No use crying over spilled orange juice (I guess)

So I’m on a plane today in the bulkhead row (the reason that the location of my seat is important is, for those of you that do not know, bulkhead seats have tray tables that come out of the armrest rather than tray tables mounted to the chair in front because, well, there is no row of chairs in front of the bulkhead) and the flight attendant comes by offering drinks.  I’m ready a book and listening to my iPod, but I have my tray table out, so I give my order and the flight attendant brings a can of soda and a glass of ice and puts them on my tray table.  I’m vaguely aware when the flight attendant reaches across me and hands a glass of orange juice to the guy next to me.  Suddenly my right leg is wet and I realize that the guy next to me had dumped his glass of orange juice onto my leg and all over my seat.  Luckily the flight attendant was still next to my row, so he threw me a bunch of napkins and went to get me paper towels.  The guy next to me is just sort of staring (yes, you can assume I am ok with the fact that he was not trying to reach into my seat and dry me off) at me, so I finally ask him to pick up the cup that is still dripping liquid on me and perhaps clean up the ice on my tray table that is melting and spilling more liquid on me.

I finally get all of the liquid cleaned up to the extent I can and realize that the rest of my flight is going to feel sort of like being in a wetsuit due to the non-absorbent properties of the seat cushion and the very absorbent properties of my cotton shorts.  To his credit, the guy next to me did offer to buy me a drink, which I refused at 10:30AM, and then bought himself a drink, making me very happy that the orange juice had not been mixed with vodka when he spilled it on me.

The guy then asked me, while holding his new drank that I was keeping a very wary eye on, if my tray table was the only tray table for the row.  It was at that point that I realized he must have been trying to fit his drink on my tray table when he spilled it; probably thought that I was monopolizing all of the tray table real estate for the entire row.  I showed him his tray table in the arm rest, made sure that he put his drink towards the person in the aisle seat, and went back to my book.

If you can avoid it, I definitely recommend not sitting on a wet airplane seat.  Further, if you do get stuck with a wet airplane seat, I recommend that the liquid substance not be sticky as sticky stuff is even less fun.

Fear and greed in air travel

Shawn Conahan posted about the insanity in trying to get on the plane first when traveling.  This stems from changes that have been made over the years:

• When I was a kid I remember lugging all kinds of suitcases for my parents.  My dad always got us on the plane first so that we could stow all the extra crap that we were carrying.
• When I was in high school, airport screeners started putting size templates on the x-ray machines and had airline representatives available to check baggage that did not fit through the templates and they aggressively enforce the size rule.  There was a big run on baggage that would allow you to pack the maximum amount while adhering to the size guidelines and some people worried less about getting on the planes early because the rules effectively maximized storage space on planes.
• Immediately following 9/11, the TSA enacted extremely strict baggage policies that essentially meant that you were fitting everything into a single bag that fit into the overhead bins, or you checked everything and just carried a small bag that fit under the seat — people were no longer in a rush to get on the plane because everyone knew that there would be plenty of space.
• Between 9/11 and now the TSA loosened their regulations, not quite getting to where it was when I was a kid, but allowing people to bring large backpacks and briefcases as “laptop bags” and extremely large bags as “carry-on”.  Now lines start forming 10 minutes prior to boarding and if you are privileged enough to be in one of the early boarding groups, you have to run a gauntlet of people that give you dirty looks in order to get on the plane early.  I have also noticed that lots of people cheat the system and board early just to ensure that there is space for their bags; there does not seem to be a hard and fast rule on boarding enforcement as different gate agents enforce things completely differently from flight to flight and city to city.

As Shawn points out in his post, this is driven by fear and greed:

The whole plane leaves at the same time, so it’s not like you get there any faster by getting on the plane first.

People are driven by their fear of having no bin space at all, which means having to gate check their carry-on baggage and the ensuing hassle that it represents, not the least likely of which is that your luggage simply doesn’t arrive at all. They are also inversely driven by their greed to have as much bin space as possible to ensure a hassle-free travel experience.

