In January 2011 I tried my hand at prediction. Let’s see how that worked out then: eBooks will become relatively normal. It will begin to feel a little silly to purchase products that require cutting down trees, chemicals, huge plants, toxic inks and expensive production and shipping. eBooks are cheaper, fast to obtain and just …
Author Archives: Lance Wiggs
Investing with appropriate speed
So you are, or are not an Angel. But as commenters pointed out from that post there are several ways to invest, and we don’t want to scare off potential investors. I got some flack for being a bit too negative, and sure, perhaps I was a bit harsh. Everyone starting a business is looking for …
Lotto investments
Well it seems the years of investment in lotto tickets for a Nelson couple paid off: Nelson region couple celebrating their $8.2 million Lotto win say they will retire earlier than planned. They had a strategy: The couple has been playing 10 lines of the same Lotto numbers, with all the variations of the Powerball …
OurFarSouth – the route
On February 10th we are heading South. If you know a school that would like to be involved in following the trip and learning about the region, then point them to http://www.ourfarsouth.org/education, and this brochure for schools. (Credit for the map goes to @ksuyin)
Are you an Angel? Probably not.
The other night I was speaking to a self-described angel. I asked the standard questions of “What have you invested in?” and teased out approximate answers for “how much, with how many others, when and tell me about the company?”. The answers were shocking to me – he had invested in just one company, it was several …
The ultimate protective gear
This really has to be seen to be believed. As the backbone of the imperial army, the Stormtroopers are the empire’s legions, a mass of menacing power in their awe-inspiring armor. Now, one of the most iconic uniforms in the STAR WARS™ universe has been exquisitely rendered in leather by the UD Replicas’ team, setting a …
The Internet is more important for us than any other media
The New Zealand version of the World Internet Project survey, which Internet NZ funded, has just been released. Apparently only 86% of us use the internet. I guess the others are too you, old, sick, or – and this is the big issue – poor and uneducated. But the finding I most appreciated was that …
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Introducing Define Instruments
At Texmate NZ we got tired of being confused with text editing software and our former US sister company. We were also increasingly conscious that the name that meant little to our clients or staff, and that we’ve moved on a lot since the early days under the name. So we embarked on a rebranding exercise. We …
Shame Shame Shame MahiFX
MahiFX is getting rave reviews for the quality of their web design. That’s nice, and good that a local NZ company did to this sort of quality, but while the design is nice, the content is disgusting. Here’s the home page. You enter your salary and wonder who John Paulson is. No – it’s not Hank …
Nobody listens to me. Or you.
Via the WSJ are the sobering statistics on the share of people who have gone ‘wireless only’. The article covers this in context of political polling. The law in the USA, where customers pay to receive as well as make mobile phone calls, is that pollsters cannot use autodiallers or robot calls, and must use …
Best post ever
The jury is back – and the final numbers in. The Let’s make New Zealand the percent post attracted an amazing amount of readership (for this blog). It got picked up …somewhere… and traffic went nuts, and then in early November traffic abruptly halted. All up it received 355000 views, with just 6660 of them …
AirNZ auctions themselves to the lowest bidder
Once again Air New Zealand has not partnered with Trade Me for their annual charity auction. As I’ve said before this myopic decision decreases the amount of publicity, revenue and mojo Air NZ receives from the event. Auctions will sell for less, less people will se them and the brand association with Sella cheapens the …
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Who deserves $1000 from Flowerpower?
Natalie Fergusson has eloquently written about our latest Flowerpower promotion – so here she goes: $1000 charity giveaway by Nat A few years ago, when we set up Flower Power on Powershop, one of the big drivers was being part of a big change in an industry that seems to quiver in fear at the …
Thinking about voting in the NZ election
I’ve spent much of my adult life overseas during NZ elections, but when Ive been here I am in admiration at how little we allow the more boorish side of international politics to enter our country. This year I find my self registered in Auckland Central, and facing with a genuine dilemma. I quite like …
Jobless so called recovery in the USA
McKinsey Exhibit, originally uploaded by LanceWiggs. This chart from the USA is quite worrying. On the other hand it;s the first time in my lifetime that a recession in the US and rest of world is less damaging to NZ than it is to those countries.
Lance Wiggs 