Law Firms Raise Rates, but Ease Blow With Discounts. Coinstar gives vending machines a tech twist. All the buzz in retail these days is about the explosive growth in e-commerce.
Traditional chains such as Costco and Nordstrom have made online business a top priority as Amazon.com reigns supreme. But another Northwest company is making a case for why the lowly old vending machine could be retooled for the Internet age. Bellevue-based Coinstar, which owns the Redbox movie-rental business, says today's technologically savvy shoppers are a prime market for a new lineup of self-serve products ranging from cafe-grade coffee to refurbished iPods. Research firm IHL Group estimates the North American market for automated kiosks will exceed $1.1 trillion in 2015, up from $715 billion in 2010.
Redbox names Solectron worldwide manufacturer of DVD kiosks - News Search on EMSNow. Redbox names Solectron worldwide manufacturer of DVD kiosks Apr 28, 2005 Selection positions Redbox for rapid 2005 expansion.
China's ethnic Manchus rediscovering their roots. Ye Longpei, 70, and his grandson Yehenala Yiyi, 3.
The Beijing toddler was… (Barbara Demick / Los Angeles ) BEIJING — Nobody would suspect that this impish toddler is of noble lineage. Yiyi has the same buzz cut as other 3-year-old Chinese boys, the familiar habit of scattering his fleet of toy cars across the living room rug. Buttonwood: The secrets of Buffett’s success. Thoughtful Alphabets: Edward Gorey's Lost Cryptic 26-Word Illustrated Stories.
By Maria Popova A delightfully dark journey into the love of language.
Having a soft spot for all things Edward Gorey and unusual alphabet books, I was thrilled by Pomegranate’s new edition of Thoughtful Alphabets: The Just Dessert and The Deadly Blotter (public library) — a collection of two cryptic 26-word stories, in which the word begin with the letters of the alphabet in order and the story progresses as the alphabet does in parallel. The stories belong to a mid-90s “Thoughtful Alphabets” series, the first six volumes of which were released as hand-lettered posters illustrated with clip-art. Then, several years ago, stories numbers XI and XVII emerged as signed limited-edition books featuring Gorey’s original drawings — but the books quickly went out of print. In this beautiful resurrection, Gorey’s signature blend of wit and dark whimsy shines in each of the micro-vignettes — a fine complement to his beloved alphabet classic, The Gashlycrumb Tinies.
Why Founders Shouldn't Be The Developers. "If you plan to be doing the coding in a year or two, you're doing it wrong," one of the advisers told me when I was starting my first startup a few years ago. Ha! What a silly notion! We Speak With Washington DC 500 Startups, Startup: Speek. While a lot of people are talking about TechCrunch Disrupt NY Battlefield winner UberConference when it comes to conference calling startups, another conference calling startup has been brewing in the Washington DC area.
We first got to check out Speek back in May at the Capital Connection and TechBuzz conference in Washington DC. After carefully checking out both UberConference and Speek, Speek seems to be the simplest, most easy to understand conference calling solution out there. Reasons to Love New York 2012 - Chicago Theater. “I want two eggs and a full stack of pancakes—I want the Big Boy Special,” Tracy Letts informs the waitress in his flannelly baritone, “because I’m a big boy.”
Letts—a ruddy 47 and north of six feet—is earning those pancakes, shouldering a pair of spectacular careers. In one, he’s a revered stage performer (theater lovers still chatter about his Kenneth Tynan in Orson’s Shadow); in the other, he’s a Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright (August: Osage County, Bug, Killer Joe). Open Source Entrepreneurship. Applying the Golden Ratio in Modern Designs. Editor’s note: This is an article contributed by Chris Pentago, an experienced web developer, designer and internet marketer interested in key technologies to make your online business perform.
During his career, he worked with some of biggest Australian brands. He’s now currently employed as marketing consultant for NiceDesign.biz, Perth-based graphic design agency. Follow @ChrisPentago on Twitter. 12 Months of Skiing, From Chile to China. Ten Lessons from Peter Thiel's Class On Startups. Peter Nixey - The 22 rules of Startup storytelling.
Rant: Can You "Buy Time" With Small Barrels? There is a surge in micro-distilleries, small, artisan producers of a variety of spirits, from vodka to rum, whiskey to gin.
For example, in Massachusetts, you can find micro-distilleries such as Privateer Rum, Turkey Shore Distilleries, Ryan & Wood Distilleries, and Bully Boy Distillers. You can find micro-distilleries though all across the country, and many more are likely to pop up over the next few years. That is certainly a very positive movement.
A Booze of One's Own: The Micro Distillery Boom. What’s that you say?
Your product is locally produced, hand-crafted and highly intoxicating? Please, just take my wallet. Micro-distilleries—also called craft distilleries—make relative thimblefuls of spirits compared to companies like Jack Daniels. As with any other “craft” good, the products’ main selling point is typically the process: where they’re made, what unexpected ingredients are used, how small and special each and every batch is. And these businesses, buoyed by America’s artisanal love affair, are popping up across the U.S. like corks at a wedding reception. According to an industry analysis presented on April 3 at the American Distilling Institute (ADI) Conference, there were roughly 50 micro-distilleries operating in 2005; today there are about 250 spread among 45 states.
