A small village off the beaten path, Gimmelwald was on Swiss maps but not in any guidebooks until Rick Steves christened it his top recommendation for tourists visiting Switzerland. Steves, a resident of the Great Pacific Northwest, is famous for his “back door” travel guide series and media empire.

Peter Hansli, Gimmelwald mayor and owner of the “Monk’s Inn”, expressed his gratitude to Steves: “Rick put our village on the map. Without him, our village would have died and I’d be working at a big bland hotel in Interlaken. Instead, we all transformed our farms into inns – some travellers even pay to stay in the barn!” Many local businesses had already posted thankfulness plaques and “recommended by Steve” signs (see insert). “We wanted to give Rick something special. We don’t have a city gate so we gave him a key to the gondola – so he can visit us whenever he wants.”

Mr. Steves could not be reached for comment – his office said he was travelling in Amsterdam for pleasure. “It’s fair to assume he will be thrilled, however,” commented his assistant. “The key will go nicely with the plaque Gimmelwald already gave us for the store here in Edmonds.”

As was widely anticipated, Steve Jobs 2.0 was just named the new CEO of Apple, Inc. The 30-year old executive, who had been groomed since birth for this post, was ambivalent about his promotion: "This is what my genetic predecessor wanted of course, and I’m thankful for his provisions for me over the last three decades – I think I’m ready for this, and I’m obviously well suited. It is my destiny, whether I like it or not."

Upon his 2011 resignation as CEO of Apple, the first Steve Jobs secretly established Malum LLC, a corporation whose sole purpose was to raise a set of identical clones based on his own DNA, for the purpose of maintaining  the Jobs legacy at Apple. Each of the ten clones was placed in a different host family for fifteen years, and upon reaching that age three clones were chosen for continued education and preparation. After the tragic death of SJ Clone II in 2020, SJ Clone V was placed at Reed College and briefed on his destiny. Upon dropping out from Reed, he was hired at Apple in the design department under an assumed name. On April 1, 2035, Apple Inc. acquired Malum LLC and revealed the whole scheme to incredulous shareholders and customers. The company’s share price immediately doubled on that day.

In the following year, the plan’s success was endangered by a lawsuit brought by SJ Clone X, the third pre-selected clone, who challenged Malum’s selection process and threatened to establish a competitor to Apple. The case was settled out of court.

To this day, the remaining SJ clones are unaware of their origin, and generous scholarships and trust funds were discreetly established for each. It is widely assumed that a SJ 3.0 class is in preparation.

© 2011, Manu Schmitt

A merry Christmas to all, and I wanted to share with you the Wordle analysis of the Christmas Carol. This is a great tool for business use also if you have to visualize a lot of text for a slide.

(Updated). Well, never mind. Blio is all eye candy and commerce – but this thing can’t even open a txt book on my hard drive. Uninstall, quick…

or

Here’s how to choose: Picture a quiet Sunday evening. Would you rather spend an hour reading a book, or watching TV?

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If you answered "TV", then you’re an iPad. If you chose the book, then you’re a Kindle.

B&N, Blio and Amazon have found themselves forced to react to the iPad ebook business model, and demonstrate how their own business model would survive the iPad onslaught. But for the moment, all these announcements feel a lot like vaporware – or is it ebookware?

For all lovers of history, this means that you’ll soon be able to enter 3D renditions of historical landscapes, and walk through them – like a Star Trek holodeck without the characters (yet).

Try it: visit Seattle’s Pioneer Square

Think of the possibilities: Stroll through the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris; visit Dresden before the bombing; follow Allied troops landing on Omaha Beach. This will be yet another way to make history relevant.