Insiders: 22 Confessions Of A Former Dell Sales Manager - Consumerist

 

Stuff you may not know:

1. Promotion cycle dates - Thursday is the first day of new promotions. If you go to the web site at 11:45 p.m. on Wednesday night and again on 1 a.m. on Thursday morning, the promotions are different. The catalog promotions run from the start of the month to the end. Additionally, on holiday weekends (Memorial Day, 4th of July, etc.) there may be special sales/coupons for the three-day weekend.

2. Promotion styles - Typically, one week will be cash off while the next will be percentage off. If you liked cash off but the current promotion is percentage off, check the "As Advertised-Newspaper" section. These typically have a remnant of the prior week's promotion as well as better versions of the current week's promotions. Cash off helps for cheap systems, percentage off helps with high-end.

3. Dell Customer Care can price match within 24 hours from the time of order. Combining #1 and #2 from this section, if you are unsure of the value of the week's promotion but need to order something, order it Wednesday night. Check the promotions for the new week on Thursday. If its better, call and price match. If its not, sit back and feel smug for no reason

4. Dell corporate email - As of December 2006, everybody (save Michael Dell) working for Dell U.S. has the same form of email address: firstname_lastname@dell.com. Michael Dell's does not follow this pattern and is changed immediately whenever the current one is discovered by lower-level employees or the public.

5. Dell's internal fiscal calendar is different from other corporations. As their fiscal year ends in January or February (I honestly don't remember), the best deals will typically be found in late January and all of February. Also, buying during the last week of any quarter typically means free or deeply-discounted 2nd day or overnight shipping, and the quickest order turnaround. There are no steep discounts for the holidays, though they will run a few weeks of consecutive percentage off promotions during the back to school season in August.

6. The DFS servers are notoriously flimsy. If you apply for DPA (why would you?) and it is unable to complete, it means the server is overloaded but your credit rating has already been pinged. Reapplying will not fix the issue but it will repeatedly ping your credit. The system is unable to verify cell phone numbers and will automatically reject based on the use of one.

Fun facts about the Kiosks:

1. Why should I shop at a kiosk? I can order from home. - A very valid point, but the majority of kiosk customers are morons who think computers are magic boxes that let you see pictures of cats in funny poses while someone steals your AOL password. There's a few reasons why an educated person aka Consumerist reader should hit the kiosk up:

a. Discounts - There are several ways the Dell Direct kiosks can attempt to match or beat an online deal.
i. Closing tools - Dollar off coupons that depend on how much you spend. Spend $600=$25 off; $1200=$50 off; $1,600=$75 off; $2,000=$100 off.
ii. Refuse to Lose - 10% coupons meant to allow a sales rep to seal a large deal. These can only be used when the computer price alone is $1,600 or more. It can not be used on accessories, TVs or multiple computers whose aggregate value is above $1,600. This must be requested from the Manager on Duty (MOD) through an email request, and will generally be credited before the computer is shipped.
iii. DPA coupon - Dell will already give you 2% off your order if, at the payment screen you click the link that offers 2% off when you pay with DPA. The kiosks have a 3% DPA closing tool that can be used also, giving a discount of slightly over 5%. This works for all DPA purchases including TV's, monitors and cameras.
iv. The closing tools are nothing but individual-use coupons entered at the shopping cart. They are invalid on the home and small business site. Reps are supposed to use them as a last-ditch effort, but as long as you're not buying a sub-$600 system, they should offer them without your having to ask.

b. Printer cartridges - No you can't buy them there...officially. They are non-inventoried items that many kiosks have a heady supply of due to inexplicably random deliveries from corporate. If you're in a pinch and need one that day, go (don't call), get a feel for the employees, and if you think they're cool with it, offer cash.

2. There are two levels of kiosk employees. There are those hired by Spherion, creatively known as "Spherion reps," and then there are Dell Branded Reps, or DBRs. DBRs are effectively the management of the individual kiosk, and are the only ones able to work uncompensated overtime. Deal with them if possible, because they are very likely to be there the next time if you have a question. They've also been there much longer than any other kiosk staff, so they likely have a much better skill set for finding bargains.
3. If you have a problem with DPA, the kiosk has a specific email contact for Dell Financial. Problems can be resolved much much faster.
4. The Dell Direct kiosk website is configured differently than the others. There are "bundles" (linked from the main page under the "start shopping" graphics) and there are "non-bundles". Bundles, so called because...you guessed it...accessories and service are already bundled in, have a higher profit margin. They are also the most customizable system on the website. Non-bundles carry lower profit margins but may be limited. The salesman will always start from a bundle. Let them finish, then make them search the non-bundles for an equal system with a better price.
5. Kiosk reps are judged on the following:

a. Unit price: The average sale price of each reps transactions. $1,200 was the goal as of March, 2007 but $1,600 was preferred.
b. Bundle percentage: Dell varies on what percentage of all sales it wants to be from the "bundle" page depending on the month and who you're talking to. It is typically between 40% and 60%.
c. Service: Each PC/Notebook sale is expected to have a 3 year warranty attached. Typically, the number is between $160 and $200.
d. E&A: This is the percentage of the sale that was spent on accessories. Each transaction should have between 5% and 10%, or one printer and cable per PC or one bag, lock and travel mouse per Notebook.
e. DPA: Dell Preferred Account purchases. The expected percentage of DPA sales has climbed in the past years. It currently hovers between 40% and 60%, and they want a 1 to 1 customer to submitted application ratio.

6. Secret shoppers - The kiosks are secret shopped constantly, and they're playing of a 20-question scorecard. Don't be surprised if the salesman asks really base/borderline-insulting questions if you act interested. They think you're a secret shopper.
7. Communication - Complaints made about Dell to the kiosk reps go unheard. There is no place for the rep to turn around and report the complaint to. Communication between reps and even district management is limited, and reps are discouraged from calling the regional management. Store, district and regional management are all run from email and cell phones. It is not uncommon for the kiosks to receive three answers from three departments, with the end result being all three statements retracted without a solution in place.

(Photo: Josh Swannack)

UPDATE: Corrections offered by a current Dell tech support rep:

* Two years is typically the lifecycle from "new product" to "no longer produced/no more refurbs" though YMMV - If a system is no longer shipping a used/refurbished is always sent, though the refurb should be equal or better as far as hardware is concerned. As of this writing if a system is exchanged, via either Complete Care warranty or concession, and the system is still a currently shipping model a new system is to be sent.

* On all but the two lowest warranties (90 day and 1 year limited), warranty repairs will be done in the home. - Dell no longer sells a 90 day warranty 1yr is the least you can get. Also with desktop machines at home service is the only option. Notebooks on the other hand may have a return to depot or an at home service contract.

* OS Backup Disk - Dell no longers requires the purchase of the backup disk. They are included with every computer that ships with a Windows OS. On the subject of hard drives, if your drive fails within the first year of purchase you should be sent an imaged drive that will contain everything except for your royalty applications (Office ect). If for some reason you lose the media, you can request the OS, Resource/Drivers disk, and the applications disk at no cost to you. (Even if you are no longer under warranty Dell will send you an OS disk) Note that the Resource/Drivers and Applications disk is only available for currently shipping systems. Should you need to reinstall youll need to download the drivers from support.dell.com from another computer and copy them over. Last, within the first year of purchase, if you need to reinstall the OS and you can't access the recovery image, or if it was deleted for some reason, you can request an System Recovery CD that does pretty much the same thing. (Not available on notebooks due to the Media Direct partition.)

Source: Insiders: 22 Confessions Of A Former Dell Sales Manager - Consumerist

Where's the UPS? Coaster Dangles Riders Upside Down - for 30 minutes

 I'm having a wierd evening tonight.  Arriving in Saint John, New Brunswick (not to be confused with St. John's, Newfoundland) on business, I was immediately surprised at the scale of our operations here.  We have a large billboard at the airport, prominently located above the luggage claim conveyor. 

The only luggage claim conveyor.

There are quite a few companies in Saint John.  The Saint John Board of Trade lists over 69 pages of them, at 10 a page that's 690 members.  So us having an ad with only 10-12 others in the airport near the baggage claim is probably something.  Not sure what that something is yet.

Booking my hotel was easy.  When I search for 4-star hotels on Trip Advisor, I get two.  So I book the Delta, since I'm sick of hearing the Hilton name right now.  Last time we stayed at a nice B&B which has apparently shut it's doors permanently.

It's 12:30am in New Brunswick, and as we are driving along in the darkness I try and make out the sights.  Traffic is crazy (we wait for two cars speeding past the the airport before we can get out of the driveway) and the night is clear.  Apparently it is a fluke, since the last few days have been pea-soup foggy.

I can already tell that things have changed a bit since I was last here a few years ago.  There seems to be more gas stations and Tim Hortons shops.  That's about the bit that's changed.

