Five ¢ents: Archive

“Corporations today, by their razor sharp focus on the “bottom line”...”

– [Emphasis mine.] John Maeda, the new president of RISD, on the challenges facing him (and the business world at large) - BW’s Next

Dec 31st

Why Starbucks actually helps mom and pop... →

Amazing. [via Daring Fireball]

Dec 31st

“In the Keystone Initiative’s first eighteen months, the hospitals saved an...”

– Further proof (from medicine, this time) that process innovation is vitally important to the quality of your product and your bottom line. The Checklist - The New Yorker [via Tom Peters]

Dec 21st

At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star - New York... →

[via Newser]

Dec 20th

California suburb cops to pull over good drivers,... →

Having fallen for official Starbucks “good samaritan” stunts before (cup glued to a car roof), I’ll give this completely unofficial promotion a few points for originality. And yet, I can’t help but think that the stress induced in unwitting recipients, as well as the inconvenience, may prove unhelpful to the Starbucks brand. Despite being funded by local businesses, who...

Dec 19th

“Good stores perform a kind of retailing judo—they use the shopper’s own...”

– Paco Underhill, founder and CEO of Envirosell, on telling a story progressively, using each piece of media to its greatest advantage. [Emphasis mine] Why We Buy, p. 157-8 This is also key to great advertising.

Dec 19th

“That’s smart sign design—breaking the message into two or three parts, and...”

– Paco Underhill, founder and CEO of Envirosell, on telling a story progressively, using each piece of media to its greatest advantage. Why We Buy, p. 67

Dec 19th

“The most common mistake in the design and placement of signs and other message...”

– Paco Underhill, founder and CEO of Envirosell, on the real relationship between a retail store and its consumers. [Emphasis mine.] Why We Buy, p. 62

Dec 19th

1 tag

Dec 19th

“If a company wants to sell distressed inventory at a low price to a long-time...”

– Tom Peters, on the collision of loyalty programs and cut-rate sales. [emphasis mine]

Dec 19th

Video added to Google sitemaps - Compiler →

Now if they’ll only add support for content hierarchy…

Dec 18th

Top 10 Tips for New Bloggers From Original Blogger... →

Dec 17th

1 tag

“Neither the CSS WG nor the HTML 5 WG nor, indeed, any W3C working group can...”

– Alex Russel, on entrusting the future to a committee, The W3C Cannot Save Us In the HTML5 WG, a related concept is referred to as ‘Paving the Cowpaths.’ [via Daring Fireball]

Dec 17th

'Net Neutrality dismissed by T-Mobile's Terms &... →

Dec 17th

“Two years from now, 90 percent of [on-line social] networks will be gone and...”

– Dan Tynan, The 15 Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2007 - PC World

Dec 17th

AskEraser Offers Privacy at the Expense of... →

Smart move, and one that (while not likely to help Ask.com best Google) should be replicated on all sites that collect privacy-sensitive information. There is an essential balance between security and convenience. Smart design and engineering should make the maintenance of security as painless as is reasonable, but no more, if one seeks to maintain that security. It is an acceptable balance to...

Dec 15th

Ruby on Rails 2.0 drops SOAP for REST - Yahoo!... →

Decision mirrors the general malaise surrounding SOAP in modern web development. [via Compiler]

Dec 15th

Watch

Phillipe Starck on the Kindle [via BB Gadgets]

Dec 15th

Now Play It →

Despite the always-annoying ‘beta’ label, this is one of the most interesting value-added media concepts I’ve seen. Essentially a video learning service for popular music, but delivered iTunes-style. Individual tracks are available for purchase in many video formats for reasonable prices (~£1.99), and delivered in a multitude of video formats (including iPod- and PSP-optimized...

Dec 15th