Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Freakonomics and the SportsGuy

Two separate book events last night in DC:

The Freakonomics guys hosted a book signing at the Washington Post conference center. An amusing note beforehand - the first two rows were labeled "resevered" ... we spent some time wondering what fate was in store for those who occupied them.
They're great storytellers - it was an enjoyable hour listening to them go over some of their personal history, and stories in the book. It looks to be a fun read. And, there was an only in DC moment. Someone from the "Union of Concerned Scientists" got up during the Q&A and asked a long-ish, rambling question, the gist of which seemed to be "sorry some of us slammed you online, but I'm really a real person, and wouldn't you like to reconsider your thoughts about global warming?" which was met by a good response, which was "we're happy to discuss facts, but when you make things up, and do your best to spread them, that's really not a dialog." At which point, when the questioner attempted to suggest more discussion, he was basically hissed/shouted down by the crowd, who were clearly much more interested in hearing fun anecdotes.

Bill Simmons, the SportsGuy for ESPN, was at the ESPNZone in DC. The book signing wasn't until midnight, but he was out and about talking to fans when I got there at 9:30. According to his Twitter account, they ran out of books for the second straight visit, so I'm happy I didn't stick around until midnight. Looking forward to reading the 700+ ! pages on pro basketball at some point - hopefully, it'll be in the mail today.

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Saturday, October 17, 2009

Saturday morning links

More Saturday morning links:

Do retail locations matter in online retail: Paul Sloan argues that they do. http://www.bnet.com/2403-13241_23-351380.html?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

John Furrier - Startup founders should flip burgers - nothing beats getting your hands dirty: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=145749552713&ref=nf

Great Google Wave demonstration using Pulp Fiction: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-google-wave-demo-weve-seen-nsfw-2009-10

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday morning links

Some thought provoking stories on a Saturday morning:

The Wifi problem at conferences:
ClusterShot: How a Startup’s Pet Project Became Profitable

A Story of Scotch - Keep Walking

Turn Design-on-Demand Into Profits

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

New printer

I recently bought a HP Photosmart C6380 All-in-One Printer from Amazon. It's been a few years since I've bought a home printer, and was stunned at all the new features. There's a 2" mini-LCD screen for both instructions and picture viewing. You can print directly from an SD card and it will auto-recognize the right side of photo paper.
Not earthshaking, but certainly nice to see a product that delivers on its promise.

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