I’ve posted pictures from my Dartmouth trip. I really enjoyed every second. It had world class professors, a beautiful city, and a great group of students. The people I met there remind me why I would trade education for relationships any day of the week.

The people that were with me at Dartmouth have “hard to find” characteristics. These are the type of people that I want in my “everyday life.” They’re motivating, fun, challenging and force you to want more from yourself and your business.

If you ever have the opportunity to go to Tuck’s Executive Education Program, I completely recommend it.

Check out the pictures

      

With all the new technology available to consumers, its easy to become overwhelmed. Additionally, with all of the fly-by-night developments most people are hesitant to adopt the new products. I’ve compiled a list of the 5 technologies that everyone should embrace in 2006. These technologies will not only change your life for the better, in terms of personal life, they can also increase productivity, provide discussion forums and probably gain you some new work colleagues or friends.

1. Voice Over IP (VOIP)

Voice Over IP allows a person to make phone calls using their PC for a fraction of the cost of conventional phones. Phone calls can be made throughout the United States for free and make international calls for pennies per minute.

VOIP is not necessarily new technology. There were a slew of companies providing the service in the late 90’s and early 2000’s but the companies were shortlived and the quality of the server was questionable. Now, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between traditional phones and VOIP phones. Except for the fact that your bill will be less expensive. Typical service starts around $30 per month. You can find more information at Vonage.com

2. Satellite Radio

Oh, satellite radio, how you’ve changed my life. The average person wastes 2 hours a day in their car (and 73% of statistics are made up on the spot). Using satellite radio, I get my news instantly, more channel selection, and the ability to record the music or receive notifications when my favorite songs are on. Whether I’m in Missouri or Arkansas, I get the same great station and the same great service. The typical price starts at around $12 per month. For more information, visit Xmradio.com or Sirius.com.

3. Personal Video Recorder (TIVO or PVR)

This is definitely my favorite of the list. I made up the amount of time you spend in your car, but I’d hate to try and compute the amount of time watching commercials or just watching something I’m not interested in, just because it’s “the only thing on TV”. TIVO allows me to record my favorite television shows or events. Even if I’m not at home, I can sit down and watch a Kansas City Chiefs game in about 45 minutes. I skip through commercials, huddles, penalties, and halftime. I also set subscription so that I never miss an episode of Survivor or American Idol… Okay, I never watch either of those, but it fit the example. If you start using only one of these technologies… make it this one. Most cable companies and satellite providers give you access to this technology for around $10 per month. Check with your local cable company or satellite provider for details.

4. Tax Preparation Software

Generally, tax preparation is pretty easy. If you hold one job and you are provided with W2’s at the end of the year, you could save yourself a lot of money by simply doing your own taxes. If you’ve done your taxes the old fashion way, be prepared to save yourself about 5 hours in which you can spend writing me emails praising my recommendations. If you’ve never done your own taxes, don’t be worried, current software is so easy, I think a monkey could step through the questions. Preparing your own taxes also gives you a review of your current financial position and helps recognize the need for a good retirement or savings plan. For some, it may just remind them that they need to find a new job that pays more. Tax Software starts around $20. If you are new to tax preparation software, I would suggest you start with Turbo Tax, made by Intuit (TurboTax.com).

5. Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

Okay, this is probably the most difficult thing to convince people to start using. But, it provides so much control over time and personal management. A personal digital assistant usually manages your calendar, contacts, tasks, email, and documents. You can also find PDA’s that also double as your cell phones. Some people carry a Day Planner while others simply carry a calendar. I carry a PDA. I can immediately schedule a meeting, assign attendants, and find contact numbers for those attendants. It also alerts me when it’s my best friends birthday or allows me to send emails instantly, even when I’m out of the office. I can search through past entries using keywords or sort events by date. Lastly, I can easily plug my PDA into my computer and it synchronizes with my computer. That means, the exact same information is on my computer! Try doing that with your calendar or Day Planner. PDA’s range from $20 to $500. I recommend starting by visiting your Best Buy or Comp USA and ask a BUNCH of questions.

Most of these recommendations are made with the idea that you are an average user, like the idea of increasing your efficiency, and are not scared of change. If you do not like this article, it’s probably because you do not fit into this category. I apologize for wasting your time and hope that you decide to implement one of these technologies so you can get back what I took from you J

      

Okay, once again, Hackoff.com is a fiction blook that posts new episodes daily. When a chapter is complete, they publish it to a PDF document. I then get the PDF document and read it on my PDA. Just recently they’ve started posting mp3 files. So, all you nonreaders can go out and listen to each and every episode. I’m now completely caught up and reading a new episode daily. It mixes technology, startup hassles, the dirty side of business, and overpriced stocks… then it wraps it all up in a murder mystery.

      

Yes, I hate fiction books. They’re entertaining but they are a complete waste of time. When I get done reading for an hour, I feel like I should have been doing something more productive. It’s the same reason I hate video games, movies, and television. I can get captured by them for days and not get a single thing accomplished.

