August 2008
10 posts
Who is Steve Gotz...
The cool thing about our Effective Managers class is that we can take all kinds of entertaining personality tests. This is a new test that they are still developing called the Saville Wave…I have no affiliation with the company, just thought the results were funny enough to share…evidently I am a “Transforming Thinker”…pretty cool huh! I have to say they have the best...
Ready for Life Scrobbling...
Ran into a classmate yesterday who had just gotten back from Germany. He had been following my Twitter updates while I was in the APAC…which made for an interesting conversation. Was like he was on the trip with me so we were able to dive right-in pretty quickly without having to rehash all of the surface level details. Maybe the current crop of hardware devices, new media and 2.0...
The future of travel planning...
A few months ago I was lucky enough to help a very promising start-up prepare for the “Idea Idol” competition run by Oxford Entrepreneurs. The company is called Zoombu and it is run by a Oxford DPhil named Alistair Hann. If you have ever tried to plan a vacation in Europe, you will have experienced the problem that Alistair is trying to address. It can take hours trying to sort through...
Can Ambien Silence Your Rooster...
I don’t know what to think of Sanofi Aventis’ new AmbienCR commercials which tease people with a 30-second TV spot that features a rooster (engaging in odd nighttime rituals) and then directs them to SilenceYourRooster.com. If you haven’t seen the spots they are posted on the “SYR” page. The campaign was designed by Saatchi & Saatchi and while it is certainly...
Ikea moving into Erotic Art...
Not too long ago my wife and I were strolling the halls of a U.S. Ikea store and stumbled upon this little bit of creative work in the “art supplies” section. Now I know what some people are thinking, but once you get past the sophomoric humor you do have to admire the creativity and planning that went into this piece of work. In case you’re wondering which state was home to such...
First Roomba...Now the Gut Robot
While we might not be capable of the really cool stuff they did in Dennis Quaid’s 1987 movie Innerspace, scientists today are pushing the frontiers of miniaturization and robotic health care. Over at Technology Review they have a write-up on a swallowable robot developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon. As the robot moves into the intestines, scientists are able to activate small anchors...
Teaching a One-Buttock Lifestyle
If you haven’t already seen Benjamin Zander’s passionate talk at TED 2008 you should take a look! Without seeing it first you’ll think I’m a nut while reading this post. My son (Owen) is 18 months and I spend a lot of time watching and helping him discover the outside world. From an early age he was mesmerized by music; as a baby his favorite activity was putting iTunes on...
What's behind is as important as....
Foxconn is the OEM for Apple’s iPhone, which I believe comes out of their Shenzhen factory. Over at MacRumors there is a report of a new iPhone being delivered with a few snapshots of a girl who is actually in the process of prepping one on the production line. If it is a legitimate report I am quite sure it was not intentional, but perhaps it should have been. Think of all those stickers on...
Engine of the Future...
Have been spending some time thinking about future scenarios and have an interesting idea for the restaurant of the future… Imagine walking into a restaurant and sitting down at a table. In a split second the table illuminates, welcoming you to the restaurant by first name and inquiring about your current mood. At the same time the RFID reader in the table, scans your tag (embedded in your...
Not another Google post...
You would think this blog was all about me trashing Google for some of their questionable behaviors, but it’s really not…”just trust me!” As we move into a world with ubiquitous cloud computing, where your entire digital presence lives everywhere and nowhere, what happens when a company decides it doesn’t like you anymore? It recently happened to Nick Saber, who came...