We remember how much news coverage the death of Steve Jobs received. He was celebrity beyond computing, and his early demise from cancer was tragic. Someone who had greater computing industry influence died recently, the retired founder of Intel, Andrew Grove. He had quite the interesting life avoiding the death camps of WW2, leaving Hungary during the revolution, and starting a new life in the United States. The Intel press release barely told the story. A Bloomberg article offered some insight into Grove's importance as they related a meeting with Grove, Jobs, and Larry Ellison (Oracle). It was Grove's birthday. “Over dinner, the two told him he was the only person they’d willingly work for. Grove replied that he wouldn’t have hired either of them. 'A couple of flakes,' he called them. He was at least half-serious, or anyway didn’t crack a smile.” The computer revolution required thousands upon thousands of innovations and discoveries, and Intel was in the thick of it.

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Science has proven that if you want something done, give it to a busy person. A new study shows that busy people bounce back from missed deadlines more quickly than others. A key aspect of getting more done and keeping a productive workplace is to break larger tasks into smaller ones. As the accomplishments of the smaller tasks pile up, momentum builds and there is an expectation of further success.

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 Bloomberg reported how newspapers are using consolidations and acquisitions to survive what they call the “digital apocalypse.” It's hard to believe that we're still talking about how newspapers can survive the Internet for parts of three decades. 

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Janet Yellen is uttering more cautious words about the strength of the economy and the effect of Fed actions to raise rates. It's not a surprise. I'm still betting on QE4.

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In recent weeks I've recommended the series of “letters to the next president” by investor John Mauldin. Part three, which covers the Americas and Africa is now available. Part one covered China and Japan and part two covered Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. 

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eMarketer reported that total media ad spending would rise from $182.78 billion in 2015 to $234.25 billion in 2020. During that time, mobile ad spending is expected to grow from $31 billion to $77 billion. The forecast is that magazine advertising will fall from $13.5 billion to $13 billion. This implies that the downdraft is over.

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I've enjoyed ad executive Bob Hoffman's contrarian observations about advertising. His video presentation “Marketers are from Mars. Consumers are from New Jersey: Digital Advertising and Other Delusions” is a skeptical look at advertising and the role digital plays. A recent Business Insider article detailed the three delusions that he believes advertising executives have today.

The first is “the brand delusion”: “People have shaky jobs and unstable families, they have illnesses, they have debts, they have washing machines that don’t work, they have funny things growing on their backs, they have kids that are unhappy, they have a lot of things to care deeply about. It’s very unwise to believe that they care deeply about our batteries, our wet wipes and our chicken strips.”

The second is “the digital delusion”: "Marketers are pouring more and more money into online advertising. They don't know what they're buying, they don't know who they're buying it from. They don't know what they're getting, they don't know how much they're paying.”

The third is the “age delusion” where he believes too much advertising is spent on younger audiences who do not have the purchasing power of older ones.

Road Warrior

If you have a Windows 7 or 8 computer that attempts to upgrade to Windows 10, there is simple software that turns off the process until you want it to happen. It's called “Never10” and you can read more about it and download it for free.

The recent update for iPhones to iOS 9.3 kept failing on our family phones. The error message was that the phone could not verify a connection to the Internet. It was clearly wrong. The problem was a corrupt download of the update. Once you delete that file, a correct version will download. The path to get there is as follows: Settings, General, Storage, iCloud Usage, Manage Storage. When the list of files appears, look for “Software Update,” tap it and delete the file. My iPhone correctly updated an hour later.