Type 2 diabetes is on the rise and the truth is I’m not getting any younger and need to take the necessary precautions to prevent diabetes. So where do you buy stuff online to satisfy that sugar craving without making yourself sick? The answer.. Sugar Free America which scours the globe for healthy sugar free alternatives.

Last time it was Yahoo swallowing Flickr, now my YouTube & Google accounts have been linked to the collective.

Um, ok. Now what? What exactly just happened? Don’t worry, they’ve simply merged the member databases and now you can probably share information between the sites. Oh, and by the way your gMail contacts can see what YouTube movies you watch, but anonymity on the internet is an illusion; especially if you’re silly enough like me to register the same user name for all websites. Flickr, DeviantArt, Ning, YouTube, and Blogger might not seem linked, but chances are it’s easy for anyone to figure out what sites you frequent. Forgotten and neglected profiles are no doubt still broadcasting details about you on LiveJournal, Bebo, Freebase, Facebook, MySpace, all data will be assimilated and processed! Of course, there’s always that other person using your user id on sites you’ve never even heard of.

Green Shift happens to be a Toronto based consultancy specializing in corporate environmentalism. Their name is trademarked. Recently, the bumbling Liberal Party of Canada appropriated the name for its new proposed tax on carbon footprints. So far the Liberals have ignored cease and desist orders from the company’s lawyers.

What’s really funny is chief bumbler, Stephane Dion’s response to the mess - stating that sharing its name with a wonderful new tax shouldn’t hurt the company. Dion has also claimed that Canadians would be more than happy to have a new tax!

BTW - Happy Independence day to our American readers. You can celebrate the fact that the Liberal Party doesn’t have a US branch!

The potential for ecom innovation is huge. Consider the business suit. (what? business suit?? that’s so 1950s right?) For a few centuries, suits represented image and class. This picture (right side) is of my great-great-great grandfather - Louis Montpellier - in a classic 1800s double breasted… so where are the suits now? Has GooglePlex-culture squashed them out of existence?

Not according to SM friend and HyperEnterpreneur Aydin Mirzaee (aka CEO of BOK) His latest venture SuitUpp (along with a few partners) features a totally hot suit every week - until it sells out. Judging from this picture (left side) - classic suits are back in style!

2. Choose a cause that everyone lusts for: for example the Canadian launch of Apple’s iPhone.

3. Put them together: for example, Rogers has the most expensive plan on the planet for the iPhone.

4. Choose a catchy name: for example RuinediPhone.com (it’s tragic, it’s RUINED!)

5. Get a famous law professor / advocate / blogger to write about your petition: for example Michael Geist

6. Feed the paranoia: for example, if the site gets too popular too quickly, your discount host may shut down the site due to bandwidth overusage. Watch the conspiracy theories roll in: Rogers shut the site down!

7. Mirror the site and resume collecting names and comments.

8. Earn easy beer-money by cashing in on the cause and the paranoia: for example suggest a donation of $2 to help defray bandwidth charges.

9. Collect lots of names: for example, as of today you might have 40,000 people signed up.

10. Spend the loot: for example, assuming that 10% of people will donate $2 - you’re bringing in $4,000! That’s enough for 40 beers at the pub for you and your friends ($200) AND a new iPhone ($200) AND a 3-year contract from Rogers ($3,600)!

“I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.

So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated…

…I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.

In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.

This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?…

…Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night — why should I reboot at that time?

So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state…”

• Green Tea and Fuji Apple
• Red Tea and Acai Blueberry
• White Tea and Mandarin Orange

This is probably a good thing that the store is running out, since it has inspired me to approximate some home brewed version myself. Yeah sure I know I won’t succeed in matching the Fuji Apple, but how hard can it be to make iced tea?

On the bottle there’s a warning not to exceed 3 bottles a day, so that you don’t overdose on vitamins. I typically stick to a bottle a week, however, it makes me wonder, what’s the maximum dosage for coke in a given day?

In case you haven’t heard, Cadbury has just launched Trident Xtra Care gum that is said to rebuild tooth enamel. What’s next? A McDonald’s hamburger that strengthens your heart and fights cancer?

It also makes me wonder what would the ultimate coca-cola be made of? Sure, it should still taste the same is it does now, but it’d be full of the stuff you need. It seems to me the trick is for a bottle of pop to be no more than what you need. For instance, 40% of your daily sodium requirements perhaps shouldn’t be in every can.

Stride Gum (A Cadbury brand) is a master at internet marketing. The understated nature of its Matt sponsorship is a credit to the company. The Matt videos are YouTube allstars. Last week, Matt released the HiRes version to Vimeo - a much better experience!
BTW - according to Wikipedia, the accompanying music features a traditional Solomon Islands song and dialect.

Watch this beautiful experience here:

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Keep your eyes peeled for Where The Hell Is Mitch!

