I’m surprised US courts want to pursue this, how more embarrassing could it get?
Hacker to Fight US Defense
I have never lost at Golf
Some people reading this may not believe it but I challenge anyone to prove they have beaten me. If you are wondering how come I have such an enviable record it can be explained thus:
First and foremost understanding the golf swing, most golfers really don’t know what that is, they think they do but check out this video and find out, at long last, the secret to pitching a ball properly:-
The second reason is I have never played a game in my life and I’ll be damned if you’ll get me swinging sticks when I could be closing deals on the 19th.
Who needs startup funding?
Nearly ten years ago I met an entrepreneur who owned an online hotel booking business. The site was functional, plenty of photo’s, reviews, everything a polished and professional site would offer today. However the design was amateurish, in fact it was awful. I confess the only reason I didn’t say anything about it was the guy placed a large order with my company.
I met him at Comdex ‘99. He didn’t look like a success. He wore off-the-peg clothes, they didn’t fit him particularly well. His shoes were scuffed. He chose to stay in a Motel, I didn’t know Las Vegas even had Motels.
My business partner told me he had just authorized a $10,000,000 advertising campaign and that where he stays or how he dresses should not effect my opinion of him. How wrong my partner was. I was impressed! This guy got around without being noticed. He was slipping under the radar of corporations and as he stole more and more of their business they didn’t even think he was worth an “eat crap and die” letter from their lawyers!
The man is a genius.
1999 was the year the Internet bubble burst. While companies were fighting for the few remaining VC coins available this guy was making it big and the only funding he got was from his own pocket.
His secret was deliver a much needed service conveniently. He could give tuppance what people thought of him or his website, that is unless they were customers.
I just came across his website, the only real change is a high PR. So it appears if you want to succeed the secret is to deliver what people want, at a price they want to pay and to dress like you can’t afford anything better.
Gartner Gold or Gartners Nemesis?
For years I have mused at the intense respect afforded Gartner Research and the vast sums of money banks and large corporations spend on reading their predictions. It’s not that they have been wrong or woefully behind what’s actually happening but the “Me First!” attitude in some of their reports.
It’s like the aging whizz kids have to prove they thought of market direction before anyone else to save their lives. Perhaps they do, I don’t know. But their attempts to be seen as “with it” are sad, especially when they pickup something that is on the decline and claim it’s going to be the next “big big thing”.
The BBC has an article on a Gartner opinion that firms lack an ability to capitalise on social site success (click here for the article).
“For example our press agency uses Twitter and FriendFeed to do things like find someone to talk to a reporter. With these networks you can find out who is online and get answers quickly. It’s about keeping distributed groups in touch and up to date.”
Guys, this has been the heart and purpose of the Internet since since the mid 80’s, possibly even before.
They are correct that opportunity is being missed, but it has nothing to do with how social sites work or how they are used by their members. It frightens me because I fear they will be looking for the “business model” or how to “monetize” these sites.
Let’s not forget that Gartners prediction for online business models has included advertising revenue, oh, and then there was advertising revenue, and ummm, hmm, yes that’s a good idea people could put ads on their sites to make money, oh and other people could pay membership fees so they don’t have to stare at adverts all day (this final one being their favourite).
Do they not see the benefits and wisdom to be found in the crowd? They appear to know something importants going on and I applaud their plea to business to allow staff to participate in social media.
The irony is social media is Gartners Nemesis.
Compulsory reading for all Gartner authors should be Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds. In business we are told “you need to know your competitor” and for Gartner that is the crowd. Perhaps the most interesting thing about social media is that it is the crowd who created it and not experts. A fact that many companies use to make millions in silence…
Why Microsoft Sales are in Decline
I always thought Microsoft sales were like a metaphoric light bulb on the ocean of business. Always bobbing up and never sinking. If I had money to spare I would have invested in them when I bought my first PC “bundled” with MS Dos.
But I was surprised to hear of their decline. Decline is often used to describe the process by which a company reached it’s end, perhaps the distance Microsoft has to spare before it hits the bottom is one reason why it still works well in headlines without annoying my frustrated pro Microsoft employee who wants to exchange LAMP for ASP (or ASPX as he says, presumably he thinks the X makes it sound cool).
