critical assumption

CHANGE - why is it so hard...

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:57:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered why changing something in your life is so hard - even things you know that are "bad" for you [like smoking or eating pizza]? It's hard because of two things that are central to human beings...

It's Awkward -- and that creates an opportunity to look really stupid. Trying new things in our lives or changing the things we do - starts off being awkward. Here's a trivial, but important example...Clasp your hands together, interlocking your fingers. Notice which thumb is on top [and which pinky is on the bottom] - now unclasp your fingers - and re-clasp with the opposite thumb on top and pinky on the bottom. How does it feel? I bet awkward. Now - it such a trivial thing feels awkward - how about something bigger like learning to water ski or public speaking?

Acceptance of your core group of supporters -- changing something in your life may change the people who you see everyday [if you change jobs or relocate to another city]; it may change who your friends are [if you stop drinking, that may require not seeing some of your friends]; or any social activity. The change you make, may affect more than just the change - it may change your life across the board. Little changes are hard enough, but big ones that change a lot of things -- that's a different type of courage to undertake.

Look - change is going to be hard - but it may be the best thing ever. I may just be something that you look back at and say "Why did I do that?". But if there is anything that we need to embrace and be willing to endure it is change - because it usually happens if we want it to or not.

Fwd: 14 October 2009 | This week's most mysterious new business ideas

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:08:00 +0000

Hi Arnie,

Our latest issue is now online. Here's a quick run-down of the 20 new business ideas that
caught our attention this week:

Mystery t-shirts are handpicked for customers
Retail / Fashion & beauty

Customers select a size and answer a series of questions about
themselves. The Hipstery runs the responses through their 'innovative
style algorithm' to find the right t-shirt. It's all about surprise.

Instant local gifts via text message
Telecom & mobile / Life hacks

As soon as gift-givers place their order, a text voucher for their
gift is delivered instantaneously to the recipient, who can then
redeem it as soon as they choose.

Site helps office workers get to know neighbours
Life hacks

Currently in beta, Stackd was created by New York-based
Supermetric to enable its own neighbouring office workers to
get in touch, whether "for business or beers," as the site puts it.

Free photo books for Facebook and Bebo users
Media & publishing / Marketing & advertising

If Facebook users can conjure up real-world flowers, candy and
drinks from within the social network, then why not give them a
way to capture their fave images in a (free) real-world photo book?

The crowd strikes back: fans remake Star Wars
Entertainment

People can sign up on Star Wars: Uncut to recreate the 1,313 fifteen-
second clips that make up the epic space film. Once all clips have
been submitted, the site's founder will stitch them together.

More neighbourhood problem-solving: SeeClickFix
Life hacks / Government

Empowering citizens to improve their communities, SeeClickFix
functions as a hub for residents to report and track non-emergency
issues with the aim of having them resolved.

Dell laptops, coming soon in nail-polish colours
Style & design

Just in time for the holidays, Dell Mini, Inspiron and Studio laptops
will soon be available in colours including "I'm Not Really a
Waitress," "Strawberry Margarita" and "Kyoto Pearl."

New platform for micropayments to news publishers
Media & publishing

Instead of each publisher having its own subscription and payment
method, readers will be able pay once to access paid content from
all publishers working with bitcents.

In-stadium social media for baseball fans
Telecom & mobile / Marketing & advertising

Beginning this season, a Citi Field big screen will play host to an
SMS marketing system that presents a whole new way for sponsors
to interact with fans, and fans with each other.

Investment account mimics other investors' trades
Financial services

Covestor Investment Management has created a new type of account
that lets investors follow the trades of the experts with their own
managed funds.

Wave the magic wand to flip to the next channel
Style & design

Reimagined with inspiration from Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter,
the boring old TV remote control can now be replaced with a far more
entertaining object.

Vacation homes, rented and traded with Facebook
friends
Travel & tourism / Homes & housing

Aiming to capitalize on the trust shared among Facebook friends,
Shared Porch is an app that lets users list and rent vacation homes.

Fresh skin care products, shipped straight from lab
Fashion & beauty

Los Angeles-based Odacité places manufacturing dates at the
forefront of its business, producing freshly-made organic skin care
products and leaving out preservatives.

Give a day to charity, get a day at Disney
Tourism & travel / Non-profit & social cause

Disney is working with HandsOn Network to highlight a variety of
volunteer opportunities with participating organizations across the
United States, Puerto Rico and Canada.

Tweet to hail a green ride in London
Transportation / Telecom & mobile

Users send a direct message to @greentomatocars with their
booking details, receive a tweet back with a unique booking
reference, and wait for a Prius to pull up.

Toy rental comes to France
Life hacks

It's been more than a year since we featured the toy rental service
from Texas-based Babyplays, so we were pleased to see that a
similar concept has now been launched in Europe.

An ATM for recycling consumer electronics
Eco & sustainability / Telecom & mobile

EcoATM is an automated reuse-and-recycle machine that makes
it easy and financially rewarding for consumers to offload their
abandoned electronics.

Urban beekeeping kit for honey lovers
Food & beverage / Homes & housing

From the makers of the Omlet chicken coop, the Beehaus comes
as a complete hive ready for colonization, with all the parts
necessary, including honey jars.

NYC challenges developers to create apps
Government

Last week, we wrote about a San Francisco initiative that invites
developers to turn city data into useful tools. Not one to be bested,
Mayor Bloomberg just launched a similar concept in New York.

Niche retailing: curated sellers of vintage fashion
Fashion & beauty / Retail

Amidst thousands of online clothing retailers, Market Publique has
found its niche. Based in Brooklyn, it aims to attract premium sellers
and buyers of vintage fashion.

McKinsey Quarternly | Top 10 Articles for Q3 2009

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:06:00 +0000

View on the web: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/newsletters/topten/2009_Q3.htm

Top Ten Newsletter Q3 2009

Our ten most popular articles in the third quarter focused on leadership, the economic crisis, Web 2.0 tools, and other management topics.

	1. ORGANIZATION Leadership lessons for hard times A series of interviews with 14 CEOs and chairmen of major companies sheds light on the foundations of corporate leadership. (Premium membership required)
	2. BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY Managing beyond Web 2.0 Companies should prepare now for the day when Web 2.0 morphs into Web 3.0. The ones that focus on the fundamental aspects of the consumers’ online behavior—not just current best practices—will be better prepared.
	3. BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY How companies are benefitting from Web 2.0: McKinsey Global Survey Results The heaviest users of Web 2.0 applications are also enjoying benefits such as increased knowledge sharing and more effective marketing. These benefits often have a measurable effect on the business. (Premium membership required)

4. ECONOMIC STUDIES
The crisis—one year on: McKinsey Global Economic Conditions Survey results, September 2009
A year after the global economic system nearly collapsed, many companies are finally finding ways to increase profits under the new conditions. But almost as many expect profits to continue falling, and executives also indicate that their broader financial hopes remain fragile. Many expect more government involvement in economies and industries over the long term.

5. STRATEGY
Strategic planning: Three tips for 2009
Even in these tumultuous times, strategic planning doesn’t have to be an exercise in anxiety—or futility.
(Premium membership required)

6. ORGANIZATION
Leaders in the crisis: McKinsey Global Survey Results
Most executives are coping relatively well with the demands and effects of the economic crisis, but people problems loom on the horizon.
(Premium membership required)

7. OPERATIONS
Squeezing more ideas from product teardowns
Some companies are using product teardowns to dismantle silo culture in product development. This interactive feature examines the potential margin-improvement opportunities and highlights how some companies are using this venerable tool in new ways.

8. ORGANIZATION
Unlocking the potential of frontline managers
Instead of administrative work and meetings, they should focus on coaching their employees and on constantly improving quality.
(Premium membership required)

9. ENERGY
Evaluating the potential of solar technologies
Solar power is poised to grow into a reliable alternative energy source, promising lower carbon emissions and decreased dependence on fossil fuels. This interactive feature explores the different technologies currently jostling for leadership in the market.

10. STRATEGY
State capitalism and the crisis
Despite massive state interventions in economies around the world, many corporate leaders and investors act as though globalization remains the dominant paradigm. That is a mistake.

