My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on March 1, 2014

I’m intrigued with marketing and advertising when it comes to what makes people tick. We see something and then decide to buy it.

My education is not in marketing per se, but I know that I respond just as the advertising agency intended once in a while. Sometimes it is a newspaper or magazine ad and sometimes a catchy radio or television piece. Certain ad campaigns trigger the “buy” impulse while others seem like a waste of money. I’m going to have to sit down with a neuroscience friend of Taylor’s (he works for Neilson) the next time he is here and ask him which recent marketing campaigns have been the most successful.

For me, one of the most effective has been the Get Crackin’ campaign by Roll Global’s Wonderful Pistachios … I can’t remember when I “had” to purchase pistachios prior to the catchy and creative commercials … but now I can’t get out of the grocery store without looking at the well positioned pile of nuts! (see video with PSY from the 2013 Super Bowl below – or ALL the videos – if you need a reminder)

What advertising campaign has recently worked on you?

Category: Business, Financial, Marketing, Video | No Comments »
Tags: advertising, Marketing, pistachios, psy, wonderful

Posted By RichC on February 28, 2014

Once upon a time it seemed smart to host only light content on my own blog. In the early days it was easy to store larger files like video, audio and photos “for free” with content hosts like YouTube, Flickr and Posterous (among others). The plus was that I didn’t fill the “out of pocket” server with multi-megabytes sized files and was able to offload bulk and bandwidth. It seemed like a win-win.

The downside was that when something went wrong, repairing the links and attempting to salvage the files became a challenge as times changed.  For example, I posted many of my original videos along with a few encoded television snippets (don’t do it) to YouTube, only to find my account was shut down and all the video content including my own personal videos removed … no appeal …no warning. They were just removed due to the complaint of a copyright infringement (Oprah has clout, even though the snippet and links all pointed back to her 2009 program).

For Flickr, they were purchased by Yahoo and changed some of their terms and linking … breaking some of the links to images that I used on my blog. My final lesson was the demise of Posterous in 2012. It was shut down after the acquisition by Twitter and with plenty of warning, eliminated every post. Unfortunately I used Posterous as my mobile blogging setup which posted both to Posterous and my blog by email (from my phone). Thankfully I was provided and downloaded an archive unfortunately all the links were broken and file names changed … so each post much be manually corrected and images saved – tedious and hardly worth the effort (although I occasional fix a few).

Lesson: If you host your own blog, try to control most if not all of your own content, and then back everything up regularly.

Category: Advice, Blogs, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: blog, flickr, posterous, techfriday, youtube

Posted By RichC on February 27, 2014

Check out the full post over at Jalopnik.com.

Category: Automotive, Humor, Video | No Comments »
Tags: cab, gag, jeff gordon, pepsi

Posted By RichC on February 27, 2014

It is hard to believe that it has been 6 years since the death of the renown conservative thinker and writer William F. Buckley; where have the years gone?

I posted back in 2008, that his work played a significant role in my life when it came to my political philosophy, business, personal interests and even some of my personality. Along with a handful of other people, I credit … and blame … him for the direction and path I took in life.

My parents of course were influential, my grandfather (namesake) who died before I was 10, a singer/songwriter and sailor (JB) encouraged my socially conscientious, a youth pastor (MK) who taught me to sail as a teenager and helped instill my faith and values … and William F. Buckley, Jr … more from 2/27/2008

Mr. Buckley, you are missed, but fondly remembered by those of us who adopted the descriptor “Buckley Conservative” in the 1970’s and helped spur the Reagan Revolution of the 80’s. Conservatives believe in traditional American values such as personal freedom, smaller government, lower taxes, free markets, and a strong military … the opposite of what we see happening under an Obama administration today. Ronald Reagan in particular embodied these philosophies and achieved peace through strength in defeating communism. The United States came out of its slumber during the Reagan presidency and the result was the longest period of peacetime prosperity in our history. This solid foundation laid the groundwork for entrepreneurs to create jobs and build businesses. Unleashing free enterprise and our capital markets helped create unsurpassed expansion and technological advancements that made and currently still makes America and her people exceptional.

For those who don’t know, or haven’t hear William F. Buckley articulate conservative philosophies, here’s a 3+ minute snippet from a debate with George McGovern at Southeast Missouri State University in 1997. 

Study a little history and look at what you see in Washington DC today as you ponder our nation’s future before you vote for representatives later this year.

click image for larger

Category: Audio, History, Politics | 2 Comments »
Tags: buckley, conservativism, History, liberalism, mp3, Politics, remembering

Posted By RichC on February 26, 2014

With the popularity continuing to grow for Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers, it is great to know that they still remember “the Van Session” as a way to share their music. Check out their Van Session version (below) of “Dire Wolf” — Grateful Dead – Workingman’s Dead album – 1970 — on the way to a Salt Lake City appearance this week.

Category: Music, Video | No Comments »
Tags: gramblers, grateful dead, Music, nicki bluhm, van sessions

Posted By RichC on February 25, 2014

As the financial markets continue to flirt with record levels again, insiders are looking at where cash is being put to use, or not. Fox Business mentioned this morning that analyst expect much of the sideline cash to head towards R & D even as mergers and acquisition deals are garnering most of the headlines (ie. $19B Facebook/Whatsapp deal).

