Provoke Thought

An informative blog with emphasis on the aspects and elements of life and business that matter! (and some other random stuff)

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Twoxit

I've seen tools to embed your own Twitter updates into your site, but here's a way to allow folks to Tweet from your site.

Twoxit



pretty cool.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Testing Blogger are you there?

This is a test to see if blogger is functional...  I'm trying to load a sewtalented entry on Suzanne's site and it's not loading.... fooey..  Her blog is super-stale, and this isn't helping... 

image test:


Thursday, November 26, 2009

Actual Avatar. A preview of coming attractions?

Avatar.  Looks good ... but it better be good, for it's $230m budget!
Movie promotions are becoming more interactive with Twitter, Youtube, Flickr.
-More at mashable:
I dig the robo-armor ...  I like it when movies are previews of "real life's" coming tech attractions, but I'm not sure about invading a planet to take control of it's precious mineral.  We wouldn't do that, would we? (insert tongue in cheek emoticon).

I'll watch it.  Even if hairy armpit licker (SWAT, LOST tough chick) is in it.



Saturday, November 21, 2009

The imperative of Innovation

Stumbled upon some great CNBC videos on veoh.com



Friday, November 13, 2009

Officially the most ridiculous thing I've seen

Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division
Fbi Headquarters In Washington, D.C.
Federal Bureau Of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001 Website: www.fbi.gov


ATTENTION

This is an official advice from the fbi foreign Remittance / telegraphic dept.,it has come to our notice that the C.B.N Bank Nigeria district has released 10,500,000.00 US dollars into bank of America in your name as the beneficiary, by inheritance means. The C.B.N Bank Nigeria knowing fully well that they do not have Enough facilities to effect this payment from the united kingdom to your account, used what we know as a secret diplomatic transit payment (s.t.d.p) to pay this fund through wire transfer, they used this means to complete the payment.

They are still, waiting for confirmation from you on the already Transferred funds which were made in direct transfer so that they can do final crediting to your account.

Secret diplomatic payments are not made unless the funds are related to terrorist activities why must your payment be made in secret transfer, if your transaction is legitimate, if you are not a terrorist, then why did you not receive the money directly into your account; this is a pure coded, means of payment? Records which we have had with this method of payment in the past Has always been related to terrorist acts, we do not want you to get into trouble as soon as these funds reflect in your account in the U.S.A, so it is our duty as a world wide commission to correct this little problem before this fund will be credited into your personal account. Due to the increased difficulty and unnecessary security by the American authorities when funds come from outside of Europe, and the Middle East, the f.b.i bank commission for Europe has stopped the transfer on its way to deliver payment of $10,500,000.00 to debit your reserve account and pay you through a secured diplomatic transit account (s.d.t.a). We govern
funds immediately we receive this legal documents.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have decided to contact you directly to acquire the proper Verifications and proof from you to show that you are the rightful person to receive this fund,because of the amount involve, we want to make sure is a clean and legal money you are about to receive. Be informed that the fund are now in United State in your name, but right now we have ask the bank not to release the fund to anybody that comes to them, unless we ask them to do so, because we have to carry out our investigations first before releasing the fund to you. Note that the fund is in the BANK OF AMERICA right now, but we have ask them not to credit the fund to you yet, because we need a solid proof and Verifications from you before releasing the funds. So to this regards you are to re-assure and proof to us that what you are about to receive is a clean money by sending to us FBI Identification Record and also Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer(DIST) to satisfy to us that the money your about to receive is legitimate and real money.

You are to forward the documents to us immediately if you have it in your possession, if you don’t have it let us know so that we will direct and inform you where to obtain the document and send to us so that we will ask the bank holding the funds, the Bank Of America to go ahead Crediting your account immediately. These Documents are to be issued to you from the World Local Bank that Authorized the transfer, so get back to us immediately if you don’t have the document so that we will inform you the particular place to obtain the document in United Kingdom (U.K), because we have come to realize that the fund was Authorized by (H.S.B.C) Bank in London.