(MORE: Food Fight! Why becoming a data scientist might be easier than you think — Data. August 2012. By Terry Dillman Concerned about the threat that debris from the March 2011 tsunami that wracked Japan poses to ocean-going vessels, US Representative Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) and US Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) met in Newport with fishing vessel, tugboat and steamship operators on June 30 to discuss what those operators are seeing in the ocean, what is being done about it, and what still needs doing.
The meeting at Oregon State University (OSU)’s Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) also included representatives from the US Coast Guard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and various state and local officials. “A lot of attention has focused on the debris that is washing ashore along our coast, but it’s important that we not overlook what’s in the water and the dangers it poses to fishermen, tugboat operators, steamboat operators and others,” Wyden noted. Cold Bay Ideally Suited for Transporting Live Crab to Asia - Aleutians East Borough. It’s an idea that's been around for quite a while, but whose time may have finally come: the transport of live crab directly from the Aleutians East Borough ‘hub’ port of Cold Bay to markets in China and other Asian countries.
Former Cold Bay terminal manager Monty Martin was a founding member of the Cold Bay International Airport Enhancement Committee (CIAEC) in the fall of 2009, soliciting support for the shipment of raw fish products such as king crab, cod milt, fresh salmon fillets and roe through the Cold Bay hub. The idea is far from new, but has new life, due to recent events. Back from an official trip to China, Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development Commissioner Susan Bell was featured on a recent Channel 2 News story (see link below). Last month, Commissioner Bell, along with Department of Transportation Commissioner Marc Luiken and other state officials, met with Mayor Mack and other representatives from the Borough and crab industry. Live dungeness crab. Software Is Eating The Fashion World And The VCs Are Going Shopping.
Over the last couple of years a new trend amongst startups has been towards addressing incumbent industries. And there are few such traditional sectors as the world of fashion. Hence we’ve seen a great deal of activity in the space. Why Salespeople Make Bad Fundraisers. Editor’s note: Contributor Ashkan Karbasfrooshan is the founder and CEO of WatchMojo. Follow him @ashkan. Company founders are the quintessential cheerleaders, promoting their vision and company every chance they get. But that doesn’t mean that they are necessarily the best at two core functions: selling and fundraising (and many are bad at both but excel at other functions, like technology).
Changemakrs Looks To Reinvent Inspirational Quotes For A More Social Web. “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” — Steve Jobs A few months ago, former Facebooker Sacha Tueni and Matthias Wagner were working on a Twitter client. Yes, a Twitter client — several years after Tweetdeck launched and Seesmic pivoted toward being a social media reader.
While their app Zerobird was good at filtering interesting content, investors weren’t biting. It was also going to be a long uphill battle in the app store and on Twitter’s increasingly politically complicated platform. What If Founders Did Venture Capital Math? Momentum for Enterprise Mobile Apps - Workday, Salesforce.com and Box.net. Mobile is fast becoming one of the key ways that many employees choose to do work. Tablet computing devices are proving to be very flexible and functional for mobile workers and open up a much broader set of capabilities that could be accessed on the larger form factor. The limiting factor, at least from the enterprise use of mobile, is the software. Apps designed for smartphones have in many cases been severely limited in functionality, mostly because enterprise vendors were skeptical that the limited smartphone form factor could be used for the broader list of tasks that mobile workers wanted to accomplish.
Smartphones are excellent for communication activities like email, IM, social networks, activity streams, etc., light web browsing and for some simple data entry / processing / approval activities like filing / approving time and expense records, but when it comes to "real" work, the screen size is very troublesome. Japanese Universities Go Global, but Slowly. Who Knew the Most Creative Seed Fund Was in Grand Rapids? - Alexis C. Madrigal. They fund two ideas each week.
Designers Criticize Apple's User Interface For OS X and iOS. Prophets trends in Interactive Design 2012. 30 New Typefaces You Need To Know About. Anyone who’s tried their hand at designing a typeface will know that it’s a wildly difficult process, and to actually come out at the end with something beautiful takes an extreme amount of skill, taste and patience. Type design isn’t meant for everyone, but typography is, and nearly every designer works with it every day.
This is exactly why Type Release creator Sean Mitchell is here to share with you some of the latest typefaces released this past month. The 11th Principle of Good Design. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says mobile efforts will 'make a lot more money' than website. Website Design Analysis Of Ten World Class Brands. What You Need to Know to Pair Fonts Well. This 7-Step Content Marketing Plan Earned an $87 Million Paycheck. 4 Pro Tips For Publishers Building A Native Ad Strategy. Four ways to become a spellbinding online personality. Instagram Is 12X Bigger Than When Facebook Bought It.