Tommie Smith along with sports columnist David Steele wrote the autobiography of Tommie Smith. In the book he talks about his decision to raise his right arm wearing a black glove on the medal stand at the 1968 Olympics after winning the 200 Meter Dash. He discusses the effect it had on him and on his world. Order a copy today at silentgesture.com.

I was sent to learn more about Gravity Branding today after seeing a note that they came up with the name wiFi. The idea of making one’s living by coming up with names seems intriguing to me. Much like hosting strategic planning meetings, I am sure there is more than meets the eye, and yet it seems like they make amazing amounts of money for work that is — well — not all that significant in some respects. I decided to look at a few of their case studies to learn more. I choose the Verizon Voice Wing Campaign. I was looking at that case study and a typo (at least I think it to be one — and yes I’m sure I have a typo in this article too somewhere, but I’m not making the big bucks) jumped out at me: assignement. I think it has one too many “e’s”.

I do see the logic to a lot of the names they feature on there. It must be amazingly difficult to come up with a name that is available and satisfies the customer, so in the end I’m sure that they really do work hard. We spent at least twenty minutes coming up with our name — and perhaps it shows too. But I think I would like to work for them and see what I can contribute.

I have to say I didn’t like their site much either, so maybe I could work with their design team on a remake of that aspect of their business. It was flash type download that required a very long download time at my connect speed. It tried using pop-ups that offended my browser and well … I just didn’t like it subjectively. Some of my subjective reasons are the lack of color on the site, the greyed out tabs are much too dark on my display. I see a large empty white space in the middle of the page (I wonder if something didn’t download that was supposed to or something?).

This is a very interesting article about Like.com. The site will allow you to find an item you would like to purchase (or see if someone is copying your protected work perhaps) and find other similiar items based on visual matching instead of descriptive terms. I’m sure over time that merchants will find ways to put this to work by intentionally copying image looks from primary competitors’ sites.

I am an Apprentice fan. I missed the first episode and so I was relieved to find out that you can catch the episodes on-line this season!

I have just three complaints really:
1. the show is broken into segements and I eventually figured out that you could jump segment to segment using the links below the play window … however, the pictures and the titles gave away the story in advance.
2. the advertisements for episode one were for exactly two movies. If replay saturation was the goal, then they achieved it … but it also bored me. I may not watch the shows just because that irritated me … or I may because I am glad to find current episodes available on tv.
3. I’m not on it. While I don’t think I want to work for The Donald (too much confusion because many call me by the same name), I would definately like to meet his daughter to see what she is like in person. While I do think I could add to the organization, I don’t think it would be conducive to a family life and I value a family.

I wish it was me living there in the tent. I would have enjoyed that more than living in the mansion because just watching the other whiners around me would have been enough fun to make it worthwhile.

I’ll admit it, the thought never occurred to me until today. Famous people blogging. I guess I’m slow. The only “famous” person I ever read a blog of (and being “well known” because of your blog like Scoble, who got me going on this topic doesn’t qualify you as famous) was arguably GoDaddy’s Bob Parson (side note, check out his interesting link structure, all run together with a semi-colon). That self-promotion got boring fast as his few grains of wisdom soon turned to nothing but a stream of self promotion. I turned him off. Going back to read that post left me turned off. It isn’t just business Bob. People feel about the OJ deal like you feel about the Marines.

So today when there was a link about Mark Cuban (I had heard he blogs) ripping on The Donald … and in turn he and Rosie O’Donnell apparently mix it up. Two interesting things I guess: 1. Cuban rips Trump for his failure to be the top guy in blogging as he apparently ranks something like 23,000 from the top. Way to go Mark, you probably just fixed his problem because Scoble linked to you and you linked to him and well, that’s the way it goes in the imaginary world called the blogosphere (a term I hate by the way). Anyway, he won’t be down there much longer. 2. Rosie O’Donnell’s blog (and I don’t like the look of it and actually don’t get the layout much — I guess I don’t think like her) is run on WordPress 2.0.5 – my favorite “blog/cms” tool. WordPress is “free and priceless” so I wonder if she donated to the WordPress movement?

I have always like Trump. I was watching ESPN Classic Poker last night airing tournaments from years ago, before it was popular, and there was Trump with some good looking chick on his shoulder looking over the game at his casino. I honestly think he sees trends and jumps quickly. I like the Apprentice and actually watch it (so does Mike according to his prior post so it can’t be all that bad now can it?). I cannot defend how that run on advertisement for all things Donald differs quite from Bob Parson’s all things Bob to be honest, but somehow it entertains me and I think maybe just maybe I glean something from it.

Anyway, I don’t think I’ll read any of the four regularly (Rosie who I truly cannot stand on a “personal” level – she’s just flat out annoying to me, Bob – he turned me off a while back, Mark Cuban – I don’t know maybe I should try his sometime, or Donald’s – probably because in written form it may be a lot closer to Parson’s than I would like).

I love his fight with Rosie, apparently he asserts that “he” didn’t file bankruptcy. He uses bankruptcy regularly as a business tool regardless of the entity filing to stiff people who worked hard and deserve their money while he lives a life of luxury. Not nice, and maybe I’ll have to turn off his show if I start to think about that. Bankruptcy is a tool to help people in a time of need, not a tool to be abused to many’s way of thinking.

But wait, I just changed my mind — Ivanka is on the show this year. I’ll watch her just to imagine …

NetGear is running a contest that would be great to win because:

* Free flight to (and from) Vegas
* Free hotel room
* Daily per diem
* $2000 in cash (paid after completion of the work)
* I’ve never been to the Consumer Electronic Show — and it would be neat to go

Unfortunately however, the contest rules say this:

… Winner’s Obligations. In order to receive the prize listed in Section 5, the Winner must produce up to three daily postings about NETGEAR at the 2007 CES and about CES in general. The postings must be created by certain set times each day, which times will be communicated in advance to Winner by NETGEAR. The content of such postings will be subject to review by and final approval of NETGEAR prior to posting. …

That turns the lucky winner from a guest blogger into an employee under the control of NetGear. The whole point of this medium is that speech is free and can be used to express yourself. You can be honest … unless they don’t like what you say in this case. That’s not worth it to me, even for a trip. Now if it said they had an opportunity to review and suggest revisions/enhancements/etc. that would be fine.

I always reserve the right to say what I think, and for a couple of thousand dollars and a really cool trip, I’m not willing to trade. Good luck in the competition to those of you who are. If someone from NetGear is willing to meet me half way on this as suggested above, then let me know so I can get my contest entry in.

The part I love about the contest is the criteria for picking the winner. The rule says, there is no rules: “NETGEAR will select, in its sole discretion and based on any criteria it deems appropriate, one winning blogger”. Seriously, I like that. I wish I could enter.

This site is great! Back in 2004 the guy had static pictures that changed when you clicked, and people bought it. He fessed up when he realized people weren’t buying that is was not real. But he was criticized by many for pulling one over. In 2005 and again in 2006 he has the real deal going. His whole effort is to raise money for charity and spread Christmas cheer. I like the guy and he writes me a couple of times a year, so go enjoy the show. If you are his neighbor … you are good sports. The IM angle is neat.