Thanksgiving in the Blue Ridge Mountains
0 comments- My mom is a totaly pyromaniac and was constantly adding logs to the fireplace. She had some amazing shots in our children versus parents snooker games and was a lovely chef.
- My dad celebrated his birthday on Sunday and enjoyed walking around the totally desolate woodlands around our cabin.
- My sister worked on homework and watched Star Wars: Episode 1 with me, in addition to a bunch of other movies.
- Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish was a gift to my dad for his birthday; we both really enjoyed it. I suggest this book if you are thinking about strategy goals for your small- to medium-sized business.
- Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy wasn't very good (I suggest Ogilvy on Advertising instead).
- The Search by John Batelle wasn't as good as I had hoped, but had some interesting Google strategy tidbits.
- Hiring the Best: A Manager's Guide to Effective Interviewing by Martin Yate had some really good advice and gets my thumbs-up approval rating.
I am a hypocrite because I never bought GOOG
Whenever I read news about Google, it's like reading about an ex-girlfriend. Their new 300,000+ sq foot New York office, or the private 767 that Larry and Serg bought? It figures. So typical. We should have been together. I never bought the stock and I am a hypocrite.
And now She (GOOG), my fictional ex-girlfriend, is way north of 400. A $120 billion dollar beauty.
Did I tell you that I got everybody in my office to start using Gmail and stop using Outlook? We made the switch, like, a year ago. And I carry around a Google water bottle everywhere I go, under the context that I love drinking water (which I do). It's a Nalgene co-brand that I got at the Google store when I bought my Google polo last year before going to India to learn about outsourcing. I loved wearing my Google polo around Bombay and Pune - especially to the golf course - wondering if anybody would notice and accidentally think that I worked for the mothership.
But I never bought the stock. Not at 100, not at 190, 250 or even 300. I never bought the stock for the one company that I really believed in last year. I still have a lot to learn about investing.
I thought that at $50 billion, Google's market valuation was a little presumptious for 2005, even for gifted people like me who can see the future (modest, I know).
I guess I'm scared to commit.
News on the Mitsubishi Pocket Projector
A representative from Mitsubishi called me today to say that the PocketProjector LED DLP Projector "should be available by December 1st, 2005 in time for the Holiday season." NAME REDACTED said that when the unit is finally made available, all purchases will be through Mitsubishi's corporate office in Irvine, California.
Brightness: Approximately 250 LUX
Resolution: SVGA (800 x 600)
Weight: Approximately 1 lb.
The product has been delayed several times. Earlier press releases announced this product for the first time in February, 2005. It was supposed to be available in July, and then that was pushed back to September. Now we have a date of December 1st, 2005 (a little more than one week away!).
NAME REDACTED told me that the most current specifications sheet is available on the Mitsubishi website (PDF). The target street price for this unit remains at $799.
This projector will only have 250 lumens of brightness. The average projector sold at Best Buy for $1,000 has about 1,600 lumens. That would explain why Mitsubishi has only been doing demos of the PocketProjector in total cave-like trade show spaces. It is capable of XGA (1024 x 768), but the specs still seem to prefer SVGA native (800 x 600). The PocketProjector has an optimum display size of 40" to 50".
Saturday personal notes
- I ordered Amazon Prime - For $79 per year, our whole family now gets free 2-day FedEx shipping on any order. Overnight shipping is only $3.99. tonight. If it works, this will beat the socks off of the free SuperSaver shipping that Amazon gives by default for all orders over $25. SuperSaver tended to arrive in 5-9 days.... BORING. Zach raves so much about how awesome Prime is, I figure it will help me buy smarter. When shipping gets you excited.... you've got a good head on your shoulders for our future.
- I rented a few Bollywood movies last week. Ab Tak Chappan - Doctors cure, engineers build, I kill was really great. Currently watching Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge - Come and fall in LOVE... at Akshay's suggestion, but there are no subtitles, so it's a little difficult. I still recommend Swades - We, the people for anyone looking to rent a first Bollywood film.
