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In this week's New Yorker, John Seabrook introduces us to James Dyson (now Sir James), who is most famous as the designer of high-end vacuum cleaners. Vacuums were a low-priced, commodity business, but Dyson – who exploded the industry and became a billionaire – had a few key insights we can learn from.
- People will pay more for quality, if the category matters to them. In this Purell-laden, germ-phobic world (and I plead guilty), people are obsessed with cleanliness, and a dramatically better vacuum fits the bill. Especially if it can be justified by a primal desire for health or protecting your family from harm, the public will pony up.
- Play to your strengths. Dyson – quite proudly – is an engineer, not a designer. His machine wasn't pretty, but it showcased its dirt-sucking competitive advantage. Seabrook writes that an early model "looked as if it had been turned inside out: it wore its guts on its skin…Dyson let you see the dirt as you collected it, in a clear plastic bin on prominent display in the machine's midsection." That's called proof, and chary customers were assuaged by their own eyes.
- Perceptions matter. Who wouldn't want a nice, quiet vacuum cleaner? Sounds like a no-brainer…except it could actually undermine your brand. "According to a Dyson representative," notes the article, "American machines are louder than the European and Asian models, because Americans associate noise with power and don't trust a quiet machine." Leaving aside the bizarre and troubling implications regarding our national psyche, there are some useful business take-aways, notably: you absolutely must understand your customers' implicit attitudes and prejudices (focus groups help here, because no one will consciously admit to desiring a noisy machine or its equivalent in your product line).
Dorie Clark is a marketing strategy consultant who has worked with clients including Google, Yale University, and the National Park Service. Listen to her podcasts or follow her on Twitter.


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RIPON - Some 500 people crowded into the Canal Street Grill Wednesday evening for a two-hour wine and hors d' oeuvres event that raised tens of thousands of dollars to help the family of a young Ripon girl that underwent brain surgery.
Riley Simmons is a Colony Oak fourth grader and a top student. She's also an active soccer player. Her grandmother Sandy Hodges said her granddaughter was an inspiration to everyone by continuing to smile after her surgery that left her temporarily handicapped in her vision, balance and speech.
Doctors were quoted as saying she could probably return to 90 percent of her former neurological capabilities within weeks or months. Her grandmother added that Riley had given a "thumbs up" gesture as she was going into surgery with continual smiling afterwards while family members were tearful.
Colony Oak kindergarten teacher Sherri Huff is donating her most recent Christmas quilt to help support the family. As of 7 p.m. Wednesday she had sold some 800 raffle tickets representing $8,000. Her goal is $10,000 for the family consisting of parents Rick and Gina and children Allie, Haley and Riley.
Riley's dad Rick recounted the last three weeks in an open letter to his family's supporters.
He recalled that on Nov. 29 they had taken their daughter to an eye appointment where their lives were changed forever.
"As you can imagine, her diagnosis left us completely shocked and devastated," he said.
What followed was seen as being "truly amazing" when he and his wife heard stories of their friends, family and the community rallying around them and offering their love, hope and support in ways and in volumes that he said they could never have imagined possible.
"We found ourselves smiling again and I knew that we had a source of strength to help push us through these difficult times and come out better for having fought through them. It feels like the good people are waging war against this horrible disease and that is a powerful thing," he said.
He explained that those who know Riley can attest to her being a warm and caring little girl who always puts other people's needs and feelings ahead of her own.
"Even now as she is recovering from surgery and faced with the fight of her life, of which she is fully aware, she keeps smiling, laughing, hugging and loving because she knows no other way. It' crazy, but even now, she is helping us get through this. I honestly feel that her spirit of goodness is bringing out the best in everyone around her," her dad said.
Rick Simmons said one thing that was made very clear to them is that they have a long road ahead and, as parents, they will be playing an intricate role in Riley's recovery.
"What makes it less difficult is knowing that it allows us to devote ourselves completely to Riley's care and recovery and that's our most important job," he said. "Many people have told us that helping out makes them feel better. If that's true, then our community should feel wonderful and proud of the profound affect they have had on our lives."
"Your generosity will never be forgotten," he added.

