Last week the New Yorker had an excellent article on the topic of innovation from author Malcom Gladwell, titled In the Air?. Gladwell argues that the conventional wisdom of the brilliant inventor and the flash of inspiration isn’t necessarily true. Instead, he demonstrates are actually very common: The original expectation was that I.V. [Intellectual Ventures] […]
I’m a big believer in the potential of integrating VOIP technology with business applications, as you may have gathered if you read my recent post on Asterisk and Adhearsion. However, right now I see most of that potential reserved for businesses with the need (and cash) for an on-site PBX system. Microbusinesses, small businesses, and […]
Back in March, I mentioned my plan to write my independent study in Google Docs instead of going the usual route and using Microsoft Word. Now that I’m officially done with that project, I thought I’d give you a postmortem of how things went. Thinking back, Google Docs (at least the word processor component of […]
If you saw last week’s episode of The Office (you do watch The Office, right?), you’ll remember that one of the plot points revolves around a homemade “Rockin’ Robin” ringtone created by one of the characters. It’s extremely funny, so if you missed it, I recommend downloading it from iTunes. Anyway, I think NBC is […]
An idea popped into my head after my Symantec “customer service” phone ordeal earlier today. Instead of making customers wait in a call queue for minutes (or hours) on end, why not let them wait for a short time – maybe five minutes. If they still haven’t been passed to a real human being by […]
One piece of advice I’ve repeatedly heard about selling a product or idea is believability. If you have the greatest idea in the world, but can’t convince me that you can actually execute it, you’ve got a big problem: A product that doesn’t sell. That was one of my first thoughts when I came across […]
I’ve been struggling lately to come up with things to write about here on my blog. I didn’t know why until earlier this afternoon, when I think I pinned down the reasons. First, there are a lot of blogs on the Internet, and a lot of them talk about the exact same stuff. Just take […]
When Casey and I had Kael late last year, I quickly realized the power in keeping track of when he slept, ate, and needed diaper changes. That data isn’t very useful in isolation, but when you look at their trends over time, you can start to see patterns that otherwise might not be so obvious. […]
After recently listening to On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee and taking the Imagination course with Dr. Stamp here at UND, I’ve become fascinated with the human brain and how we actually think and work. Because of this, I get really excited when I come across some different way of working that takes […]
Yesterday while grocery shopping at our local Super Target, Casey and I came across a new product in the produce department. It’s called the Grapple, and is supposed to combine “the sweet flavor of Concord Grapes” with “the delightful taste of a Washington Apple”. It’s supposed to be an apple that tastes like grapes – […]