There are lots of inexpensive tools on the Interwebs that are really useful. I like finding them.

To me, the most interesting thing that was unveiled during the last Apple event was iTunes 9, particularly the Genius Mixes.  I tried them out as soon as I could, and I was really impressed.  iTunes can now scan all my music, find the 12 main types of music I listen to, and put them into newly generated playlists.  It’s all very Apple – these mixes do something very complex yet give the user the impression that it’s the easiest thing in the world to do.  There are no settings or customization offered with these mixes at all.  They just exist on your iTunes, and they work.

Genius Mixes perfectly illustrate why people who buy Apple products tend to become die-hard Apple fans and why Apple is doing so insanely well as a company. Apple is extremely good at adding value to the products you buy from them over the lifetime of that product.  And every time Apple bumps up this value, they usually offer something new you can buy that can make this experience even BETTER!

I’m sure you know the kind of people this post is directed to – the annoying, snobby, elitist people who refuse to join Facebook. And if you are in this group, most of your friends think you are annoying, snobby, and elitist. All you anti-Facebookers need to get off your high horses and discover why Facebook is a great tool.

The dumb stuff I hear from these web 2.0 poo-pooing people includes:

1. I don’t have the time or patience for setting up ANOTHER online profile;
2. I’m afraid I won’t have many friends to connect with;
3. Facebook is a stupid waste of time;
4. Anything of importance that I can do on Facebook I can do though email or the phone;
5. Facebook is just a fad, like Friendster (and MySpace. Snap.);
6. I don’t wanna bother putting up little status updates, nor would I care about all the mundane crap that my various Facebook “friends” do all day.

I’ve been thinking about starting a blog for a while, but I could never decide what to write about.  Nor have I ever had any really compelling reasons to put in the effort if I did think of a good blog theme.

But then I thought:

1 – I’m an MBA student who will graduate in a year, and a blog would give me a great way to express myself to potential employers who don’t know me at all.

2 – I spend HOURS in front of my computer reading about the latest and greatest internet tools being created every day.  I try to talk about these things with non-dork friends, and they look at me funny.  Now I can just invite them to read my blog if they want to know more about things like….blogs.  Or caffeinated Google search results.

3 – A blog will give me a great way to organize all my interesting Internet finds into one place, so I can look them up later.