We drive by the largest landmark in the province, the oil refinery with I-R-V-I-N-G spelled out on the tanks.  This must be the largest vanity license plate in existence.  I wonder if they do tours?

Here's the sign on the night they were replacing the bulbs.

We arrive at the Hilton first, then head to the Delta.  I make my way to the front desk, where a young lady is ahead of me checking in.  She speaks with a french (maybe Parisian) accent.  The front desk clerk searches for her reservation, and finds it, only it is a booking for the Delta ... St. John's.  That's St. John's - NEWFOUNDLAND.

(plane that is not going to Newfoundland below.)

Apparently she had booked the wrong connecting flight to get back to Paris.  This is probably a weekly occurence, as the clerk was really calm as she called the airport to try and book a flight for the next day to Paris.

Could have been worse though.

A dozen riders on a roller coaster spent half an hour hanging upside down — 150 feet above the ground — after a power outage shut down the attraction.

Source: Blackout leaves coaster riders dangling - Yahoo! News

Where's the backup generators in this theme park?  What happened to gravity bringing them down?

The grammatical screw-up wasn't the wierdest thing that happened tonight though.   As I entered the elevator after returning from a late dinner and a bit of grocery shopping at the only restaurant that was open (Subway - going to try the fresh lobster salad tomorrow), I noticed dirt on the floor.  I came to the third floor, the door opened, and there was some more dirt.  This wasn't mud from outside - it looked like topsoil.  Following the trail around the corner led me to the ice machine.

An ice machine with a plant shoved in it.

Stephen King Visits Toronto from the 11th Province of Maine

Tonight I got to see Stephen King, David Cronenberg, Clive Barker, Margaret Atwood, and others as Stephen received his lifetime achievement award at the Luminato festival in Toronto. George Strombolopolous hosted.

I have read Stephen King books since I was 9 years old, my first one being Skeleton Crew. I can still picture in my head the story of the raft, and the oil slick that pulled people to their deaths - it still gives me the shudders. I dropped out of Grade 13 English the first day because the teacher said that Stephen King would not be considered a "real writer" in her class. I ended up taking Grade 12 College English and getting a scholarship.

This was the first time a non-Canadian has won the Canadian Booksellers Lifetime Achievement Award, and the first time Stephen King has visited Toronto. King cracked that he thought that Maine should be considered the 11th province of Canada anyway. They could take advantage of all the Canadian tourists who wanted to hit the "southern province" and they wouldn't get people from Ohio or Michigan who complain about the cold water. (Well, the dollar is almost at par and passport rules have been relaxed a bit...)

Margaret Atwood made the first "toast". Clive Barker came on wearing some designer jeans, and in a hoarse, nervous voice pronounced his entire life's successes to be due to some words Stephen spoke to him after his first book was published. Then King took the stage with Chuck Klosterman, in an interview setting.

King spoke about some of his favourite bands (AC/DC, Metallica, Neil Young, Bob Dylan) and some of his favourite books (too many to remember, though Life of Pi and Lovecraft stuck out, his site has some recommendations). Klosterman asked if King's style of writing was similar to an AC/DC song. King responded that he tried to write his books like those songs that are so in-your-face that they erase all of your thoughts and tell you to "shut the hell up and listen!". He would do his 'day-writing' on his current book, and then use the night for rewriting and other "clean-up" projects. It is during these rewrites that he removes pieces of the story that may cause the reader to "take a break."

He talked about how he is slowing down in his "old age" and blamed it on his computer. (He probably has internet access, the ultimate time-killer). He said his most productive days were on the IBM Selectric that his publisher gave him. His stream-of-conciousness writing style fitted the word processor nicely. I can see how squiggly-red lines and a blinking cursor can screw up a writer's creative juices; that's what editors are supposed to be for.

His favourite children (books)? Lisey's Story. The Cell. Rose Madder. Oddly enough, those were three of only a few books I have not read by him.

King was in an accident in 1999 that left him in serious condition. He talked about his accident in vivid, graphic detail, saying "I remember certain aspects of the accident. The red blood pooling in my lap. The twinkles of light on the broken glass. My leg bent at odd angles with a round knob sticking out, which turned out to be a bone. I was just glad I didn't rip my jeans."

King also talked about what fame was like, and the only time he earned an honest buck. The King family were travelling through Miami when he noticed a car broken down by the side of the road. He pulled over to see if they needed some help. The man, a white-haired, "Bob Barker-type" gentleman wearing a suit and tie, walked up to him and said "Son, do you want to make a quick $10?" King ended up changing the flat tire, with the man's wife still in the car, her in a fur coat with the air conditioning on. "It's Miami, what do you expect?"

The most eventful part of the night happened when my brother and I were leaving. As we walked past a set of elevators, a security guard got on her walkie-talkie, and it looked like something was up. The elevator doors opened and out walked David Cronenberg, Tabitha King, Clive Barker, Margaret Atwood, and others, but no Stephen King!

Then I realized that the twenty-something kid I saw with the goofy grin was actually Stephen. I think I need to borrow your glasses, Son.

Thanks to Torontoist for giving me the info!

Hold on to your horrors, scary story-lovers: Stephen King is scheduled to make his first official Canadian appearance to receive a life-time achievement award from the Canadian Booksellers Association.

Source: Torontoist: King Booked!

100 years later, Tesla's dream of wireless power becomes reality

 Radio, Microwave, Wifi, and now WiTricity:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers made a 60-watt light bulb glow by sending it energy wirelessly — from a device 7 feet away — potentially heralding a future in which cell phones and other gadgets get juice without having to be plugged in.

The breakthrough, disclosed Thursday in Science Express, the online publication of the journal Science, is being called "WiTricity" by the scientists.

Source: MIT team claims wireless power demo - Yahoo! News

Winter visited 470+ Starbucks and counting

Winter (soon to be The Artist Formerly Known As Winter, or just draw a picture of a siren instad of his name) knows about caffeine. 

He knows about drinking 28 cups of coffee and 2 espresso shots in a day, and the subsequent itching and gutrot it produces. 

Winter knows Starbucks.

Taking the definition of obsessive-compulsive to a new level, Winter has travelled the globe to try and visit every Starbucks known to man.  In the spirit of David Gorman (who tried to meet every Dave Gorman) or my long lost relative Ray Sears III (who has cataloged over 50,000 relatives with the surname Sears since 1976),  Winter's trying to do something different.  His challenge is never-ending, since they are looking at adding over 200 stores a month to the chain.  See SBUX's conference call transcript from November, 2006.  Current count is 13,728 locations in 39 countries.

When I visited China a couple of years ago, the most disturbing find for me was the Starbucks located within the Forbidden City in Beijing.  The experience was like I had just whitewater rafted down the Grand Canyon to the most secluded spot in the desert, and there was a Starbucks serving ice caps.  I picked up a large dark coffee for $7.00 (I ignore the Starbucks lingo when ordering) and it tasted like any other Starbucks, only twice as expensive and a bit culturally offensive to me.  I did however like the Subway franchise in Beijing - it serves beer. Jared probably wouldn't have lost as much weight if they served beer in North America...

The whole experience reminded me of Homer and Apu travelling up the remote mountains of India to visit Kwik-E-Mart's head office.

They walk up to the sliding doors. A bell dings as they enter and approach a man with white hair and a flowing white beard. He drinks a Squishee, and a sign behind him announces, "The Master Knows All (except combination to safe)."

Apu: He is the benevolent and enlightened president and C.E.O. of Kwik-E-Mart -- and in Ohio, Stop-O-Mart. He is the one we must ask for my job back.

Master: Approach, my sons. [they do] You may ask me three questions.
Apu: That's great, because all I need is one --
Homer: Are you _really_ the head of the Kwik-E-Mart?
Master: Yes.
Homer: Really?
Master: Yes.
Homer: You?
Master: Yes. I hope this has been enlightening for you.
Apu: But I must --
Master: Thank you, come again.
Apu: But --
Master: Thank you, come again.

The two of them leave, disappointed.

Recently there has been calls to close the outlet, based on the comments coming out of a Chinese blogger's site.  I think that an outlet just outside the gates is fine, but putting one inside is like having a McDonalds inside a church - it just isn't right.