- Going up to a Georgia mountain cabin with the family for Thanksgiving holiday on Friday
- This afternoon I peeked into a a Civil War museum and browsed some interesting books.
- Don't forget to check out my always-updated daily list of cool links, which is also mirrored on the right-hand side of this blog.
- One last group photo from NBAA 2005 in our booth.
- And finally, go see Walk the Line - in theaters now. You owe it to Johnny Cash, and you owe it to June. I saw it on Friday night and really enjoyed the movie. My next movie to get really excited about will be Marie-Antoinette.
My Mom's Small Business Printer Suggestions
If you are considering a new black and white laser printer for your small business or home office, I would suggest the HP 1320N.
HP 1320N - $399
And if you are considering a color laser printer for your small business, I would suggest the Konica Minolta 2430DL. We have printed over 15,000 pages on ours and it has served us great.
Konica Minolta 2430DL - $400
Sunday night in Cumming, Georgia 30041
On Saturday, we left Orlando at 6:00am and arrived in Atlanta around 2:30pm. I saw the movie Jarhead later that day - it was OK. This morning I woke up early and had three eggs for breakfast at Waffle House. Three eggs, toast, grits and coffee for less than $4. Not a bad deal.
I have a nice Sony Vaio laptop (model VGN-S170B) that is a little over one year old. Surprisingly, it has never been reformatted. Old applications fill its registry like ghosts in the Savannah night. I like to reformat my Windows every six months to keep the system lean. So, today I cleaned up my laptop, backed up my data files to an external hard disk, and used Sony's nice restore function to bring Windows new again.
It felt good to be clean. I cleaned out my car after going to Sawnee Mountain for a quick jog and a mini-boulder climb. Vacuum and Armor All did the Jeep trick. As I was cleaning, a neighbor asked me to help him move a refrigerator that he had just purchased. We carried it off of the rental truck and rolled it into his garage. I remembered that his basement had large 14- and 16-foot ceilings. I asked him, "What do you do with those ceilings?" Imagine my surprise when he showed me the rock climbing wall that he built. It's really great and I was sore after only a few minutes of monkeying around.
We got to talking and my next-door neighbor, the lawyer that I'd never really met who has a rock climbing wall in his basement, pitched me an idea he had been considering: Could an agile person rappel from suburban rooftop to clean third-story gutters?
Within a few minutes he had ladders mounted, ropes strung and belay harnesses on. The answer, I'm afraid, is no. You cannot clean third-story drainage pipes by yourself using a rope and harness to rappel down the side of your roof. There just isn't enough horizontal leverage to make it efficient.
I helped him slide down the front of the house, me standing in back with rope wrapped around my waist. We shouted back and forth over the house, "Matthew, HOW MUCH ROPE DO YOU NEED?" and him, "Keep it TIGHT NOW" while his wife sweated the forty foot drop from their kitchen. I do not think that she appreciated our teamwork.
I will update soon.
Hey, sorry for that last double post. I haven't been on a real computer in a week. We're swamped here at the NBAA 2005 trade show in Orlando, Florida. Standing on your feet for eight hours a day with nary a 10-minute lunch break isn't exactly my idea of a vacation, but our new booth is getting tons of traffic and we swept all three daily magazines with press mentions yesterday. More to come... Back to this steak and eggs breakfast.
Snyder's of Hanover Pretzel Rods
Some thoughts on Snyder's of Hanover Pretzel Rods.
- Cost: $1.59 at Super Target, 10 oz bag.
- Composition: Approx 95% intact. A few were broken in half.
- Salt content: Moderate to low. Few visible cystals on exterior of
each rod. Mostly in-baked to shell. - Coloration: Tan to mocha.
- Bite: Soft. Sort of buttery. No distinct crisp breakage.
- Taste: Tastes like a pretzel. Not too salty, so I could eat a lot of
them tonight.