Blogcritics Author: Manny Hernandez

Book Review: Subject To Change - Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World by Peter Merholz, Todd Wilkens, Brandon Schauer and David Verba

Manny Hernandez — Thu, 1 May 2008 17:05:32 EDT

A must-read for those creating customer solutions for the future.
Having read the classic The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web by the President of Adaptive Path, Jesse James Garrett, I was naturally excited to learn that four members of his team had worked on Subject To Change. I was not disappointed.Adaptive Path is a firm that has established itself as proponent of experience design...

Book Review: The Essential Blender: Guide to 3D Creation with the Open Source Suite Blender, Edited by Roland Hess

Manny Hernandez — Fri, 9 Nov 2007 17:03:53 EST

The Essential Blender serves as a beneficial reference for Blender, a free open source 3D content creation suite.
Blender is a free open source 3D content creation suite. The Essential Blender comes in as a reference book for it, which also features lots of the basics about computer animation (CA) and its different branches, such as modeling, animation, rigging, skinning, lighting, particles, compositing. Most chapters in the book are approached in a...

Book Review: Web Design for ROI: Turning Browsers into Buyers & Prospects into Leads

Manny Hernandez — Thu, 8 Nov 2007 18:42:50 EST

A must-read for anyone who has to make decisions about a web site.
I had the opportunity to see Lance Loveday speak at a Search Engine Strategies conference a few years ago. His session was packed with online ROI (return on investment) tips, easily turning it into one of the most useful and informative sessions of the conference.Fast forward to 2007 and Lance has joined Sandra Niehaus to write this great volume,...

Book Review: PR Idea Book: 50 Proven Tools That Really Work

Manny Hernandez — Thu, 4 Oct 2007 20:05:35 EDT

Concise PR advice for the newbie and the veteran alike.
If the phrase "Good perfume comes in small bottles" can be applied to Public Relations, this book is the best example of it. At 196 pages, this book is a breeze to read, yet it is packed with great advice for the PR newbie like me.All I know about PR I've learned in the past few months, as I have worked to raise awareness about...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Book Review: When You're a Parent With Diabetes: A Real Life Guide to Staying Healthy While Raising a Family

Manny Hernandez — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:49:28 EDT

Kathryn Gregorio Palmer knows diabetes. She has lived with it since age 18. Her husband also has type 1 diabetes and they have two healthy young boys. So, when you read about the risks of parenting among diabetics, you can't help but think that Palmer may be on to something that other diabetics can learn from.In writing When You're a Parent With Diabetes: A Real Life Guide to Staying Healthy While Raising a Family, Palmer made her dream of helping other parents struggling with diabetes come true. Using a tone that never sounds condescending while still delivering very valuable pearls of wisdom from her own experience, Palmer takes the reader through the different stages of parenting in a very well structured and enjoyable way. She doesn't stop at sharing her own experience. The book's 144 pages are also packed with anecdotes from other mothers and fathers as they live through the struggles of parenting with diabetes.Starting with the considerations leading up to parenthood, including thoughts about gestational diabetes, things to monitor throughout pregnancy and during labor and delivery, the book even devotes space to adoption as an option for diabetics.The first year of parenthood, the preschool years, while you still are your children's hero and the times when you can be a cause of serious embarrassment for them (think how teenage children may feel about having their diabetic parent shoot insulin or test blood glucose in public), all have a space in the book.A whole chapter is devoted to some of the challenges diabetics want to forget about, such as how to talk with kids about diabetes complications, dealing with diabetes and depression, and a cause of much concern: the worries of one's own children developing diabetes. The last pages are spent reminding us diabetics of the things we can and should do to stay healthy and avoid complications as much as possible, so we can live long to enjoy the lives of our children and grandchildren.All in all, When You're a Parent With Diabetes: A Real Life Guide to Staying Healthy While Raising a Family is an excellent resource for diabetics, whether they are planning to raise a family or they already have kids and can use a little extra help. If you are diabetic or your partner is diabetic, whether you are male or female, you should definitely get yourself a copy.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1972, Manny Hernandez now lives in Orlando, FL with his wife and son. He is Web Product Manager and Internet Marketer. Manny blogs regularly in AskManny.com and is also a Top 75 Music reviewer in Amazon.com, specialized in Music and Books. In 2007, Manny founded Tu Diabetes, a Social Network for people affected by Diabetes (y su comunidad hermana en espa�ol, EsTuDiabetes.com). Manny also runs a business called Avance Associates through which he offers Search Engine Marketing and Translation Services.

Book Review: Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch

Manny Hernandez — Sat, 4 Aug 2007 03:25:20 EDT

To say Duct Tape Marketing is a great book is an understatement. As an entrepreneur who has founded two small companies, I found author John Jantsch’s approach in getting customers to know, like and trust you more to be intuitive, yet very powerful. Jantsch got my undivided attention from the point he proposed having you first identify your ideal clients (as early as in page five) and asking you to fire about 20 percent of your past customers, if they no longer fit into the picture of your current business. Now that makes sense and it is so powerful: I could recall the occasions when I was spending time pursuing projects that were not a good fit for the goals of our company, but we still pursued them ("Hey! It's business!"). Since I read that section, I’ve felt more comfortable not pursuing distracting projects.He then proceeds to walk you through the discovery and delivery of your marketing message in a way that speaks to the heart of those ideal customers you identified early on. The rest of the book is packed with tactics to get that message in front of your target audience and help them contact you and refer you.These are easily the best 300 pages I have read since I became a small business.