Here are some stats as of June 4, 2007 on Winter's quest:

Updated June 4, 2007, 14:30 GMT-5. Location: New York City. Upcoming: Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina.
Starting mileage: 15350
Time traveling: 73 days, 5 hours (includes 5 days Scrabble)
Days since last speeding ticket (4/6/06): 427
Days sans shower: 2. Odor level: (fresh NATURAL gamy ripe pungent homeless noxious radioactive)
Miles driven: 26423 + 425 (Hawaii) + 50 (Alaska) - 905 - Port Jefferson Scrabble
New stores visited: 499visited not visited
Stores skipped stratragically: 14 (+ maybe 1 new Ottawa)
Stores opened in North America. since trip start: 247!!! (104 along path already traveled) (WTF!!! THAT'S, LIKE, 20 A WEEK!!! HAVE THEY NO MERCY???)
Stores missed due to Cabal's evil machinations: 2
Stores missed b/c they didn't answer the @#$%^& phone so I didn't know they were open!!!: 1
Stores missed due to poor scheduling: 1
Stores rephotographed: 427
Recognition ratio: 182/473 (26 stealth)
Visual recognition: 11
Visual recognition of DVD: 1
Unmistakably (even by my paranoid self) negative reactions: 6
Coffee consumed: (X - 27) * 4 + 104 = 1992 oz + 52 oz French press + 3 shot + 8 oz misto + 11 DoubleShot + 2 Top Pot au laits + 4 oz Blenz + 8 oz Tim Hortons
Stores where I was refused a sample: 1
Spent on coffee: $66.19
Spent on gas: $2,482.25 (JEEPERS!!!) - $1.50
Spent on tolls/parking: $146.92
Parking tickets: 2 ($39 + $15 (won't pay) + $65 (might pay))
Spent on airfare: $398.16 + $215.14 change fee + $219.70 + $105 change fee + $34.90 + $460.80 + $80.43 (parking)
Spent on ferry: $83.48 (Canadian)
Spent on rental cars: $167.08
Other expenses: $105.76 (tires) + $4.13 (sheet, toothpaste) + $71.62 (tire)
DVDs sold (at $20, $14 profit): 40
Medication: 8 fake cold pills, 16 real Nyquill, 20 fake Benadryl, 28 fake Excedrin (2 to blunt effect of hunger, 2 to get thru movie), 3 x 10 mg Loratadine, 6 x 30 mg pseudoephedrine hydrochloride, 3 x 10 mg phenylephrine hydrochloride

But the most impressive list on his site is the stores he has not visited.

His other obsession is documenting his Scrabble travels along with his Starbucks travels.  Because one obsession isn't usually enough.

I once worked for a guy who has perhaps the largest collection of Rubik's cube-related material on the internet.

 A bit of a sad fact was that I never actually saw him solve a cube, though I did see his binder of patterns and permutations for solving it.   Obsessions are strange things.

Mark doesn't have a documentary yet but Winter does.  He has released a DVD documentary, Starbucking.  Here's where to get it.

Check out Winter's 6,000 or so photos of Starbucks locations around the world. 

I see a coffee-table book in his future.

MAKE: Blog: The Desktop Factory - Fab@Home

 

 

Roboticist Hod Lipson wants you to stop shopping and use his portable 3-D printer to make your own stuff. As a child, Hod Lipson lost Lego pieces constantly. Now the 39-year-old director of Cornell University’s Computational Synthesis Lab can build replacement parts on the spot. Completed last year, Lipson’s fabrication machine, called a “fabber,” can print thousands of three-dimensional objects, everything from toy parts to artificial muscles, using dozens of materials, including PlayDoh, peanut butter and silicone, by following simple directions sent to it by a PC. About the size of a microwave, the fabber costs $2,300 to assemble—roughly one tenth the cost of commercial 3-D printers. Lipson and his graduate student Evan Malone recently launched a Web site called Fab@Home (fabathome.org) to teach people how to build their own fabbers and encourage them to share their blueprints online.

Source: MAKE: Blog: The Desktop Factory - Fab@Home

The Sear's Craftsman Compucarve

I think it's spelled Sears without the apostrophe... anyway this machine sounds incredible.  Think a printer that uses wood instead of ink.  So the cartridges are a bit more expensive, and it may get quite loud, but how about having a picture of your son or daughter's favourite cartoon character on a wooden toy box you built for them? 

I wonder if this thing will do tattoos?

Review of the Craftsman Compucarve

The computerized Craftsman Compucarve is one of the most powerful and innovative Craftsman tool products I have seen in an extremely long time. The Craftsman Compucarve is on the very cutting edge of new and innovative technology. This powerful computerized Sear's machine is not just an ordinary router, but the Compucarve is a powerful computerized creative machine for the Craftsman tool person who has everything. The innovative and powerful technology of the  Compucarve is so amazing! You will be totally amazed by the possibilities of the new and innovative product.

With the computerized Craftsman Compucarve and the powerful innovative technology built right in to this product, you can design your very own templates from powerful software provided for your computer by Sears. Another added feature of the new and innovative computerized Craftsman Compucarve is the ability to take a picture of anything, download into the software on your computer, and carve an exact duplicate of the photo into a piece of wood. 

The sky is truly the limit with new powerful Craftsman Compucarve! You could take a picture of old Victorian Woodwork and make a duplicate copy for your own home. The powerful innovative and computerized technology built into this new woodworking product is amazing! I believe the Craftsman Compucarve will change the face of woodworking forever.

Source: The Sear's Craftsman Compucarve

Adam Sandler Makes a Surprise Visit on Price Is Right

Bob Barker shows the classic scene in the movie "Happy Gilmore" and Adam Sandler makes a surprise visit on the show.

Source: Adam Sandler Makes a Surprise Visit on Price Is Right

Microsoft Surface - Behind the Scenes with VIDEO - Touchscreen, Multi Touch Coffee Table - Ballmer - Jeff Han - PlayTable - Popular Mechanics

 

The technical info on Microsoft Coffee Table.  A multi-touch touchscreen interface.  A dual-core computer.  A projection display. 

This would be fun for kids of all ages.

Link to Microsoft Surface - Behind the Scenes with VIDEO - Touchscreen, Multi Touch Coffee Table - Ballmer - Jeff Han - PlayTable - Popular Mechanics

Microsoft Surface - Keep your hands clean

 Microsoft Surface provides a 30" touchscreen in a table-top arcade-style format that is also bluetooth-aware.

Drop $10k and you can get your own.

Link to Microsoft Surface

I guess it's all about the software and the bluetooth-aware stuff, but couldn't you "roll your own" with a cheap Dell & this $700 32" touchscreen?

http://www.nextag.com/Elo-Touchsystems-ELO-32-79496386/prices-html

Panoramic views of streets in major cities - Google Maps

 

This is just nuts... dragging the yellow guy around blue streets brings up a 360 degree view of the area.  What's next - go inside buildings?  Walk around the area? 

Link to 94111 - Google Maps

Scoble and a VC confirm I need my tinfoil hat on...

 

There was a conspiracy theory going on that the CIA runs Facebook for their own covert operations on US citizens.  Actually, it's probably more like corporations will soon run Facebook with their marketing dollars.

Why is Facebook so valueable? Well, I had lunch with a venture capitalist today and he explained to me just how much information and how much time the average Facebook user is putting into the system. It’s going to let Facebook deliver very targeted advertising, he told me. Much more than many more popular sites. Look at Digg, for instance, Can you figure anything out about the users of Digg? No. So, how will you send targeted advertising to them?

Source: Scobleizer

Just read a comment thread and you will figure out stuff about Digg users.

Like allthewhile, who probably drives a Hummer and eats hamburgers and steak for breakfast.

Omg now the CIA knows I like the counting crows and voted republican. HOLY CRAP!

Not sure why you would want to target your product to the girl I went to school with in 2nd grade anyway...

Microsoft and Facebook Announce Partnership

 

Microsoft and Facebook have announced a partnership deal. This comes right after Facebook opened up its API to third party developers. The Facebook platform is already available in the new mashup tool Popfly that Microsoft announced a week back. Microsoft has also released some walkthrough videos and a Developer Toolkit for Facebook on its site. Dan Fernandez and Sean Alexander have a rundown on what has been announced so far.

Source: Microsoft and Facebook Announce Partnership

Hurry up and approve my Popfly request Microsoft!

Here's some of the features that Facebook will integrate with... can you say Poke Me to Play Halo?

• Popfly Facebook Block: Available immediately,
  we’ve added the Facebook block which prodices access to Facebook data
  including the User Profile, Friends, Photos, Photo Albums, and Events.
• Leverage Existing Blocks:
  You can build Facebook applications using Popfly blocks like Flickr,
  Digg, Soapbox, Twitter, Windows Live, Xbox Live, and Virtual Earth.
• Silverlight Support:
  Another big win here is Facebook has native support for Easily build
  next generation applications using Silverlight. With 24 million users
  and 40 billion page views a month, this is a huge, huge win for getting
  native Silverlight support on Facebook
• Visual Studio Support: The Facebook Developer Toolkit enables developers to build applications for Windows, Web, or Microsoft Office.
• Distribution of the Facebook Developer Toolkit.
  The FDT was developed by Microsoft to wrap the Facebook API into a
  managed component. Through this component, developers now will be able
  to drag ‘n drop a Facebook component onto the component tray in Visual
  C# Express , Visual Basic Express and Visual Web Developer (for both
  Whidbey and Orcas). Users will be provided all the source code, sample
  applications including a WPF app and detail documentation.

