Comment Away, My Friends!

A reader asked me why commenting was not possible here.

The short answer was "Isn't it?" That's not really an answer; that's a question.

Feedback is essential for anything. And for TheHackerCIO, blog-readers are the end-user. So please let me know if there are problems! I thought it was my lack of familiarity with Google+ and that my readers likewise were not on G+ which had kept the commenting down.

But after the query, I poked around a bit deep in the bowels of the settings, and discovered that disabling the Google+ commenting led to a much easier comment link at the bottom of each posting.

So, thanks to that Biotech-Startup cross-reader who made me aware of the issue! (It wasn't even an IT-techie!)

And ... let's get interactive.

Let's call this unofficially, an RFC.

Laughing, I Remain,

TheHackerCIO

Al Fresco Thought

Blogs of TheHackerCIO are done Al Fresco.

Painters -- and I'll seize this word-moment to recommend most highly Paul Graham's Hackers & Painters -- are both challenged and inspired by working on "Frescos," a medium that dries very quickly. Plaster is laid down first and immediately begins drying. Then the paint is applied to the plaster, so that the final product is a beautiful re-creation of some aspect of reality. But you gotta be quick. Otherwise the plaster will dry and you're screwed. I've put an example of a fresh, lively, Fresco of two girls at the lead of this posting.

A blog is a similar medium, in my opinion. It needs to be executed quickly, without over-thinking the topic of interest. It's almost like a core dump showing the current state of thinking about a particular aspect of technology. And if you're not quick enough, you're screwed.

And the great thing is you don't even need to know hexadecimal to read my blog!

Part of the reason why TheHackerCIO is so entertaining is that he works very rapidly, in an al fresco style, so that everything remains very fresh. No cliches here. No PC. But also, nothing is carefully, systematically thought out. It gets written quickly, another once over to ensure almost no typos, and out it goes to publication. That's my blog methodology.

For the carefully crafted, systematically worked out writing, you have to go to the essays.

But, as you know, those are still forthcoming .... and only subscribers will get access to them for the first year. After a year,  a selection of essays will become available on this link.

They will be awesome,  though!

I Remain,

TheHackerCIO

Thumbs Up From Early Feedback

My colleague with a newborn celebrated the little one's first month "birthday," which is something I never did with my children.  But, since this is a brainchild, I see no reason not to be overly doting and celebrate the first month of TheHackerCIO's blog!

As of 3:01pm, it's been a month!

Much has been accomplished already.

A reasonably varied sampling of content is now available: of interest to CIO types, entrepreneurs, startups, and hackers.

The overall flavor of TheHackerCIO is now well established.

It's time to think about promoting TheHackerCIO.

Unsurprisingly, the general interest postings are the most popular. In order from most to less:

1. Never Hire the Greatest Scientist the World Has Ever Known
2. Why Hackers Hate Headhunters and its followup posting: An "Attractive" Salary 
3. The ever popular, and extraordinarily brief, Who is TheHackerCIO?
4. My favorite: Why the CIO Must Also Be a Hacker, which further explains #3 above.

The first week of this blog's life virtually no-one knew about it. It was a question of providing writing samples. From the second week on, I notified those with whom I am "LinkedIn," and a few selected technical Meetup and Forums which I attend.

It is gratifying that I have received over  2114 Pageviews -- that's an average of over 70 pageviews/day. Interestingly, these come from Malta, France, the UK, China, Portugal, Canada, and Australia. I didn't expect that.

Early reviewers of my blog are giving me a "thumbs up."

CIO-types, Hackers, and Entrepreneurs  are all very positive. If, as the example I excerpted below, I have a "great blog," am worthy of promotion, answer the questions people want to ask, and have good reviews of books -- then I have accomplished exactly what I set out to do, and then some. Which doesn't surprise TheHackerCIO, at all.

Representative examples to support my claim ...

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1. Ilya Pozin, Serial Entrepreneur, columnist for Forbes, & Inc. Magazine:

James -

Great blog! If you have an article that you post that you feel is a good fit for my followers, I'll be more than glad to promote it on LinkedIn and Twitter!

<<snip>>

Ilya Pozin

Founder and CEO, Open Me (coming soon!)

Founder, Ciplex a web marketing agency

Columnist, Inc., Forbes, & LinkedIn

Inc. 30 Under 30

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2. A Director of IT

Hi James,

I like your blog. You have a unique background so what you say cuts across many aspects of technology. You answer the questions I want to ask.

Regards,
Stephen

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3. A Geeky Book Club Colleague:

 George ... <name snipped>  wrote:


<<snip>>

Anyway, I thought the part about avoiding the 404 error with the 1x1 blank pixel was cool. Is this a 404 that actually appears on their screen?  I have never seen that.

Good review of the performance book (which I am skipping).

Cheers!   George 

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Many thanks to my regular readers, and I intend to continue producing interesting postings for your reading pleasure. Because your reading pleasure is my writing pleasure!

I Remain,

TheHackerCIO