Dec 23
Have you ever wondered where you can get O2 coverage at Westfields London?
Well worry no more. With this handy map you can now make and hear calls in certain places safe in the knowledge that something may happen.
In the unlikely event you find somewhere else you can make calls on O2, let me know in the comments.
Dec 23
Ever wanted to see which tables are taking up the most space in your PostgreSQL database? It's not too difficult:
SELECT t.name, pg_relation_size(t.name) FROM (SELECT tablename as name FROM pg_tables WHERE tablename NOT LIKE 'pg_%' AND tablename NOT LIKE 'sql_%') t ORDER BY pg_relation_size(t.name) DESC;
or if you want it in human readable MB/kB:
SELECT t.name, pg_size_pretty(pg_relation_size(t.name)) FROM (SELECT tablename as name FROM pg_tables WHERE tablename NOT LIKE 'pg_%' AND tablename NOT LIKE 'sql_%') t ORDER BY pg_relation_size(t.name) DESC;
Nov 16
Robert Scoble wrote an
interesting piece today about the worst things startups do. It's well worth a read, but point number 4 'You hire a PR firm' has raised a few questions/discussions and I'd like to expand on it.
The point that Robert make's (and is towards the end of his point) and I think is important is:
Now, maybe a PR company was helping them behind the scenes or to take care of leads and all the other stuff that goes with building a company but it wasn’t the first interaction I had with the company.
This is the key point to take away: you should know your startup/company inside out and be able to present it with no outside help/need for PR, but having help to make contacts and know where/when to talk with people is something that PR can help with.
I've worked with several PR agencies before and not had much success, however I think that in certain regions/areas they can still be invaluable. Take for example
Tactile CRM - I've made a concerted effort to connect personally with people/press, from the team at TechCrunch EU to niche bloggers and more.
However, where I think that a PR agency can help is in making connections and relationships with industry press, writing copy and making interesting stories from them, and saving you time.
If a PR agency/person is saving you time (and costing you less than your hourly rate and making a difference) then that has to be worth considering.
So, my missing #13 from the list is:
Understand and think for yourself - read and understand as much as you can about promoting, building and running your startup. But always take a step back and think before you act on what people are saying, and if it's applicable to you/your business.
After all, we're not all lemmings.
Nov 11
Here's the deal: everybody knows that no musician has truly made it
until they have mastered the cowbell. So to celebrate I'm putting
together the Ultimate Cowbell playlist.
There are literally millions of musicians from Blue Oyster Cult to ...
erm, that have done it.
So, either tweet your suggestion with #cowbell or add a track to the
comments. I'll take all the suggestions and make a top 20 cowbell
playlist that everyone can enjoy on Friday.
If you need an immediate cowbell fix you might want to check out the
SNL Cowbell sketch, and if you have access to spotify I'll be building the list
here.
