Why is this a good idea?

I have to admit, I'm NOT a fan of the whole phone/mp3 player (ipod) mash-up. I'm not sure where this convergence idea came from, and considering that every iteration of the idea has failed miserably, I'm amazed that providers keep going in this direction. (The Juke that's pictured here is the latest entrant into the market)

Before you email me about the obvious iPhone's success, I need to point out that the success of the iPhone isn't the integration of the phone and ipod, its the total package and the promise of extending the OSX desktop experience that has lead to its success. Oh, and its an Apple product designed by angels, and that's a sure bet for a home run product. ;-)

The ads for the Juke are pretty compelling, not from a product perspective, but just in terms of decent marketing. The Juke itself will fail, just like all the other phones with mp3 players built into them, not because the product sucks, but because its a bad idea.

The problem is that its neither a good phone or MP3 player. Of course its not an ipod, which is a death sentence in itself.

A lot of folks are heralding the Google/Android announcement as the second coming, but I don't see it. (yet) After I get some hands-on time with it in January I should have a better feel for it, but right now, I'm not excited about it. Perhaps its because I've not been thrilled with any of Google's product/services in a few years. All they do is search, and everything else blows. Yeah, that could be it. ;-)

The right tool for the job

You always need to have the right tool for the job, and when it comes to preparing food, your knives can make or break your experience. I can compromise just about anywhere in the kitchen, but when it comes to my knives, I want a precision tool sharpened for maximum performance.

All knives are not created equal, and the three in the lineup here are my mainstays, along with a well used (and abused) cutting board.

There's one tool that this rule doesn't apply to. A hammer. When it comes to hammers, there are really two rules that apply. 1) a hammer can fix anything and 2) anything can be a hammer.

If you know what the middle knife is for, email me and you'll win a prize if you're right. ;-)

Brain dump

I'm working on a startup right now, and when I'm in the groove, its almost impossible for my to get a good nights sleep. My mind is racing and I'll wake up in the middle of the night with a brilliant idea and can't get back to sleep as my mind is off and running. (actually, even when I'm not working on a new project this is a common problem for me)

The strategy I've developed to deal with this situation is amazingly simple. I just grab a legal pad and pen and literally dump all my thoughts to paper. Once I've got it written down and out of my sometimes forgetful mind, my heart rate slows and I'm able to once again lay my head down and fall back to sleep. I do NOT use my laptop for this - for me there's something peaceful and cleansing about a pen and paper. Plus I'd probably get distracted with email, etc. and never get back to sleep.

I realized early on that I stress out when I'm in this mode because I'm franticly coming up with ideas and somewhat fearful that I'll forget them. Writing them down not only solves this problem, but it also forces me to clarify the ideas as I put them to paper.

I bring it up only because another business owner asked me how I deal with this sort of problem. If it can help him, I figure its worth mentioning here.

Sleep tight!

Music everywhere

Ever since the Airport Express came out, I've been a huge fan. I've got them in my office, scattered around the house and at least one in my bag when I travel so I can easily make the wired connection in my hotel room wireless. (or share a single connection with employees in rooms next to me)

I just bought another Express today with some desktop Bose speakers to add some tunes to the kitchen. When I cook I like to have music playing - keeps me in the groove as I'm preparing a meal, serving up drinks and entertaining guests. All I do is plug in the Express, speakers and wala! Instant music. No speaker wire to run, its quick, easy and can be moved as needed.

With iTunes, you can select multiple wireless speakers and drive music anywhere you want. Great capability with minimal cost and of course, no wiring.

You can also send streaming music in iTunes to the Airport Express as well. The only downside is that it has to be streaming music IN iTunes - so until Apple buys Pandora, I'm outa luck in this department. (yea, I know I'm beating a dead horse here....sigh)

Not something you see every day

I'm used to seeing odd aircraft at EAA's convention every summer in Oshkosh (OSH). However, when I randomly catch unique aircraft when I'm not expecting it, its a nice little treat.

Upon landing in Philly tonight, I was beat, tired and my contact lenses were giving me fits. I blinked twice to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing - and sure enough, sitting out adjacent to the runway we just landed on was an Antonov 124 transport aircraft belonging to Volga-Dnepr Airlines.

My camera was out of battery juice and not that it would have mattered as there was really no way I could have gotten a shot anyway. The picture here is from Airliners.net. If you like planes, that website really rocks. Check it out.

Opportunity cost

I was speaking with one of our account reps for a trade show series that we do and she was really bummed out about her travel schedule that her boss booked for her. She could have gotten an early flight out on the last day of the trade show, but in order to save a few bucks, they put her on the red eye flight instead. This puts her with 6 hours of downtime sitting at the airport, the pain of a two connection red eye flight, and they expect her to work the next day as well. On top of it all, she's got a negative feeling about the whole deal and for what? Saving a few bucks? Is the downside worth it?

Travel is a pain. Travel cross country is a real pain, especially from the west coast in the afternoon when your destination is east of the Mississippi. Doing the little things like getting folks on decent flights or cutting them a little slack if they do a red eye flight can go a long way towards keeping your staff happy.

We travel a lot - the fall trade show schedule has been kinda a death march, and while we just suck it up and hammer as best we can, we also keep our flights, hotels and ground transportation plans under control to minimize wait, expedite travel times and keep logistics complexity to a minimum to manage the opportunity for problems to near zero. It works best that we book our own flights and hotels, cutting out the middle man and be in control of our own destinies.

We're all a lot happier as a result and when something goes wrong, we can only point fingers at ourselves. And that's just the way we like it.

I know if she was given the control to manage her own travel schedule, she'd be more productive and a happier employee. Bummer that they're mismanaging that situation. The opportunity cost of finding another employee with her capabilities is nothing compared to the few bucks that they saved.

Facebook's bubble?

Facebook is working on monetizing their ever growing user base and page views, but one of the problems with a younger demographic is that they really don't respond to adverts on sites like Facebook.

Fred has a trial on Facebook, and has gotten a fair amount of impressions, but no click through action. Others talk about much larger impressions for their ads, but still the same (zero) response in terms of clicks. Is this really a Facebook failure, or is it just a terrible place to advertise a venture capital firm? If you look at the activities going on there, advertising something like Union Square Ventures doesn't make a whole lot of sense in terms of real ROI, but it IS generating some free PR for Fred and company.

For advertisers who are a prime candidate for Facebook users, I wonder how well its working out for them? I'm talking in terms of impressions, click thru, cost per click and % conversion for action. This metric is what I'd use as a real world value for putting a number on FaceBooks' valuation. Google had the same problem in terms of value as search, and then they monetized search with adwords and BAM! Solid revenues that continue to drive their stock price. Sure investors like Microsoft bought into Facebook at an agreed upon value, but to keep the bubble in check, you need to actually look at value in terms of its market value for operations (advertising) else you risk being a large part of another dot com bubble burst.