Boulder Flood 2013
Just a short update on the Boulder Floods. It’s been a long storm. It rained most of last week, but really started coming down last Wednesday. My wife and I got caught in the downpour coming home. We hit some…
Johnny Cab
What seemed far fetched just a few years ago is on the fast track toward reality. I’m speaking about Johnny Cab. In the movie Total Recall, Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) jumps into a driver-less taxi known as “Johnny Cab.” To make…
Growing Internationally
Colin here. One of the greatest opportunities any established business faces is growth internationally. Take a company like Apple. Recently, much has been made about how they have saturated the domestic marketplace wi their iPhones and iPads. The thinking is…
Current Reading
I realized the current stack of books on my desk were ideal for a photo and blog post. But before i get into the actual books, let my preface this post with two points: I find I’m not so good…
The 787 Dreamliner (Parts 7-8)
Part 7: Previously, I pondered whether Boeing actually had any human factors engineers. After being unable to find the overhead light switch, after inadvertently dumping the oxygen masks in my row, after not being able to get out of the…
The 787 Dreamliner (Parts 5-6)
Part 5: I had the great fortune of getting a Business Class seat on the brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. After releasing an oxygen mask because I thought the release button was a light switch, and after discovering that the…
The 787 Dreamliner (Parts 3-4)
Part 3: So here I am in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. It’s the greatest and most advanced aircraft ever designed by Boeing. With a plastic body and LED lighting it is billed as the most comfortable way ever devised to…
The 787 Dreamliner (Parts 1-2)
Part1: I travel to Asia a lot. The journey takes about 12 hours and can take 16 hours depending upon where I am headed. It is arduous. I often think I would rather drink rat poison than sit in a…
Is Apple Vindictive and Evil?
Apple has not won all of its lawsuits. In fact, other than one big jury award it has for the most part been losing cases. Certainly, outside of the “home court advantage” here in America it has done rather poorly….
Get Me A Cell Phone Stat
Portlandia has some very clever bits, this emergency cell phone purchase is too close to home. It’s a free service once you pay for it. It’s a one time charge because it’s only charged once a year.
Do You Suffer from Nomophobia ?
File this under Things People Research When They Have Too Much Time. The following research was sent to me by securenvoy.com, I thought I would share it. First identified in 2008, it would appear nomophobia – the fear of being out of mobile…
Parlez-vous L33t?
You are most likely familiar with numbers being used to implicate letters, phrases or even symbols. In SMS (txting) shortcuts, for instance, 2 can also be used for “to”, 4 can mean “for” and the 8 spells “eat” in gr8, meaning great….
Nest and HoneyWell
Nest hit a nerve. Thermostats are not the most popular topic for high-tech and Internet blogs – but Nest hit a nerve. Nest offers a thermostat for the home. Probably because it’s a San Francisco start-up, possibly because it has…
What Happened in Vegas?
The advertising campaign “whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” was absolutely brilliant. Come to Vegas and be naughty – everyone does. It gave Vegas a classy mystique, an improvement over the City of Sinners. That kind of advertising is…
Happy Independence Day
This is a follow-up post from last Summer’s proclamation that Halloween and Independence Day should be swapped. See: Have a Scarey Fourth of July In that post, I made some compelling, dare I say brilliant, reasonings why these holidays should be…
Have a Scary Fourth of July
The Fourth of July is a fine holiday. It’s a real holiday – no work. It’s a casual holiday – hot dogs, really? It’s a summer holiday – parks, pools and picnic areas are the places to be. And it…
My Keychain
A lot of things are changing these days – books, newspapers, retail, communications, etc. But this one snuck up on me. Take a look at my keychain: Look ma, no keys. I have my car fob which is a remote…
Happy Halloween
It is Halloween. The inexplicable holiday where we let our kids become monsters, run around in cold weather, and get a ton of sugar. Halloween and telecom have a long history together. There are plenty of scary spooky stories involving…
They Are Dead Jim
I read lots of serious stuff. But sometimes I come across serious stuff that strikes me as nonsensical. Really?! So I come across this serious article about how research at John Hopkins University concluded that the warp engines on the…
Books! Book Review
Thought I would share my thoughts on some recent books. I don’t read many books any more. I instead read a ton of “news” on the web daily; mostly thru Google Reader and Twitter links. I read books when I…