Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Marketing High Technology

I recently read the book "Marketing High Technology" by William H. Davidow.

William H. David has many interesting stories to tell about his time at Hewlett Packard and Intel. When he writes about "Marketing High Technology", he means measurement/test-systems or microprocessors. But his ideas can be applied to other areas as well.

Sadly I can summarize this book in a few points:
- The Product is the device plus all services, the distribution channel, the perception in the market and what the product does for the customer
- "Plan products, not devices"
- If the distribution channel does not match your product, your product will fail
- Your device can be inferior, but your product may be better (E.g. it better does what the customer NEEDS)
- You need at least 15 % market share to survive in a market
- The market entry barrier is about 70 % of revenue of the biggest competitor in a market
- If you can choose between better and different, let your product be different
- In the end, it is all about customer satisfaction, not device features
- If you can't deliver the service that customers expect, you'll loose


The worst on TV

Thursday, February 17, 2005

The only killer app in the history of computer technology is human communication.

Eric Nehrlich's Rantings: "The only killer app in the history of computer technology is human communication."

Groupware Bad

Groupware Bad: "'Groupware' is all about things like 'workflow', which means, 'the chairman of the committee has emailed me this checklist, and I'm done with item 3, so I want to check off item 3, so this document must be sent back to my supervisor to approve the fact that item 3 is changing from `unchecked' to `checked', and once he does that, it can be directed back to committee for review.'

Nobody cares about that shit. Nobody you'd want to talk to, anyway."

Make nice URLs

Make nice URLs

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Giving responsibility without giving up control is a manager's way of trying to take credit

Eric Nehrlich's Rantings: "Giving responsibility without giving up control is a manager's way of trying to take credit without wanting to be blamed. And it's demoralizing. I've become incredibly allergic to such situations at work. Some might say that I should just step up and make the best of it. And maybe I should. It's something I've been struggling with."

Eric Nehrlich on Social Software

Eric Nehrlich's Rantings: "One example would be that I think it'd be really useful if my calendar could include all of the cool concerts/clubs/presentations that my friends are going to, using RSS or something to put it all together. Unfortunately, given the dynamic nature of events, and the effort associated with entering events into a calendar, it seems unlikely that something like this would work from a reality standpoint."

iTunes and Tags

Can I please, please, have tags in iTunes?

How Tags can improve your life

matt.griffith - How will tagging in WinFS help?

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Why sideshows are important

MoneyPants: "11. How did you get the idea for Flickr?

Flickr was a side project! We originally started the company to build a massively multiplayer online game. It was a very socially oriented game, including instant messaging, groups and a social network. We added the ability to share photos and Flickr was born. Flickr grew like wildfire, and grew to take over the whole company."

Monday, February 07, 2005

I am honestly and positively surprised

The new US foreign secretry Condoleeza Rice seems to be doing something right. She trys to improve the relation between the US and "Old Europe". She has visted President Abbas and gets the peace talks moving again.

Yes, I am positively surprised.

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Lost Frog


Lost Frog
Originally uploaded by t-mix.
Sorry, this had to be done.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

iPod Accessories

A BMW

Eric Nehrlich's Rantings

Eric Nehrlich's Rantings:
Instead of saying, 'Y'know what? Eric totally forgot to check his code and that's why it broke', we say 'We need to have a process in place for checking code to ensure that this does not happen in the future.' All of these things drive me nuts.

Management by numbers

And it gets back to a common theme I've been on with regard to being treated as a person. The thing that bothers me about the timesheet method of management is that it treats me as a resource. Not a person. The timesheet reduces me to a number to be crunched into budget allocations and project management. And I think I find that fundamentally degrading.
Eric Nehrlich's Rantings - Management by numbers

Amazing pictures - Not on flickr...

The Morning News Gallery - The Bear by Witold Riedel

Joel on Software - Rick Chapman is In Search of Stupidity

So read it, chuckle a bit, and if there’s a stupidhead running your company, get your résumé in shape and start looking for a house in Redmond.


Joel on Software - Rick Chapman is In Search of Stupidity