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.

Jeremy Zawodny introduces three new and very cool web services. I tried all three and was most impressed with Wufoo. There is an elegant simplicity to both Wufoo and Pixoh. As I tested these services I couldn’t help but think that Microsoft must feel that these and other new services pose a signifcant threat to many of their products.

1. Pixoh: online photo editor
2. YouOS: a web operating system
3. Wufoo: a web-based form builder and data collection/reporting service

Jeremy also has an interesting post about edgeio which looks like a spruced up Craigslist to me. It’s pretty clear it’s new but I really like the idea here and hope it takes off. This is one of those sites like Redfin that is hard to leave.

At least according to Dare Obasanjo they do if you compare similar offerings from Google and Yahoo. I don’t believe this is an isolated case. When I worked for a local ISP in the mid 90’s, customers new to the internet would call tech support over confusion between Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer.

Microsoft has so many brands floating around it’s hard to keep track of them all. Over the last year I’ve installed Messenger, MSN Messenger, Windows Live Messenger and Communicator. I have no idea when I should use one or the other. Good luck to Microsoft tech support on this one. And what does “Office Live” sound like but isn’t?

On another note, if Engadget is correct, you’ll be able to chose between 6 versions of Windows Vista.

Source: Scoble

Lawrence Lessig from Stanford University speaks to a group about Free Culture. Best use of Powerpoint slides I’ve ever seen. Keeps it simple and examples are very interesting. You can also download his entire audiobook by called Free Culture.

Source: the excellent mamamusing blog

The same guy behind the original mp3.com and Lindows is going after Microsoft again with his web-based Word competitor called AjaxWrite. I tried it out and was surprised at how responsive it felt. Great for basic word processings which is what I need most of the time.

You won’t find it at the main Firefox site but you will find it at the Revolving World blog.

According to Forbes/MSNBC article here are the top 20 based on big city zip code:

I wish this shirt had been available when I was serving in Germany as a missionary. I’m certain more people would have allowed me into their homes if they thought I was deliverying a package from FedEx. It might also be fun to wear it to an interview with UPS. Link from Billboardom

But it just might land you a job according to Wired. The next person I interview for a Developer or Technical PM position I’m going to ask what level WoW character they are playing.