Categories
Brain Buster The Marketeer

Jury Convicts Former CEO

This story is unbelievable to me. Just in case you’re not interested in the link, the former CEO at DCI, where I worked 1998 to 2000 was convicted of tax fraud conspiracy and tax evasion. I’m not too sure of the timeline, but from everything I’ve seen there it looks like I showed up just as everything was finished. How strange that events that happened prior to my arrival there, now almost 10 years ago, are still playing out.

The company was flush with cash when I came on, the bubble was growing rapidly and the first thing to rise are the trade shows and events.

Now I can add criminal conviction as a chapter in my book. I’ve already seen sexual harassment, insurance fraud, nepotism and a bunch of other bizarre stuff including plastic surgery, but those are stories for another day.

In some ways I thought that I shouldn’t blog about it, but it’s a matter of public record so there’s nothing to hide. I’m not sure how I feel about all this, but one thing I do know – in Business it’s always a battle and a game to see who gets the money, but in my mind taxes are not part of that game. When you strike a deal that’s sound business and leveraging information. When you try to do the same thing against the government you can end up picking up trash along the highway in an orange jumpsuit. I have no interest in any part of that.

Categories
Brain Buster SEO and Paid Search The Marketeer

Sell your Google, here comes Wikipedia

Remember when Yahoo ruled the world? How long ago was that? 7 years?

In the past 2 months I’ve seen some interesting signs that Wikipedia is on a tear like we’ve never seen. I monitor 7 major keywords that I want to score on and since Q4 2006 wikipedia is on page one for all of these terms.

It’s also a major referrer for all of my sites. In 2 months.
So the question is: Will Google shut off the oxygen? Or is it already too late?

Categories
Daily Life Geek Stuff

Media Download

So I’ve been running like crazy for the past couple of days, but I have seen some good stuff:

Ali Rap is a DVD by ESPN showcasing the poetic talent of Muhammed Ali, only an hour and even the lovely Carin found it fascinating to watch.

24 – I downloaded the latest episode to watch at the gym this morning. My vedict is still out on this season, but I’m still watching.

Galactica – Got this off the Tivo waiting for Carin to come home

Dr. Who – An episode before bed off DVD

3 Media formats – no commercials.

That’s all I’ve got for today, we have an all hands company kickoff tomorrow, and the Sales Kickoff that started today continues.

I’m also doing a session on Podcasting for Non-profits in April, anybody know of any good ones?

Categories
Daily Life

If my life were a movie, this would be the soundtrack

I got caught in the latest round of blog tag, Christopher Penn was kind enough to pass the baton to me on this game.

How to Play:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question below, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool …

Here were my results:

Opening Credits:
Duel of the Fates – John Williams, The Greatest Hits

First Day At School:
White Christmas – SWV, A Special Christmas

Falling In Love:
Red Rain – Peter Gabriel, Secret world Live

Breaking Up:
Step by Step (Junior Vasquez Mix) – Whitney Houston Greatest Hits

Prom:
I Like to Move It – Reel to Real, Jock Jams Vol.2

Mental Breakdown:
Fiesta Pa’Los Rumberos – Albita, Dance with Me

Flashbacks:
The Christmas Song – Ray Charles, Love Affair (OST)

Getting Back Together:
Song for You Far Away – James Taylor, Greatest Hits Volume 2

Wedding Scene:
Solitude – Toshihiko Sabashi, The Big O (OST)

Final Battle:
Escape – Prince, The Hits/The B Sides

Death Scene:
Undercover Funk – Snoop Dog, Undercover Brother OST

Funeral Song:
What Time is Love – KLF, Deep Heat 8 Hand of Fate Remix

End Credits:
The Music Inside – Chuck Loeb, WSJZ Smooth Jazz

Finale:
Won’t You Come Back – Breathe, All That Jazz

Obviously you’re not concerned that I was lying to be cool about this list.

Rather bizarre actually that there would be 2 Christmas songs out of my library of over 8000 tunes.