subset: commoncrawl


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OA News: January 11-16, 2012
January 16, 2012 » NewsNo Comment
General Africa
- The conclusion makes sense, but data points are probably limited to the largest economies:
47% of African iPads are bought by employers {IT News Africa}
- The handset is selling substantially better in Nigeria than it is in Kenya or Angola:
Zimbabwe's Swav making African strides in mobile market {Bikya Masr}
- The fire that took out the SAT3 landing station in Benin is a reminder for telecoms to properly maintain their cable systems:
Maintenance and up-time – the Achilles Heel of Africa's new fibre network revolution {Balancing Act}
- Is the OLPC XO-3.0 the Right Education Tablet for Schools in Africa? {ICTworks}
- Broadband Delivers Strongest Growth Since 2009 {MarketWatch}
- Represents data from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Egypt regarding entrepreneurship:
The other Silicon Valleys [Infographic] {memeburn}
- Mobile phones help refugees stay in contact with relatives. They also help others to easily locate them:
Africa: ICTs for Refugees and Displaced Persons {GlobalVoices}
- An overview of Africa's infrastucture propects in the coming years. Includes discussion of undersea cables, the North/South divide, the role of ICT in building infrastructure, regulatory environment, and social media:
Africa at the cusp of Broadband Revolution {Tech Mahindra}
- The former president is right correct that social media has its downs, but nonetheless it is an important platform for discussing knowledge:
Mbeki questions Twitter as truth tool {IOL}
- ActivSpaces:
Technology Hub Launches Businesses in Cameroon {VOA}
- The agreement will link SITCOM-Chad's optical fibre network to SAT-3, currently managed by CAMTEL. Both networks will mutually share maintenance platforms. The merger will also give Chad high-speed terrestrial internet for the first time:
Cameroon, Chad Merge Networks {CAMTEL}
Cape Verde
- First Internet-free Facebook, email and online chat service for Portuguese speaking Africans {Cape Verde News}
East Africa
- Google Ghana on Friday launched "Africa, Get Your Business Online", an initiative to bring most Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) online in the next two years:
Google to help Ghana businesses online {GhanaWeb}
- A supposed rogue Google Kenya employee attempted to poach a Kenyan startup's business:
Google, what were you thinking? {Mocality Blog}
- The international media has a tendency to report on the negatives of life:
Kenya urges foreign media to highlight positive issues on Africa {Coastweek}
- Airtel Kenya says 3G still on course {The Star}
- SMEs Opt for Free and Open Source Software to Cut Costs {Business Daily via allAfrica.com}
- Newspapers Fight for Survival As Online News Click With Readers {Business Daily via allAfrica.com}
- #fuelsubsidy and #occupynigeria have trended on Twitter for days:
Social media inspires Nigerian protests {RNW}
- Internet World Stats has updated Facebook data through December 31, 2011:
Facebook Users Hit 4.3 Million – Report {Daily Trust via allAfrica.com}
St. Helena
- St. Helena would like to secure a 155 MBit/s line when the SAex cable passes nearby later this year:
Campaign for better broadband in St Helena {Think Broadband}
South Africa
- Consumers should not expect significant broadband price cuts when WACS launches later this year:
WACS and broadband prices in SA {MyBroadband}
- Howzit MSN, the default landing page for IE users in South Africa, has a new channel for African markets:
MSN grows Africa reach {TechCentral}
- Three-quarters of Sudan's oil revenue came from what is now South Sudan:
Sudanese angry over telecom tax hikes {IT News Africa}
- Lindi, Ruvuma, Kigoma, Rukwa, and Mbeya will be covered in the next phase:
Tanzania to spend $189m on fibre optic network {The Citizen}
- The first of a three-part series that examines the role of the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) in promoting the use of ICTs in Tanzania:
TCRA – Pushing Tanzania's ICT Agenda (Part I) {Tanzania Daily News}
- TechZim foresees a year of advancements in mobile money, e-Commerce, basic phones, cheaper last mile connectivity, and IT startups:
Our information technology predictions for 2012 {TechZim}
- Zimbabwe fibre link to South Africa delayed {TelecomPaper}


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Obama RIPs the American Family
December 29, 2013 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Children, Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Family, Government, Government Corruption, Humor, Jobs, Liberals, President, Progressives, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off on
Obama RIPs the American Family
-By Warner Todd Huston
As the nation continues to struggle economically and many American families are struggling to feed themselves in this jobless environment, Barack Obama is urging Congress to new and energetic intervention with a new law he is proposing that is intended to fix the failing American nuclear family unit.
Senate Democrat leader Harry Reid has signed onto Obama's new idea and is now pushing the Reinvesting Individual People Act, or the RIP Act, through the Senate. Every Democrat has pledged to vote yes on the bill while the obstructionist Republicans–except for John McCain–are saying they will oppose the bill.
In a press conference from the White House, President Obama announced the new idea that he says will make families fair. Because some families are big and others small, Obama says, it is not fair as the small families are getting off too cheap in this tough economy.
"Smaller families have a smaller economic and environmental footprint," Obama said on Friday evening. "Therefore, we intend to offer a helping hand to Americans with the Reinvesting Individual People Act."
This new law will mandate that all families be of equal size. Every family will be made of three people and never any more than that.
This caring President does realize that not everyone will be able to find a family who will take them in, though. He also has a unique and cost effective way to solve that problem.
Any left over people who no one will take into a family unit will be remanded to Obama Furnished Units (or OFU's) to be built in Detroit after the rest of the crumbling city is razed to the ground.
This is being billed as a jobs program as thousands of new guards and community service personnel will be required to implement this new compassionate and fair law.
President of the AFL-CIO noted that the RIP Act will bring thousands of Americans firmly into the middle class in Detroit as new construction and retention guards are hired and unionized.
Republicans point out that the new law contains carve outs for unions and exempts the families of union members, federal employees, Illegal immigrants and Congress.
Democrat Party Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz said on MSNBC that anyone who opposed this bill is only doing so because of the racism inherent in white society.
When asked how this fits into the Constitution, the President said, "The consti-tutie-whattus, again?"
"The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it."
–Samuel Johnson
Follow Warner Todd Huston on:
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, MrConservative.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.
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Sooner or later they'll run out of precious valuables to name Pokemon games after and have to move on to less enticing titles. Pokemon formica anyone?
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Unique design efficiently removes snow minimizing passes and reducing salt build up.
|Working Width
|120.0 in 3048.0 mm
|More Less
|1201.5 lb 545.0 kg
|More Less
|45.0 in 1143.0 mm
|More Less
|More Less
|Moldboard - Height
|33.6 in 854.0 mm
|More Less
|Overall Height
|39.1 in 994.0 mm
|More Less
|Trip Edge
|Steel Steel
|More Less
|Trip Edge Quantity
|2 2
|More Less
|Trip Edge Height
|4.7 in 119.0 mm
|More Less
Adjustable trip edge trips back when obstacles such as manhole covers are encountered in the snow being removed, minimizing the risk of damage.
Rubber or steel, bolt-on cutting edges are available for all size pushes. Rubber edges minimize damage to the surface being plowed while steel edges cut or throw hard packed snow or ice.
Outside box support is designed to minimize snow cling to the moldboard but also provide rigid support to the outer sections to ensure long tool life.
Adjustable skid shoes allow adjustability of cutting edge height to maintain a constant cutting edge depth.