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I still want a shoe phone.

Dell is going private in a $24 billion deal leveraged by the company’s founder and investment firm Silver Lake.

Rian van der Merwe:

Executive buy-in is a prerequisite for success, so make sure that it’s well understood that even though everyone gets a voice, not everyone gets to decide.

That may very well be the most difficult part for a lot of PMs.

There are all kinds of app goodies for that special someone in your life.

Seth Godin:

The best way to honor someone who has said something smart and useful is to say something back that is smart and useful. The other way to honor them is to go do something with what you learned.

Great advice.

Wired:

If you’re not a hockey fan, you may not know the red light’s iconic flashing, spinning glow and horn sound that accompany every goal.

The Budweiser Red Light works by connecting to your Wi-Fi network. After configuring the device with an Android or iPhone app to tell it what teams you are rooting for, it sits sleeping in your rec room. When a game is on, it wakes up and starts listening over the network for a score. When the puck goes in the net, the light goes crazy.

“We are not joking: It’s real, it works and you can buy it,” says the Budweiser Canada homepage.

Yes, it’s real – and every Canadian wants one!

My latest chunk of open-source code is very simple: MGWordCounter provides live word-counting for NSTextViews on OS X and UITextViews on iOS.

Another useful bit of code from Matt Gemmell.

Normann Szkop:

The tulip has come to be a loved symbol of the Netherlands. Many tourists visit the country just to see the bright coloured flower and the astonishing view over the bulb fields. The season begins in March with crocuses, followed by the daffodil and the yellow narcissi.

This is a great photographic example of the idea of taking something we are familiar with and looking at it from different angle.

Monoprice is expanding its market from just cables and accessories to devices like monitors and action cams.

There are just so many good ones in here. [Via DF]

Om Malik gives us some valuable lessons that he’s learned over the years.

Now apps found on Google Play can infect your computer. Brilliant strategy Google.

I like this way of thinking. […]

BBEdit 10.5 from Bare Bones Software — The leading professional HTML and text editor for the Mac just keeps getting better. Now with Retina support and many other improvements — download the demo and see for yourself!

I have been using BBEdit to create and maintain every site I’ve built since 1994, including The Loop.

Nokia’s own blog stooped to a new low when it posted a review of a Nokia product.

An Asian air carrier is making sure parts of their economy class cabin are free of kids under 12 years of age.

AdAge has assembled all 2013 Super Bowl ads in one place.

A coalition of electronic privacy rights groups is asking the US government to back off efforts to limit consumer data privacy legislation proposed in the EU.

Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer:

The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us.

What a great mission.

Many thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. Squarespace is an innovative website publishing platform that makes it easy to bring your ideas to life. Squarespace makes professional web design accessible to everyone. Start with an … Continued

MSN News:

The Etch A Sketch is one of the best known toys of the Baby Boom generation. French inventor André Cassagnes stumbled upon the idea in the 1950s and the core technology of the toy remains today. Cassagnes died Jan. 16 at the age of 86.

The origins of Etch A Sketch go back to the late 1950s, when Cassagnes was installing a factory light switch plate covered with a translucent decal.

Along with the Lite-Brite, the Etch A Sketch was one of the first “fancy” toys we got as kids. I never could draw anything other than a few straight lines on it though.

CNET:

Citing CNET’s disqualification of the Dish product for the Best of Show competition, CEA is seeking a new partner to run its Best of CES awards program.

Karen Chupka, senior vice president, events and conferences for CEA said, “We are concerned the new review policy will have a negative impact on our brand should we continue the awards relationship as currently constructed.”

This move by the organizer of CES is unsurprising and further confirms that CBS’ decisions continue to hurt CNET’s journalistic integrity.

Mashable:

One of America’s busiest railroad stations, Grand Central Terminal in New York, turns 100 years old. The iconic structure, located in the heart of Manhattan, serves thousands of passengers every day and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world.

With sites like YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook, it’s possibly to take a tour through the last century at Grand Central.

When I lived in Connecticut, I always loved going through Grand Central – the architecture, the art and the people watching were always a highlight of every visit.

Scientists have created a crystal compound that behaves like simple life forms.

Seriously, CBS is just getting crazy.

There’s also Part 2.

This particular medical maneuver has worked for me for years.