The airlines seem to be do nothing to enforce boarding policies and baggage policies in order to eliminate some of this fear and greed.  In addition I have noticed that many gate agents have started to neglect mentioning early boarding for people needing more time to board the plane, meaning that people with disabilities and/or people traveling with small children are left to fend for themselves and run the gauntlet that I described above.

Unfortunately the consequence of a lack of enforcement is that everyone is forced to play the same game for the same reasons.  Due to my status on United I always board in Seating Area 1 regardless of where my seat is on the plane and because so many people are scared and greedy, I find myself feeling like I need to be on the plane early in order to ensure that I get bin space above my seat (nothing infuriates me more than being in the first few rows and having to stow my bag in the back of the plane because people that are bucking the system have not only boarded when they should not have been allowed to, but have also stowed their baggage in the bins closest to the door rather than above their seat).  Probably the most frustrating is when I sit in bulkhead seats and with no one else in the seats next to me, the overhead bin is full by the time I get on the plane — I did once have a flight attendant clear the overhead bin for my stuff and we found that all of the items in the bin belonged to someone at the back of the plane with an empty bin above his head.

What is fear and greed causing your customers to do?  What are you doing about it?

Link

Do you remember the Flowbee?

That As Seen On TV hair cutting system that essentially consists of a cutting unit with guides that hooks to a vacuum and sucks away the hair that you cut.  I was talking with someone yesterday about the Flowbee (don’t ask why) and postulated that the ultimate Flowbee set up would be one in which the Flowbee was hooked into a central vacuuming system so that you could cut hair in any room of the house without having to even pull out a vacuum cleaner.

Not surprisingly the Flowbee is still for sale — see the link below.

Link

Costco really accepts any return

There was a lady returning month-old cheese at Costco yesterday because it had mold on it — unreal!

Cut vs. track

Most of you drive vehicles that track rather than cut — “track” means that the rear of the vehicle follows very closely within the turning radius of the front tires, while “cut” means that the rear wheel will tend to cut across the back edge of the arc that you make when you turn the front wheels.  A good example of this is to watch how a big UPS box truck’s rear axle makes a turn vs. how a Ford Explorer makes a turn.

You might consider this useful, yet random information and question my point, so here it is:  Unless you drive an exceptionally long vehicle or vehicle that cuts turns, 90% of the time you do not need to swing out and away from the turn that you are going to make.  I almost got smashed into by a guy in a BMW 3–series that swung out into the left lane today to make a not-very-tight right turn into a parking lot.

Consider this a PSA for safer and happier driving. 

Once Sprint starts selling the Treo 700p, they will do a major Treo 650 update

Gadgetell is reporting that once Sprint starts selling the Treo 700p, they will release a major firmware upgrade for the Treo 650, which is very cool because they could just abandon 650 in order to get all of us to upgrade.  Here are some highlights:

• New application: “Get Blackberry Connect” to ease installation and configuration of BBConnect clients.
• FAT32 support (Allows use of the new 4GB SD cards)
• WiFi drivers for Palm’s WiFi card
• Will add Drive Mode support (Allows your device to function as a USB SD card reader.)
• Will free up usable memory by compressing the ROM image
• Firmware update will also enable future “over the air” firmware updates.

There are definitely a bunch more updates, so read the full post for all details.

Link

Blackberry clamshell

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been waiting for someone to get a Blackberry into a reasonable and discreet form factor; I’d like to be able to use Blackberry features and still be able to use the same device as a phone on the weekend without looking like I’m chained to the office.  Lockergnome reports that Samsung has shown a prototype of a Blackberry clamshell and I’m including a picture below.

No word yet on carrier, pricing, or release date.  Also, I’d like to see a picture of the phone next to something else just to get a true size perspective, but aside from all that, I’m still encouraged.

Link

Guy Kawasaki aggregation

Just like the Seth Godin aggregation, here is my Guy Kawasaki aggregation in one post.

