This is one of those ideas that just makes you wonder, why didn’t I think of that? Everyone knows bottled water is horrible for the environment, yet that doesn’t stop people from buying it. It’s just so darn convenient to grab a bottle on the go or from a vending machine. And then there is the extreme – the primadonas that refuse to ever drink tap water. With such a diverse marketplace, it sells even without sex.

Let me introduce you to BOXED water. Boxed water solves many of the problems of bottled water. The boxes are made from a renewable resource, ship flat to the filler, ship more efficiently when full, and are recyclable. To top things off, 10% of the company’s profit is donated to water supply charities and another 10% to reforestation foundations. Not too shabby.

Yes, drinking tap water is still better for the environment, but this is a pretty good solution to sate the world’s incredible demand for premium water on the go. What do you think?
 

There has been a lot of buzz recently around the possibility that Coke’s secret formula has finally been revealed to the public. Is it true? Does it matter?

Did you know only two Coca-Cola executives are allowed to know the recipe for creating the sugary syrup that goes into Coke? And that those two execs aren’t allowed to fly on the same plane for fear that it may crash and the formula will be lost forever?

But don’t think Coca-Cola is unique. There are similar stories for Dr. Pepper’s 23 flavors, KFC’s blend of 11 herbs and spices, and many others. Did you know KFC’s 11 herbs and spices are mixed at two different locations and then combined at a third so that the mixers don’t learn the formula?

Does it actually matter? I love all the secrecy, but I hate to break it to you, Coke isn’t successful because of their product. It’s their brand. It’s their advertising. It’s the memories.

And Coke knows this. All the secrecy is good publicity, so they aren’t about to publish the formula in the New York Times. But they know their true assets. As any good product manager knows, it is not all about the product.
 

• Snopes.com on the Coke secret formula
• ABC news on the possibility of the formula recently released. Check out the second page for other food industry secrets and rumors.

Photo: Morgan

Fan fiction is an absolutely fascinating cultural phenomenon. These are the people that sit down and write anywhere from a chapter to multiple books in the world crafted by an existing fictional work. When they can make any world they can possibly imagine, why would they limit themselves to a world they previously read about? Sure, I can understand how a few people could be into this, there are some ridiculous hobbies out there. But it is much bigger than that. Way bigger. Prepare to have your mind blown.

Harry Potter is by far the most popular book world for extension into fan fiction and fanfiction.net is the most popular site for “authors” to post their stories. So let’s check out their HP section. There are over a half million stories in over 20 languages! But taking a closer look, many of these are not short stories involving a character or two. They are full on books even longer than the original Harry Potter books!

There are 1,084,170 words in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling spread over 7 books. If we define a book as over 100,000 words (similar in size to the first couple HP books), there are over 4,000 on fanfiction.net in English alone! And 62 of those are longer than half of the entire series. Can’t get enough Harry Potter? Don’t worry, there’s plenty more out there for you to check out.

What else is fascinating? Most authors of fan fiction release chapters as they write them. I am intrigued by this way of releasing written material – in yesteryear this is how most fiction was done. Ok, maybe not as it was written, but released by chapter. For example, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens was originally published in 36 weekly installments. Only a year later was it condensed into three books. Publishers take note: this could target a larger market – anyone and everyone can read a chapter a week but a full book seems so daunting. Oh, and it gives you the opportunity to earn more money from the biggest fans. In order to get the book ahead of everyone else, you have to buy it in 36 parts that will cost more than if you just waited a year. Brilliant!

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One of the first novel ideas you learn in computer programming is the concept of recursion: functions that call themselves. It is a new idea to most and extremely powerful in the world of computers. It is also the point in the programming class where you figure out if you “get it” or if you should just stop now.

So let me explain the basic idea to those who don’t think in terms of functions or methods, or even know what they are. It is all about dividing a problem into a set of smaller problems. Imagine you are at the end of the line for Splash Mountain at Disneyland and they come tell you they need everyone’s phone number to give them a free ticket on a Disney cruise. But you don’t know everyone’s phone number! In fact, you can’t even see to the front of the line. How do you solve the problem?

You break it up into a smaller problem of course. You know your phone number right? And you know how to tell the person in front of you to do the same (smaller problem because that person has one less phone number (yours) they are responsible for). And if you do that enough times, pretty soon you are at the front of the line. Easy.

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