Our discussion at work was around Goo Gone. If you haven’t tried using it to remove stickers and other “gooey” messes, you haven’t lived. Technically, Goo Gone is a “Citrus and Petroleum Solvent-based Stain Remover.”
The porting team was discussing whether or not it was actually acidic. Because it is based on oranges and lemons, we thought that it was acidic. However, after reviewing the Materials Safety Data Sheet [pdf], we were able to ascertain that Goo Gone is PH Neutral. In other words, it is not acidic.
I’m going on a staycation for two weeks, starting on August 4th. It comes at a weird time on our project. We’re just about to start up a new line of work and everything is kicking into high gear.
One day I’d like to do a retrospective on my time in Arkansas. I may create a series of posts of lessons learned, similar to what Ben Menoza did with his Lessons Learned on a Project in Paradise. I’m not sure what I’ll call my take on this project. As much as I hate flying out to Northwest Arkansas, I can’t really say that this place is Hell. There are too many redeeming qualities.
Here is an Earlimart video that is completely unrelated to the rest of this post.
There seems to be a huge backlash against Obama’s vote on the FISA bill. Although I don’t understand the legal implications behind the vote, I read an opinion article that is pretty interesting.
But the anti-intellectualism of his opponents — people who think George W. Bush’s C-average is a good thing — makes it politically dangerous to explain complex issues in complex ways. And the conventions of political reporting in this country — which emphasize the horse race instead of the substance of campaigns — make it almost impossible to get this level of detail across to the public.
I wonder if the people criticizing the vote would feel differently had they gone through three years of law school and studied up on warrant law. Besides the knee-gut reaction to the bill, I have yet to see some good legal arguments. My problem is that even if I read a good dissection of the argument, I don’t think I’d understand it.
I was so frustrated when I went to get replacement lenses for a pair of glasses that I own and it cost me 200 dollars. And that doesn’t even include the frame that I provided! I left the doctor’s office feeling ripped off. I suppose I could have charged them to my VSP, but I was saving that benefit for a pair of sunglasses.
Well, I did some research, and I figured out that the whole eyeglass industry is quite monopolistic, dominated by Luxottica. I did find a few blogs that are dedicated to cheaper glasses. Get Better Glasses and Glassy Eyes both advocate going online to get glasses. So I decided to try it out.
I ordered the glasses above from Goggles4u. I did have a service question for them, on a Saturday, and they responded within 8 hours.
My glasses arrived after about 15 days because I opted for the standard shipping. With a discount coupon, the total was under 25 dollars.
Bizarrely, the glasses have “Golfer” etched on the side. They know me so well! I’m debating on whether or not I should color them in or leave them to be Engrish hip.
The key is that they work and they look good. I can’t tell the difference between the 200 dollar lenses and then 25 dollar glasses.
I’m seriously thinking about canceling my VSP and just relying on my medical coverage from now on.
The Daily Show had a great spin on the President’s spin. I hadn’t thought about it, but the timing of the President’s optimistic comments was clearly meant to mute Bernanke’s testimony.
Procter & Gamble’s lawyers claimed at a May hearing that Pringles don’t look like a chip, don’t feel like a chip, and don’t taste like a chip, according to the judgment. They also claim the snack isn’t made like a chip since it is cooked from baked dough, not potato slices.
Uh…I’m pretty sure that once you try Pringle’s new-fangled potato chips, other potato chips just don’t stack up.
I have been thinking a lot about market segmentation and I am beginning to believe that you don’t have to compete to win in certain situations. Even as a newcomer to a market where there are incumbents, it may be possible to enter the market without directly competing.
A class example of successful market segmentation and market entry is Tom’s of Maine tooothpaste. Tom’s of Maine successfully entered into the toothpaste market in 1970. They didn’t do that by competing against P&G and Colgate though. It can be argued that they did this by identifying an unserved segment (Natural Care), sticking to their niche, and avoiding direct competition.
P&G and Colgate did not try to compete in that market for a variety of reasons. At the time, the margins were lower. Also, those companies fought to defend their brands and a new venture could dilute their brands. Eventually, Colgate purchased Tom’s of Maine. Tom’s of Maine continues to operate independently.
In a market where there are many “Greenfield” opportunities, such as the enterprise Linux market, it may not be necessary to compete to make an entry or even gain significant share.
Linux vendors have several large segments to take share in. They can convert server workloads from proprietary Unix and Solaris hardware to commodity x86 hardware. Vendors can focus on porting/re-writing applications that run on Windows Servers to Linux. The list of available market segments is extensive.
Competing to displace fellow Linux distributions in a market with many unaddressed market segments is a counter-productive strategy. In fact, the Linux space is collaborative and fighting against other Linux companies would just serve to reduce the opportunities and foster bad feelings.
One of the things about flying every week is that I tend to leave things on the airplane. I’m most at risk from this when I am tired – late at night or early in the morning. Unfortunately, I left my V-Moda Vibe earphones on a flight home a few weeks ago.
I like the V-Modas. They have a decent sound to them, they are stylish, and their cord is balanced and doesn’t tangle easily. Oh, and they attenuate a fair amount of noise, making them much less bulky than noise-cancelingphones. They were really expensive; they were about a hundred dollars when I bought them. They can be found for about 80 dollars now.
When looking around for a replacement, I found that there are a ton of choices. Top of the list, in my mind, are the Etymotic ER-6i They are supposed to attenuate from 20 to 35db. The other pair I looked at are rated very highly by headphone.com.
I ended up buying Sennheiser CX-300-B. These are balanced-sounding, but they have some quirks. First, they have an asymmetrical cord style that takes some getting used to. Secondly, the cord is definitely more lightweight, and I am not sure how it will hold up over the long term. Lastly, they sit somewhat shallow in my ear, and I don’t think they attenuate as much sound as the V-Modas. The real selling point though is that a NEW pair is available for about 20 dollars on Amazon.com if you look in their New and Used section. Overall, I think they are a great value at that price point.
