Here are some of the interesting articles I’ve read over the last fortnight:

Everything You Create Is a Product – I really liked this article, which reinforces the importance of first impressions, even for employees who turn up at the same office every day.

Inside RadioShack’s Slow-Motion Collapse – Bloomberg Business – A good, in-depth article on the demise of RadioShack. Hindsight is such a wonderful tool in business – but what would you have done differently?

Bitcoin Price – It’s been an interesting week for Bitcoin. As one customer remarked, “If you think Bitcoin is volatile, look at the Rubble as well”. Point taken. Here are various well written articles on Bitcoin including This Bitcoin Price Chart Shows What’s Blocking Faster Adoption – NASDAQ.com.

Bitcoin’s True Revolutionary Potential – NASDAQ.com – Americans think (rightly so) that the US Dollar is a suitable global currency, so what’s the point of creating Bitcoin as a new global currency?

playbook – Getting everyone in an organisation working together, achieving the same goals is vitally important, and this playbook from Thoughbot is among the best examples of how to achieve it (thanks to my colleague Matt for sharing this one)

Windows 8 tip: How to lock your system with a picture password | here’s the thing – Thanks to my ex-Microsoft colleague Ian for sharing this one when I complained that entering a password into my Surface takes too long for such a modern device. So he showed me picture passwords. Why are these features still hidden in operating systems?

Panic In Detroit | Newspaper Death Watch – A rather frank website reporting on newspapers that are undergoing significant changes such as moving to online only editions, or reducing the number of editions per week.

 www.presscouncil.org.au/uploads/52321/ufiles/The_New_York_Times_Innovation_Report_-_March_2014.pdf – This report covers the various approaches different media companies took when the Internet became mainstream. I first read the report few months ago and it’s one to keep rereading every so often.

The 2015 Super Bowl Commercials You Need To See – $4.5m for a 30 second ad placement… the most expensive ads on TV anywhere in the World (about 10 times the cost of the UK’s most expensive slots). My favourites are Mexico/Avocado, Kia/Brosnan & McDonald’s) but possibly the strangest one was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-vkdUBNOOc.

Finextra: Power in numbers: Two Capital One staff charged for mining database to predict stock prices – Yes the staff used their employer’s data to make investment decisions, but as I commented on the article itself, I wonder how much money these guys made for Capital One first?

Finextra: Google brings e-mail money transfer system to Europe – There still isn’t a ubiquitous method of person to person payments to rival cash. It will be interesting to see if Google’s approach works.

Snapchat Asks Brands for $750,000 to Advertise and Won’t Budge | Adweek – Snapchat gets the [negative?] publicity even though YouTube charge roughly the same amount for a daily homepage takeover.

iOS Timeline – Infographic – 7dayshop Blog – I love the levels of observational detail in this article.