Panasonic has great tech gear, including excellent plasma screens. I’ve been considering buying one, and just today got a brochure directly from Panasonic on their plasmas.
Only problem?
They claim their TH-42PX60 model is 1080p. More precisely, their actual claim is “1080p digital processing for next-generation video sources.” The same claim is on the Canadian Panasonic […]

Saw this link to the 10 occupations in the US with the top growth rates over the next decade on popurls.

Retail salespersons
Registered nurses
Postsecondary teachers
Customer service representatives
Janitors and cleaners
Waiters and waitresses
Food preparation and serving workers
Home health aides
Nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants
General and operations managers

Aside from health care, which is growing too fast to be sustainable, most […]

As I posted quite a while ago, I re-evaluted using Google AdWords on this site when the whole Google China thing came out.
I did eventually take AdWords off, for that reason as well as out of a desire to simplify this blog (see what I had on the site and also what I took […]

Saw this quote in an ESPN story:

The point is that knowledge and the ability to make a good decision correlate only sporadically, and there are plenty of times when knowledge gets in the way of judgement.

To me, that’s the difference between wisdom and intelligence.

Gerald at Vancouver Web 2.0 Forum published an interview he did with me today.
Very nice if I do say so myself.

Last night I finished Friedman’s The World is Flat.
It’s a fairly wow big idea book; following are some of my notes and thoughts. This is not a review or anything like that; it’s just things I want to remember from the book.
Ten forces that flattened the world:

Berlin Wall coming down, opening the iron curtain and […]

This BBC story says that “former senior Communist party officials” have written and published a public letter denouncing at least one form of government censorship in China.
The officials include:

. . . Chairman Mao’s former secretary, Li Rui; the former editor of the Communist party’s own mouthpiece, People’s Daily, Hu Jiwei; and ex-propaganda boss, Zhu […]

OK, everyone knows: Google is selling out.
China is big, China is profitable, China wants control over communication and transmission of ideas. Google is big. Google is profitable. Google, whose original purpose was to enable easy access to all the world’s information, is helping China censor communication and transmission of ideas.
And the rather idiotic “don’t […]

I recently posted a tribute to Henk Berends, the retiring chairman of our company.
Today I actually delivered the speech, after making some changes, and I’m really, really, really relieved to say it went over extremely well.
The difficult thing about this particular speech is that I wanted to imitate his fairly inimitable speaking style, and so […]

Henk Berends, the chairman of Premier, is retiring this month. Here’s something I wrote for a memory book that we are presenting to him on Wednesday.
(I can post it here two days in advance fearlessly, since he is something of a technophobe, and “blog” would likely sound as alien to him as “blickfarx.”)
Without further […]

OK, I’ve done it with my iPod, as have thousands of others.
Why not with my Harmon/Kardon AVR 240? Here’s about a 3-second exposure with the camera on a tripod.

For companies that still don’t get it: aesthetics are important. Aesthetics are important. Aesthetics are important.
At least, if you want anyone to love your product. If you […]

This is months out-of-date, but I figured I should mention that I’m no longer affiliated with The Linguist.
I did some work for Mark and Steve Kaufmann as a consultant, operating under my Sparkplug corporation.
But about 4 months ago, it just became too much: work, family, home, blog, and business. Plus, I’m working on my masters […]

Communism in China is often changed and adapted to fit the needs of the ruling class. This is referred to as communism (or socialism) with Chinese characteristics.
Microsoft’s statement in support of it’s canning of a Chinese journalist’s blog on MSN Space sounds suspiciously familiar:

“MSN is committed to ensuring that products and services comply with global […]

This article on the Online Asian Times by a European financial analyst (who also has posted the article on his blog) summarizes many of my fears about the United State’s current direction.
Ill-advised wars without clear endpoints, money flowing out the door like a river of cheap paper, a focus on the short-term benefits of outsourcing […]

It’s a big day … we’ve recently launched our new calendar-creation site, and today we had our first orders!
The site is an incredibly simple way to create a quality wall calendar with your own photos … and benefit schools as well. (Each calendar bought means $5 goes to a school of your choice.) You also […]

Well, I’ve said it before, and so have others, but the data is starting to come in that the car-buying public is starting to drastically change its habits.
3 cheers for high gas prices!
Naturally, most of the North American (I mean, American) car manufacturers are caught totally flat-footed … with way too many guzzling gas suckers […]

Tonight I heard the one of the best definitions of leadership I’ve ever encountered:
“Leadership is the ability to achieve your goals through the efforts of others.”
- Pastor Elisha (a Vietnamese pastor)
It’s perhaps a bit one-sided … and you’d have to be careful that this kind of leadership wouldn’t deteriorate into manipulation, but it’s a […]

Saw this nugget in a comment on Business Week:

Don’t forget the basic formula for success–first, best, or different.

If you’re launching a new product or service, those are good words to remember.