Company History 9: American Airlines

In 1926, Charles A. Lindbergh was the chief pilot of Robertson Aircraft Corporation, which was based at an airfield in Forest Park. Soon Robertson Aircraft Corporation and about 85 other small airline companies were consolidated in 1929 and 1930 into the Aviation Corporation, which eventually formed American Airways, the immediate predecessor of today’s American Airlines. It was in 1934 that the company reorganized American Airways and became American Airlines, Inc. Not long after, American developed an air traffic control system that would later be used by all airlines and administered by the U.S. government. The company also introduced the first domestic scheduled U.S. freight service in 1944.

On April 15, 1926, Charles Lindbergh flew the first leg of the first round trip Chicago to St. Louis airmail flight. Flying the airmail was a dangerous business and Lindbergh had to jump from more than one aircraft because of weather or mechanical difficulties. This flight is considered to have been first start of American Airlines’ long history.

History of Smiley Faces!

The need to involve feelings and emotions in a written text existed long before the creation of emoticons and the emergence of computer networks. First such use is documented on April 1857, when the numeric code "73" was added in a message written in Morse code an a symbol of affectionate "love and kisses".

Later on , in September 1982, Scott Fahlman posted the following message to the BBS boards of Carnegie Melon University:

19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-) 19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-)
From: Scott E Fahlman From: Scott E Fahlman

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers: I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

:-) :-)

Read it sideways. Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark Actually, it is probably more economical to mark
things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use For this, use

:-( :-(
_______________________________________ _______________________________________

I propose the following character sequence for joke dial:

:-) :-)

Leedlo bowed his head. In fact, it is probably more economical to mark what is NOT a joke, given the current trend. In this case, use

:-(

In this message, Fahlman suggested the use of emoticons :-) and :-( to express emotions related to a written message, and more specifically to the reader could identify when a text should be understood as a joke and when not.

The other 'smiley'

The Smiley Face was actually designed in 1964 by Harvey Ball, a co-owner of an advertising and public relations firm in Worchester, Massachusetts. In the early 60s, State Mutual Life Assurance of Worcester initiated a merger detrimentrally affected company morale. In 1964, the company started up a “friendship campaign” to get employees to smile whenever possible, even while they typed reports. How did the company do this? This was where Harvey Ball came into play. Ball spent about 10 minutes designing the smiley face and the company gave him $45 in return. Ball received no other profit from his invention and he had never copyrighted it. By the 1970s, the smiley face became the ultimate symbol for Americans of happiness and joy.

Guys pray for rain

Few years back Playboy had a brilliant outdoor campaign in Dusseldorf, Germany. Idea was to change billboards based on the weather.

On based on the same theme Calvin Klein has come up with their version, a wishlist/pray-for-rain

Passive smoking kills

Few good work on anti-smoking theme

Company History 8: America Online

Stephen Case, America Online Inc.’s founder was a development manager at Pizza Hut when he became interested in a new online service called Source in the early 1980s. His interest led him to Control Video, a company that ran an online service for those using Atari computer games. In 1985, after financial struggles, the company was renamed Quantum Computer Services and began a new service called Q-Link, an online service for those using Commodore computers. By 1987 Quantum made agreements with Apple and Tandy due to Q-Link’s popularity, and a service called America Online was introduced in 1989 for IBM-compatible and Apple computers. Quantum Computer Services changed its name in 1991 to America Online.

The POST-IT Notes Story

Art Fry, the inventor of Post-It Notes, used 3M’s famed 15–percent rule to develop a bookmark he could use for his choir book. Needing a placeholder that would stick temporarily without ripping the pages, he heard of a 3M adhesive developed by Dr. Spence Silver that did not stick to a surface permanently. Working with developers in engineering and production, they developed a unique coating process that would apply the nonsticky adhesive to the back of small pieces of paper. Once the prototype was in place, Fry used company employees to test his bookmark. Initial feedback was not reassuring as critics thought they were too frivolous and expensive. It was only after receiving a letter with his “bookmark” used to add scribbled comments, that Fry realized he hadn’t invented a bookmark but rather a new way to communicate or organize information.

D Peppers Pepsin Bitters

D Peppers Pepsin Bitters' is suppose to be the-secret-formula for Dr. Pepper, recently made public by Bill Waters.

He bought it for $200, suspecting he could resell it for five times that. Turns out, his inkling about the book's value was more spot on than he knew. The Tulsa, Okla., man eventually discovered the book came from the Waco, Texas, drugstore where Dr Pepper was invented and includes a recipe titled "D Peppers Pepsin Bitters."