McKinsey & Company, 21 South Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois 60603

Critical Idea | Innovations in Mobility

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:12:00 +0000

Through a series of random links and just general surfing, I came across the following site. It's very important for us to [as a society both local and dispersed] to re-think transportation and mobility. How and why we travel - how we transport goods, how we commute to work or take our kids to school.

So look through the site - there are many areas that may interest you - I know I found the section on Carsharing very informative. Other areas include...

Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Infrastructure
Goods Movement
Intelligent Transportation Systems
Transit Connection
Mobility for Special Populations
Alternative Land Use and Transport Futures

Innovative Mobility Research is based at the Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) at the University of California, Berkeley. Some of these projects include: “first and last mile” transit solutions; value pricing for parking and managed lanes; shared-use modes; alternative-fuel vehicles and technologies; and new land-use planning techniques to more closely link land use with transportation system design.

Springwise for 10-7-2009 | The best ideas for business freshness

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:24:00 +0000

Farmers use vending machines to sell local produce
Food & beverage / Retail

The result of a collaboration between a farm and a vending machine
manufacturer, Regiomat machines currently sell fresh milk, eggs,
butter, cheese, potatoes and sausage in thirteen German towns.

Public Enemy uses Sellaband to fan-fund new album
Entertainment

Crowdfunding venture Sellaband is expanding its model to include
musicians who have already made a name for themselves. First
up: Public Enemy, planning their thirteenth album.

Cards to inspire random acts of kindness
Non-profit / Social cause

Aiming to make random acts of kindness more frequent, KIND
Snacks has launched an effort that uses 'pay it forward' cards to
remind people to be kind.

Wedding registry for original art
Style & design

Should marriage really be celebrated with pots, pans and food
processors? Aiming to offer a less dreary alternative, a New York
art gallery has launched a registry service.

Operator-assisted web search in India & Uganda
Life hacks / Non-profit / Social cause

Proving that the internet's information doesn't always have to
appear on-screen, Question Box brings the web's intelligence
to offline and low-literacy communities.

Deluxe golf carts as neighbourhood transportation
Automotive / Transportation

Electric cars are far from mainstream, but in several US
neighbourhoods, golf carts and other diminutive electric vehicles
are part of the very fabric of community life.

No-frills gyms, open 24/7
Lifestyle & leisure

Aiming to set itself apart from all of the other gyms and health clubs
in Australia, Jetts Gym offers cheaper memberships by cutting costs
and shirking little-used or unnecessary services.

App recommendations based on your tweets & status
updates
Telecom & mobile

16apps scours users' Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed or LastFM
accounts for information about their hobbies, lifestyle and location.

Adjusting jeans for pregnant waistlines & back again
Fashion & beauty

Pregnant mothers simply send in their favourite jeans, and Denim
Therapy inserts expandable side inseams in the pants that will
move and grow as the woman's belly expands.

Smart use of the Smart brand: car-sharing by Daimler
Automotive / Transportation

Aiming to grab a share of the growing car-sharing market, Daimler
created car2go, which enables customers to order and pick up a
Smart car within minutes.

Logos off the rack, created by the crowds
Marketing & advertising

iStockphoto is already a familiar name for its low-priced stock
photography, illustrations and multimedia files. Next up: a line
of user-generated corporate logos.

Wearable device tracks fitness data 24/7
Lifestyle & leisure

Fitbit is a small device the user can wear around the clock for
continuous, automatic and comprehensive reporting on fitness-
related activities and sleeping habits.

Interactive piggy bank teaches kids about money
Financial services / Education

The Ekomini Treasure Chest features a patented coin-reader
technology and hooks up to a computer via USB, enabling children
to keep track of their savings and learn basic financial skills.

Intention-based shipping brought to UK
Transportation

Shiply is a free online marketplace where transport companies bid
on shipments listed by consumers, helping fill empty trucks and
giving consumers access to cheap shipping.

Online exchange for builders' surplus goods
Eco & sustainability

Hoping to keep waste out of landfills, BuilderScrap is a free site for
the construction trade that aims to connect builders who have extra
materials with those who need them.

Free Ivy League courses for high-schoolers
Education / Media & publishing

The new lecture series is aimed at students taking Advanced
Placement exams, which give them a chance to study college
level material and potentially earn credit towards a future degree.

'Stock market' for art to crowdfund 10 public projects
Style & design

Each project is assigned a certain number of shares -- equal to
twice its funding target -- and half of those shares are automatically
assigned to the participating artist.

Clothes swapping meets Netflix
Fashion & beauty

thredUP looks for good matches in the virtual closets of members to
find items that might be suitable for swap-ready users. It sends them
one such item for each thredUP envelope they've purchased.

Rotating baby stroller with eco-creds
Lifestyle & leisure

The foldable stroller features 360 degree rotation that allows the
child to face forward, back or even sideways, while a twist-and-lift
mechanism permits one-handed folding.

New tool for predicting flight delays
Tourism & travel / Life hacks

Using a patent-pending algorithm, Flightcaster claims that it can
predict more than 95 percent of delays to flight arrivals up to six
hours in advance.

Twitter: Worth $7,142,857 a Character

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:44:00 +0000

Twitter is looking for $100M from the investment community - and that equates to approximately $1B in market capitalization for the company. Well Twitter is based upon the concept of micro blogging with their input box capped at 140 characters. Well, the math is simple - $1B divided by 140 characters equals $7,142,857 per character.

Not bad. If you think through this scenario - our over stimulated world is beginning to reward simplicity. Think about another Internet success - Google. They became a multi-billion dollar company - creating lots of millions - with a very simple page, one input box, and one function. As our world becomes more complex, we are really looking for things that are simple to both understand and use. That may be why Apple has had such success with both the iPod and the iPhone - it's simple to understand. The iPod was a music player and attached to a music store. The iPhone with it's touch screen is and simple navigation is really fairly simple to use for such a technologically advance products.

So, if you're thinking about doing something new - start thinking about making whatever it is simplier. Instead of thinking about everything that can be added to make it "cool" to you - start taking feature and function away to make it simple to use. The key of success for the next few years may be "less is more" and "quality over quantity" - think about it and see if you don't notice the same pattern.

Here are some stories about Twitters search for money....

Wall Street Journal -- Twitter's Value Is Set at $1 Billion
CNN Money -- Is Twitter worth $1 billion?
The Street -- Twitter's Value Is Set at $1B: Report

Springwise for 9-23-2009 | Ideas to Inspire...

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:11:00 +0000

Booking system lets anyone screen films for profit
Entertainment

Attempting to revolutionize the traditional movie screening business,
IndieScreenings lets anyone hire a film, show it to an audience
they've created, and keep the cash.

A new Poken, made for suit pockets
Life hacks

Many business professionals weren't comfortable whipping out a
plastic panda, and the 64 contact limit on the original Poken was
too constrictive. Poken's answer? The sleek Poken Pulse.

Designer hand sanitizer from fashion label Ed Hardy
Fashion & beauty

Now that toilet seat covers, first-aid kits and vomit bags have been
upgraded with a splash of style, the Ed Hardy line of designer hand
sanitizer comes not a moment too soon.

Partnership promotes Sony Reader for library ebooks
Media & publishing

With more and more aspects of daily life abandoning their physical
form and appearing electronically, why should libraries be any
different? Sony partners with OverDrive to increase lending of ebooks.

Alain de Botton's airport diary launched at Heathrow
Tourism & travel / Media & publishing

Last month, Heathrow Airport installed Alain de Botton as its writer in
residence for a week. As tweeted by de Botton yesterday, the book
he wrote at Heathrow has now been launched.

GM cars come with money-back guarantee
Automotive / Marketing & advertising

Bankruptcy-beleaguered GM attempts to win over new buyers by
offering a 60-day money-back guarantee on many of the cars it
sells.

blinka.me helps people follow up on chance meetings
Life hacks

New Zealand-based blinka.me offers a way to find those we've met
just fleetingly at a bar, airport, conference or event, even if we don't
know their phone number, email or name.

Niche bottle photography, now in Germany
Marketing & advertising

Great ideas deserve to multiply. Good example? A niche photography
business focused on shooting bottles. Launched in the UK earlier
this year, a similar concept is now open for business in Germany.

