I am a frequent Continental flyer and enjoy flying with them and the service I receive. Last night, I booked a round trip flight for my son using their online service, which I use quite often. I find www.continental.com to be an easy site to navigate to quickly book my flights. When logging on to their site this evening, I noticed the price for the identical flight was much cheaper. I called the elite desk line and got Buzz Savage,...

While at the mall, my wife and I left Nordstrom and had some time to kill before our dinner reservation at a nearby restaurant. We walked into Dillard’s women shoe department when my wife noticed the boots she got several weeks ago were significantly discounted and on sale now. The sales person explained that even if the boots are still brand new in the box, since they were purchased three weeks ago she couldn’t credit my wife the price difference....

My wife and I went to the mall the other day to stop at Nordstrom in order to get my new mail-ordered coat altered. While waiting for the tailor tp arrive, the friendly salesman started to process the alteration order request on his computer. “I have good news for you Mr. Barr”, he said. “I just processed a credit for over $100 on your account to reflect the price adjustment on your coat since it is now on sale.” I...

It was back in December and a couple of days before my trip to Las Vegas to visit my son in Utah when I realized that I forgot to rent a car for the trip. In a great hurry and armed with the power of the Internet, a couple of minutes later I rented the SUV from Dollar Rent A Car. A couple of days later I landed at the Las Vegas airport and within a short time found myself...

What a brilliant move by FaceBook to improve their software and with no investment! They’ve attracted 70,000 developers to build free plug-ins interfaces to their web site. Once approved by FaceBook, these plug-ins provide utilities for users to improve their online experience. They may play games, share reviews of books, movies, vacations, dress up their profiles and much more.  Software developers who contribute may sell advertising, promote products and services and gain tremendous exposure. Sounds like a win – win...

I’ve been following Starbucks expansion in the US and am quite impressed with their expansion now into Russia. What impressed me more is a statement from Martin Coles, President of Starbucks International saying: “We do not spend a great deal of time focusing on our competition. The growth of other coffee chains can actually help Starbucks by increasing the overall coffee market. We are at our best when we have some competition.”

Both BMW and Mercedes Benz are known for their terrific high-end performance cars. I know that since I own one of them. They have not been recognized for their emphasis on fuel consumption technology. But that’s about to change soon when both companies are about to reveal new car models offering better fuel consumption. So what do you think? Is this an attempt to enter emerging new markets such as India and China and compete against other brands and/or possibly...

The WSJ has just reported a reduction in software piracy in China. Of all estimated software used in China in 2006, 82% was pirated vs. 86% the year before. Running my software development firm for the past 20 years, this is a huge ethical and economical issue which I hope is resolved expeditiously.

The Wall Street Journal published yesterday a terrific interview with George David, The CEO of United Technologies. Below are several quotes made by him that I found fascinating: “What goes on in a big sailboat is a combination of preparation, organization, design, strategy, tactics, rules, teamwork, individual performance and group performance … When you drop a new crew person in, every now and then you may get an elbow in the face. It’s because you and that person don’t know...