Drive your competition crazy:

Companies go astray when defeating the competition becomes more important than taking care of customers. When companies become obsessed with the pursuit of excellence, by contrast, they often reach new levels of greatness. Here's how to avoid the former and achieve the latter.

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Learn how to suck down; remember that the janitor is the guy with keys to everything:

One of the great misconceptions of selling, pitching, and partnering--basically, any time you want to get someone to do something for you--is that you should suck up to the people with the big titles and “A list” designation. Sometimes you do--as you've already read in this blog, but the ability to suck up to the folks who don't have big titles but make the world run is more useful.

Link

Guy's Bozofication Aptitude Test (GBAT):

Link — The post that explains bozos and how to prevent them

Link — The GBAT itself

Seth Godin aggregation

I’ve got a bunch of Seth Godin posts I’ve been savings, to I’m clearing them out in this single post.

Say no to being average; Seth’s books do apply to your company and/or situation.  

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Lessons on razors and blades:

Lesson 1: careful with those policies.
Lesson 2: razors should last a long time and be extremely well supported if you hope to sell more blades.

Link

The hardest thing in your business:

What is the hardest thing in your business?

Does everyone you work with know that it's the hardest thing?

And what percentage of your time do you spend on it?

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Is 80/8 the new 80/20 when it comes to customer service?

A study by Bain & Company found that 80 percent of companies surveyed believed that they delivered a "superior experience" to their customers. But, when customers were asked to indicate their perceptions of the experiences they have in dealing with companies, they rated only 8 percent of companies as truly delivering a superior experience

Link

Price is not really a priority to a lot of people:

check out the parking lot at Costco. Lots of $40,000 or more cars and SUVs in the lot, people who wasted a few shekels worth of gas to drive out of their way to invest an hour of time to save a dollar on a big jar of pickles. These are the same people who will spend an extra $100 on an airplane ticket to save a few minutes in getting home after a meeting.

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Say it very slowly:

Odds are, your very clear, very useful ideas are getting garbled in translation.  Sticking to (and building on) your story works if you do it over time.

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ajax Magazine provides details on publishing Google Calendars on your website

This could be very useful if you’re into this sort of thing.

Link

Bubbles

I first read about Bubbles when Om Malik wrote about it.  Essentially Bubbles is a piece of software for Windows that causes Windows to treat common web applications as desktop applications.  Essentially you load web applications (like Gmail) into the Bubbles application and then they appear in the Taskbar, you can cycle through them using alt-tab, etc.

Very useful.

Link

Kagaroo.tv

If you’ve been to a NASCAR race this season, chances are good that you’ve seen fans walking around with a bright yellow device with a screen and headphones.  Called the Nextel FanView at NASCAR, the device broadcasts streaming video, allows replays, allows the user to see different angles on different teams, etc. for the duration of the race.  Apparently these FanView devices are selling out (well, “renting out,” since they’re not for sale) every race this season.

Not surprisingly, Gadgetell is reporting that Kangaroo.tv, the manufacturer of the FanView devices is setting its sights on other sporting events.  If you make the assumption that the devices cost around $500 (that’s the deposit Nextel requires for renting the device at a race, so it’s probably a little inflated especially with volume purchasing) and Nextel charges $50 per day or $70 per race weekend to rent the device, it’s pretty easy to see that there’s a really good ancillary revenue stream from these kinds of devices.

Link

PixelRoller

Gizmodo reports on the PixelRoller, which essentially is a paint roller that outputs programmed lettering and graphics.  I’m not entirely sure why I think this is so cool, but it just is, so I’m posting about it.

Link

Parallels and Boot Camp

Although old news at this point, I figured that I would provide links to good explanations of both Boot Camp and Parallels.  The simple fact of the matter is that there are multiple options for running Windows on Apple Intel machines.

