Cool Marketing Thoughts

When Miel aka Coolz0r tried to upgrade blog.coolz0r.com to the newest version of Wordpress, he encountered serious problems with the database. The mess was so severe that he had to give up. He posted a farewell message on blog.coolz0r.com and announced “the end of Coolz0r” on his other blog.

I was at Barcamp Ghent with a lot of other Belgian bloggers when I read the news on Twitter of the crashing death of Coolz0r’s blog. We were shocked. In the week that followed, I offered Miel my help in trying to recover the database and restore his blog. But Miel is a busy man and his job at Microsoft takes a lot of time and mental energy. Finally, over the last weekend we had some phone calls, we exchanged logins and passwords and some essential files, and after some analysis and some tweaking and hacking I was able to bring the blog back online.

Miel, however, had already said goodbye and for him there was no turning back. He will focus his blogging efforts on one blog only: micromiel.com. I thought it was very important that the 1800+ articles that Miel has written in the last three years on “Marketing Thoughts” remain available online. A lot of these articles have no expiration date, they remain interesting and valuable even when the campaigns they describe are long gone. Keeping these articles available is not only a tribute to Miel’s talent but also a service to the marketing community.

So, we agreed that I would host the blog under a new name, “Cool Marketing Thoughts“, which is only a small difference from “Coolz0r - Marketing Thoughts”, that I would clearly identify Miel as the author of all the articles that he has written, and that I can keep the blog alive by adding new content.

From now on, this blog will be a group blog. I am looking for contributors willing to write articles from time to time in the spirit, scope and focus of Coolz0r. If you’re interested, write to luc.van.braekel@gmail.com with a short bio and some pointers to previous work.

I know it’s a bit silent here and believe-you-me I wish it could be otherwise, but I’ve just moved houses and I’m still waiting for my internet provider to come and hook me up. My neighbors have secured their wifi, so I can’t leech (which I would never do, obviously, I just scanned for it out of curiosity) and I’m deprived of online living until the 14th of March.

Work is getting pretty busy too, with the TechDays coming up this week where I need to present 3 days in a row for 6 hours a day. Took me a little preparation time as well to get it all worked out.

Sorry for any delays. I’ve got a few posts nearly done, like the book reviews and a few cool marketing stunts, but I lack the time to style them in a way I feel comfortable with.

I’ll get to it as soon as I can. :)

Take care everyone and have a splendid day!

This morning my sister gave birth to a wonderful and super tiny young girl named Stella. I’m going to be the godfather, and I think I’m already totally in love :) Welcome to the world, Stella! I went to the hospital during lunch and snapped these little images to share them with the world:

Stats: 48 cm large, 3 kilos heavy and the cutest face in the universe!
Yey!

(For John: 105.82 ounces and 18.89 inches)

Take a look at this super sweet catalog from the Dutch Hema store :) Apparently they’ve launched their online department, and I must say the site is really a very cool experience. At first glance it looks like a regular e-shop, but if you wait a few seconds… you’ll be amazed. I love the way they did this!

Visit the product promo site :)

Grrr. I got blocked by Google during a drill down search of a forum to look for a playlist of a radio station. All I did was a bit of deep searching by using two keywords and the site: command. Since Google said it had hidden the similar urls and allowed me to click and show them, obviously I did - in the hopes of finding that playlist. But alas, by the time I got to the 12th page of the (at least) 20 retrieved, I got presented by a nice 403-Forbidden and guess what: closing the browser and opening it again didn’t help. They just cut me off. Apparently my actions looked “similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application” which was reason enough for Google to discontinue my search adventures. Apparently systematic searches are not welcome. Maybe I should’ve clicked some ads first…

I wonder what’s wrong with a simple query as this: forum playlist site:www.nonstopplay.com, and then simply extending the search to make Google show ALL urls instead of the ones they selected.

The fancy sorry.google.com url isn’t going to help me out here. Grrrrr. I hate it when stuff like this happens. It just comes to show just how much control you have over the things you do on the net. Not much. That’s for sure.

I spent most of the past week at a very chilly place, high up in the Swiss mountains. Totally disconnected from the net I had some time out with some colleagues for a team offsite of the DPE (developer platform evangelism) TimeZone Audience Marketing & Win The Web team. It was actually one of the best offsites I ever went to and I had a super great time. I took a bunch of pictures too. If you’re in to seeing some people you don’t know and a lot of cool wallpapery scenes, feel free to check out the Flickr set.

Last night I woke up and it was still dark outside. I usually don’t wake up early. I was staring at my ceiling and saw the last fractions of a dream replay. I was a little boy, standing out in the fields and looking up to the sky. At the horizon I saw a light, an ignition of a rocket that was launched into the black, starfilled sky. I saw a beautiful stripe of light go up and make a bow as it went further and further away from me.

I went to sleep again and woke up later this morning, started doing some e-mails and such. Then I got a phone call from a colleague to inform me that David Boschmans had passed away last night. David was the guy that wheeled me in at Microsoft. He was my mentor, my trusted colleague and friend. We shared dreams and hopes. His insights and advice will always guide me.
I could never have dreamt of getting a better mentor.

I’m lucky to have met him. I feel lucky, even when I’m typing this and tears drip on my typing hands. David, My Dearest David. I will never ever forget you. I’ll miss you. I’ll miss you so damn much. There is no explanation possible for all the why’s I’m feeling, no person that can fill the empty gap you leave behind.

May God watch over your family and take care of them. Sweet dreams, David.

In a few hours I’ll be heading for Brussels airport to travel to Orlando, Florida. I’m going to an event called MGX, which is short for Microsoft Global Experience. MGX is an internal Microsoft conference for Microsoft’s global sales folks and the evangelists. It’s the occasion to meet A LOT of other employees, since about 14.000 will be attending, and I’m really looking forward to hook up with some people I haven’t seen in while.

I’ll be in the US until the 23rd, counting the timezone difference it’ll be the 24th when I get back. I’ll try to post from the hotel or from the conference, in between sessions.

For updates, clips and thoughts, check my other blog… since I try to keep this hobby and my work as separated as possible.