GM Employee Discount for Everyone
"From now until July 5, 2005, enjoy the GM Employee Discount on almost all 2005 GM vehicles across all divisions.* For the first time in history, everyone in America gets the GM Employee Discount."
"It's a great price. You pay what we pay. Not a cent more. At participating dealers only."
Trust me, this is an AWESOME deal! If you're in the market for a new car or truck...
"I’m sure most of us, at one time or another, have had a very stressful Friday afternoon (or whichever day constitutes the beginning of your “weekend”) rushing around trying to get things done to clear things up for a relaxing few days off. I call this “Friday Afternoon Syndrome” or FAS."
Good ideas here. I particularly like the Friday afternoon (say 2:00) planning meeting and the 4:00 end of work day.
"Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Macromedia (Nasdaq: MACR) in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.4 billion."
Does this mean that FreeHand and Illustrator will be merged into... Frustrator?
"David Zamos doesn't look as if he could single-handedly humiliate the world's largest software maker."
"TiVo Inc., the struggling pioneer of digital video recorders, will make a customized version for Comcast cable subscribers, the two companies announced Tuesday."
It's about time they managed to make a deal like this! I was growing very concerned about their ability to stay alive.
"Are you awake at midnight? You should be. That's when Woot -- the hottest online retail concept/gimmick in a long time -- works its weird magic. You certainly won't be alone. Thanks to a 33-year-old businessman in Dallas, each morning more than 10,000 people are racing to their computer screens hoping, praying, and competing to be the next proud owners of a heavily discounted Apple/Hewlett-Packard iPod, Braun Flex XP rechargeable electric shaver, or Dinotronic remote-control T-Rex. Here's how it works."
No wonder I never seem to get in on the good stuff. I don't check until lunchtime.
"I saw Ocean's 12 last week. It's a decent flick. But what really jumped out at me wasn't the hipster chic of Brad Pitt's wardrobe or the tiresome overacting of Julia Roberts. It was a dramatic scene involving a long line of sleek, black Land Rovers. So cool. Somehow, as I sat munching popcorn in that darkened theater, the Land Rover brand was planted in my brain by the power of suggestion. I remembered it."
"Like computers? Love money? Get into IT security, man.
"While not a shocker, IT industry navel-gazers say security is where it's at in the industry - and it's only going to get better. And by 'better' we mean 'worse' when it comes to security, which means 'better' for your bank account."
Knew I should have gone down the IT Security path. Oh well.
Now this is a great example of how to put your print ad online. Very nicely done!
"DIRECTV, Inc., provider of the nation's leading digital multichannel television service, announced today a historic expansion of programming capacity with the planned launch of four new next-generation satellites. These satellites will provide DIRECTV with a massive expansion in local and national high-definition (HD) channels, as well as capacity for new interactive and enhanced services and standard-definition programming. DIRECTV will have the capacity to bring these new services to every household in America."
Sweet! This'll nudge me over the edge into getting that DirecTivo HD box.
"One day after Blockbuster unveiled its DVD online rental service, aiming directly at Netflix , Blockbuster is teaming up with Microsoft to help get the word out."
Ouch, that's probably going to hurt Netflix, particularly if Microsoft all out "Netscapes" them.
"This site is dedicated to tracking what's going on in the naming and branding world, digging deeper to figure out what names or naming trends mean for the culture as a whole, and starting a conversation about a subject and a process that many people still find mystifying."
The owner of this site picked up on my posting regarding company names last week and left a comment. We then had a quick email conversation around the topic. I figured I'd share the site, as I found it interesting enough to subscribe to their RSS feed.
"This technology is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it's just not selling.
"TiVo is an anomaly. It has become the Hoover or Kleenex of the PVR category and is without question a consumers' darling. Not since the introduction of MTV, have consumers emphatically uttered, "I want my…" directly preceding the consumption of a brand of media. And while MTV changed elements of pop culture, TiVo seemingly changed everything. If you're a TiVo user, then you're be nodding your head right now at the assertion that once you went TiVo, there was no going back to the old way.
"And yet, with all its passion and hyper-loyal consumer base, the most significant innovation in television history since the television has failed to make an incurable dent in the armor of the masses.
A marketer's perspective.
"A Maricopa County Superior Court judge today gave preliminary approval to a settlement that would require Microsoft give voucher "refunds" to all consumers and businesses that purchased its application and operating system products between 1996 and 2002."
Looks like I'm going to have some money coming.
"Yesterday, escrow closed on our house. So we are now officially "homeless" (we're renting the house from the new owner for the next 30 days). A few weeks ago, escrow closed on a rental condo that I've owned for the past 11 years. So that means I've had recent dealing with two listing real estate agents. Although both of them sold their respective property quickly, their overall styles were amazingly different."
It's all about customer service and putting the customer first. They both came through, but which one do you suppose will get the referal?
"The world's biggest coffee retailer gets no respect from PDX. Should it?
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"When Tracy Morgan found herself in need of work not long ago, she picked up a counter job at the Pioneer Courthouse Square Starbucks. The 28-year-old University of Oregon art graduate found it a relaxed enough endeavor that she had energy to pursue her real passion--charming up homes as an interior designer--on the side.
"There was just one problem--one her friends never forgot to remind her about: She worked at Starbucks."
"'It is really not me, it is you,' he said. 'You see here is the chart of our relationship as I was tracking it so carefully.' He pulled the color-coded chart full of red spots and very few yellow and green spots. Surprised, she was staring at the chart, not aware that it existed until a minute ago."
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"Any relationship, even CRM--enabled customer relationships, by definition cannot be efficient."
Good article on the customer relationship dance.
"Mr. Trump should be commended for his personal courage however. Few people put themselves in constant risk of bodily harm as he does. Donald lives under the on-going threat of dislocating his shoulder from patting himself on the back."
