Samsung S4: Should New Mobile Phones Come with Bloatware

Posted on | May 3, 2013 | Comments Off

I find it amazing that Samsung is already launching the S4. The Galaxy S4 is better than ever…and newer…and shinier…and sleeker…and will be preloaded with bloat ware. (Remember when the world hated buying desktop computers because they came preloaded with so much bloat that your PC would be sluggish out of the box!)

I understand the model from a manufacturer’s point of view…you give a small sample or a trial and you may garner a new customer. And I understand that pre-placing apps on a device fulfills some vendor agreements and so forth. Buy why isn’t there a choice, even if I could pay extra, to have an total clean device out of the box? Continue Reading

Tom Coffman with Deffenbaugh Industries Answers 15 Questions: Recycling, Sustainability, and Green

Posted on | April 1, 2013 | Comments Off

This interview with Tom Coffman, Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships with Deffenbaugh Industries, covers the topics of sustainability, recycling, green ideas, and the services that Deffenbaugh Industries and Deffenbaugh Recycling provide to the Midwest.

Total Reading time: 5:00 minutes.

1. What are 4 things that anyone can do, right now, to be better at recycling?
Tom: Eliminate plastic bags, eliminate plastic bags, eliminate plastic bags, and eliminate plastic bags from recycling containers. Plastic bags are a menace when they get to the recycling facility. They gum up our systems and they blow all over the place. Most grocery stores have containers for recyclable plastic bags.

2. What is exciting to you in the area of sustainability?
Tom: I think the growing awareness, support and public interest around sustainability issues has been very heartening. Whether it is the food people eat, the homes they build and maintain or the way they handle their yard waste, you can see behaviors continue to move toward greater sustainability.

3. What is your favorite innovation that you have been a part of at Deffenbaugh Indsutries?
Tom: There are three innovations I’ve seen in the past 20 years at Deffenbaugh Industries that I think are particularly cool. The move toward automated collection for residential trash and recycling has been a great step forward, as has the implementation of a single-stream recycling system. And the fact that we collect and process approximately 15 million cubic feet of landfill gas per day, which is used to serve the equivalent of 5,000 homes daily, always impresses me. Continue Reading

Category: Corporate Partners, Kansas City
Tags: "Deffenbaugh Industries" > "Tom Coffman" > Deffenbaugh > green > recycling > sustainability

The O2 Hurricane Canless Air System: A Cool Way to Be Green

Posted on | February 27, 2013 | Comments Off

John Scherer is the CEO of Canless Air System www.canlessair.com. In this interview, John answers questions about the journey of the O2 Hurricane, about being more green, about the role social media plays in his company, and a few others.

This is probably one of the coolest inventions I have seen in a long time, how  did you get the idea for Canless Air? The inventor contacted me in May of 2011, he’s been working on it for 12 years and wanted me to be the spokes person.   The more I got to know about it, I knew I had to buy it, develop it and market it myself.

How did you know it would work? I didn’t, that’s when you roll the dice, there’s never a guaranty. But if you believe in something, just act on that instinct. Frankly, this is one case where I wasn’t at all surprised by the positive reaction.

How long did it take to go from idea to your first sale? It took about ten months of me pushing pushing pushing, designers, engineers, suppliers and me learning about manufacturing the whole time.   We continue every day to find ways to make it better. That we’ll never stop doing.

What was the biggest mistake or misstep you took and how did you correct it? The Misstep was matching the battery to the charger, we quickly identified the problem, matched them correctly and went back to the market. Rarely is anything perfect coming out of the box, it’s the ability to react quickly and adjust that is key in product success.

  What advice do you have for inventors or entrepreneurs? Continue Reading

Category: Stuff Worth Sharing
Tags: "Canless Air" > "John Scherer" > "O2 Hurricane"

Thank you to everyone at UMB Banks for recycling with Cells for Cells

Posted on | February 25, 2013 | Comments Off

I picked up two very cool DIY boxes from UMB today.

Remember that Cells for Cells does not provide collection boxes for cell phone drives. We encourage everyone to reuse any old box…just like UMB has done.

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