Excel tip! Extract text from a string in a cell

=MID(E2,(SEARCH("V3/",E2,1)+3),50)

Where E2 is the text string, "V3/" is the text immediately before what you're trying to extract, +3 is the number of characters you've selected preceeding the text you're after and 50 is enough character to ensure you extract all the text you're after.

Of course, this works most easily when the text you're after is at the end of the string but the number of characters you're after varies.

You'd probably have to work on it a bit more to use it to extract text from the middle of a text string.

Something to come back to.

I can't believe it's been four years since my last post

...terrible!

It's time I get back into jotting down my thoughts and fascinations with world as it develops all around us.

Something things are fun, some scary and some just mesmerising.

Something that is fun and scary is the speed at which graphical manipulation is developing.

A great place to start is NVIDIA, they're not just a PC graphics card company anymore. They're one of the leaders in imaging research.

Nvidia has some great demo tools to show you how modern AI research is allowing us to control and manipulate imagery.

Of course, it's not all just about playing around with images, NVIDIA also utilise their imaging and spatial technology in things like the development of self-driving technology. Here's an example of how imaging research has a practical application in finding a car-parking spot.

But imaging research and manipulation can also have its downsides. Deep-fakes is an area that has the potential to sow seeds of doubt and confusion in the minds of the public. Indeed, we now have experts in the field saying we're very close to the point where it will be difficult to tell real from fake (read digitally manipulated) videos.

But then, Deep Fakes have also given us gems like this:

And this:

You can keep up to date with people playing around with Deep Fakes here on Reddit. And if you wish, have a go at making your own Deep Fake.

And now here's something completely different...

Warehouse Automation. Maybe it is the seemingly infinite loop of conveyor belts or the little armies of robots going about their duties, but I'm fascinated by automated warehouses and their videos are my jam.

And...

 

Fake humans on TV, no humans in the workforce. It begs the question, what sort of a world are we developing? And, is it what we want the future to be?

Claiming an existing business on Google listings

This is something i've come to be responsible for only recently - managing a whole big list of stores on Google MyBusiness. When an acquisition occurs stores need to be transfered from one Google account to another but if you'd can't get in touch with the current listing owner you're in trouble.

Trawling through Google support pages there are confusing references to transfering ownership (only if you're currently listed as a manager or can contact the owner) and verifying businesses but nothing written in plain English about how to claim ownership of an existing listing without contacting the owner.

Here is it in plain English:

1. In your Google Business account create an identical listing to the one that exists under a different owner
2. Google will identify this as a duplicate listing
3. Google will present you with a form to submit a request to the current owner to take Admin rights of the existing listing.

The lesson of Australian wine

I've been reading a great wine book, Why the French Hate Us, by Campbell Mattinson. Not only does it tell the story of Australian wine, it provides ample lessons about the folly of so many 'business strategies'.

Back when I was at Uni, we were given case studies after case studies about the growth of the wine industry. About Foster's ambitious plans for Southcorp.

Campbell's book shows us how hype can get the best of even the most senior business people.

Campbell gives every university professor or business executive a lesson in two short sentences:

The point to come out of it all: wine is meant to be about wine. The wine investment frenzy was related to wine, but was mostly about greed.

Learning CSS layout.

As a fair DIY digital marketer I often have to sort out my own web design layouts. Quite frequently the CMS I'm using doesn't quite have the design templates built that I want. Sometimes I just want some images laid out in a specific way on the page.

And other times i just want to create funky buttons using CSS.

So, when I need to figure out a little bit of CSS magic I turn to CSS-Tricks and Learn CSS Layout. They're two great resources that range from basic design to stuff that I have no idea about!

I'm also keen to learn more with resources like Code School.

Always Keep Learning!

The Art of Telling Stories through Architecture

Previously I've written of how architects can take their cues from historical connections to the area or site - I like to think of buildings as cryptic crosswords, with me trying to decipher the story the architect is trying tell.

The photo here shoes the entrance to the new Westpac Melbourne headquarters on Russell Street. In this instance I like how the architect has made a feature of sandstone. As anyone from Sydney knows, it's a city built on sandstone - just like Melburnians know Melbourne is a city built on bluestone. So for Westpac, a Sydney-based bank, to use sandstone in their new Melbourne headquarters is a little architectural dig at Melbourne.

