Connecting the dots ...
According to Goldman Sachs Accounting is now at the #3 spot in SaaS implementations, reports Dennis Howlett.
Not a real surprise, certainly not to Dennis’s readers, or those who follow Ben’s Accounting 2.0 series over @ CloudAve.
Still, seeing the numbers makes me feel good, given that I debated a short-sighted report by McKinsey a few years ago, when they predicted that Financial Applications would be amongst the last to move to the Cloud.
Eat crow, McKinsey 🙂
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
That’s yours truly on the left in full glory, albeit a bit scared at a photographer’s studio.
Why black-and-white, you may ask? Well, there was no color photography back in 19xx (date censured
).
This formerly black-and-white photo has turned sepia, but that may just be acceptable over 4 decades (oops, I let it slip out
), but I was shocked to see some of my student-back-packer-trip color prints turn in the same shade, even though they were some 20 years younger. (I must have picked a cheap lab back then…)
I’ve long been thinking of digitizing them, but every time I got the urge I quickly realized that scanning in thousands of photos – prints, negatives and slides – would take me forever, and even then the result would be of questionable quality. So I was really happy to read raving reviews of ScanCafe, a service, that takes care of it all at reasonable prices.
Anyone can buy a bunch of scanners and start a digitizing business, but ScanCafe brought a twist to the process: they perform all processing in India, (their own employees and facility, not outsourced), which allows them to be the price-leader, yet add a level of human post-processing that ensures the best quality.
You initiate the ordering process online, where you get abundant information on the process, packaging requirements..etc, then, after paying half the estimated price you print a UPS label.
Your package first goes to ScanCafe HQ in California, where it’s examined, re-packaged and shipped off to India. You can track progress every step of the way. A few weeks later you can review the low-res scans online. Here comes the good part: you can discard up to 50% of what they already scanned in. This is a life – OK, just budget – saver, when you consider how difficult it is to pick good pictures especially from negatives. Chances are you – like me- didn’t bother, just threw the whole bundle in an envelope, and would waste a lot of money paying for all of them, without the “select the best 50%” option.
Next you wait a few weeks, until you receive a package with your hi-res pix on DVD and all your originals back. You’ll be amazed at just how good image quality is – and now your photos are preserved in digital safety. Well, relative safety, at least – I suggest you read my older post on decaying digital media.
If it’s such a good service, is there anything not to like about ScanCafe? Yes, indeed. Although more annoyance than real pain (thanks to junk filters), ScanCafe turns out to be a major spammer. I’ve been receiving their email offers just about every second / third day ever since the first order. They are persistent – but I’m not sure persistence in this case is a positive virtue. If this was a proper marketing campaign, shouldn’t they have noticed that I am not responding ever? But it’s just brute force email spam.
In fact the story gets worse… Is it even possible that they are not aware of their own business model? Let’s see.
Yeah, I thought so. And now, I’m not crazy, I know those questions belong to the 90’s. Which is exactly my point: film photography is almost dead. History. Which means most of us won’t become repeat customers for ScanCafe, not because we’re unhappy with it, but because they are in the one-time (or a few times) conversion business. Eventually there will be nothing left to digitize, since we’re not producing printed photos anymore.
That’s not to say ScanCafe is a doomed business. There’s still enough to digitize to keep them running for years, but unlike say ShoeBox, which does the same for your paper receipts, there’s no endless re-supply of analog photos, so eventually ScanCafe will need a new business model. And in the meantime they might as well stop spamming their (former) customers.
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
News on lasers of all sizes hitting targets of all sizes… let’s start small – hey, small is beautiful, after all. Besides, this is one laser you could own at a reasonable size one day.
Former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold currently runs aptly named Intellectual Ventures. At TED (not to be confused with Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure) he presented a laser system that can shoot down mosquitoes at a rate of 50-100 mosquitoes per second (!). Here’s a demo video – obviously in slow motion:
The best part: he assembled this system from commercially available parts, in fact some components were acquired on eBay. The guiding software is said to be refined enough to not only find the target, but determine their size, speed, sound characteristics, in fact separating females (the gender that bytes humans) from males, and only hit the real enemies. So your birds, pets and neighbors are safe. That is, until a hacker decides to experiment 🙂
If this sounds like mini Star Wars, here’s the real thing:
The US Airforce’s he Airborne Laser Testbed system had a successful test off the California coast this week, when an airborne laser successfully destroyed a missile minutes after it’s launch, while it was still in boost phase:
Not sure if the youtube version of the video will be allowed to stay on, but here’s a link to another version. While the experiment was technically successful, the future of the program is in doubt: there is only one system on one single airplane.
Well, let’s see, I promised all sizes: we’ve had the Big One, and a small laser against lots of tiny targets. Let’s see what happens when lots of small lasers target on tiny target.
A research team at Livermore National Laboratory successfully fired a focuses array of 192 laser beams at a helium-filled target no larger than a BB shot and instantly heated it to 6 million degrees Fahrenheit. The gas vanished in a tiny explosion. Wow… I wonder how they measured 6 million degrees? But it’s nothing, the objective is to reach 200 million degrees.
Heartwarming news… especially that I live a mere 10 miles from that Lab. But not all is lost, I got some assurances from Charlie 🙂
@ZoliErdos we’ll try to remember you after the The Ignition
Thanks. Forever 🙂
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
That was the fun part. After all, it’s Sunday. Now read the story here:
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
For being a netbook-fan I admit I am in the market for a super-slim lightweight laptop. The market has evolved, the current slimbooks are only slightly more expensive than netbooks, and I find the 13.3” screen size an ideal compromise between portability and straining my eyes with the tiny screens. So I was quite happy to see what I consider a good deal: a HP DM3 for $449 @ Office Depot.