Connecting creative consumers with local fabricators
Style & design

100kGarages is a community of workshops distributed around the
world that are equipped with the tools needed to precisely cut, drill,
machine or sculpt the components of virtually any creative project.

Members club for artisanal ice cream in Manhattan
Food & beverage

Launching soon, Milk Made will offer New Yorkers the chance to
have a pint of freshly-made ice cream delivered to their doorstep
every month. The service will be by subscription only.

Published Campsite directory with a fresh pitch
Tourism & travel

Pitchup.com lists over 5,000 camping and caravanning sites
around the UK and Ireland. Users can easily narrow down the
selection using a whopping 79 different criteria.

Vitaminwater's new flavour created on Facebook
Fashion & beauty

Using Facebook like an R&D lab, beverage company VItamin-
water is inviting users to create a new flavour, choose functional
ingredients and design a bottle.

Customised goods, collected & reviewed
Retail

Helping consumers find their way through the customisation maze,
Milk or Sugar has started aggregating what's on offer, including
details like shipping regions and delivery times.

Expiration-date stickers for cosmetics
Fashion & beauty / Life hacks

Aiming to protect consumers from the potential hazards of expired
makeup and skincare products, Beauty Alert has developed a line
of stickers to remind consumers when they're likely to go bad.

Personalized e-stories for kids on iPhone and Kindle
Telecom & mobile / Media & publishing

Story Something targets busy parents of kids aged three through
eight with a collection of original stories that can be personalized
and accessed online or via email.

Greeting cards for prisoners
Lifestyle & leisure

Los Angeles-based Three Squares Greetings sells a wide variety
of cards designed for inmates to both send and receive. Themes
include getting out, tough love, and acceptance.

Watch lets crowds monitor air quality in Paris
Eco & sustainability

A new initiative aims to equip Paris citizens with a special device
that can measure and report air-quality data regularly for collective
use.

Sears Christmas card rewards shoppers for saving
Retail / Financial services

In a bid to coax consumers into spending more at the store this
Christmas, retail giant Sears is encouraging them to save first,
using their Christmas Club card.

Colour-changing home appliances by Karim Rashid
Homes & housing / Style & design

Appliances in Gorenje's new line feature colour-adjustable LED
strips, which allow people to change the colour of their oven or
refrigerator.

iPhone app narrates stories for young kids
Media & publishing / Telecom & mobile

Aiming to provide a more enriching experience than simply
playing with buttons or watching movies, iStoryTime is a new
iPhone application that's designed to bring stories to life.

Springwise | 16 September 2009 | This week's new business ideas

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 14:20:00 +0000

Solar panels shaped like clay roof tiles
Eco & sustainability / Homes & housing

The Sole Power Tile is a roof tile designed to sustainably convert
sunlight into electricity without compromising aesthetics. It's a solar
panel disguised as a clay roof tile.

Fertility device offers money-back guarantee
Lifestyle & leisure

A UK firm has developed a temperature-measuring device with
accuracy levels so high that it offers a money-back guarantee if
pregnancy is not achieved within 12 months.

High-heeled shoes, designed by the crowds
Fashion & beauty

If consumers can design their own fabrics, dresses, handbags and
sneakers, it stands to reason that they should be able to create their
own high-heeled shoes too.

DNA and memories stored in Swiss nuclear shelter
Life hacks

Swiss DNA Bank offers ultra-secure storage that meets Swiss
banking regulations. For a one-time fee of USD 399, customers
can store both self-swabbed DNA and up to 1 GB of data, forever.

Halal cosmetics for Muslim women
Fashion & beauty

It's estimated that 70% of Muslims worldwide live by the code of halal.
That's a big market for producers of halal food, but one that has largely
been ignored by the casually carnivorous cosmetics industry.

Sponsorship covers costs of Mariah Carey's latest CD
Entertainment / Marketing & advertising

Sponsorship comes in the form of a small booklet that accompanies
the album, filled with glossy advertisements that promote a Mariah
Carey-esque lifestyle.

iPhone app helps road warriors find a place to work
Telecom & mobile / Life hacks

WorkSnug uses augmented reality to show users which workspaces
are nearby along with reviews of their offerings: wifi access, power
supply, noise levels, community feel and, yes, even the coffee.

Recycled plastic bottles into graduation gowns
Eco & sustainability / Education

The bottles are turned into molten plastic pellets, which are then spun
into a soft, breathable polyester fabric. An average of 23 bottles goes
into each gown.

P2P student loans for the developing world
Non-profit / Social cause / Education

Entrepreneurs in the developing world have already benefited from
peer-to-peer lending programs. Aiming to bring similar benefits to
students is Vittana, which focuses on educational loans.

Brain-building toys for dogs
Lifestyle & leisure

If pets now have their own airline and their own social network, it
seems only fitting that canines should have more sophisticated
entertainment than the simple bones their forebears chewed on.

Music fans paid to create videos for fave bands
Entertainment

Currently on the verge of kicking off its first contest, startup Genero.tv
has signed on a number of artists interested in getting fans to create
the official videos for their music.

Niche classifieds for sneakerheads
Fashion & beauty

Equal parts community and classifieds site, SneakerListing is a
new destination for sneaker aficionados to buy and sell limited
edition footwear.

Cash for (two-wheeled) clunkers
Transportation / Retail

Portland bike vendor Joe Bike has launched its own Cash for
Clunkers program whereby consumers can donate an old car
or bike in exchange for discounts on a new utility bike.

Jobs site focuses on reviewing 'great bosses'
Life hacks

Operating under the principle that "people join companies, but they
leave bosses," GetaGreatBoss facilitates reviews of managers by
those best qualified to do so: the people who work for them.

Virtual studio lets anyone be a fashion editor
Fashion & beauty / Media & publishing

Stockholm-based Looklet offers a selection of seven models,
38 backdrops and almost 2,000 items of clothing and accessories
that can be combined to try out new looks and combinations.

10 Questions: Are you in the right job?

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:10:00 +0000

The list you are about to read is from a book entitled Flight Plan: How to Achieve More, Faster Than You Ever Dreamed Possible by Brian Tracy. It is about knowing whether you are in the right job/career/field/profession [however you classify it]. It's a great list and makes you think beyond "am I progressing up the ladder" or "am I making enough" or "I hate/love my job" or where I work or the people I work with. Our work life is complicated [just like every aspect of your life] and to get the most from it, we need to understand what we want, what we enjoy and how to get the most out of it. Enjoy the list...

Here are ten indicators that you can use to determine that you are in the right field, doing what you were put on this earth to do:
You love your job. It interests you, fascinates you, attracts you.
You want to be excellent at your job, to be among the top 10 percent in your field.
You admire the top people in your field and want to be like them, to achieve their same level of success.
You like to learn about your chosen field—to read about it, attend courses and lectures on it, listen to audio programs about it. You never tire of learning more throughout your life.
The right job for you is something that is easy to learn and easy to do. It seems to come naturally to you, while it is difficult for most others.
When you are fully engaged in your work, time stands still. You often forget to eat, drink, take breaks, or rest.
Success experiences in this field give you your greatest feelings of self-esteem and satisfaction, your peak experiences in life. You can hardly wait to achieve success again.
You like to think about your work and talk about it when you aren't doing it. It is interwoven with your whole life.
You like to associate with other people in your field and to "talk shop" on every occasion.
You plan to do this work all your life, to never retire, because you enjoy it so much.
It has been said, "Do what you love; the money will follow." True success comes from discovering what you love to do and then throwing your whole heart into doing it better and better. Determining your ideal job or career is essential to your choosing your real destination and fulfilling your potential.

Say "You Lie" during the President's speech - Get $1.5 million.

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:45:00 +0000

The following is an excerpt from an Associated Press article and provides the background...

The dispute, by capturing the attention of Republican and Democratic loyalists, has been a financial bonanza for both Wilson and his expected challenger in next year's election, Rob Miller. Each has raised some $1.5 million in contributions since the speech last week. [from "House Nears Vote to Abmonish Wilson Over 'You Lie' " by Jim Abrams & Ben Evans (AP) ]

Now, what I find interesting is that we have entered such a polarized time. Remember back about 12 months, there weren't many GW Bush lovers running around - in fact, Bush-bashing was pretty much the rule - blamed for everything from the War [which he did get us into] and the economy [not entirely his fault - deregulation of the banking industry kinda helped there] and of course the general downfall of the American way of life.

