Can you believe that it’s already mid September?
A not-so-sunny day as I take a quick break from email (and lunch finally!), with the expectation of sun this weekend. Here are a few articles from the reading file for your commute home (thru August 19th).
As noted these are all (for the most part) available for download, making it easy to save for reading on mobile devices on your commute if you’re not on one of those snazzy new Microsoft Connector busses.
Have a good weekend.
A Borrower or a Lender Be – Prosper.com – Microfinance – Loan (Fast Company) – How Prosper.com is personalizing personal finance. From: Issue 114 | April 2007 | Page 24 | By: Michael A. Prospero | Illustrations by: Christopher Sleboda … saved by 2 other people
Monsoon Marketing – Stag – Umbrella – Ebrahim Currim & Sons (Fast Company) – How an Indian umbrella maker survived low-cost competition. From: Issue 114 | April 2007 | Page 22 | By: Anupam Mukerji | Photographs By: Raghu Rai
Inside InventionLand (Forbes.com) – By Kerry A. Dolan 11.27.06 George Davison peddles hope to inventors who are down on their luck. Who’s he really helping?
What Makes GE Great? (Fortune) – For the sixth time, GE is America’s most admired company. Its success does not come easy. Plus 7 Experts Talk About GE’s Strengths. by Geoffrey Colvin, February 24, 2006: 11:02 AM EST … saved by 1 other person
(Fortune: What Makes GE Great? : Download Library : News : GE – PDF of Fortune article above, courtesy GE.)
Google is the number one best place to work – Jan. 8, 2007 – The people are brilliant. The perks are epic. But can Google’s founders build a culture that doesn’t depend on the stock price? By Adam Lashinsky, Fortune senior writer. January 10 2007 … saved by 20 other people
Our Challenge Is Change, Not Globalization (Forbes.com) – Rich Karlgaard 11.27.06. America’s role in the world–regarding terrorism, foreign wars, immigration and economic globalization–was the alpha issue of the Nov. 7 election. It is certain to be the big issue again in 2008.
APC Tech support is top rate (PC Magazine Vol. 25, Iss. 18) – APC is not a huge company, and it sells fairly simple products. But if this Rhode Island tech company can get [tech support] right, what’s stopping Dell, HP, and others?
Mystery shoppers help businesses offer the best service (santa cruz sentinel) – August 19, 2007 by Teresa Thomae. Mystery shoppers help businesses offer the best service Mystery shopping. Secret shopping. Professional snoops. Anonymous audits. Telephone checks. Spotters. They all describe an estimated $600 million industry focusing
At Netflix, Victory for Voices Over Keystrokes (New York Times) – By KATIE HAFNER, August 16, 2007 – Ms. Funk is one of 200 customer service representatives at the Netflix call center here, 20 miles west of Portland, where she is on the front lines of the online movie rental company’s efforts to use customer service … saved by 1 other person
OSx86 Project Wiki – Welcome to the OSx86 Project – the undisputed leader in information regarding OS X on x86 hardware and Apple’s Intel transition. Open since 2005, the OSx86 Project offers users a place to trade and share information about OSx86 and the various hardware … saved by 1249 other people
Inside Apple: A Closer Look at the iSuites (PC Magazine) – 08.15.07 by ThinkSecret.com Staff. Apple took advantage of last week’s media event to blow out a series of product announcements, few of which should have come as a surprise to readers of this column. Among the list of new items were the widely expected…
Our Favorite Music Services, Part 2 (PC Magazine Review) – Our Favorite Music Services, Part 2 08.16.07 Even with heavy royalty fees threatening to cripple Internet radio sites, there are still some cool music services managing to provide an awesome platform to find the music you love. … saved by 3 other people
How To: Rip Netflix “Watch Now” movies to your hard drive – Lifehacker … saved by 86 other people
Featured Windows Download: Batch process images with FastStone Photo Resizer – Lifehacker – Image processor FastStone Photo Resizer can edit, correct, crop, rename, and watermark your digital images in batch mode—that is, in big bunches all at once. … saved by 59 other people
10 reasons to deploy Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com – August 9th, 2007, by Tiffany Songvilay. If you’re currently running Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) v2 in your enterprise, you’ve probably maxed out all the creative ways you can use Content Editor and Page Viewer Web Parts — and your users still … saved by 3 other people
Q&A: Jonathan Schwartz on Sun’s open-source business strategy | Tech news blog – CNET News.com – August 8, 2007 10:39 PM PDT Q&A with Jonathan Schwartz on Sun’s open-source business strategy, Posted by Matt Asay. “Jonathan Schwartz is a man on a mission. While at Linuxworld today, I took an hour to visit with Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystem … saved by 12 other people
CIO India – Microsoft Boosts Vista’s Speed – Microsoft Corp. this week released a pair of Windows Vista updates that had leaked onto the Internet at the end of July, but the company didn’t say when it will begin pushing them to users via Windows Update.
Ick, old married guys on Facebook (Perspectives, CNET News.com) – By Sabena Suri Published: August 15, 2007, 4:00 AM PDT perspective: It’s Sunday night and I’m trying to write that paper on The Great Gatsby I’ve been procrastinating on. Oh, and I’ve still got that math project. … saved by 2 other people
Microsoft Office is dead meme revived (Between the Lines, ZDNet.com) – August 14th, 2007 Posted by Dan Farber “…is StarOffice, Google Apps or whatever Adobe, Zoho, Zimbra, ThinkFree and others are doing a game changer, massive disruptors that will eviscerate Microsoft’s super-profitable Office business and free users…
The Vacuum Man Takes On Wet Hands (BusinessWeek) – JULY 2, 2007, By Steve Hamm. James Dyson moves beyond cyclonic vacuums to bring the world a better hand dryer… saved by 2 other people
Unchained From The Cable Box (businessweek) – JUNE 18, 2007 By Stephen H. Wildstrom. The FCC is breaking the cable hold on set-top boxes and letting rivals step in.
The Real Cost Of Offshoring (BusinessWeek) – JUNE 18, 2007 By Michael Mandel. U.S. data show that moving jobs overseas hasn’t hurt the economy. Here’s why those stats are wrong… saved by 14 other people
What Works In Women’s Networks (BusinessWeek) – JUNE 18, 2007, By Diane Brady and Jena McGregor. How three corporations crafted organizations for female employees that have an actual impact.
Napa Cabernet: Variations On A Theme (BusinessWeek) – By Robert Parker, June 18, 2007. Many types of wine are produced in California’s Napa Valley, but much of the region’s reputation is built on cabernet sauvignon. Fine cabs should be dense blue-black in color and have aromas that include black currants…
Also see Chart: It Was A Very Good Year? – Robert Parker’s chart for Napa Valley cab vintages
Building a Better Mouse – Robert Iger and Disney (TIME) – By SONJA STEPTOE, June 14, 2007. A look at Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger and his impact on Disney in Burbank, California… saved by 2 other people
Seven Secrets of Great Advertising (Aviza Group) – WESTFIELD, N.J., Aug. 8 /PRNewswire/ — Most advertising professionals know what makes great advertising. But they work in a volatile business and are generally afraid to talk about it — so they keep it a secret.
Business Processes – How To Optimize Your Contact Center (CIO) – By Katrina Howell, August 8, 2007 8:44AM. As today’s contact centers make the transition from cost center to strategic asset, accurate and effective matching of customer interactions to agent skills and availability is a fundamental requirement.
Tags: misc, articles, what I read.