I found it on DealNews a few days ago, but it became impossible to purchase almost immediately. I tried it for a few days, most recently just minutes ago, but am always getting the same response: no inventory.
The other SKU is available though, for $150 more. It appears the be the same configuration, without the discount. I tried to tweet up @OfficeDepot, but I guess they are busy handing out cookies. Finally I had an online chat with Customer Service, which basically conformed my suspicion: the SKU that’s available is the same physical unit, just without the discount. So here’s the beef (not cookie):
If this is not false advertising, I don’t know what is.
Finally, see the script of my Customer Service chat:
Office Depot Online Help
Chat Dialog
CSR Gary has entered the session.
Zoli: looking at item# 328626 – says no inventory. The same config available for $150 more under different SKU. But this one says price valid till Jan 30 – so how can I buy it?
CSR Gary: Thank you for contacting Office Depot , Please give me a moment, while I check that for you.
Zoli: thanks
CSR Gary: You are welcome
CSR Gary: Thank you for being on hold
CSR Gary: I am sorry item “328626” is no longer available for purchase
Zoli: Isn’t 808119 the same?
CSR Gary: yes it is the same
CSR Gary: may i have your zip code
Zoli: 94566
CSR Gary: item 808119 is available for purchase
CSR Gary: please do call our customer care
department @ 1-800-463-3768 and they will help you in
placing this order
Zoli: I see the availability online. but it is the identical product for $150 more then the other price, which claims to be valid till 1/30
CSR Gary: Yes
CSR Gary: We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.
CSR Gary: Is there anything else I may assist you with?
Zoli: It’s not a matter of inconvenience. If your website claims it is avail for $449, and you do have inventory, then you should be sellign it for that price, not $599
Zoli: Otherwise this feels like deceptive advertising
CSR Gary: I am sorry the item is available until stocks last
CSR Gary: I will escalate this issue to the concerned department to remove the out of stock item from the website
Zoli: OK. Thanks.
Zoli: I’m blogging this as a case of deceptive advertising
Update – I guess I should not be surprised: Office Depot Associates Routinely Lie about Notebook Stock – reported Laptop Magazine almost a year ago.
Update #2: Did Office Depot really need this:
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
Now that everybody talks about the iPad, let’s talk about something just as important as the new device:
It’s a screenshot from Engadget’s coverage. Yes, reasonable data plan prices. Except… how many of them do you need? An iPhone data plan, too? A data plan for your USB stick for the times you do need a “regular” notebook to work on?
Remember this?
Yes, phones looked like that. And there was a time when phone companies (Ma Bell) charged extra when you had more then one outlet in your home….
Remember the early days of cable TV? You had to ( well, were supposed to) pay extra for each additional cable outlet.
How about the early days of the Internet, before wireless became pervasive? Yes, ISPs expected us to pay extra for each outlet.
These anachronistic charges are all gone – we pay for the service, no matter what device we use to access it.
So why would wireless access be any different? We will soon have an increasing number of devices, but the underlying service is the same. In fact chances are when I use my iPad (which I don’t have), I will not be using my Netbook / Notebook, or browse the Net on iPhone, Google Nexus One … as a consumer I may own a variety of devices, but chances are I will only use them one at a time.
It’s time wireless providers wake up to the 21st century and charge for consumption on a per account (person) basis, not per device.
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
The Apple iPad event is still on, and the Internet is crumbling… Twitter barely crawls, CoveritLive isn’t exactly live, the major sites providing blog coverage are barely accessible… this is iKill – the day Apple Killed The Net. 🙁
But I want to talk about something more important:
It’s a screenshot from Engadget’s coverage. Yes, reasonable data plan prices. Except… how many of them do you need? An iPhone data plan, too? A data plan for your USB stick for the times you do need a “regular” notebook to work on?
Remember this?
Yes, phones looked like that. And there was a time when phone companies (Ma Bell) charged extra when you had more then one outlet in your home….
Remember the early days of cable TV? You had to ( well, were supposed to) pay extra for each additional cable outlet.
How about the early days of the Internet, before wireless became pervasive? Yes, ISPs expected us to pay extra for each outlet.
These anachronistic charges are all gone – we pay for the service, no matter what device we use to access it.
So why would wireless access be any different? We will soon have an increasing number of devices, but the underlying service is the same. In fact chances are when I use my iPad (which I don’t have), I will not be using my Netbook / Notebook, or browse the Net on iPhone, Google Nexus One … as a consumer I may own a variety of devices, but chances are I will only use them one at a time.
It’s time wireless providers wake up to the 21st century and charge for consumption on a per account (person) basis, not per device.
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
Legend says Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer got really angry last year at an internal Microsoft event, when he saw an employee taking his pic with an iPhone- he grabbed it, pretended to stomp it and made fun of the employee (is he still an employee?) .
Well apparently he is more tolerant with outsiders, in fact may even have developed a sense of humor… watch this video showing Steve Ballmer as he signs a student’s Macbook:
Now that he warmed up to it, I wonder if he’ll go on stage and sign the Apple Tablet Steve Jobs is about to unveil? 
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
Publisher / Editor of CloudAve and Enterprise Irregulars.
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