"I've been thinking about this a lot. Why? It's my job. I'm an evangelist at Microsoft and I'm paid to persuade you to write software for an operating system that none of you have even seen yet."
A friend of mine, who knows that I use my PC to print out postage, asked me what I would recommend for her to use in her SOHO. After determining her basic requirements I checked into some of the various offerings. After reviewing the major players, of which there aren't many, I decided that the one that I use, Stamps.com, makes the most sense for her, as well as for anyone else doing non-sorted mailings from their home or small office.
So I checked to see if Stamps.com a> offered an affiliate program and b> that that program gave something more to the people I might refer than if they just went to the site directly. I wanted to provide value on both sides of the equation, so both a and b had to be "yes". If not, then I'd just post a direct link and be done with it.
Well, they were both "yes", so here's my brand spanking new affiliate link, which gives you $5 extra in free postage when you sign up, and gives me a referal fee that I will use to help defray the costs of this site:
Why this one over some of the others? Primarily two reasons - 1> Stamps.com has been around for a long time (I've been using it for years) and was started by the USPS itself, and 2> the integration with Office 2003 is tight. By that I mean that, once you set up Stamps.com, you can print postage within your normal processes. Print envelopes from Outlook and Word, for example, and the postage goes right on at the same time. Very handy!
Feel free to Comment Back if you give Stamps.com a go; I'm interested to see if everyone else finds it as handy as I do! Also, having used it so long, I can probably answer specific questions about it as well.
A friend of mine, who knows that I use my PC to print out postage, asked me what I would recommend for her to use in her SOHO. After determining her basic requirements I checked into some of the various offerings. After reviewing the major players, of which there aren't many, I decided that the one that I use, Stamps.com, makes the most sense for her, as well as for anyone else doing non-sorted mailings from their home or small office.
So I checked to see if Stamps.com a> offered an affiliate program and b> that that program gave something more to the people I might refer than if they just went to the site directly. I wanted to provide value on both sides of the equation, so both a and b had to be "yes". If not, then I'd just post a direct link and be done with it.
Well, they were both "yes", so here's my brand spanking new affiliate link, which gives you $5 extra in free postage when you sign up, and gives me a referal fee that I will use to help defray the costs of this site:
Why this one over some of the others? Primarily two reasons - 1> Stamps.com has been around for a long time (I've been using it for years) and was started by the USPS itself, and 2> the integration with Office 2003 is tight. By that I mean that, once you set up Stamps.com, you can print postage within your normal processes. Print envelopes from Outlook and Word, for example, and the postage goes right on at the same time. Very handy!
Feel free to Comment Back if you give Stamps.com a go; I'm interested to see if everyone else finds it as handy as I do! Also, having used it so long, I can probably answer specific questions about it as well.
"EBay and Amazon.com, the Internet's top two e-commerce sites, are taking opposite approaches to growth. EBay raised its prices this month for the fourth year in a row, while Amazon renewed its pledge to keep cutting prices even if it means lower profits."
"Quit thinking of selling as a clash of wills. To sell more, and reap larger gains, heed this wisdom from an unlikely source -- the code of ubuntu."
Today Amazon enabled a feature that's sure to increase sales and customer satisfaction. They have enabled their search engine to search the text of every book they sell. Now you not only get hits on titles and keywords, but actual content! Now that's thinking of the customer.
"Wal-Mart, so long celebrated as the exemplar of everything wonderful about American capitalism - its homespun billionaire founder, its customer care, its relentless discounting, its brilliant use of technology - has suddenly become the Beast of Bentonville. The business press is blaming Wal-Mart for the woes of the entire economy, from the spike in the number of uninsured, to the rising poverty rate, to the flood of Chinese imports that are ravaging U.S. manufacturing."
Are we working smarter — or harder?
"For several years now, economists from Alan Greenspan on down have been praising the tech-driven improvement in the productivity of the U.S. work force. The theory is that, as computers allow us all to produce more with less work, our incomes will continue to grow and our standard of living will rise. But there's a darker side to productivity that some economists are now beginning to look at more closely. Simply put: Are we all really working smarter? Or just a lot harder?"
Miss Mom? A Hometown Honey? Calls Are On the House
"Anyone on the Dartmouth College campus who picks up a phone and makes a long-distance call anywhere within the United States will find that the call is on the house. On July 1, the school stopped charging for all long-distance calls."
Why, you ask? Because it was costing more to generate the billing than it was to pay the actual bill!
"These are tough times for innovation. The internet bubble is a distant memory. The technology-laden Nasdaq index has dropped more than 70 per cent from its peak in 2000. Even venture capital companies, the ardent financiers of so many start-up businesses, are handing back capital to their investors because they do not have enough opportunities to warrant investment. Traditional research and development laboratories such as Bell Labs and Xerox Parc have been downsized or spun off, as large companies have cut internal spending on innovation."
This article goes into the future of innovation during this time of economic hardship on company's budgets. It challenges some of the traditional ideas around R&D.
"Scott Painter is a car guy. Half of the 14 businesses the serial entrepreneur has started (including Web site CarsDirect) involved automobiles. Now he wants to be the custom car guy. Painter is in the process of launching Build-To-Order Inc., a company that aims to do for manufacturing and marketing of autos what Dell Computer did for personal computers."
Pretty ambitious plan, taking the Dell model of 'Build to Order' into the car industry. I'm intrigued; I'd love to be able to design a car to meet my requirements, rather than being forced to compromise.
"An analyst study reveals that early adopters of technology are better aligned for growth and outpacing their competitors." - This study reaffirms a belief that I've had for quite some time, namely that the down turns are precisely when companies should increase innovation efforts in order to differentiate themselves. It's amazing how many companies pull back in all areas when the going gets tough.
