Jim’s posterous

Maybe if there was a meaningful space mission, we could come up with the right rocket. Not to be too much of a downer about it, but space flight has commoditized. We've been to the moon. There's nothing there. We've sent robots to Mars. There's nothing there. These earth-like planets they are finding would take 100,000 years to reach, at the speed of light. Launching satellites is the only meaningful mission, and guess what? Its not sexy and owest cost wins!

Space capsules? That's right, instead of following the Shuttles with something as capable - something that can guarantee American space leadership - we're going to race China, India, and Russia in a competition to build a limited and ungainly spacecraft that America retired a generation ago. And guess what? It will take another seven years before the NASA Orion capsule is ready to ferry astronauts.

Really? Wow. The American space program is going back to space capsules? Seven years from now? Isn't that like going from the i-phone to the 8 track tape player? Seems like a giant leap...backwards. When is Richard Branson planning to start his Virgin space flights? Maybe US astronauts can get a seat on one of those flights.

Here's a blog post from my frustrated buddy John.

John if it's any consolation I was in an empty Staples around 6:30 and waited 20 minutes for the (only) nice counter lady to figure out how the chip card reader works (the stripe goes to the left. LEFT. Dammit). On Saturday Tim Hortons managed to lose yet another one of my orders because the manager serving me got embroiled in a brawl with an angry customer who was questioning the available options (lettuce or tomatoe and/or lettuce and tomatoe or/and/or nothing) on one of those BELT sandwiches (I'm pretty sure the L stands for lettuce and the T for tomatoe?). When it was all said and done, I was out my coffee and donut. I stayed VERY calm.

See John, apparently you're new to this. Not me. I'm a veteran. Happens to me all the time.

And like you, I've tried blogging and tweeting away my frustrations. Without much luck.

The first time Tim Hortons messed me up I tweeted my pain and got a response from some dude in the US. To this day I'm pretty certain he was just absolving the US of any responsibility. Do they even have bagels in the US?

When Westjet kept us all waiting for almost an hour to self check our bags, I sent out a flock of tweets - then sat next to the hot Westjet marketing lady on my flight to Miami. I showed her my tweets (she's dropping the charges). For three weeks those tweets sat on my twitter profile and on my blog. I never heard a thing from Westjet. I'm not even sure they're still in business?

So on Saturday I stayed calm. No tweeting or blogging. Same tonight with Staples.

John, I recognize that like you, I am doomed to be check-out/check-in challenged and to just grin and bear it. Besides, you think Future Shop is following your blog? Come on. Like Westjet, their customer service is probably still living in the past. Off-line.

It's not on the list because it's a few years old (and perhaps not technically a leadership book?) but Marshall Goldsmith's 'What Got You Here Won't Get You There' is very good. Aimed at achievers who have 'made it' - and who are therefore self-certified that their approaches don't require upgrading - Goldsmith does an inspiring job addressing the needs and approaches for doing just that. A few simple tips from the book made me a better listener and more articulate coach. Like lots of these books - although the backdrop is largely business, the lessons can be applied almost anywhere.

Most of you have probably seen Sales Guy v. Web Dude, a hilarious video on the joys of tech support. If you haven’t seen it, kiss ten minutes goodbye and start there. It ranks up there with the stuff on Best Page In The Universe

in entertainment and laugh value.

The creator, Josh Weinberg

, was quiet for a long time after that video. But in the last few months have been productive for him. And he now has three new videos and posted them on The Website Is Down

. All, including the original, are embedded below:

Episode 1 – Sales Guy vs. Web Dude

The original website is down video web dude tries desperately to get his important work done while assaulted on all sides by rampant incompetence. Will he survive???

Episode 2 – Excel Hell

Video #2 from the website is down! Chip takes us on a wild ride into the life of a master salesman. How many sales can he make in a single video? One? Maybe?

Episode 3 – Remain Calm

Chip Demonstrates his special procedure for a hot-swap hardrive replacement using only his steel-toed boot and his razor thin patience. Watch and Learn!

Episode 4 – Sales Demolition

Biz Tip of the week: Get your clients in the room and shove your product down their throats in a sales demo!

Very, very funny. All of them.

My it guys installed Win 7 on a new Lenova desktop and were not impressed with the reliability. At least 50% of the time it would lock up on bootup and didn't get past the startup screen. Hopefully the final release will be more stable than the RC but I would wait and let others – and by that I mean real people you know and trust take the plunge first. If it's still got problems you can bet MS will release a Service pack ASAP.

The latest Fortune cover says 'Microsoft is Cool Again'. Man, if they are, I'm missing it. Can Win 7 do that? I'm pretty sure cool is being driven by clouds, smart phones and apps, not outdated operating systems that take forever to start-up and need updating every 4 days. We'll see what Win 7 can do. But by then hopefully I'll have my new Mac.

There were unconfirmed reports that at one stage the cockpit was unmanned, as the crew was busy fighting outside.

And in the left seat, weighing in at 260 lbs is Captain Hulk Hogan. And in the co-pilots seat is...man, I can't wait for this edition of Mayday!!

The next big thing? Reviews from the early users are mixed - but it's early.

Those who are unprepared, those who had been expecting best-case career scenarios, may find disillusionment, boredom, complacency, or even a disregard for procedures and regulations creeping into their professional life.

Interesting post. It's one thing when the junior marketing manager falls asleep on the job (or frankly the CEO of a fund company) - but your pilot?! Truth is - pilots are people too. They have bad days, get pissed off at management, get bored with their jobs. Thanks to technology, good training, and I generally high level of professionalism (right?) most flights end well. Here's hoping your pipeline clears soon!!

One might argue that the weakened state of business media doesn’t matter much; it’s simply an overabundant commodity in a tightening market.

Hmmm. This isn't an issue I'd given much thought to. The arguments make some sense - fewer outlets for story-telling and learning from others, more fractured sources of coverage, potentially more bias. Those seem like they could be all true. Do they matter? Maybe. But in my mind, small and medium sized companies were largely ignored by the press anyways. Today, thanks to the web I see an incredible opportunity for companies to get their stories out however and whenever they want - regardless of size, location, industry, etc. And for CEO's to learn more than they ever imagined - in just an hour every morning on tools like Google reader. The real problem? Only a small percentage of companies and CEO's seem to take advantage of the cornucopia of opportunities out there. The majority of companies I see haven't even figured the power of search marketing yet, never mind having any hands-on idea about what social networking could do for their story. And I see way too many CEO's roaring around ensuring that the picture of business that they learned 10 or 20 years ago is what their business becomes. Which is a key reason in my mind why there are so many under-performing businesses. So I'm not sure the real problem is the success, decline or failure of the traditional press (speaking of what happens when you operate your business looking backwards) but the failure to take advantage of the changing but phenomenal opportunities to learn and communicate going forward.