Enter stage left, President Obama. So many firsts here that he instantly rewrote the record books before even spending a day in his new job. Twelve months later, he has not only ruined the American way of life, he is propelling us into a new era of socialism. Of course, something had to be done with the economy [can't let the banking system completely melt down] and Wall Street [money has to move for the economy to work] and our top line industrial companies [we have to produce stuff]. So, here we are trillions of dollars thrown to wind - 10% unemployment - chaos ruling the financial markets - and all Obama wants to do is reform health care. Well good luck.

So, if Representative Wilson and his challenger Rob Miller can utilize a little insensitive indiscretion [nothing big, just calling the President of the United States a liar during his speech being broadcast live] and get a few bucks for their next campaign. Then I say, add a few F-bombs into the mix and a couple racial slurs - that might get you into the big money!! [oh, just a little side not. our elected representatives should quit being so sensitive to being elected "Representatives" of the common people -- I've noticed that many of them like to be called "Congressman/woman" rather than "Representative" - I don't see many Senators wanting to be called "Congressman/woman" instead of Senator - but it would be just as appropriate. I say, be proud of being a representative of the people.]

Springwise for 09-09-09 | This week's freshest new business ideas

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:36:00 +0000

Many very interesting idea - Enjoy!

Customised cookies, baked to order in 2 minutes
Food & beverage / Retail

Toronto's Sweet Flour Bake Shop lets patrons design their own
baked treats and eat them fresh from the oven just two minutes
later.

Chic vomit bags for morning-sick moms
Style & design / Life hacks

Aiming to do away with the frantic search for an appropriate
receptacle, Morning Chicness Bags offer a way for expectant
moms to always be prepared.

52 recipe contests to spawn crowdsourced cookbook
Media & publishing / Food & beverage

food52 has a clear premise: 52 weeks, 52 recipe contests, and a
crowdsourced cookbook to celebrate the result. The site is now in
its 13th week, soliciting recipes for best beef salad & best fruit tart.

Zipcar perks: bike racks & passes to national parks
Automotive

Two dozen Subaru Imprezas and Outbacks in Seattle and Portland
have been fitted with complimentary bike racks for autumn, while
several dozen other Zipcars include free passes to regional parks.

Domino's delivers pizzas to doors on beach & in park
Marketing & advertising

Aiming to broaden its delivery horizons beyond home and office,
Domino's Pizza in the Netherlands recently placed white delivery
doors in the park and on the beach.

Philips expands line of massagers for couples
Lifestyle & leisure

Citing increased "cocooning" at home and a correspondingly
heightened focus on couples' intimate relationships, Philips is
expanding its offerings in a category it calls relationship care.

Web-to-print tool creates personalized magazines
Media & publishing

Helping readers take blogs and other web content offline,
Zinepal lets any user convert their favourite online content into
ebooks and printable, magazine-style PDFs.

Guide to BYO-friendly restaurants
Food & beverage

GoBYO maintains a database of more than 17,000 restaurants
that allow patrons to bring their own wines in 10 metropolitan
regions of the United States.

Service uses Twitter to crowdsource ideas overnight
Marketing & advertising

Offering crowd-brainstorming capabilities overnight is Ideas
Culture, an Australian firm that puts creative thinkers around the
globe to work via Twitter to solve a client's problem by morning.

Hot sauce made and marketed by prisoners
Food & beverage

Incarceration isn't stopping a group of inmates in Florida's
Hillsborough County Jail from making and selling their own
line of hot sauce.

Ben & Jerry's Hubby Hubby celebrates gay marriage
Food & beverage / Social cause

On the first of this month, gay and lesbian couples in Vermont
gained the right to marry. By way of celebration, Ben & Jerry's has
renamed its well-known Chubby Hubby ice cream Hubby Hubby.

School lunch menus published via Twitter
Education / Food & beverage

Since parents have indicated that they don't know what's on school
menus, the UK's School Fund Trust has partnered with Somerset
County Services to publish its menu each day via Twitter.

Interested in industry-specific ideas?
You can access everything we've published in our idea database, which is conveniently
organized by industry.

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Just forward this message or use our handy tell-a-friend tool. Thanks for spreading the word!

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Web address: http://www.springwise.com/
Email address: info@springwise.com

About Life...

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Kierkegaard once said, "If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never."

Think about this little statement by Kierkegaard, for him, "possibilities" held more than "wealth and power". Are there many people would say the same thing? Or would most of us look to money or power as the answer to our lives. Would we rather struggle towards a worthwhile goal or live life easy with little or no passion in our lives? Now to be honest, it is much easier to answer this question if you have food to eat and a comfortable bed to sleep in. So, if we take it that we have our necessities met, then the question holds. I really like the "passionate sense of the potential" - there have been times in my life when I knew that kind of feeling.

As with most things in our lives, this passion ebbs and flow - but what you don't want it to do is dry up and become void in our lives. Interesting to think about and a very good quote about life.

Understanding the difference between Opportunity & Failure [Google Style]

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:06:00 +0000

What would happen if everyone in the world pressed "ENTER" or "SEND" at the same time - well, maybe we'd need to ask Google. It appears they are dealing with massive overloads on Gmail [which of course has a limited service level agreement and the majority of people use it for free - so maybe we should expect a few glitches along the way]. The following are a few articles on the subject - but in general, just understand that technology is not stable - and we will never engineer enough computing power, enough bandwidth, enough memory or storage to deal with everyone sending emails at the same time.

Enjoy!

-----------------------------------

Is Gmail Ready for Business?

CNNMoney.com - Jessi Hempel - ‎1 hour ago‎

Gmail's patrons are still cranky after the Sept. 1 outage that left them without Gmail for nearly two hours. For most users who rely on the free e-mail ...

Google's Gmail Goof-Up

BusinessWeek - Patrick Thibodeau - ‎10 hours ago‎

It's too bad the National Transportation Safety Board can't investigate Google to find out just why Gmail crashed Tuesday as Google's ...

Google's Gmail Outage: A Familiar Feeling

PC World - Jr Raphael - ‎16 hours ago‎

Google's official explanation blames a maintenance miscalculation for the glitch -- engineers took some servers offline, it says, and inadvertently ...

Millions of users and businesses hit by Gmail outage

Inquirer - Paul Taylor - ‎19 hours ago‎

GOOGLE'S GMAIL, the whole web-based shebang, crashed yesterday at lunchtime PDT, leaving tens of millions of Gmail Pro and non-Pro users ...

Ken Auletta: Ominous Clouds

New Yorker - ‎20 hours ago‎

When Gmail went down yesterday afternoon, I called Ken Auletta, who has written about Google for The New Yorker and whose book about the company, ...

Google Explains Why You Didn't Have Gmail

Wired News - Ryan Singel - ‎20 hours ago‎

Blame the outage on overworked routers that decided to go on strike. At least that's what Google engineer (and VP) Ben Treynor wrote in a ...

Gmail's Cloudburst

Globe and Mail - Karim Bardeesy - ‎21 hours ago‎

A 100-minute outage on the web platform of Google's Gmail service wasn't just an inconvenience for millions of users; it's an illustration of the risks ...

Google explains, apologizes for Gmail crash

Bizjournals.com - ‎21 hours ago‎

Google Inc.'s popular Gmail service crash was the result of a routine service miscalculation, the company explained Tuesday. Ben Treyner, the company's ...

Google blames Gmail outage on server maintenance

CBC.ca - ‎21 hours ago‎

Google has blamed server maintenance for a widespread Gmail outage that delayed access to the web-based email service for more than an hour Tuesday. ...

Gmail Outage Says More About Google Than Clouds

InformationWeek - Michael Hickins - ‎22 hours ago‎

Yes, as many observers were quick to point out, this was Gmail's fifth significant outage of the year. But what most of them fail to say is that their own ...

Google blames Gmail outage on server maintenance

AFP - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎

WASHINGTON — Internet giant Google has blamed server maintenance for a Gmail outage which left millions of users without the free Web-based email service ...

