Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• Happy (Belated) 5th Birthday to Loosely Coupled

  I started blogging on January 29th, 2003 . We've been a little heads down trying to get Notches to launch and I completely forgot to write about this, but I've now been blogging for over five years. I talked last year about my motivations for blogging, and they definitely continue to hold true even if I've been somewhat inconsistent in my writing. Jeremy Miller has a great post about the virtues of blogging ( via Rob ), and I think I've covered all of them (except the whole getting fired thing). So far, I've written over 1,000 posts - some of them good, I think, and some of them trivial - which somehow amounts to a post every other day. Wow... really? Much of this has come in bursts and there have been dry spells, but that still amazes me. More importantly, there's been nearly as many comments. So, once again, thanks for listening and making this a worthwhile and rewarding experience. Posted Feb 23 2008, 02:11 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Personal, Blogging, Slashstar, Site News

• Radio Silence

  I'd like to apologize to all for the complete silence here over the past month or so. As some of you may know, I recently got married. Things were predictably busy leading up to the wedding and then we went on a wonderful honeymoon for 2 weeks in Italy (Capri and Positano). For those of you interested, you can view the photos from the wedding . (Unfortunately, Pictage requires free registration, but I will post the full images elsewhere once we get them). Cal Landau , our wedding photographer, took some amazing photos, don't you think? I also posted a few honeymoon pictures on Flickr and Picasaweb , but still need to sort through them. (We took nearly 2,000 photos!). In addition, we're nearing an initial public launch for Notches and have been in heads-down development mode the past few weeks. It's been a long time coming, but it will be exciting to be able to get the first pieces of our vision out there. You can expect to hear a lot more about what we're building here... Posted Nov 08 2007, 02:32 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Personal, Blogging

• Why I read (and write) blogs

  This is why I read (and write) blogs : Two kinds of people: A business blog reader (book reader, seminar go-er) asks, "how can I do what I do better?" Someone else says, "I'm doing fine, leave me alone." It's not about criticism or the avoidance thereof. It's a thirst for insight, for shortcuts and for results. If you're not making progress, you're moving backwards... Posted Feb 28 2007, 01:31 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Personal, Blogging

• Super Bowl Pool for Charity

  Charlie set up a Super Bowl Pool with the winnings to be donated to charity . The boxes are $10 each and the payout is fairly typical - with the prize going to a charity of your choice. If I win, the prize will be going to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the same organization that my sister ran a marathon for back in early 2005. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education, and patient services. The Society's mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. Update : The pool has now been closed with 50 boxes sold. We didn't reach the goal of filling all 100 boxes, but the pool will raise $500 for charity. Enjoy the game! Posted Feb 02 2007, 06:53 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Sports, Personal, Blogging

• Loosely Coupled's Fourth Anniversary

  I started this blog four years ago . I often find it difficult to explain why I started writing here in the first place and why I continue to write given my hectic schedule. I think John sums up my personal experience with blogging perfectly . ( via Dennis ). My personal arc (over 5 years of blogging) is as follows: reluctantly started blogging. found I enjoyed it. was ranked for a bit of time in the top 100 blogs. This was nice. It was also nice to have a high Google rank. That partly faded because a) I didn't care about it and b) the level of competition rose quickly. found something more useful. An open online identity (my name is on the blog) yielded work, contacts, and recognition that anonymity doesn't provide. That benefit doesn't require a high ranking to accomplish. found that the blog is as much for me as anyone else. enjoy the response that other people have to my thinking. As long as there a few fellow travelers out there with me, that is reason enough to write. I may have skipped... Posted Jan 29 2007, 07:15 AM by Tim with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Personal, Blogging

• Buzzwords say all the wrong things

  As I've written in the past, I'm not a big fan of buzzwords because "they're vague, overbroad, ill-defined, and most of all trivialize what is really going on in the first place." Matt at 37Signals says there might be other reasons to avoid buzzwords . These buzzwords are often a mask. People who use them are covering up their ideas — or the lack thereof. They are overcompensating. They don’t have anything substantial to say so they try to use impressive sounding words instead. But people who abuse buzzwords don’t sound smart. They sound like they are trying to sound smart. Big difference. It's easy to use buzzwords and important-sounding words to gloss over your point when you don't really understand what you're talking about. It's a lot harder to be clear and concise. Aim for the latter. (Speaking of which, I'd recommend Plain Language for Lawyers , even if you're not a lawyer or law student). Posted Oct 10 2006, 12:23 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Personal, Web 2.0, Innovation, Marketing, Blogging, Recommendations