Link — Boot Camp

Link — Parallels

iTunes single song pricing to stay at $0.99

Engadget reports that single song pricing on the iTunes Music Store will remain at $0.99 per track, keeping the Apple strategy of low-cost, non-subscription music a reality (for now).  Of course the post does not address the fact that record companies will probably continue to make certain tracks only available as part of a full album purchase and/or continue to charge more than $9.99 per CD.

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How to use del.icio.us on your mobile device

Steve Rubel provides full details on the 4 options that are available to you.  Rubel tried it on his Blackberry and it worked fine, so I tried all 4 options on my Treo and everything worked fine on the Treo as well.

Link

Need to back up your Mac?

BackityMac has been updated and finally supports back-up activates to CDs and DVDs with the ability to break back-ups across multiple discs if necessary.

BackityMac remains donationware, so no more excuses for not backing up.

Link

How impactful is Costco on new book sales?

I was just there today and hardcover books were flying off the table like candy (at $15 each), which got my thinking about the impact of the big box retailers on new book sales.  It used to be that people would reserve new copies at bookstores or even pre-ordered online, but now, for most big authors, you can just pop into Costco and pick up a new hardcover at pretty good price.

Additionally, I considered the fact that there is limited book real estate in each Costco store, which leads to questions about what authors get table space.  The well-known authors (i.e., Tom Clancy) will always get table space, but I wonder if publishing houses actually pay for table space at Costco for authors that aren’t quite as well known.

Sprint Music Store goes over 2 million downloads

I still can’t believe that people are willing to pay $2.99 per song.  Due to my involvement in the Sprint Ambassador program, I have played around with the Sprint Music Store and can see how it would be tempting with the sound quality out of some of the phones, the speed of the download to the phone, and the fact that you also can download the track to your computer.  However, $2.99 is just too steep for a single track in my opinion — apparently there are lots of people out there that don’t agree.

2million songs x $2.99 each = $5.98million

Sprint/Nextel partners with Luxor to provide LBS

If you stay at the Luxor in Vegas, have a Sprint/Nextel phone, and provide your cell number, the Luxor will provide you with all kinds of goodies:

“Luxor guests who have provided their wireless phone number during the reservation or check-in process can receive coupons for discounted meals, show tickets or other offers from Luxor directly on their phones. Using the GPS technology built into Sprint phones, Luxor will be able to determine whether the guest is on the property to estimate which discount offers might prove most useful to the guest.”

I wonder exactly how Luxor pulls the GPS info without me giving them permission.

More details about the program on the post at Gadgetell.

Link

For those attempting comment spam on this blog . . .

. . . I am moderating all comments, which means that I get an e-mail with your comment and decide whether to approve or deny it; having an account on Blogger provides very little credibility if you are not commenting on the topic.

Venture Blog's list of web 2.0 companies

All nicely organized by category.  What sucks is that there are no hyperlinks, but the post does point to this post on From Istanbul to Sand Hill Road, which has all the hyperlinks in place.

Link

Google Calendar is live

Big surprise that it’s in beta, right?

I like the interface and have to admit that I’ve only been playing around with it a little bit.  In the calendar settings you can import MS Outlook calendar data, which is very cool, but I’m still waiting for the web-based calendar that is going to provide a continuously syncing conduit to my Outlook calendar.

As expected, the standard Google search interface allows you to search all of your calendar events.

I like the fact that you can drag on dates and time ranges to create events much like you do in MS Outlook.

I’ve got to play around with this some more.

Link

Dual posting

Due to me not paying attention, a lot of my posts from last night got accidentally posted to my House of Blues Denver blog.  Instead of trying to delete a bunch of posts over on the other blog, I’ve just re-posted a bunch of the posts here.

My apologies for any confusion.

What to do when you can't earn a MBA

Rajesh Setty has published a free e-book entitled When You Can’t Earn an MBA. . .  Aside from the fact that you can’t use “an” in front of a word that starts in a consonant, the e-book is a worthwhile read.