Gmail outage: Microsoft laughs all the way to the bank

Computerworld - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎

Google's attempt to prove to the world that office apps inexpensively delivered from the cloud beats running PC-based clients got a big setback yesterday, ...

Gmail: When efficiency equals death

ZDNet UK - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎

Yesterday, Gmail went down. For nearly two hours, users of the world's most visible cloud service were stuck with a very old-fashioned "502 – unable to ...

Google's Gmail Fail Casts Dark Cloud on 'Cloud Computing'

PC World - Ian Paul - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎

Tuesday's Gmail outage was not only an inconvenience it calls into question -- yet again -- the feasibility of present-day cloud computing. ...

Gmail Outage Caused By Server Overload, Google Says

FOXNews - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎

Google's Gmail suffered a worldwide crash for nearly two hours Tuesday after it took some servers offline for maintenance, a widespread outage the ...

Gmail outage affected majority of users, says Google

Telegraph.co.uk - Emma Barnett - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎

Google has confirmed that the majority of Gmail users worldwide were affected by its crash last night. By Emma Barnett, Technology and Digital Media ...

Frustrated Gmail users race to Twitter to vent

Computerworld - Sharon Gaudin - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎

Computerworld - Many of the tens of millions of people who use Google Inc.'s Gmail service have been without e-mail a for an as-yet ...

Millions hit as Google mail fails

The Sun - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎

By STAFF REPORTER WEB giant google had their email system knocked offline this morning — disabling tens of millions of accounts. The outage — which Google ...

Google apologises for Gmail outage

guardian.co.uk - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎

Google has apologised after its Gmail service was knocked offline for almost two hours yesterday. The company admitted the failure of Gmail on Tuesday ...

Gmail email FAIL: why Gmail went down. #gonegoogle

Computerworld - Richi Jennings - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎

Gmail, Google's email service, was down for an hour or two yesterday, causing widespread wailing and gnashing of teeth. Not just the free version, ...

Gmail Fails, Brings Twitter Search Down

Techtree.com - Rahul Srinivas - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎

Gmail had a bad day yesterday. Following reports of an outage earlier in the day, Gmail faced a second massive worldwide service breakdown that lasted for ...

Massive overload knocks out Gmail

The Press Association - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎

Google's Gmail service was knocked offline in a huge failure that affected a "majority" of its millions of email users. The tens of millions affected ...

Google blames Gfail on 'availability' upgrade

Calling Tuesday's one-hour-and-forty-minute Gmail outage a "Big Deal," Google has pinned the breakdown on some recent changes to the request routers that ...

GMail outage affects millions around the globe

Xinhua - Rob Welham - ‎Sep 1, 2009‎

BEIJING, September 2 (Xinhuanet) -- Google has confirmed its e-mail service GMail was unavailable to the "majority" of its 150 million worldwide users for ...

Gmail breakdown frustates Google engineers

Economic Times - ‎Sep 1, 2009‎

SAN FRANCISCO: A disruption to Google's Gmail service frustrated users throughout the world on Tuesday and flummoxed engineers at the giant internet company ...

Service outage hits "majority" of Gmail users

Xinhua - ‎Sep 1, 2009‎

BEIJING, Sept. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- Gmail, Google's popular free e-mail service, failed for more than an hour Tuesday in many places, affecting a "majority" of ...

Google's Gmail service down nearly 2 hours

San Francisco Chronicle - Ryan Kim - ‎Sep 1, 2009‎

Google Inc.'s Gmail service was down for nearly two hours on Tuesday, another in a series of outages that analysts claim can undermine

2 September 2009 | This week's most promising new business ideas

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:15:00 +0000

Eco houses snap together using Lego-style blocks
Eco & sustainability / Homes & housing

Based on modular blocks created from local Black Forest pine and
insulation materials, HIB-System homes can be assembled quickly
by consumers themselves or with limited help.

Tokyo cafe puts samples on the menu
Marketing & advertising / Food & beverage

With every order of food or drinks at LCAFE, customers receive an
L Coin, which can be redeemed for free samples at the cafe's
sample bar.

Healthy meals at sponsored food carts for kids
Food & beverage / Non-profit / Social cause

Designed by Saatchi & Saatchi to be both appealing and accessible to
young children, the carts are equipped with hand-washing stations and
display nutritious food at child's-eye-level.

Royal Opera House uses Twitter to write a libretto
Entertainment

The Twitter Opera's libretto consists entirely of 140-character tweets
that the ROH received from members of the public, set to original
music composed by Helen Porter.

Social recruiting site bridges Facebook and LinkedIn
Life hacks

KODA allows emerging talent and smart companies to go beyond the
resume or traditional job posting with employer and employee profiles
that let both sides of the hiring equation to get to know each other.

Instant & personalised winning-goal commentary
Lifestyle & leisure

Thanks to Be A Football Hero, football / soccer fans have the chance
to hear a true-to-life commentary of that dream game that features
them in the starring role.

Firefox add-on helps plan trips and find travel deals
Tourism & travel / Life hacks

Brooklyn-based Gliider makes it easy for travellers to keep track of
all the interesting ideas they come across while researching and
planning a trip.

Handmade greeting cards by monthly subscription
Style & design

TOTA's subscription service is a card-of-the-month program
whereby subscribers get two copies of a one-time, handmade card
sent to their door each month.

Site matches motivation 'buddies' with shared goals
Life hacks

Comotivate aims to help users succeed in attaining a variety of
goals by pairing them with motivation 'buddies' who share the
same objectives.

Connecting restaurants and bloggers for 'tastecasting'
Food & beverage / Media & publishing

TasteCasting facilitates the use of social media for taste tests and
other promotional events to help restaurateurs get tongues wagging
about them throughout the socially networked world.

Fighting poverty through microloan guarantees
Non-profit / Social cause

A traditional microloan or donation of USD 100 delivers roughly that
same amount to the entrepreneur in need, but providing a loan
guarantee can result in a much larger loan from a local bank.

All-in-one kits for style-sensitive knitting novices
Fashion & beauty / Lifestyle & leisure

Fourteen kits comprise Wool and the Gang's do-it-yourself line, each
complete with the necessary yarn, a pair of wooden knitting needles,
a pattern, a sewing needle and patches.

Interested in industry-specific ideas?
You can access everything we've published in our idea database, which is conveniently
organized by industry.

Want to contribute?
Check out Springspotters, our network of 8,000+ spotters. Sign up today to start earning
gifts.

Our contact details
Springwise BV, a 53rd Floor BV company
Address: Laurierstraat 71, 1016 PJ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Web address: http://www.springwise.com/
Email address: info@springwise.com

trendwatching.com | September 2009 | Transparency

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:11:00 +0000

What's still one of the most important consumer trends out there? Transparency. Of prices, of opinions, of standards. So let's look at what's new, happening, upcoming and important, including the inevitable countertrend, OPENLY OPAQUE. Enough to make or break your brand in what is still a very turbulent economy. There really is no hiding ;-)

As always, more at www.trendwatching.com/briefing »

Our contact information
trendwatching.com
Web address: http://www.trendwatching.com/
Email address: info@trendwatching.com
Office address: Laurierstraat 71, 1016 PJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

26 August 2009 | This week's most colourful new business ideas

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:49:00 +0000

Hand-sketched maps feature drawings & local advice
Travel & tourism / Style & design

Travellers looking for city maps and advice face an overwhelming
array of alternatives. A Swiss startup presents what an artistic
local friend might create, complete with hand-drawn notes.

Bedtime story events for grownups in pajamas
Travel & tourism / Lifestyle & leisure

Interior designer David Carter recently hosted a series of "Bedtime
Stories" events for grownups at his townhouse-turned-boutique-
hotel in East London.

Crowdfunding for creative endeavours
Financial services

Brooklyn-based Kickstarter has picked up the crowdfunding concept
and created a site where artists, journalists, entrepreneurs, explorers
and others can raise the funds for their next big idea.

Design-them-yourself trousers for men
Fashion & beauty / Retail

LA-based clothiers Franklin + Gower let style-savvy men customise
their trousers with an eye-catching (or subtle) trim in a fabric of their
choice.

