Misstep

One Restaurant's Creative Response to the Economic Downturn — Filed under: RestaurantsSwallow, a Philadelphia BYOB, relaunched their menu today and their new offers are specifically designed to take the current economic downturn in mind. They've ditched their previous modern Italian menu and have replaced it with an entire menu of macaroni and cheese. The menu allows you to design your own entree. You first pick small (base price $5) or large ($7) dish and then determine which two cheese you'd like. For an additional $2-3, you can choose three veggies, meats or herbs to mix into your mac and cheese. In addition the build your own menu, they have... [Tags: base price, brilliant move, choices, creative response, dish]

Blackberry’s Imperfect Storm — I had some time to play with the BlackBerry Storm last week, and I’m surprised how much I disliked it.  I feel it was a complete misstep on the part of RIM, and is indicative of the problems of handset manufacturers short-sighted thinking as they compete with the iPhone. Competing with the iPhone is like competing with CSI CSI is one of the top broadcast TV shows every week.  Millions of people tune in to watch a fairly vapid crime drama show with cool lighting effects and gruesome murder scenes. Many millions of people.  So if you are a clever... [Tags: broadcast tv, cool lighting, core problem, core strengths, crackberries]

Yahoo has announced the sale of Kelkoo, its European comparison-shopping site, to English private equity firm Jamplant. While financial details of the deal were not disclosed, Kelkoo founder and former chief executive Pierre Chappaz wrote on his blog that the subsidiary went for less than $125 million, a major dip from the $576 million Yahoo initially paid for it in 2004. Some have suggested that this is the first post-Jerry Yang move Yahoo has made to shift its efforts. But the company has been eyeing a Kelkoo sale for a while. VentureBeat reported last October that the search giant was... [Tags: angel investors, banexi ventures, bargain shopping, bbva, comparison shopping sites]

Open-Source... or Freeware? You Decide! — Open-source?  Freeware?  Which is it? Some people frequently interchange the terms as a generic way to say that a piece of software costs nothing to download or use.  I mean, it's all free, right?Wrong!Open-source software has as much to do with freeware as an apple has to do with an orange.  Both are fruits, but each offers a different enough of a texture and flavor to render it completely unique from the other.  You cannot, and should not, confuse open-source software with freeware, as there can be grave consequences for such a fatal misstep.  Ok, so maybe not grave.  But... [Tags: apple, fruits, grave consequences, interchange, misstep]

Amb. Marc Ginsberg: Al Qaeda, Obama and Pakistan — So once again we have to suffer through yet another one of Al Qaeda's anti-American diatribes -- this one constituting a pre-inaugural attack on our president-elect by Al Qaeda's propogandist and ideologue-in-chief "Dr. Evil" Ayman al-Zawahiri. When, pray tell, are we going to put al-Zawahiri out of his misery once and for all? Insha'allah In its first "official" reaction to Barack Obama's election Al Qaeda's propogandist used a sure-to-backfire demeaning racial epithet against America's president-elect, likening Barack Obama to a "house slave" or "house negro." Given the fact that he hasn't even been inaugurated, Al Qaeda's attack on the president-elect... [Tags: afghani, ayman al zawahiri, barack obama, control structure, dr evil]

Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang to resign — Filed under: Internet, News, Yahoo! It hasn't exactly been a good year for Yahoo!. Earlier this year, the company rejected Microsoft's offer to buy Yahoo! for $33 a share. This week, Yahoo! stock is selling for about $10 a share. Silicon Alley Insider estimates that the search company is out $2 billion dollars because of this misstep.It's probably not fair to put all of that on CEO Jerry Yang's head. After all, the current economic downturn is taking its toll on everyone. But the Yahoo! board of directors has announced that it is searching for a new CEO. Once a... [Tags: 18 nov, billion dollars, board of directors, book of love, chief yahoo]

A jailbreak for Google's Android — Hackers have found a way to circumvent controls in the Google Android operating system used on T-Mobile's G1 mobile phone, allowing them to get around restrictions created by the phone's designers.The hack gives G1 users a way to read data on parts of the phone that are normally walled off and could be used to install new programs, or even a new operating system, on the mobile phone. Currently, programs for the open source Android operating system must be written in Java, rather than other popular programming languages such as C or C++.[ Special report: All about Google Android | Take InfoWorld's... [Tags: android, development forum, discussion board, g1, google]

Stephen H. Baum: Traits of a Leader: Obama — Leadership -- the act of moving a group of people to work toward a vision that resonates with deep motivations. Leadership in crisis -- conveying a sense of not only that vision and the first credible steps toward it in the larger context of a clear approach or plan, but also a sense of character, authenticity, quiet confidence, staying power, fairness, commitment, inclusiveness, thoughtfulness. Demanding and earning the extra measure of support and sacrifice from everyone. We have elected a leader. Will he be sorely tested? Will he stumble? Will he misstep? Very likely. It comes with the job. But... [Tags: authenticity, careful attention, ceos, congressional leadership, covey]

BioBot Makes Bio Diesel at Home! [Gasoline] — You would think that making your own Bio Diesel at home would be a tough, multi-stepped procedure that has a few dangerous spots to misstep. Well before the BioBot, a system that makes Bio Diesel from old cooking oil, you would have been right. Unfortunately, after the BioBot, you would have been right, too. Here is their simple, 8+ step process to make gas at home. And don't worry, that chemistry beaker is just for show! Needless to say, we're being more than a little hard on the BioBot. In reality, it's a geek-worthy device that can produce almost 20... [Tags: beaker, bio diesel, biochemistry, bs, chemistry]

