The Name Inspector has recently learned about Lard Butt , a new athletic apparel company based here in Seattle. This is a great example of naming done right. First, there are the positive associations of lard, a filling and economical ingredient that makes fried foods taste great. The word lard also...

Snydeq writes "For the past several months, Microsoft has engaged in an far-reaching public mea culpa about Vista, holding a series of press interviews to explain how the company's Vista mistakes changed the evolvement process of Windows 7. Chief among these changes was the purposefulness to 'define...

Filed under: Other hardware, Set-top boxes, Others, Internet Since Xbox Live Marketplace was already home to NBC Universal movies and TV (at home and abroad) Microsoft's seen fit to fire back at Sony's PSN announcement with the relatively incremental additions of content from The Weinstein Company a...

Yet again a cash now pusher has tried to factor a structured settlement annuity owned by the United States of America and someone has pissed on its leg. This time it's the United States District Court for the District of Kansas ordering summary judgment for the United States on March 10, 2009 in an ...

REAL SILLY The following op-ed piece in the San Francisco Chronicle is worth some attention involving an initiative called RealDVD* by Real Networks.  Titled the "Movie industry's shortsighted fight", it explains: "Thomas Edison, probably America's best-known and most prominent inventor of all time...

How do I find out which bank a publicly traded company uses (without asking them)? They have headquarters in Canada, but mostly operate in America. They've filed reports with the SEC....

Filed under: Tastings, Beer, Festivals "I have a quote for you," said Green Flash Brewing Co.'s Brewmaster, Chuck Silva. And when the man who hand-crafted one of your favorite beers in the world tells you he has a quote, you listen. "The harder you work, the luckier you are," said Chuck in response ...

Last night, during the second showing of Rock of Love Bus on VH1 (shh), I saw an ad for a band called Company of Thieves. The ad was a normal TV spot, except for a few things: it didn't seem to mention what label they were on, and I had never heard of them before. A little research turned up that th...

As the economic vise tightens around all of us, but around newspapers more tightly than most, readers may become more suspicious about the influences bearing down on what was once a free and vibrant press. Suspicions like being unduly influenced by commercial pressures. Anyone who has ever worked in...

Ignored in high school, the geek princes of social media now thrive on attention from eager fanboys (and calculating flacks). Relentless Fast Company egoblogger Robert Scoble was their king. Until he got dethroned. Scoble — chubby, bespectacled, and awkward, the unlikeliest of all video person...