Monday, June 25, 2007
Customer Driven Business - DELL
This article details the new DELL service being rolled-out for allowing customers to determine what pre-installed software is included on the system they order. This functionality was provided based on IdeaStorm user generated recommendations. Companies which adopt these customer driven requirements capabilities should benefit as they have services and products more reflective of market driven needs.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Birth of an island - Image series
Very cool collection of images which depict the birth of a south pacific island...
CrankyGeeks
A vidcast hosted by John Dvorak is pretty entertaining and somewhat insightful. Definitely indicative of the dis-itermediation taking place for video content.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Betting on DELL?
Lately I've been following DELL and it's business decisions and valuation as a potential value investment. Here's what I find compelling.
1. DELL is listening to it's users through mindstorm.com, which is similar to DIGG in allowing customers to drive requirements. This seems like a great way to build community and get customers behind your business.
2. DELL is installing Linux on it's systems. Although they are only selling in the US, they will roll-out world-wide soon. They also will bundle Open Office, which should completely eliminate the need for Microsoft and hopefully lead to a reduction in the cost per unit.
3. Michael Dell is now in the drivers seat and cleaning up some bad management decisions and direction legacy.
At the same time, I believe that Microsoft has really blown it with Vista. I have Vista on my Dell laptop and it adds no value to my user experience. Although it may be more secure or offer great potenital for future development, as a customer I don't understand why I paid for this upgrade. I also still experience application failures regularly and general sluggishness. After five years of development Microsoft really blew it.
I believe that DELL is poised to provide systems internationally which are affordable and robust by providing open-source and Internet ready systems. In combination with Web 2.0 and Google apps DELL should be able to grow marketshare over next couple years.
1. DELL is listening to it's users through mindstorm.com, which is similar to DIGG in allowing customers to drive requirements. This seems like a great way to build community and get customers behind your business.
2. DELL is installing Linux on it's systems. Although they are only selling in the US, they will roll-out world-wide soon. They also will bundle Open Office, which should completely eliminate the need for Microsoft and hopefully lead to a reduction in the cost per unit.
3. Michael Dell is now in the drivers seat and cleaning up some bad management decisions and direction legacy.
At the same time, I believe that Microsoft has really blown it with Vista. I have Vista on my Dell laptop and it adds no value to my user experience. Although it may be more secure or offer great potenital for future development, as a customer I don't understand why I paid for this upgrade. I also still experience application failures regularly and general sluggishness. After five years of development Microsoft really blew it.
I believe that DELL is poised to provide systems internationally which are affordable and robust by providing open-source and Internet ready systems. In combination with Web 2.0 and Google apps DELL should be able to grow marketshare over next couple years.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Covestor - Let the world track your investment performance
I just signed up for Covestor.com and will be making my investment portfolio public. I will also have my performance tracked and publicly available. It seems like an interesting concept to me. Let the market decide who is the best manager and make it transparent.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Very Cool - Comparison of US States to Foreign GDP's
Over at the very, very compelling Strange Maps site (warning: do not click unless you have an hour to kill) is a map of the U.S. with each state renamed for a country with a similar GDP.
(Courtesy Freakonomics Blog)
(Courtesy Freakonomics Blog)
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Good article by Marc Andresson on VC investments
It's not surprising that VC's pass on 95% of what they see, particularly in today's go-go market. I remember having the 'we'll pass' experience myself a number of times.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
NY Times article on illegal seller kick-backs
Un-disclosed cash-back offered to the buyer is illegal to use as an incentive as this article on the economics of this type of transaction points out.
Friday, June 08, 2007
The 6 Percent Solution - Skip the Real Estate Agent
Another article in the New York Times on keeping the money that a realtor would receive. Also, this article re-iterates Steven Levitt's point about realtors having an incentive to lower the price for your house to get the transaction turn-around time increased.
Once city's home sellers do better on their own
Definitely a sign of things to come. When you pay a realtor 6% and can do just as well going it alone... Read the NY Times story.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Too cool! Speed Racer the movie in 2008
The Wachowski brothers are creating a live-action/digital action re-make of the classic Speed Racer... looks like it will be a lot of fun.
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