I have to admit I am a PowerPoint junkie. At work we use it ALL THE TIME and sometimes we forget that we can have meetings without it. I just learned about a new tool that might change all of that, it is called SlideRocket.

What I love about it already is that it is web-based, it appears to create beautiful and innovative presentations, and has built-in tools for presentation sharing over the web. No need to utilize PowerPoint AND a web conferencing tool in the future. Plus, they have some community elements that look interesting.

If you really need/want to use PowerPoint, you can always export your SlideRocket show. If you must.

Seth Godin wrote a post about price pressure. In it he proposes, that if people are asking for a lower price, you are not providing value and providing that value is your choice. Choosing the path of lower prices and commoditization is your alternative choice. I found this thought provoking.

This could be perceived in contrast to a previous post I did some time back about embracing the challenge of commoditization. That said, I think there is a big difference between internally looking for improvements and new ways to provide value in an increasingly competitive market and marketing yourself externally as the Arco of your segment. You can look for efficiencies, while delivering value for the money you are charging. Stay ahead of that curve (on both fronts) and you have a great business.

I have written before about personalized M&Ms. Now you can get them with not only words, but pictures on them as well.

The examples they show are faces (some of which are a little scary), but I think maybe Hugh at GapingVoid, who is famous for drawing cartoons on the back of business cards, should start drawing cartoons on the side of an M&M instead.

I regularly follow the blog posts from 37Signals. They recently posted notes from the Chicago-area SEED 3 conference and I must admit they are the best conference notes I have ever seen. The artist/notetaker is Mike Rohde. Some fantastic nuggets in there even for folks like us who didn't attend.

You might think of inviting Mike, or someone like him, to your next conference, sales meeting, your next board presentation, or perhaps your next church worship service. Could be a whole new experience!

Great post the other day from James Wood about Andrew Jackson. Think about the toughest person you know. The person who played injured. The person who overcame adversity. Then, go read this post. You may put President Jackson on the top of your list.

Just saw a write-up on Posterous, a super simple blogging platform. I thought Tumblr was the simple one, but this platform is even easier. It takes the information in the header of an email and turns it into an authentication for a blog post. Pretty ingenius (perhaps not without its risks as well).

Check it out and think about how you can take unnecessary human steps out of your product or service. It might be easier than you think!

Springwise wrote about a clothing rental business called Transitional Sizes. For a monthly fee they rent clothes to women who are changing sizes (due to pregnancy or weight loss) anywhere from size 4 to size 26. You can have clothes that fit each month, and when they don't you turn them back in for new ones. The website looks a little too eBay (come on guys, you can take some better photos of the clothes), but is a good concept.

I'd love it if this were combined with a MyShape.com style clothing store, so that they could pick out a wardrobe for you that would match your styles and measurements, and the season and weather in your part of the country. At the end of the season, you return the package in exchange for some new pieces.

I love the subscription model as it builds loyalty and referrals with every compliment, plus it takes the guesswork out of shopping. Trust me there are a lot of women with disposable income that don't like or want to take the time to shop!