Nov 28
Yesterday I received a link to this article in my email:
The top 10 IT disasters of all time
Too bad the author decided to omit those IT “accidents” that caused loss of human lives. Maybe he did it for political correctness, but I believe it is more important to learn from software bugs that kill people than from those that only close LAX for a few hours or a hardware failure that causes a laptop battery to explode at a trade show.
Still, this article shows that a big part of today’s world depends on computers and a little bug on one line of code can cause big trouble.
Anyway, it’s an interesting read.
Nov 20
After a few weeks really wanting one, I finally got my iPhone yesterday. As opposed to my dad’s, mine came with the 1.1.1 firmware, and it was again my job to unblock it for use with my cellphone company here in Mexico.
This time I went straight to iphone.unlock.no and found a much easier procedure than last time, which works for version 1.1.1. This time I did not even need a computer, other than for reading the instructions. All I needed was the iPhone and a Wi-Fi connection. And I had it unblocked in less than 10 minutes.
Actually, two of them (my brother also got one.)
I have been using it for a full day, and I must say, I am in love with it. I still haven’t signed up for an unlimited-internet plan, but since I’ve had Wi-Fi available the whole day, I haven’t missed it.
My previous cellphone was a Sony K790, and I also had (still have) and HP iPaq as my PDA. The iPhone will replace both, and the only thing I’ll miss, or so it seems, is the “real” camera on the K790.
Nov 11
A few days ago I finished reading Blue Ocean Strategy, a book about creating entirely new markets (what they call a blue ocean) instead of trying to compete for a piece of the same market (a red ocean). They talk about a few strategies on how you can create a blue ocean, citing several examples of real companies. Some of these strategies include looking across alternative industries (private jets versus commercial airlines), across strategic groups within an industry (traditional health clubs versus Curves), or at the emotional and/or functional part of buying.
The book itself is a great read, but better still is trying to apply the principles learned to a certain business.
The software market is a little uncommon in that anybody that can produce a relatively good software application will get a few sales. In other words, there is probably a market for every software app. The trick is finding a big enough market so that you make a healthy profit.
This book teaches several strategies on analyzing your product offering and your target market so you can create new demand. By following this book’s tips, you can find the features of your product and your competition that add the most value for your customers, and by focusing on those features and ignoring those that don’t add value, you can create an entirely new offering that will appeal to a new, uncontested market.
The book is good read, and I recommend it to anyone involved in strategic decisions. If you are on the planning stages of a new product, then it’s a great time to read this book.