City of LA to use Google Apps

In a unanimous decision on Tuesday, the city council of Los Angeles approved a $7.2 million deal to move away from Novel and switch to Google Apps on- line hosting.  This decision comes after months of debate over the security of using on-line hosting.  Currently the contract is tentative based on the integration provider paying a penalty for any breach in security.

With this contract, LA is the second large government adoption of Google Apps providing a win for Google competing against Microsoft for large enterprise customers.  With this news and changes being made to Office Live, there is definitely some interesting news to follow in the next year.

CNET Article: LA OKs Google Apps deal InSecurity Complex - CNET News

Make a MAC-O-LANTERN for Halloween

Have an old Mac laying around that you don't want to toss for sentimental reasons??  Well here is a project that will allow the dust to be removed while putting it to good use for Halloween.

Make it into a MAC-O-LANTERN .... 

Mac-O-Lanterns - More DIY How To Projects

Unknown Da Vinci Found by CSI

Well not actually CSI, but by CSI type methods and a 500 year old finger print a painting believed to be by an unknown artist is now believed to be by Leonardo Da Vinci.

During a routine spectral analysis to verify the age of the painting revealed a finger print that matches Da Vinci's at 10 points, only 8 point s are needed for a perfect match according to experts.  Other facets of the painting match techniques used by Da Vinci and the age of the painting indicates that it was painted in his time according to the leading expert on Da Vinci.

More tests will reveal the truth, but if this really a Da Vinci that was unknown, it would be worth around $150 million which is a great deal more then the current owner paid for it.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Balloon Family in Trouble for Stunt

The saga of baloon boy seems to continue to evlove into a mess for the parties involved.  Since the admission of doing for a show by the son Falcon, and being ill during later interviews, the Colorado sheriff has grown suspecious of the families story.

On Saturday October 17th, the Coloarado Sheriff office questioned the father for 6 hours, while no arrests have been made, the family is facing felony charges as well having to pay for the cost incurred by the incident.

Stayed tuned, I have feeling that this is not the last we will see of balloon boy.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Balloon Boy's Parents Busted on CNN

On Thursday October 15th 2009, the news was filled with the reports about a balloon floating over Colorado that had a child trapped inside.  Authorities spent a good part of the day trying to figure out what to do to get the boy home safely.  By the end of the day it was announced that the boy was in the garage the whole time and not in the balloon as originally thought.  Everyone was relieved that the boy was safe.

However, the question arose as to why the parents did not look in the garage and why the boy did not come out...  Well the truth came out in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN..

When asked why he did not come out of hiding when everyone was calling for him Falcon (the boy believed to be in the balloon) said "You guys said that we did this for the show."..   Wolf heard what he said but played dumb and asked the parents to clarify what Falcon said, they did a poor job of covering it up.  Something tells me that there will be an investigation and that there will be some trouble coming for this family.

See for yourself...

You see though, this only goes to show that pulling cheap publicity stunts and making up stories does not work and eventually the truth comes out...


Can you say BUSTED....

Contractors to The Rescue

Many companies are fearful of using contractors to perform key company functions, while it can be scary, contractors can be useful in making projects work.  By using contractors a company can lower costs by paying per project and gain experience that can only come from outside the company.

A series of articles on BNET.com looks at the use of contractors in the business world.  This article series entitled Contractors to the Rescue, explains the benefits of using contractors and provides useful tips on how to work with contractors to the highest benefit.

Whether you are considering contract work or not, I recommend reading the articles.

Article 1: Maximum Work Flow, Minimal Head Count

Article 2: Payment Plans for Contractors and Consultants

Article 3: Contractor Nightmares (and How to Avoid Them)

The Importance of Design Thinking

I came across this video while reading through a newsletter email, it discusses the importance of change by design and how design thinking is important to the end product result.

This is something that I have always believed in, not only due to my nature of being a design thinker, but because I have witnessed the benefits of its inclusion from the start.  One of the main benefits as pointed out in the video is that designers are not stopped by a business or marketing thought, they are only limited by their imagination. While I know that these items are important, they should not be allowed to limit the functionality of a product or service.

While there are a lot of companies who understand this principle, many do not and that is hurting not only them as a company, but the industry that they function in. Part of what happens is that non designers push out designers as they appear to infringe on outdated business ideals. I have witnessed this first hand as business minded non designers would not accept the free form thought needed at the start of project leading to the project being late and not meeting its goals.

If you are in development field or management of development, I recommend watching this video: Change By Design by Tim Brown | Book Brief

The video is from Bnet.com as part of their Book Brief series.

Discover Great Music on YouTube with TubeRadio.fm

If you are a music lover who enjoys watching music videos from YouTube, then there is a new online interface that you need to check out. TubeRadio.fm has a solution that provides an easy to use FREE interface to locate music, create, and share playlists.

Laid out similar to iTunes and working in the same manner as iTunes and Real Player, the interface allows for your favorite music to be searched and played. Upon typing in an artist’s name, a list of all the tracks available on YouTube appears. From there tracks can be played and added to playlists, a free login can be created that stores the playlist information.

Playing back and saving to playlists is only the beginning, play whole albums via discography, purchase albums via download from 7Digital or CDs from Amazon, and share your playlists via Twitter, Facebook, email, and more.  Here is a playlist that I created for Stevie Ray Vaughan.
While the interface has some quirks, it is a very useful and fun way to enjoy music from YouTube. I recommend taking it for a spin and see for yourself.


Visit TubeRadio.fm

Buying Group Partners With Hollywood Studio

In the world of custom installed home theaters, media demos are one of the most important parts of the sale. When a customer is shelling out more money than people spend on a car for a sound system, hearing and seeing it become real important.

While demos go on, over the years having a consistent source for demo material has been an issue. Additionally, customers who like the material usually have to go elsewhere to find that material. However, thanx to a partnership between Home Entertainment Source and Image Entertainment dealers now have access to demo material and can even provide the same material as packages to their customers.

Until now the studios have not used the promotional platform that is the customer installation demo. By allowing dealers to demo material and then sell it to the customer is a win/win situation for both.

I hope that this is the start of more announcements like this to come as they will promote both the movies and the means to play them back in the home.

Read the Story @ CEPro:

Press Release: HES Partners with Image Entertainment - CE Pro Article from CE Pro

Are You Really Listening to the Customer?

Here is a little quiz to see how well you pay attention to your customers..

Are You Really Listening to the Customer? | Sales Machine | BNET

After taking the quiz ask yourself, how well you listen to not only your customers, but other people in your company especially your employees.  I know a few managers who feel that they listen, however they would fail this test...