Those of you that read this blog frequently have read a lot of my previous posts about MBAs and would encourage you to read this e-book if you’ve enjoyed (or violently disagreed) with any of my previous posts.

Link — e-book download

Link — Rajesh’s post explaining why he wrote it

Are Payless Shoes disposable?

I don’t shop in Payless Shoes, but I get that they essentially rip off uber-trendy designs and sell them ridiculously cheap.  Here’s something to consider: If you needed trendy shoes for a particular event and didn’t necessarily ever care about wearing them again, is it better to spend $14 at Payless or to spend a lot more?

I bet your answer is totally different depending on whether or not you’re male or female.

Mark Cuban's success motivation

It’s just this simple: Don’t Lie to Yourself

Read the rest of Cuban’s post, become enlightened, stop lying to yourself.

QED

Link

everystockphoto

I use tons of stock photos in my presentations, so I was excited to find everystockphoto, which does not host any stock photos, but rather aggregates stock photos from various different services.  Please stop filling your PowerPoints with endless bullets and start using everystockphoto to tell your story with pictures — you can’t beat the price.

Link

Just 50 more laps

Someone that I know that works in car racing told me recently that if they had had just 50 more laps, they would have done even better.  I’m sure that the statement was absolutely true, but the reality is that the number of laps at any given track is determined months and years in advance of the race actually being run.  The statement made me think about the kinds of issues that all kinds of businesses face: trying to win based on the constraints that have already been set.

So how do you win if you can’t get 50 more laps?

Two posts from Guy Kawasaki about Customer Service

Just remember that everyone is in the Customer Service business.

Link — post 1

Link — post 2

Amazon in the webinar game

For just $199 you too can participate in a Patrick Lencioni webinar for 1.5 hours; only a few hours left to sign up.

I’ll be interested to see how Amazon does with these kinds of products; it certainly makes it much easier to purchase webinars by going through Amazon.

Link

WinBackup 1.86 available for free download

It’s the full version for free — download and back up today.

Link

Think your password is secure?

Think again.

Found originally via this digg.

Link

No roaming worldwide?

TJ’s Weblog reports on United Mobile:

"United Mobile is a licensed Mobile Virtual Network Operator and provides worldwide mobile communications services with its own network infrastructure and SIM cards.

United Mobile has developed a revolutionary technology, eliminating expensive roaming costs. United Mobile offers free incoming calls in 80 countries and international outgoing calls at worldwide low rates."

I haven’t heard about United Mobile anywhere else, but this seems like a no-brainer if you are a world traveler (I have gotten some crazy bills just roaming in Mexico).

Check it out.

Link

Feedburner hacks

Steve Rubel posts the ultimate list.

Link

Google Real Estate beta

Shimon Sandler discovered it and posted all about it on his blog.  As expected, it mashes up Google Maps with real estate listings, which is very cool.  Check out his post for all kinds of screenshots.

Link

Thousands of resources on design

No more excuses with all the examples and resources on Design Education.

Hat tip to this post on Presentation Zen.

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EasyWMA for Mac lets you convert WMA files into other audio formats

Originally found at this post on TUAW.  I noticed, just like TUAW, that there is no mention if EasyWMA supports the WMA 10 format, which would be especially useful as more and more content is released in that format.  In any event, for $10 it’s hard to beat the price for all the things that it does.

Link

Kohler creates tiles that have shower head built in

I originally saw this on Luxist and it’s a very cool idea.  Having done a number of bathroom remodels, I would definitely say that if you don’t have good plumbing and tiling knowledge, you probably want to leave installation to a pro — lots of pre-planning exactly where a tile is going to land and installing the appropriate plumbing the correct location.  I’m guessing that the tiles connect to a water source via some sort of flexible tubing to aid in rough-in, but there’s still a fair amount of precision required that does not necessarily exist in other installations.

All of the tiles seem to be in a chrome finish and install over the top of whatever you use a ceramic or marble tiles, so at least you’re not locked into purchasing Kohler tiles to match what the heads are mounted on.  Prices seem to range depending on the type of nozzle, but generally seem to be between $150 and $200.