• Co-branded Landing Page
  on the Facebook developer website. At this site, visitors will be able
  to see Microsoft Visual Studio Express and Microsoft Popfly links.
  Additionally, a series of new pages were developed called Showcase on the Visual Studio Express site.

Now this sounds like fun.  Somebody get a back end database working with this stuff...

Actually, the tinfoil-hat-wearing neophyte voice in me is saying DELETE YOUR FACEBOOK PROFILE NOW!  This could open up a can of whup-ass on you when it comes to marketers and spammers parsing friend lists for leads and marking up graffiti walls.   The top app installed this week was iLike - how about iDentityTheft next?

Hopefully the good results will outweigh the bad.

This should be a big driver for Silverlight adoption AND Facebook adoption - not to mention MS lets you host the application for free with 4GB of space.

Picture all of the web space providers cringing at the thought... well, probably not yet.

MySpace v. Facebook: “It’s Not A Decision. It’s an IQ Test”

How about 400,000 registered customers on your second day of business.  Holy crap! What would you do? Since Facebook's largest customer base is from my home region of Toronto, it makes for an interesting way to get local eyeballs.

Facebook’s timing is perfect. They just released an API that gives third party developers deep access to Facebook functionality and it’s 20 million users. Not only can these third party startups get a widget placed on people’s Facebook profiles, but they can also get viral distribution through users’ news feeds and access core Facebook features. Using the tools that Facebook made available, developers could build new versions of some of Facebook’s own applications, like Facebook Photos. Users can then remove those default applications and add the new ones. Like Microsoft with Windows, Facebook is now competing with application developers on its own platform.

This isn’t all just talk, either. The most popular third party application, iLike, has nearly 400,000 users just a couple of days after launching and 10x what they had just last Friday. That means nearly 5% of Facebook’s users have now included it on their profile.

Source: MySpace v. Facebook: “It’s Not A Decision. It’s an IQ Test”

Another viral application is Silverlight.  Microsoft recently launched 4GB worth of free disk space for Silverlight apps that are zipped up.  I just setup my Silverlight Blog and started trying out Microsoft Expression and Microsoft Blend again, after a bit of a break.  I'm no graphic designer, but since you can use .net in the background I'm going to have to brush up on my Photoshop skills again.

Let's see if I can make both of these pieces play together.

Wavesmash's blog and French TV

To be honest, I never really got into my Live Spaces blog over at Microsoft.  Yes, it has a better interface for editing posts.  It has _cool social networking_ features.  I can put up widgets and wadgets showing stuff like my sister's art work and feeds I read.

Unfortunately Blogger came first, and when you're first it's pretty easy to get to the top.  When you're second, you're already at the bottom.

I have a couple other blog sites out there that will eventually get mashed into www.wavesmash.com mostly for my own tracking purposes, and I will probably install some custom blogging software, however until then this is where the posts stay.

One problem with having multiple blogs is that people are posting on my Spaces blog and I'm not seeing the comments.  Like this one about ORB TV.

Ted Shelton

BUT -- we just announced today that it is available WORLDWIDE -- not US only... and introduced our first foreign language edition, French, at http://mon.orb.com You can stream video, audio, and photos using Orb anywhere in the world. The only thing we have to add on a country by country basis is TV listings and that is coming... best, Ted Shelton (Orb)

April 06 12:21 AM
(http://tedshelton.blogspot.com)

Source: Wavesmash's blog

I like marketers who comment personally on my blog with the features that my posting saw as a deficiency.  It's really neat that they take the time to do this and try and correct me when I'm wrong or my posting is no longer accurate, even though chances are nobody but the marketer and I saw the posting anyway.  Now that is targeted advertising!

But what's with the comment on French, c'ist vous plait?  Just because English & French are the official languages of Canada, do you think I watch French TV, or can even remember how to properly spell c'est vous plait? (Google comes up with Cyst Vous Plait, which sounds like some sort of disease)

Mon dieu!

Of course, one of my French-Canadian friends felt the same way when I asked him what part of Quebec he was from.  He would launch a tirade at me on how there are over 50,000 French-Canadians in Toronto, many of them who were actually born there.  I am still not sure if he was actually born in Toronto, or right about the number, though it was fun hearing him go off every time I asked him.

According to Expat-Today.com...

More than 100,000 French people are installed in Canada. Each year about 3500 French people choose to go and live there, and more particularly in the province of Quebec.

I am sure that we installed many more people from the US, South America and Asia than France last year. 

One thing I noticed with Orb was the download experience - why do you need to get an executible for the particular country you are in?  How come you can't just pick the country?  This better not be another English/French thing.  What if I travel between countries... which one do I get?  Plus, when I download my English-Canadian executable, the first message after I login is Let's get your TV listings - Please type your ZIP code.  Zut alors!  We are in Canada, eh?  Canadian's have a thing called the Postal system, which uses special "Postal Codes" to track where to ship packages, and how to set your TV guide.

Oh well, I can still translate US to Canada and figure out what the heck they are looking for and give the marketers my cable provider information and a fake postal code near me.

The other thing I noticed was that it asked me to share my documents - I thought I was streaming live TV for free here?

Oh... I am streaming live (and recorded) TV for free.... and music, and webcams, and my documents, and photos, and some other stuff, but I still need to subscribe to a cable or satellite provider if I really want live TV, or use my good ol' rabbit ears.

- Image from www.icanhascheezburger.com

I guess I could use JumpTV instead if I learned another language besides English.  Or I could search www.Digg.com for television and

order the results by # of diggs. 

Apologies for my English-Canadian tirade, it was only meant to be humorous and not slagging Ted's comments, French-Canadians, Orb or its technology.

Check out www.Orb.com as it is still really incredible and getting better all the time, though why can't I right-click on the Orb taskbar icon?  I can right-click on every other icon.  I'm confused!

Ted's blog has some really interesting posts about marketers interacting with the blogging community. 

Awaiting Ted's response on my Blogger blog... and thanks for the Canadian TV program guide :) 

Buying a house in Toronto? Watch for grow-ops...

 A Google maps smoke-up mashup.

Marijuana grow operations

A map of grow operations discovered in Toronto in 2006 (year-to-date, as of December).

Source: Toronto Star Google Maps

You can feel the cottony softness...

why run out and buy an expensive dress that you'll only wear once (fingers crossed), when you can just TP yourself instead? Sit and think on it...

Source: Toilet Paper Wedding Gowns | gigglesugar - Funny Videos & Humor.

Toilet Paper Bouquet...$1.25

Toilet Paper Wedding dress....$8.00

Wedding photos of your dog shredding your TP dress... priceless.

LolCat Builder » Home

Things just got interesting...LOL!

 

These image macros have spread like wildfire.  Since January 11, 2007, icanhascheezburger has been posting these hilarious pictures, (called image macros because of the overlay lettering) terming them lolcats.

Now you can build your own.

Link to LolCat Builder » Home

For some inspiration:

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/05/08/a-special-in-depth-analysis-by-david-mcraney-l337-katz0rz/#more-1347

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/08/massive_cache_of_kit.html

http://www.zerosummind.com/

http://boingboing.net/2007/05/16/where_lolcats_come_f.html

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=2823158&thread_type=voteresults&ok=1

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/24/lolpresidents_photos.html

The Path to Least Resistance

 When I was young, the walk to the bus stop would inevitably lead through a neighbour's front yard, via  a 1-foot trench in their lawn where everyone else walked.  I think they tried to sod it a few times and gave up.

Rather than letting this happen, they could have done a few things to resolve this.

1. Ask the city to move the bus stop. (hundreds of hours and probably a petition involved.)

2. Brick the trench and create a walkway.

3. Put a sign up to keep off the grass.

4. Build a fence.

5. Chain a guard dog to the front yard.

I will have to see what they ended up doing next time I drive by there.  My guess is the trench is still there or they bricked it over, since that's the path to least resistance for them (no confrontation and little effort)

Here's an article on this theory.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_of_least_resistance

And a story from a blogger I read regularly that got me thinking about this:

That reminds me of a story I heard in business school 40 years ago. A developer of a new campus of buildings purposefully did not do any landscaping or paved walkways for a couple months until well after the residents had moved in. Then he simply paved the areas where the people had walked, and he landscaped appropriately. I have never forgotten that.

When you build something, it’s always for the user. It’s never about the builder.

Source: Bill Cara: Cara’s Daily Commentary, Thurs., May 24, 2007, 8:55 AM

Walking through High Park last night with my dog, I could see this in action.  Pathways from all of the bikers, walkers, dogs, and runners go off in various directions, but you would seldom see new paths, unless a maintenance fence was put up. 

