I love that series with Norm Abrahms, this guy is after my own heart. This guy know about woodworking. He takes his time and makes sure everything is right when he starts a project. I love woodworking and have made a few pretty pieces my self but I am no Norm Abrahms. He makes everything he does look so effortless and natural, I am always struggling and messing thing up. I have learned a lot from my mistakes and I am sure Norm has from his as well. Plus his shop is for woodworking only and mine is piled with everything and room for woodwork is a thing of the past. It’s my own fault and it will never be a workshop again unless I build another building or two for all the different tools and projects that I love to do.
I do get some great ideas on how to gather contractors for home renovation projects like finding a plumber to a french drains contractor you will want to make sure you have all your bases covered when taking on a home renovation that will change the landscape or total property structure. It always looks easier when you see it on TV and Norm never seems to get upset but I have been a part of some home building projects and there is usually some yelling and arguing because nothing ever goes as planned.

For many schools and universities keeping their students safe is their number one priority. One of the steps that they have taken is to have ID badges for all their students and staff. They have them wear neck lanyards so that the badges can be seen clearly and you are better able to tell who should be on campus and who are the visitors. They have even started to use them at sporting events so that organizers can use customize name badge holders and straps to know which authorized personnel can enter certain areas.  While having the identification of those in the event is made much simpler there is still the issue of being able to authenticate each badge.

These new name badges can also be keyed to access keyless doors or access to various parts of the campus so that on site security can better track the where about of students and identify earlier those that are not where they should be. They are printed locally on laserjet and inkjet printers depending on the application. Since most of the printers out there in the schools are HP using a HP laser cartridge the transition to this new form of ID has become rather simple. These new measures are easy and convenient to help school officials enhance safety and lessen the possibility of any possible events. Plus with onsite plastic card printers the schools can help reduce costs and replace lost badges much easier and control the inventory and access to the badges. As the devices become more common place and the ability to link the badges to student accounts in a safe non-intrusive manner this could help to become a means by which students pay for their books, check into their mid-terms, and attend their schools sports. Having a simple secure device that identifies the student, staff and visitor and even color coding the badge holders so that you can spot a person of authority right away can only help ease fears of new students and parents alike.

In our area of Eastern PA, the real estate market appears to be holding strong. Two ouf our neighbors, just sold their houses within a week of listing and got the asking price. This shows that the market is still somewhat positive in our area. In other parts of the country, such as Arizona, you can view Scottsdale real estate to see the what houses are going for and who you can contact in the Scottsdale area to help you find and sell your house.

I good story that at least lets us now how credit cards work and market themselves has to be American Express. Here is a card that spent years branding themselves as THE card for executives, the well to do and really a status symbol. Major executives were targeted as a major influence in bringing the elite status to AMEX. Presidents of large American companies like Samuel Foti, Alan Mulally, Donald Morel are the types of individuals that AMEX would love to have touting their corporate card in order to show that every type of business can benefit from the flexibility and wide acceptance AMEX has. When you presented this card you were something different. Then came the greed. All of sudden, Am Ex began to send out mass market mailers like all the other junk cards to get those whose credit was not so great, did not pay off the entire balance and really just played the game. What a branding marketing fiasco. Now we find this company giving away 300 gift cards to certain markets, to pay off their bill and go away….please.

How ironic, we know your ilk do not pay off their balance, so let us lend you money and when times get tough, well just pay you to pay off the balance. Are you kidding me? Now I will look at Am Ex a little different, having to second guess their motives. Now I hear small businesses are reeling as that market Am Ex got into is getting hammered and so now their credit has fallen. Talk about losing love from future clients. I do appreciate any company getting back into their core business, but this one is a little bitter to taste.

I am helping out a good friend in building a renewable energy business that is quickly moving forward. We have done a good job tracking the the tax credits for our customers along with putting together a solid renewable energy program for their homes. However, we have already ran into issues though in our computer network system, cost and not having an IT department. One very clever idea out there is renting software and using software as a service or SaaS. There is also a core foundation of being able to do an employee survey to help gain ideas around synergies within the company and what new ideas can we look for when taking this product to market.

I found that they have a great service with their visual studio team foundation server at fraction of the cost where project control programming for your project can be exposed on the web. With all the software that I can rent, I can get set up in minutes and get my money back if I think it has not worked out in 30 days.  What we need is the project server hosting software which will help us track our timekeeping, Gannt charts etc which will give us better control over our projects and their costs. We have huge commercial projects where we will need to keep tract of financial’s and keep everyone on the team on track. You can watch a great clip on how all this software helps you and your business. Another hot item  is a team foundation server workgroup, where again I can rent for a fraction of the price with no need to hire an IT employee nor worry about depreciation costs. We are just the right fit for this type of company and you may to.

