HPalmCompaq

HP acquires Palm. It isn't suprising that Palm got acquired, what is surprising (to me anyway) was that it was HP. Everyone else was mentioned at one point.

That puts both U.S. PC makers - Dell and HP - into the cellphone market. Add Smartphone giants Apple and RIM, plus Microsoft's and Google's recent foray into cellphones, then include struggling Motorola, and we have a nice little cellphone industry located right here in North America.

Of course none of the manufacturing is done here - it's all overseas.

Rocky (Sales) Relationship Letter

Dear Joe,

I wanted to share with you my feelings about our relationship.

I feel I really put myself out there for you, wondering about your needs, concerned about how you are doing.  I think about you a lot, and believe I have much to offer you, but my emails go unanswered my phone calls ignored.

I don't hear from for months, writing you off for good, and then you ask me out of the blue to come see you.  And then when I'm standing there in front of you, you have the nerve to blame ME that the relationship is rocky, that it is somehow my fault that we aren't moving forward together.

It's only when you have "urgent needs" and a deadline that you suddenly find me interesting. But when your needs go away I know your interest will too.  I'm a grown up, Joe, I've seen this before.

I want you to know that I really want us to work.  But it has to be a two-way street.  You can't just discard me then suddenly call when you find you need me.

I'm here for you, Joe, but only to a point.  There are others out there - your competitors - who value what I have.   They want me and treat me with respect.  And if you can't do that, then maybe it's time we should part ways.

Please think about this.  Take some time, and if you feel that you want to work on this, develop a real relationship, you have my number.

Sincerely,
Your Sales Guy

Come in here, dear boy, have a cigar...

Fact: The use of Prozac has risen in direct proportion to the decline in tobacco use.

You Think Man Can Control The Environment?

I know a dozen people hit by the volcano eruption, including one guy from my company. Right now it looks like jet travel will be slowly put back into place over the next week, but the affect from eruption will be felt logistically for weeks, economically for months.

It’s just another example of how little control man can put over nature. Any attempt to control it is an illusion and it’s one of the fallacies of the "global warming" crowd (besides the data being total bullshit). The fact is that there is not some ideal world temperature can be controlled by man; there is no magic thermostat than can be achieved by just controlling enough people and their daily lives.

The world will do what it is going to do. Despite there being billions of people, millions of machines and hundreds of thousands of cities, it has no affect over nature, and ultimately man has no control over the environment. Earthquakes, volcanoes, weather, it doesn't matter. The name of the game is to adapt to the environment, not to control it.

In the end the earth will disappear, swallowed up in a few billion years when the sun turns into a red giant. So the next thing you know the global warming crowd will try to force measures into place to delay or eliminate that too. It won't do anything, but it makes them feel better.

What's With Hotel Pillows?

Alright, anyone who has traveled on business lately will get this one. And you fellow travelers out there know that hotels have developed a fetish for pillows.

Right now I am sitting in a hotel room that had about ten pillows on the bed when I came into the room. In fact, there were so many pillows that there was no room on the bed. In a move that is now common in my hotel stays, I make a big sweep of my hand and knock all but two of the pillows onto the floor so I can actually use the bed. The pillows stay on the ground until the maid comes back and makes the bed, and later in the evening the pillow fight between guest and the help starts anew.

While some hotels go with volume, others go with "speciality pillows". They have a menu in the room with a variety of pillows (down, foam, firm, etc.) and you can call the front desk and have the proper one sent up to your room at no additional charge (I'm not making this up - this is really out there).

I am not sure where this is all coming from all the sudden - I can only surmise that some hotel market study came up with research saying that guests have a thing for pillows, and doing something in that area would be a cheap way to increase positive feedback of the hotel experience.

For me it isn't working - it just adds a hassle factor when I come back to the room drunk and just want to go sleep.