I live in the Bay Area and I’ve always had a commute to and from work each day.  I’ve learned to make the most of the time in the car by listening to technology podcasts and my favorite is This Week in Tech (TWIT).  Earlier in the week I blogged about Conan O’Brien following a random person (Sarah Killen) which suddenly made her famous (at least on the Internet) over night.

This week Kevin Rose decided to do the same thing with Leo Laporte on TWIT and I know this is geek humor but I found it very funny.  The random person Kevin chose is named Lisa Etheridge who had only a handful of followers and her last tweet was “I hate technology” so they thought it was quite fitting.  Leo promised to send a random follower of @LisaTickledPink an iPad.  I also learned how to embed a YouTube video so it would start to play at an exact time so hope you enjoy this video right when they start talking about the prank/stunt.

“Meet the iPad. It has a revolutionary, 9.7-inch, high-resolution, Multi-Touch screen. And it can run almost 140,000 apps from the App Store. All in a design thats just 1.5 lbs and 0.5 inches thin. For as little as $499.”

Anyone who has been to StumpTown will say it is better (including myself).  Agree or disagree?  Read the Time Magazine article here.

If you’ve ever wondered what happens to a tire after jumping a curb, here is the answer.  Christina’s Grandpa’s car is just fine but it was one heck of a ride.

Beautiful day in California today.  I didn’t spend any time in front of a computer so the only interesting things to add to my blog today are these beautiful pictures from today’s trip.  OK it wasn’t the most manly day as you can tell but it was fun.

Christina and I went to Bistro 33 Rocklin with her Grandpa and best friend Jean this afternoon.  The interesting thing about the restaurant is it is located inside of a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Rocklin, CA.  I had a burger and fries and I was telling Christina on the way back tonight it has to be one of the top 20 burgers I’ve ever had (and I’ve had quite a few).  I’d definitely recommend it…

Christina and I went to see Up in the Air tonight and I loved it.  It it definitely a movie where you will walk away from it with lots to think and talk about.  I think just about everyone can relate to at least one aspect of what the main character goes through with his work, love life, and family.  I think I could relate to just about everything in the movie so it seemed to hit home especially hard for me.  I like a movie that ends on a positive note but I also like movies that leave you with your jaw still on the floor which was the case with this movie.  I’m pretty generous with my movie reviews, I either like it or I don’t and in this case I’d give it a 10 (a must see).

European Poker Tour Berlin has just been robbed by six gunmen with machine guns. It is alleged that they have made off with less than a million Euros from the poker tournament. One of the guards was injured trying to capture one of the robbers. It seems everyone is okay except for the guard who was injured in the head. Panic and chaos ensued throughout the tournament as seen in the video.

“Training wheels are a thing of the past thanks to the revolutionary Gyrowheel. Gyrowheel not only keeps the bike from falling over, it also teaches correct riding technique. Gyrowheel senses unbalanced biking and re-centers the bike under the rider’s weight when the bike starts to wobble. Training wheels can’t do that!”  >> See more

“We’re asking people to change the way they think about teaching kids to ride bikes.” – Daniella Reichstetter

http://www.inc.com/articles/2010/02/rob-dyrdek-QA.html

Doesn’t look like much is changing if you are planning on upgrading from Office 2007 to 2010. What do you think?

If you’ve been following the news recently, Conan O’Brien has a twitter account and has amassed over half a million followers in just a few weeks.  To date Conan hasn’t been following anyone until yesterday when he decided to follow a random person who “likes peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs”.  Sarah Killen’s life has now forever changed (she now has over 10,000 followers and counting)…hilarious.

DJ Ruth Flowers just wants the kids to have fun. Flowers is a 69-year-old Disk Jockey who spins at the most prestigious nightclubs in Paris.

Note to self: if you are going to interrupt a college professor by wearing a chicken suit and do the chicken dance, make sure he isn’t a Chuck Norris wannabe.

I was at a Starbucks drive-through when I noticed the license plate frame of the car in front of me.  The license plate read “Outta my way I’m going to Starbucks!”.  The reason I took the picture was it was interesting to me that I was in a long line of cars for a $4 latte and the car directly in front of me loved the company so much they proudly displayed it on their license plate.  What does it say about a company when people (not companies) make and sell license plates which allow you to display your affection for a particular company?

I don’t think it is too difficult to create a company people will love and respect so much they will tell the world about it.  Companies of course try to attract customers to get them in their door but are some companies simply looking to get customers in the building, or are they looking to build relationships with their customers?  I think you can build a relationship with your customers through your brand, transparency, serving the community it serves, customer service, quality products, and differentiating products.  I think if you do any of those things to a high standard (not too difficult these days) customers will come back and they may even be so passionate about your company they will tout it on their license plate.  Is there a recipe for the success of a company?  If you were to make the perfect recipe for a company you love so much you wanted to share it with the world, what would it consist of in your opinion?

This FastCompany Magazine (one of my favorite magazines by the way) video discusses Voodoo Donuts in Portland, OR as well as Zipcar which are two business who have been able to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/

Photo by Ed McCulloch

I enjoyed the Inc. Magazine article on Josh James, one of Omniture’s co founders who “says he has no special love for technology. But he has long seen its possibilities. In 1996, he and a college classmate launched a webpage-building service when businesses were just discovering the Internet. Fueled by tens of millions in venture backing, James built Omniture, based in Orem, Utah, into a thriving Web analytics and online marketing company whose software tracks Web traffic for companies such as Toyota, Gap, and JetBlue. James took Omniture public on his 33rd birthday, in 2006. Last October, Adobe purchased the company for $1.8 billion.”  >> Read the full article

Cute commercial and very creative if you haven’t seen it yet.