Archive for December 18th, 2006
The Wall Street Journal: Richard Christie, a 73-year-old retiree, was struck by the idea of becoming Santa Claus seven years ago while vacationing in Big Sur. “I was walking on the pier when I saw a man dressed all in red with a full beard, and I watched children flock to him and talk to [...]
BusinessWeekOnline.com: With the holidays fast approaching, Business Week asked entrepreneurship professors at some of the country’s top business schools to recommend one book that they think all entrepreneurs should read. Scott Meadow, a clinical professor entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and partner at Edgewater Funds, recommends a tale set at [...]
Wisconsin Grabs Onto Inventor Club Idea
WinonaDailyNews.com: The Wisconsin Department of Commerce has taken the Inventor and Entrepreneur Club idea developed by a county economic development director and is running with it. Of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, 35 have clubs, each started with $1,000 seed money from the state, said Tony Hozeny, communications director for the Wisconsin Department of Commerce. The clubs [...]
Starting A Business with Your Spouse?
Janine Popick at Inc.com: Starting a business with the one you love might sound dreamy, but you should give it careful consideration before making the business commitment. 1. What type of personality do you each have? If both of you are “alpha” people, or strongly opinionated, be careful. If you are constantly in disagreement, it [...]
Cowardly Lion Of Wizard of Oz Earns Big Bucks on eBay
The lion costume made of real animal skin and worn in the 1939 film classic The Wizard of Oz sold at an auction Friday for $700,000 US ($810,495 Cdn). The sale of 900 pieces of Hollywood memorabilia was hosted live on eBay by the Profiles In History auction house. Actor Bert Lahr played the lovable [...]
Skype Releases New Beta with Smartphone Support
eBay owned VoIP software maker Skype has released the beta version of Skype 2.2. This application now allows Windows Mobile smart phones to access their VoIP services over a Wi-Fi internet connection. Earlier versions of this application only supported the Windows Pocket PC devices. Skype claims that this newly updated version works on 120 different [...]
Huge eBay Faud Case Indicts 21 Suspects
In one of the largest Internet fraud cases in US history, federal fraud charges were filed on Thursday against 21 defendants who allegedly participated in an international fraud scheme in which victims were led to believe that they were purchasing items that were listed for sale on the Internet, typically via auctions on eBay, but [...]
Potential Postal Rates Changes Could Affect eBay Sellers
Shipping issues are always on the minds of online-auction sellers. I’ve noticed several questions come up on eBay discussion boards about pending changes from the United States Postal Service (USPS). One issue involves dimensional rates in the proposed rate changes, and another involves shipping manifests generated by online-postage systems (SCAN forms). I checked in with [...]
Time Magazine’s Person Of The Year: Internet Users
Associated Press: If you use the Internet, or create content for the World Wide Web, then congratulations! You have been named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” — among many others. The annual honor for 2006 went to citizens of the new digital democracy, as the magazine puts it. The 2006 “Person of the Year” [...]
eNewsChannels: Foodler.com, a leading online service for ordering restaurant take out and delivery meals, announced the addition of its 130th partner restaurant in the Boston region. A wide selection of cuisines from some of the Hub’s most popular restaurants, combined with interactive menus and accurate online ordering, have all contributed to Foodler’s 220% growth rate [...]
YouTube: Cracking Down On Crime
WebProNews: Ontario police use the popular video sharing site YouTube to help catch a killer. Hamilton, Ontario police Staff Sgt. Jorge posted a one-minute long clip of a surveillance video on YouTube, in the hopes that the site’s 50 million viewers could aid in the identification of a killer. The clip features “two people of [...]
Forbes.com: For four years Jeremy Josic and his brother Daniel ran a tidy family business selling “licker licenses.” Between March 1999 and June 2003, the brothers managed to convince thousands of stay-at-home moms into stuffing envelopes for a tantalizing fee: $5 to $10 per envelope, or up to $5,000 a week. There was a catch, [...]
WinnipegFreePress.com: Betty Funk’s purses, made from used seatbelts, are so strong you can pull a truck with one, as a customer found out when a tow rope proved too short. The purses are so strong, you could whack a purse snatcher into next Tuesday. The strap won’t rip, either, if you get into a tug-of-war [...]
Postal-Overhaul Bill Aims to Stabilize Rates
The Wall Street Journal: The U. S. Postal Service generally will be barred from raising postage rates beyond the rate of inflation for the next decade under an overhaul passed by Congress. The new law — the first major changes to the service in more than three decades — aims to stabilize rates for households [...]
This weeks’ Carnival of the Capitalists is up at The Entrepreneurial Mind.
