Amid all the iPhone stuff, Apple came out with a new product called iLaunch. The Onion has the late breaking news at Apple Unveils New Product-Unveiling Product. (Thanks Dave.)
Yes – I have my iPhone. No – it doesn’t work. iTunes 7.3 on my Vista machine doesn’t seem to have the iPhone software working correctly (it keeps giving me an install error.) I’ve now done the uninstall / reinstall iTunes drill – let’s see if that helps.
Update: Got the iTunes activation working with a re-install, but apparently my credit isn’t good enough for AT&T and I need to go by an AT&T store to get pre-authorization. My partner Ryan is in the same boat. How bizarre and unsatisfying. I guess I’ll be leaving my house today.
Amy and I watched The Matrix Reloaded this weekend. What a great movie. I love The Keymaker (along with the The Merovingian and The Architect). I commented to Amy this morning that she was an extraordinary list maker (she is truly the best maker of lists I have ever encountered) and we’ve decided that if Matrix Redux (aka Matrix IV) ever comes out, she’s going to apply for the part of The Listmaker.
Amy and I have been married for 14 years today. On June 21st, I always have the Little River Band song in echoing in my head all day and a larger than normal jump in my step.
For those of you mix summer solstice with a dollop of marriage, happy anniversary.
To Amy – thanks for an awesome 14 years. I’m looking forward to at least 103 more. I’ll see you tonight.
John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, has an excellent blog post up on the Whole Foods web site titled Whole Foods Market, Wild Oats, and The Federal Trade Commission.
Whole Foods is trying to acquire Wild Oats and the FTC is challenging the merger. As I scanned through my online newspapers this morning as part of my morning routine, I saw articles in each of them (Boulder Camera, Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, NY Times, and WSJ) about this. The deal is getting a lot of airplay locally since Wild Oats is a Boulder-based company and Whole Foods has significant presence here.
Most of the articles positioned the story using a few quotes from an email from Mackey. My first reaction was “eh – that sounds pretty normal from a CEO of the market leader – what’s the big deal?” One of the articles pointed to the blog that Mackey wrote. It’s brilliant – one of the best examples I’ve seen of a CEO using a corporate blog to get his point of view clearly out in the open. The executive summary follows:
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently filed a complaint challenging the merger of Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats. Whole Foods Market intends to fight this complaint in court. My blog posting provides a detailed look into Whole Foods Market’s decision-making process regarding the merger, as well as our company’s experience interacting with the FTC staff assigned to this merger. I provide explanations of how I think the FTC, to date, has neglected to do its homework appropriately, especially given the statements made regarding prices, quality, and service levels in its complaint. I also provide a glimpse into the bullying tactics used against Whole Foods Market by this taxpayer-funded agency. Finally, I provide answers in my FAQ section to many of the questions that various Team Members have fielded from both the media and company stakeholders.
As stated in our initial press release about Whole Foods Market’s challenge to the FTC’s complaint, we set an intention as a company to be as transparent as possible throughout this process. This is my first detailed effort at transparency. We will provide additional information as we field new questions and receive updates on the proceedings from the FTC and the courts.
The goal of transparency is presumably one that the FTC – if they approach this from an enlightened point of view – can respect. Many corporate blogs are just regurgitated PR – the authenticity of this one from Mackey is really impressive. Who knows how this really plays out – it’ll be instructive to watch.
Amy and I became addicted to Lost this year after my brother and his wife gave us Season 1 on DVD for some holiday gift thing. If you are lost in Lost, check out the following video of the plane crash sequence.
Someone went to the trouble of splicing the segments together across a bunch of different episodes – it’s pretty dramatic.
Amy put an interview with Brad Paisley & Kimberly Williams titled “The Look of Love” (People Magazine, May 7, 2007, p. 193) on my desk the other day. The last few lines could have been from a conversation between me and Amy.
Brad: I’m not really into beauty products. I just find them through my wife. I work in the sun a lot outside and I get dry skin, and I’ll borrow whatever is in the cabinet.
Kimberly: He’ll take whatever is sitting there – if it’s $80 La Mer, he would still take it.
Brad: Her hair products are good – like what’s that oil in the shower?
Kimberly: That’s for shaving my legs! Have you been putting it on your hair?
Brad: I thought it was conditioner. Well, anyway, it makes your hair real shiny!
I think all Brad’s must be the same.
I love outing friends that are blogging. My partner Ryan McIntyre’s wife Katherine has started a blog titled It is what it is. Katherine and Ryan moved to Boulder in August 2006 and – other than the worst winter ever in the history of man – have been settling in nicely. Katherine is a beautiful writer: upfront, personal, and articulate while being willing to tackle juicy stuff. Her posts have quickly become some of my favorites to read when they show up in FeedDemon. Katherine – welcome to the blogosphere or whatever it is called these days.
If you’ve been following along at home, you know that Amy and I disconnect once a quarter for a week (we call this “Qx vacation.”) Usually we go away – someplace warm when it’s cold in Colorado and someplace in Europe the rest of the time. For Q2 vacation, we decided to hang out at our place in Keystone.
That’s the view from our living room. I left the big 40’ pine trees in the picture just for perspective. While we had a nice week, it was more of a “break” than an “off the grid disconnect.” For some reason I had difficulty completely disconnecting (maybe it was because there were too many fun things going on in my world last week.) I did get some amazing runs in – that little white dot below is me heading off into the mountains.
We also got to know our new Golden Retriever named Brooks.
We’ve decided Keystone is a great place to take a break, but isn’t some place we can do Qx vacations. Paris, Rome, and Barcelona – here we come. That said, as I sit here on my chair in Keystone in a post run bliss while watching Nadal and Federer battle it out, I love Colorado.
I love my mother – she’s the best mother I’ve ever had. One of her most endearing traits is that she is a jewish mother. If you don’t know what I mean, here are some examples from history.
MONA LISA’S JEWISH MOTHER: “After all the money your father and I spent on braces, this you call a smile?”
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS’ JEWISH MOTHER: “I don’t care what you’ve discovered, you didn’t call, you didn’t write.”
MICHELANGELO’S JEWISH MOTHER: “A ceiling you paint? Not good enough for you the walls, like the other children? Do you know how hard it is to get that schmutz off the ceiling?”
NAPOLEON’S JEWISH MOTHER: “You’re not hiding your report card? Show me! Take your hand out of your jacket and show me!”
ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S JEWISH MOTHER: “Again with that hat! Why can’t you wear a baseball cap like the other kids?”
GEORGE WASHINGTON’S JEWISH MOTHER: “Next time I catch you throwing money across the Potomac, you can kiss your allowance good-bye!
THOMAS EDISON’S JEWISH MOTHER: “Okay, so I’m proud that you invented the electric light bulb. Now turn it off already and go to sleep!”
PAUL REVERE’S JEWISH MOTHER: “I don’t care where you think you have to go, young man, midnight is long past your bedtime!”
ALBERT EINSTEIN’S JEWISH MOTHER: “Your senior photograph and you couldn’t have done something with your hair?”
MOSES’ JEWISH MOTHER: “Desert, schmesert!! Where have you really been for the last forty years?”
BILL GATES’ JEWISH MOTHER: “It would have killed you to become a doctor?”
BILL CLINTON’S JEWISH MOTHER: “Well, at least she was a nice Jewish girl, that Monica!”
Mom – love ya! (Greg – thx.)