Mike Crowl

Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND


Joined December 25th 2006

Number of Posts:
630

Number of Comments:
424

Karma:
10



About Me
I've been a journal writer and a blogger for several years - on and off. I've also published articles in 'real' newspapers and magazines, and am working on doing more publishing in the e world.

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Recent Posts

Twitter Business

November 7th 2009 07:57
I haven't written much on here recently because I'm rehearsing for a play, and that always chews up some of my blogging time.

However, I came across an article in the Harvard Business online site the other day about the advantages of Twitter for businesses, which led me to the Twitter page: Twitter 101 for Businesses. . This has some very helpful information on it, and businesses would be well advised to read it. In fact, some of what they're discussing relates to a book I've been reading on and off - What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis. In this book, Jarvis tries to reverse-engineer the success of the fastest growing company in the history of the world, the one company that truly understands how to succeed in the internet age, and then take those lessons and apply them to a number of industries, companies, and institutions, from carmakers to restaurants to universities to government.

He does it pretty well. But one thing he discusses early in the piece is how the Dell Computer Company nearly came a cropper because they failed to pay attention to the bloggers. The latter were complaining about the poor and offhand service received by Dell users, and the groundswell quickly reached epidemic proportions - as far as Dell was concerned. Once they cottoned on to the way to do business in the new world of the Internet, they had a huge turnaround in terms of positive feedback. It's a kind of online backup, if you'll pardon the pun.

That's what Twitter 101 is talking about too. They state: If you run a search for your brand, you may find people posting messages about how happy they are riding your bikes in the French Alps—giving you a chance to share tips about cyclist-friendly cafes along their route.

Others may post minor equipment complaints or desired features that they would never bother to contact you about—providing you with invaluable customer feedback that you can respond to right away or use for future planning. Still others may twitter about serious problems with your bikes—letting you offer customer service that can turn around a bad situation.


These are the sorts of things Dell discovered it could glean from the Net, and has been doing successfully in recent years.

When Twitter mentioned the word, 'search,' of course I immediately went looking for my name in their search engine. I mean, what else does one do? Yet again I discovered how many people use the word crowl when they mean crawl. On a single page of Twitter search results I found the following:

Going to crowl under my COVERS into my BED . ... and nap before ii start my DAY

A whole swarm of ants will crowl Your site

Omg dis bitch jus burped while im sittin here eatin ......UGH !!!! That makes mi skin crowl [this person needs to grow up, I think, as well as learn to spell!]

*Low crowl emanating from cooker in your direction* [don't ask me what that means - were they trying to write 'growl'?]

I heard the crowl of the jaguar. Is this a good omen? [Yup, looks like 'crowl' gets used for 'growl' too.]

Sad, isn't it.


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Free Health Care

October 29th 2009 08:57
For several years now, a friend of mine called John Arnold (he's actually a doctor, but we don't let that come between us) and I have been getting together about once a week to chew the fat.

We started out on this journey when I was still working at the bookshop, and could take time off in the morning for an hour-long tea-break. John and I used to meet in a cafe out in South Dunedin (where his medical practice is) and at first the purpose was for me to take him through a discipleship course. He'd not long become a Christian.

After we'd got through the course, we decided to keep meeting, since we enjoyed each other's company. We eventually moved from the South Dunedin cafe to one in town; I can't quite remember why that came about, but John was able to scoot into the city and we met at a cafe/restaurant across the road from the shop when it was in Stuart St.
servants health centre


And then most recently, since I got a job with the Presbyterians and haven't had quite such flexible hours as I had at the shop, we've been getting together for lunch at the Orange Cafe, which is handy for me - though not quite so much for John.

Anyway, all of this is a lead-up to the fact that John's face appears on the front of the weekly freebie paper this week, with a report about how his Health Centre is going to open before the end of the year...all things being equal. The nice thing about the Servants Health Centre's location is that it's within spitting distance of where I work, and not being ones for going out for a night on the tiles, it's likely we'll continue to meet for lunch - as long as the new arrangements don't preclude it.

