Archive for January, 2009

Ford Flexes Its Social Media Skills

Published at 01/29/2009 in Business & Career and Social Media. Comments

Ford-Flex

Earlier this morning I noticed a headline stating that Ford Motor Company lost $5.9B in the 4Q of 2008, but that they wouldn’t seek government bailout money to help unless the economy worsened. That’s something I liked to hear, but still thought the economy probably will drop some more and what their line will be before they change their mind if they do.

I quickly sent out a tweet about how their desire not to accept government bailout money would actually encourage me to buy from Ford if I were in the market for a new car.

Within minutes I got a reply back from Scott Monty, who is the Head of Social Media at Ford, saying this:

@bnpositive I would think that our product offerings would have something to do with it too. ;-) #Ford

The two messages were exchanged within 8 minutes of each other. I’ve never heard of Scott Monty before, but I think he’s well aware of how to setup custom searches for Ford so he can be notified when people are talking about his company on various social networks. He immediately engaged me and began the conversation about Ford and their products.

I’m not in the market for a new car, I’m going to continue pushing my ‘96 Toyota Camry as far past the 236,000 mile mark as I can right now. If I were in the market for a new car the first one I’d go look at would be the Ford Flex though. That’s a sharp vehicle.

So Scott, if you can hit me up with a nice yellow one that we can overhaul to the "Bnpositive Mobile", I’ll be sure to spread the joy about Ford, the Flex and social media everywhere I go! Keep up the good work!

iNap for Commuters with iPhones

Published at 01/26/2009 in Business & Career, Computers & Technology and Toys & Gadgets. Comments

iNap If I were someone who had the opportunity to ride a train or bus to work every morning, the iNap might be just enough reason for me to actually entertain the idea of moving to an iPhone.

The iNap application takes advantage of the iPhone’s built in GPS navigation feature to serve as a location based alarm clock. Just get on the train in the morning and doze back off to sleep and have iNap alert you when you’re close to your station. Just in time to wipe the sleep from your eyes and drool from the side of your mouth and chin.

My boss and I have had the discussion numerous times about a location based reminder service that would take advantage of GPS navigation. Based on your location, you could be reminded to complete a task that can only be done if you’re near that area.

For example:

  • The next time I’m on the northwest side of town, drop by my brother’s house and return the books I borrowed.
  • The next time I’m downtown, go check out the new coffee shop on Broadway for lunch.
  • When I’m on the east side, run the car by the dealership so they can take a look at the check engine light that keeps coming on.
  • If you’re around the airport at dinner, take advantage of the buy-1-get-1 free entree at that new restaurant you’ve been wanting to try.

See how handy that would be. Hopefully an application like iNap can continue to grow into this type of GPS based reminder service. Now, let’s also hope someone can develop it for a Windows phone so I don’t have to get an iPhone.

Source: Top 10 New Technologies That Could Save Your Commute

RIP: Common Sense

Published at 01/25/2009 in Humor & Comedy and World Wide Wisdom. Comments

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

  • Knowing when to come in out of the rain
  • Why the early bird gets the worm
  • Life isn’t always fair
  • and maybe it was my fault

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason. He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame and I’m A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

Source: Purportedly originally printed in the London Times

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