Software Soapbox

Marketing note to nobody in particular....

Prescient remarks on Seth's Blog: Facts always win, right?.

Great brands and projects are built on real value and a real advantage, but great marketers use this as a supporting column, not the entire foundation. Instead, they build a story on top of their head start. They focus on relationships and worldviews and interactions, and use the boost from their initial head start to build competitive insulation.

MySQL Leaders Bail Out of Sun Microsystems

via NYTimes.com.

When we last talked, Mr. Mickos insisted that companies continued to obtain MySQL at a rate of about 65,000 downloads per day. It’s an astonishing figure, but one that does little for Sun’s bottom line. Sun must still convert those free downloads into customers willing to pay for support and buy the company’s hardware.

Family to recover body of killed Canadian boxer

via Yahoo! News.

Gatti, born in Italy but raised in Montreal and a naturalized Canadian citizen, lived in the United States with his wife and son.

Microsoft, IBM highlight software development advances

via InfoWorld

"It's amazing the breadth of people who are doing programming," such as musicians processing sounds, Myers said. Still, programming remains mostly out of reach for the untrained, he stressed. "Clearly, end-user programming, even after 40 years of research, hasn't really succeeded," said Myers. He cited WordBasic as an attempt at end-user programming that then evolved into more complex Visual Basic, and then developers turned to C# to meet their needs, he said.

Nadal plans Montreal August return

via Yahoo! News.

The Spaniard, who was also forced to miss his country's Davis Cup quarter-final win over Germany last weekend, will resume training on Monday ahead of the Montreal Masters which starts on August 8.

Thousands Of H-1B Visas Still Up For Grabs

via InformationWeek.

The fact that it is mid-summer and the H-1B visa cap hasn't been reach yet is startling when contrasting this year's demand to the last couple of years, when USCIS received enough petitions to hit the combined 85,000 limit within days of accepting the applications in April.

Facebook gets $6.5 billion valuation with share sale

via Reuters via Yahoo! Tech.

The deal suggests that Facebook has a higher market value than many established media and tech companies which generate significantly more revenue than Facebook, including CBS Corp and Salesforce.com, as at least one blog pointed out on Monday. CBS, which had $13.95 billion in revenue last year, has a market capitalization of $4.06 billion and Salesforce.com had a $4.72 billion market cap at Monday's market close.

Google vs. Microsoft: What You Need to Know

Extensive and good analysis of the current battle between MS and Google on  Wired.com. 

And an Important point:

......Google wants you to search and travel around the web, hitting web pages that run Google-served ads and Google tracking cookies. You might think that Google is a really cool company to give away all this free technology, while never thinking about the persistent and silent data collection Google is undertaking to profile you in order to deliver you to advertisers for a premium.

Google Eases The Switch From Lotus Notes To Google Apps

Google Eases The Switch From Lotus Notes To Google Apps.

The new tool lets customers migrate mail, calendar and contacts from Notes to Google Apps. The syncing tool, which Google says is a native Notes application, can be installed and configured in less than 30 minutes, for multiple users at once. The tool has already been tested with 40 of Google’s enterprise clients, including JohnsonDiversey (10K users) and Valeo (32K users). The tool is free for Google Apps Premier and Edu customers.

Cause-Based Job and Volunteer Resources

Nine Cause-Based Job and Volunteer Resources.

If you're an experienced professional looking to stay sharp and you've got the freedom to contribute to actual volunteer-driven efforts or you'd like to try working for a cause-based organization, below are some great resources:

Google Apps Go Social With Improved Contacts & A New API

via ReadWriteEnterprise.

As of today, Apps contacts exhibits shades of Facebook and Twitter by allowing you to find and interact with all the user profiles in your Apps suite.

Spectacular Dream Yachts to Set Sail

via Wired.com.

Schöpfer Yachts’ first design, Oculus, demonstrated a futuristic melding of boat, spaceship and fish at an impressive 250 feet long. Then came the even larger and more futuristic looking Infinitas, an astonishing 300 feet long. Needless to say we were intrigued.

Elsmore.net - Microsoft WPC Day 1 Wrapup

Elsmore.net.