Of course the path to least resistance is also procrastination, so I had better get back to work...

A quaint motel in Toronto for your summer vacation

Centrally located is about all this hotel seems to have going for it.   A fun place to spend your summer vacation.  Oddly enough it is #89 of 96 hotels... that means there's 7 more worse than this one! (no wait, the rest of them aren't rated!)

This place is one of the worst place to stay on earth. I may be exaterating, but it may be true. This place is not even a motel. It's a drug addict and prostitude's home. In every floor there is only...

This Place is Nasty the worst place on the face of the earth I would rather sleep in a big steamy pile of cow dung there is rats all over the place and only three common washrooms which look like theve...

If there was a rating below "one yellow dot", I would have clicked on it. This so-caleld motel is very very deceiving. The sad part is there is a huge billboard overlooking the inside of the Toronto Bus...

Absolutely disgusting. Numbers on the door are written with pen...The lamp inside the room uses a RED BULB. Why? I just simply cannot answer.....and those are just the minor (funny) things!

Source: The Bay Street Motel, Toronto - 17 Motel Reviews - TripAdvisor

Kevin Ham, the $300 million master of Web domains - June 1, 2007

Looking into the future brings us this article... 

Given Ham's reach on the Web -- his sites receive 30 million unique visitors a month -- it's remarkable that so few people know about him. Even in the clubby world of domainers, he's a mystery man. Until now Ham has never talked publicly about his business. You won't find his name on any domain registration, nor will you see it on the patent application for the Cameroon trick.

Source: Kevin Ham, the $300 million master of Web domains - June 1, 2007

Polar Race 2007 Results

 The Polar Race is one of the most extreme races in the world.  One of the people I went to see at (of all things) Donald Trump's real estate seminar, managed to finish it this year.

http://raymondaaron.wordpress.com/

 

2,000 people have climbed Everest.

400 people have been to Outer Space.

160 people have rowed the Atlantic Ocean in a row boat.

But, fewer than 100 people have ever reached a Pole on their own efforts (no dogs, no snowmobiles, no airplanes, etc.).

spreeder.com - online speed reading application

Check out spreeder.com to see how many words per minute you can read. 

Spreeding 1095 words @ 700 wpm

Source: spreeder.com - online speed reading application

wavesmash on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

wavesmash

Source: wavesmash on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

DIY: Mod a $5 flashlight into a $95 light - Lifehacker

Kryptonite rules! 

Reader Kip modded a cheap $5 throwaway flashlight into a blinding torch that's brighter than a $95 fancy pants flashlight. Hit the play button to see how

Source: DIY: Mod a $5 flashlight into a $95 light - Lifehacker

Massive GTD Resource List | zen habits

 

My tribute to all the GTD junkies out there (a group that includes me) — a massive list of GTD stuff. It’s far from comprehensive, but who can be comprehensive on a topic this huge?

Source: Massive GTD Resource List | zen habits

Stephen King to Make his First Ever Canadian Appearance at BOOKED!, a New Readers' Fest in Toronto

My favourite author is going to be at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto next month.  Got my tickets! 

And, BOOKED! is proud to announce a gala tribute to master storyteller and multi-million-copy best-selling author Stephen King-his first-ever public appearance in Canada-to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Booksellers Association. The event, to be held at the John Bassett Theatre at the MTCC on Friday, June 8 at 7:30 pm will include an on-stage interview with a surprise celebrity guest. Presented by BOOKED! in partnership with Luminato, International Readings at Harbourfront and Simon & Schuster Canada.

Source: Stephen King to Make his First Ever Canadian Appearance at BOOKED!, a New Readers' Fest in Toronto

So who sold more books - JK Rowling, or Stephen King?  What's more important is who would win in a Celebrity Deathmatch?  Guess I'll never know.. Youtube pulled the video.

In the insanely detailed fan club for Stephen King, there is a wiki article listing every cultural reference to him.... my favs:

In the episode Insane Clown Poppy King has a small cameo as himself. While sitting at a book fair, Marge asks King if he has been writing any new horror. King says no: "I'm working on a biography of Benjamin Franklin. He's a fascinating man. He discovered electricity, and used it to torture small animals and innocent babies--And that key he tied to the end of a kite? It opened the gates of Hell!" Marge asks him to contact her when he gets back to horror, and he writes a note to himself: "Call Marge, re: horror."

King was actually speaking of Edison, who used to electricute animals in his laboratory for parlour tricks.  What a nice guy... father of lightbulbs and all...

Bart: "Don't you mean The Shining?
Groundskeeper Willy: "Shh, boy! Do you wanna get sued?"

"No TV and no beer maker Homer go crazy" - don't mind if I do!

Besides The Simpsons, King has been referenced in dozens of TV shows, films, and songs.  Even ABBA got into the mix.

Should be a fun and memorable night...

Bruce Willis hangs out on chat boards...

 

here are my top 5 or 6 movies, which I generally watch 3 to 5 times a year.

Dr. Strangelove,

Raging Bull,

The first 2 Godfathers,

Taxi Driver,

Goodfellas,

Spartacus,

Bridge on the River Kwai,

Bullitt,

the Great Escape,

On the Waterfront,

Resevoir Dogs,

Patton,

I really dug 300,

the first Alien,

Last Picture Show....

that's more than 5 or 6... thanks bw

Source: Bruce Willis is Talking Back - So Here's A TalkBack To TalkBack With Him about DIE HARD 4 -- Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

Dude, yer gettin' a Dell? Whoops..wrong guy...

 Jared, the Subway guy who inspired thousands of overweight geeks to eat turkey subs 7 days a week, was a bit of an entrepreneur in college.

Well, it turns out in college, the All-American Jared was known for something entirely different. According to our source, while studying at Indiana University, Fogle ran a very successful pornography rental company out of his bedroom. His porn collection was vast and extensive, and Fogle took his business pretty seriously. A video would run a patron a dollar a day (cheap!), and people would come from all over to take advantage of the deal. Needless to say, Jared had enough porn to keep his customers happy.

Source: Best Week Ever » Blog Archive » BWE Exclusive: Jared Fogle, The Pornography Guy

And it wasn't his Aides that got him hooked on Subway - it was the closest fast-food restaurant in walking distance.

Good thing he didn't stick to Tuna Subs...

The 6" version has 530 calories and 31 grams of fat, not to mention over 1000 mg of sodium.

Between the salt and the sugar, it's no wonder people become addicted to eating fast food.

You're a Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well - Look at Brrreeeport, such a cute baby!

 No longer just Googling domain names, now you have to make sure your baby's name is searchable?

So when Ms. Wilson, now 32, was pregnant with her first child, she ran every baby name she and her husband, Justin, considered through Google to make sure her baby wouldn't be born unsearchable. Her top choice: Kohler, an old family name that had the key, rare distinction of being uncommon on the Web when paired with Wilson. "Justin and I wanted our son's name to be as special as he is," she explains.

Source: You're a Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well - WSJ.com

Fly With Blake (and now me too)

At 25 years old i've decided its time for a career change! At present i'm currently working as a System Administrator for a well known broadcasting company. I've always wanted to become a commercial pilot and I finally decided to take the plunge.

Days since beginning: 488
Cost to-date: $21449.40
Hours Flown: 91.20
Blog Entries: 233

Source: Fly With Blake

Blake details his experiences while becoming a commercial pilot in his blog.

As for me, I'm at 0 days since beginning, $53.00 for a flight, $1 for a training manual I picked up at a garage sale, .6 hours flown, and 2 blog entries...  only $21,395.40 to go....

I found out that taking off and flying a plane is actually fairly straightforward. It's landing that's the hard part.  

My first private flight...

It's a beautiful day today, so I decided to schedule my first introductory flight lesson for $50.00 just north of Toronto this evening.

After this, it's either take the courses for $395 + $395 materials + some expensive flight time, or just go out and get a flight sim & some controls and do it couch potato style & save some cash... or do both.

 For $50 US, you get over 60GB for X-Plane scenery on Dual-Layer DVDs...  Guess I should go out and buy a D/L DVD player.

This is X-Plane + NEW WORLD-WIDE global scenery (seven dual-layer DVD's covering all of Earth between +/- 60 degrees latitude) for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
The disk requirement to install the entire planet is 60 GIG!

Source: X-Plane, by Austin Meyer Products > X-Plane Software

Then there's Microsoft Flight Simulator X for $79.99 CDN at Futureshop.  Only $40 per expansion pack!