Music Review: Roman(US) - The Secret Lives of Trees

Manny Hernandez — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 17:55:43 EDT

The sound of water... drops falling, in a cascade... foggy woods, in a distant land... these are all feelings that the latest project by Roman(US) evokes with ease. Roman(US) is a duo not unlike The Postal Service, in the sense that it was the result of a long distance musical collaboration. Like their Venezuelan colleagues Masseratti 2Lts, Roman(US), is a family project: on one side, there is Jose Duque (also well known for his work with ZumbaTres), who lives in New Hampshire; on the other side, there is Felix Duque, Jose's cousin, who lives in Barcelona Spain.The Secret Lives of Trees came as a surprise. It is a complete departure from Jose's previous (jazz) work, falling more under the category of ambient or electronic. The uniquely high-pitched voice of Felix gives the album a very ethnic feel which, coupled with the layers of synthesizers and programmed (yet highly organic-sounding) rhythms, bring Deep Forest, Enigma, and Robert Miles to mind. However, the end result comes closer to serving as the score to a very surreal dream than an actual world music album. Think Massive Attack meets Jeff Buckley and maybe you will come close.In the end, this is an amazing album to play with low lights, at night or when you need to have music not get in the way, but rather go along... to let you dream it, almost without thinking. For now, the album is available online at CDBaby and iTunes. For more information, visit the band’s MySpace page.

Book Review: The Sugar Solution by Editors of Prevention Magazine and Ann Fittante

Manny Hernandez — Sun, 1 Jul 2007 01:38:44 EDT

The world currently faces an undeniable diabetes epidemic. As a type I diabetic since 2002, I am only one of the millions of people affected by this very real problem.To help diabetics and people affected by many other issues related to the excessive consumption of carbs (read sugars) in our diets, The Sugar Solution: Weight Gain? Memory Lapses? Mood Swings? Fatigue? Your Symptoms Are Real - And Your Solution is Here, a title by the editors of Prevention Magazine, takes the reader through a comprehensive and balanced approach that relies on better eating habits, an exercise routine and techniques to reduce stress.The book proposes solutions that are manageable. For foods, they rely heavily on the Glycemic Index as the way to weigh meals as more or less appropriate to control your blood sugars. For exercising, they propose a scheme that doesn't mean you need to live in the gym, suggesting exercises that fit any lifestyle. And for stress, they offer advice that can be incorporated even into the most hectic work days.All three components dealt with in the book have been proven to affect blood sugar values, ultimately leading to complications including but not limited to diabetes. So, in offering the Sugar Solution, the book deals a strong blow to the fundamental causes underlying America's current diabetes epidemic.

Book Review: How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders - Boosting Your Business & Buzz on the Web (Voices That Matter) by Catherine Seda

Manny Hernandez — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 23:37:52 EDT

I learned about Catherine Seda back in 2004, when she published her classic book Search Engine Advertising. Earlier in 2007, she came back with this other title, How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders: Boosting Your Business & Buzz on the Web (Voices That Matter), one that handsomely complements her work and offers marketers and business owners alike a plethora of information to feed from and make the most out of the options available nowadays to catapult your business online.The past three years have seen the emergence of numerous so-called Web 2.0 technologies that have become essential components of any serious online marketing effort. With the assistance of contributing author Amanda Watlington (another legend in the Search Marketing space), Seda covers many of these technologies, such as blogging, social networking and podcasting, as a complement of more traditional efforts (e-mail campaigns, affiliate marketing, PPC and "standard" PR). Seda shares her knowledge while she interviews experts in each of the topics and wraps up each chapter with an insightful Success Story (read "case study") to drive the points home. A good example of this was the Entrepreneur.com success story, where she interviewed the Senior VP of Business Development about their goals/challenges, strategy and results as they implemented contextual advertising. In the end, between the material covered and its relevance, combined with her fresh writing style, the book ends up being an enjoyable read that is worth thousands of dollars, if you apply her suggestions as a part of your marketing and PR efforts. As someone who has worked in the Online Marketing space for well over five years, I highly recommend it.

Book Review: Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution - The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars by Richard K. Bernstein

Manny Hernandez — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 04:29:01 EDT

One of the things you learn with Dr. Richard Bernstein's book is that excessive eating (even when you don't overeat carbs, but other food types) leads to high sugars, due to the so-called "Chinese Restaurant Effect." Well, if you were to devour this hefty book (like you will, once you get your hands on it) you will not see your blood sugar rise. If you are a diabetic like me (type I or II), you will find in Dr. Bernstein's book a wealth of information that will answer the questions you've always had, and even those that you didn't know you had, about diabetes and how to keep your blood sugars in control.His approach is very unconventional (coming from a diabetic childhood, being an engineer first and a doctor later in life). But you will be fascinated with the amount of "Eureka!" moments throughout the book. I was unable to put it down from the moment I picked it up, and I am grateful to him for having taken the time to share so much wisdom from his years as a practitioner and from his many years as a diabetic and experimenter. His lessons are not easy to follow, but they are the way for those who want to live a long and healthy life with diabetes.I leave you with a thought. If you knew what you need to do to prolong your life and live it in a healthy manner, in spite of what you've been told about typical lifespans in diabetics and all the ailments we seem to be bound to suffer later in life, wouldn't you do it? I would. And I hope you do too. So I recommend you take the time to read what Dr. Bernstein has to say to you.