MS have a BIG problem getting shelfware deployed to customers. So much so that MS reps are rewarded on deployment figures more than license sales

Perhaps this is something that would work for IBM Lotus reps - not only deployment compensation but retention compensation too....

Google Testing New Service Features On Chrome First?

Google Testing New Service Features On Chrome First?.

....there is, of course, nothing wrong with Google doing this — provided that it doesn’t mean to permanently offer different (meaning better) versions of sites to only those users using Chrome.

XBRL… so much more than compliance

Altova Blog: XBRL… so much more than compliance.

So, here we have a very quick example of generating XBRL directly from an accounting system - no need for re-keying information, no need to create a set of traditional financial statements, and certainly no need for "tagging". And best of all, all of this can easily be done in-house and at a fraction of the cost.

cnewmark: Slashdot: Unsung, Unpaid Coders Behind Federal IT Dashboard

cnewmark: Slashdot: Unsung, Unpaid Coders Behind Federal IT Dashboard.

For starters, there's Timothy Groves' Auto Suggest (Creative Commons License), Alf Magne Kalleland's Ajax Tooltip and Dynamic List (GNU Lesser General Public License), and Gregory Wild-Smith's Simple AJAX Code-Kit (SACK) (modified X11 License)."

Google Chrome OS: Distraction or Opportunity?

Google Chrome OS: Distraction or Opportunity?.

Since details are scarce on how Chrome OS will actually work, Randall focused today’s TechVi show on the business side of the news.

Blood therapy may be drug-free answer to chronic pain

via CTV.ca.

The treatment first requires that a doctor draw a vial of blood from a patient before it is spun in a centrifuge to separate the plasma. The plasma ends up with a very high concentration of platelets, cells that release proteins and other growth factors that help the body heal its injuries. "This is a breakthrough type of approach," Ko said. "This is an injection approach that has minimal risk."

Power.com countersues Facebook over user data

via Yahoo! Tech.

Power.com, a San Francisco based aggregator of social networking sites, on Friday sued Facebook in a California court to try to resolve who owns data on social networking websites -- users or the sites.

Note to Air Canada - It's not good to spam your customers

Recently, I booked a couple of tickets to Montreal on aircanada.com.  Basic internet booking stuff, select flights, pay, select seats, email me a confirmation.

Except I never did get a confirmation.  Or my seat selection email, as promised. 

I know the email works and they have the right address, because a few days later I get this:

Brian Benz,

Thank you for your recent flight purchase at aircanada.com.

Want to stay informed about the latest travel news and special deals? Watch for these popular emails, sent to the address you provided at the time of purchase

Note the wording there - "Watch for these popular emails, sent to the address you provided at the time of purchase" - nothing about me agreeing to these "popular emails". 

Note to Air Canada - spam is not "popular" with me, or anybody I know. 

And I'm still waiting for my confirmation emails, as promised.

Plan to ban Uluru climb sparks debate - Yahoo! News

Too bad!  I have fond memories of climbing that rock, second only to climbing the Cheops Pyramid at Giza.

Plan to ban Uluru climb sparks debate - Yahoo! News.

The world heritage-listed rock, famed for its shifting red-ochre colors, is a top tourist drawcard and is climbed by more than 100,000 people each year, despite its central desert location and against the wishes of indigenous people.

One thing:

"You can't go climb on top of the Vatican, you can't go climb on top of the Buddhist temples and so on and so forth," local elder Vince Forrester from Mutitjulu township told state radio.

Bad example.  Actually, most churches and temples do have a way to climb to the top and take in the views.  Including the Vatican and Wat Arun in Bangkok, which is best climbed at dawn or sunset.

Business vs. Consulting

Another good post over at blog maverick, third in a series that mark should re-title "yelling at entrepreneurs" :). 

If you go to bed at night thinking about how to sell more and how to make your customers happy. You probably are in a good place. If you go to bed and wake up thinking about how to raise money to stay in business, you might as well get the new business cards and think about what your new consulting blog is going to look like

Job Spam - When is a job post on Monster, careerBuilder, Dice, etc, not a job post?

Over on Chris Byrne's site there's an interesting post about a Websphere Portal Administrator job.  They're looking for a highly qualified resource.  The rate: $13.46 per hour.

Consensus on the comments seems to be that the job post represents a diabolically clever way to get H1-B resources into jobs at rates that Americans can't or won't accept.         