A little piece of Sydney in the heart of Melbourne.

Privacy on the web. What privacy?

Listed above are all the pieces of code and technology that was tracking my activity on a single news website today. Using a browser add-on like Ghostery you're able to see the staggering amount of companies out there tracking our online behaviour.

Of course, if you don't want to be tracked by all these little bits of technology most browsers have the option to tell these robots not to track you (see below). But with all the browsers that you use throughout your day it is quite a chore to escape the net of these trackers.

With all the talk about governments snooping into our private lives it is simple to miss how much privacy we've already given away.

Getting past Log-in gates

You've probably come across sites like this on the web, it has those annoying blurred overlays that require you to log-in/sign-up using a social account just to get to something you might or might not find useful. The example I've given here is Quora. So annoying these type of things have even been given a name - Dark Patterns.

Fear not, there is usually a way around this. Usually these blurred overlays are no more than a < div > in the page source code. Here's how to get around them...


Hit F12 on the keyboard. This will bring up the Page Insprector and the source code of the page. Scroll with your mouse pointer down all the lines of < div >s until you come to the one that highlights the blurred area or the log-in box. For Quora, below, you can see it's called '...signup_wrapper'.

Right-click and select 'Delete Node'.

It's usually that simple.

Simple fix for an annoying dark pattern.

Sharelines

The new design of the LA Times has put sharing at the forefront of publishing - quite literally. Every article on the LA Times now starts with 'sharelines', pre-formatted quotes or facts from the article to make it even easier for you to share.

Often the headlines of articles will be creatively cryptic, too long, or not describing the main point you want to get across. Sharelines aims to do all the work for you. And it's not just the LA Times, across the web publishers are looking for ways to make sharing easier and more enjoyable.

Here's a quick run-down of some of the ways this is happening:

LA Times – they start each article with key facts

Good Magazine – they have a tweet button on quotes they highlight

Other publishers are customising tweet text so the shared text is shorter than the original headline:

DailyMail.co.uk

Headline:

Tweet:

Many more mobile sites are emphasising sharing as well. At The Atlantic, the top of the article has share buttons and when you scroll below the fold, the design of the site keeps two share buttons permanently at the top.

Top of page:

Scrolled view:

With friends, family and colleagues sharing more often, it is interesting to think that there could be room for 'professional sharers'. Adrienne LaFrance takes up this theory in her Atlantic article discussing that there could become a marketplace for subscribing to customised news feeds.

3D projection mapping and face tracking

This is awesome.

OMOTE / REAL-TIME FACE TRACKING & PROJECTION MAPPING. from something wonderful on Vimeo.

What's the future of the 24 hour news cycle?

Image credit: LOC

Today Crikey revealed more hard numbers on the state of the Australian newspaper business, revealing  News Corp advertising fell $320 million in 2012-13.

The daily news cycle agenda is largely set by the morning newspapers. Hard as that may be to believe, it's still kinda the general rule. Newspapers report, radio talks about the newspaper reporting and TV comes in later in the day to re-cap what happened with these stories during the day.

Take the morning newspapers out of the mix and what happens? Where will the radio stations get their news to complain about? How will TV stations know which stories to package up and which ones to leave?

I'm not for one minute suggesting that newspaper reporting is going to disappear just because some legacy operations are losing money. In fact, the quantity of written news and reporting is probably larger than it has ever been. What has changed is that the masses of reporting cannot be neatly bundled under a single Masthead - it has fragmented to niche publishers or niche sections within larger publishers.

Readers are picking the news they read online more selectively, subscribing to only the sections/authors/topics that interest them.

The question is then: how does radio and TV choose what to focus on if the papers can no longer set the agenda? Indeed, it is telling that there is a dearth of news variety on radio and TV compared to the print/online news that has been forced to adapt its offering.

Time to visit your local library

While to many memories of the library might bring back long arduous hours of University researching and study, the library of today is a world away from the rows and rows of dimly lit books.

Today, libraries are, by necessity, one of the most digitally innovative institutions i know of. And it might seem strange to you, but some of the most digitally innovative people I know are librarians.

We've all heard about the statistics of how much more information is being produced every year and the librarians profession as an organiser and cataloger of information continues, but with ever larger volume, mediums and complexities.