No really, I am not anti anything, but a year ago I was angry to discover my company was spending thousands on Microsoft each year on stuff we no longer use. I decided that enough was enough and I refused to renew any licenses at all.
The idea was to find out exactly what is it we must have, if anything. Any member of staff who could put up a reasonable argument would be rewarded with the software of their choice.
We needed one more PC and determined to stick to the policy it had Fedora linux installed (I would have preferred Ubuntu but that’s another story). Apart from a few frustrating minutes trying to work out how to install Flash in FireFox there has not been any problem at all and no reason to switch to Windows or Office. The user of that machine using a combination of Google apps and Open Office to read files received in Microsoft format.
So after a year and several thousand unspent budget I have to come to the conclusion, for my needs, Microsoft doesn’t offer me anything I can’t get for free.
However is that the reason for the decline? Is everyone dumping Microsoft in favour of Open Source? I don’t know, but Microsoft aren’t helping themselves by making it so darn complicated to buy and use their stuff. Most people don’t read licenses because to do so requires a lifetime knowledge of software legalese and the comprehension of a programmer writing script backwards in Hasaitic.
However, assuming that most people don’t see the license as a barrier, they still have to actually buy it. This is a concept that is understood by most vendors, I give you money, you give me goods, but it is well beyond the understanding of some Microsoft sales personnel.
Recently I received a notice telling me that my “Partner” membership was up and that if I wished to continue using the software I must pay up. Fair enough you might think but clearly they haven’t read their own licenses. I was never allowed to use the software for my own equipment, all in house machines were covered by a separate license - or are they telling me somehow they managed to dupe me into paying twice for the same thing?
That argument aside I thought little about it filing their message in folder Nº 13. Then a couple of months later, a business colleague contacts me and says he would like my assistance with a small network. A group of insurance professionals were joining forces to create a new product. They needed 5 laptops, 5 work stations, a wireless network and the “Microsoft Office Suite”. The one caveat they had was that they needed a workflow application that could take data derived from an online source and produce PDF’s for distribution by email.
Although this can be done with ease using open source the customer has asked for Microsoft. We never try to swing a customer in favour of open source or away from Microsoft, far better to work with what they feel comfortable with (and after all, we are just programmers, we do not pretend to be Gartner International).
But if we are to develop with these products we need to use the same product versions as the customer - this is an example of where my rule “No Microsoft” has to be overruled! A new PC is ordered and I reply to Microsoft’s invitation to renew the Partner Pack.
Despite their email telling me I just need to reply for more information I hear nothing from them.
OK, they probably use a different address. So after a couple of days I follow one of the links and am informed I need to “update” my profile. It won’t accept my new address. It actually says something like “That address does not exist, please enter a valid address”.
Ok, so even though they have the greatest mapping service on the planet, even though I can see my house on their website, I just have to accept I do not exist in real life. I grab their phone number and call them. After the usual security type questions I get the chance to change my address.
“I would like to update my address”
OK, can you give me your post code
“It’s 7130″
That’s invalid, can you check it please
“It’s 7130, it’s the same address you used to send me this here brochure”
It took a while but the operator managed to shoe-horn the address in. Eventually he got to the point I was looking forward to
Can I take your order please?
“Yes, one Partner Pack please”
Oh but you don’t qualify, you need to take a training course before I can take your order
He did go on to explain that some people were ordering the software and not use it for the correct purpose and that to make sure that’s not being done by me all I had to do was accept the challenge.
“Ok, go ahead, ask me anything you like”
You have to take lessons and answer the questions online
I admit I felt a little snaky at this point but trying hard to see their point of view decided it wouldn’t do me any harm, I had time to spare.
After three hours of fiddling with their website I gave up. Sometimes it would tell me I don’t have cookies enabled (I do), I don’t have JavaScript enabled (I do), I have the wrong browser (must be IE), IE must be my default browser, I must have MSN as my homepage (ok made that last one up), but perhaps the worst error of all was after completing a form it took me to the profile of someone called Matthew Pajowski with presumably his address and telephone number.
Three hours wasted on a website I would not trust with my name let alone credit card. A requirement for customers who have been using their software for as long as they have existed to “pass an exam”, a call center that is basically an echo of their website…..
And I wonder why they have a decline in sales?