Having never installed a system with a bunch of heads, I wonder if you actually have to install some sort of pressure boosting system to ensure that you get even flow out of all the heads.

Link

ZiXXo deliver local coupons via RSS

This is just damn cool.

Originally found at this post on TechCruch.

Link

Bloglines sucks today (again)

They introduced a new feature that allows you to collapse the My Feeds pane and view just the feeds your reading, which is cool, but otherwise I’ve had nothing but problems all day long.  Luckily I have some saved content to write about.

SolarSafe wristbands

Track how often you should be reapplying sunscreen for your kids with SolarSafe wristbands (I don’t see any reason why these wouldn’t work for adults) — you wear the wristband and apply the same amount of sunscreen to it as you do to yourself; the band changes color to show total sun exposure and the weakening of sunscreen.

Interesting stuff.

Link

FeedoStyle

FeedoStyle allows you to embed RSS modules in a HTML site — originally found at this post on TechCrunch.

Link

BlogInfluence rates you influence in the blogosphere

My influence is apparently 22,638.4, which seems somewhat high, but really isn’t when I compare it to much more popular blogs.  Oh well.

Check you influence.

Link

SMS your resume?

I have no idea why you would ever want to do this, but SMSresume.com allows you to send your resume via SMS.  Are there any recruiters out there that would actually want to receive a resume in this fashion?

Link

UPDATE: Hang on, I didn’t read enough about the service — apparently you upload your resume via SMS and then you can use SMS to send your full resume to any e-mail address, meaning if you are out and about with only a cell phone and see a job ad you want to respond to, you can immediately do so with your cell phone.  I guess I’d be a little worried about formatting, but maybe that’s not as big a concern.  The service also accepts cover letters.

Dwell Homes -- prefab houses get cool

Check out the Business 2.0 article on Dwell pre-fab homes and chances are good that you’ll be as impressed as I was.  The quality and finish of the Dwell homes make me want to go buy some property and spec one of these houses.

Link

Consumer online back-up by Carbonite

Jeremy Wright interviews the CEO of Carbonite to find out about their consumer back-up service.  Here’s my favorite quote from the interview:

Our slogan is “Backup for Everyone.” We will back up your whole PC for less than $5/mo, no matter how much data you have. And it is simple. One-click install, then it just works quietly in the background any time you’re connected to the Internet. When the little Carbonite lock icon on your PC’s system tray is green, it means that you’re completely backed up.

Love the business model — quality pricing and ease of use are always attractive.

Link

Luxury leasing

Companies are spending lots of money leasing luxury items for various different lengths or time, including single day leases.  Get out of your head that only cars can be leased because there are all kinds of luxury goods producers that are setting up lease terms.

Check out the full article on MSNBC.

Link

Licensing great ideas and understanding real creativity

Seth Godin has 2 posts that are related.  In short, real creativity happens within boundaries in order to create breakthrough ideas and it is then how you tell the story about the idea that differentiates between success and failure.

Read both posts.

Link — licensing great ideas

Link — real creativity

If you get paid to attend lots of meetings, follow this advice

Please read this advice from Seth Godin.

Link

Hotel room motion detectors

I was staying at a hotel in Houston and noticed that there was an infrared motion detector (one that looks exactly like the kind installed with most standard security systems) on the wall.  It took my a little bit of pondering to figure out the purpose.  Do you know what it does? 

It turns the air conditioner on and off.  That probably saves the hotel a bunch of money in electricity costs, which is great for them.  My question: Why they couldn’t they make the sensor blend in so that I didn’t have to see it?

Findory is collecting April Fool's Day online pranks

Please check anything suspicious against their list before perpetuating.

Thank you.

Link

The Virtual Handshake -- free PDF

I’ve read it and it is very worth checking out if you have any interest at all in business networking.

Link

British Airways has a "jet lag advisor"

Hey, it got me to visit their site.

