Sue Cline

I’m battling writer’s block and letting other distractions keep me from an essay, so how about checking out these shiny new toys instead?

• Booshaka: Find out what is popular on Facebook right now. Good for trend research and competitive information.
• Peer Index: Find authorities on a variety of subjects. Still in early launch mode, this bears watching.
• Bakodo: This looks like a great QR app for the iphone.

Ah, I thought so.

Interesting reads from around the web:

• The Future of Startup Funding : Paul Graham talks about the rise of super angels and the changing venture capital terrain for new businesses. I see this as a good thing for start-ups as long as the gender imbalance is rectified.
• Industrial America on Architectural Stationery: Before the $99 logo, gorgeous architecture graced bills of lading, invoices and letterhead. As our focus has turned from manufacturing, we’ve lost a piece of history and place.
• Ode to the Taco Truck: as haute cuisine begins to take mobile food seriously, are we losing some of the immigrant energy and flavor?
• Short history of print in two pictures: Print has changed significantly since Gutenberg, and while letterpress specialists would feel at home on one of these machines, I wonder how they’d feel about the new 8 color Heidelburgs? While printing may have changed radically since the 1500’s, it isn’t dead yet.
• Is There a Female Funding Model?: Stacey Higginbotham spotlights the inequal spread of venture monies available to women. I suspect bootstrapping/debt funding is more comfortable for women, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be working to increase these numbers to a more equitable spread. Note, too, that diverse teams raise bigger rounds.
• Newt Gingrich: The Indispensable Republican: Interesting bio on Gingrich, who appears to be ramping up for a presidential run in 2012.

I’m nearly done with our major server move, so more substantial blogging is ahead. Until then, enjoy some fun things I stumbled across today:

• Outlook Social Connector: Social contacts within your Outlook inbox. For those folks (like me) who live inside Outlook, this looks promising.
• Add a Welcome tab to your Facebook page: Short and easy tutorial on how to make your fan page more popular/easy to use for new friends.
• Fifteen Female Geeks: Twitter & blog links for some of the industries higher profile women who code.
• Ability Maps, #deaf Mayors and $1000 Strollers: Anil Dash is one of the first thought leaders I follow who really understands how ADA benefits businesses. Excellent review of innovations that exist because of the ADA.
• Women’s small biz program to make long-awaited debut: after several starts and stops, the women owned small business set-aside program is nearly ready to go live.
• DIY Employment Programs: Frustrated by lack of job growth? Christopher Robbins was too, so he started his own program to put people to work.
• The crisis of middle-class America: May require registration but this article is worth digging into as it uncovers the slow economic strangulation of millions of (formerly) middle-class Americans.