Finally those difficult to use and awkward little buttons on iGoogle are about to be nixed. The problem with the UI is that the ‘remove this’ button marked with an ‘x’ is right next to the ‘expand this’ button marked with a ‘+’. If you’re like me you’re forever deleting the application you’re trying to use.

A new improved iGoogle is now in testing and the annoying delete buttons have been removed. This new version will also be transforming iGoogle into a social network with some Facebook like features. I just hope you’ll be able to turn those features off. Now where again is that delete button?

A short history of ink gouging:
1888 - John J. Loud gets patent for un-manufacturable ballpoint pen
1938 - The Biro brothers of Hungary patent a manufacturable pen - pens cost hundred$
1960 - BIC battles the ink pirates - begins selling the ubiquitous 29 cent pen
1984 - Ink jet printers are introduced

There’s only one problem. The ad wasn’t made by JC Penney. In fact the boring, stodgy, middle-American execs of the company are outraged and insist on taking…

any action it can to have the ad removed from the Internet. “It’s obviously inappropriate and nothing we would ever condone,” he said. “We’re very disappointed that our logo and brand position were used in that way.”

The clever ad was apparently produced “after-hours” by a contractor hired by ad firm Saatchi & Saatchi. According to the The Wall Street Journal,

The video, called “Speed Dressing,” ends with the teens heading down to the basement as the words “Today’s the day to get away with it” flash on the screen, echoing Penney’s use of the phrase “Today’s the day to…” in a series of ads it launched last year. Penney’s logo and “Every Day Matters” slogan then appear on the screen.

watch it here, while you can!

Calliflower is a web-based conference service that features an engaging easy to use interface (3 simple steps!). Business users can quickly set up conference calls, or use it to present content. Colliflower is also launching Communiques which features scheduled live chats with interesting people. Sign up here to listen to William Shatner talk about his latest book. This Communique is live on Thursday (6-8pm Pacific Time).

Here’s a screenshot for creating a new conference:

Congratulations to Alec and his team!

via The DieLine

BTW - ICANN is the organization that “runs” the internet.

A few proposed changes could significantly change our beloved cloud. First, ICANN is looking at ways to limit domain tasting. In case you’re wondering, Sensorymetrics.com tastes like chicken. ICANN currently offers a 5-day money back guarantee on your registration. This was originally offered so that registrants could test the marketability of certain domains. Currently - this feature is used mainly by scammers. In 2007, GoDaddy reported that out of 55.1 million domain registrations, 51.5 million were refunded - leaving only 3.6 million actual paid registrations.

In other ICANN news, France24 reports that personalized TLDs could be a reality…

Watch out for dot-mitch coming soon!

Paul Twomey, the president of ICANN, tells the French daily, Les Echos, that you’ll even be able to register domains in alphabets other than the Roman standard, such as Cyrillic or Chinese.

The Internet regulators, Twomey says, have already tested 15 languages to make sure that the segue to new domains will run smoothly on Microsoft, Mozilla or Apple browsers.

Those with complaints may soon be asked to visit www-dot-whereismydomain-dot-disappointed.

With the potential explosion of TLDs, the loser would be navigation usability - although this would likely be solved with improved search and bookmarking tools!

The best part is Pong with the “middle finger” ball!! Relax - just turn up the volume! (I’m reporting this now only because 100k people have seen this on YouTube - SM - early music adopters!)

Via IdeeBlog

This got me thinking about the dozens of chats I’d had with software startups about pricing models - or lack of. Developing a sound business model is tough work. Perhaps the web 2.0 “model” is a convenient excuse for ignoring monetization: “we’re gonna focus on traffic, then worry about making money - you know, like Google does it!” Well, even Google knows that nothing is really free. Somebody’s paying for it somewhere along the chain.

Selling software is very different than selling consumer goods. Many established pricing models don’t apply. For example, cost-plus pricing takes into account the cost of raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, shipping, warranty returns, margins for the distribution channel, and direct & co-marketing. Then profit.

In the software world - development and sales are the main cost-centers. Instead of cost-plus, look at pricing to value. If a customer using your product makes an extra $5,000 in profit (whether by enabling new services or cost reduction) surely your product is worth more than “free”. What’s it worth? $20? $99? $450? If your product is indeed as good as you say it is - then go for $450!

Marketing guru Seth Godin agrees,

Your sales force and your customers may scream that you need to lower your price.
It’s not true.
You need to increase your value. If people don’t want to pay, it’s because you’re not delivering enough value for the money you’re charging.
You’re not selling a commodity unless you want to.

If you’re still not convinced, read Ronald J. Bakker’s book Pricing on Purpose: Creating and Capturing Value.

There is one more important step before the cash starts to roll in. The most difficult part (for the non-salesman) is to stare into your customer’s eyes and demand they pay you the money you deserve, without flinching. That’s why great salespeople are hard to come by!