Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The technology of "good enough"

Even more than ever technology is expected to work. Can it have all the shiny parts that get your immediate attention? Sure. But in mission critical (I'll let you decide) apps and anything connected to the internet we just want, no need our apps to work.

Just think about how dependent we are upon electronic mail. When e-mail goes down so do whole companies momentarily. This is an example of technology, that ten years ago was essential but today is the life blood of business. It also has not changed too much beyond Exchange, POP, and IMAP because it just works and is good enough to get the job done.

There is a niche for software, hardware, and all types of players who know what they do and do it very well. Companies have to ask themselves, "Do we want to make steak knives or butter?" then make the hard decisions. In these times markets need to be created and not followed.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

My new Dell Mini 9




After much thought then anticipation I finally broke down and purchased a shiny black Dell Mini 9. On President's Day Dell ran a $199 special for the base model with Ubuntu as the OS. The 4GB SSD hard drive was enough for me since I was upgrading from an Asus Eee 701 with very meager specifications. But I did order a 2GB DIMM to get the little laptot going with a little more oomph.

After receiving it yesterday and using it in the real world today and I am thoroughly impressed by the multimedia capabilities for movies and music. The sound is very good for even the base model. The Dellized instance of Ubuntu is very user friendly and I can see why many of the ones sold are the Linux ones. You don't need experience with command lines, terminals, or even repositories. The Dell/Ubuntu quick guide tells one how to be up and running in no time on wired or wireless Internet and the included software is very intuitive.

In fact, I have already taken a peek in Dell's Outlet and they have refurb'd units starting at $229. Even with XP as the OS that's a great deal.

Monday, March 2, 2009

e⋅con⋅o⋅mist    /ɪˈkɒnəmɪst/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [i-kon-uh-mist] –noun 1. a specialist in economics. 2. Archaic. a thrifty or frugal

Another historical day for the DJIA and this recession inches closer to a depression. Our policy makers are listening to economists who by their occupation are not entrepreneurs or business leaders so why oh why do they seem to have all the answers?

This past few months the liquidity has been literally stolen out of the private sector by our own government then force fed to companies that may or may not need the money. What can only follow now is the nationalization of top U.S. industries. If we thought we lagged behind the global economy before well we just took three giant steps backward:

1. The U.S. federal government is now the largest debt holder of American private industry.
2. There is no consumer confidence and therefore no trust in the marketplace for a bottom to be found anytime soon.
3. The American taxpayers are broke and have nothing more to give to this out-of-their-mind Congress and White House.

The mindset of "everybody for himself" is starting to set in and the answers are not found in politicians and spending bills. I pray one day soon, that Americans will turn back to a government of the people, by the people, and for the people will thrive again.

This is not a left or right, republican or democrat, or even a conservative or liberal issue. This is about what is right and wrong. And there is a whole lot of wrong going on....