Around half a mile from my office is a low-velocity industrial air-moving company named Big-Ass Fans. They win awards, support the arts community, develop environmentally sensitive technology, support HVAC efficiency research, fund animal shelters, and more. They employ a bunch of people and they are growing. On Fridays, small foam donkeys start to fly around the building. Let’s just say they’re a stand-up firm, with transparency in their marketing, and I’m proud of them. They’re remarkable.

They also advertise in over sixty industrial and agricultural trade magazines, and have a unique product and corporate identity that transcends brand erosion an advertising blindness giving them huge bang for their advertising buck. They’ve been featured in the New York Times, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Discovery Channel Canada and National Geographic Channel. (more…)

It was pretty sad to see. CompUSA today fell victim to throngs of bargain hunters picking every nook and cranny, fixtures included, from the store in Lexington Green. What struck me most was that, despite 50%-60% discounts, some of the prices were still higher than web-based pricing on the same items.

I feel badly for the folks who lost their jobs at the company and I’ll miss the ability to get a quick part when needed. Best Buy and Circuit City just don’t cut it when it comes to parts. I only shopped in the store 4-6 times per year, though.

Wow, I miss Fry’s.

Some Lexington news here, Exstream Software is being acquired by Hewlett-Packard for an undisclosed amount.

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) - Hewlett-Packard Co. said Tuesday it has agreed to buy American Capital Strategies Ltd.’s Exstream Software LLC for an undisclosed amount.

Based in Lexington, Ky., Exstream Software makes software that allows businesses to personalize documents aimed at their customers. Founded by Davis Marksbury and Dan Kloiber, the company’s brands include Dialogue and AFP Studio.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Exstream Software will be integrated into the Web Services and Software business unit within the Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) of HP. “Businesses – whether a bank, healthcare provider or utility company – need to communicate relevant, personalized information to their customers through a broad range of channels,” said David Murphy, senior vice president, Web Services and Software Business, IPG, HP. “We expect that the acquisition of Exstream will allow HP to address a broader set of customers and be a strong leader in the fast-growing document automation market.”

We are very happy to join with HP to accelerate our ability to help businesses around the world to efficiently develop and deploy personalized communications,” said Richard Troksa, chief executive officer and president, Exstream Software. “The combination of Exstream’s solutions and HP’s print software expertise will provide customers with a more comprehensive approach to delivering reliable and targeted business communications.”

The company’s programs help banks print account statements, government agencies print applications and utilities print bills.

Hewlett-Packard expects the deal to close in the second quarter of its fiscal year.

The company plans to integrate Exstream into HP’s (NYSE:HPQ) Web services and software business unit, which is part of the imaging and printing group.

Exstream has more than 300 employees, and its customers include banks, insurers, government departments, retailers, telecommunications companies and utilities.

Jason has good coverage over at WebProWorld as well.

Today the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce released the “New Agenda” list today: “100 of the most compelling suggestions to share with the state and its elected leaders. The selections were made based on viability, financial feasibility, the time needed to implement, innovation and vision, and impact.”

There are a lot of “good” ideas on the list, especially those which address - sort-of - Kentucky’s young professional lifestyles. But some ideas are troubling - such as the one suggesting we bribe university graduates to stay in the state and work for a while and offering “executives” tax incentives to come to the state. We must make the state a place people want to live, and this takes a new way of thinking. These people are NOT following money. They are following quality of life. And the community they settle in are the beneficiaries. We need more small, entrepreneurial, diverse groups of innovators here because it’s a great place to live and work, not because they get an added deduction on taxes. (more…)

Up from 30th, nice to see.

An interesting study comes from CCSU

Drawing from a variety of available data resources, the America’s Most Literate Cities study ranks the 69 largest cities (population 250,000 and above) in the United States. This study focuses on six key indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources.

Here are the first 30…

City	Overall Rank 2007	06 Rank	05 Rank
Minneapolis, MN	1	2	2
Seattle, WA	2	1	1
St. Paul, MN	3	5	9.5
Denver, CO	4	8	6
Washington, DC	5	3.5	3
St. Louis, MO	6	12	15
San Francisco, CA	7	9	5
Atlanta, GA	8	3.5	4
Pittsburgh, PA	9	6	8
Boston, MA	10	11	7
Cincinnati, OH	11	7	9.5
Portland, OR	12	10	11
Cleveland, OH	13	14	18
Raleigh, NC	14	13	13
Kansas City, MO	15	17	14
Tulsa, OK	16	19.5	24.5
Lexington-Fayette, KY	17	30	27.5
Honolulu CDP, HI	18	22	35
Nashville-Davidson, TN	19	18	17
Tampa, FL	20	21	24.5
Columbus, OH	21	15	12
Miami, FL	22	23	27.5
Austin, TX	23	16	16
Virginia Beach, VA	24	27	41
Sacramento, CA	25	28	22
Charlotte, NC	26	19.5	20
Baltimore, MD	27	24	21
New York City, NY	28	42	32.5
Indianapolis, IN	29	29	23
Colorado Springs, CO	30	33.5	19

100%. That’s how many of my comments have been censored by local Lexington TV Stations, dropping any credibility for a real attempt to build a community online.

I wonder….If you have something “thoughtful” to say, perhaps not jibing with the bible-beltish, hyper-conservative viewpoints, would it ever be published? From what I can tell, the only thing that makes it in are “God bless our troops” or short, brain-dead “hollerin’”

All of my comments were SFW. I’m not a trouble maker, well, not really, nor am I a minion ready to “cute” my way on the screen.

“We have to keep our comments family-friendly” — oh really?

So that is why you post Santa with a M-16. Yee haa.