drew olanoff dot com.

Sharing Is For Everyone! ReadBurner Now Includes Netvibes

Tue, 13 May 2008 15:12:28 -0400

Sharing Is For Everyone! ReadBurner Now Includes Netvibes

Thank goodness someone broke this down. Meatloaf is somewhere...

Tue, 13 May 2008 10:23:28 -0400

Thank goodness someone broke this down. Meatloaf is somewhere going “YES, it’s about time!”

(via schmidtultra)

Thank Goodness I got "The Nerve."

Sun, 11 May 2008 23:15:00 -0400

Though Ive tried before to tell her
Of the feelings I have for her in my heart
Every time that I come near her
I just lose my nerve
As Ive done from the start

Every little thing she does is magic
Everything she do just turns me on
Even though my life before was tragic
Now I know my love for her goes on

Do I have to tell the story
Of a thousand rainy days since we first met
Its a big enough umbrella
But its always me that ends up getting wet

Every little thing she does is magic
Everything she do just turns me on
Even though my life before was tragic
Now I know my love for her goes on

I resolve to call her up a thousand times a day
And ask her if shell marry me in some old fashioned way
But my silent fears have gripped me
Long before I reach the phone
Long before my tongue has tripped me
Must I always be alone?

Every little thing she does is magic
Everything she do just turns me on
Even though my life before was tragic
Now I know my love for her goes on

(Every Little Thing She Does is Magic - The Police)

Happy Mothers Day!!!! Thank you for embracing me as I am. I...

Sun, 11 May 2008 09:03:00 -0400

Happy Mothers Day!!!! Thank you for embracing me as I am. I know it’s not easy, but I mean well :)

Too bad you didn’t decide to have more kids. I would have had someone to clean and fix stuff for me. Oh well, next time.

Oh and thanks for supporting my legal name change to Awesomesauce. Mama Awesomesauce has a nice ring to it, aye?

scriggity sister scandal! (SSS!)

Sun, 11 May 2008 02:34:38 -0400

scriggity sister scandal! (SSS!): watch it unfold.

scriggity + cheetos = EPIC PLAGUE FAIL!

Sat, 10 May 2008 15:58:29 -0400

scriggity + cheetos = EPIC PLAGUE FAIL!

Weekend At Barry's (Cafe)

Sat, 10 May 2008 10:20:20 -0400

This is partly inspired by Alex’s self documented near burnout situation. I’ve been there, buddy. Unplug and do it now. I know better than anyone that you have to work, and work a lot. It’s how we do. But there comes a point where you have to stop the madness.

That’s where Barry comes in.

As you may know, I recently moved to a new place. Up the street is a cool spot called Barry’s Cafe. It’s really new, but the people are really nice and awesome. They have good coffee, the walls are orange, and it’s called Barry’s. My dad’s name is Barry. Rockin. They have breakfast sandwiches, hoagies, and muffins too. Paninis are coming soon! You can even follow them on twitter: barryscafe

So every weekend, lets get together for a BREAKfast. Hang out, chill out. Bring girlfriends, boyfriends, dogs, cats, family members, or just yourself. There’s wifi here (if someone wants to donate a router), but lets just talk about normal every day stuff. I need it, and so do you.

It’s in Delco, which is the Philly suburbs. It’s about 15-20 minutes away via train from Philly, and it’s 2 steps from the Glenolden train station on the R2 line. Easy peasy.

Who: Me, Barry, and YOU!

What: Weekend At Barry’s

Where: Barry’s Cafe, Inc. at 9 East Glenolden Ave. Glenolden, PA 19036

When: Saturday at Noon? Sunday? Comment here to suggest a day and time. We’ll start in say, 2 weeks? Maybe for an hour or two, or whatever you like!

Why: Because, we need to check ourselves before we wreck ourselves. And coffee is good.

Also, Barry is going to host local singers with minimal minimal cover charges (if any, let us know what you think!) for nights of chillaxin every so often.

I’m not asking you to bag out on your local bars and hangouts, but lets get away for a bit.

ABC, BVDs, The East Coast Family

Sat, 10 May 2008 00:00:52 -0400

Ruth: I keep seeing your new (twitter) avatar out of corner of my eye as pair of BVDs! LOL, did I say your face looks like underwear? No, just the drawing!
Me: No, you totally said my face looks like underwear. May i publish this? I'm laughing my ass off!

An oldie but goodie. Take that Apple.

Fri, 09 May 2008 22:34:46 -0400

An oldie but goodie.

Take that Apple.

Twitter Local - Philly

Fri, 09 May 2008 22:13:08 -0400

Twitter Local - Philly

(photo by whitney hart)

Fri, 09 May 2008 08:51:42 -0400

(photo by whitney hart)

Ok, that's it. The next time I hear the word "User"...

