Cousin storms New York

My cousin, Eric Bjorklund, has taken New York by storm. He is kicking
butt and taking names, pretty amazing considering his reserved and
polite nature...

Street corner photo

Busy new york street.. Sometimes it feels good to be a tourist.

Getting chilly in New York

I am writing thid post from my sidekick as I walk to get some lunch. I
had set up the ability to post from my phone before and I am glad to
have it setup again. Hopefully I will be able to do a little moblogging
now.

4 million PayPass cards by year end

It is wonderful to see something you worked on become big. Three years ago I worked for JP Morgan Chase on the launch of PayPass, a contactless payment technology being developed by MasterCard. Basically, it looks like a credit card, but you wave it near a reader instead of swiping it, plus there isn't a signature required for charges under $25. (I think this is still the case) At the time I started working on the project, the product didn't have a name, it hadn't been issued anywhere yet, and we were still working with all sorts of vendors to get things working. I even had the opportunity to make the second purchase ever (my boss did the first) using the technology at the MasterCard gift shop.

Since that time, pilots have take place in Florida, Texas, and Illinois(I think) to name a few and now finally the product is coming to the masses. According to an article on Reuters there will be 4 million PayPass cards issued by year end.

So now when you walk into the McDonalds or Duane Reade and see the funny looking credit card machines you will know what they are for. It will be interesting to see how the number of cards continues to grow over the next couple of years.

Google Secure Access: No comment

There are web pages related to a new service from Google called Google Secure Access, but Google isn't talking about them (yet). Should be interesting to see how this is rolled out. From the FAQ it seems that the service will provide access to a google VPN and help secure your data transmissions. Interesting.

The Big Battle Over Ad Budgets

Here is an interesting article related to the rapid increase in the amount of money going to online advertising, called The Big Battle Over Ad Budgets.

There are some amazing numbers about how advertising spend is moving rapidly from traditional outlets, such as newspapers, to newer, more interactive outlets, such as online ads.

There are many interesting things in store.

What's the weather in New York? -- Yahoo! Search - Instant Search

Earlier today, Yahoo launched its Instant Search which allows a user to see the results of their search as they type.

Yahoo gives a few examples, including "boston weather" which will show you the weather in the city just as you hit "r" in weather, without hitting return or skipping to a results page. That's pretty nice. So is the example where I type in an address ("22 5th ave new york ny") and get a map popup on the page before I hit return.

So, to answer the question I asked as the header of this post: the weather in New York is 82 degrees and partly cloudy.

A Blogs impact on customer service - WOW!

Last week, Charlie O'Donnell from This is Going to be big posted an article about how his furniture wasn't delivered. We have all been there, waiting for the phone guy or the cable guy hoping that they won't be late. In his case, the furniture delivery guy didn't show up. Most people would just call in and reschedule. Instead, Charlie posted about it and got in contact with the head of Logistics, Ward Dingmann, via LinkedIn.

When I saw his post, I commented on it asking to be kept abreast of the situation.

Now, according to a post on his blog, he not only has he received his furniture (including a couch that wasn't supposed to be delivered for a month) he also received first rate customer service. Kudos to the the guys at Levitz! They were able to turn what could have been a really bad PR black eye into a customer service win.

Ajax Apps... Check out Zimbra - email, calendering, and collaboration

I have been reading a bit about Ajax lately and have been impressed by some of its capabilities. New applications are popping up all over the web these days. A good friend, Dan Grossman, recently posted about the top ten Ajax Applications.

He has a great list, but I think he might want to check out Zimbra. Their demo is very impressive and I imagine the interface might be quite fast given the capabilities of Ajax. good work guys.

nano nano - new iPod is slick and small

It just keeps getting smaller and smaller. Nice work from the guys over at Apple. Take a look at the Apple - iPod nano.

Desperation in New Orleans

newl2
Originally uploaded by tycoonforthekids.

This picture captures a bit of the desperation, fear, and misery that has been overwhelming New Orleans and a good portion of areas along the Southern Coast for the better part of the last week.

When seeing this picture and the coverage on CNN I can't help but be overwhelmed by the scope of this tragedy. Like many others, I have been frustrated by the pace of rescue and recovery and hope that in the days to come things improve.

My thoughts and prayers are those who are still struggling to leave the region or reconnect with their loved ones.

On a lighter note, I found this among a larger group of pictures tagged 'looting' in Flikr. It is amazing the kind of pictures you can find looking through the Flickr community.