Not sure that I agree on the motive.  I see this all the time on the big job boards and it has nothing to do with cleverness.....more cluelessness.

Here's the real post on HotJobs.com.  It's a full time job, not a contract.  Definitely the same job, in Marrietta, GA, same closing date, same job description, and based on the resources experience, a relatively reasonable (for this economy and government work) market-rate salary.

Here's how we get crazy stuff like this:

-BigCluelessCo needs a highly skilled tech resource
-They email BigCutStaffingCo, a tier-1 IBM BP with a reasonable job req and a reasonable rate

So far so good - then the wheels fall off:
-BigCutStaffingCo scatters messages to as many spare-bedroom based "staffing agencies" as they can find with the same job req and the reasonable rate - less their cut
-Some of those "agencies" email other "agencies", the req stays the same but the rate gets lower with each additional level
-Some of those "agencies" advertise on sites like the one in Chris' post, and others.

In this case, somewhere along the line the fairly reasonable original full time post morphed into the contract job from hell with typing speed requirements and a "you pay us" salary level.

This is how you have insane stuff like this posted every day on Monster, CareerBuilder, Dice, etc. 

My advice - ignore these posts.  They're the career -search equivalent of spam.  If there are too many of them on a job search site, ingore that site too.   

This is a great example of a serious modern Web problem, and probably a great opportunity, to solve problems for the three groups affected by Job spam - Job sites, employers, and job seekers.

Job spam like this should be a serious issue for the job boards.  Their existence relies on their ability to link employers and job seekers, and they are failing.  They are probably positioned the best to fix the problem, but I only see things getting worse as time goes by.  Have a look at the meta job-posting site Indeed.com for any job category (That's where I found the original job).  There are hundreds of postings on multiple sites via multiple agencies for a single job.  If this keeps up these sites will eventually be unusable.  Already I find I find much better opportunities via qualified contacts via my personal network, and on sites like LinkedIn and FaceBook.

Also, I have serious questions about why employers would put up with shenanigans like this.  If I were them I'd be pretty frustrated.  Here's the problems for them:

-The job is unfulfillable because there are no appropriate responses 
-If a resource is actually found, the contract terms of multiple tiers of "agencies" make contracts non-negotiable and/or non-executable
-If a resource can be found, and a contract can be negotiated, the project is a disaster from the first minute because the customer and the person doing the work have vastly different expectations regarding the level of job function and the resource's skillset.

Lastly, job seekers have to be clever about this stuff.  Fight it, or go around it - I choose to go around it when I can.

Tricks for job seekers:
-If you see a job post that looks good but has a crazy rate or terms, google a paragraph or two of the requirements, the home city, and the closing date.  Chances are you will find the original post.
-Indeed.com is also a great resource for finding the actual real original jobs.
-LinkedIn and FaceBook are great resources for finding real jobs, but not free of job spam either - but at least you can see who you're dealing with, and try to find the original employer.

Should a Social Media Editor Use Social Media?

Interesting post, and lots of comments from people who probably wish they had her job.  Maybe Jen's bosses thought that if they hired a Social Media Editor they could edit stuff like this....

Or they can just wait until they're not famous anymore....

Hehe - angry little article about a clever tool to "defeat" Paparazzi.

Beating up your paparazzi stalkers is so last century. The modern celeb might instead turn to non-contact (and non-litigious) means of protection, simultaneously spoiling the paparazzo’s pictures and destroying their parasitic, leech-like livelihood.

It's Over! CompuServe Classic is Closing

via The Paper PC.

CompuServe Classic, the legendary online service that once dominated the industry, will close June 30 after 30 years in cyberspace. CompuServe 2000, a newer iteration of the service, will remain online.

When you succeed with Free, you are going to die by Free

via blog maverick.

When you succeed with Free, you are going to die by Free. Your best bet is to recognize where you are in your company’s lifecycle and maximize your profits rather than try to extend your stay at the top.

Path Cleared for High-Speed Rail Service to LA

via Las Vegas Now |.

For nearly three decades, there has been talk of a high-speed train between Las Vegas and California but the Secretary's announcement makes it more likely.

XHTML 2 language dumped in favor of HTML 5

via Yahoo! Tech.