Not that I'll be going to see John as my doctor; the aim of the clinic is that people who can't afford health care will be able to go there for free. Yup, I said the word, 'free.'

John's been concerned for some time that there are people in the city who can't get the health care they need because it's out of reach of their minimal incomes, and so, along with some other like-minded people, he's been conceiving this idea of a free health centre. I've been party to the ups and downs and woes and joys of this process, and it's exciting to see it finally coming to fruition.

Now pretty much all he's waiting on is some bureaucratic paper-stamping and he'll be off.

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FTC's new rules

October 20th 2009 18:59
I'm assuming here in New Zealand the new FTC rules about declaring when you're being paid to promote an item in your blog don't apply. Unless suddenly everything the US does applies everywhere else...!

One Virginia Smith gave a good overview of the situation in a recent email that I was sent - you can find a web version of it here.

Smith focuses mostly on books and book reviews, but obviously the rules could apply to any sort of product, service and so on, like acne treatment.

Here's her summary of the rules:

* If you received a free copy of a book in return for a promise to post a blurb or review, you should include a simple statement to that effect.
* If you have been paid to write the review, you need to disclose that fact clearly. (And while you’re at it, can you let me know who’s paying you, so I can get on the list?)
* Though this situation isn’t likely to come up in a book review, the FTC ruling mandates a clear statement when results aren’t typical. Most of the onus is placed on the company who manufactures the product, not the reviewer. However, you may want to get legal advice before making a claim such as, “I read this diet book and lost 50 pounds in one week.”
* I’ve seen indications in the FTC’s ruling that companies who provide free products to reviewers will now be required to monitor those reviews. So be aware that the publisher or publicist who sent you the free book will be reading your review. (They’ll probably be looking for things like atypical results, mentioned in the previous point.)
* If you paid for the book you’re reviewing, you are under no constraints at all.


She notes that you should still read the rules themselves, if you really want to be sure, but otherwise, most ordinary every day bloggers will be okay.


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Chatting a little

October 19th 2009 07:56
Someone on Twitter pointed me towards an interesting blog post by David Mullen, in which the latter writes about five ways in which Twitter makes you smarter.

One of these was that it makes you be concise - in fact there's a certain delight in getting to exactly 140 characters in a tweet. Mullen actually says Twitter will make you a better writer. Well, I guess that's possible considering that having the ability to refine your thoughts down to the basics has a certain value. It's not necessarily a sign of good writing, though, in my opinion. The good use of words, long or short, is a better criterion


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Scone and Sconce

October 14th 2009 08:29
Isn't it funny how some words survive that seem a little odd? Sconce is an example. It's a word used in relation to candles or lamps, and merely means a kind of holder. In fact if the examples on the Net are anything to go by candle sconces can mean a great variety of things of many varied designs. Check out the example in the picture, for instance.
bigso leaf wall sconce
It comes with the name Bigso Leaf Wall Sconce. Bigso is just as odd a word as sconce.

I always think 'sconce' is something to do with scones - those wonderful doughy things that are great with lashings of butter on them, and cheese mixed in them, or even dates (though dates come a good second to cheese in my opinion


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Quick as a Link!

October 14th 2009 08:12
While avoiding working on things on the computer I was supposed to be doing, and spending too much time on things I wasn't, I received a couple of emails.

One was from a guy in Canada who is the historian for a magazine called Chess Scotland. He'd been looking for something completely different and found a photo of my father and some dozen or more other chess players at a tournament in Australia. I'd posted the photo on my family blog, and then put a second post up after having tried to decipher my father's writing on the back of the photo, and list the people who were there


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Clutter !

