Month: June 2016

Rolling Stone…

• The complaint includes musical charts that aim to demonstrate parallels between the songs’ chord progressions, melodies and rhythms. The songwriters include their own 2009 version, as well as the Cardle version as examples. Their lawyer, Richard Busch – who won a similar suit regarding Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” for the family of Marvin Gaye last year – claims that some 70 percent of the chorus to “Photograph” is identical to that of “Amazing,” right down to the phrasing.

I must have listened to the other 30 percent in my comparison because though similar, I go along with what I heard one guy say once, basically that there are only eight notes, and you can only put them together in so many ways.

Business Insider…

• Tomorrow morning when you look in the mirror after you’ve gotten up, just write — in lipstick or whatever you want, on the mirror — just put: “Delight my customer.” 
  Not “Satisfy my customer,” “Delight my customer.”

Would you rather support a business that satisfies you, or delights you? Funny how one word can make the entire experience different.

Microsoft…

• The addition of Planner to the Office 365 lineup introduces a new and improved way for businesses, schools and organizations to structure teamwork easily and get more done. With Planner, teams can create new plans; organize, assign and collaborate on tasks; set due dates; update statuses and share files, while visual dashboards and email notifications keep everyone informed on progress.

As a competitor to things like Trello and Asana, (I’m a pretty big fan of Trello) it will be interesting to see this in action. The only drawback is it looks like all users must have an Office 365 subscription, unlike others that give you the basics for free with a paid version for extra features. Will Microsoft follow the freemium model for this?

Six Colors…

• after a few minutes, the paranoia sets in: How do I know the power is out for the neighborhood, and not just me? I stepped outside my front door to discover an empty neighborhood on a Tuesday morning. Nobody else was around to notice.

Nice, geeky way to figure out if your power is out. Never assume your neighbors called to report the outage, though – You should still call the electric company yourself.

Rolling Stone…

• “It works,” Johnson said of Ambrose’s ADEL hearing technology in an authorized statement. “It just totally works and you can’t argue with that. I was really moved and amazed to be able to hear music again like I haven’t heard for several years now. I can’t wait for it to be miniaturized so I can use it in every situation from normal communication, going out to noisy restaurants, [and] performing live music onstage.”

Even if it doesn’t mean touring with AC/DC again, this is good news for all with hearing damage.