Month: July 2004
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Coca Cola marketing stunt
Coca Cola, the troubled beverage company is in the midst of a major marketing promotion to try and bolster sales of its signature drink. Throughout the US, Coca-Cola has put 120 special cans into multipacks of original Coke. These cans look like a Coke, feel like a Coke, but instead of the secret formula contain…
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Oakley MP3 glasses
Ok, its the Sunday morning (late) after the Saturday night, your feet are aching, your clothes stink of cigarettes and your ear drums have been desensitised by the music power of a night club sound system. You want calming sounds at relatively low volume, which makes a pair of MP3 glasses sensible. Your best mate…
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Lead the internet
America historically has been the best position to lead the Internet. It deliberately set up multilateral open bodies that set many of the technology standards. It benefited from this approach and is now home to many of the main companies whose technology underpins and makes use of the Internet. That might be changing. A small…
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Barcode turns 30
The Boston Globe online has a mildly interesting article about the UPC (universal product code) or barcode that graces all our groceries. They give a potted history of the code and mention the various urban myths that rose around it including: The article goes on about the inventory savings items, but neglects to mention other…
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Ugly Americans by Ben Mezrich
My book of the moment is Ugly Americans by Ben Mezrich. Ben previously wrote Bringing Down the House; a book about a group of maths geeks who take on the Las Vegas casinos by team playing with a gambling system and making a killing at poker. In Ugly Americans, Ben turns his attention to hedge funds exploiting…