Saturday, April 3, 2010

Sitting quietly, doing nothing...


Is the Hug-E-Gram truly "the most personal gift you can share?" Creepiest, maybe. Sixty two business leaders share what success means to them. Forbes interviewed Edward Tufte, data guru and recent Obama appointee, on how he'll develop an "intellectual model" for recovery.gov. Got a Facebook fan page? (Yes!) Here are essential resources for making it great.

This post includes nothing about the iPad.

The folks at WorldCAD Access blogged about their time at the Aerospace Supply Chain seminar in Seattle. Two things caught my eye in this relatively long article. Boeing needs to retain product design data for 70 years. In your own work, imagine finding and using data from 7 months ago. So imagine the issues associated with data that's 7 decades old. Where is it stored? What media? Who knows where it is? What software will still read it? Also, Boeing saved 40% on drafting costs when they dropped 2D and did everything only in 3D. Yes, the additional dimension saved them money.

Do not click here.

Did you watch the Rocky & Bullwinkle Show when you were a kid? Then you'll enjoy this interview with Jay Ward and Bill Scott from a 1962 issue of TV Radio Mirror. Jay Ward is quoted as saying that the faster pace of animation for TV versus the movies (because the smaller screen doesn't allow for as much subtlety) gives them opportunity for twice as many jokes such that it takes a person of intelligence to catch them all. (I happen to be a proud owner of a first-generation copy of the complete set of storyboards for Episode #137 signed by Jay Ward.)

French fry coated bacon on a stick
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HubSpot helps you decide which metrics and analytics best measure your marketing activities with this page of links. Need help with your web site's landing pages? Consult the landing page guru. Or let Jon Miller show you how shorter forms reduce the cost of conversion. Learn how to style buttons using CSS. Tips on how to use social media to create buzz-worthy events. What can you learn about web sites from eye tracking? #1 - headlines draw eyes before pictures.

The Economics of Perfect Software is essay on whether software should be shipped with bugs. The author's position is "yes" based on the law of diminishing returns. Just fix the bugs that are embarrassing or will piss off customers. Ten things that annoy programmers (#2 is Other Programmers). The Cranky Product Manager offers her take on the art of pricing (Step #5, Boss Ignores Recommendations).
When was the last time you participated in a trade show, conference, or convention for your business? For me, it was this past January. Pointwise continues to participate in a lot of industry events. However, the Center for Exhibition Industry Research released data indicating a decline in trade show exhibits of 12.5% in 2009, more than 4 times greater than the decline in 2008. This article on why you shouldn't exhibit at trade shows is probably not helping (#5 says you could hand out $100 bills and get more qualified leads).

The author of Duct Tape Marketing has a new book, The Referral Engine, that shows you how to teach your business to market itself. The official web site of author Tom Rob Smith. (The site sucks with some goofy spinning interface but his books are better.) Find out where "the fold" is on your web page.

How much do you like beer? Enough to wear the Beerma Sutra tshirt?

If you understand find / -type d -name .\* -print then you probably don't need Hal Pomeranz' Unix Command Line Kung Fu. Here are all the printable templates you might possibly need for web page, iPhone, taskflow, and dozens of other tasks. Run six 30 inch flat panel displays off a single ATI Eyefinity card. You may think you've backed up everything, but maybe you missed these things.

Entertainment Engineering magazine shows how Adams Golf used CFD to help design their Speedline Fast 10 golf clubs. Process magazine describes how CFD can keep your data center cool. CFD for animators and games.

Do not go to the Cheese & Burger Society's web site if you are hungry because I guarantee the pictures of burgers will make you hungrier. Know your butts. Know your pork. Know your square eggs. Globish? Maybe that's what my kids speak. Another clock, this one done in jQuery.

...spring comes, and the grass grows by itself. --Zen Proverb

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