you’ll want this code:

Step 2

Now, go to Windows Explorer and double click on the file – it should open in your browser, with a YouTube video embedded.

When you click on play, it will play to the end, then loop again and keep looping all day long.

I have about 7 videos on that page so I can put on different songs when one gets to be too much.

Step 3

To add a new video, just copy and paste the code above (from <p> to </p>) and change what is in bold to be the video code from the YouTube page (in yellow below).

You are telling the chunk of code above which video to show.

That’s it… I’m guessing I’ll update this post as people tell me what’s wrong with it, but it should work.

Not ALL videos work like this… some have protections placed on the YouTube side, and you’ll get a message saying you can’t loop it or show it… but many songs will loop.  Just play around with it.

One of these days I want to figure out how to loop a playlist :p

A few weeks ago I gave a fun presentation on hardware and software (and other stuff) for a home office.  It was fun because the career coaches in the room were taking notes they could take back to their clients who were interested in starting a home-based business, OR settling in for a serious job search.

One of the things I recommend you get is a headset that plugs into the computer that becomes, essentially, your phone. I use Skype as my phone service but my headset allows me to have hands free discussions… this is critical so I can give webinars, take notes, etc.  Also, I spend a lot of time on the phone and I don’t want my arm or neck to get tired.

While I was gone I had some work done in my office and was ultimately out of my office for about a month (yes, it sucked).  While out, one of my kids found my headset and played with it (translation: broke it).

This isn’t the first headset that I’ve had broken.  The first one was a nice, light, comfortable headset that plugged into the PC – you know, in those little round holes made for the mic and speakers?

When I replaced it I got a USB headset that plugs into a USB port… I liked this because I have a USB port on the front of my PC and the audio jacks are on the back, so I get some extra cord length.

I went to buy a replacement headset and my ONLY criteria was USB.  I knew I’d find what I wanted for around $30… I got it at Target just in time to jump on a webinar, and learned there was another very critical thing I didn’t think about:

A MUTE BUTTON!

The headset I bought didn’t have a mute button… and that absolutely won’t work for what I do (lots of live webinars/teleseminars/radio interviews) and my environment (home office with lots of noise/activity).

So now my criteria for a headset includes:

1. Price – around $30,
2. USB – for more cord length,
3. mute button

I got all that and I’m good to go! Hopefully this one lasts longer than a year (not because of the device but because of all the ways I can accidentally crush it :p).

I need to update you on the video thing… last post I asked for some input on a video from my new video editor…and since then we have changed some stuff and started to put out new videos (which are now live, and in production).

You can see all of the videos we’ve put out for JibberJobber user tutorials here, on Vimeo.  They are hi-def, which means crazy big files, but Vimeo handles it well, and the user doesn’t see slow download time (afaik). Also, if they make the video bigger the quality is good.  Cool.

I’ve also been working on the first series that I’ll sell – because it is HD we can’t do downloads as it’s GBs of info – just barely enough to fit on one DVD.  More on that soon!

Thanks to everyone who gave input on the video post from last time

I need some input/feedback on some changes I’m doing with my JibberJobber user tutorial videos. I’ve embedded our test video below, but you can see the wider version here.  Notice that the visible quality is horrible – we’ve uploaded it on vimeo.com also, but it is still rendering apparently… so ignoring the visual (and my narration), I’m wondering about the editing and final product.

Here are my initial thoughts/questions (I hope this doesn’t influence your feedback):

• Is the intro music (just a few seconds) okay? I think it’s kind of cool but I wouldn’t have thought of it…
• I’m not sure about the music throughout the entire video… is it… good? Distracting?  Okay, or horrible?
• At the end the video editor put his voice in the conclusion – thoughts?  My initial thought is “don’t say www”… it is not necessary when typing it in.
• What else – what am i missing?

Again, realize the quality of what you see (not the audio) will look much, much better on vimeo.

(I mistakenly made this a PAGE instead of a Post… this was from spring, 2008)

I’m presenting at the newcommforum.com conference and it seems that over 60% of the audience is twittering (tweeting) DURING the presentations. In fact, perhaps the conversation on Twitter during the presentation is more interesting than the actual presentation?? Talk about disruptive, especially as a presenter.

Anyway, here are some links to help you track a certain “thing” in twitter…. people here are using the hash mark (pound) like this: #sncr (sncr is the name of the group, pronounced “snicker”):

• http://twemes.com/SNCR
• http://twitter.summize.com/search?q=%23sncr&from=&to=&ref=&tag=&tude=〈=all
• http://www.tweetscan.com/index.php?s=sncr&u=
• http://hashtags.org/tag/sncr/

This definitely makes the list of top 5 valuable things to do with Twitter (and makes the information manageable).

I’m using real info on this, outting my new Twitter buddy. Actually, we met on Saturday in person, and I doubt Clint would care if you know he and I hang out (well, hung out for 20 minutes :p).

Here’s the e-mail I get when someone follows me on Twitter:

I would so love it if they also told me:

1. If I was following this person. If the name and handle doesn’t ring a bell, it would be uber-helpful. Plus, if I already know who they are, and you TELL me that I’m following them, then I don’t have to click through to check. Please Ev, do that one for me?
2. Please plug in their little summary. If I don’t recognize their name or handle, this would really help. Especially if you make their URL a hyperlink, so I can click on it from my e-mail. You know what I’m talking about, all this stuff:

Oh yeah, include the stats, also. That way if they are following 3,000+ people and have 4 people following them I KNOW I don’t want to be #5.

Evan, seriously,this would take your programmer like 20 minutes to do. Please make my life just a little easier!

According to Caroline McCarthy at the CNET blog, the growth is attributed to the announcement of OpenSocial. Admitedly, this is Plaxo’s data, not her conlusion. Her blog post is worth reading. (Dear Caroline, don’t worry about my readers getting the wrong message here, the truth is, no one reads this blog ).

However, I have an alternative reason for Plaxo’s growth. It’s because they decided to open the spam machines out again. I swear, this seems to be the same time frame that I received about a gazillion plaxo invites. Like this one:

Just for the record, I like what Plaxo can do, and think it’s tre-cool. But just when they were getting over the brand and perception that they were a lean, mean, spamming machine, they opened it up again and became the topic of (negative) discussion. Oops.

or, all of my friends invited me to their social network on the same day.  It seems like in the last 24 hours I’ve received about 15 invitations for friends in Plaxo.  So which is it?  Did they let a ton of invites out yesterday, or did all of my friends (yes, all 15 of them) invite me at once??

Uh, yeah, I’d say that’s an understatement.

a “networked address book” and a precursor to social networks. As per an interview with John McCrea, VP of Marketing for Plaxo. Thanks to Thom Singer for the interview, you can check it out here.

McCrea says that Plaxo did indeed ask itself (or themselves) if the world really did need another social network. I’m surprised that their conclusion was yes… except that they did have an amazing foundation to start Pulse.

Says that next few months will be really exciting (because of the open social web – I’m guessing this is the API stuff that we’re seeing from Facebook). Sounds exciting but (a) it’s social networking, and I’m social networked out, and (b) aren’t marketing directors supposed to be excited about the next few months?

It’s a really interesting 30 minutes, worth your time.   I would like to hear what McCrea’s position is on LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Salesforce, etc. as competition.

Today I had a very cool radio interview. Well, it was a recording and essentially a podcast… it was being recorded, and it will be linked to from a newspaper in central California.

But about 10 minutes into it Skype hung up the call.

DUDE. Seriously, what the freak?

I love Skype, and I use it all the time. But for “mission critical” stuff, like live or recorded interviews, I’m gun shy. Make that, skype shy