While long-suffering Starcraft fans are still waiting for a release date for Starcraft II, they at least got a teaser from Blizzard today. Shack News reports that Blizzard has announced that the game will actually be a "trilogy" with the game broken into three sections, or campaigns. The first to be released will be Terrans: Wings of Liberty, and the following two (Zerg: Heart of the Swarm and Protoss: Legacy of the Void") released as expansion packs. Blizzard maintains that the game has to be split: "... to maintain the quality of the product, the alternatives either being a... [Tags: blizzard, campaigns, expansion pack, expansion packs, game units]

AK-Sen: Key evidence thrown out in Ted Stevens trial — Oh, dear. Two pieces of major evidence in the federal trial of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens are to be excluded, due to "prosecutorial misconduct". The first is the more serious, and the more egregious prosecutorial misstep. Judge Sullivan is throwing out a portion of the business records from Veco Corp., whose former CEO, Bill Allen, allegedly spent $188,000 renovating Stevens' home in Girdwood, Alaska. Two former Veco employees, Rocky Williams and Dave Anderson, are on the company's records as having spent significant time working on Stevens' home in late 2000 and early 2001. But prosecutors never presented testimony from Williams,... [Tags: acquittal, business records, dave anderson, doj, election day]

Sheri and Allan Rivlin: Winning on the Merits — Democrats are high minded to a fault. The triple disasters of the last eight years, Iraq, Katrina and the economy, are the world's reward for Al Gore's high-mindedness late in 2ooo. But for those who believe in the high road, now is the time to reap our reward. It's actually good that Sarah Palin performed well in the vice presidential debate on Thursday and here's hoping John McCain does just as well in tonight's debate and does not make a major gaff or stumble for the remaining weeks of the campaign. In the same spirit we hope the Obama/Biden campaign... [Tags: al gore, biden, campaign tactics, distraction, gaff]

Palin email hacker's biggest misstep? Not being an HP exec [David Kernell] — As far as we know, David Kernell, the University of Tennessee student suspected of hacking into VP-wannabe Sarah Palin’s email account, isn't thought to have done anything near the scale of HP's pretexting efforts that yielded the private records of its directors, employees and journalists. Nor did he order physical surveillance of Palin. Or seek to obtain her father's or spouse's records. Or hatch plans to infiltrate the governor's office with stooges. Or go through her trash. Or eavesdrop on her instant messaging. Or bug her email. So why did the HP execs and investigators get off scot-free (or with... [Tags: apartment, email account, email hacker, exec, execs]

McCain Confuses SEC with FEC — Fumbling, again, some of his economic messaging, McCain confused the Federal Election Commission for the Securities and Exchange Commission during his speech on the housing and financial crises Friday morning. Calling for SEC Chairman Chris Cox to step down, McCain declared: "I believe the chairman of the FEC should resign and leave office immediately." It was the second straight day in which the Senator made a verbal flub. On Thursday he actually called for Cox to be fired, only to be reminded, via an ABC News report, that the president cannot axe the SEC Chairman. That McCain would substitute FEC... [Tags: abc news, campaign contributions, chris cox, congressional leaders, fannie mae]

Bonnie Fuller: Obama! If You Want to Win -- Boot Biden Now and Bring Back Hillary — Plus 4 other Manly Must-Do Moves! Ignore at Your Peril! Who has put Barack Obama on sedatives? In his newest TV ad, he looks and sounds so lethargic he might as well have stayed in bed and not bothered. It's just the latest Obama campaign misstep and non-step that is befuddling frustrated Obama supporters as the McCain ticket surges head to head with the Democrats in the latest polls. While the McPalin ticket is seemingly everywhere in hard-hitting TV ads and on female-friendly morning shows, Obama and Biden are virtually MIA. In Obama's new ad, he sits quietly and speaks... [Tags: barack obama, biden, bonnie fuller, bully behavior, dnc]

Five Missteps to Avoid in Volatile Times — by David Stauffer Misstep #1: Delaying decisions that will improve the long-term health of your company for fear of the market's near-term response. "Investors want positive quarterly results," says Nancy Kimelman, chief economist at the Oaks, Pa.-based asset management firm SEI Investments, "but not to the extent that they impair the long-term health of the company."With any decision you make right now that's visible to investors--whether it has to do with hiring, inventory levels, or taking on additional debt--you've got to assume that you're going to be second-guessed." Obviously, you don't want to add unnecessarily to your head count or... [Tags: amp, asset management firm, brian wesbury chief economist, business executives, climate]

Musings Over Morning Coffee — Why is Sarah Palin labeled a reformer? Palin, more "cable catnip" than the latest poll, turns out to be just another ethically-challenged Republican, as ordinary as a Jack Abramoff indictment. Alaska is smaller scale, but what's the difference? In her run as small town mayor, the "hockey mom" screwed the town over a hockey arena. The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters. The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities... [Tags: abramoff indictment, alaskan winters, catnip, earmarks, financial mess]

A Disastrous Mayor — Are we allowed to ask questions about her tenure as mayor of Wasilla? Here's a story from the Wall Street Journal, exposing just how fiscally and operationally reckless Palin's mayorship of Wasilla was:The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters. The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million... [Tags: acceptance speech, alaskan winters, bush cheney, community organizer, complex project]

Palin's "Biggest Project" As Mayor: A Hockey Rink With Legal Troubles — The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters. The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin's legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla. "It's too bad... [Tags: alaskan winters, basketball, budget, city of wasilla, financial mess]