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Expedient Means

Film, technology and the art of seeing clearly

Author: Steve A Furman

  • All the World’s a Sage

    Marshall McLuhan’s watershed work The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects is obviously the inspiration for this post. I first came across his book in 1967 and was completely blown away. My best friend, Tim, a budding graphic designer and fantasy artist, came running up to my front door…

  • Forrester Finance Forum 2008 – First of Three

    Great Customer Experience: Easy to Say, Hard to Do. Just returned from the Forrester Research Finance Forum held in New York June 23rd and 24th. Forrester is a research company that does an excellent job at spotting trends, doing deep dive research, and providing companies with helpful insights. I have…

  • Online Grocery Shopping Evolves

    I absolutely HATE grocery shopping. Let me be a little more specific. It’s not so much the shopping part that I hate. It’s driving there, waiting in the long checkout lines, pushing the cart to the car, driving them home, lugging them into the house, and generally wasting 1-3 hours…

  • Red Cross Using Social Community

    The recent heartbreaking events of the midwest floods have reached unprecedented heights. Anyone that lives in a stricken area or has a friend or loved one there, wants to know as much information as possible about what’s happening on the ground. The American Red Cross has always had a focus…

  • Golf, Tiger and Father’s Day

    The U.S. Open golf tournament and Father’s Day seem to always intersect. Growing up, I used to watch the last day of the tournament with my father on his day. Now it’s my day, and I was gearing up for tomorrow’s BBQ with friends and my family when I decided…

  • People Read on the Web

    Web designers and usability pundits have said for years that people don’t read on the web. At best they skim, and if you have copy that is not juxtaposed with some attractive image it won’t be read. In those days we were encouraged to put as much as possible above…

  • Agricultural, Industrial, Technological… Eco-Age?

    This really is an exciting time to be alive. There are some crucial moments in the offing. Arguably the most significant presidential election to be held since the birth of the first baby boomer. A realization that our climate is changing and we may be the cause. Growing, insatiable demand…

  • More Thoughts About Social Media

    You’re in a meeting with marketing execs (or you are marketing exec) and the topic is social media. The various constituents around the table have come with their usual analog playbook. “Tell them how great our products are, get them to buy, here’s where we make our money,” blah, blah,…

  • Indy Cars and Super Modifieds

    Watching this year’s Indy 500 took me back to my childhood. I grew up within ear shot of a high-banked, dirt oval race track. Every Sunday night during the summer, my dad took me to the races. I had an uncle that raced for a few years and traveled the midwest…

  • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – Film Review

    Heeeee’s Baaaaack. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is more of a marketing event than a picture. It’s as much about the filmmakers, Spielberg, Lucas and Ford, as it is the film. But then again those are the guys that made it. Going in I tried to…

  • Usability Gaff (UG) 1 – A New Blog Series

    Thought I’d start a new series called Usability Gaff, UG. Obviously I spend a fair amount of time online, after all it is my job. Very frequently I come across something that is just plain wrong. Here’s the first UG. I went to the Illinois Tollway site the other day…

  • Baseball Memories Can’t Be Demolished

    One of the things they don’t tell you about getting older is much of the structural part of the world you experienced in your youth will be demolished before your very eyes. Movie theaters, bars, bowling alleys, stores, schools, sometimes even the residences where you once lived. This change is…

  • 50 Ways to Say Welcome

    Growing up we always took our vacations in the family station wagon, traversing the country on America’s highways. You see so much that way, rolling over every mile. This was before iPods, DVD players, and some of our cars didn’t even have air conditioning. Today’s recreational ride is much different.…

  • Google in the Classroom – What if…?

    I have always loved the way Google transforms their logo to draw attention to key dates or milestones. You can see a previous post on this topic here. Underway now is Doodle 4 Google. School kids from kindergarten through high school have been invited to create their own Google logo…

  • How to Frustrate Your Site Users

    AT&T is my home telephone provider. I switched from MCI WorldCom (remember Bernie Ebbers now incarcerated for fraud and conspiracy) because MCI couldn’t understand that they needed to come to my newly constructed home to actually connect the phone wires from the outside of the house to the inside switch…

  • Homage to Comet

    This one’s personal. If you have pets you know how attached you can get to them. They become part of your family. You love them and they drive you crazy at the same time. Yesterday we lost a beloved member of our family, Comet the cat. He was pretty amazing.…

  • Wine – Just Enjoy It

    Newsweek Magazine ran a short article summarizing a new book called The Wine Trials by Robin Goldstein. The trials consisted of 500 volunteers (everyday drinkers and experts) participating in a blind taste test of 540 wines, tasting over 6,000 glasses. The results? The subjects rated lower cost wines higher than more expensive…

  • Human + Machine = Manifesto

    For purposes of the post, Human is the Marketing department and Machine is the IT department. Manifesto is my rant. Nothing should be read into the terms. I have the highest regard and respect for IT and Marketing people (I am one) everywhere. I attended Interwoven’s annual client summit, GearUp…

  • Great, Another Exercise Routine

    First there was all that home gym equipment we purchased with good intentions, but quickly became an expensive clothes rack. Next came paying a monthly health club membership fee but almost never using it. Now we find out we have to consciously exercise our mind to help stave off brain…

  • Edward Hopper – Sunlight on the Side of a House

    It was gray today with periods of showers. Perfect for spending time in the Art Institute of Chicago viewing an exhibition of Edward Hopper’s works. Hopper is a mild obsession of mine. But you have to understand that mild for me is probably equal to an off the charts extreme…