Angry green girl targets eco-laggardly lads
Eco & sustainability

As many incentives as there are for consumers to go green, 'hot
girls' strikes us as fairly novel. Angry Green Girl is celebrating its
launch with a car wash featuring five models sporting green bikinis.

Referral program helps find tenants on Facebook
Homes & housing

Tenants can send notifications via their social network of choice:
Facebook, Plaxo, Twitter or email, and property managers can
monitor the reach of each referral campaign in real time.

Remote farming for city dwellers: no-fuss veg gardens
Food & beverage

Offering urban Italians the opportunity to reconnect with the origins of
their food, Le Verdure Del Mio Orto lets them build an organic garden
right from their web browser. Harvests are home-delivered.

Free medical insurance for Mexico City tourists
Government / Travel & tourism

Mexico City's tourism office is offering free medical insurance and
tourist assistance worth an estimated USD 30 per person to every
visitor.

Design-your-own bicycle in rainbow colours
Retail / Transportation

Through a partnership with Republic Bike, Urban Outfitters is bringing
design-your-own capabilities to its customers. For USD 399, bikes
are built to order in a colour scheme of choice.

Heathrow installs De Botton as writer in residence
Tourism & travel / Media & publishing

Focusing both on the people who work at the airport and those that
pass through it, De Botton's weeklong layover will result in a book.
Heathrow will hand out ten thousand copies to passengers.

Morphed photos help dieters visualize a thinner self
Life hacks

ThinnerView is a service that aims to help dieters keep their eye on
the prize, as the saying goes, by showing them how they'll look if
they achieve their goals for losing weight.

Functional bracelets feature map of NYC subway
Style & design

Design Hype's NYC Metro Cuff is a matte metal bracelet embossed
with the subway lines, numbers and streets of Manhattan. Similar
cuffs for other cities are also on the way.

Our next issue will arrive in your inbox on 2 September 2009. In the meantime, please
check out our daily posts, subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter.

Warm regards,

Liesbeth den Toom
Senior Editor
liesbeth@springwise.com

_______________

Interested in industry-specific ideas?
You can access everything we've published in our idea database, which is conveniently
organized by industry.

Want to subscribe?
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Address: Laurierstraat 71, 1016 PJ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Web address: http://www.springwise.com/
Email address: info@springwise.com

19 August 2009 | This week's most refreshing new business ideas

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:24:00 +0000

Coaches provide athletes with frame-by-frame tips
Education / Lifestyle & leisure

Critiquing takes place via short videos uploaded by athletes: frame-
by-frame playback allows for precise commentary in the form of
diagrams and text.

Free water for London commuters with on-bottle ads
Marketing & advertising / Non-profit, social cause

Summertime is filled with opportunities for brands to show they care,
whether by helping consumers find a place to change at the beach
or by giving them a little cooling refreshment during a heat wave.

Online catalogue for museum & gallery products
Retail / Style & design

Long gone are the days of boring mugs and faded postcards, as
museums and other cultural institutions have become increasingly
savvy retailers.

3-D tool helps students decorate dorm rooms
Homes & housing / Retail

DesignYourDorm is a web-based interior design tool that allows
college students to customize their dorm room interiors and
purchase what they need online.

In Paris, a citywide scheme to share electric cars
Transportation / Government

Buoyed by the success of its bike-sharing effort, the city is now
apparently planning another ambitious initiative -- this time
involving electric cars.

Donation-microloan hybrid helps rural Chinese
Non-profit, social cause

Wokai aims to do for China what Kiva has been doing for other parts
of the world. It developed a hybrid model that combines traditional
donations with the benefits of microloans.

Greeting cards designed for sharing burned CDs
Style & design

Created by Dutch firm Schmeitz+Freitag, the Burney CD Card
provides content-sharing consumers with a giftable alternative
to download links and plastic jewel cases.

Absinthe-laced ice cream cocktail for men
Food & beverage

The Icecreamists' concoction is deemed so potent that sales are
limited to one per customer, although at GBP 11.99 customers
might prefer to split one with a special friend.

Online wardrobe management for fashionistas
Fashion & beauty / Life hacks

For truly dedicated fashionistas with more clothes than their
closets can handle, keeping track of individual items and
accessories can be a challenge.

On JetBlue, a month of unlimited travel for $599
Tourism & travel / Marketing & advertising

Much akin to an all-you-can-eat buffet or an all-you-can-read digital
magazine subscription, New York-based airline JetBlue now offers
customers a month of unlimited travel for USD 599.

Spanish wine for gay men
Food & beverage

We've already seen a banking service, a wedding boutique and a
travel website aimed at gay consumers; now there are wine brands
targeting gays as well.

Financial calendar predicts next month's bank balance
Financial services / Life hacks

Diving right into the ugly details, users can pick any given date and
receive a predicted bank balance for that day. So there's no more
wondering what will be left one week before (or after) Christmas.

Our next issue will arrive in your inbox on 26 August 2009. In the meantime, please
check out our daily posts, subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter.

Warm regards,

Liesbeth den Toom
Senior Editor
liesbeth@springwise.com

March 4th 2009 | This week's most start-worthy new business ideas

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:24:00 +0000

Always good to see people stretching their imaginations. Good times, bad times - does not matter, ideas have to stay in motion - they are energy and energy never dies and never sleeps. So keep going folks - keep the ideas flowing and the innovation coming. Enjoy.

Vending machine dispenses free samples
Marketing & advertising

A new variation on the sampling and tryvertising theme: a vending
machine controlled by text messages and designed specifically to
give the goods away.

Travel company invites clients on planning trips
Tourism & travel

A Spanish travel company not only solicits past customers' input
when it plans new trips, it actually invites them to come along and
help refine them before it offers the trips to the public at large.

English lessons and eyelash extensions
Education / Fashion & beauty

While plenty of makeup studios offer lessons in applying cosmetics,
language classes generally aren't part of the deal. Which is why the
ESL Makeup Course at MikaOlivia caught our eye.

Self-serve parking bay for bikes
Transportation

As with cars, parking bikes safely remains a challenge. That's where
the Biceberg comes in, providing a protected and secure place for
urban bicyclists to leave their bikes.

You, sculpted in precious metals and gems
Style & design

For the common man, gravanity can mean ordering a doll in one's
likeness or using a bank card that bears a photo of one's kids. Not so
the ultra rich.

Loews Hotels adopt local farmers
Food & beverage / Tourism & travel / Eco & sustainability

Loews Hotels recently announced a new 'Adopt-a-Farmer' initiative,
aiming to support local farmers while providing customers with
locally-sourced, organic and sustainable food.

Meal prep & cooking classes, this time by Jamie Oliver
Food & beverage / Retail / Education

The concept of a combination upscale takeaway and on-site cooking
school seems to be catching on. British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver just
opened one in London.

In-hospital spa services for new moms
Lifestyle & leisure / Fashion & beauty

By transforming hospital stays into a moment of relaxation and
rejuvenation, Go Home Gorgeous hopes to better equip new mothers
for the sleepless times ahead.

Short-term mall space for startups and minipreneurs
Retail

The Oakland Mall in Troy, Mich., is offering small startups and
minipreneurs special leasing rates that make it easier for them to
test the waters at the mall without entering into a long-term contract.

Internet-connected pill reminder caps
Life hacks

GlowCaps fit on standard medication vials, and glow and play a
melody at medication time. What's even more interesting, is the next
version of the line, dubbed GlowCaps Connect.

App turns iPhone into a credit card terminal
Telecom & mobile / Financial services

As if phones didn't already do enough, one of the latest mobile apps
transforms iPhones and iPod Touches into portable charge card
terminals.

Springwise | Top Business Trends [right now]

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:21:00 +0000

Looking through the list - what first jumped out at me was the feeling that creativity does not stop, even in tough economic times. There are people trying out new ideas and concepts to either start their business, expand it or take it into a new directions. If nothing else, we are a resilient lot. I really like the fictional brand ball cap idea and am impressed with Sears venturing into a new way retail area. Enjoy!

Caps for fans of fictional brands
Fashion & beauty / Entertainment

Lucky Seven makes custom caps that bear the logos of fictional
companies featured in cult films and television shows, immediately
recognizable only to likeminded fans.