Fri, 09 May 2008 08:32:00 -0400

As I’ve mentioned a few times, one of the biggest things that bothers me about companies/startups/big fancy tech people is how they refer to folks as “users”.

“We have 1,000,000 users”, as if the people who come to their site are crackheads.

I’m ending this once and for all. The word we should use is “guest”. “ReadBurner averages XXXXXX guests a day”. “Our guestbase is growing and growing since March”.

Users, User, Userbase, whatever. Lets let it go. It’s 2008. Lets show some respect to the people who are coming to the things we work hard on.

When someone knocks on my door, comes in and chills out, do I call them a user at my house? I don’t think I’ve ever twittered “I have 5 users at my house tonight, woohooo!”

At my wedding, I’m going to have 200 guests. Not 200 users.

People are guests on our sites, apps, and platforms. Lets not only treat them as such, but refer to them as such. We’re lucky to have them stay a while.

Enough is enough, this isn’t 1995 anymore.

Remember those people called people?

Thu, 08 May 2008 09:14:00 -0400

I’ve watched the landscape of the internet change over the past years. Mostly in good ways. Great ways in fact. However, there are still some things that burn my ass.

The first glaring thing is that we have all of these tools to connect with people. FriendFeed, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Jaiku, DoppleGanger, BabbelBoomy, FruitNNutz, Friendfinderfeedster. Yknow the drill. So we have all of these tools, everyone signs up for them in our web circle. No big deal right?

Yeah, it’s a problem. Why? Because 90% of the people who use these tools the MOST, don’t know anything about how to deal with people. They don’t know how to listen properly or speak to and treat someone with respect. I’ve seen this happen time and time again via email and IM conversations..and most recently, in person. Our group lacks some skills on that front.

So why are we spending so much time playing with and building these platforms?

Beats me.

How does Robert Scoble talk to 343,342,212 people on Twitter? I have no idea.

I would rather have 10-20 close people that I converse with on a regular basis, than constant access to passively ignore and disrespect 30,000.

But hey, that’s just me.

Facebook doesn’t have a built in Asshat-fixerator. It’s not an app. It can’t be built in PHP, it’s not in flash. It’s inside of you.

Lets focus on that before we create yet another site where everyone and their brother invites me to join.

Singing Skills. Is what I don’t got. We had a blast...

Wed, 07 May 2008 21:13:51 -0400

Singing Skills. Is what I don’t got.

We had a blast though, poor Rachel got drowned out by my loud mouth.

If I only had winscp

Tue, 06 May 2008 11:27:00 -0400

AD: he's the scarecrow
if i only had ... a brain
Me: LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
AD: or winscp

Twitter Request Live (Karaoke) is Tomorrow

Mon, 05 May 2008 22:16:00 -0400

It’s that time again, for the second time.

Twitter Request Live. Indy Hall does Karaoke at National Mechanics and you send your requests.

This time you can do it directly through twitter by @ messaging http://twitter.com/requestlive

9pm ET tomorrow (Tuesday). Be ready.

Sponsor Mickispeedia! (please!)

Mon, 05 May 2008 17:15:00 -0400

Sponsor Mickispeedia! (please!):

It's all about the customa, whut!

Mon, 05 May 2008 08:49:43 -0400

I’ll keep this as short as possible.

In any business, web or otherwise…you live and die by your customer service. Even if you don’t sell a product, you have customers, consumers, or people as I like to refer to them. I hate the phrase “users”. A lot. I piss techie people off with that. Fuck em.

Anyways. The people that use your whateveryouhave are your lifeblood. Keeping them happy, informed, interested, and content should be your #1 focus.

Already with ReadBurner, a lot of people who care are helping us. They test, they suggest, they give honest feedback. Some of it hurts my gut, but in that good way.

Companies who don’t focus on the people are stupid and will fail.

Amazon. Great customer service. Win.

Comcast. Ass customer service. Lose.

I just went with RCN because Comcast killed me during a 2 hour livechat conversation. Even Frank the Comcast Twitter guy gave up on me.

ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS START NEW SERVICE AND GIVE THEM MONEY.

See what I’m saying?

Customer service reps are usually paid the lowest, and have high turnover rates. I can answer why the high turnover…it’s a tough job, and the pay is suck.

Why not pay customer service folks more money, and treat it like a skill, rather than as a janitorial like need? Janitors rock by the way.

Treating a person with respect, listening to them, and taking their feedback and helping them should be your #1 focus. If you don’t. You will fail. Comcast will eventually fail. They’re just lucky because they’re a monopoly. The chicken is coming home to roost for them.

Take care of the people, and the rest will take care of itself.

our new apartment.

Sun, 04 May 2008 11:36:03 -0400

our new apartment.

Ballmers Letter to Microsoft Employees (The Short Short Version)

Sun, 04 May 2008 10:19:11 -0400

Dear Everyone.

Fuck Yahoo.

DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS!