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Category: Personal

The Smurfs Would Like To Harvest Cabbage

The Smurfs Would Like To Harvest Cabbage

As I sat in a meeting this morning, scanning email on my iPad, up popped this message: “The Smurfs would like to harvest cabbage.” The darned push messages…it seems every application on the iPad now wants permission to send a push message.  NYTimes.com breaking news?  Maybe…  Twitter?  Probably not…  My Monster Ranch, Empire Story, Virtual Villagers?  Definitely not… My kids have come to love the iPad.  They really enjoy the games, and quite honestly, like most kids, they aren’t to…

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BK & Seattle’s Best – a Lesson for Marketers

BK & Seattle’s Best – a Lesson for Marketers

“We’re #2, we try harder” is a marketing strategy that has served Avis well for years.  This morning I saw a corollary to that strategy, “we’re #16, we don’t even bother to try.” In the past couple weeks, Burger King, who has done an excellent job marketing recently with “The King”, has spent a lot of money advertising  for Seattle’s Best Coffee.  The big push is for “Free on Friday,” a take on the old, try it once and you’re ours strategy…

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Welcome to the Future – Virtual Time Share

Welcome to the Future – Virtual Time Share

Tomorrow, many are predicting that Apple will announce iTunes is moving to the cloud.  Like everything else. Welcome to the joys of virtual ownership.  This is the place were we never really buy anything.  We rent it.  All the bits of our lives, the things we rely on day in and day out become mere sand slipping through our fingers. Alvin Toffler predicted in “Futureshock” that we would eventually move past the service economy.  I think we’re seeing that now. …

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Boston Biz Journal: Companies Vulnerable to Social Media Threats

Boston Biz Journal: Companies Vulnerable to Social Media Threats

It’s may be well trod ground, but it’s still a topic that needs to be considered:  What to do about reputation-damaging tweets or critics mobilizing on social media websites like Facebook. This week we get a brief glimpse into the world via the Boston Business Journal. In their survey, they found that 33% of PR professionals said their companies were not prepared to deal with social media attacks. “Online threats to corporate reputation are escalating the social media imperative when…

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How Casual Friday Took Over

How Casual Friday Took Over

When I started out in business, we dressed for success.  That generally meant ties and sport coats, and often meant full suits.  Granted at that point, I was in a much different industry, construction project management, but even from the mid-90’s, when I got into tech, things have changed. At the time I got into tech, we generally wore, at the very least, what I’d call “up scale business casual.”  Nice shoes, dress pants and button down shirts were de…

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So What the Heck is Twitter?

So What the Heck is Twitter?

I’ve been using Twitter now for 2.5 years.  Honestly, I’m still grappling with the question: what the heck is Twitter? Wikipedia, never short for answers has this: Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service, owned and operated by Twitter Inc., that enables its users to send and read other user messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page. That’s not really what I’m looking for.  You see, I certainly know what it is, in terms…

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A Day at the Beach

A Day at the Beach

Misquamicut Beach was more crowded than I’ve ever seen it. The state beach closed early and word was out there wasn’t a grain of sand to be seen between the blankets. the girls had a blast. MacKenzie playing in the surf while Madison dug the biggest hole I’ve ever seen. she could dig foxholes for the army.