All posts by Richard

Advancing Your Knowledge

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As 2006 draws to a close, how many of you given the new tools available are changing the way you do business? This past year has been all about Web 2.0, including social networks and the podcast, but what the heck does the social web really mean? Are you passive or active in using these new tools?  I’m somewhere in the middle. Via this blog I am trying to provide intelligent context to the "learning web", including my own screencasts and search engines.

I challenge my readers to determine whether they’ve moved forward … or remained static over the past year. For example, while driving into to work this morning, I was amazed to learn via the NPR Technology Podcast that the most common duration for any song played on the radio is 3 minutes and five seconds. Why? This length song corresponds to how much data could be placed upon a 78 RPM record (early 1900’s technology). Another item … video web-based resumes. These two examples show how our work processes may be based upon old arcane technologies, or in some instances dramatically utilize new tools for an old need, such as finding a job.

Finally, here are the five top business books sold on Amazon during 2006, and podcast links to author interviews. Challenge yourself in 2007 to learn more, and do more with that knowledge, starting now.

  1. The Long Tail – TCS Daily
  2. Making Globalization Work – NPR Dallas
  3. Success Built to Last – NPR TechNation
  4. The Starfish and the Spider – Stanford Business School (real video)
  5. Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations – NPR University of Illinois

If you would prefer to to read a brief review of each book, link to the blog: 800-CEO-Read

My goal in 2007 … to create more content and give podcasting a whirl. I would welcome comments attached to this posting concerning any knowledge areas that you feel one should review, analyze and take action upon in 2007.

Coca-Cola Point in the Prague Airport

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What better way to service my Diet Coca-Cola addiction than at the Coca-Cola point in the Prague airport. That is right … for the price of a Coca-Cola I get internet access, and a computer. I will admit that the Czech keyboard causes me some problems.  Anyhow, I spent a long weekend in Prague and had the opportunity to watch my middle son and his Wartburg College choir perform with the Czech National Symphony.

Merry Christmas.

Animusic

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Happy holidays. Postings will be infrequent over the next two weeks.
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I watched this on public TV last night, and Googled them this morning …. Animusic!

This is a phenomenal combination of music and computer animation.

Download Site:

Here are some direct video links:

More clips:

Your techie / nerd reporter on the go ….

Animusic

R&D Spending and Corporate Success

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This posting is shamelessly lifted from my good friend’s blog, Really Simple Sidi. Please visit Rafael’s blog to learn more about his efforts in the field of engineering research. My only comment about the Booz and Allen study is that I wish increased spend for R&D showed a direct increase in sales …

Booz Allen Hamilton’s second annual study (pdf)
among 1000 largest corporate R&D spenders shows that just investing
in R&D can’t buy success. (similar to money helps, but does not
bring happiness)

"Money
simply cannot buy effective innovation. There are no significant
statistical relationships between R&D spending and the primary
measures of financial or corporate success: sales and earnings growth,
gross and operating profitability, market capitalization growth, and
total shareholder returns"

"Boosting
R&D spending can increase the number of patents that a company
controls, but there is no statistical relationship between the number
or even the quality of patents and overall financial performance." via strategy & business

Rdspending