I have no clue if it’s real or a Photoshop creation, but quite a pic anyway, supposedly from Russia:
Source: StrategyPage
Archives for 2006
Submarine on the Beach
Posted on July 5, 2006 ·
SAP Duet Video
Posted on July 5, 2006 ·
Having seen it at SAPPHIRE 06, I wrote about the importance of Duet for both SAP and Microsoft: “Duet’s importance by far exceeds what the limited number of currently available scenarios might imply: for SAP it means potentially tripling / quadrapling their user base, even if indirectly, and for Microsoft it’s another way to lock users into their Office suite.”
Jason Wood posted an insightful, analytical article on his blog with screenprints and all the bells and whistles.
Now there is an online video showing several scenarios. Use the pull-down menu to select the different tracks available.
A Humorous View PRIOR to the North Korean Missile Launch
Posted on July 4, 2006 ·
On the Daily Show, two weeks ago:
Watch the video here if the embedded player does not work.
Today it feels a bit less funny than two weeks ago.
Kim Jong Il’s 4th of July gift to the US: launching 2 (or more, some sources believe 2) long-range missiles, the types that can carry nuclear hads. Ironically, the same day we launched the shuttle.
The missiles turned out to be not-so-long-range, after all: one failed seconds after launch, the others fell in the sea hundreds of miles from Japan.
Tags: north korea, missiles, nuclear missiles, missile launch, daily show, jon stewart
Painful Painting
Posted on July 4, 2006 ·
This must have been a real pain to paint – literally. More about the artist here.
Candidate for the Dumbest Company Award
Posted on July 4, 2006 ·
“We have heard of at least one case where a company took steps to disable USB ports on their PCs with superglue,” SurfControl Australia’s managing director, Charles Heunemann, said.
Ahhhhhhhhhh… read the story at News.com.au
Uninstalling Google Desktop may “break your internet”
Posted on July 3, 2006 ·
This one’s from Digg:
“According to Google’s online help files, uninstalling Google Desktop may break your internet. Although Google offers several solutions to the problem, it leaves one wondering if this is a Microsoft-like tactic of breaking the system on uninstallation (as the uninstallation of Internet Explorer will break Microsoft Windows), or an honest mistake…”
I still believe that The Solution to your GDS Problem is CDS. 
Tags: google, google desktop, desktop search, gds, cds, copernic
Google is the World’s Fourth Largest Server Manufacturer
Posted on July 2, 2006 ·
So you thought Google was a search… advertising … software … information …etc. company? Well, you’re in for a surprise:
“Google is the world’s fourth-largest maker of computer servers, after Dell, Hewlett-Packard and I.B.M.” -says Martin Reynolds, an analyst with the Gartner Group.
Yes, that’s right. Google believes that “its growing cadre of world-class computer scientists can design a network of machines that can store and process more information more efficiently than anyone else. Mr. Reynolds estimated that Google’s computing costs are half those of other large Internet companies and a tenth those of traditional corporate technology users. ” They built hundreds of thousands of servers, typically skipping the box, laying down components on a bed of cork, more recently fastening them together with velcro. Currently they are AMD’s fifth largest customer, and there is speculation that they mey be getting into designing their own chip.
Read the full story at the New York Times.
(C)ouchSurfing’s Pathetic Shutdown
Posted on June 30, 2006 ·
“Three year old CouchSurfing, a beloved service used by some 90,000 members, had multiple database crashes, critical parts of the software and data were irretrievably lost, and the backups weren’t performed properly. They are not rebuilding the service. They literally put themselves out of business.” – reports TechCrunch.
Mike says it’s ridiculous – I’ll go a step further: it’s BS.
Of course the negligent approach about backups in itself is a serious issue, and in that respect I encorage everyone to read Dharmesh Shah’s thoughtful piece on why he considers $2K a month for hosting of his pre-launch startup money well spent.
So why am I calling this BS? Dharmesh says:
“What was the issue? Not lack of user interest or running out of cash or strong competition or any of the usual reasons that startups die. It was because of a series of infrastructure problems.”
Yeah, right. I haven’t been a CouchSurf-er, nor do I know the business, but I am calling it a BS, because the infrastructure problems are just an excuse – they may have been the last drop for the entrepreneur already fed up running the business, but definitely not the cause. Everyone knows that the single most difficult part in building any sort of marketplace / community business that relies on network effect is exactly that – reaching critical mass. Heck, anyone can throw together the databases, programs, infrastructure if the hundreds of thousands of users are somehow guaranteed. But of course they are not. My point is: if you do have the loyal crowd and your buiness is otherwise in good shape, you can start from scratch, and rebuild everything, no matter how bad (total?) your data loss is.
That leaves us with the other single most critical part (yeah, I am cheating, there are two “single” most critical/difficult parts…): monetization. This is where I suspect CouchSurfing may have had trouble, which turned it into OuchSurfing – after all, who throws away an entirely profitable good business after a technical fiasco?
Interestingly enough, although Dharmesh devotes his article to the importance of proper infrastructure, if you read between the lines, there is a second message there: eyeballs are not enough, you need to convert them to revenue.
Google Knighted
Posted on June 29, 2006 ·
Well, almost. Getting the term “Google” included in “The definitive record of the English language” as a verb is the equivalent of getting knighted. Next time you say “I’ll google it“, it’s no longer slang, it’s proper English, meaning: “To use the Google search engine to find information on the Internet.
trans. To search for information about (a person or thing) using the Google search engine.”
(hat tip: John Battelle)
Related posts:
Update (7/6): Now, this is funny. Why is this on TechMeme a week later? How come everyone wakes up now?
The Motley Fool, Techdirt, InsideGoogle, IP Democracy, Business Filter, Digital Inspiration, Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim and Google Operating System
Microsoft Office 2008
Posted on June 29, 2006 ·
If it slips any further, Microsoft might as well call it Office 2008. After all, who wants a 2007 model in the middle of next year or later? 2008 car models start selling mid-year, Microsoft’s very own Money software does the same, so why not Office?
In the meantime, there is a growing camp of us setting ourselves free and enjoying Office 2.0.
Update: Sorry, if you came here looking for news on Office for the Mac. Read what happened here.
Tags: Microsoft, Microsoft Office, MS Office, Office 2007, Office 2008, WebOffice, Office 2.0, Zoho
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