TobiasVerhoog.com » What I Read

An Insider’s View of the City of London, a Banking Blog

Tobias Verhoog — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 10:45:27 +0000

Joris Luyendijk, a Dutch journalist and author has started an interesting blog for the website of the British newspaper the Guardian. On it he tries to figure out how the banking business works and what makes people in the financial sector tick.

For this he has moved to the City of London, its financial district and tries to speak with as many (mostly anonymous) insiders as he can find. And apparently quite a lot are willing to talk to him. His pitch to these people to appear on his blog is along the lines of “So you know bankers have a bad name, but you don’t see yourself as a bad person? Why don’t you explain why to me?”

This results in an interesting series of personal portraits of people who are active in the financial sector of London. One of the first things you notice, Luyendijk says in a Dutch television interview is that there is no such thing as the banker. These people all have very different jobs and personalities.

I personally find it very interesting to see what these people are doing (the insane working hours are the most baffling), but there are about 35 posts on the blog now and it’s not much more than a series of portraits yet. Luyendijk said one of the reasons he started this project is that he wants to start looking at the financial sector with a clean slate and wants to gather all kinds of information about it on the blog. This way any lay person can follow him in the journey of understanding the financial sector. This hasn’t happened that much yet, but he plans on continuing the blog for a long time (at least nine months) so I hope this will happen more in the future.

I think it’s a great initiative which will make us understand our own economy a but better and perhaps provide some insights in how the financial crisis came to be.

You can find the starting page of the blog here.

Some Comics on Life and a Bonus Video

Tobias Verhoog — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:19:20 +0000

Today I just happened to run into a couple of comics that are all worth looking at. For most people comics seem, just as animations, for kids. Of course, this isn’t true. The subject of a comic can be anything and the style can also vary widely. By choosing a more adult subject comics can be really thought provoking. Alright, I’ve said enough here are some interesting comics with a bonus animated video at the end.

Click the image below for a larger version.

Source on Deviantart

Click the image below for a larger version.

Source on Deviantart

Finally. below, an animated short film, more on death than life but I think you can make up for yourself what it’s really about. Leave your thoughts in the comments.

I would advise to watch the film on Youtube, fullscreen and in hi-res.

The Expiration Date of a Dedicated Video Device Such as the Flip Camera

Tobias Verhoog — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 20:47:57 +0000

Some interesting points about the expiration date of the Flip camera, the portable and easy videocamera. Of course from the start when the Flip camera arrived a couple of years ago the first thing that came to mind was that as soon as mobile phones are powerful enough, the Flip will have lost any reason fro existence.

Christopher Breen of Macworld.com has written a clear piece about this.
The most important point in it is that mobile phones don’t really need to be as good as the Flip to be able to push it out of the market, because convenience is also a factor. From a geek’s perspective the Flip is a cool device that falls in between a better digital videocamera and a mobile phone. But from a user’s point of view, why would you take a Flip if you already have a iPhone for all the ad hoc stuff while you bring a better camera when you know something worth filming is going to happen.

So as far as I’m concerned the fact that Cisco is stopping the Flip is not the remarkable thing, but the fact that they paid $590 million for Flip only two years ago is.

(The Flip isn’t selling that bad currently by the way. Some more interesting insight on why it’s not the fault of the iPhone and other smartphones the Flip died by David Pogue at NYTimes.com)

Via Daring Fireball

F.lux Adjusts the Color of Your Screen for a Better Viewing Experience

Tobias Verhoog — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:03:40 +0000

We are looking at screens almost 24×7 these days. At least I am. When I wake up I turn on my phone and read some news on the little screen. After the shower I watch the news on the TV followed later by looking at the phone again while I commute. Then, as a “screenworker” my day is spent looking at a PC screen, alternated by looking at my laptop. In the evening there’s more computer, TV and phone screen watching.

Some experts believe that looking at these screens is not just kind of boring, but also bad for our sleeping rhythm. You’re essentially looking into a lamp all day. We humans are used to only seeing light when the sun is up. When it gets darker melatonin is released in our body, telling our brain that it becomes time to sleep. When it never really gets dark our bodies never really prepare for sleep. That’s why it’s a good idea to give your eyes a rest before going to bed. Another common tip is to actually see some sunlight during the day, so go out during your break and get some daylight.

F.lux tries to help in this process. You install it on your computer and it adapts the color of the screen a little bit to match the time of day. So in the night it’s little darker and has a orange tint. Your eyes become used to it pretty soon.

I’m not sure if it actually works but your eyes feel more relaxed right away. Try it out. There are many satisfied users of this free software and it’s regularly recommended to me.