Here's a good site with a ton of Flight SIm downloads, an Orbital Space flight sim and news.

http://flyawaysimulation.com/

For those that want to learn about gliding...

http://www.condorsoaring.com/

Here's a site to share your images of planes and other photos - max 1MB.

http://classicbritishfiles.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=101

Finally, Flightgear is one of the best open source flight sims out there.

http://www.flightgear.org/links.html

Plus you'll need some gear... like Pedals

http://www.amazon.com/CH-Products-Pedals-Simulator-300-111/dp/B0000512IE

and maybe a USB Yoke...

http://www.amazon.com/CH-Products-Flight-Yoke-200-615/dp/B000056SPM/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_b/103-4320738-9717436

So getting FSX, X-Plane, the Yoke and the Pedals, a Dual-Layer DVD burner, a video card upgrade, a new hard drive, X-Plane, a comfy chair, and some scenery add-ons, I'm looking at around $700-$800.

Yes, flying is expensive...

3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference

 

"Write better emails. Make more moneys."

I am Mr. Laurent Mpeti Kabila, a senior assistant leader of the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone.

I present to you an urgent and confidential request: I request your attendance at The 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference. This is an excellent opportunity to meet your distinguished colleagues, learn new marketing techniques, and spend your hard-earned money. Attending this conference demands the highest trust, security and confidentiality between us.

Source: 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference

The War is Over.... A Hex is still on Digg

I would link to this digg but it has the hex code in it.... :)

"But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you ’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be." - Kevin Rose

Submitted:

1 hour 9 min ago, made popular 1 hour 7 minutes ago

It took only 2 minutes to get this popular, and it has 2367 diggs after only an hour.  No make that 2398.  No 2415... No 2435... I give up.  2461...2470... at this rate they should have 864,000 diggs by tomorrow morning.  3069 diggs... 3108 diggs...

What kind of movies do pirates like? The one's rated RRrrrrrrrrrrr

I was wrong.  It was over 15,000 diggs for the original story.  I don't think they have ever had that many.

Digg's still down.

And here's the guy who started the war:

"My friend Chris Haley was smart enough to save the entire page at almost the height of its fame. At 15,492 Diggs, HERE IS THE FULL ARTICLE IN ALL ITS GLORY. All the comments are there. You can even expand the hidden comments. Thanks Chris!"

Source: Stuff to Think About: How I got banned from Digg

RIAA,MPAA, before all that there was the MPPC and Edison.

For the first ten years, the use of the new movie cameras and projectors was tied up in a protracted patent war between Edison and other inventors. In 1907, Edison formed the Edison Licensee Group. In 1908, this group joined with the Biograph Company to form the Motion Picture Patents Company, which was able to dictate royalties for the creation and showing of motion pictures.

http://www.edwardsamuels.com/illustratedstory/isc3.htm

Early copy protection was developing pictures of the stills of a movie, since copyright law could be enforced with photos.

My friend once had an idea to sell "Pirate CDs" on the internet, back in '94 or '95.  We would have made a killing, and probably could have raised a million dollars in venture capital.  Of course, these pirate cds would have pictures of Blackbeard, and parrot sounds.  We probably would have been sued for infringement anyway... somebody must own those parrot sounds.

Arrr... Really Bad Pirate jokes.

What the Hex is going on?!?

One of my favourite sites is Digg, a sort of Survivor or Big Brother for news, where the best stories get voted to stay on the island, and the worst get dugg down. The original Digg was Slashdot, but Digg adopted Web 2.0 and various other features which caused Digg to take over.

Digg is known for 'The Digg Effect' which cripples underpowered web servers whenever a popular story links to them. I am still getting hits from the few stories I submitted a few months ago.

Today Kevin Rose, one of the founders of Digg, announced that they are removing postings that announce a hex key used for breaking high-definition DVD protection, due to a legal notice (from one of their sponsors, no less). Almost immediately the site was flooded with stories about this, and every single Top 10 topic involved Freedom of Speech and this story.

Usually popular stories get 1000-2000 digs to get into the Top 10. DIGG: What's Happening with HD-DVD Stories? is #1 at 6630 diggs, over twice the usual traffic.

Digg seems to be hit by it's own Digg Effect right now... and the top story on Slashdot is how Digg is trying to suppress the revolt.

Am I going to post the hex key? No way! Not that most people would even know what to do with it.

1001111110010001000100000010100111 010111010011100011100000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Link to Digg / News

Like the Digg Effect, the Wal-Mart Effect can also cause problems with traffic, namely walk-in traffic in a competing store.

By dropping the price of the 42" flat-panel TV to $998, they caused an onslaught of new purchasers to buy into the flat-panel revolution, and, in the words of one of their competition:

"The tube business and big-screen business just dropped off a cliff," says Stuart Rose, chief executive officer of Rex Stores. "We expected a drop-off, but nowhere near the decline that we had."

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/WalMartEffectStrikesAgain.aspx

Futureshop, Best Buy, Circuit City, and many others will probably suffer because of Wal-Mart's guerilla pricing strategy.

Now when will the HD Projectors come down to $998 - that's what I'm talking about...

http://www.shopbot.ca/c-47-2-0-1.html

Sued By Scotts - Worm Poop is more valuable than Gold

 This company is trying to turn an unfortunate legal problem into free PR for its environmentally-friendly products.  It's a David vs. Goliath battle, and unfortunately since they're based in the US it would probably be cheaper to just close up shop and move to China than to employ a bunch of lawyers to try and defend this one.

Scotts claims that the two companies' products look similar and will confuse customers because some TerraCycle plant foods have a green and yellow label with a circle and a picture of flowers and vegetables on it.

Source: Sued By Scotts

 

Although they say they haven't made a profit yet, they employ over 30 people and have annual sales of $1.5M.

[the] story is a reminder about following your dreams. The pot of gold may require dealing with a ton of crap." -- CBS Evening News

YTMND - NES of a Down

 

Link to YTMND - NES of a Down

Evening out the playing field - 25 years murder-free in 'Gun Town USA'

 I think that mandating that everyone in town own a gun is ridiculous, but according to this article it worked for this town.

As the nation debates whether more guns or fewer can prevent tragedies like the Virginia Tech Massacre, a notable anniversary passed last month in a Georgia town that witnessed a dramatic plunge in crime and violence after mandating residents to own firearms.

Source: WorldNetDaily: 25 years murder-free in 'Gun Town USA'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennesaw,_Georgia

Dave Gorman - Googlewhack Adventure

The funniest stand-up I have seen in a long time.  Read the book first. 

Googlewhack Adventure - The stage show

At the age of 31 I decided to give up my stupid ways, grow a beard and write a novel. I failed to do two of those things. I did however grow a beard.

Source: Dave Gorman - Googlewhack Adventure

Student punished for spaghetti beliefs | Metro.co.uk - Arrr..

 

Bryan Killian says that he follows the Pastafarian religion, and that as a crucial part of his faith, he must wear 'full pirate regalia' as prescribed in the holy texts of Pastafarianism.

Source: Student punished for spaghetti beliefs | Metro.co.uk

"Most Valuable Marketing Blogs 2007

Here's a list of the 32 most valuable blogs in the advertising world according to Joseph Jaffe's readers:

1. Logic + Emotion - http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/
2. Russel Davies - http://russelldavies.typepad.com/
3. “Why Business People Speak Like Idiots” - http://www.fightthebull.com/blog/
4. “Eggs, Bacon, Chips & Beans” - http://russelldavies.typepad.com/eggbaconchipsandbeans/
5. Seth Godin - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
6. Jaffe Juice - http://feeds.feedburner.com/jaffejuice
7. Cool Hunting – http://www.coolhunting.com/
8. NussbaumOnDesign - ???
9. Beyond Madison Avenue - http://www.beyondmadisonavenue.com/
10. Wired – http://blog.wired.com/
11. Adverlab – http://adverlab.blogspot.com/
12. BrandAutopsy - http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/
13. Gaping Void - http://www.gapingvoid.com/
14. Hello_World - http://missinglink.typepad.com/hello_world/
15. Mark Cuban - http://www.blogmaverick.com/
16. SpringWise - http://www.springwise.com/
17. PSFK - http://www.psfk.com
18. Adliterate by Richard Huntington - http://www.adliterate.com/
19. http://servantofchaos.typepad.com/
20. http://conversationagent.typepad.com/
21. http://blog.creativethink.com/
22. http://www.scottweisbrod.com/index.php/
23. http://www.micropersuasion.com
24. http://www.toprankblog.com
25. http://www.pronetadvertising.com
26. Where’s The Sausage - http://wheresthesausage.typepad.com/
27. Branding Strategy Insider - http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/
28. http://www.ck-blog.com/
29. http://powrightbetweentheeyes.typepad.com/
30. Church of the Consumer - http://www.churchofthecustomer.com/blog/
31. Modern Life is Rubbish - http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk/
32. radical Trust - http://www.radicaltrust.ca

27 Marbles Training - Creativity Explained

A friend of mine asked me to publish a link announcing her new business venture. Here you go Leslie...