Hotel perks for Mercedes drivers
Automotive / Travel & tourism

Through Mercedes' Destinations program, Merc drivers are entitled
to exclusive benefits at partner hotels, including complimentary use
of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, welcome gifts and room upgrades.

Building green habits, one step at a time
Eco & sustainability / Lifehacks

Green Groove aims to help consumers create and stick to a plan to
eliminate their unsustainable ways and embrace new, greener
habits.

Pay-what-you-want hotel in Singapore
Travel & tourism / Marketing & advertising

The new Ibis Singapore on Bencoolen hotel just last week launched
a promotion that lets guests choose the rate they want to pay for a
night's stay.

Pre-cut decorations for IKEA furniture
Homes & housing

Sydney-based Grippiks sells adhesive sheets in a variety of bright
colours and patterns for use on the surfaces of many models of IKEA
furniture.

Group buying for new parents
Retail

Regular readers are already familiar with the benefits consumers
can enjoy when they team up and buy as a crowd. A new site brings
those advantages to buyers of baby and children's goods.

Tracking one's sex life online
Lifestyle & leisure

An entirely personal application, Bedpost is a way for consumers to
keep track of the sexual encounters they've had by logging in and
entering some key details after each one.

Hotel uses tech perks to draw youthful travellers
Travel & tourism

Technology-enabled hotels seem to be popping up all around the
globe, and recently one of our spotters alerted us to one in Germany
that's aimed specifically at budget-oriented youthful travellers.

Industry community for kids' products
Retail / Media & publishing

Based in New Zealand, Skout Trade Fair is an online community that
aims to help those in the children's products industry find each other
and connect.

Helping media buyers find sellers of alt advertising
Marketing & advertising

DOmedia bills itself as a matchmaking service for media buyers and
sellers. Listed in its database are opportunities to advertise on college
student notebooks, on phone kiosks, on golf carts and in restrooms.

Jackets and bags made to be handed down
Fashion & beauty / Eco & sustainability

Countering the forces of "fast fashion", British brand Howies is
focusing on the long-lasting quality of its newest clothing line,
appropriately named Hand-Me-Down.

Sears blends online & off in new retail experiments
Retail / Lifehacks

MyGofer is a new, warehouse-style retail concept that aims to offer
both the convenience and selection of an online store and the
immediacy and low prices of a discount retailer.

OpenZine | When a blog is just not enough

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:51:00 +0000

The title for the post was inspired by a tweet I received from Humby Valdes one of the founder of OpenZine [btw, he started OpenZine with his brother Kiki] - when I asked what he meant, he replied with the following:

"think of a blog as a newspaper (what is new right now) and OpenZine is a magazine (360 view of what happened)"

Now, I've had this blog for awhile - don't remember exactly when I started it, but a while back. And I have played around with blogs since at least 2001 in various open source formats. The blog premise is primarily a steam of conscientiousness - a diary - or as the as the name implies, it's a "log" file. Blogs are not necessarily fancy [although they have gotten that way] and their basic function is to create a time-stamped entry. Few people that will dig through the archives of a blog, because as Humby stated "its about right now".

Magazines are different - people collect magazines. They are less about now and more about the experience - the beauty of something or the complexity of something. They are topical, informative and many have a shelf life of years. Does that translate to the internet? Can you truly make a magazine come alive online - or is it only defined by the tactal feeling of paper?

Here what they say about themselves...

OpenZine began as an idea in 1993 to create a publication that was open to ideas from different perspectives and multiple sources. As it grew, readers would send in letters, articles & pictures that were often included in issues. OpenZine would later become one of the most acclaimed Zine’s of it’s time.

Back then, the heart of OpenZine was heavily based on layout and graphics.
Aside from its initial success, OpenZine hit hard times. Then later Kiki went off to college. Humby fell into deep depression thinking his life’s passion was dead. All was lost! OpenZine would never publish another issue, so he thought…

Seven years later, on a drive up to Tallahassee to visit Humby’s daughter, lighting hit! Print is dead but OpenZine can live again! In 2008 that original idea from 1993 advanced to allow everyone to create their very own version of OpenZine. Giving users all the possible tools they'll need to discover, create and socially share information.

I like the concept and agree that blogs can take you only so far, but for a few, what's needed is more expression - and more beauty. Below are example magazines available through OpenZine...

Metro Station is the best band ever, so you are wonder what are there name well Trace Cyrus is Miley Cyrus brother and Mason Musso is Michal Musso brother Blake Healy and Anthony Improgo famous for his YouTube show AntCam, Trace Cyrus is 19 years old and from tennessee Mason Musso is 19 and from Texas Blake Healy is 27 and from michigan and Anthony Improgo is 19 and from Seattle, They only have one album called "Metro Station"

HumbyZine's Review...Business success using social media is the future of business. Joel Postman lays out a clear path to keeping your customers happy and talking about your brand.

The Art of ZARUM...I am an Artist with an understanding of what my Art is and where it's destiny lies. It is, like anything worthwhile in my life, a passion which must be satisfied. My work is for sale and select commissions are considered. In my art, I address everyone who dares to see beauty in creation, anyone who allows themselves to be inspired about freedom, all who believe in tenderness, In this publication I want to share my thoughts, expressions, art, and more about the Artist.

I think the web has evolved to the point where we need to be more creative - move beyond single "entries" and begin thinking about creating something lasting. OpenZine looks like a place to do that - to step beyond the moment of "now".

So if you believe you need something more than a blog, then why not a OpenZine? The implementation seems straight forward and what you can create something "more". Good luck to OpenZine - Humby and Kiki - we need something more than blogs and this is just the place to do it.

Springwise | This week's brightest new business ideas

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:13:00 +0000

Looking through the list below, I decided that we do live in both scary and exciting times. It's scary because we now know just how fragile our financial world really is - but exciting because out of chaos there's opportunity. And if you're looking for ideas - either to purchase or start a business - this list is a great place to start. Enjoy!

Online practice dispenses self-help physio advice
Lifestyle & leisure

Patients can often self-manage their recovery with the help of some
expert advice. That's the premise behind a new physiotherapy practice
that focuses purely on dispensing self-help guidance online.

More low-impact branding from Curb: snow tagging
Marketing & advertising

Curb -- the media agency that specializes in campaigns using natural
materials -- called to let us know that they'd added another novel
medium to their offerings: snow tagging.

Restaurant lets patrons reserve a specific table
Food & beverage

Madrid restaurant chain Wagaboo is following the lead of airlines
and theatres, allowing customers to pick and reserve a specific table
online.

Mini loans in minutes
Financial services

Technology makes the world move ever faster, and a British startup
aims to bring that velocity to the world of financing: Wonga offers tiny,
instant loans through online-only applications.

Touch-screen Coke machine for interactive vending
Food & beverage / Marketing & advertising

Developed in conjunction with Sapient, Samsung's uVending touch-
screen technology brings a whole new level of consumer interaction
to automatic vending.

Tuning into a personalized radio tribute
Lifestyle & leisure / Entertainment

Launched in November 2008 by two British radio presenters,
Fauxshow creates personalized radio shows that put a recipient in the
spotlight.

Media agency focuses on low-impact advertising
Marketing & advertising / Eco & sustainability

Curb creates branded sand sculptures of all sizes; burns patterns and
logos into wood using magnifying glasses; and offers a 'logrow'
service to cut logos as big as 30m wide into turf.

High-five the panda to connect online
Lifestyle & leisure

After meeting and greeting in the real world, users who want to
connect online can whip out their Poken keyrings and 'high five' them
to exchange details by RFID.

Wind-energy mapping tool now covers the world
Eco & sustainability

When we last wrote about the FirstLook mapping tool for new-energy
entrepreneurs, it covered only the United States. Now, the wind-
mapping service has expanded to cover the whole world.

ING application for G1 phone points to nearest ATM
Financial services / Telecom & mobile

ING's Wegwijzer tool for finding ATMs is the (Google) phone equivalent
of asking a human for directions and having them point to what you're
looking for. No map-reading necessary.

Bixi brings urban bike-sharing to North America
Transportation

Bixi follows the standard bike sharing principles: users take a bike
from a stand, ride it to where they want to go, and drop it at another
stand when they're done.

