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April 2007 Archive

Randy Baseler's Retirement

posted by DL Byron on April 27, 2007

I attended Randy Baseler’s Retirement party last night. It was a fun, funny, and emotional event. While Randy worked at Boeing for over 30 years, I only knew him as Randy the blogger on Randy’s Journal for a few years. I wrote about Randy’s Journal in our book and had the pleasure to meet him on a flight back from NYC earlier this year. We talked all about his blog and our work on it while walking through Seatac.

Many of the presenters at the party mentioned the blog and even quoted from all those comments Randy got on his post about retiring. That was cool. Also during the event, Randy passed the blog baton to the next Randy, whose name is Randy! That makes for a simplified blog transition strategy.

The photo is of me, Randy, and Jim Condelles, Media Relations, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Jim worked with Randy to develop the blog and launch it.

Cheers to you Randy and I’m glad I got to drink beer with you.


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More Fulfilling

posted by DL Byron on April 27, 2007

I’m quoted today with other merchants in a NY Times article about Fulfillment by Amazon, “a program designed to allow independent sellers to use its network of distribution centers to store and ship their products.” Coincidentally, we just shipped more cases of Clip-n-Seal to Amazon for them to fulfill!

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Apple at the Intel Developer Forum

posted by DL Byron on April 24, 2007

For this first time, Apple attended the Intel Developer forum and hosted a quiet hospitality suite. I met Ziqiao Chen, Developer Technical Support Engineer, Apple China , and we talked about Macbooks, the event, and Beijing. I expect a larger Apple presence at IDF San Francisco, September 18-20, 2007.


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Gizmodo'd

posted by DL Byron on April 23, 2007

Gizmodo blogged the Intel UMPC Prototype video we shot while in Beijing. It’s been view 30K times on Google, YouTube, and myriad other blogs have picked it up. Pretty good for a spontaneous interview in a hotel restaurant!

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Iterate

posted by DL Byron on April 21, 2007

With all our client work, travel, and blogging, the team got out the start of a redesign and brand refresh. We’re iterating the update, moving stuff around, and when done, the new site will reflect our work as an blog agency.

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Blogging Beijing: Architectural Excess

posted by DL Byron on April 20, 2007

The joke amongst business travelers to China is that the “crane” is the national bird. In Shanghai, you count the cranes from your window and one traveler I met reported seeing 37 last month. My window view was of the Olympic stadium and there were less cranes, but lots of workers. In China, they go all out with buildings, over the top buildings, to the point of architectural excess. This building — 64829008 — looked vacant and resembles a docking station for a Blade Runner zeppelin. Reading the paper on the flight home, the WSJ had an article about an effort to reign in buildings’ excesses, but with that much capital pouring in, it seems unlikely.


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Blogging Beijing: Trigger Girl

posted by DL Byron on April 19, 2007

Every time I passed this poster of Trigger Girl in Beijing, I triggered back. Her face stayed with me as a icon of western China. Next to her billboard ad was another for Pantene, Coca Cola, and a telecom. Beauty is important in China, as in any Western city. Noticing Bryan’s Giant bike, two IDF attendeeds joked how that was a Taiwan brand, and a big export, just like all the beautiful women.

I’m amazed at how well the photo turned out. I took it while riding by the billboard.


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At the Apple Store

posted by DL Byron on April 19, 2007

I’d been hearing from a few colleagues that they saw Publish and Prosper at the Apple Store and Scott took a photo. That’s Awesome.

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Blogging Beijing: Intel UMPC Prototype

posted by DL Byron on April 18, 2007

During IDF Beijing, I was hanging out in the Crowne Plaza restaurant with Bryan Rhoads, an Intel Internet Strategist and we met Mark Parker, Chief Evangelist, from the Ultra Mobility Group. He had a prototype UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) with him and showed us how it works. It’s the Menlow platform with Silverthorn, Poulsbo inside and a bunch of other ultra geeky code names.

Mark told us that the prototype is one of two in the world and it’s the first time it’s been seen widely. In the video, Mark notes that it’ll run Linux and potentially OSX. Touchscreen, nice form factor, the whole deal.

Disclosure: Textura Design consults with Intel and I’m in Beijing supporting their blog project.

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Blogging Beijing: Birds Nest

posted by DL Byron on April 17, 2007

We’re here midway through the Intel Developer Forum Beijing and there’s much to discuss and share. Creating community in emerging markets is what we’re doing with Intel and all around me is the rapid pace of change. I’ll write more about that later this week and the flow, but you can see it here in the photos of the Olympic Stadium.

birds_nest.jpg

The Birds Nest is massive, stunningly massive. Watching the video I shot and seeing the construction of the complex surrounding the nest, I wondered how China will possibly be ready for the Olympics until Tony, an Intel China employee, reminded me to never underestimate the will of 1.3 billion people.

Will is right. A will to change.

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Some Balls....

posted by Jason Swihart on April 12, 2007

chrysler-12-dodge-aries-1981.jpg This missive from Lee Iacocca, apropos his latest publishing effort, was brought to my attention via Kottke this morning:

Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them—or at least some of us did….
Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?

Personally, I’m not interested in leadership advice from one of the U.S.’s greatest moochers. I can’t forget that Iacocca was instrumental in acquiring the congressional favors that eventually led to the $1.5 billion bailout of Chrysler in 1980. 27 years later, at the age of 82, Iacocca seems not to have figured out that a government populated from the old boys club—in which the currency is influence and back room deals—is not an atmosphere that yields leadership.

In the 80s, Iacocca was instrumental in propping up the current order of politicians and in supporting the status quo of a government subsidized auto and oil industry. The inevitable result of that is the Bush administration: A cadre of mealy-mouthed frat boys who have neither the skills nor the courage to provide leadership and whose only qualifications are the willingness to curry favor, trade deals, and blow smoke up our collective asses.

So here’s another “C” for Lee’s leadership list: You can’t have your CAKE and eat it, too.

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