Sacred Cow Dung goes well beyond the call of duty and captures a mind boggling number of web 2.0 companies. One could spend days here.

I’ve been waiting for Riya to launch since reading about it months ago. Three words: Face Recognition Technology. Let the hype begin.

I agree with Jason Fried from 37 Signals that it probably is enough for most people. Google doesn’t really need to put together an exhaustive office suite because most people don’t use all the applications found in Office Pro or even the scaled down versions. I use Word, Outlook and Excel everyday. But I don’t use Powerpoint very often and I haven’t used Access in years. I’m pretty sure I could be happy using about any other word processor. But I’m hesitant to use an Excel or Outlook competitor since I know my around those two products quite well.

The other question I hear asked about product like Writely is this: Can I save documents to my machine or is everything I create stored on someone elses servers? It’s one thing to have someone host my email but it’s another thing for them to be responsible for my spreadsheets full of financial data.

Spotted within Seth Godin’s speech at Google titled: All Marketers are Liars

Jeremiah has an excellent summary of this speech.

Now this is different and perfect for my parents.

We’ve got to start one of these at work! No server, no admin, no PHP required. So easy that even marketing can join in the fun.

Source: The Post Money Value

Seth Godin has a great post about how to get your company funded. His short answer? “Don’t”

Most companies are not appropriate sites for VC money. That’s because they’re freelance ventures, not entrepreneurial ones. A freelance venture is one where you work to get paid. An entrepreneurial one is where you can make money while you sleep. Meaning that you work really really hard and you scale and suddenly you own real estate or media properties or technology or a system or a brand that people pay for without you actually doing any incremental work yourself.

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As the influx of newly minted college grads hit the streets looking for jobs I wonder if I were in their shoes and given the chance to work for Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, eBay or Apple which company I’d chose?

Having been in the industry for a while now, I’d choose none of them and probably seek out a small but cool company like the one I work for or something along the lines of 37Signals or Automattic. But if I were just out of school I’d probably head to Yahoo because I like what they have been doing lately and their products, for the most part, are a lot more stable and mature than Google’s. Apple would be the last company I’d chose. They have a lot of hip new products, but they appear so controlling and I wouldn’t be able to blog since they don’t allow it. The right group at Microsoft could be interesting and they allow bloggers.

I’ve been a loyal Costco customer for many years now yet I’ve never made what I’d call a major purchase there. I’ve never bought a TV, kitchen appliance, tires, computer, or treadmill from Costco. I once went there looking to buy a lawn mower but I wasn’t successful in finding anyone who could give me a straight answer as to whether they carried mowers at that time of year.

Yet no matter what I go there looking to buy, even if it’s just paper products, I end up spending more than $300. I don’t know how to explain it except to say there must be a mysterious force at work here because no matter how hard I try, I can’t get through the checkout without dropping three Franklins.

Kim and I were in Costco this past week and kept our purchases to only food and paper products. No books, DVDs, expensive toothbrushes or random toys for the kids. The most expensive item we bought was probably the box of Tide detergent at $18. As I was putting all the items on the conveyor belt I couldn’t help but think this might be the time to finally put an end to the $300 rule.

The friendly checker handed back my Costco membership card along with my receipt and yet there it was again: $328 on my Amex.

Guy Kawasaki has created a humorous but valuable test to determine if your company is nearing a Bozo explosion. Give your company a point for each question to which you answer, “true”. The closer your total is to 10 the closer your company is to a bozo explosion. Here are the ten questions along with the answers I’d give our company which does not appear to be headed for a Bozo explosion.

1. The two most popular words in your company are “partner” and “strategic.”

No, the two most popular words are “Innovation” and “Sparkle”.

2. Management has two-day offsites at places like the Ritz Carlton to foster communication and to craft a company mission statement.

No, I’m not aware of any offsites.

3. The aforementioned company mission statement contains more than twenty words–two of which are “partner” and “strategic.”

I don’t think so.

4. Your CEO’s admin has an admin.

No, he doesn’t.

5. Your parking lot’s “biorhythm” looks like this:

• 8:00 am – 10:00 am–Japanese cars exceed German cars
• 10:00 am – 5:00 pm–German cars exceed Japanese cars
• 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm–Japanese cars exceed German cars

The German cars are there just as early.

6. Your HR department requires an MBA degree for any position; it also requires five to ten years work experience in an industry that is only four years old.

Nope. Experience matters though.

7. Time is now considered more important than money so you have a company cafeteria, health club, and pet grooming service.

No, thank goodness! We do have a lot of interesting “action in the alley” if that counts for something.

8. Someone whose music sells in the iTunes music store performs at the company Christmas party.

Uhh…no, and how lame. 

9. An employee is paid to do nothing but write a blog.

I’m paid but not to blog. I only know of one other person besides myself who blogs which is fine with me.

10. The success of a competitor upsets you more than the loss of a customer.

No. The customer is king.