The XHTML 2 Working Group charter, scheduled to expire at the end of 2009, will not be renewed. By discontinuing the XHTML 2 working group and increasing resources in the HTML 5 Working Group, W3C hopes to accelerate progress of HTML 5 and clarify the organization's position regarding the future HTML.

Russia bans all gambling and shuts casinos

via Yahoo! News.

Each year gaming brought in up to $7 billion and paid $1 billion in tax, a gap the industry says will cause the state a budget headache. The development replacement zones -- in southern Krasnodar, the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, east Siberia's Altai region and the Far East -- require investment of up to $40 billion and have not been built. "The zones have no roads, water or electricity. We fulfilled the law by shutting, the government did not fulfill it as the zones are not ready yet," said casino director Boyev.

Shelter Holds Clinic to Reduce Stray Animals

via Las Vegas Now

Officials also are reminding owners just how scary the upcoming Fourth of July holiday can be for pets. ""Especially with the fireworks and the barbecues and more people playing outside. The animals can get really scared and they have a tendency to run away more," said Musso.

Web 2.0 and the Flexibility of modern information, or is FedEx now worse than the Post Office?

I’ve had an interesting week dealing with a package that was supposed to have received by now.

-On Tuesday my wife orders a book form a publisher in suburban Chicago, with 2-day shipping
-On Thursday the book does not arrive
-On Friday morning she calls the publisher and discovers that they screwed up, and sent it to the wrong address
-The book is in transit, not delivered yet
-The publisher calls FedEx to change the delivery address

So far, none of this is FedEx’s fault.  But here’s where things get crazy:

-An hour later we call FedEx to confirm the change, they don’t have it on record.   No change on file
-FedEx does not display the delivery address on the Web site for “security reasons”
-Another call to the publisher, a conference call with Fedex, and a little digging confirm the change
-But now there are two “traces” (FedEX term for delivery) on the package, for two different addresses
-The FedEx rep cannot confirm that the package will arrive at the new delivery address
-We are told that we can pick up the package at the “station” when it arrives in Las Vegas

Great!  So now we can make sure we get it, and we will get it a day sooner because we are picking it up instead of waiting for it to be delivered!  Not so fast….

-On Saturday (today) we check online, it has arrived at the station at 1121 West Cheyenne, Las Vegas
-We call to confirm that we can pick it up, and are transferred to another, unidentified place
-We are told that we can’t pick it up because we did not pay for “Saturday Delivery”
-I try to explain the difference between delivery and pickup
-I confirm that the package is sitting at 1121 Cheyenne
-I confirm that the station is open
-I cannot get a guarantee that the package will be delivered to the right place
-I’m told that we have to wait and see what happens to the package on Monday.

Amazing.  There was a screw-up here on the part of the sender, but we’re trying to work with FedEx to fix it because we want to receive the book.  Nobody we talked to on the phone at FedEx seemed interested at all in working with us to make sure that the package is delivered to it’s intended destination, or appreciated the fact that this is an unusual delivery because of the address change and the two “traces”  on the package, and it may get delivered to the wrong place.  They seemed more interested in explaining the internal intricacies of how things work at FedEx.

So how is this worse than the post office?  Easy – FedEx and their customers have access to an amazing amount of information that you just don’t have at the post office.   But that information is not being used to its full potential.  Yes, we can see some information on the Web site.  But it’s the one-way Web, there’s nothing interactive.  It’s pretty far from the Web 2.0 world we now live in.

 If all is going well, yes, the one-way Web is usually enough.  But when there is a hairball in the system, and we the customers make the effort to fix a mistake, we can only find apathetic and/or uninterested people on the phone who can not/will not help us. 

In the meantime, electronic delivery replaces much of what used to be delivered by courier, and the post office is actually improving its online services…..

Maybe FedEx has jumped the shark?  We’ll let you know on Monday, if the delivery goes to the wrong place despite all of our efforts.

Doc Searls Weblog · Living Ends

Doc Searls Weblog · Living Ends.

It is here that we see manifest the split between the Live Web and the Static Web. I’ve been writing and talking about this split since my son Allen first mentioned the term in 2003.* He saw the World Live Web then as an absence, as unstarted business.