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Surviving and Thriving

When we moved into our house, we found a great builder here in Raleigh to do some work on our house.  He was (and is) a true craftsman.  The work he did was first rate, and at the time he had all the work he could do.  Then 2008 hit. I just saw him again […]

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Day Two with Spotify

After spending the day Friday using Spotify, I found a few things that leave me wanting.  In fact, they leave me wanting to the point that I am considering canceling my account. I must say that music quality is really, really good.  The sound is crystal clear.  Now, for the stuff I don’t like… There […]

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A Day with Spotify

Yesterday I signed up for Spotify, the music service that has been around for a while but is just now available in the US. I signed up for the Premium Service because, well, that’s what I do. I wanted the whole enchilada. The features with Premium are: You get to use Spotify on your mobile […]

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Why I Am Excited About Apple’s Volume Purchase Program

As a developer of applications that are generally specialized and at times focused on a particular company, it always bothered me that those apps would be available in the general public’s store. I was really excited to see the news about about Apple’s Volume Purchase Program, mainly because it now facilitates private transactions between developers […]

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What’s Going On at Microsoft?

I read today with much disillusionment a recap of the speech of Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s COO, given at the Worldwide Partner Conference. In the speech, Mr. Turner ran through the company’s list of rivals in various markets, ridiculing them in turn.  Of Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff, he said “We now have a humongous pacifier to stick […]

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Business 101

If you have kids, you are no doubt familiar with the refrain of “I really want to buy X” or “I need a way to make more money so I can do Y.”  I hear it a good bit in my house, and recently have decided that it’s time to teach my kids some lessons […]

Books to Read – July 2011

With the 4th of July Weekend upon us here in the US, it’s a great time to step away and do some reading.  Here is my list of books for July.  I hope you enjoy them. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis First, I must say that I am a huge […]

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Voicemail is Dead

When was the last time you got a meaningful voicemail that you actually listened to?  I am guessing it’s been years. The reason is that no one cares about it anymore, at least that I know of. When someone calls me and leaves a message, I rarely listen to it.  The only exception I make […]

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Forget you, Abercrombie

I am going on a trip tomorrow and needed some new jeans.  I happened to be at one of the local shopping malls and this morning for something else, so I decided to check a few of the stores there.  Because I have unusually long legs (apparently), it is usually very difficult for me to […]

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Books to Read – June 2011

My monthly list of books to read and ( hopefully ) inspire you or provoke new thoughts or ideas. The Pixar Touch by David A. Price Pixar is one of America’s iconic brands.  There are numerous books about the story of the rise of this company. I have read only this one, so I don’t […]

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