I strongly recommend that you visit your local library or your library's website to browse their inventory of digital subscriptions - you will not be disappointed. After all many of you, through your local Council rates pay for the service of a library so make sure you damn well take advantage of it!

Here are just two services that I use:

Zinio - The World's Largest Newsstand. Most local libraries will subscribe to Zinio which offers the latest edition magazines for digital viewing. My local library subscribes to 70 different titles. I'm a bit of a home reno addict, so having access to Home Beautiful, Vogue Living and Gardening Australia is great. There are also heaps of titles on Photography, Business, Lifestyle and Sports.

PressDisplay / Press Reader. Remember when libraries used to have a few daily newspapers hanging off big wooden poles on a rack? No more, now with Press Display local libraries give you access to thousands (yes, thousands) of daily newspapers every day. I keep tabs on the major city Dailies to see what's hot in each city and have the occasional laugh with the US and UK tabloids.

There's also academic databases, eBooks, eAudio, videos and heaps more. I dare say it is one of the most under-utilised Council services out there.

Maker time: beer bottle washer

I've just finished my latest brew and the time has come to wash my bottles. Boo.

Well, wouldn't you know it, the good old maker community of tinkerers and DIY dads has sorted it all out.

MalFat has made this beauty, washes 30 bottles at a time!

This is going on my to-do list.

Embracing Internet Radio and a world of music

An article in today's Age focused on the pressure Australian bands have to supposedly conform to a sound that the national youth broadcaster, Triple J, will appreciate. With precious little airtime for unsigned bands on commercial radio, Triple J is seen as the only real avenue for bands to be found.

But as a former dedicated Triple J listener (it's still my no.1 Australian music station) my tastes have broadened and nowadays Triple J has less airtime in my house. One of the reasons is the radio you see above.

This is my first Internet radio and it has opened up my house to literally a world of music radio stations. Here is my current list of world radio stations:

1. BBC Radio 4
2. BBC Radio 1
3. BBC World Service
4. NPR
5. WWOZ 90.7fm
6. Calm Radio - Big Band
7. El Vacilon Musical Radio
8. Radio Campesina Cubana

I now have news from the UK and USA, jazz from New Orleans, Big Band from Canada and amazing sounds from the Caribbean and Cuba.

Triple J will always be my number one station for Great Australian music, but with the world being such an interconnected place, Australian bands should embrace the fact that Triple J is just one channel in the world of music.

Embrace as many digital channels as possible because there will be people like me on the other side of the world doing the same as me and discovering a world of music via the Internet.

The evolution to Vendor Relationship Management

I won't go into the theory behind Vendor Relationship Management because you can do that at Harvard and on the VRM blog but the basic premise is that the future of the brand/company and customer/consumer relationship will be defined by the consumer and not the company.

Consumers will choose when and how they want to engage with a brand/company and when they don't want to be engaged by a brand/company.

It has been bubbling around in my head ever since I heard about it a couple of years ago, but the thing that reminded me of it was a new feature on Campaign Monitor. Here it is:

In order to maintain good list health and keep the spam filters away Campaign Monitor has always been good at ensuring that permission has been granted by the receiver of email. But this new feature takes it to the next level by adding a second level of confirmation even in the admin interface.

What it shows to me is that be it by increased privacy laws (eg Cookie notifications in the EU) or self-regulation (Campaign Monitor's increased checking) the consumers are slowing building their case against brand/company intrusion.

The 'killer app' has not yet arrived to manage all your advertising interactions, and the dis-integrated nature of media probably means it never will, but I think it does show a path towards a media future where consumers will manage their relationships with brands.

Personally I also think that both the consumer AND the brand will be all the better for it.

Simple back-link request

I'm never quite sure about how to approach bloggers or website managers about requesting back links. Someone has just sent me one that I think is concise and polite so I thought I'd share it with you (I've taken out the details):

Dear Sir/Madam, I hope you are well. My name is [NAME] and I am writing on behalf of [Company] with regard to an article on your site [Website URL] featuring [Company] here: [Full URL link] I was wondering if it would be possible to get a link back to the [Company] website from this article for the convenience of your readers, in case readers would like to find out more about the brand? If possible, the URL is: [Company URL] Info page: [Company Info URL] We would really appreciate your help with this, but if it's not possible, I’d still like to take the opportunity to thank you for the mention of [Company]. I understand that you are really busy and I truly appreciate your time. Please let me know if this is something that you could assist with. Many thanks and I look forward to hearing back from you. Kind regards, [Name]

Having the right perspective

If you take your time to look at things from the right angles and get just the right perspective things become clear. I took these two pictures the other day from Collins Street. You can see so clearly where the architects of the modern Rialto towers took their inspiration - straight from the original Rialto building. But, of course, this would never be clear unless you had the right perspective.