With that said, I’ve been addicted to a fictional blook. Yes, that’s spelled correctly, it’s a blook. It’s the idea of a blog and each week a new episode is released. And yes, its an episode. It’s the first time that written stories have been able to apply the same type of “cliff hangers” that “24” captures. After each week you’re wondering what’s going to happen next. It’s well written and actually teaches a lot about the process of a technology company in the midst of going public during the dot-com boom.

Hey… it’s free! It will go to press soon and you can pre-order a signed copy.

WHY CAN’T I STOP READING THIS BLOOK!

      

I was in Grand Rapids again this past week. I spent the majority of the time working but I did get to see a few things that are much different than my normally scheduled broadcast. One thing that was definitely different was the fact that it snowed… a lot. Every day it was snowing. No Worries, there was always a snow plower every couple of hours. They even snow plow your drive way! The roads are completely plowed and the world doesn’t stop, like it does in Little Rock.

I supported Arkansas at the Michigan State versus UALR basketball game. UALR barely missed but played a strong game and convinced the nation that Michigan State is overrated. UALR has a great team and a beautiful new stadium in Little Rock. If you ever visit Little Rock, I’d recommend catching a UALR basketball game in the Stephens Stadium. The money was donated by Jack Stephens, founder of Stephens Inc. Jack Stephens has, and will continue, to do wonders for the state of Arkansas. In addition we have Jennings Osborne who has also done a lot for the state of Arkansas. I think these two are probably comparable to Van Andel and Rich DeVos in Grand Rapids.

I also attended the Grand Rapids Holiday Symphony. I had the best seat in the house… you could have found me at the balcony in my own booth.

      

DC was great! I love the city. The weather was beautiful. I was around 65 degrees and the sun was shining. Three days is not long enough to visit DC. I went through the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and the Museum of Jewish Holocaust. I visited the White House and walked through a couple of other Art Museums. I saw many historical buildings and forgot my camera most of the time. The metro was clean, unlike my visits to NYC. The people were friendly, unlike my visits to NYC. The last day I was there it got cold. And I don’t like cold weather. I love DC and wouldn’t mind living there during the Summer, Spring, and Fall. But, in the Winter, I’d rather be in Little Rock.

      

The ticket desks are rude, the planes are cramped, and the flight attendants are rude.

      

Tim O’Reilly has been a trend spotter for many years. His accomplishments range from have a Technical Writing Empire, investments in del.icio.us, creation of arguably the first portal (Global Network Navigator), and lists of other accomplishments. The most successful recent venture is a wonderfully retro idea: Make, a quarterly print magazine in the spirit of Boy Scout DIY projects. The first issue, published in February, had articles on doing aerial photography with kites, making your own videocam stabilizer, and building a machine to read the magnetic stripes on credit cards. O’Reilly believes that the urge to hack stuff is “more common than we thought.” And it dovetails perfectly with the participation-based Internet he extols. The magazine has already exceeded his goal of 30,000 subscribers. He’s created a “Make Your Own Collegiate Text Book” site where universities can add chapters from different publishers including O’Reilly, Addison-Wesley Professional, Peachpit Press, New Riders, Prentice-Hall PTR, Sams, Que, Cisco Press, Sun Microsystems, and may more.

A great article was just posted in Wired about Tom O’Reilly

If you are interested in reading about the latest trends, keep your eye on Digg, slashdot, and del.icio.us/popular. Or just try a new site that incorporates all three of those sites in one location, http://diggdot.us/.

      

If I had children, this is a game I would want them to be addicted to.

Hot Shot Business
Play the game that gives you a chance to open your own pet spa, skateboard factory, or comic shop. You choose what you’ll sell, and scour the headlines for the trends that affect your business. Act fast when big news hits - make it or go broke; it’s all in your hands!

      

Google just released Google Base. Google Base is a place where you can add all types of information that they’ll host and make searchable online. Some of the major media outlets are blowing it up to be a lot more than it is. Many people are eagerly waiting the fierce competition between Google Base and eBay.

Examples of items you can find in Google Base:

• Description of your party planning service
• Articles on current events from your website
• Listing of your used car for sale
• Database of protein structures

From what we’ve seen so far, it’s far from competition for anybody. It currently seems to have an easy interface to post information and its free. But, other than that, it doesn’t seem to be scoring well with anyone.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2005/11/15/google-base-launched-yuck/

http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2005/11/google_analytic.html

Michael Arrington says this on CrunchNotes this morning:

Google Base has a lot of problems. The big one for me is that is another centralized content play, when all of the really interesting content is created at the edge. Jeff points out some other issues with Base, including the fact that the data is not only centralized but there is no API for non-Google search engines to access the data.

I’m assuming that Google Base (like all other Google applications) are taking on the Agile Development Process and they’ll solve the API issue. But, they’re still far from being “competition” for eBay. Here is a list of things I don’t like:

1. I don’t really know why I would use this site.
2. Google’s purpose is to manage all the information… this site only adds to the mess
3. When I search for products, I get a bunch of junk. Drill-downs are non-existent and I’m not sure how its organized
4. I have to upload my information to Google. Can’t someone just request the information from me and allow me to store it on my machine?

Google Base by itself is nothing but, due to Google’s size and other products (Google Wallet, Google, Froogle), this could evolve into a sweet little package. All they have to do is scrap what they have and start over.