The Kingdom of Simplicity, a new novel by Holly Payne, is set for release on June 6th. Her third; it is an excellent book, and IMHO her best yet. I've had the privilege of proof-reading the galleys, and I love the story.
Eli Yoder is an Amish boy trying to come to terms with tragedy and forgiveness. The story is, in once sense, fiction, but it is true in another - it's based on true events, both in the Amish community and in the author's own life.
It's an interesting roundup. (Good job, Paul McNamara! - and kudos to the graphic artist.) Some of the entries are what you'd expect; some are surprising.
Questions to ponder:
- How has the Internet changed _your_ marketing and PR?
- Could you be doing more with it?
Seth Godin makes some interesting points about the source of the value in a logo, here. Hint: it's not the artwork per se.
I would add only that, once you've established the value, don't abuse the trust. Ultimately, a brand's value is the trust consumers place on the company behind it. That trust gets exploited - successfully - from time to time, but consumers aren't stupid. Companies which trade on their name or brand will soon find the value gone, and it's never easy to recover it. In fact, I can't think of an example where a brand was significantly tarnished by the company behind it, and then successfully rebuilt.
So, dear reader, a dare: Can you come up with one? We'll think of some lovely gift for interesting entries.
I've begun installing XP under Parallels. So far, so good. It runs in the background quite nicely, and the Parallels-recommended fully automatic setup seems to go smoothly enough. About as fast as a normal installation, too - no doubt because the DVD drive read speed is the limiting factor.
One slight oddity. Parallels encourages you to check for updates after you've installed Parallels, but you can't actually do so until you've installed the OS.
OK, XP is up and running. And I just discovered a cool feature! I'm running on a 17" MacBook Pro in a dual monitor config. The laptop screen is on the left, and the 23" Envision LCD monitor is on the right. The OS X dock is on the right, too. (That it, the Envision is the "main" display.)
OK, here's the cool part: when I instruct Parallels to run Windows in full-screen mode, it does so at the native 1650x1080 resolution. If I move the mouse to the left-hand montor (still displaying OS X) the dock re-appears and I can select my OS X app. But Windows doesn't disappear, it just remains behind.
OK, I have Firefox installed, and Kasperksy anti-virus. You're not using Symantec, are you? Recent past experience with Symantec and Norton has led us to the conclusion that the company has run off the rails. The product is a terrible drag on XP; it seems to fight the OS rather than protect, and it has been ridiculously over-larded with features designed to sell on FUD, rather than offer real protection. Shame on you, Symantec! Once upon a time [Peter] Norton was one of the most trusted names in PC software. You have rendered it utterly worthless.
For XP, Kaspersky's basic anti-virus works as well as anything.
But enough. I'm now downloading a few hundred Windows updates. Rather than keep you waiting, I will close out this entry. ;-)
