OK, so by now it’s pretty well established that I nit-pick things, have an acute sense of observation, and a big enough mouth to broadcast my astonishment at the funny things I notice around me. I’m learning how to be more positive and keep my mouth shut more… but I just couldn’t pass this one up.
Was looking at Google News to see what’s going on up in Massachusetts for the special election, and I noticed that a section on Israel and the Palestinian Authority had a weird side photo:
I'm pretty sure they didn't want that picture of the tennis player in there!
OK, curious, but not really interesting… until I saw the article section on the election. Now, that’s a funny photo!
A little sexist, no?
So, what’s the deal? Now, I’m wondering how Google comes up with the photos that show up, and if someone’s having a good time at their expense.
October 21st through January 10th, right here in NY we’ll have the opportunity to see what appears to be one of, if not THE most important exhibits of Japanese Arms and Armor ever seen outside of Japan. On display will be Samurai weaponry dating from 1156-1868.
The exhibition can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a flyer with more details is here.
Well, I’ve unplunged. Canceled AT&T and went back to T-Mobile. The whole experience has enough material for several posts. I initially wanted to write about how I made the decision to return to T-Mobile, a company I don’t like instead of going to Verizon. And, maybe I will.
I’ve been with a new Blackberry Curve 8900 since Tuesday the 2nd. And, while I’d like to write about my perception of the pros and cons, right now I’d like to focus on one thing as it relates to enterprise software.
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I was at a sake tasting last night listening to a lecture on how sake is made. I got a real sense for the craftsmanship that goes into sake making. It seems that high end sake almost exclusively does one key part of the process by hand, though they could easily get machines to do something almost as good.
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I’m an 8-month old iPhone convert. While I hate myself for converting, I’d do it again in a heartbeat (and continue to hate myself for it).
I love my iPhone, or rather, what my iPhone could be. Apple owns the end-to-end experience and has turned the mobile phone into a piece of art, that is, when it’s doing what Steve thought it should. If I want something even a little bit different, no way. I’d love my iPhone on Verizon’s network. Can’t do it. I’d love a new-email count to display on the lock-screen. Nope. I’d love to build a library of short-cuts so I can type faster. Not gonna happen. I don’t want the complexity of unlocking the phone, and don’t want to lose the features I gain by locking myself into a proprietary system (visual voicemail). And, for these missing features, as well as the pleasure of a 2-year lock in, I pay a premium for the service. Approximately 20% more cost with less functionality between AT&T and my former carrier, T-Mobile.
Why did I move to the iPhone? A few simple reasons:
- Visual voicemail
- Better end-to-end integration experience (less stuff I need to figure out to get everything working right by using a carrier-supported phone)
- One-device to carry for music, PDA, and phone
- Single place to find 3rd party apps
- Reasonable browsing
Let’s switch from db-the-geek to db-the-enterprise-architect, examine and reword that list:
- Features specific to my current needs (visual voicemail, reasonable browsing)
- Lower complexity (better integration, single device)
- Lower cost of ownership, easier to maximize my investment (single app exchange, one device, end-to-end experience has less moving parts)
What if Larry is taking a page from Steve’s playbook with the acquisition of Sun?
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I think it’s really cool how easy it is to do a screen capture on my little i-friend. Here are three funny screen captures. Enjoy! Read more…
Read a Business Week article this morning in which Jack Welch elaborated on a recent interview he did with FT discussing shareholder value. When asked what he thought of “shareholder value as a strategy,” he replied “[it’s] a dumb idea, shareholder value is an outcome — not a strategy.”
I put a couple of, IMHO, insightful tweets today about cloud computing. Things that popped into my head as I was preparing for the Cloud Computing Expo at which I’ll be speaking.
One tweet in particular caught some people’s attention.
“Moving to the cloud will force IT to be about integration and application delivery, instead of ‘infrastructure babysitting,’ as it is today”
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Sales Engineers are a hard nut to figure out. If they’re too technical, they usually don’t have the polish they need to speak to prospects in the context of selling. If they’re too polished, they struggle to succeed in organizations that value technical skills. Soft skills are hard to quantify, so they’re hard to screen for, and even harder to cultivate. Probably why most of the really polished SE’s go onto become highly successful sales guys. Commissions are a great way to quantify results.
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