mac.stream()

Business speak so bad it hurts

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:43:15 -0400

I seriously found this sentence on a site of a product vendor…certain words have been removed to keep you from dealing with them in their awfulness.

“XYZ offers the only mobile XYZ and XZY solution capable of delivering 100 percent coverage, proactive 1:1 conversations, triple play convergence and cross-product, cross-channel orchestration.”

What does ANY of that mean?

No schedules. No mandatory meetings. Inside Best Buy's radical reshaping of the workplace

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:12:54 -0400

No schedules. No mandatory meetings. Inside Best Buy's radical reshaping of the workplace:

“…Orders processed by people who are not working in the office are up 13% to 18% over those who are.”

I love me some Mid-Century modern’ness - Mid-Century...

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:23:00 -0400

I love me some Mid-Century modern’ness - Mid-Century Modern Collection (Neutral) Art Prints by James Provost

So simple clean and cool - Limited edition vacuum tube radio

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:03:57 -0400

So simple clean and cool - Limited edition vacuum tube radio

On the move

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:55:00 -0400

Well July has been quite a whirlwind. I’ve just returned from a 2 week road trip (3,657 miles) to visit old friends, make new friends, celebrate a wedding and discover more of the west. It was nothing short of amazing.

I just got back from a few days in Milwaukee for a new client kick off meeting to discuss community building and social media with an impressive organization. This was my first assignment as a part of my new/old job with my good friends at InetSolution. I’m super excited to be back working with some old friends that I used to work with back in 2000.

Good things are to come!

Abbey and I have been traveling out west for the past two weeks...

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:50:09 -0400

Abbey and I have been traveling out west for the past two weeks having a blast and seeing the sights

Drool (via whereisthecoool)

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:07:44 -0400

Drool (via whereisthecoool)

“Tech Support” - Nerdy, Gaming T-shirt by Jay Ross

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:28:23 -0400

“Tech Support” - Nerdy, Gaming T-shirt by Jay Ross

1961 Playboy photo featuring left to right - George Nelson,...

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:56:16 -0400

1961 Playboy photo featuring left to right - George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames and Jens Risom - Designs for living - Lushpad

"…the industrial economy people worked in factories. In the services/information economy people..."

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 13:35:43 -0400

“…the industrial economy people worked in factories. In the services/information economy people worked in office parks. In the creative economy, people are working in downtowns.”

- The New Urban Workplace - CoolTown Studios

"Software that disables bits of your computer to make you more productive sounds daft, but may help..."

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 11:06:00 -0400

“Software that disables bits of your computer to make you more productive sounds daft, but may help keep distractions at bay”

- Stay on target | The Economist - I’ve been using OmmWriter on OSX to do a lot of my writing lately and find it greatly freeing. No distractions, no spell check, just you and your thougths

I’m a big fan of software that just get’s out of your way, but software that’s specifically designed to remove distractions is one step further and I like it

I really like the idea of having a reading area kind of floating...

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:09:33 -0400

I really like the idea of having a reading area kind of floating in the middle of the home. I would be a bit concerned about distractions from noise from the main living area. Regardless it’s awesome in its simplicity (via art-homes)

"BP wants Twitter to shut down a fake BP account that is mocking the oil company. In response,..."

Thu, 27 May 2010 08:53:32 -0400

“BP wants Twitter to shut down a fake BP account that is mocking the oil company. In response, Twitter wants BP to shut down the oil leak that’s ruining the ocean.”

- Jimmy Fallon, Late Night - (via fred-wilson)

Wired Magazine’s iPad Edition Goes Live - Demo’s like this...

Wed, 26 May 2010 10:53:00 -0400

Wired Magazine’s iPad Edition Goes Live - Demo’s like this is why the iPad is dominating the slate/tablet market.

In their own words, how some of the world’s most respected...

Fri, 21 May 2010 15:12:13 -0400

In their own words, how some of the world’s most respected designers bring innovation to life. - Real Voices

This is You is a beautiful recruitment piece from Herman Miller...

Fri, 21 May 2010 15:09:33 -0400

This is You is a beautiful recruitment piece from Herman Miller with some excellent illustration and motion design. (vai davidkaneda)

Should we send a card?

Wed, 19 May 2010 10:00:00 -0400

There was a conversation in the office the other day discussing if we should be sending birthday cards to friends, clients, potential clients, etc. The concern was if it would be a worthwhile effort that would be understood as a sincere thought and congratulations?

My question is what is “sincere” today?

When I get a birthday card from my friendly Allstate agent I know it’s an automated act of marketing. They have a system that knows my birthday and my agent’s name, it has a nice hand written font and 10 days before my birthday it shoots out a print, sends it into a folding machine, into an envelope stuffing machine and into the outgoing mail system. Pretty sincere right?

In our case we’re a little smaller. We would have cards printed, fill them out when needed and send a few days before, and probably sometimes after, an individual’s birthday. We probably wouldn’t do it for everyone, but when we did it would be on purpose.

I say that we, without a doubt, should be doing little things like cards to say thanks and congrats to those that make our business what it is. There is to much disconnect and reliance on automation and un-personalized experiences in the world today. A little thing like a hand written card goes along way to remind someone that someone is thinking about you.

SEO vs REO (no speedwagon required)

Mon, 17 May 2010 20:55:10 -0400

I’ve been working my way though my Google Reader the past few nights, trying hopelessly, to get caught up on blog going on’s.

Through this reading I came across quite a large number of articles on search engine optimization. Specifically a good number of posts geared toward helping people author content specifically designed for good Google rankings.

There are many “rules” that apply to increased ranking, from titles like “The top 12 ways to blah” or “Effective ways to blah with your bleh” to how frequently key (read “buzz”) words are used within the content. As an example, my opening sentence for this post, with a non-related sentence, is bad form for SEO because it wouldn’t show well in the Google search results.

These techniques are all fine and dandy but I think it really leads to some shoddy and non-informative content. This could be due to the frequency people are trying to produce content thus not allowing them adequate time to research and develop compelling thoughts, or it could just be pigeonholing people into short form, non-amazing buzzword driven writing.

I think it’s fair that people want to create content that get’s listed and ranked by Google and all it’s search engine friends, but I’m looking forward to a time where people return their focus on REO (referral engine optimization). A time where people create content that’s so amazing and insightful that we can’t help but tell our friends and coworkers that something is a “must read”…

Maybe that time already exists….we just call it “books”?

Sleep, who needs it? I do!

Mon, 17 May 2010 20:11:42 -0400

Two great articles on sleep pop’ed onto my radar today Trouble sleeping? Maybe it’s your iPad and Sleep for Success: Creativity and the Neuroscience of Slumber.

Sleep is one of those areas that continually amazes me, so simple and complex. Many people claim to run on very limited amounts of sleep, while I can’t really feel healthy and operate with less than 6-7 hours.

Inc. magazine recently had an article about highly productive business owners and detailed one CEO who regularly goes to bed between 11 and midnight every night and is up by 3:30am. I don’t know understand how that can physically be healthy or sustainable…Is it something someone can train themselves into, or is it a genetic anomaly like the people who eat nothing but bacon fat and gallons of wine and live till 110 years old?

I had a great time running the Fifth Third River Bank Run 5k...

Sun, 09 May 2010 10:16:00 -0400

I had a great time running the Fifth Third River Bank Run 5k race with another 5,200 people. For my first race since junior high I was pretty happy with my 31 minute time. Next year we’ll see if the 10k is possible.