Excerpts from Associated Press story:

The Schmidts use a service called Teen Arrive Alive, one of a few companies
that work with Nextel wireless phones and a tracking service from uLocate
Communications Inc. [This lets parents track where their children are driving and how fast.]

Other devices that track on-the-go kids include the Wherifone, a specialized
locator phone that uses the Global Positioning System, and the CarChip, a device
about the size of two nine-volt batteries stacked together that, installed in a
vehicle, monitors speed, distance and driving habits.

Infobase Media Corp (one of our portfolio companies) has introduced its LDS PDA Library (in partnership with Deseret Book), which comes with hundreds of books that are ready for your Palm or Pocket PC. But more importantly, it works with the 2005 LDS Collectors Library so that you can save any of the 3,300 religious titles in that library -- or portions of them -- to your handheld.

Someday I want to write an entire book on this subject.

It fascinates me to look back in history, to read the biographies and autobiographies of inventors and entrepreneurs, looking for acknowledgment of divine influence in their work.

Over the years I have read and heard many stories from innovators who believe that God gave them an idea, or helped them through a problem, or guided their efforts to find solutions.

Senator Bob Bennett held his 4th annual Rural Business Conference yesterday, this year in Price, Utah. Attendance was strong. Keynote speeches were given by Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr., the Entrepreneur's Governor, and Dr. Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com, founder of Worldstock.com, and all-around brilliant human being. I'll post my notes later.

While I attend the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting this week in Omaha, I decided I might want to see some LDS Church History sites while there. I talked with Susan Easton Black who told me there is a nice museum at Winter Quarters where Mormon Pioneers built temporary housing on their trek from Illinois to Salt Lake City. Also, there is a restored building at Kanesville, Iowa that has significance for Latter-day Saints, because that is where Brigham Young was chosen to be the President of the Church, 3 years after the death of Joseph Smith.

My apologizes for being absent for the last 10 days or so. Blogging is one of my top priorities and yet lately I have been unable to make time for it. There are a few reasons for that.

Firstly, several of our companies have needed more time from me lately.

In 1997, Infobases Inc. (a company I founded with Dan Taggart) had more than 150,000 customers. Powered by search engine technology from Folio Corporation, we distributed libraries of valuable reference material (primarily religious and educational content) on CD ROM.

In 1997 we exited this CD ROM business to build Ancestry.com. Since that time, CD ROM sales overall seem to have been in a steep decline as more and more content and customers have turned to the web to access information.

This is a shot in the dark, but here goes...

If you were once an avid user of the Infobases 1997 Collectors Library CD ROM and are willing to be involved in designing the 2005 edition, please let me know. (You can email me through the little email envelope icon on the left/bottom side of your screen)

The most powerful internet marketing tactic that I know (and I am an admitted lover of affiliate marketing, search engine marketing, and email marketing) is to disrupt the marketplace by giving away something that is valuable. Preferrably, something that your leading competitor is selling. Something that is selling well.

Life is good. I just ended a family vacation to Cedar City, home of the Tony Award winning Utah Shakespeare Festival, where we caught four productions, with a little side trip to Las Vegas, where we saw Mystere, again. The highlight of the trip for me was driving home on northbound I-15, where I googled with one hand for the nearest Jamba Juice on my Blackberry 7230, as follows:

phonebook:jamba, nv