Applause to the Ford Motor Company for continuing to research alternative fuels for our automobiles. They are exploring new technology where one would plug in their car into a normal 110 volt outlet and within 5 hours have their car charged up and ready to go. Its pleasant to know that even in these tough times, a company as large as Ford with so much to lose is moving forward with what we really need. Find the FordStory and you will see what I am talking about. They are taking the energy from the brakes, it kinetic energy and using that to charge the battery. How exciting! Of course the challenge it as we all know is the cost of the batteries and their lifespan. They were getting over 70 miles to the gallon. Its just unheard of. This is the kind of forward progress we need. We should rally everyone to be the first to put such a product on the market to the let the world know that the USA is still on the map. Just think of the friends we could earn with Green power and for others, let them eat crow when they see we are more than a defensive superpower. Instead, we are an educational superpower who knows how to put green technology in the hands of everyone!

Why is it that some of the very best films can not get into more theaters and reach a broad audience across the States. Here we rented Sweet Land with Elizabeth Reaser from Greys Anatomy etc and loved it. Finally, a movie that without all the puff about real love and dedication. Sure its about a mail order bride in the 20’s, but she had time to back out. In fact, the whole movie is the struggle of the bride obtaining her citizenship and hence be married to the hard working Norweigen. The movie touches on our biases of people from other lands to yet another banker foreclosing on yet another farm not making enough to pay the mortgage. Wow has Ned Beatty grown old yet still very effective. The budget was only a million and had they only found a distributor that had the muscle to put it in more theaters.

The recent CMT Awards had many winners but it may have been Sugarland that was the most impressive entertainers of the night. This country music duo did very well and racked up a lot of awards for their great country music songs. One of these awards was for Duo of the Year in country music. This was impressive because the former winners of this award had won it 6 times in a row. This famous duo is known as Brooks and Dunn and this was an award they have defended very well over the last few years.

I guess they had to lose sometime and it turns out that 2009 was the year for that. You will find the words to some of the songs inside the printed cd sleeves that will help you understand the meaning and inspiration behind some of their work. Brooks and Dunn is no longer America’s favorite country music duo and the new duo of the year is Sugarland. Do you like Sugarland or Brooks and Dunn more? It should be interesting to see how the 2010 CMT Awards play out next year and if Sugarland can defend their duo award as well as Brooks and Dunn have done.

As the economy has gotten worse vendors are looking at new ways to get consumers exited about their HD TV and through the advancement in 3D technology they are hoping to drive sales. While the LCD market is only expected to grow 17% this year which is down from 28% in 2008. The new advancements and the move to all digital broadcasts that started in June will likely get some customers looking at upgrading their current set. The newest T’s that were unveiled at the trade show are now starting to come to market just in time for football season and the Christmas and holiday shopping blitz.

All in all the CES show showcased a lot of new technology that has been in development and finally ready for the market. The work and logistical coordination that goes on at these shows is a technical feat on its own. From providing promotional calendars to consumers that participated in the trade show there are countless technicians in the background maintain the networks . As we enter into a new year and the economy looks to get back on track so that people will feel comfortable spending on these cool new gadgets let’s hope that we all have a great year and by this summer we will be watching the 3D premier of the latest Hollywood release.

So many companies are looking for ways to capitalize on the various social media channels and blogs that appear to be growing daily. Many of them have hired outside bloggers to help them create and drive content to the web in hope to catch the attention of current and future customers. There are various Marketing analytics programs that are available in order to help measure and quantify what exactly is working and what is wasting time and resources. Some of those programs enable you to :

• Empower marketing teams to build Web pages on the fly, without sacrificing feature set or control

• Utilize the extensive out-of-the box features or take advantage of the open architecture

• Easily build and offer wikis, blogs, forums and the latest in social networking

• Eliminate risky channels and make the most of your online  investment with an integrated e-commerce platform

• Provide top tier results through a broad enterprise search

• Easily offer RSS, secure subscriptions and web alerts

• Synchronize content, functionality and membership data securely, from staging to production and back

As companies continue to maximize their brand reach and frequency the method of delivery will be constantly evolving so that you must know and be able to change your marketing mix in order to meet the demands of your customers.