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Mike Reynolds

Musings on DataPortability, Attention Profiling and Relevancy


EasyPHP + PEAR on Windows: Get PHP, MySQL, PHPMyAdmin and my tweak for getting PEAR to workApril 23

I’m not a system admin by any means, but I see clear value in getting PHP running on my laptop. Of course, getting MySQL and PHPMyAdmin working would help. Plus, while I don’t know much about these yet, I think it would be wise to have the MDB2 and PEAR classes installed. Please don’t ask me what these mean :)

This refers to EasyPHP 2.0b1 (which is current as of this writing), but hopefully applies to other versions too.  Better yet, maybe the kind EasyPHP people will update EasyPHP as such.  Of course, I make no guarantee that this will work for you.

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Install EasyPHP - it bundles PHP, MySQL and PHPMyAdmin. To install it, download it here. (For more info, visit EasyPHP.org.) Download and click on the *.exe file to install.
  2. EasyPHP comes packaged with a version of PEAR that doesn’t work. To fix it, right click here on go-pear.phar and save it to “C:\Program Files\EasyPHP 2.0b1\php5\PEAR” - overwriting the version that is already there.
  3. Now setup PEAR. Start up what I call the DOS prompt (not sure if this is still the name). Go to Start > Run and type in CMD. Then using DOS commands navigate over to “C:\Program

Gmail for iPhone NEEDS an ARCHIVE buttonFebruary 29
Steve Ballmer of Microsoft talks DataPortabilityFebruary 21

I want to say thank you to Steve Ballmer and Ray Ozzie of Microsoft for their commitment to DataPortability. Marshall Kirpatrick of ReadWriteWeb writes “the company’s new strategy shift towards Data Portability and Interoperability for their high volume products like Windows and Office.”

Allen Stern of CenterNetworks blogged the Microsoft event live. He cites Steve Ballmer as saying, “Data portability - we realize that different users have different needs but with this announcement we will let developers plugin different formats for saving documents.”

So what exactly is this all about? We already know that Microsoft has joined our grass roots organization DataPortability.org (where I’m a co-founder), but are they serious?

Yes, they are. Not that they are trying to be nice. Rather, they wisely view DataPortability as good strategy. Basically, if customers are leaving Microsoft because they are too proprietary, going more open is a way to keep and even grow their customer base.

To form your own opinion, I recommend spending some time reading the


Plotting the Relevancy FrontierFebruary 20

A few days ago, I wrote a post entitled 5 Ways to Tackle Information Overload. Today I want to plot out current tools and what we can learn from their value and usability.

I call this the “Relevancy Frontier”.

the-relevancy-frontier-2.png

Source: My own mind. :)

While the exact positioning for each site is not the point, what the above shows is a wave of tools that are doing the best they can to make the internet more relevant while also being easy to use.

If you agree with me, note that the newer services tend to be better than the older ones. I’d expect this trend to continue indefinitely, with some exceptions. Only services committed to constant innovation will survive.

Some specific comments about the services:

  • Google Reader (or any feed reader) is a great tool - as long as you can feed it relevant feeds. While Google Reader Recommendations now solves part of the problem, the issue with discovering relevant material is still a lot of work.

My DataPortability Videos (by Mike Reynolds)February 18

Here is my response to the DataPortability video project.

What DataPortability means to me:

Explaining DataPortability to vendors:

My name is Mike Reynolds and I want DataPortability: