I try not to post items about politics here, but the fact that this didn't even make headlines in the USA prompted me to post. This week Venezuela erupted with protests after Hugo Chavez shut down one of the only news media networks. The move prompted demonstrations across the country. Click here for a slideshow of powerful images about what's going on. Chavez seems to be going crazy, threatening to revoke the autonomy of the country's universities and silence all media. Recently he said he would close off the internet in response citizens using the internet to tell the world what's happening. Since most governments ultimately control access to the Internet (think about how access is restricted in China, for example), this is a situation where a President can drape a black curtain around an entire nation. If Venezuelans cannot speak to the world, I certainly hope foreign media is doing something about it.
(Thanks for the slideshow link, Roberto)

This story made headlines around the web today: Last.fm was acquired by CBS to the tune of $280M. Last.fm was one of the first user controlled radio stations on the web. Similar to Pandora, Last.fm plays music based on your listening tastes, however it seems more socially driven. While Pandora serves up tracks based on inherent properties of songs, Last.fm plays songs based on collaborative filtering. From the user perspective, both services offer interactive music and a great way to discover new music that you're likely to enjoy.

I'm still scratching my head over the move by CBS. In one sense, last.fm may have escaped bankruptcy due to the pending enforcement of new copyright laws that force stations to pay for every song they've ever played. On the other side, the appeal of services like last.fm seems to hinge on their independent neutrality -- that they would be just as likely to recommend Belle and Sebastian as the Beastie Boys. Why would CBS, which owns several music labels, want to pay royalty fees to its competitors? Does this mean we'll see more consolidation of net radio?

Read what the founders say about their decision to sell.

If you upgraded to Office 2k7 on your Thinkpad, you may have noticed that the scroll feature on your touchpad/trackpoint does not work. You can get the scroll working again with this simple hack.

1. Navigate to %ProgramFiles%\Synaptics\SynTP
2. Locate the file called tp4table.dat
3. Open it with it Notepad and add the following lines:

'Office 2007 Scroll Fix
*,*,WINWORD.exe,*,*,*,WheelStd,0,9
*,*,MSPUB.exe,*,*,*,WheelStd,0,9
*,*,POWERPNT.exe,*,*,*,WheelStd,0,9
*,*,OUTLOOK.exe,*,*,*,WheelStd,0,9
*,*,ONENOTE.exe,*,*,*,WheelStd,0,9
*,*,INFOPATH.exe,*,*,*,WheelStd,0,9
*,*,GROOVE.exe,*,*,*,WheelStd,0,9
*,*,EXCEL.exe,*,*,*,WheelStd,0,9
*,*,MSACCESS.exe,*,*,*,WheelStd,0,9

4. Now open the Media folder and repeat the above steps for TP4SCROL.dat and TP4TABLE.dat
5. Now restart you computer and off you go back to the wonderful world of scrolling with the UltraNav Scroller

Source. Hat-tip to Bkahler for the link.

On Thursday, Al Gore appeared on The Daily Show to promote his new book The Attack on Reason. Gore said that Stewart's show is one of the few places on the tube that actually cover the most important news events. "In the middle ages," Gore commented, "the court jester was the only person who could criticize the king." Most Daily Show viewers would agree that Stewart's comedy pill is the only news worth taking. In fact polls support that Daily Show fans know more than those that watch other news programs. Scroll down to the chart results. An older CNN poll had similar findings back in 2004.

Jack Johnson, an anti-violent gaming activist published an open letter to Microsoft today about the upcoming Halo 3 game (source TG). He asserted that Microsoft must label the game strictly for adults and should take actions to ensure that minors cannot purchase the game. As Peter Griffin once said, this really grinds my gears. Our kids should be playing more violent video games and here's why: it's a healthy way to get out aggression. I'd much rather a kid shoot me in a video game than shoot me for real. The thing that Jack and co don't get is that kids know the difference between real and video game violence. I had no problem shooting ducks on my Ninetendo when I was 11, but I'd never go near a real gun nor did I have any desire to hunt real prey. Here's another reason: Just a week ago, a kid in NY nearly killed himself playing in his dad's garage. He was firing bullets...not with a gun, but setting them off with a hammer. Maybe violent video games aren't such a bad alternative?

This summer many MBA interns will be giving real presentations. Today's hack comes from It Management: 3 Ways to use your laptop to help with presentation. The dual-monitor trick is great one. Time for some podium practice.

Ebin has been posting some fantastic photoshop hacks lately. This one's on how to create a cool film look. Looking forward to more. Thanks Ebin. Here's a preview:
Before and After

(animation courtesy of Brian Osserman)
Today Prozac, the popular anti-depressant turns 20. The Observer is celebrating the anniversary with 20 Things You Need to Know about the Most Widely Used Antidepressant in the World.
Here's a sample:

Serotonin was not well known 20 years ago. Now, if you ask the person sitting beside you what it is, he or she may tell you it is linked to happiness, that levels get low in depressed people ... that Prozac tops them up ... so does chocolate ... or aerobics ... maybe yoga ...

Except it isn't strictly true. Or has been repeatedly challenged. And is yet to be proven.

