Temporal thermometer

I've never used a temporal thermometer until recently. Basically, they look like a small wand that you just press to your temple, and magically, six seconds later, you get a temperature readout. It appears only Exergen makes them. I'd highly recommend them - it's definitely a neat technology, in addition to being very practical.

The other interesting thing is they appear fairly accurate. In doing some research on a temporal thermometer, it seemed as those it was fairly close to temperatures taken through other means. I did have one moment, where the temporal thermometer gave me a 102.7 degree reading, and then about a minute later 100.3, which was not reassuring, so it seems like you have to have it placed correctly to be guaranteed a good reading.

Infared thermometer

Following up on the earlier post, I had also tried out an infared thermometer. Not quite as useful as the temporal thermometer. Something worth checking out, though, as the infared thermometers seem to have a variety of other applications.

CD Baby

Lately, I've been paying attention to the amount of email I've been getting from companies that I've done business with in the past. I may have set an all time record for time between email sends with CD Baby. I probably bought a CD from them about 5 years ago, and it's easily been a year since I'd gotten an email from them.
Love the opening: Last time you were at CD Baby, we all stopped to admire your fine taste in music.
Now, after months of searching, I finally found a few albums I think you'll love:
Implying that a) they personally monitor what people do on their site and b) my browsing was such that they not just admired it, but stopped their work to admire it.
It did get my attention, and maybe that was the goal :)
Anyone from CD Baby reading this?

Lindt chocolates

I have been enjoying the 85% Cocoa chocolate bars by Lindt lately. I'd highly recommend them. They seem to be the highest % cocoa bars that are out there, or at least available at the local Whole Foods. Anyone seen higher?

Amazon recommendations

Generally Amazon recommendations are pretty well targeted: this one, however, was badly off target: We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated Covert: My Years Infiltrating the Mob by Bob Delaney have also purchased Is There a Mouse in the Baby's Room? by Elizabeth Zechel.

Harry Chapin

I've been listening to a lot of Harry Chapin. Nice website by his family, focusing on his career and some not-so-common copies of his music.

Baseball dream job

Sometime a dream job isn't quite as dreamy as it would seem from the outside. Fantastic article by Jeff Pearlman on ESPN's Page 2 about Major League life from the inside.

Prada mens shoes

This is a a post about Prada mens shoes, mainly because I saw some nice new shoes they had out in the store today, and that I'm testing out FriendFeed. I'm curious if this post will show up on my new FriendFeed account. Either way, if someone reading this is curious about Prada mens shoes, I'd suggest looking at this site on Prada Mens Shoes.

Packaged Ice

I picked up some ice for a party yesterday. There was a seal on it for the International Packaged Ice Association, and the ice itself had apparently been distilled before it was made into ice. I was curious - the website is clearly a trade association. The consumer info is basically either figuring out how much ice you need for a party, or some info on how frozen ice can be contaminated. The most recent ice press release is 2+ years old, on the perils of contaminated frozen ice.
You never know what you'll find on the Internet :)

Michael Huling

At risk of turning this blog into a series of "things I like/things I don't like", kudos to Michael Huling. He's a realtor in Vienna, Va. I had called and asked about a property in our neighborhood. Michael had taken my information, and just followed up with information on what happened with the property. Great way to stay in front of a potential customer, and the email will be filed away in case I need it. Hopefully, he's got a local newsletter that I'll receive, to take the relationship one step further.

Time to update the blog

I started this blog in 2002. At that point, Blogger was state of the art. I've stuck with it, mainly due to the investment in learning the quirks of the system... that, and as a side benefit the graphic theme actually starts to look unique due to the fact it seems to have long since fallen off the default list. There is one problem I'm sorting through...when this blog indexes in Google, it always shows the following line: "Josh Greene's online marketing blog, thoughts from an online retailer." which is my meta-tag description, and not the first line of any given post. Off to do a bit of research, to see if this is fixable. And, if so, how it would impact search engine rankings.

Morris Reid

I had the pleasure of meeting Morris Reid about a month ago. He's a high energy guy, who runs a high powered strategic consulting firm, and we have the same type of watch :). We've had the start of a nice chat about search engines. Doing a bit of online research, Morris and his wife, Jaci Reid, are quite the power couple. So, if you wanted to see every party Morris Reid has been to, you could visit WireImage for a pretty good list.

Sauder Desk

Dear Sauder company,
I'd like to commend you for a well designed, well thought out instruction manual for assembly of your Computer Desk with Hutch. I purchased it at Office Max, and it sat for several weeks, until I had the time to assemble it. It went together very quickly and the instructions were both easy to understand, and worked. Aside from a few small little details in the diagrams, it was one of the easier pieces of furniture I've put together. Your website, sauder.com, could use a little work, but the video demos of common problems are great to have online.
Thanks!

For those who requested it, I checked -
Amazon has an excellent assortment of desks for sale.

Joe Mesi

Always fun to see what high school classmates are up. Joe Mesi is running for State Senate in upstate NY. Joe was/is 36-0 as a heavyweight boxer, and the fight with Vassiliy Jirov was one of the most intense sporting events I've ever seen. It'll be fun to see how his fame translates to a political campaign.

Another Da Vinci Code

Great article today in the WSJ on a hunt to find a lost Da Vinci masterpiece.

Top 10 SEO myths

Paul has a good post up on The Top 10 SEO myths.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to everyone!

How to build an app in four days

Today's intriguing read: How to build an app in 4 days. Fun, quick read on the development process. Raises the interesting question of an analog in the marketing world: could you launch a new campaign in 4 days? Heavily promote an existing product for 4 days? Brainstorm and launch new products in 4 days?

Jeremy Epstein

I met Jeremy Epstein a few weeks ago. He's got a blog called "Igniting the Revolution", although an old blog seems to pop up for him on Google. He's a word of mouth consultant, having spent a lot of time at Microsoft before going off on his own. I've been enjoying reading his blog, which has some good examples of effective word of mouth marketing. It was tough to believe that he hadn't been to Five Guys, and lived in the greater DC area, though :)