I recently received an email from Amazon that announced an open beta for their latest linking concept. The idea? With a small piece of javascript code Amazon will embed contextually related links on existing posts in your site. If the context is right, this is a really neat way to effortlessly drive revenue from older content.

I experiment with paid linking technologies in order to keep on top of the business and revenue aspects of web communication. If people don't have reliable techniques for earning revenue on the web then great ideas may not survive. Adding new links in older material sounds like a potentially fruitful idea for many web writers.

I picked a single article from 2004 as a trial page for Amazon's context links; my reminesces of Rick James after the news of his death in August 2004. It's a pretty focused piece on James' music, his career and a Buffalo concert appearance. I figured the context was pretty clear. I expected to see links to Rick James CD's, books on music -- maybe stuff about funk, R&B -- or maybe videos highlighting rock concerts. What did I get? A link to novel about a girl's life in a ghetto keying off of my reference to one of Rick James hit songs, "Ghetto Life". That's a miss. A link to a book about Buffalo Bill -- of all things -- where I mentioned a Rick James show in Buffalo. A bigger miss.

The craziest link of all? Later in the post I mention the late, great singer Robert Palmer which Amazon picked up as a link to "Biostatistical Genetics and Genetic Epidemiology" by Robert C. Elston. Robert Palmer and Robert C. Elston --get it? See how much similarity there is there? Neil Young is also mentioned in the post but there is no link related to him.

I'm not sure where the context is in those links but not a single one refers to a book, CD or video by any of the artists mentioned in the post. What's more, the unrelated links embedded by Amazon are just going to annoy readers. Since these links are added "live" by Amazon, they will probably change and morph. I'm going to keep the context links live on just this single post to see what happens. For now, it looks like this program will be beta just a wee bit longer.

If you are experimenting with context links or if you have any input you would like to provide on this concept please leave a comment here on bradfordgibson.net.

Todd Cochrane had a dream that he met with a Microsoft executive and the number of current Vista sales were something in the neighbourhood of the US national debt. That would be 8.5 trillion copies served. Since I laughed when I read the post that makes me hopelessly geeky.

This is the first in a series of new web radio, netcast, podcasts: Current Thinking Radio, which is sourced at its new home on www.ctiweb.net. I'm retiring the Bradcast in favor of a more direct focus on technology business leadership. Please be patient with this new media "re-branding". I will be unveiling more concepts over the next few weeks. In the meantime you can pick up the podcast feed in the same place. I will make sure there is adequate overlap in transitioning to the new Current Thinking web feeds.
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Michael Sikorsky, CEO of Cambrian House software, may be mistaken as a man of maxims:

"Cambrian House; its like open source but with money."

"If nobody hates it, nobody will love it."

"Act as if Karma exists."

Listening to Michael at a recent DMAA event in Calgary, Alberta , one could tell that there was more than maxims and slogans to his vibe. Cambrian House is a crowdsource software company with some bright ideas in the web & software space. Michael clearly has an plan for the start, middle and end-game of his ventures. He lays out some interesting plans for marketing and product development in this presentation.

Products can fulfill needs -- "vitamins", solve problems -- "pain killers" or create new categories -- "viagra", of which the Blackberry is a classic technology based example. Listen to Michael as he explains tech marketing and company development in a way that you have never heard before. What's Michael's "bias for action"? How mass collaboration can change everything.

Recorded live by Brad Gibson with great thanks to the Board of the DMAA and Michael Sikorsky. This content is evergreen and is suggested for those interested in:

• marketing
• technology management
• new media development
• business development

This web radio podcast originates from the Current Thinking Radio site at www.ctiweb.net and from the Bradcast, podcasting since 2004 at www.bradfordgibson.net .

You've got to hand it to the buzz-marketing folks that work for Apple Computer... or, er, Apple! Apple! Apparently something happened yesterday. Apple managed to be bigger than the whole of CES and they were not even there.

In a stunning move, Steve Jobs invented -- or, pardon me, "innovated" -- the cell phone, the music player, digital camera and personal digital assistant. It does look cool but I have never gotten the appeal of these all in one things. Inevitably they do nothing well.

