Archives: June 2007

Why Wait In Line For an iPhone Yourself?

Posted by: Heather Green on June 29, Categories: marketing

Finally, something that shows that the Internet is useful. I've waiting lo, these many years, for something to really deliver on the promise of the Internet (It will change your life, make you more productive, Let you Live longer). All vain promises until now.(Thanks Jerryfor sending this email around) Instead of standing in line for an iPhone, you can sit at your computer, casually click over to iWait.org and bid on the place in line for iPhones that an enterprising group of college kids are holding. For you.

Google Trying to Goose Widget Ecosystem

Posted by: Heather Green on June 28, Categories: entrepreneurs

This is interesting, via John Battelle. Google has created a new pilot program offering dough to folks who build popular gagdets, Google's name for widgets. Gadgets are Google's fastest growing...

Do we want baby brains?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 27, Categories: skills

Here's an interesting post on the magic of the baby brain. (ex Marginalrevolution). The idea is that babies' brains have a focus and a plasticity that we jaded, task-oriented...

Is TV Past the Future for Video Blogging?

Posted by: Heather Green on June 27, Categories: digital media

I've been hearing a lot more recently from companies that doing video blogging about putting product placement and pitches into their video blogs. Angel Gambino, an exec at the social networking site Bebo came in today and was talking about it. And my collegue Peter Burrows mentioned that Kevin Rose from Digg and Diggnation said that he thinks this is the future of advertising.

Google's math: graph theory

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 25, Categories: research

Here's a good, clear post by Mark Chu-Carroll, a software engineer at Google, on graph theory. It describes how Euler used it to solve a conundrum involving bridges in Königsberg....

Parting of the Ways with My Old Laptop

Posted by: Heather Green on June 24, Categories:

I don't know about you, but I talk to my laptop. It's been with me a long time. It's a Dell and to tell you how old it is, it's...

Read this and hand it to four friends

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 23, Categories:

Mathew Ingram takes on the traditional media metric that says five people read the average newspaper or magazine. I agree, it's largely baloney. If you look at the huge...

My son: He builds what he zaps

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 22, Categories: advertising

Back during the 2003 World Series, I wrote a commentary for BW about how my son Jack experienced the games on TiVo. He took (and continues to take) extraordinary measures...

Walking season: Where are maps for NYC?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 21, Categories: society

I came across this excellent walking site for London, Walkit.com. (ex BadScience) You punch in where you want to go, and it lays out a walking route, tells you how...

Mixed signals on the road: open source gps

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 20, Categories: wiki

David Pogue raves about Tom-Tom's move that gives customers license to edit GPS maps, even as they're driving. I enjoyed this comment from a reader in Mexico: Imagine manipulation:...

Selling my penultimate chapter

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 19, Categories: digital media, marketing

I see Tim O'Reilly will be selling books by the chapter. (ex Chris Webb). The natural comparison is to the break-up of the music CD into marketable songs. I see...

Cars roll into consumer electronics

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 18, Categories: society

My wife asked the mechanic if we should think about trading in our 10-year-old Nissan for a Prius hybrid. "No!" he said. What mechanic in his right mind would urge...

Back from Getting Hitched

Posted by: Heather Green on June 17, Categories: Weekend Rant

It seems like Steve and I are reemerging at the same time! I am back, after taking three weeks off to get married and relax after getting married. My computer...

Back from biking

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 16, Categories: Weekend Rant

I'm back from a week of biking, a trip that took me some 460 miles from Ohiopyle, in southwestern Pennsylvania, through the Cumberland Gap and the Gettysburg battlefield, past buggy-driving...

Off biking

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 08, Categories: Weekend Rant

I'm heading out to Western Pennsylvania today for a biking trip. First we'll see Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water. Then I'll start pedaling (alone) back to New Jersey. I...

Innovation 101: Sgt. Peppers

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 08, Categories: society

Here's a good post from Valeria Maltoni on the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' Sgt Peppers album. She discusses the album for business lessons: taking risks, trying something new, innovating...

Craig's advice: Take a deep breath

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 07, Categories: society

We all have problems, some of them very serious. Rejection, failure, mortality. They create anxiety. And an entire industry of climbers and has-beens gets paid richly to give us advice....

If Roger Federer loses the popular vote, will he lose the French Open?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 06, Categories: research

Rex Sorgatz points to MSNBC's iPredict, where the public votes, among other topics, on whether a certain Swiss tennis champ will win the French Open. (ex Mathew Ingram) If...

Heather's wedding

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 04, Categories: BusinessWeek

It was beautiful and fun, and we all danced into the night. And now the newlyweds are away on their honeymoon. I fear that Heather has taken with her (or...

Interview: Talking to a machine

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 04, Categories: mainstream media

The debate about the spoken vs e-mail interview grinds on, with Steven Levy and Jeff Jarvis taking their stands. Jeff may be right. Fairness and transparency argue for an e-mail...

Economics and braille keyboards

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 01, Categories: skills

Very good interview with economist Robert Frank, who explains among other things, why the keypads on drive-though ATMs should have braille dots. (ex Marginal Revolution) The key point in the...