Orange Yeti</h1> <article> <h1>Why Great Innovators Spend Less Than Good Ones</h1> <p>Bear — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:50:55 +0000</p> <p>Why can large financial commitments hamstring innovation? <a href="http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/anthony/2009/11/whats_the_secret_of_great_inno.html">A great answer over at the Harvard Business blog</a>. (via Professor <a href="http://twitter.com/kamranpopkin">Kamran</a>)</p> <p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> </span><a href="http://www.orangecoat.com/comment-count-image/go/node/3596"></a></p> </article> <article> <h1>In praise of the ideas of Russ Ackoff</h1> <p>Bear — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:42:37 +0000</p> <p>Thanks to Aaron for linking to a very interesting article on the works of <a href="http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14790477">Russ Ackoff and his ideas of system thinking</a>. You can start reading with this particularly nice thought and keep on for the rest of article:</p> <blockquote><p> The only profession that he believed had truly embraced systems thinking is architecture, where the design process starts by asking what sort of building is desired, and then works backwards to focus on what individual parts are required. An architect never starts by saying, “Here are the parts, what can I build from them?” </p></blockquote> <p>It's all good stuff.</p> <p>And in case you were wondering, as I was, there seems to be a good collection of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D13%26ref%255F%3Dnb%255Fss%26y%3D22%26field-keywords%3D%2526%252334%253BRuss%2520Ackoff%2526%252334%253B%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Dstripbooks&tag=orangecoat-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957">Russ Ackoff on Amazon</a>.</p> <p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> </span><a href="http://www.orangecoat.com/comment-count-image/go/node/3595"></a></p> </article> <article> <h1>Mr. Obama Explains Why It's Great to Live in South Carolina</h1> <p>Bear — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:33:50 +0000</p> <p><a href="http://obama-weather.com/Obama/m/29601">Mr. Obama explains one reason why it's great to live in South Carolina.</a></p> <p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> </span><a href="http://www.orangecoat.com/comment-count-image/go/node/3594"></a></p> </article> <article> <h1>Business Cards</h1> <p>Bear — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:53:11 +0000</p> <p>Thanks to the arrival of our <a href="http://twitpic.com/niy0v">new business cards</a> and another business card conversation from last week I was reminded of a post from a year ago <a href="in-praise-of-the-little-things">in praise of the little things in business</a>.</p> <p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> </span><a href="http://www.orangecoat.com/comment-count-image/go/node/3593"></a></p> </article> <article> <h1>Twain and Tesla</h1> <p>Bear — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:46:14 +0000</p> <p></p> <p>Mark Twain in the lab of <a href="happy-birthday-nikola-tesla">Nikola Tesla</a> during the spring of 1894. (via <a href="http://secretenemyhideout.com/">Zach Klein</a>)</p> <p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> </span><a href="http://www.orangecoat.com/comment-count-image/go/node/3591"></a></p> </article> <article> <h1>Hey Jude, The Flow Chart</h1> <p>Bear — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:41:54 +0000</p> <p><strong>Fact:</strong> The internet loves flow charts<br /> <strong>Example:</strong> <a href="http://loveallthis.tumblr.com/post/166124704">The Hey Jude flow chart</a></p> <p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> </span><a href="http://www.orangecoat.com/comment-count-image/go/node/3590"></a></p> </article> <article> <h1>My Dog Pooped During a Client Meeting</h1> <p>Evan Tishuk — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:23:00 +0000</p> <p>An interesting declaration over at SEED Magazine piqued my interest this afternoon. "<a href="http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/a_writing_revolution/">Nearly universal literacy is a defining characteristic of today’s modern civilization; nearly universal authorship will shape tomorrow's</a>." As one who occasionally authors things, I thought I'd address some of the ideas put forth in the article.</p> <blockquote><p>In our analysis, we considered an author’s text “published” if 100 or more people read it. (Reaching 100 people may seem inconsequential, but new-media messages are often re-broadcast by recipients, and then by their recipients, and so on. In this way, a message can “go viral,” reaching millions.)</p> </blockquote> <p>Somehow I feel like by Denis G. Pelli and Charles Bigelow miss the point. First off, if 100 people read your tweet, you don't magically become a published author. By that rationale, bathroom graffitists and tattoo inkers are "authors." Only if you want to contort the meaning of the word might this be accurate. Authorship used to entail publishing work (usually written) produced through considerable intellectual effort and thought. Why? Because printing was costly and if your work was going to be disseminated through an expensive resource, it better be worth the read. Publishing today is obviously different, what with on-demand printing and the interwebs lowering the barriers to publishing. </p> <p>But there's a much bigger difference. Traditional publishing generally went in one direction: from the author to the reader. Today's tweets and blog posts aren't necessarily one-way communication avenues; they're often just segments of <a href="http://www.cluetrain.com/" title="brush up on the basics">a conversation</a>. People engaged in the conversation can reply, re-tweet, comment on, retort or revise. Are they all authors? And look, I'm replying to the article on my blog! Am I an author or is this part of a conversation? Feel free to let me know.</p> <p>If we've learned anything from the popularity of the Facebook and Twitter, it's that most people prefer to share small (often exceptionally mundane and trivial) pieces of information with people that they know. Grand terms like <em>audience</em> and <em>authorship</em> don't really apply quite as well if your updating your Facebook status to "<a href="http://www.orangecoat.com/people/sarko">my dog</a> just pooped in the conference room while we had a client meeting" (true story). </p> <p>The article continues:</p> <blockquote><p>Today, at 0.1 percent authorship, many people are trading privacy for influence. What will it mean when we hit nearly 1 percent next year and nearly 10 percent the year after as the current growth predicts? Governments, businesses, and organizations must adapt to a population that wields increasing individual power.