Although investors appreciate well manage companies with strong balance sheets, they also want to know that their investment is “working.” When companies sit for years on piles of cash, one wonders if management has an appropriate plan to continue growing? Berkshire Hathaway is probably not in the same boat with the other big five cash rich companies since they primarily buy good companies at good prices, at least that has proven to have been their track record, so I’ll exclude them from criticism … but the other four are focused on improving and selling products and services. When they sit on their hands, one wonders if Apple, GE, Microsoft and Google using their cash “productively” enough?

Category: Financial | No Comments »
Tags: $brk.a, $goog, aapl, fb, fbn, ge, msft, whatsapp

Posted By RichC on February 24, 2014

In my pursuit of cheaper soft drinks it has become my terminus to save a buck and still make decent tasting cola. I continue to tweak my Sodastream setup and can confirm that my tastebuds have now fully adjusted to self-blended Diet Coke … and that I’m addicted (not so good). Currently the five gallon cube of syrup ($60) being used with a tap (photo below) is stored in my cold garage, but I will move it to the refrigerator when the temperatures warm.

Ingredient number two is the CO2 … or carbonator. The best option would be to install a large commercial CO2  tank at home, but then that would defeat my end goal of “no-waste/no-hauling” of soft drinks cans/bottles on and off our sailboat. This can hauling is a hassle when “walking” to get groceries from a marina, but becomes an even a bigger hassle when on a mooring or anchored where the logistics require ferrying cans or plastic bottles to and from Encore by dinghy. Trash disposal is difficult enough in some locations, so reducing our waste to a minimum is a good idea too. So … for CO2 I’ve adapted the Sodastream to accept paintball sized tanks (photo below) which can be refilled over and over. My plan is a buy a few more tanks and recharge a few at a time as I find refill locations. Currently the best dollar for dollar size seems to be the common 20 oz aluminum tank. I purchased a new tank for $16.95 with free shipping to add to my smaller 12 oz bottles (2 used for $20). I like the 20 oz tanks because they can be refilled at Dick’s Sporting Goods for $3.99 ($2.99 for 12 oz), but if I could find inexpensive 24 ounce tanks I’d buy a couple (they refill for $4.49). Any real savings will come in finding a good tasting, but less expensive cola syrup (Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi) … although I do enjoy the Diet Lemon-Lime Sodastream flavor (syrup cost is half that of Diet Coke). 

For those of you mathematically inclined, you’re probably already mashing the numbers … but here’s what I came up with (still not a “deal”).

Category: Financial, Sailing, Shopping | 2 Comments »
Tags: coke, economics, sodastream, soft drinks

Posted By RichC on February 23, 2014

People have been fascinated with the intelligence of dolphins and this amazing video of a bottlenose dolphin coming up to a diver during a night diver in seek of help will continue that fascination. Watching this and knowing what “man” does to them has me wondering who is really the most humane?

Category: Environment, Nature, Video | No Comments »
Tags: dolphin, hawaii, youtube

Posted By RichC on February 23, 2014

Ocean and marine life preservation is a noble cause and something I’ve supported and have been part of since the 1970’s, but I’m not fond of sending misleading messages.

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s ecommerce “shop” website is using an attention getting image (artwork) portraying a diver swimming face to face with a Great White Shark … an encounter few would advise. There are better ways to promote research, tracking and awareness than including this kind of image considering what thrill seekers might take away from such an image (we already have enough “unprovoked” shark attacks).

Category: Education, Environment | 5 Comments »
Tags: conservation, Education, Environment, ocean, sharks

Posted By RichC on February 22, 2014

A friend of mine sent me a great Wired article  this week that twisted together sailing, aviation and robotic technology … very interesting? There are driverless cars and military drones, but Richard Jenkins has plugged a brain into a high-tech sailboat called Honey Badger, kind of a big high-tech Snoopy Sloop … see my 2012 post.

Richard Jenkins started his career drafting boats in New England and detoured creating land-based sailing crafts with one called the Greenbird which broke land-windpowered records by “sailing” 126mph. The story continues seeing Jenkins connecting with Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in a “kite design project” and returning to boat design using the unique “wing with with a tail” design used on Greenbird. Jenkins designed a 19 foot Saildrone with an onboard computer controlling the sail and navigation. The sailboat has already completed a trip from California to Hawaii and now has more ambitious voyages planned.

Jenkins realized that the wing he’d evolved for the Greenbird would be perfect on an oceangoing drone. Its tail simplified the process of sailing so much that even a robot could handle it. The bot would need only three moving parts: the elevator-like tab on the tail, the rudder, and the free-rotating wing itself. What’s more, only two of those parts—the tail tab and the rudder—would need power. A few off-the-shelf solar panels would provide more than enough. Jenkins knew from long experience that the fewer parts there were, the fewer parts there were to break.

LINK

Category: Sailing, Technology, Video | No Comments »
Tags: drone, saiboat, saildrone, sailing, wired