Setting the Right Price

The Widgetbox office is off of Sansome and Broadway in San Francisco. It's a beautiful area (right along Embarcadero) - but doesn't have much to offer in the way of restaurants. There are two mom-and-pop shops next door: YoYos (udon and sushi) and Silver Star (Chinese food and Sandwiches).

This is a photo from the front window of Silver Star.

Check out the prices - which are completely arbitrary: Broccoli and beef is $3.68. Roast Chicken is $3.75. Potstickers are $2.98.

Why is chicken $0.07 more than beef? Why .68, .75, .98? Hilarious.

The Cubicle Turns 40 Years Old... Design of the Cubicle 2.0?

This week marked the 40th anniversary of the Cubicle.

A momentous event that Time Magazine called a birthday celebration of "the soul-destroying workspace we call the modern cubicle."

Design firm IDEO and Dilbert Creator Scott Adams teamed up to design Cubicle 2.0 - perhaps the vision of cubicle life for the next 40 years? CNN has complete details of the launch event, which occurred on Pier 28 in San Francisco:

: Scott Adams inspects what may be the most popular amenity of Dilbert's ideal cubicle. It's a "snap hammock." You pull it from one wall module, hook it to another module across the cube -- and keep one eye on your "boss monitor" while you take a little siesta. Sweet dreams.

Digg Really is Powered by the Top 50 Users

Digg can be described as an ecosystem for news readers and contributors. That ecosystem is usually thought to be both wide and deep. But below is snapshot of just how critical (and influential) the top 50 users are to it - the icons with a yellow banner / star in it are from my Digg friends (all top 50 users). See a trend? A close friend of mine ran a test on Digg by befriending the top 100 Digg users. His first 3 submissions made the front page within their respective category… He had submitted 100s of articles before and this was a first. As the power users move - so do the herds.

This raises the questions, what happens if the rumored Microsoft acquisition actually happened? Does Digg work if it’s top 50 / 100 users flee? Flickr had similar questions when MS announced their Yahoo bid… I would argue though that Flickr’s value is more sustainable without its core users than Digg’s is.

Digg Top Users

Mark Cuban Chimes in on Jason Calacanis's Start Up Rules

Great blog dialog this weekend that started when Jascon Calacanis wrote his rules for running a start up. Mark Cuban then chimed in and I love his commentary - particularly his advice about only hiring people who are passionate and love the company.

But this was my favorite part of Cuban's post as it references one of my favorite movies: Glengarry Glen Ross. Coffee is for closers is one of the great lines ever. I will forgive Mark though for spelling espresso incorrectly!

"6. An expresso machine? Are you kidding me ? Shoot yourself before you spend money on an expresso machine. Coffee is for closers. Sodas are free. Lunch is a chance to get out of the office and talk. There are 24 hours in a day, and if people like their jobs, they will find ways to use as much of it as possible to do their jobs."

Always be closing!

Why I Blog and Spend (Too Much) Time on the Web...

When my dog Manny was diagnosed with Legg-Perthes Disease last year, there was little information available on the web about the disease, it's impact and the necessary surgery. So I documented the entire process (both Manny's experience and mine) on MyDogManny.com. I made the site in the hope that it might help other dogs and dog-owners overcome the debilitating and commonly misunderstood disease. I receive emails like the one below every couple weeks. This one arrived yesterday and really demonstrated the power of the internet and of content.

I just wanted to extend my heartfelt thanks for all the work and time you put into your website (mydogmanny.com) and chronicling your dogs' progression through FHO surgery.

We recently went through the same experience with our own dog. We were on the fence regarding the surgery, as our pet is older. Your experience convinced us that she could get through this, and the surgery was a huge success!

Without your site to encourage us, we probably would have put her down. Thank you so much for the help and encouragement that your experience lent to us. We are looking forward to many more good years with our beloved little fur ball Peawee, a toy mix we rescued from a shelter.

Sending good vibes to you today - you rock!

Manny:

Big Honcho Media and Semi Pro = Very Impressive

Several weeks ago, I was approached by Big Honcho Media about running a Semi-Pro promotion on SportsWrap. I've been approached by many media / marketing companies - but Big Honcho Media was really terrific.

I was impressed with every interaction and exchange - from emails to the logo-stamped deliveries. In addition to the iPod Shuffles they provided as prizes, Big Honcho sent over a series of unique Semi-Pro gifts (socks, t-shirt, head band) and a hand written thank you card.

Very impressed!

Semi Pro Will Ferrell

Vail Snowmobiling Tour - Photos and Video

Yesterday, we took an unbelievable snowmobile tour in Vail. I had never snowmobiled before - so we decided to take a 4 hour tour with Nova Guides (one of the big guide companies in Vail Valley). They took us out in groups of 8 and we had over 80 miles of national forest track available to ride. The tracks were about 20 minutes past Minturn on route 24 (which before I-70 was the only way from Vail to Denver) - passing through Redcliff, an relatively recently abandoned mining town.

Here are some of the photos from atop the tracks at about 12,000 feet. You can see Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Vail and some other local chutes. The highlight of the trip (other than riding around powder at 50+ mph) was seeing one of the riders in our group fall off his snowmobile and subsequently have it roll 400 yards down a bank of waist-high powder.

Snowmobiling in Vail 1 Snowmobiling in Vail 3 Snowmobiling in Vail 4 Steuart Martens

The first video shows the view atop the mountain. The second is of the fallen snowmobile.