January 2008
9 posts
Buying Tickets in the Free World
In a few short days, several friends (to include two former bosses that I worked with over 25 years ago!) will be visiting us in Phoenix for Super Bowl weekend. We have tickets and reservations to several events, but haven’t scored entry to the Big Game. Yet.
Which brings me to a topic I’ve been meaning to write about for quite some time: buying tickets in a free market to music, cultural and...
The Minimizing of Better Mousetraps & Secret...
There are some extraordinary forces at work impacting Internet-based companies that are wrecking havoc on ‘historical’ business models. My two main points:
Better Mousetrapping At Accelerating Speeds – Everywhere one turns to on the Internet, there is a recently launched and often dramatically improved version of whatever it is being pitched, whether it be content or ...
Dogs, now Pigs, it's all the same to the Medical...
In late November, 2007, The Medical College of Wisconsin(MCW) Department of Physiology finally relented to public pressure and will no longer be killing dogs in their student labs. MCW was joined by the New York Medical College, which also announced on November 26, 2007 that it will be ending it’s live dog lab, the fourth and last New York state medical school in 18 months to end this...
Article on Kohl's Book in Milwaukee Journal...
While it was nice to get some press taking note of the self-publishing of my book “The Rise & Stall of Kohl’s Department Stores”, there are couple points of clarification and corrections regarding this morning’s article:1. ETR Group did own Christmas.com, but I sold it in late 2006;2. The genesis of trying to get the book published was pretty much like this: I wrote...
Gr8find.com is Launched
An offshoot of what we were trying to do with TopNetPix.com in aggregating great websites into meaningful categories was putting together a pretty cool portal for shopping. Gr8find.com is really a spin-off of 1-Stop Shopping on TNP. The intent was to make searching for stuff you might want to buy more interesting, efficient and fun. We drill down into department store sites, as well as include...
Bird Connections
As friends and family know, I’m really into birding. I’m hoping to aggregate interesting links and content going forward on this site. For starters, here is a cool link that’s managed by We Energies in Wisconsin, which has set up webcams aimed at large nestboxes at five of their power plants. The boxes have been primarily been used by Peregrine Falcons, but a few days ago a...
Facebook App Strategies for 2008
Having had some experience these past few months learning about and launching Facebook applications, and discussing the issue with people who have worked with me on these projects, here is my take:1. There are a lot of stupid but incredibly popular apps out there. For the time being, FB profilers, as part of that whole ‘herd instinct’ dynamic, love to be poked, take ridiculous...
Irving & Camille Rusinow, on the set, early 1960's
My Stepdad, Irv Rusinow, was a maker of educational films, mostly in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. Chances are that if you went to elementary, junior high or high school during this time, you saw a film that my Dad produced and directed. My Mom filled in as an ‘actor’ every now and then, and this photo is on a ‘set’ during one of those times. If any relation...
Northern Goshawk - ABA Area #568
On December 29 driving down by the Boulders resort in Carefree, AZ, Jen spotted and I identified a soaring, immature Northern Goshawk, which was a new bird on my life list, American Birding Association (ABA) Area species #568, just as the year was coming to a close. Goal for 2008: reaching 600, or put another way, going out and identifying at least 32 new species to my list either in the U.S....