Kevin Salwen over at the Worthwhile blog points out this sequence of numbers that you'll see if you're up on Wednesday of this week at two minutes and three seconds after 1 in the morning, the time and date will be:

01:02:03 04/05/06

The guys down at Stone Creek Coffee have a great take on St. Patty's Day coming up this weekend!

They actually have an alternative take on St. Patrick's Day. While everyone is talking about March 17th, they're talkin' about March 18th.... which they think of as "Pay the Piper Day".

An article in today's Green Bay Press Gazette highlights a little known fact about Steve Jobs' biological mother being a schoolteacher from the Green Bay area. Jobs has no real connection to GB - having not been born here (and I can't image why he'd ever have visited) but it's interesting folklore nonetheless.

Great, the first snow of the year! Can't wait to see more. Oh, shit. Forgot to get snow shovels. That's the 'happy homeowner' syndrome kicking in again...all those things you need when you now own a home...but never thought to buy when you moved during the middle of summer.

Todd is turning back the pages of some old Fast Company magazines and resurecting some of the best of the oldies after he scored a collection of some of the early issues. Some of this stuff is really timeless!

Have you ever 'sleep typed'? I think I just did. I just wrote half of a paragraph for an article and fell asleep while doing so...though I wrote several sentences that I didn't realize I was even typing. Weird. I'm awake now. Happy Saturday.

Blogging from the kitchen again...

Found this great pictorial on how to make the perfect omelette!

Martina Z. at Adverblog is writing her thesis on "a sociological analysis of the mobile phone usage, with a focus on its marketing implications." Anyone having knowledge on or interest in this topic is encouraged to contact Martina!

"Politicians are like diapers," someone once said.
"They both need changing regularly. And for the same reasons."

or...

Maybe Nikita Khrushchev said it better, "Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge where there is no river.

If the election process folks could learn a little from the Red Cross and their blood drives, I think that my voting experience would have been a lot more interesting!

So, my voting experience is less than amusing. Wait outside 40 minutes, they can't find my name on the damn list because of an extra space in my last name, and I had to drive 1/2 hour just to get to be able to vote.

Here's a neat site for you to keep track of who's ahead...

How to Use It: Select one of 3 starting "views". Then click any state to change its outcome. This becomes "My View" -- your projection of the results. As you change each state, the total Electoral Vote counter will update. You'll also see historical election info for that state.

http://www.270towin.com/

ABC TV has a very nice Real-Time Vote Results Flash...
http://snipurl.com/ABC_Realtime

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
-- Sun Tzu

So, I've spent this entire past weekend at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells with my significant other half. Mind you, she's actually the one here on business and has been in class for the last 2 days, so I've had a lot of time to, well, just think.

I have a few observations from my time spent mulling around here for the past 2 days.
* Waterparks are not the place for a couple looking for a relaxing vacation. If we had kids, the story would be a different one.
* On the subject of 'names of things' I have to wonder, as a marketer, what the hell some companies were thinking when they named some of their products
*** They call the soap in our hotel room 'deodorant soap', yet it reeks of something I cannot describe. I thought soap was supposed to move odor? Now I smell like something else...
*** The toilet paper dispenser says 'Kimberly Clark - Professional'. Ok, seriously, I can see professional grade in tools, surgical equipment, and even heavy duty stapelers. However, I don't see the correlation between a toilet paper dispenser and a professional, well, professional whatever...
* Wireless connectivity in many places has a long way to go. The connection here in the hotel exists, but it's a piece of shit. I'd had to ask for new access codes because of the way it ties your user session to the computer you're on to the code the hotel gives you. Someone, please design a better way to do this.
* Hotels, and even restaurants, that design for the 'customer experience' and successfully pull it off are godsends. Like Damons of Outback Steakhouse, where they ask "are you familiar with Outback?", and if you answer "no", they explain how they're unique and how that's a good thing for you. Love it.

US Healthcare costs are now 15% of GDP...thats 50% higher than other industrialized nations.

GMC will spend $4.8 billion on healthcare this year or $1,400 per vehicle sold worldwide. That is almost equal to the direct labor cost of the vehicle assembly itself.

Todd references a tactic, namely, making CDs of shows that you recorded live, that Pearl Jam used to gain sigificant profits some years ago. Execpt, JM is doing it with iTunes. Yeah.

I agree, however, with Todd's thought on having post-concert CDs available once you leave the show. What a deal that would be.

Sharing the love that Chris O. shared with me... who wants 'em.???

Sorry - gone. However, if I get more, I'll pass them along...

Holy crap. This is interesting

Full report here.

[Thanks Scoble]

I don't know why really, but this is just damn funny. All I have to say is "why didn't someone get a picture?!"

Swedish moose runs off with bicycle
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apfeature_story.asp?category=1120&slug=Sweden%20Thieving%20Moose

David Kirsch, a business professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, sat down with ePrairie about his involvement with building an archive of the dot-com era. His work includes the creation of the Business Plan Archive for company histories as well as a survey of the personal stories and experiences from the dot-com era.

On part one of a two-part ePrairie series, Kirsch, who began his study in 2002 with grant money from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, tells us why he initiated the project, how the dot-com era resembles similar booms and busts in U.S. history and the unique challenges he has encountered while preserving digital history.

[via ePrairie.com]
[Business Plan Archive]

For scientists and engineers, it's often easier to develop a product in the laboratory than it is to create the company that will deliver it to the world. Now, a website provides free resources to those interested in becoming high-technology entrepreneurs (http://edcorner.stanford.edu).