Link

Do you believe the stock market is rigged?

Mark Cuban doesn’t and neither do I.  However, I would like to echo Cuban’s sentiments in case you don’t read his blog regularly:

Is a single research pen mightier than the P&L, Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows? that is the question you must ask yourself.

If you think the answer is yes, and you are an investor, you probably don't know enough about the companies you own stock in to stay in the market. 

If you think the answer is yes, and you are a trader, hopefully you have gotten to the point of knowing you are just winging it anyway, and you win some and lose some.

If you are the CEO of a public company and you think the answer is yes. Please email me with the stock symbol of your company. I want to short it.

Link

Have you ever had to hang drywall on a ceiling?

It’s a big pain in the ass, so I was excited to see this post on Cool Tools about drywall cleats.  Essentially once you get one piece of drywall up you can screw the cleats to the edges of the drywall where you want to put the next piece and use the edge of the cleat to hold the next pieces while you screw them in.

Link

Amazon S3

The true power of Amazon S3 for consumers will be fully realized when people start programming scripts and front-ends that use Amazon’s very cheap storage solution for the back-end.  Russell Beattie reports that there are already people out there writing python scripts to store Flickr photos.  I’d love to have some sort of basic front-end that would allow me to back up anything onto Amazon’s service — it wouldn’t need to be too sophisticated, although drag and drop would be a nice feature.

Link — python script for Flickr photos

.mobi

Russell Beattie has a long post about the “.mobi” domain.  I personally think that .mobi is a great idea because so many mobile site addresses are so damn confusing (see some of the examples on Russell’s post).

The .mobi domain launches May 2006 with an early registration for trademark holders.  If you own a trademark you may want to think about jumping on this before someone else starts snatching up these domains.

Link — .mobi

Link — Russell’s post

Here's a scary thought -- knives the shape and size of credit cards

Read all about it at DefenseTech.

Link

What happens when you create a web advertising component and don't control it?

No need to ask Chevrolet because I’m happy to show you all kinds of examples of how users are generating content that is the exact opposite (I’m sure) of what Chevrolet was hoping for.  The 3rd link below on Fourboros has screenshots just in case Chevy start censoring.

Link

Link

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Pay attention to Latino blogs

Latinos are the fastest growing segment of the population in the United States, so it would seem to make sense that you would want to round out your blog subscriptions with some Latino-focused and/or Latino-authored blogs.  Luckily this post on HispanicTrending provides a link to Josue Sierra’s compilation of Top Latino blogs.

Check it out.

Link

I hate group e-mails, so I was excited to hear about 9cays

I first read about 9cays on TechCrunch and I’ve played around with the unregistered part of the service (instant conversation with 3 people, no sign-up required); I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with the interface.  I really need to register to explore more of the functionality, but I just haven’t had a chance.  The only things that give me pause about this service are:

• No password-protected conversations (yet)
• Can’t find the Privacy Policy

Check it out.

Link

Lots of buzz about Orb

Orb is a free alternative to the SlingBox, but is a software solution rather than a combined hardware and software solution like SlingBox.  I’ve played around a lot with the Sling device and have to say that I have been very impressed even though it costs around $250.  Also, the Sling device is platform-independent whereas Orb is only available right now for Windows XP and all of my home equipment is Macintosh.

Anyway, check it out if your home system is Windows XP and you’re looking for a free remote media streaming solution.

Link

Competition for Zillow

I wrote about Zillow several weeks ago when it launched.  Now Real Estate ABC has launched as Zillow’s competition.  I ran a few comparative searches on both services of the property I own and properties I have owned and the results are different — I would recommend using both together as a resource when buying and selling a home.

Link

Holy crap I've been busy

I’ve taken over some new job duties and between that and travel, I have had enough time to even think about blogging.  However, I have been reading blog posts when I have gotten time and now that I’ve got a few minutes on a weekend, I’m going to start cleaning out my store-up topics.