An FBI Identification Record and Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer (DIST) often referred to as a Criminal History Record or Rap Sheet, is a listing of certain information taken from fingerprint submissions retained by the FBI in connection with arrests and, in some instances, federal employment, naturalization, or  military service. These Condition Is Valid until 10th day of Novenmber.2009 after we shall take actions on Canceling the payment and then charge you for illegally moving funds out of Nigeria. Guarantee: funds will be released on confirmation of the document.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Final Instruction;
1. Credit payment instruction: irrevocable credit guarantee.
2. Beneficiary has full power when validation is cleared.
3. Beneficiaries bank in U.S.A., can only release funds.
4. Upon confirmation from the world bank / united nations.
5. Bearers must clear bank protocol and validation request.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: We have asked for the above documents to make available the most complete and up-to date records possible for the enhancement of public safety, welfare and security of Society while recognizing the importance of individual privacy rights. If you fail to provide the Documents to us, we will charge you with the FBI and take our proper action against you for not proofing to us the legitimate of the fund you are about to receive. The United States Department of Justice Order 556-73 establishes rules and regulations for the subject of an FBI Identification Record to obtain a copy of his or her own Record for review.


The FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division processes these requests to check illegal activities in U.S.A.
An individual may request a copy of his or her own FBI Identification Record for personal review or to challenge information on the Record. Other reasons an individual may request a copy of his or her own Identification Record may include international adoption or to satisfy a requirement to live or work in a foreign country or receive funds from another country, i.e. Diplomatic Immunity Seal of Transfer, letter of good conduct, criminal history Background, etc.)

THANKS FOR YOUR CO-OPERATION.

ROBERT MUELLER

WASHINGTON DC
Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division
Fbi Headquarters In Washington, D.C.
Federal Bureau Of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001 Website: www.fbi.gov

Saturday, October 31, 2009

This is not your father's Oldsmo-phone

Droid Video from Engadget.

Exciting to see some competition for Apple. The Navigation app looks very slick on the device. Apple will have to continue to step up it's game to stay ahead of competition. We are entering a world where non-iPhone owners won't be secretly wanting for what, historically, only an iPhone could provide.

The music library integration is dominated by Apple, but it's not everyone who needs their full library on their phone. More people now use multiple gadgets to to get the job done.

As more companies adopt iPhones in place of Blackberries, the scales will tip further. Rim should be concerned. People appreciate a friendly, sufficiently sized browser.

Ridiculousness remains with carrier limitations of iPhone (AT&T only, and no tethering), and left out functionalities like no java in Safari, and no app multitasking. But this is power-user stuff. The lay person can still be astonished for hours with current capabilities.

The consumer wins with competition. I'm an iPhone fan but my loyalties can change. I'm often willing to give a new gadget a chance.



Saturday, October 17, 2009

From changeover to changeover

The biggest waste is in the changeover... not just in processes, but mentally speaking:
Snipped from the Lean Six Sigma Blog:
"Basex has also found that a big chunk of wasted time comes from the time it takes to recover from an interruption. So it’s not the short call from your spouse that drives down your productivity so much as the time it takes to get your brain back on task. According to Goldes, fractured attention costs >$650 billion/year in US alone in lost productivity!
As for online training, distractions can become a serious impediment, keeping you from retaining the material and completing your lessons on time. Our customers tell us that these best practices have helped them to maintain focus:"
Check out the rest here: http://moresteam.com/blog/index.cfm

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Information for the Junky

The information junky, that is.
Just wanted to share a some great feeds by Alltop :


Wall Street Journal

Harvard Business News

The Economist

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Rilleau Leather , Woodstock Vermont

Handmade Rilleau Sandals, Belts and BagsRilleau Sandals

Yes, I'm pimpin' the family sandal shop!  Still run by my uncle Kim in Woodstck, VT.
Not a lost art.  My grandfather was an amazing sculptor and sandal-maker in Provincetown, MA. 


Made to order for each individual foot!  Open to special request leather projects, too.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Busted! Hugging the Purple Teddy!


IMG_4970
Originally uploaded by SdPanek
Freeway Frogger gets busted hugging the purple teddy bear! Well, ok, he was chewing it's ears.

Freeway ( or Frogger, as I prefer ) get's his name because of where he was found. As I was in stop and go traffic, northbound 101, I look over and see this itty bitty kitty in the center divide. I was on the phone trying to sell Kyle's 4 -runner to a guy, but I couldn't leave this rascal in the median. He would be road kill without question.

So, I grabbed him... ( Not so easy on my first attempt as he ran towards oncoming traffic), tossed him in the truck and continued my phone conversation as Frogger "mewed" at the top of his little lungs.

The guy on the phone was laughing, but confirmed I did the right thing. I called Sooz, and let her know that I was headed for the Humane Society, but she let out an "Awwwww" when she heard Mr. Mew going on in the background.
"Just bring him here, I'll clean him up", she says.

Big mistake.

I sold the truck, though.