Check it out on http://stereopsis.com/flux/

Finding a Good Book Sharing App on Facebook

Tobias Verhoog — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 13:36:35 +0000

What’s the point of reading books (or accomplishing anything for that matter) if you can’t share it on Facebook? So I went looking for what the best Facebook app is to store the books that I have read and want to read to show to my friends. I did a quick search on Google (since the app search in Facebook is pretty useless. You can search for “books” but it lists 15 pages of apps unsorted) and I found the following apps to be most often mentioned: weRead, Visual Bookshelf and GoodReads.

After a short comparison I went with Goodreads. Honestly only based on the number of people using it. I could not really compare on functionality because all the aforementioned apps claim similar features: track what you have read, want to read and what your friends are reading. So I guess the most important criterion for a Facebook app is how many friends and other people are using it.

I have to be honest and tell you that I actually don’t have a clue how Goodread or the other apps are doing what they claim. As always I am totally confused by Facebook and its structure. This leaves me with many questions after “installing” (allowing the app to access all your personal data) Goodreads. Can only people who are also using Goodreads see my books? Will a message be posted when I have read a book? Will it show on my profile that I am reading a book? I was even confused when trying to find out more information about these apps, because sometimes you’re on the “Page” of a service and sometimes you’re on the “app page” (which even more confusing has a “go to app” button)

Perhaps I need a Facebook app that can explain how Facebook works?

The iPad 2 Magnetic Smart Cover

Tobias Verhoog — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 00:28:37 +0000

Regardless of what you think of the iPad and its successor number two, the new magnetic smart cover looks awesome. I’ve seen iPad owners carry around all kinds of small and large covers, cases and bags and similarly they think of all kinds of ways to make the iPad stand up to type on it and watch a video. I don’t like to carry around a cover or case for my smartphone and would probably not carry around anything for an iPad. What’s the point of having a beautiful device if you’re going to wrap it in some cheap plastic? This smart cover solves this problem beautifully:

If you’re curious about my other thoughts on the iPad 2, then I refer you to this video with Charlie Brooker:

Encouraging New Survey Results on Social Business Software

Tobias Verhoog — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:03:17 +0000

Jive software, one of the social software vendors, has done a survey under its customers about the benefits of using social software.The survey has been executed by an unnamed independent research company. Some details have been given about the survey but not many. Since the results are being published by the vendor and the fact that they’re quite positive overall makes you want to know more about this research, but as is often the case you only receive the results.

I have displayed the results below. The survey was both about internal use of social business tools among colleagues as external social software towards the customer.

Internal

39% increase in employee connectedness.
25% decrease in onboarding time.
29% increase in executive communication.
34% decrease in time to find information and experts.
27% reduction in email sent.
26% decrease in time needed for meetings.
27% decrease in duplicated tasks.
32% increase in ideas generated within the company.
23% increase in win rate.
32% decrease in time to find answers.
37% increase in project collaboration and productivity.
30% increase in employee satisfaction.
24% decrease in need for travel.

External

42% increase in communication with customers.
28% decrease in support calls.
33% increase in customer satisfaction.
31% increase in customer retention.
34% increase in feedback and ideas from customers.
34% increase in brand awareness.
27% increase in new customer sales.
27% increase in existing customer sales
34% increase in web site traffic from existing customers.
32% increase in web site traffic from new customers.
26% increase in web site sales.
31% increase in brand advocates.
33% increase in clicks from Google searches.
27% increase in channel sales effectiveness.
26% decrease in channel support costs.

These variables are also not really properly defined (employee connectedness?), but the main idea of the survey was to ask employees of companies who have bought and used Jive software how they thought these variables have changed. This of course makes the results a perception of these respondents and therefore subjective. This is not necessarily a bad thing but important to keep in mind.

Dion Hinchcliffe has also criticized this survey because of this, but also argued that if you view multiple of these surveys there are trends visible.

The ones he sees popping up in multiple surveys and researches are:

Workers can find the information and people they need faster with social tools.
Communication overhead in legacy platforms shrinks when social tools are deployed.
There is a correlation between increased marketshare and socially networked organizations (McKinsey Research).

So for now the status of Enterprise 2.0 remains unchanged. Because IT purchases are frequently involved a cost-benefit analysis needs to be made before investing in social software. It is however still difficult to provide clear-cut claims on ROI, although much anecdotal and case study evidence can be provided that social software is an investment that pays off. In this evidence a positive trend can be seen.

Via Dion Hinchcliffe, Oliver Marks and Jive.

The PDF with Jive’s survey results can be downloaded here.

Improving Your Online Reading with Readability (Redux)

Tobias Verhoog — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:47:43 +0000

When you read a lot of things online, you run into some inconveniences pretty soon. First of all reading from a screen just isn’t ideal. I’m not sure what it is, the angle, the light or something else, but it’s more tiring and slower than reading from paper. I also do quite some reading on my smartphone, especially in mobile Google Reader and find it more comfortable to be able to change the viewing angle of the screen (looking down instead of horizontal).