Now I won't go near what Tom Cruise said about Brook Sheild's use of antidepressants, they certainly make a lot of people's lives a lot easier. For people that have clinical depression who acknowledge that they need to change their lives and nothing else has worked, I think the drugs can do a lot of good. Yet I do think that the reason depression diagnosis has gone up 200% in only a decade is not because more people are getting depressed, nor because we're able to "catch it" in more people. I think the reason is utterly simple. People would rather pop a simple pill then make real changes in their lives.
Again, I want to reiterate that for some people these drugs are good, and maybe downright necessary. I just think that as a culture we're becoming way too reliant on quick-fixes rather than finding long-term solutions. Ugh, this is depressing me ;-)

Who needs TV anymore when your favorite shows are broadcast free on the web?
Whenever I miss John Stewart I tune in to the Daily Show's website where I can watch the whole thing in less time (minus a few unnecessarily repetitive ads, alas a small price to pay for free :).
Most major networks let you watch the latest shows on their own websites, like 24 on Fox or Meet the Press on MSNBC. I'm still waiting for a legal Simpsons streaming site though.
In the meantime, MeeVee has consolidated most of the free major network tv shows available on the web into a nice looking page. I see the future of webtv as a win for both the networks and consumers. The networks get better targeting with ads and the consumers get more control. Once advertisers figure out how to do ads better, online ad spending is going to take off. Remember BMW Films? They set the bar high for entertainment in an ad (thanks for the linkage, Damien). Hopefully we'll see more quality ads replace the current web annoyances that look like local ads pulled from late night cable channels. If anyone at Comedy Central's site is listening, please test your own website. I hope you didn't make the same crappy ad appear three times during one episode on purpose.

Must read article today from lifehack.org - 15 Coolest Firefox Tricks Ever
Here's a snipit:

14) Reduce RAM usage further for when Firefox is minimized. This setting will move Firefox to your hard drive when you minimize it, taking up much less memory. And there is no noticeable difference in speed when you restore Firefox, so it’s definitely worth a go. Again, go to about:config, right-click anywhere and select New-> Boolean. Name it “config.trim_on_minimize” and set it to TRUE. You have to restart Firefox for these settings to take effect.

Lot's of simple hacks that will significantly increase your web productivity. Highly recommended.

Today I learned that one of my favorite sayings about food originated from the Philosopher Karl Popper (I had heard the remark from a co-worker when I worked as a waiter):

Our most significant interactions with the world--with reality--are when we eat.
Because that's the only time that we take part of the outside world and we literally ingest it and make it part of ourselves.

The version I repeated for years was a slight variation: Cooking is the most personal art form, because when your audience receives your creation, it literally becomes a part of them. Being a cook, I still prefer the latter. So while we're on the subject, let's talk about one of my favorite places to buy food, Trader Joe's.

Trader Joe's is a food phenomenon. Bostonians are lucky enough to have several TJ's within walking distance and people seem to love them. The stores are always packed with people filling their baskets with unique self-branded items like Chipotle Humus and Chili Thai Peanuts. If you're not sure whether you'll like an item, just talk to one of the flower-shirted employees who are usually eager to help.
TJ's has a great brand strategy that is highly differentiated from a typical food store chain. The stores are constantly changing their selection, encouraging shoppers to try new items. By offering different samples of foods each day and free dixie cups of coffee, they don't need coupons to encourage trials. At checkout, the employees always engage you in friendly conversation and if you tip them, they ring a bell in appreciation. TJ's strategy works because everything they do is centered around establishing relationships with a brand that never feels old. Ask any TJ's shopper about their favorite TJ's food, and they'll happily reveal their latest "discovery," but rarely do customers buy the same thing week after week. See this fan site for a list of reviews and recipes of many of their unique items.
As an MBA student, I'm interested in deconstructing TJ's secret to success. They recently opened their first store in New York City just before I moved. I still remember how the line outside the store wrapped all the way around 14th Street. And it wasn't the $2 Charles Shaw that drew people, because they obtained a liquor license a few weeks after opening. I believe that people crave that different shopping experience because food shopping is something that we all have to do from time to time, but don't necessarily enjoy it.

Shopping at Trader Joe's is significant because the Trader Joe's brand literally becomes a part of the customers' lives.

One thing still puzzles me. How does TJ know what foods each customer enjoys? They don't issue shopping cards so they're not capturing unique data on shoppers like every other grocer. Perhaps TJ's doesn't use cards because of a lack of incentives, since they don't offer any sale items. Although a simple repeat promotion or brand communication would be enough to entice me.

Spending four days editing a five page paper makes you think about the difficulty in writing plain English. Too often we complicate our writings in an effort to make things sounds more sophisticated. The problem gets even worse if you start listening to political dialog and the sound bites that dominate public discourse. When politicians can evoke a single metaphor and use it to argue either for or against the same issue, you know something is awry. George Orwell commented on this phenom in an essay back in 1946 and it holds true today:

One ought to recognize that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language, and that one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end. Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one's own habits

Read the whole essay over here (Hat Tip to Ryan G. for the link). Orwell's essay highlights the importance of inventing new metaphors rather than rely on trite phrases.

A little humor to get through the last week of the semester

Just 3 days left until the end of my 1st year MBA. Good luck on finals everyone.