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So, let's say that you do something because you love it. And because you love it, you do pretty well at it. Then one day you wake up and somebody is offering to give you a grant just to keep doing what you're already doing.
You better believe I've already sent in my proposal.
Any wonder why I love Google?
I've seen several versions of the video below (you probably have too):
In fact there are dozens of different versions of this video on YouTube right now. Of course it's cool tech and it inherently has a very cool story. What's baffling me about this is that Microsoft has been releasing cool products recently and I've heard almost nothing about them.
I'm not talking about Vista. Unfortunately Vista is not really 'Wow', though it's the only one of their shipping products that I've been seeing anything about at all. What I am talking about is Microsoft Office 2007. Now that's "WOW!" If you haven't seen Office 2007, you are actually missing something. Word 2007 by itself is such a strong upgrade from previous versions that it's actually worth writing about. It's actually worth talking about, blogging about and creating bumper stickers about.
So why isn't Microsoft promoting Office 2007 with traditional ads like its Vista ads? Why isn't Office 2007 experiencing a viral buzz like "Surfaces"? I don't get it.
Is the system breaking, broken or are we just hearing about it more?
1. Cyclist Tased at Minnesota Airport
I was instantly and with absolutely no verbal warning whatsoever attacked from behind and thrown to the ground. I received wounds to chin and arm. The impact put a new casing crack on my helmet. My glasses were thrown off by the impact and bounced several feet away. The bicycle continued to roll forwards a few feet, coming to a stop in the center of the road. (A gold van would later have to stop, because the bike was crumpled in the middle of the one lane road.) Officer Wingate then came up behind me and jerked me up into a standing position. I then heard him yell an order to Officer Bryant- 'Shoot him!'. Officer Bryant then shot me with the taser. I fell uncontrolled to the pavement for the second time, experiencing the full force of a weapon that can only be considered barbaric.
Federal security officials took the unusual step yesterday of posting an incident report and security camera footage on their Web site to counter allegations that screeners and police officers at Reagan National Airport mistreated a mother and her toddler this week. At issue is whether Monica Emmerson, a former Secret Service officer and District resident, was improperly detained when she spilled water out of her child's sippy cup.
It seems that we're hearing more about extreme responses to everyday situations. Is it because they're happening more or because we can all publish more easily? Or both?
I've recently finished reading a few books that I haven't mentioned and all of them are worth mentioning.
The first is Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. This is an absolutely fanstastic biography of the man who gave us E = mc^2. The book covers the entire period of his life and dives into the physics and the politics and the religion of Einstein. It's a very long book (704 pages) so (as usual) I recommend the unabridged audiobook version from Audible.com. Pick up Einstein: His Life and Universe to dismiss the urban legends surrounding Einstein (he really was a good student) and learn a great deal more about the man who transformed the landscape of physics in the 20th century.
The next book I recommend is The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization by Thomas Kelley and Jonathan Littman. This is a great book of examples of innovative thinking. If you read much in the way of business strategy or business improvement you've probably come across a lot of books that provide great theory with no good examples. The Ten Faces of Innovation is a good book with plenty of examples that really spark ideas and thinking. It does read like an advertisement for Ideo in places, but overall this book is worth the time and the money.
Finally, I just finished reading The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin. The Dip is a very quick read that's very worth the time. If you read Seth at all (online or offline), you probably already know that this book is something you need to examine. I was fortunate enough to attend Seth's seminar in Tempe last month, so reading The Dip was a quick reminder of the ideas I received at the seminar. Read The Dip and become Best in the World.
To find any of the books I've mentioned above on the Audible.com web site, try the following search:
This one speaks for itself:
I've been in California most of this week, hence the complete silence here. I do have a couple of things that I thought were worth mentioning.
First, I've been using a service called Jott for a few weeks now and I really like it. Basically it's an on-the-go voice-based note service. You go to the web site and sign up (for free!) and then simply call the Jott service number (also free!) to leave voicemail notes for yourself. That's probably not notable in itself, but here's the cool part: Jott automatically coverts your voice mail to an email message and sends it to you or anyone you want. You can set up distribution groups or whatever you need. It's a great way to capture quick ideas when you're on the road and don't have a way to quickly jot something down on paper. It works very well -- if it can't understand your voice, it tries to convert to text, but it also includes the original voice recording in the email.
Next, have you seen all of the new Google stuff? Google maps now has street view. If you have never seen the Paris casino in Las Vegas, just click here and walk around the view. Street view is available in limited areas today, but will certainly be expanding. Google has also released some cool new developer features and tools that I'll comment on another time.
I've been looking at beyond tv as a long-term solution to my DVR woes. This is something I may actually do this year. If Netflix somehow gets it's downloadable movie option aligned with software like this, I'll be even more likely to jump on board.
That's it for now. Hopefully some of it was interesting to you!
