The day’s news always seems to redline any current cycle that’s in vogue. A contrarian approach helps keep things in perspective and recognize turning points. (more…)

Oil companies don’t want to be in the credit card business, which they farm out to financial companies on various consignment basis. Here’s a good example of bad things that happen when the two companies’ customer information gets out of sync. Bogus late charges are bad enough; wanting to verify SSNs without any verifiable security is beyond the pale. (more…)

Good sales presentations take a lot of thought, planning, practice, and focus on the customer. Sales 101, been there, done that, tell me something I don’t know. Here’s one that really stood out by concentrating on customer benefits, supported by a well designed campaign.

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Sales calls are like first impressions: No second chances. It certainly pays to do some research before walking off the cliff, and you can never do too much of it. Here’s a case that illustrates the point nicely.
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The dog days of summer are not here yet, but an old construction oversight make it seem that they have arrived early and will stay longer than normal. Here’s one way that cooled things off quickly, for under $40, took less than 30 minutes to build and deploy. Parts list, drawings, step by step DIY instructions, and installation photos that you can download. Topics: Background; A Small Heat Problem; Tiptoeing Through The Attic; Found It; Some R & D With A Dash Of Procurement; You Can Have It Too; Conclusion

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There’s always someone who knows exactly how you can get from A to B, and is ready of offer you the roadmap for a very reasonable fee. Make sure the scenery doesn’t get boring. Topics: Employing Part Time Expertise; Staying Out Of The Briar Patch; A Marvel Of Efficiency; and Recognizing When The Lesson’s Finished
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Jim Rapoza wrote an interesting article (SaaS Access in the 5 May 08 eWeek magazine pp35-43), that describes the next browser architecture as something very much like a remake of (IBM) 327x technology, with an additional  overhead layer. This, along with the adjacent article by Ryan Naraine on the Opus Palladium browser project at UI-Urbana-Champaign, suggests to me that one lock-in may be exchanged for another. Perhaps the devil we know isin’t so bad after all.

In 2004 Dan Herchenroether wrote a book named Selling Air (www.sellingair.com), a fictional account of a software company during the tech bubble, with much of the action taking place in Silicon Valley. This came to mind the other day when I read a piece (at www.eweek.com/c/a/Content-Creation/Adobe-Launches-Open-Screen-Project/) about the Adobe Integrated Runtime, or AIR for short. Seems to be a pretty good thing, but the acronym somehow doesn’t suggest stability and reliability. The name probably sounds good to the techies, but I’m not sure the suits will grasp what it all can mean. I enjoyed the book; hope the product doesn’t have a similar conclusion.

I play the jazz station KKJZ for background in my office, and occasionally hear something that is really intriguing. The latest is the album Imagina, Songs of Brazil, by Karrin Allyson (www.karrin.com), which I’ve added to my MP3 player that I listen to when exercising in the morning and taking occasional walks. The upbeat music certainly puts a positive sheen on everything. I don’t have a clue what the song lyrics are, but the Portuguese seems to add a special flavor of lightness and life. I’ve never been to Brazil, but have been to Portugal, which is decidedly European. Maybe the language as spoken (and sung) in Brazil has a special New World kicker that makes it different from the Mother country. Highly recommended for Jobim and jazz lovers.