27 Marbles Training is the insider’s go-to training company for highly effective workshops that deliver a-ha moments to advertising, marketing and related creative industry professionals – and ultimately provide your organization with a true competitive edge.

I'm sure it will be as successful as she is, and I am glad she is teaching others her craft. Leslie is one of the most creative people I know, and has done some really wild things... how many people can say they hosted a television show, was a director at a successful advertising agency, travelled the world, and sang in a movie or two...

Here's a sample course outline from a recent class.

Her business partner, Joan McArthur, helped to pitch (and win) Oglivy's advertising campaign for Microsoft, presenting directly to Bill Gates. Here is

an interesting bio on her... And some comments from another blogger who spent some time with Gates on March 6, 2007 talking about the future of creativity in advertising.

Given a long enough timeframe … all mass ads will be targeted to individuals.
-- Bill Gates, March 6, 2007.

I wonder if Bill means by using his Smart Watch.

Here's a link to the 27 Marbles web site, or contact her at info@27marbles.com to request some one-on-one...

http://www.27marbles.com/

I hope the two of them start a blog - I'm sure they have many interesting stories to tell.

It's who you know, and who knows you

Wild article from May, 2007 issue of Fast Company on how Facebook originated and where it might be going.

Thefacebook.com, as it was originally called, launched on February 4, 2004. Within two weeks, half the Harvard student body had signed up. Before long, it was up to two-thirds. Zuckerberg's roommates, Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, joined in, helping to add features and run the site using a shared hosting service that cost $85 a month. Students from other colleges began approaching them, asking for online face books of their own. So the trio carved out new areas on the site for places like Stanford and Yale. By May, 30 schools were included, and banner- type ads for student events and college-oriented businesses had brought in a few thousand dollars.

Source: Hacker. Dropout. CEO. - Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook - Social Networking

 

When I was in school, I was the first person to setup a game on the school's network that many people could play at once.  I'm afraid it probably cost a lot of people their semester.  The game was called Doom.

Before this I had set up IRC (the first massive chat system) & MUDs (highly addictive multiuser dungeons, think text-based World of Warcraft) on the network.  It was amazing how quickly people found out about these things and how they spread, and how empty computer labs filled up at 3 in the morning with people chatting on IRC.

Ironically, one of the most popular global groups started on Facebook was Students against Facebook News Feed.

In less than 48 hours, 700,000 people had joined the protest, and the blogosphere declared it the end of Facebook. News crews camped outside the Facebook offices, as if a bald Britney Spears were being held captive inside.

Their news feed supposedly distributes more 'news' in 1 day then in the history of conventional media.

Facebooks biggest advertiser? Microsoft.

Esperance bird deaths caused by lead?

 More on the continuing investigation as to why the skies have become eerily quiet after over 4000 birds died in an area of Australia.

Mining and other industries are other sources of lead in the environment. While some of the largest sources of lead pollution – leaded gasoline and lead in paint – have been phased out, lead continues to be mined, processed and transported. Recently, accidental and undetected release of a lead compound during shipping has been suggested as the possible cause of an extensive die-off of wild birds in Esperance, Australia. Such incidents remind us that the fates of birds can be a mirror of human fortunes: lead that is killing birds may be poisoning people and other animals as well. We need to pay close attention.

Source: Lead Poisoning in Birds: How and Why Birds Die from Lead Poisoning

New York Auto Show: Roadster gets 600 HP from lithium - Autoblog

 

Watching a car burning off an inch or two of rear rubber in almost dead silence is eerily unnatural.

Source: New York Auto Show: Roadster gets 600 HP from lithium - Autoblog

Wow. Martin swims the Amazon.

Martin’s health took a turn for the worse last evening as he struggled with dizziness, vertigo, blood pressure jumping off the charts, diarrhea, nausea, and delirium. Despite having difficulty standing and being ordered by the doctor not to swim, Martin is obsessed with making it to Belem, and insisted on night swimming.

Martin fended off disease, dehydration, whitewater, weather, pirates, piranhas, and lost contact with his crew at one point.

He made it to Belem after 5,268KM of swimming, breaking his own world record.

I will make a toast tonight for Martin, to the Piranha I brought back from Brazil.  That is, if my wife hasn't thrown out the disgusting-looking thing like she is always threatening to.

 

Here's Martin looking like he's a character in Pink Floyd's The Wall, or maybe the Invisible Man.

 

Sign Martin's guestbook.

http://guestbook.martinstrel.com/index.php?L=2

Google Maps - Draw on it!

 

Google just launched a facility to draw and annotate on Google Maps.

Great for sending directions or tracking your vacation.

Link to Google Maps

Petoria down under

Did you know that there is a country within Australia?  It's called the Hutt River Province, and it has a Prince, who is also a farmer.

Declaration of war.

Fine strategist, this patient and peaceful Prince, decided that he had enough of the pressures  and harassments from  the Administration and abruptly declared war to Australia.

The geographic situation of the Principality of Hutt River Province, distant of less than 70 km from Geralton's military base, was making the challenge hazardous.

A simple police action would have been enough to put an end to the extraordinary adventure of the CASLEY Family, and to some other families wich followed him.

Nevertheless, on December 2, 1977, the Principality declared very officially war to the powerful Australia. The Australian Authorities ignored magnificently what they took for a bragging.

On the other hand, the Press, more attentive and maybe more amused, once again marked its sympathy for the small Principality.

Some days later, Prince Leonard notified the Governor General of Australia on the cessation of "hostilities".

The Principality overcame the conflict with Australia, what was quite interesting on the legal point of view.

Indeed, international law stipulates that sovereignty is automatically acquired for a country which gets out of a conflict unhurt.

Source: History of  Hutt River Province

There's no new news since December, 2005.  Hopefully they made it through 2006 unscathed.

The territory is approximately the same size as Hong Kong, but with 13,000 people (worldwide) instead of 7 million.

After succession in 1970, a drama unfolded when Prince Regent took over most commercial operations.  Throughout the 80's and early 90's, stamps, coins, and knighthoods were issued by the Prince.  There was even an attempt to overthrow Prince Leonard and found a new kingdom on a Pacific Island. (tax haven, anyone?)

See the Wiki article for more info.  Anyone know how to get citizenship for this country?

The Australian government generally appears to avoid any legal challenge to the HRP. While HRP builds its own buildings (without any Australian government approval), offers company registrations, car licences, sells coinage, philately and even runs its own University, many of these activities would seemingly draw the ire of the Australian government on any Australian citizen. However the Australian government has so far not interfered with HRP sovereignty in these matters, and appears to avoid any legal stoush with the HRP

I wonder what emissions standards they have there?

Here's a link to some coins and stamps available from Hutt River.

Ask Pud: April Fools

Apparently Pud didn't sell his web site... or did he.

Many people were confused... if this were an April fools joke, how did we get Wired, Valleywag, and others to play along days before the joke? And with everyone saying FC and Techcrunch should belong together anyway, is it really that funny?
Anyway, odd timing, sort of a clusterfuck, but nobody got hurt. Except maybe all the people who fell for it.

Source: Ask Pud: April Fools

Problogger - 30 steps to a good blog

 

The Problem: Who reads this stuff anyway?

The Solution: Make it readable.

Present a Problem, The Solution, and The Results: Don’t present a solution before the reader understands there is a problem. Present the problem, give us the solution, and then lead us through the results and the benefits of the results. When readers follow along with the process, they better understand how it works and why it works for themselves.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/04/02/blogging-is-about-writing/

Ask Pud: Life in general

There are two types of haters you'll encounter.

1. People who are jealous of your drive and possible success, and make themselves feel better by beating you down.
2. People who are so conservative and afraid to take risks, that they just can't understand your logic and figure there must be something wrong with you.

I'm not saying you should drop your friends, but you should try to surround yourself with like-minded peers -- people who will think what you're doing is awesome and will root for you.

Source: Ask Pud: Life in general

Pud sold his web site to Techcrunch for 1.3 BILLION dollars. (or maybe just some stock and a cow bell for his drum set.).

Consumption Junction, what's your function?

As unobtrusive as a small electric clock, the PowerCost Monitor™ is a powerful real-time direct feedback display device for domestic energy consumers. It tells them at a glance, in real-time, how much electricity their home is using in dollars and cents and in kW.

Source: Blue Line Innovations

Save money & save the environment with this $150 gadget that will tell you how much power your electronics are drawing.

Google Notebook & Microsoft OneNote

Google launched a tool called Notebook last year which is similar to a scaled-down web-enabled version of Microsoft OneNote, less the ink.

