Last weekend I graduated from the U of M a proud man. It was a joy having my family in town! How do we look? Chubby? (Nah, we look great!)

 

Robert Rauschenberg is one of my favorite American painters. He has also been very supportive of kids with disabilities, marked by his generous and philanthropic work in this area. I figured that while I was testing out the new rollout of Picasa 2, I would post some of my favorite stuff!

Coming soon, Matt and Patricia's wedding...

Google WiFi

Google is now offering a secure access VPN for people who connect wirelessly since so many wireless access points do not offer this service. There has also been speculation that this will be used with a national wireless network for Talk and Internet services. It seems to be quite likely the next logical move.

Google Secure Access: http://wifi.google.com/download.html
There is also a neat insight on ZDNet today: http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=658

Tunc tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet.
“Then your property is in danger when the nearest wall is burning.”

Have a great day!

And now, without further ado: the Google PC by ZDNet's David Berlind -- In writing Now's the time for the network computer, my colleague and fellow blogger Dana Gardner has it all wrong. OK, maybe half wrong. The network computer bit is 100 percent dead-on. It's the Oracle part he has wrong. To everybody including Novell CEO Jack Messman who thinks Microsoft's forthcoming version [...]

Census data with Google Maps

I think I would be totally clueless to anything totally cool on the net without the help of Jason Peterson.  Here’s the latest gem, which combines census data with Google Maps.  This is really useful, especially for looking at target markets, buying a house, or knowing which areas of town are hot and which are not.  I am sure the list goes on ad infinitem.

Check it out: http://65.39.85.13/google/

Good night everyone.

Move over Katrina!

Matt and Trish are getting married!Katrina’s got no chance when it comes to the power of love.  Matt Trahan is a stand-up guy and a class act when it comes to showing his love for my sister.  Matt has the official stamp of approval—he’s in “the family.”  Patricia is no longer a princess without a prince.  She is most deserving of a guy like Matt.  For more info about their wedding, please check http://www.trishandmatt.info.

Blogging with Microsoft Word

What a fantastic idea.  It can be a pain to fire up the blogger.com and specifically type a message to blog there.  I’d much rather do it from Word!  This rocks.  Only I’m sure a sign of things to come where Google continues to innovate and integrate.

My apologies about not blogging for a while, I am still trying to get used to fitting it in.  I am planning on recording anything I find interesting or humorous on a tape recorder and playing it back for blogging later in the evening.  I’m sure I could get one of those digital microphones and have it all typed out for me… but that would be too easy.

http://buzz.blogger.com/bloggerforword.html

Have a great evening.

Acquisition, Conversion, Retention

I spent some time this evening on the topic of customer relationship management (CRM). Acquisition refers to the costs and strategies related to getting customers in the door. Conversion is the process by which customers become more valuable to the organization. Retention is the goal as the average company loses 50% of its customer base over 5 years.

I think this is akin to having friendships. Sometimes it means putting in effort, but there's something meaningful about having enjoyable lasting personal relationships with history.

Since it is our actions that define us, people are more likely to trust those they know. Once people become familiar and comfortable with an interface, it normally takes something dramatic to produce change.

For example, why use some new Microsoft search engine when I've enjoyed a lasting relationship with Google for years?

See:
harvard 1 or harvard 2

Good night.