Sep 222011
 
Interview with Alex Palevsky, Co-Founder of BMW M Registry

I’m excited to publish the first of a two part interview with Alex Palevsky, a very well known name in BMW enthusiast circles. Alex has been a contributing writer to Bimmer magazine since the magazine began in 1998. In 2001 he and Regan Clark launched BMW M Registry, the definitive online information source on BMW’s […]

Sep 202011
 
Is Google Bad Because Its Big?

I get Sunday delivery of the Washington Post and enjoy reading it the old school way. As I did so this past Sunday I noticed something unusual in the Outlook section. I don’t mean the fact the section was only six pages in length, although that could be the subject of another post. What I […]

Sep 162011
 

I’ve written previously about the contraction of the technology press in the past few years. All media companies have been hit hard by the Internet, but tech trades in particular are either gone or mere shadows of what they once were. In an effort to reduce costs, many publications today look to outsource content production […]

Sep 122011
 
Replacing Oxygen Sensors on an E39 M5

As I’ve stated many times on this blog, when you own a BMW out of warranty you need to learn up on maintenance. With some research and a little effort, you can literally save hundreds of dollars on relatively simple maintenance issues. A good example is how I recently replaced oxygen sensors on my 2002 […]

Sep 052011
 
Getting a Spare Tire for my E39 M5

Happy Labor Day to all. This year really is flying by – often a cliche I know but true. It seems like yesterday that I sold my 2001 530i sport and bought my 2002 M5, not four months ago. Last week I finally took care of an issue that’s been on my mind since I […]

Aug 302011
 
HubSpot Scores with Twitter Press Release

Recently HubSpot made some news in social media circles with their acquisition of the Twitter boutique firm oneforty.  They attracted attention to this acquisition in a very clever way — via a press release consisting of 13 distinct tweets. Kudos to them for the creativity. It no doubt helped them secure placements in the Wall […]

Aug 292011
 

Saturday night Gabriele and I had dinner at Geranio in Old Town Alexandria. We’d spent the day preparing our house as best we could for Hurricane Irene. Our backyard has drainage issues during any heavy storm, so we were concerned about water getting into our basement. However we had made reservations at Geranio partly due […]

Aug 252011
 
Changing How Government Market Research is Done

One of the fun things about agency work is being involved in multiple client initiatives. Strategic Communications Group has a philosophy of great work for great clients, and great clients offer the chance to work on big, exciting projects. A good example is our work on behalf of Deltek, founder of the GovWin social network. […]

Aug 232011
 
The Confusing World of Performance Tires

If you’re in the market for new tires for your BMW or another kind of performance car , you might be a bit confused right now. The proliferation of categories — Extreme performance, Max performance, Ultra High performance – can make selecting the right tires very difficult. I’m researching right now because my 1999 M3 […]

Aug 172011
 
Explaining Google's Purchase of Motorola

You can’t help seeing the huge amount of coverage around Google’s purchase of Motorola, announced this Monday. Depending on who you read, Google really stuck it to Apple and Microsoft, Motorola had Google over a barrel and made them pay through the nose, and/or  Google is smartly protecting the Android ecosystem while increasing its mobile […]

Aug 152011
 
Repairing After Market Hella Headlights

This Saturday I repaired the angel eye ring in one of my Hella headlights. As you can see in the graphic above, the thing just flat fell off a couple of weeks ago and was loose inside the headlight assembly. Before I took this headlight apart, I tried to get some direction from the manufacturer. […]