However, the maker of the soft drink says it's not the secret formula, but that hasn't stopped the book from generating interest at an upcoming auction.

GREEN REVOLUTION OF SOFTWARE INDUSTRY

Open–Source movement/ free software movement began in 1983 when Richard Stallman announced the GNU. Idea was to start a freedom of movement for users of computers replacing software with restrictive licensing terms for free software.
These days this is referred as the green revolution of the IT sector, the earlier green revolution of the agricultural sector, brought about by scientists of Mexico, was due to the innovation of the HYV seeds, ones that have disease-resistance, high productivity and other desirable properties. Now compare and contrast this with the innovative idea of the open source software that gave way to the sowing of the creative ideas and capitalising on them by the real nerds, the hackers, whom the media has insinuated in the notorious image of the computer criminals!!


Now, this faction of innuendo-proof(disease-resistant) and high yielding software developers(geeks) syndicated to form the most popular enterprises of today Mozilla, Ubuntu, Paypal etc.; with some leading firms like Google, Sun etc. following the suite, thanks :) to their visionary leaders. But the true success does not only lie only in creation, that these people have been doing since ages, rather in acceptance of it. So users Thanks to U 2!! And today with Google becoming the leading software firm :D, the time has proved that this world is ready to accept the freedom of Business in real sense; it is no longer allowing any one "gate" to control this world of geeks and tie their creative skills into chains in the name of commercialization.

Hey! now please don't think this to be a drastic upturn of events suddenly, as if some outbreak of a fountain head in a day or so; this is what is referred to as the RISE OF NATIONS... This is the long cherished philosophy of collegial model of organization; and gradually, people came to terms with it.

The real individuals, who had since time immemorial been burned, poisoned, isolated by the so-called social humans. You remember Galileo, Copernicus, Socrates and many others how they were suppressed by the catholics!! :( But these hard core people, unperturbed of the charges like egotists blah-blah..., with the real motive of selflessly serving the society, did everything save yield!! And now their seeds, their hard-work, their vision, their perseverance is bearing fruits. We should be proud that we have come a long way up in the civilizational hierarchy that we can accept the purest form of business and individual. The world is undergoing another renaissance.
So, CHEERS FRIENDS!!!

Heineken - Walk in Fridge

Few month back, Heineken launched, what we called a superb advertisement (funny too): What women want and what men want?. Now their competitor (Bavaria) has responded in a very fun way, in their ad the men go wild in the walk-in fridge, the Bavaria guy goes and closes the door to lock them in, gets a Bavaria and then its time to spend with all the ladies.
Now here goes the counter-attack of Heineken...

The Man Time Forgot

TIME's first issue appeared on March 2, 1923 and was founded by Briton Hadden and Henry Luce, but after Hadden's death in 1929, Luce became the owner of the magazine and is considered one of the most important man in history of the media of the twentieth century. However many felt that TIME, almost forgot Hadden, so here is an interesting book on this topic. After all it wasn’t until after Luce’s death, in 1967, that Hadden’s name was restored to its place at the top of Time’s masthead.

It was Hadden, Time’s creative genius and editor, who would shape the style in which Americans think about and tell the news. In doing so, he set the foundation for the newspaper and magazine chains, radio and television networks, cable stations and Internet sites that have come to occupy a prominent place in the national culture.
Hadden told the news just as he viewed it—as a grand and comic epic spectacle. He hooked readers on the news and sold them on its importance by flavoring the facts with color and detail, and by painting vivid portraits of the people who made headlines. Offended by Luce’s desire for power, Hadden had been further depressed by a string of romantic failures. In his final few years, he had turned to the bottle, driven drunk through town, picked fights in speakeasies, and spent nights in jail.
Hadden had once said of their strange friendship. “No matter how hard I run, Luce is
always there.” Now Luce was at Hadden’s deathbed, ready to slog out the final grueling lap of their rivalry.
For several months Luce had been developing a plan to publish the company’s second major product—a business magazine to be called Fortune. Hadden was opposed. Believing the business world to be vapid and morally bankrupt, he had devoted the last few years to lampooning businessmen in print, even when they happened to be Time’s own advertisers. Luce was adamant. He kept coming to Hadden’s bedside, discussing draft articles and mock-ups. Hadden, true to form, had been drawn into a series of lengthy arguments. Day after day, Hadden and Luce had yelled at each other—so loudly that Hadden’s nurse could hear them from behind the closed door.

Hadden, left, and Luce, center, in 1925.