If you are looking for a quick, free, and useful tool to track notes from a browser, this is it.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/note-this.html

If you're looking for the best tool to track notes, journal your day, research & documentation  from your desktop then get Microsoft OneNote.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/default.aspx

Toronto Real Estate Wealth Expo

Last weekend I attended Trump's wealth expo organized by Learning Annex. I have attended some pretty amazing events with them in the past (speakers including Lance Armstrong, Bill Clinton, Sir Richard Branson) and this one, though mostly one big infomercial, had it's pluses and reinforced many of the things I have read about selling, psychology and finance.

There's quite a few postings about the disappointment people felt after attending these events.

• I grew tired of all the “happy go lucky” types.
• All the speakers pretty much told me things I pretty much already knew: buy low, sell high (brilliant)
• One guy pointed to a curve illustrating when to buy a stock (the lowest point of the curve).
• When to sell the stock (the highest point of the curve). I’m going to be rich now
  I almost smacked the person next to me, when they actually wrote that down — maybe some peopledo need help
• I went back on Sunday, late in the day because I can only take so much idiocracy. I toned down my attitude a bit because I realize a lot of people were buying their packages.
• One woman sitting next to me just loved James Ray (the Secret). She was yelling positive re-enforcementsback at him when he was giving his speech — I felt out of place.
• I felt a lot of folks there were willing to try anything to be successful.
• I felt that a lot of people were victimized this past weekend.

http://www.wealthjunkie.com/2005/11/10/should-you-waste-your-money-on-the-learning-annex-real-estate-wealth-expo-one-reader-says-no-way/

I caught myself writing down 'get out of debt' with everyone else before I stopped. For $50, I thought it was an interesting way to spend the weekend. If I had to pay for a hotel or any travel costs, or full price for the ticket it probably would not be something I'd do unless I personally knew someone speaking at the event. Take it with a grain of salt - there's no free ride to getting wealthy and buying someone else's training course probably won't do it.

Out of all the speakers I listened to this weekend, there were a couple of standouts:

• Tony Robbins, an incredibly motivational guy - he is _the_ motivational speaker to listen to, and knows how to hypnotize a huge audience. If it was a hundred years ago, he would be speaking in tents and throwing snakes around. If I had $1 million I would probably go to his training course in Tahiti to kill a weekend.
• Bill Bartmann, the billionaire you never heard of, who started his billion-dollar business from his kitchen with $13,000. (which he borrowed from a bank where he already owed $1m, to start a debt-collection agency). I saw him twice. If you want your kid to become a billionaire, make sure his first name is Bill and his last name starts with a B. Bill's selling a Billionaire Mentoring Program, and is a bit late in getting his reality TV show off the ground. You can sign up for his free evening seminar here. A review is here. He said that he'll be organizing a free concert event for 50,000 students at the Rogers Centre to combat drug and alchoholism abuse. Note to Bill, get rid of those extra exclamation marks and the announcer on your web site. NOW IS THE TIME!!!

And more than a few other "characters":

• Don Burnham, who spoke like someone out of the Sopranos but was signing $1000 training contracts like he was signing autographs. Don't you want to get rich? Fuggeddaboutit.
• The Secret is.... don't watch the secret. I walked out after they started rehashing Tony Robbins' meet-and-greet tactics. blech.
• Free Money from the Government's Chris Johnson, who almost caused a stampede by offering his training materials for free to the first couple of people who rushed to the back.
• Real Free Money from Robert Shemin, who was handing out $80-$100 to people who put up their hand. His was an interesting seminar, since many of the previous speakers, whom he called his mentors, attended, including..
• Dr. Al Lowry. He's 82, looks 62, and shows how working hard and having fun can extend your life.
• Raymond Aaron. He's 61 (I think), lives in Richmond Hill, and has an ego bigger than his paycheque, though it seems to be working for him. The mind can do some interesting things, and his convinced himself to do a 350-mile footrace to the North Pole next week. All the best Raymond, and bring lots of warm socks.

Plus, using his own innovative techniques developed over the last two decades, he shows you how to—step-by-step—take conscious control of your world so you can double, triple, even quadruple your income doing what you love to do.

What if I want to quintuple my income. Guess I'm out of luck with his program. I think to become a millionaire I need to at least tredecaple it.

The surprise for me was Harry Stinson, the condo guy of 1 King West in Toronto. He was probably the most down-to-earth of the bunch, and really spoke out about what he believed in and how others could do what he has done to succeed. He is on his way to billionaire status, just two or more bankruptcies and he'll be there.

This week, Mr. Trump declared he wished all of his competitors were like Mr. Stinson, who he alleged "was talking about how he was going to beat me and then he went bust."
Mr. Stinson fired off his own response, pointing out that Toronto's Trump Tower looks "like a parking lot ... My condo-hotel at One King West is full tonight, by the way."

When Tony Robbins was speaking, he showed how a 'demotivational' speaker would walk into a room (shoulders down, head to the floor, "Don't Worry, be Happy" playing) and how a motivational speaker would (head raised, fist pumping, techno music). Harry was walking in to Bobby Mcferrin, though he did admit he wasn't a trained speaker as he read his notes. You could tell that he spent some time getting ready for the event, and even cracked a few jokes at Trump's expense. (tallest nonexistant building in Toronto? Here's your nonexistant award.)

So to me, $50 to attend was better than $50 to go to dinner & the movies (or maybe just the movies nowadays). I'm not rich yet, so I guess I'll probably have to go again next year.

Brohans Video Blog » Blog Archive » VIDEOS: Family Guy Celebrity Cameos from A to Z

 

Link to Brohans Video Blog » Blog Archive » VIDEOS: Family Guy Celebrity Cameos from A to Z

Banknotes.com - Introduction to Collecting of World Banknotes - Currencies of the World

Interesting to note that paper money was introduced because of emergency shortages in coins and metal money. 

When Marco Polo came back from his travels in China (1275-1292), people in Europe didn't believe that the Chinese used paper for money. Paper money in Europe came 300 years later. The use of paper money in China stopped in 1455.

The history of paper money in Europe is interesting. It started as emergency money sustituting for regular money. The first emergency paper bills are from 1483. The first bank notes were printed in the 17th century.

Source: Banknotes.com - Introduction to Collecting of World Banknotes - Currencies of the World

 

Similar to Income Tax, which was collected as a "temporary" wartime measure, and now dominates most fundraising activities by governments.

Of course, there are glitches in the automated tax collection systems from time to time.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) system went down sometime Sunday night or Monday morning and, "We have now traced the source of the problem to software maintenance conducted on March 4, 2007," says a CRA statement. "We are currently working to bring all systems back online gradually."

Source: P2P.NET

This could potentially cost the government, it's employees, and the Canadian economy millions.  The government will lose interest on unpaid taxes.  If nobody gets their refund on time, consumers will be less inclined to purchase items that are non-essential, like plasma TVs or iPods.  RRSP loan borrowers will have to float their loans longer, which may cause some borrowers to default on payments.

Last year the government processed almost 25 million individual and 1.7 million corporate returns, returning $18 billion dollars.  That's over 49 million dollars a day.  Not to mention the cost to H&R Block and other tax professionals who no longer have a way to quickly skim a percent or more off your instant return.  Moneymart & RentCash should be doing well right now...

Whatever happened to backups & mirrored systems?  If this were a bank machine being down for more than 5 days, how many CIOs would last through that one?

On another note, mortgage rates appear to be on the rise.  Here's one way to make your house tax-deductible to offset the pain a bit.

The Geek's Guide to Getting Free Stuff | The Free Geek

 

The Geek's Guide to Getting Free Stuff

Whoever it was that said, "There's no such thing as a free lunch," didn't know about the Internet. There are a lot of free things online, and a lot of it is actually legitimate and valuable. Better yet, many of them won't spam you with additional offers unless you've okayed it.

There are also offline ways to get free stuff, most of which you don't have to pay anything for, or very little (taxes, shipping). So here's our list of ways to get free junk or links to other lists. Most of what's here should appeal to the geek, and since most geeks still drink, eat and bathe, there are some freebies listed in that vein.

Source: The Geek's Guide to Getting Free Stuff | The Free Geek

Carbonmade

 Carbonmade is a site to display your art portfolios, and will shortly be hosted on the ever-expanding Amazon S3 service.  There are some amazing artists here.

I like the way the payment plans are broken out.  I'll pick meh...

Whoo! is our pro plan. For only $12/month you get 50 projects with up to 500 hi-res images and 10 high quality videos.

 

 

Meh. is our free plan. It doesn't cost you a thing and you get 5 projects with 35 images.

Source: Carbonmade: Create an account

Canada's web conference - Toronto, May 30th and 31st, 2007

 

connect

Canada's premier Web conference, being held in Toronto on May 30th & 31st, 2007, is a chance to connect with people who are as excited about the potential of the Web as you are – people who want to know more about how it is changing the way we live, work and interact with the world. And you won't just connect with them in the hallways – at mesh, every panel and workshop is interactive.

Source: Canada's web conference - Toronto, May 30th and 31st, 2007