iSawToday – The Coolest Thing I Saw Today on the Web

The holiday season is full of opportunities to network and meet/greet people so I decided to throw together a list of my top 5 small talk tactics:

1. Show up early – I did this by accident several weeks ago and had nothing to do but talk to the event organizers and help them rearrange the tables.  In return these two ladies made introductions for me throughout the evening.
2. Use an exciting opening phrase – Rather than the traditional “How are you?” greeting, incorporate a phrase such as “What are you working on that’s new and exciting?”  or “What’s new and exciting?”  I’ve used this at tradeshows for several years now and it’s a great way of getting other people to open up.
3. Give descriptive answers – Rather than answer the inevitable question “What do you do?” with “work for a software company”.   Try giving a more specific answer such as “I  sell and market data mining software to insurance companies.” Even though my example is tech-y I’ve given given my bogey the option of connecting on several fronts: software, sales & marketing,  and insurance.
4. Prepare – Formulate interesting answers to common questions that you know you will be asked. (apply #3)
5. Recommend & Refer – As you begin to meet people throughout the evening make recommendations and introductions between your new acquaintances.

What’s your favorite small talk tactic?

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A recent conversation has led to a revisited appreciation for the ORIGINAL ending credits from Return of the Jedi, -you know the “Yub-Yub” Ewoks song.

Give this clip a listen and then write George Lucas a letter and tell him to stop screwing with his already great movies.

Popularity: 13% [?]

If you’re looking for a way to get video from the Internet; Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, or torrent downloads to your TV.  There’s a HUGE crop of inexpensive devices popping up to help you out.

I’ve owned one of the earliest versions of what is now called a ‘media player device’ for 3 years now and still use it almost everyday to play mp3’s and movies through my home theater system.

I was doing a bit of research today on where these devices are today and found this awesome site that does a month-month review of all of the media players in the market.  The winner for Nov. The Western Digital TV Live (or WDTV Live for short) has be about ready to visit Best Buy after work to commence the upgrade.

Check it out!

iboum.com : Future Entertainment Technology : Home.

Popularity: 11% [?]

*Shameless Plug Warning*

2 weeks ago I was asked to speak to 30 small business owners as part of an alumni event at the local college. Although everyone thought they were coming to hear about social media I felt some reality would be more beneficial than the typical SM hype so often pitched these days. I reviewed each attendees online presence and decided to give them a GTD approach for things they could do to bolster their online presence.   Here is my presentation:

If you’re interested in learning more or would like to have me present to your group?  I always require a minimum fore-knowledge of the attendees so that I can adjust the GTD to-do’s appropriately for the group.

Feel free to email me via linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/theimer

Testimonial:

“We invited Andy Theimer to speak at our Business to Business Networking Night on the topic of social media marketing, and we could not have been more pleased with his presentation.  Andy presented to a group of about 30 alumni on the topic, “Getting Things Done with Social Media,” and it was clear from his presentation that he had done research into the attendees, their websites and their businesses and incorporated an attentiveness to their specific situations into his presentation.  His presentation was energetic, clear and well-organized, and not only were attendees taking notes during the presentation, but they also asked lots of questions afterwards and kept Andy answering questions well past his presentation, and even the end time of the event! Thank you for recommending him to us.”

Popularity: 11% [?]

I know it’s not quite morning yet but this great comic gives you some coffee pot fodder for Thursday morning.  Your friends will be amazed when you tell them that coffee makes goats frisky!

Check it out!

15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee – The Oatmeal

Popularity: 10% [?]

If you’ve ever struggled to think of a clever way to meet that professional woman sitting next to you at Starbucks I may have stumbled upon a solution for you, offer her free WIFI.

A new application from Connectify allows anyone with a Windows 7 computer to share their internet connection with the people around them.  That’s right if you’re connected to a network you can hook your friends (and potentially new friends) up with no cost internet.

Here’s 4 quick steps to make it happen:

• Be running Windows 7, if you don’t have it already, go get it -it’s awesome!
• Have the Connectify application installed
• Be connected to Starbuck’s wireless network.
• Let the pretty girl two tables back know that she can connect to the Internet with the following details:
• Connect to network:<your name>
• Password: <you phone number>

Let me know how it works!

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I was discussing Neil Patrick Harris this morning and the topic of his Dr. Horrible Musical came up.  I got to thinking that I never added this to Isawtoday and felt it deserved even a latent inclusion.

The link

Has anyone done a mini-musical like this before?  This is fantastic!

Popularity: 7% [?]

Many of you may have noticed that there was a significant gap in activity from May through August.  During this time I took a trip to Africa to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and safari out in the Ngorongoro crater.  I live blogged much of my climb to my kilimanjaro climb blog at www.andyonthemountain.com.  Since being back I’ve finally organized the trip and plugged in some amazing videos and pictures of the experience.  Also, I can’t say enough about the outfitter that I chose for my Kilimanjaro Climb . Erika and Lema from Serengeti Pride Safaris were amazing and made this 21 day trip awesome!

Now back to finding cool things to share with you all!

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I took the plunge and installed Windows 7 Ultimate RTM from MSDN last week.  For the most part I’m loving the new OS aside from Outlook 2007hanging occassionally and my sound dying after hibernation.  One annoyance that remains is that Windows enjoys rebooting after installing updates which for someone like me who rarely ever shuts down his computer is not a good thing.  So here is a modified version of a registry hack for xp and vista to prevent Windows update from rebooting your computer.

1. Press Windows Key and type regedit to launch the registry editor.

2. Locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Polices\Microsoft\Windows

3. In Windows 7 you will need to right click on the Windows folder and choose New -> Key

4. Name it WindowsUpdate

5. Now right-click on your newly created WindowsUpdate key and  choose new key again.

6. Name this new key AU

7. Look to the right-hand side of the registry editor and right-click and choose New-> 32bit Dword and name it NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers

8. Right-click on this new value and choose Modify, set the value to 1 and you’re all set!

Popularity: 7% [?]

I was reading through LinkedIn this morning and saw the following post:Is technology killing chivarlry?

A great commentary as I’m into the whole Fred Astaire, Jimmy Stewart style of being these days.

Popularity: 5% [?]