Curious Voyager - Live like you mean it!

Friday Morning Cartoon

Another great blog, Small Business Trends, had a great entry this morning regarding “Do That Sales Thing: Sell More”. I have been there and am now watching this all over. This is so current, the cartoon and the note. Check it out.

Seth Godin

I really enjoy reading Seth Godin’s Blog and have asked permission in the past to use some of his material. The positive answer was quicker than I expected and I was really delighted.

Having said that, I just loved his blog today. “We don’t compare ourselves to other airport restaurants”. It is a must read and his last line is right on target. I won’t spoil it, go read it.

Reading (or Listening)

I am presently listening to Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams and although this book is an April, 2008 release (time moves quickly these days) it is still has very valuable insight. There is an ongoing blog that continues along with the book at Wikinomics (the blog). I find the concepts and thoughts embedded in the book very interesting. It’s were we are and where we are going, like it or not.

Netbook Issues & At Least One Solution

As I have written I am very pleased with my HP Netbook and it is a constant  companion, I even took it to dinner last night to show it off. Over the month or more of usage I have been very pleased with some things and have discovered other things that need to be solved one of which is non-resizable dialog boxes.

As a rule this issue is not major however there are some software (Adobe for one) that require the full 768 pixels high (1024 x 768) for their software to function correctly and that is generally the result of the dialog boxes that open when attempting refine a specific tool. The netbook has a resolution of 1024 x 600 therefore one cannot move the box sufficiently to click OK or Cancel on the bottom of dialog box.

One solution, which I will say upfront is not acceptable, is that in the netbook you can change the view on the screen from landscape to portrait thereby having to stand the netbook on it’s side to read. When you do this it changes every window you have open and when you change back to landscape you have to adjust all open windows. It’s a pain and time consuming.

I ran headlong into this when attempting to put Adobe Acrobat on this netbook. Since that time I have had the same thing (or close to it) on a few other occasions.

Now for my dilemma; I find things I want to print and in the past I have always clicked on print and then used the Adobe PDF printer function to capture the document or object. Adobe does not produce the printer function as a single software feature (like Adobe Reader) so unless you install Adobe Acrobat you are out of luck – that is until Office 2007.

Now I have two options; I have installed OneNote(GREAT software) and it also installs as a printer function so I can send the document or object to OneNote  in the printer window and then in OneNote 2007 I can go to File to Publish to PDF or XPS and I am back in business again. Another method would be to copy whatever you need and to paste it into Word 2007 and then it also has a Save As feature that will allow you to save it as a PDF or XPS. I prefer PDF over XPS however that is personal.

Printing problem solved and the netbook lives on. Who prints anyway? Paper? Just give me my HP netbook and I got it. Have a GREAT weekend.

Wednesday Morning & Starbucks

Had a little time to kill on the way in this morning. I am getting tired of going in early, I need to get a life. Having said that I went to Starbucks and opened up the mini to do a little writing. What a crowd here at Starbucks. Not sure if it is the damp rainy weather or if it is like this every morning. One almost cannot hear the music being played for the volume of conversation in the place.

What is very interesting is the dress in this Starbucks in the morning, everything from short-short running outfits to the very well dressed, sweat suites to dress suites. Not to mention from the very slender to those who should not be having the latte's. This is the fashion runway for all outer wear. Starbucks in the morning, a place to see and to be seen.

But what is life without my Tall Pike Place in the morning.

Books & Blogs For The Week

I have just finished the audio edition of Outliers: The Story Of Success by Malcom Gladwell (and read my Malcom Gladwell). Good book and an interesting read. I admit that I came away wondering what things I could link to in my life that could still lead me to success. Let’s see, I was born in the year of the Tiger however so far that hasn’t helped. As for the book I do have to admit that I could listen to it again, very fascinating.

I am also becoming an even bigger fan of Jeff Jarvis. His blog post, BuzzMachine if very good and does continue the track of his book WWGD (What Would Google Do). I find that his views on the current business models and the changes that will need to be made (or at least faced) are quite enlightening.

From my Saturday morning Google Reader comes this good and fun write up by Steve Clayton (Microsoft blogger) on How Much Is A Petabyte? Check it out. Steve always has good things to read so if you are a RSS reader fan add him to the list. Steve is (in his own words) the Cloud Computing guy for Microsoft International. In another blog entry Steve points the way to another Microsoft Labs release, Seadragon.com. It is rather interesting allowing you to share images of pretty much any size. Check it out yourself both on Steve’s blog and at Seadragon.com.

From my friend Franz Dill’s blog (The Eponymous Pickle) comes this link to Seven Rules Of Personal Relationships. I have to admit this was posted a few days ago however the one nice thing about a blog is that the blog and subsequent article are still available.

I read and follow John C. Dvorak but this morning’s find of the Water Soluble bikini on Dvorak Uncensored was will be the end for this blog post.