Called the STVP Educators Corner, the website is a creation of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), an entrepreneurship education and research center within the School of Engineering. It includes videotaped interviews with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Stanford course materials, case studies, and links to organizations, events and journals.

[via Syllabus.com]

I dig Harry Potter. I was working at WB when the first movie was being launched and damn was it exciting!

WB ANNOUNCES RELEASE DATE FOR HARRY POTTER 4

Warner Bros. has announced that HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE will be released in theaters Nov. 18, 2005. Directed by Mike Newell (FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL), the fourth film in the popular series will go into production later this year. Unlike the other POTTER films that begin with Harry at his aunt and uncle Dursley's house, this film will kick off with Harry and friends attending the International Quidditch Cup. The deviation from the novel is due to the source material's enormous size, which needed to be pared down to
accommodate a responsible theatrical length film. The third POTTER film, PRISONER OF AZKABAN, opens in theaters June 4, 2004.

For those Internet users have long since graduated from the 1 or 2 phrase search terms to longer search phrases - now it's your turn to have some fun with this stuff.

Try out Googlephrasing

My personal favorites

Bruce Kasanoff just wrote an insightful little "e-book" ( you know, those things that PR gurus preach to us about doing for your personal publicity but that none of us ever actually do) I like it. It's a quick read, offers some great case examples about how to do "less" to actually help yourself and your customers. Check it out!

LESS: What Customers Really Want [pdf]

The most profitable, most sustainable way to run a business is to find a group of customers who have problems that drive them crazy, and can afford to pay for solutions. Then, become obsessed with solving these customers’ problems. Many business professionals forget this simple truth. If you don’t believe me, spend an hour in almost any established business. Odds are the firm has become more obsessed with selling than with solving. This brief eBook reminds you how to solve problems for customers, and in doing so make quite a nice living for yourself. It’s not intended to tell you everything, but instead is just long enough to get you energized.

[via Bruce Kasanoff]

Did you know that:

[via DesignObserver] Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me in Design School

Michael McDonough's Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me in Design School

1. Talent is one-third of the success equation.
2. 95 percent of any creative profession is shit work.
3. If everything is equally important, then nothing is very important.
4. Don't over-think a problem.
5. Start with what you know; then remove the unknowns.
6. Don't forget your goal.
7. When you throw your weight around, you usually fall off balance.
8. The road to hell is paved with good intentions; or, no good deed goes unpunished.
9. It all comes down to output.
10. The rest of the world counts.

I've never been to design school, but working in the creative industry, I would whole heartedly agree with Michael McDonough.

It's happened once again. I get 1/2 through dispensing my cup of brew from my local coffee shop's coffee urn, and find that there's nary enough coffee to fill my cup!

Who knew? Well, no one - and how would they? The coffee urns in ALL of my favorite local coffee houses have NO INDICATORS to tell the staff or coffee connoisseur that they’re running low on juice.

In fact, it’s become such an issue that I now find the following on a sign adjacent the coffee urns:

"When coffee pots are empty, please put on the bar"

Clearly, someone needs to come up with a better system. Perhaps a self-aware electronic coffee urn that pages the staff when it gets below 1/4 full would do the trick. That way the staff can start brewing before the coffee runs out!

Are You an e-Bore?
e-Consultancy: http://www.e-consultancy.com/ebore/
Do your friends nod off or walk away when you start talking about ASP, HTML or PHP? Is the local Starbucks still the only place you can properly brainstorm with your colleagues? Are you onto your fourth PDA? If so, you might be suffering from e-bore Syndrome.

But the only way to find out is to consult the e-Consultancy's e-bore-ometer. The e-bore-ometer test is split into 2 sections: Lifestyle and Experience.

http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/
"This site examines the accented speech of speakers from many different
language backgrounds reading the same sample paragraph [in English]...
Everyone who speaks a language, speaks it with an accent. A particular
accent essentially reflects a person's linguistic background. When people
listen to someone speak with a different accent from their own, they notice
the difference, and they may even make certain biased social judgments
about the speaker."

Biz Stone mentioned this sweet little online Etch-a-Sketch!!! At last - the new supreme online time killer!!!

Lee at Commoncraft published a nice succinct overview of some of the current web conferencing alternatives to expensive platforms like WebEx and the former PlaceWare- now Live Meeting.

Here's a good deal you might want to tell people about, Steve Bass of PIBMUG sent this on to me.

Free Sony Ericsson Phone, plus Free Bluetooth Headset For a limited time,
you can get the Sony Ericsson T610 or a Sony Ericsson T616 cell phone for
free after rebates. On top of that, you can get a Jabra FreeSpeak Bluetooth
headset for free when you buy it with the T610 or T616. Here's how. The
color-screen T610 and T616 let you integrate images, sounds, and text into
e-mail messages, while the Bluetooth headset gives you wireless, hands-free
calling.
< http://snipurl.com/free_phone >

I rarely sit down to read the Real Media Riffs column from Media Post, but today, for some reason, thankfully, was an exception.

Taken from the article "TRUTH IN MEDIA."

"Let's be honest with ourselves. You want the truth? You can't stay awake for the truth. We want police chases, mudslides, and world leaders caught on tape having sex with their daughter's piano teacher. We don't give an embryonic rat's ass about Enron, the Middle East, or the new Campaign Finance Reform bill because it's way too complicated and depressing. When we come home from a hard day at the office, all we want is to kick our feet up on the coffee table, pop open a cold one, turn on the television, and be reassured that everyone in the world is more fucked up than you are, especially the people reporting on it."

Good stuff Pumpkin, good stuff.