Monthly Archives: January 2012

Thinking Differently

Apple used the slogan in its advertising “think different” years ago.  Over time, I think we all can appreciate how that mantra, perhaps grammatically incorrect or perhaps not,  has come to be reality in the types of products produced by Apple.  I’ve always admired that much of what Apple produces isn’t original per se – there were mp3 players before the iPod, for example – but Apple manages to take a product sector as it evolves, marry it to better technology, and change everything.

What has me babbling like an Apple fanboy this morning?  A piece of research on TV‘s of course, and a thought about how some research points to the need to think out of the box. Continue reading

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Filed under digital media

Warranties

National Lampoon's Animal House

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I’m sure you’ve all seen Animal House.  It’s one of my favorite movies and most of the guys (and it is mostly guys) I know quote from it fairly regularly.  One of the lines I find myself repeating way too often comes from Otter to Flounder, the hapless freshman who lends the frat his brother’s car only to see it destroyed:

Flounder, you can’t spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You fucked up… you trusted us! Hey, make the best of it! Maybe we can help.

I thought about that this weekend listening to some of the news but it triggered a business thought as well. Continue reading

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Filed under Reality checks, Thinking Aloud

The Smell Test

Here’s the question for you this Foodie Friday.  Let’s say you pour yourself a nice hot cup of coffee and go to the fridge for some milk.  You notice that the “sell by” date has passed although it was only a few days prior.  What do you do?  If you’re like most folks, you do the smell test – you sniff the milk to see if it has an off odorand, therefore, might have something wrong with it.  It doesn’t have to be with foods that you think might be “off” either.  It’s a smart thing to give some produce – melons, for example – a quick sniff because the better, riper stuff has a fresher, more “melon-y” smell.

English: A profile of a beautifully shaped hum...

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Of course, we don’t just use the smell test in the kitchen or the supermarket, and that’s the point today. Continue reading

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Filed under Helpful Hints