Rolled Silverware – Core Product vs. Superfluous Details

While at a local restaurant, our waitress asked if we needed anything before she rolled silverware for future guests. Since this restaurant isn’t uncommonly uniquely upscale, rolling silverware seemed surprisingly superfluous.

How could the restaurant best utilize this waitress’ time & talents? Perhaps have her engage via social media or create menu videos (& send her to training!). Have her call potential customers offering holiday promos.

Rolled silverware is great if customers arrive – how does your team convince profitable customers to arrive? Everyone on your team should contribute to closing sales. Don’t roll silverware – build and sell. If not, retreat.

Alternate Perspectives, Disclaimers, Rebuttals, Flip Sides…

From food service days, reckon silverware rolling may aid checking utensil cleanliness. Otherwise, focus on ensuring your team’s “food” is “cooked well”. Folks do fine with unrolled silverware – your team will thank you.

Sometimes, silverware must be rolled – such apps are often rare, expensive, & dangerous. For the long tail, simply serving a great main course is generally sufficient and more cost-effective for buyer and seller.

TechStars – Microsoft Kinect Accelerator – 100 Startup App Ideas

Innovation only requires reaching next adjacent possible – build what gets you to most immediate plausible future.

David waved. The glowing sphere advanced. He knelt. The sphere stopped. Suddenly, a voice – “David, what do you wish to do?” He replied, “I wish to live.” Again, the voice – “complete your quest this night and you shall.” David rose, and began to walk. The glowing sphere dimmed and retreated from whence from where it came.

Far-fetched? Fantasy? Perhaps. This gaming future, however, may now be much closer to reality thanks TechStars’ accelerator opportunity to seed fund companies that leverage Microsoft’s Kinect. Yes, folks, apply by January 25th to start a company leveraging Kinect’s gesture-capture capabilities.

Thinking about applying to TechStars? Read on for 100 app ideas that leverage the Microsoft Kinect.

100 New Year Resolutions – Building Content Creators Habits

100 ideas to inspire you to improve by 1% (or more) as a  ‘1 %’ content creator in 2012. Follow-up to our 99 content creator gift ideas post. Capture – engage – express – inspire others – inspire yourself –  learn – personal – productivity – upgrade – enjoy!

• Capture
  • Start using a pen tablet
  • Take a self-portrait – every day
  • Brainstorm via whiteboard - melamine - porcelain.
  • Subscribe to great feeds. Delete unproductive feeds.
  • Start your personal wiki – Outlook - Evernote - Google Docs- Zotero
  • Carry your commonplace book – everywhere – e.g., soft cover or hard cover Moleskine
  • Journal – before you create. Every time – clear your mind – in your wiki or commonplace book
  • Backup your creations to the cloud - Amazon - Box - CrashPlan - Dropbox - Evernote - FilePigeon - Zotero
  • Leverage voice recognition – WSR best w/ WSR Macros and WSRtoolkit – or perhaps, Dragon NaturallySpeaking
  • Exploit your Tricorder - AKA, smart phone  - camera – voice recorder – calculator – sketchpad – notepad – & much more.
    click for 100 content creator New Year’s resolutions

Netflix Tips – Web Round-Up – Video Quality, Keyboard Shortcuts, Tracking Instant Releases, DRM Glitch, More

Tips for managing Netflix on your HDTV, Mac, PC, PS3, or other player.

• Throttle Netflix bandwidth (AKA, manage video quality)…
  • Apps – staying within mobile data caps or  only listening (e.g., driving / using for work background noise)
  • Mostly for non-PC devices (Macs & PCs have in-player frame rate manager, re: next major bullet)
  • Rates – good @ 0.3 GB/hr - better @ 0.7 GB/hr – best @ 1.0 GB/hr (or 2.3 GB/hr for HD)
  • Roughly – good @ 0.7 Mb/s - better @ 1.6 Mb/s – best @ 2.2 Mb/s (or 5.1 Mb/s for HD)
  • Remember to bump rate up on HD device &/or better connection

…click to read more tips on maximizing Netflix functionality…

Forecast – Cloudy with Chance of Apps

My workspace design flow was disrupted by a hardware mishap hence repaired by the Omaha Maker Group. After also replacing the drive, we began the beloved process of restoring the machine to full operational capacity.

Real story? Sea change in apps. Yes, installing the operating system required the DVD player, as did my preferred personal wiki. Then, on to the 20+ CDs for apps normally on that device – oops, none are needed.

What apps did we need? Quicken, bought online & accessed via the network attached storage archive. Everything else?

• Installed – automatically via Ninite – in the cloud – or –
• Installed – via links in wiki – to downloadable apps in cloud – or –
• Not installed – replaced by equivalent  apps – yep, in the cloud.

…click to read some ‘app weather’ predictions…