If I really had to score my own film there’d have to be some Journey in there, Waltham and Heth and Jed to show some love to the podsafe crew, some stuff from Kill Bill and, of course, Rocky. All the mushy stuff would be by Ennio Morricone (if he ever wrote something for a project of mine, that might be bigger than a house on Nantucket…). I’d also have to keep my funk the J funk with some Motown, New Jack Swing, and Coolio – cuz I’m so street.

So I get to tag some people – I choose:

Franklin McMahon, The Rumor Girls, Chris Pirillo, John Federico and I’ll take a shot at a guy who I read, but who has no idea who I am (but he loves music), Tim Sanders.

I’d also choose Ron Ploof, but I know he doesn’t have an iPod.

Categories
Daily Life Podcasting

Audiophile Weekend

This weekend was all about the sound. I upgraded the speakers in the car via Crutchfield, the stock ones had no midrange and I was starting to think that my hearing was going, the new speakers show that not to be the case.

More later this week about a test drive of the new Bose Tri-port in-ear earphones.

And I’m rebuilding my work laptop but took a break from that to roll out the latest M Show, sync it to your iPod and listen during your commute. Anybody up for recording something new this weekend?

Categories
Brain Buster Geek Stuff

The New iPod

My brainbuster for the day – with all of the hype over the iPhone I kind of forgot about the iPod. Today in the car I was thinking “How long will it be before the next generation iPod?” Then it hit me – what’s holding them back from putting most of the cool UI stuff from the phone into the next gen iPod? How sweet will that be if I can watch 24 at the gym and turn the player sideways for a mini widescreen?

Categories
Daily Life

DVD Mania

As my lunch break winds to a close I couldn’t help gushing about scoring DVDs at Newbury Comics. On the playlist:

  1. Doctor Who – Season 2 – I will boldly claim this goes toe-to-toe with Galactica because it’s family friendly (but if I had to choose, of course it would be Galactica). Please don’t tell my wife – it was $75.
  2. 24 Season 6 Premier – the first 4 are available on DVD (yes, the ones that aired yesterday and the day before) for $9.99
  3. The had some special coupons that got me The Eagles, 2DVD live from Melbourne for $6.99
  4. Same deal, U2 Live from Slane Castle, $5.99

I almost picked up Ricky Gervais’ latest but I’ve got more than enough to watch with that…

Categories
Daily Life

Sunday Football, Editing and The M Show

So I’ve spent the entire weekend doing the final mix on a project I’ve been working on for David Scott. I’m very excited about it and looking forward to the roll out. All day editing audio and most of today getting the CDs master.

More to follow on that, but I’m off to enjoy some football, and I may still have enough in me to crank out the latest M Show. Addendum – this week’s show is terrible – if you are new to the show wait until next week…
In closing, and in fairness, I must say that this is the greatest ad ever done by a tech company.

[youtube]AIOqOxI0K_I[/youtube]

Categories
Brain Buster The Marketeer

Pandemonium

Pandemonium is a one of my favorite albums by The Time, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. I know the hardcore marketing content has been light this week, my CAPOW buddies know about my Web 2.0 initiative and that’s what’s been taking up all my time. Throw a Board Meeting into the mix and this has been a very stressful week. But this is the kind of stress that begats great things (birthing pains if you will).

I don’t have the energy to write it up now, but for those interested here’s a video clip that’s part of the master plan. For those of you not in the Software Configuration Management space – AccuRev is the company I work for and the other company is our (much larger) competitor, some guys with a penchant for large azure.

[youtube]msDuQoKqysw[/youtube]

Categories
Daily Life Podcasting

What the hell is up with Canada?

Why is it that it seems there’s 10x the social media stuff coming out of people from Canada? Is there something special in the beer there? I have an interesting relationship with Canada, every year we would drive through it on our annual family vacation from Massachusetts to visit my Mom’s family in Michigan. Hitting Ontario was always a special treat.

And why does this come up now? Because along with bryper we are leading the Boston crew up to Podcamp Toronto (actually just an excuse to hang out in Toronto). I’m even making it out for Friday geek dinner! Labatt’s Blue here I come!

Lots of other stuff going on – I mentioned to some CAPOW buddies that I was working on a Web 2.0 strategy, more on that tomorrow.