</p> </blockquote> <p>I love the idea of increasing individual power, but this implication is preposterous. If everyone is influential, no one is influential. Influence requires a disproportionate weight within a community and if everyone weighs the same, who's the influential one? What will happen has already happened -- talent separates, clumping of influence emerges, the conversation gets crowded with noise, it eventually fractures, and the party moves next door with less noise.</p> <p>Nearly universal authorship won't shape tomorrow's civilization, but a marketplace of accessible conversations will. Having a conversation with a group of friends in a pub is great, but that conversation is ephemeral and largely invisible to the rest of the world. But with the internet serving as an instantaneous communication conduit and faithful stenographer, that conversation has a much greater opportunity to influence the future. </p> <p>Or, your dog's tendency to embarrass its owner becomes public knowledge.</p> <p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> </span><a href="http://www.orangecoat.com/comment-count-image/go/node/3587"></a></p> </article> <article> <h1>Untamed Beer's guide to selecting beer glassware</h1> <p>Bear — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:36:37 +0000</p> <p>When our friend Ed drinks beer, he drinks nothing but bottles of Budwiser poured into a wine glass. We chuckle at Ed for this eccentric habit. He'll be glad to know <a href="http://untamedbeer.com/2009/10/26/guide-to-selecting-beer-glassware/">Untamed Beer approves</a>. Well, at least in glass type but not in the choice of beer.</p> <p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> </span><a href="http://www.orangecoat.com/comment-count-image/go/node/3583"></a></p> </article> <article> <h1>A Drive in a M5</h1> <p>Bear — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:36:30 +0000</p> <p>I spent yesterday afternoon driving BMW's at the <a href="http://www.bmwtransact.com/microsite/performancecenter/index.html">BMW Performance Center</a>. I raced in a M3 and 3 series and joy rode in a <a href="http://twitpic.com/mi2eh">750</a>, 650, M5, and X6. All of that didn't suck. Not one bit. But the part that had me cackling with the greatest amount of joy was riding in the back seat as a pro did a lap around the track.</p> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7221195&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=dd4499&fullscreen=1" /></object><p>Super big thanks to <a href="http://twitter.com/just_duchess">the Duchess</a> and the <a href="http://twitter.com/kamranpopkin">man</a> responsible for <a href="http://twitter.com/swagclub">the Club</a> that shall not be mentioned for setting this all up. Everyone who can go to BMW Performance Center should.</p> <p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> </span><a href="http://www.orangecoat.com/comment-count-image/go/node/3582"></a></p> </article> <article> <h1>HAPPY HALLOWEEN and RIP IE</h1> <p>Bear — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:34:13 +0000</p> <div class="field field-type-text field-field-excerpt"> <div class="field-label">Excerpt: </div> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <p></p> <p>OrangeCoat's World Headquarters is a <a href="location">renovated service station located on Stone Avenue in Greenville, South Carolina</a>. Like most service stations of a certain time, there are two big garage doors covering a large portion of our building. From now until All Saints Day, these two doors have transformed into a canvas for some scary Halloween art.</p> </div> </div> </div> <p></p> <h3>IE be used, Nevermore</h3> <p> Internet Explorer 6 is a super villain robot-zombie Freddie Kruger styled monstrosity. It needs to die. Even though Internet Explorer is now on version 8, over-worked IT departments and unknowing web users have not updated their copies of IE. Still having to code for IE6 causes the web development world to howl with pain and spew cursed words. IE6 is an old browser. It's old technology and it needs to die—today<small><a href="#2001">1</a></small></p> <h3 id="change">Change Your Evil Ways</h3> <p> If you use Internet Explorer please update immediately. </p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx?WT.srch=1">Download a copy of IE8</a></li> </ul> <p>If you work in an IT department, be kind to your company and the internet in general and update to IE8.</p> <p>If you really love the web community and yourself, try a new browser </p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html">Firefox is a fine choice</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.google.com/chrome">So is Chrome</a></li> </ul> <p>Either browser is a treat to use. They're fast, stable, and secure. Give 'em a shot, and <a href="contact">let us know what you think.</a></p> <p>Still need more convincing? Don't take our word, let the <a href="http://www.bing.com/search?q=IE6+must+die&go=&form=QBRE&qs=n">internet help ring the death knell</a></p> <h3>Back to The Window</h3> <p> Wow, sorry about that rant. We tend to go into a bit of a trance of anger when we speak of IE6. But the window display is supposed to be scary or cool or scary-cool on levels. The IE gravestone is clearly the star of the show, but it is not the entire show. It's a complete graveyard replete with bats, gravestones, and skulls—oh my. </p> <p>Please drive on by if you're in the neighborhood. We'll have the lights on from 7:10 to 2:10 every night until November First.</p> <p>For more photos, including a couple of behind-the-scenes and making-of shots, check out our <a href="http://www.facebook.com/orangecoat">Facebook page</a>.</p> <p>Oh and by the way, Happy Halloween.</p> <h3>Footnotes and other various sundries</h3> <ol> <li id="2001">IE was released in 2001. How many people still have the same cell phone, TV, or even car they had in 2001? (<a href="#change">back</a>)</li> </ol> <p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> </span><a href="http://www.orangecoat.com/comment-count-image/go/node/3572"></a></p> </article> </main></body></html>