Hacking a media monitoring service

Media monitoring isn't cheap. Most services will divide up the media landscape and then charge you a fee for monitoring each one. Print/TV/Radio? $1500-$2000 per month. Online news? $1000 per month. Social? $100 - $1000 per month.

Most small businesses won't get mentioned in the press enough to warrant this monitoring and most large organisations that worry about their name in the media are big enough to afford the cost. But there is also a middle ground of growing businesses that want to monitor their business but can't afford the professional fees.

What's the answer? I've been able to hack together a pretty good media monitoring plan without any fees using as many free monitoring services I can get. Here's the run-down:

Print: My local library has a subscription to PressDisplay.com which gives me daily print monitoring of hundreds of local and national newspapers.
Online news: I have set-up my Google Reader to receive RSS feeds of the following news aggregators - Google News, Bing News and Yahoo News. I've spread my bets across the field because they all trawl different amounts of news sites. (note: Bing news send through the feed a couple of times a day which gets a bit confusing).
Forums: Grab an RSS feed from BoardReader
Blog and Social Search: Icerocket is a service from the Meltwater Group and a pretty good free option from a comprehensive professional Monitor.
Blog Search: Twingly is another Blog Search tool - as you're sticking these feeds in an RSS reader the more feeds you have the broader your possible monitor.
Social Search: Although it is not in my RSS reader, I use Hootsuite to publish and monitor social streams. One of the big pluses for this is that you can geo-code your search results to narrow down more generic search terms.

The one big omission that I have is TV and Radio. Monitoring these services requires lots of people and many hours of transcribing audio which is why the big Media Monitoring services charge so much. There are services that will do this for you on an ad-hoc basis, but you have to know you're going to be mentioned to know to get the transcript!

My list isn't exhaustive by any means and missing TV and Radio is a big hole, but for growing businesses it is a pretty good starting point for monitoring your brand. If you know of any more services feel free to comments and i'll keep growing the list.

UPDATE: The gods were against me on this one. The day after I write this post, praising RSS and Google Reader, Google announces they are going to kill-off Reader. Boo. Not to worry, I still think RSS is the best way to monitor media for your brand so I'm going to go off and find a better Reader.

Does Google demote itself?

Google must have one of the best online art galleries on the web, yet you've probably never heard of it let alone discovered it from a Google search.

The Google Art Project is a fantastic treasure trove of high resolution photographs of the collections of some of the worlds most famous art galleries. But, when you do a Google search for "art collection", "renaissance art", "renaissance paintings" or "renaissance gallery" the site is no-where to be seen.

It makes me wonder why this would be, after all, you could forgive a company for wanting to promote their own stuff first, right? And, it is a great site.

Has Google just done a poor job SEO-ing their own site? There's no shortage of references to it on the web. Opensiteexplorer.com says it has awesome domain authority and inbound links. Me not being technical at all might be missing a 'dev' issue as to why it isn't ranking, but it is a real shame this site doesn't pop up more often.

On this note, it's also worth mentioning the Web Gallery of Art - another site that sadly doesn't rank as well as it should. It might not be as sexy as the Google Art Project or have the hi-resolution, but it certainly has indexed many more paintings.

Treehouse plans

One of the great things about Google Books is that what it contains is before the time when any random half-cocked idea could be published to the world.

The stuff you get in Google Books was written, edited and published in the true sense - quality stuff.

My current grand plan is a tree house, and so Google Books helps me with some great info. Here are some links to some of the gold that i've found:

• Build a modern treehouse - with or without a tree - Popular Mechanics Jun 1965
• Modern Living - A Treetop Retreat - LIFE 10 Dec 1956
• Treehouses: A Step-By-Step Guide to Designing & Building a Safe & Sound Structure
• Build Your Kids a Treehouse: The Complete Guide
• Tree Houses: You Can Actually Build

Happy building!