Music by Groove Armada, distribution by Bacardi
Entertainment / Marketing & advertising

Six weeks before Groove Armada will release their new EP through
traditional download stores, the first track appeared Bacardi B-Live,
where registered users can download it for free.

Blogger helps connect consumers and brands
Media & publishing / Marketing & advertising

Partner manufacturers will send samples of their latest products to
Brand Girl, who will review them on her blog, getting readers involved
through contests, giveaways, etc.

Favour-granting site helps friends help each other
Life hacks

People seeking a babysitter, job referral or help moving a couch, to
name just a few examples, can all use FriendlyFavor to ask for help,
as can people with favours to offer.

The nutritional low-down on fast-food restaurants
Food & beverage / Telecom & mobile

For each of the fast-food restaurants on Fatburgr, the site lists the
calories, fat, carbs and fibre content for each menu item, and users
can sort the list by any of those criteria.

Springwise | Business Trends Happening Right Now

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:29:00 +0000

Wow - after looking through the list, I've got to say this may be the best list I've seen in a while. Interesting Ides from "getting your rock fantasy fix" to "the zero thrills hotel" - what a great list. It reminds me of the theories of "Blue Oceans" about product development - that you add/subtract/modify/multiply to products and services to create new products and services. See what you think. Are these companies competing or "creating"? Enjoy!

Matching would-be gardeners with arable land
Food & beverage / Eco & sustainability

A new campaign in the UK aims to match unused plots of land with
keen would-be gardeners, with the goal of using more arable land to
grow fresh fruit and veggies.

Music and coaching for runners
Lifestyle & leisure / Entertainment

Online services are popping up to offer music mixed with coaching,
for runners who need a bit of extra inspiration. For music-loving
entrepreneurs, it's a nice little niche with low start-up costs.

Service exchanges unwanted gift cards for cash
Financial services / Life hacks / Retail

GiftCardRescue buys and exchanges unwanted gift cards, allowing
consumers to trade them in for cash or gift cards from their favourite
stores.

Free Obama-themed coffee love for UK consumers
Food & beverage / Marketing & advertising

As the inauguration of Barack Obama draws near, global fascination
with the US president-elect is reaching a fever pitch. Across the Atlantic,
Krispy Kreme UK is joining in by giving out free Americano coffees.

A simpler way to make a doctor's appointment
Lifestyle & leisure / Marketing & advertising

ZocDoc offers New Yorkers a simple, fuss-free way to make dentist and
doctor appointments online, as well as the opportunity to rate and review
medical practitioners.

More mixers for babysitters & moms
Life hacks

Sitter-seeking parents and fully screened babysitters have the opportunity
to meet and mingle at Sitter Soirees networking events, which enable both
families and sitters to find a good match.

Reusable lunch box napkins
Eco & sustainability / Food & beverage

Founded by a mompreneur, Happikins are reusable napkins designed
to cut down on the waste associated with kids' school lunches. One to
launch locally?

A public incentive to stick to one's goals
Lifestyle & leisure / Non-profit, social cause

Pledgehammer gives resolution-makers a way to make a public
commitment to their goals. Users pledge to donate money to charity
should they fail to keep their promise.

Apple rolls out star-studded music tutorials
Education / Entertainment

Apple has added Artist Lessons to its popular GarageBand application,
with tutorials by performers such as Sting, Norah Jones and Sarah
McLachlan.

League lets amateurs join a rock band for 10 weeks
Entertainment / Lifestyle & leisure

League of Rock, a new music-based community, lets hobbyist rock
musicians join a band for 10-week sessions, without having to give up
their day jobs.

Preheatable dining stones keep dinner warm
Food & beverage

Preheated in the microwave and placed under a diner's plate, Dining
Stones' precision-cut granite stone discs keep meals steamy until the
last bite.

Online community offers DIY fashion for tweens
Fashion & beauty

A new community and design studio gives tweens an online canvas
along with a set of tools to create, share and buy their own T-shirt
designs.

Green-minded font uses less ink
Travel & tourism / Marketing & advertising

Eco-conscious consumers can now download a free font that uses up
to 20 percent less ink than traditional fonts, thus reducing consumption
of ink cartridges and toner.

Swiss bomb shelter becomes 'zero star' hotel
Food & beverage

A new Swiss hotel offers budget barracks-style accommodation in a
shared underground room. There are no windows or heating, but guests
will have a great story to tell ;-)

Appealing to gravanity of smokers who plan to quit
Life hacks

Pfizer is giving would-be quitters the chance to have their photo posted on the
Reuters or NASDAQ billboards in the heart of New York City's Times
Square, to share their no-smoking resolution with the world.

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Critical Assumption | Back to the beginning

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:52:00 +0000

I've had this blog for ... [I can't really remember, will need to look at the archives] - and it started because like most blogs, a way to organize my thoughts and interests. What I've noticed is that over the past year, I've meandered from topic to topic - rather than apply focus to the posts. It's time to come back and focus - so, it's back to basics and focus.

Here's the topics I will focus on going forward...

Business Trends and Ideas - I like seeing what others are doing in the market and new/emerging business trends. This is a very broad category, but it's really more about people starting their own business, rather than "big" business trying something new. Examples including Springwise and the weekly newsletter they put out. I like re-posting it, first, it's got a nice look - but it also concise with a very broad stroke across lots of business types and geographies. So, more trendspotting and my personal comments around these new trends and ideas.
Emerging Technology Services - my day job is within the technology world, so I see lots of "new" models to delivery technology services. These include such topics as Software-as-a-Service - but also includes the underlying business purpose of these technology services. Again, this is a broad category - but not as big as just "technology" - because there is plenty of tech that I could care less about.
And Finally...a dove tail topic to the two preceding is the World of "Service" management and marketing. This will have a technology focus, but possibly could cross over into other industries - but expect it to be about technology service management/marketing - once again, that's what I do for a paycheck and feel I've got something to say on the topic [which is why you put yourself out there in the first place - because you have something to say].

This blog is called "Critical Assumption" and the tag line is "The difference between flying in blue sky or hitting rock bottom" - because it is our assumptions that make the difference between success and failure. All the research in the world, getting all the smartest people in a single room, having lots of money - none of those things are guarantee success - they are only assumptions of success. Our world is currently being turned upside down - what we believed was "true" may not be true. We are navigating in uncharted water right now - the "facts" that drove our decisions [based upon our assumptions] are really not facts at all.

2009 is going to be an exciting year - with the possibility of changing our view and therefore our assumptions.

Springwise | Our picks for 10 industries, plus your faves

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:26:00 +0000

This is an interesting look at some of the top trends out there right now, by taking a look back at 2008. You gotta love Springwise for their dedicated to bringing up the best of the best ideas and trends. Thanks!

10 x 10 | OUR SELECTION OF TOP 10 IDEAS FOR 10 INDUSTRIES

This week we're sharing an overview of the best new business ideas we covered
over the last 12 months. These innovative concepts will continue to provide
entrepreneurs with plenty of inspiration and opportunities in 2009, whether by
partnering with one of the featured businesses, bringing a concept to local
markets, or being inspired to add similar offerings to an existing brand.

Check out our top 10 picks for 10 industries, from food & beverage to
marketing & advertising >>

YOUR FAVES | TEN MOST VIEWED IDEAS ON SPRINGWISE IN 2008

MOST RECENT | FIVE NEW VENTURES FEATURED THIS WEEK

Change | Maybe it's time for us think differently

noreply@blogger.com (amckinnis) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:53:00 +0000

I was presented with a link this morning with Twitter, it was to an OpEd page on the NY Times and I read the following paragraph...

"To top it off, we’ve fallen into a trend of diverting and rewarding the best of our collective I.Q. to people doing financial engineering rather than real engineering. These rocket scientists and engineers were designing complex financial instruments to make money out of money — rather than designing cars, phones, computers, teaching tools, Internet programs and medical equipment that could improve the lives and productivity of millions."

From the NY Times Op Ed Page - by By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

It's interesting reading this statement, because I've wondered the same thing from time to time. Why is it that the brightest people, those that could do the most good, that have the best "minds" - or even those with "not so great" minds choose their path. Is it all about money? Because there's plenty of money within the world that's not financial related. I don't know, but it's interesting - maybe this new round of problems will change some minds - move people in a different direction.