Apple Marketing vs. Microsoft Marketing

Apple has, for some time, been lauded for their excellent marketing. Their commercials are excellen, their print advertisements are impressive, and their packaging is outstanding. When purchasing a new iPod, one is struck by the simplicity and elegance of the box. It stands out from the crowd by being minimalistic.

A video has been making the rounds which compares Microsoft marketing to Apple marketing. The video shows what would be done to the iPod package if Microsoft were to market it. As it turns out, the video was actually done by a marketing company working for Microsoft as a humorous example of the challenges that Microsoft faces in its marketing efforts. If you're up for a good laugh take a look.

Chaos and Napping Software

It's been a chaotic time lately. Work is consuming more of my time than it has in recent memory and the existence of a "significant other" reduces, albeit happily, the time I would otherwise spend catching up on stuff during "alone time". I've started attending Wednesday night dives through my local dive shop and most weekends in the summer there's something going on.

With all this and more going on I'm getting a bit less sleep than I'd like. While reading LifeHacker the other day I ran across something that may just help to resolve that problem. There was a post on the site about a product called Pzizz which is, for lack of a better description, napping software. For those geeks out there it uses a frequency differential known as a binaural beat to induce different brain waves. By generating theta and delta brain waves they can, allegedly, help someone to fall asleep or to have a good "power nap". I downloaded the software and I moved a couple naps onto my iPod. I've tried it a couple times and so far I'm impressed. It could be entirely psychological... I'm not sure. One way or the other it gives me an excuse to take a quick twenty minute nap in the middle of the day or before I go out at night which is great.

Now that I have finished posting about napping software on my blog I have proven myself to be a huge geek - but that's OK.

It's a Sod Job...

It's a sod job, but someone had to do it. After the crazy rains a couple weeks ago I decided to lay some sod to prevent a recurrence of the sudden crazy erosion that occurred. As it turns out laying sod isn't terribly difficult. Most of the work is actually in the preparation. Once everthing is tilled and raked it's not terribly difficult to do the actual laying of the sod. If the entire lawn were being done but had already been graded I'd certainly consider installing a sod lawn again.

As you can see in the pictures below, the sod provided an immediate erosion control barrier along both sides of the driveway. These pics were taken after the first mowing and I'm pleased to report that thus far the sod is doing wonderfully. We've had several torrential downpours and I haven't had any problems with washout.



Click on either picture for an enlarged view. The "dirty" looking section in the left pic is actually some straw that's covering a small dirt transition from the old lawn to the new. The straw covered areas were seeded since I didn't have enough sod to do the entire lawn. Little grass seedlings have recently started popping up and I anticipate raking out the straw in another three weeks or so. Thus far the encore version of the landscaping project has gone quite well. Kudos to my wonderful father for not only helping with the sod installation but for also putting up with the fact that this was actually the second time we'd done this bit of landscaping within the span of a single month.

I'm Back

After being derelict in my blogging responsibilities for longer than I care to think about, I'm back. It's been a hectic time of late as I've been working the new job and trying to get up to speed on everything related to it. I'm also doing the old job until we find a replacement so I find myself fairly busy. Nonetheless, I can't really complain. The new job is a fun challenge and I'd much rather be busy than bored. I could do with not being quite this busy, but that's OK.

Last weekend I attended Memeaster at Dave and Katie's place. It was a rockin' good time and the grilling was excellent (as was Dave's home brew). It was a bit odd to realize that by next year at this time we'll need to find some sort of daycare for all of my friends who have either recently had children or who are expecting children shortly (by which I mean that they're pregnant).

Dave and Susan were unfortunately unable to attend what with living in Florida and Laura was MIA since she was out of town in North Carolina. Of course with Laura out of town, Ryan was "baching it" for the weekend which resulted in a humorous and fun series of conversations that shall never be repeated. What happens at Memeaster stays at Memeaster.