You think this is going to appeal to the Blackberry crowd? (Disclosure: I have a 7130e) Not a chance. How do you type coherent emails on a touch screen? Want to listen to music? Well not for very long because if need the iPhone available for calls you don't want to be wearing down the battery.

[Content in this post originates from www.bradfordgibson.net.]

The neatest trick that this box does is OS X. Apple has shrunken the kid in the family; this is the new Mac Mini. Elegant and sleek, with a bit more memory, a bluetooth keyboard and mouse; you may have the start of a super portable computer. I do feel kind of vindicated (ie: hear my prediction on Victor's New Year's Eve show) that the touch screen interface is somewhat tablet like... watch for the invention, or, er, the "innovation" of tablet computing in a future iteration of this device.

Victor Cajiao of the Typical Mac User podcast hosted a live Talkshoe edition of his podcast on New Year's Eve. The theme of the event was Apple predictions for 2007. I was privileged to take part in the conversation and would like to thank all of the participants for their positive contributions; it was a blast.

You can listen to or pick up the podcast here.

It seems that Dell UK has valued OEM Windows XP Home at

On your latest Bradcast -- a feature interview with Michael Auzenne of the Manager Tools Podcast. Michael, along with podcasting partner and management consultant Mark Horstman, produces one of the most consistently practical, useful and impactful podcasts in the 'sphere today.

Business advice, management consulting and personal coaching topics have been flogged to near extinction in various books, courses and schools. Despite this, Auzenne and Horstman routinely provide fresh conversational insight on these topics. You won't agree with everything these guys say on Manager Tools but more often than not you will find yourself realizing that they have developed a conversational mentoring approach that makes you feel like you're there asking for help at Mark's office door. This is the kind of approach podcasting was built for.

Manager Tools "Time to Party?" episode... Do the right things at this year's office party.

Update: Sorry for the dropped audio file... It has been newly restored and placed back on the server.

manager-tools auzenne

Forget about history, competition, restraint of trade, restrictive licenses and virtual monopolies. Let's just look at where we are now in the world of operating systems and services.

Market forces -- big and small -- have led to a world where the first operating system you buy for a new computer is essentially free. Free.

I don't want to hear about the "Microsoft tax" or how darned hard it is to buy a computer without an operating system so that you can load your favourite distro of Torvaldux. Don't ask for a discount if do get a computer without an O/S pre-loaded because to do that will cost the manufacturer money; so you will not be getting a discount. The O/S on any computer you buy -- PC or Apple -- is free. If you don't understand the economics of what I'm saying then do you think this Dell Dimension E521 that sells for as low as $329.00 would be $130.00 if there was no O/S installed on it? Of course you don't.

"But Brad" you say, "manufacturers pay OEM license fees to big computer makers. They get a cheaper price than retail." So cheap in fact that the cost of the O/S is not a significant differentiator in any buying decision. So cheap that if you don't really know the "true" price (whatever that is) and you don't even notice it, well then it's free. Essentially free. Forget about all those O/S boxes you see at the computer store with the $199, $299, $399 price tags. Who are those for any way? Who the heck is going to "upgrade" a computer to Vista? Microsoft certainly does not expect you to "upgrade". This era of PC is built for the O/S that came with it, don't whine and complain that your 2004 AMD whatzit with the really old fashioned graphics card from Feb 2005 doesn't run Vista well. If you need the tea leaves read for you just look at the new "plain English" EULA from Microsoft.

The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time.

(Translation: Because you will not want to do it again.)

This is a legal way of giving us a clue. Microsoft is doing us a favour by pricing the retail product at absurd levels. You think all that Aero glass is going to clean itself without brand new hardware?

Much has been made of restrictive licensing covenants in the new Vista EULA. Buyer beware. If you don't like the idea of features disappearing or the possibility that your legal copy of the O/S may be designated for rendition or that your media files may all stop working then you have a choice. Don't boot the code. Nobody has taken that right away from you.

Microsoft Vista EULA OS