Mar 172013
 
Solving BMW Vibration on My E39 M5

This week I solved a problem with my E39 M5 having a vibration at highway speeds. At 70 mph there was a vibration that seemed to come from directly beneath the car. It was not coming from the steering wheel, and was not connected to accelerating or braking. BMW suspensions have a reputation for being […]

Mar 132013
 
Paintless Dent Repair on my E36 M3

Everyone who even cares a little bit about their car knows the awful feeling. You come back to you parked car, and some $#*&^#$* has left you with a ding. It happened to my M3 a couple of weeks back. I drove to the gym, and when I walked back out someone had left a […]

Mar 102013
 
2013 gTLD Update

Previously on this site I’ve written about the generic top level domain (gTLD) debate, which has been contentious from day one. I tried to have some fun with the debate with this animated video from almost two years ago. And in July of 2011 I interviewed Antony Van Couvering, a former colleague from VeriSign and […]

Mar 052013
 
Finding the Right BMW Parts -- Continued

My recent story on how to find the best replacement parts for your BMW sparked a lot of comments on LinkedIn. Most of these were in the BMW M Owners group, with a number of owners and a couple of former parts managers sharing their perspectives. (Thanks Mike for taking the time to leave your […]

Mar 032013
 
Ravenswood Zinfandel -- The Good Stuff

Last year my wife Gabriele and I visited Sonoma, and enjoyed a number of excellent Zinfandels. A number of those Zinfandels were from Ravenswood, which is a well known name for Zinfandel but doesn’t ship a lot of its smaller production wines to the east coast. There’s nothing wrong with the Ravenswood wine you can […]

Feb 272013
 
Content Marketing Requires Culture Shift

This week I read two stories talking about content marketing that got me thinking. One was from Mitch Joel at Six Pixels of Separation, and the other from Justin Case at  his blog Justin Case You Were Wondering (clever title, Justin)! Both are worth a click and a few minutes of your time. To paraphrase, […]

Feb 232013
 
Finding Quality Car Parts -- What's the Real Story?

Anyone who owns an older BMW knows buying the best quality car parts at the best price can be confusing. In this era of global consolidation and cost cutting, it’s never been harder to know how to balance quality and value. The Truth About Cars ran an excellent piece today about how car manufacturers exploit […]

Feb 202013
 
Review of the Curious Grape in Arlington, Virginia

My latest WashingtonExec Wine and Dine column published today. It features my review of the Curious Grape, in the Shirlington area of Arlington, VA. The Curious Grape is a combination wine shop and restaurant. The wine discussed in the review is the Andrew Murray 2011 Esperance, a nice Rhone style blend from central California. While […]

Feb 172013
 
Talking with Brad Flora of Perfect Audience

Last week Brad Flora, co-founder and ceo of startup Perfect Audience reached out to me to offer a guided demo. He had seen my recent article on retargeting, and wanted to show me how Perfect Audience was making retargeting easy for companies of any size. It was an impressive demo. Working with Facebook’s FBX Ad […]

Feb 132013
 
Boomers and Bacchus in the U.S.

Joe Roberts has a good story this week at 1WineDude that mixes wine, economics, demographics and a failure to adopt social media marketing. Add these elements up, and he predicts hard times for the U.S. wine business as Boomers continue to age, retire and pass on. He cites a report put out by the Silicon […]

Feb 102013
 
Easy Bluetooth Solution for Older BMWs

Both of my BMWs were made before integrated Bluetooth phone connectivity became the norm for new cars. That’s never been a big deal for me, since I much prefer to not take calls behind the wheel. However, working in professional services means that occasionally a call can’t be avoided. I needed a hands-free option, especially […]

Feb 062013
 
Online Retargeting Explained

Have you ever researched a product online, and then noticed ads for that product following you around on the Internet? It was really obvious to me this holiday season, when a jacket my wife got me for Christmas was popping up on every site I visited for weeks afterwards. This is called retargeting, and done […]