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to try out many e-readers yet to see if they are more convenient. I can really imagine that a true e-reader, with e-ink and without backlight can be easier to read. I did hold an iPad last week and thought it was nice, but you’re still looking into a light and it’s also quite heavy for reading for longer periods of time while holding it with one hand.

Still there’s much to read online. Many of us read a lot online, blogs, articles, forums or informational and news sites. With all the flashing advertising and strange design choices of some websites (light grey text on a white background, really?) it doesn’t get easier to read online. Now Readability is a plug-in from Arc90 in the form of a bookmarklet for Firefox and Safari or an extension for Google Chrome. It takes the text from a webpage (and does a good job of locating just the main text) and displays that on screen without any other disturbances. To install go to this page. You can choose the font, size and whether you want black on white or white on black text. Then drag the bookmarklet button to your bookmarks or your bookmarks bar. Then click on the button anytime you are reading something, such as this webpage.

It greatly increases the readability of any webpage or blog, it also works with an online RSS reader such as Google Reader. I’ve also used ad-blockers. They also improve your reading experience by removing distractions, but not as much as Readability because it leaves the text how it is. And it’s debatable whether it’s morally justified to remove ads, while they pay for the writer and creator of the page. With Readability you first see the regular page with ads and then create a better to read page to do some real reading. Let me know if you have tried it and what other solutions you know for better reading online (short of printing the internet).

To install on Firefox or Safari go here, or to install the extension Readability Redux (which does the same) in Google Chrome go here.

WordPress 3.0 is here: Thelonious

Tobias Verhoog — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:11:07 +0000

For software you could say: it’s not important how good it is it, it’s important how fast it is updated. These are all called the iterations of improving software and show how much effort a developer is putting into it’s product. WordPress has it both. The product is already very good, full featured and polished, but it’s also getting better fast. They have just released version 3.0. No wonder it’s the most used blogging and website content management system around. And all that open source and for the cost of zero. I believe they have a very smart business model by providing the software for free to download (and install on your own server, as I have done) or using their server and signing up at WordPress.com. When you use their server the basic model is free but if you want more speed or customization you have to pay extra, and that’s how they make their money.

Exactly because Worpdress is now so full featured and polished, the development team is going to take a development cycle of three months off. Not to sit at the beach and look at their final product, but to improve all the things around the platform, such as the showcase, Codex, forums, profiles, update and compatibility APIs, theme directory, plugin directory, mailing lists, core plugins, wordcamp.org… Sounds like a smart move to me.

I’ve just updated to 3.0 which all went smoothly and am looking at the backside of Thelonious right now (all their updates are named after jazz legends). It looks very similar, but just a little cleaner and fresher. Other improvements are the updated default theme and the incorporation of WordPress MU (Multi User) into the regular version, which lets you administrate multiple sites. For more information on the new version check out their video below.

Via Techcrunch

Create a News Paper Style Overview from Links of Your Twitter Friends

Tobias Verhoog — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:39:16 +0000

Perhaps you know and use Feedly, a sort of alternative interface for Google reader, which displays your feeds in a cool way that looks a little like a newspaper. But to use Feedly you have a Gogle Reader account and fill it with interesting feeds. Feedly does a good job in showing you the most interesting things from those feeds, but it still costs quite some time and effort to shape your collection of news sources. Of course this also adds to the customizability and that’s why I use Feedly almost every day. If you like reading news online I suggest you check it out.

If you already have a twitter account with a group of friends you have hand picked, then you probably also enjoy reading the links they’ve sent. Now Twittertim.es works really easily in managing and displaying the links from your friends. It’s a really cool way to see what is hot with your twitter friends right now. The only thing you have to do is log in with your twitter account and Twittertim.es goes crunching. Interestingly this takes about an hour, but then they have made a personal page for you. What you see is a page with stories which are linked to by your friends, or your friends’ friends. Where Feedly uses Google Reader shared item counts to rank news, Twittertim.es uses the number of times your friends posted something on their twitter accounts.

Another cool features is that you can view someone else’s page. Mine can be found on twittertim.es/tobiasverhoog. So you will not see a page with links by me there, but links from my twitter friends. Go to their homepage to also see a couple of example pages from some better known internet journalists such as Tim O’Reilly or Jeff Jarvis. You can also watch a video tour there.

Finally, pages by Media Sources and pages based on Twitter Lists are nice ways to explore more news sources. View a page of Wired or The New York Times or one based on links of the twitter list “Tech News People” curated by Robert Scoble. You don’t need to first make you own page to view these pages.

It’s clear that it’s very interesting to view news based on what your friends are reading and sharing on their twitter accounts. It’s funny that in the screenshot I just took for this article the piece on the new version of Digg is on top, because I think this is what news aggregators such as Digg and also Feedly need. Recommended news from your friends, added up by popularity and displayed in a convenient and clear way.