October 9th 2009 08:29
This week at work I've been on my own in the office the whole time. It's been great: I've got rid of a whole pile of little jobs that had accumulated, and a good deal more on top. I had the time to concentrate on stuff that needed thinking about (especially when it came to thinking about figures and why they didn't balance). I enjoy working with the other two people, but it's also good just to have some time to focus without interruption!

cluttered office
One thing I haven't managed to do much with is the clutter. Ours is a great office for piles of cluttered paper. Usually we each have a fairly good idea what's on our desks, but it's not ideal. A lot of stuff could be filed away if we had time to do filing


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Staying the Course

September 30th 2009 08:33
Along with five other trainees, I began a course today to become a Supervisor. Not as in supervising people who are working under me, but as in supervising those who come to me for supervision.

Plainly I've learned a lot already


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E-book

September 27th 2009 07:06
When I managed OC Books, the Christian bookshop, there were several occasions when I had reason to investigate e-books, either because people asked about how to get them, or because I was interested in the possibility of the shop doing something in the e-book line.

More recently I've been doing some further research on the topic, because my boss is interested in the possibility of publishing an e-book, and even more, because I'm
digital examination
considering doing the same thing myself. (Whether the boss publishes his as a pure e-book, or as an online publication in real book format, we've yet to decide


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Squidoo/u Helps

September 25th 2009 08:12
Seth Godin tells companies that if their brand gets talked about negatively on the Net, there's nothing they can do about it.

Well, he doesn't quite say 'nothing,' but says that if they want to counteract the negativity, they can't insist that the negative stuff gets removed, they have to actually do the reverse: go positive - using the same social media (Twitter, Facebook and so on) - and also speak sensibly and seriously to the gainsayers


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Recent Comments

Comment by Mike Crowl
on Three strikes and you're out

September 4th 2009 21:56
I think there's an element of truth in it somewhere.....think of all the tangents it takes you off on. And if we can have pursed lips why can't we purse someone? Have you heard of bagged lips?

Comment by Mike Crowl
on Mesothelioma

July 28th 2009 20:39
Yes, it's not terribly well-publicised, although there were a batch of cases here in New Zealand a while ago. The thing seems to have died down since then.

Comment by Mike Crowl
on Twitter and mobiles and bureaucracy

July 28th 2009 20:39
Yeah, yeah, I know....

Yeah, yeah, I know....

(whoops!)

I went and got a copy of the Consumers' Guarantee Act booklet yesterday from the CAB....it certainly shows that the retailer should be careful about promising or not promising stuff. At the moment we're waiting on the other crowd, then we'll decide on the next step.

Comment by Mike Crowl
on Supplemental

July 27th 2009 08:28
Meant to say let me know how you get on with the trial by void, Charlie. I hope you come out of it 'normal' rather than having to go back to a catheter....

Comment by Mike Crowl
on Supplemental

July 26th 2009 18:57
Thanks for the info, Charlie. NZ is a bit different: you have to opt into private health care, and more and more people are doing it. This means you skip the long(er) waiting lists at the public hospitals, but the care isn't necessarily better, as far as I can tell (after hearing one particularly bad news story yesterday). Most of us rely on the public health system, which, while having its faults, especially in terms of speed of waiting lists for operations, still does the job pretty well - at least for the moment!
And yes, you were the person I was referring to...!

Comment by Mike Crowl
on Twitter continues to expand

July 4th 2009 00:52
Hmmm....by "older people" how old do you mean? Think there must be a few young people out there twittering, when I look at those who are!

Comment by Mike Crowl
on Batts and Borer

June 28th 2009 04:53

Comment by Mike Crowl
on Phariseeism

June 15th 2009 05:23
Hmmm...I hadn't thought of your church. It's worth considering. Since I wrote that, I've had an email from someone connected to the school who's fairly outraged as well, I think, and may well be able to do something about it.
We'll see how it pans out!

Comment by Mike Crowl
on Twibes??

June 10th 2009 09:36
No, I haven't. I considered it briefly yesterday, but soon thought that I really don't need another excuse to go checking out stuff on the Net!

Comment by Mike Crowl
on Coming to a natural end

May 31st 2009 01:04