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Amazon’s New Wine Business Already Obsolete

Amazon will soon start selling wine, reports the Financial Times.   Too bad it’s based on an obsolete model: physically shipping bulky goods.  It’s like shipping boxed software, when it’s available on the Net.  Or bulky books when it’s available on Amazon’s very own Kindle.

It’s time Amazon entered the 21st Century, the age of Waas: Wine as a Service.

(Watch the video here in case the embedded player does not work in your feed.)

 

Related posts: TechCrunch

 

 

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Google’s Darth Vader Phone

Probably a joke but there’s a mockup of what a Google – Alienware (owned by Dell) phone would look like. Personally, I find it ugly.  Perhaps if they bundle it with a light saber?

 

More on: CrunchGear, Engadget, Gizmodo, Gadgetell, Technology Questions, PalmAddicts and Mobility Site

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YahoOL?

Yahoo running  to AOL to avoid  assimilation by the (Micro-)Borg?  Hm… I don’t know which one is worse. (Actually, I do.)   The funny (actually, sad) thing is, most of my Best MicroHoo quotes apply to a Yahoo/AOL situation, you just have to replace Microsoft with AOLsmile_sad

Stowe Boyd:

Personally, I think the Microsoft and Yahoo matchup is like two tired swimmers who bump into each other and then wind up drowning each other in their scramble to survive. But Yahoo will be the first to go under in this embrace.

Fake Steve Jobs:

It’s like taking the two guys who finished second and third in a 100-yard dash and tying their legs together and asking for a rematch, believing that now they’ll run faster.

Imagine a circus act in which two enormous, clumsy, awkward elephants that don’t really like each other are supposed to mate while riding on skateboards.

Oh, well… a sad soap opera.  smile_omg

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The Best MicroHoo Quotes

There’s hardly anything new to add to the MSFT/YHOO story, except two great quotes.

Stowe Boyd:

Personally, I think the Microsoft and Yahoo matchup is like two tired swimmers who bump into each other and then wind up drowning each other in their scramble to survive. But Yahoo will be the first to go under in this embrace.

Fake Steve Jobs:

It’s like taking the two guys who finished second and third in a 100-yard dash and tying their legs together and asking for a rematch, believing that now they’ll run faster.

Now, for the best part: this last one isn’t from FSJ, after all.. it’s from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer himself. (that is if you can believe anything a blog with Fake in the title sayssmile_omg)

Ballmer said he loved when his rivals merged, because whenever the also-rans in any market start teaming up they might as well be waving a white flag. Because it’s over. You’ve beaten them. You’ve driven them to despair. They haven’t been able to beat you on their own; there’s no way they’ll do it together. Then he told me that line about the hundred-yard dash.

Btw, this Fake Steve post is not exactly short of great metaphors. Here’s one describing the post-merger integration (you know, the stage where all mergers fail):

Imagine a circus act in which two enormous, clumsy, awkward elephants that don’t really like each other are supposed to mate while riding on skateboards.

and this one:

That giant buzzing sound you hear is the whirring of photocopiers in Redmond revving up and spitting out resumes.

It’s worth reading in full.

Update (2/4): Robert Scoble’s version: Put two turkeys together and you don’t get an eagle.

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Sales Pitch: We Remove Vista

Via Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog.

Update (2/1): It’s on Engadget now.

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Bad Usability Calendar

The 2008 edition of the (in)famous Bad Usability Calendar by is here.

The past three calendars have all been successful in distributing examples of bad design around the world. Check out the fresh examples of exaggerated use fancy of Web 2.0 design, cover flow, personalization, pull-down menus and more… 

Download the PDF here.

Courtesy of Norwegian design firm Netlife Research.

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Zoho for BodyBuilders :-)

This is hilarious: my blog stats showed hits for the Google search “gaining muscle”.  It turns out that an older post titled Zoho Suite Gaining Muscle is on the first page of the Google results, amongst the real stuff for bodybuilders.

This is almost as funny as when an export/import trading company offered me link exchange, as my post titled How to Import All Your Archive Email Into Gmail came up second on Google for “how to import” smile_thinking

Update:  The combination of a little fun with the title and some Google juice can produce unexpected results.  I’m not sure Robert Scoble and Shel Israel wanted to be listed in this company. smile_omg

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Translating Art for Geeks

 

There’s a lot more in this set by “Paul the Wine Guy”.

(Thanks, Eszter).

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The Nothing New Announcement

Ever get the feeling that some tech firms have run out of anything new to say?  So does fellow Enterprise Irregular Brian Sommer, so he offers a template for such companies:

XYZ Announces Nothing New

Nothing New to Become the New Industry Standard  

January 9, 2008 – Chicago – Today, XYZ Corporation is announcing ‘Nothing New’ a revolutionary, industry-leading approach to stall-ware, procrastination and marketing waste. “We believe this is the most important announcement we’ve made this year – maybe this decade”, says Jim Bigwind, CMO of XYZ. 

“This announcement is nothing short of extraordinary. It is, in fact, nothing” says XYZ customer Getz Fleeced Oftin at SoftTouch Ltd.

Blithering Media represents way too many tech firms and amazingly enough has no one on staff that understands the space. Blithering Media personnel are expert though at crafting press releases on just about anything (or nothing as in this case). For more info on Blithering Media contact us point.less@ blitheringmedia.com

I’m not giving away the full announcement – click over to Software Safari and enjoy. smile_tongue

Update (1/11): Wow, Brian is on fire: his next piece, Acronym Shortage to Adversely Impact Tech Sector is a must-read. smile_teeth

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“Local Warming” – Quoted in a TED Presentation

Investor and prankster Yossi Vardi delivered a lecture @ TED (March 2007, Monterey, CA) on the dangers of blogging. Specifically, um, for men. Eagle-eyed Amit Agarwal spotted a glimpse of my earlier blog post, Will Geeks Become an Endangered Species? embedded in the presentation:

Here’s the full video , it’s 6 minutes 15 seconds long, and my 4 seconds of fame come at 2:12 smile_shades

On second thought, this was my first 3 seconds of fame – explanation here. Ah, when I was young…smile_embaressed

Update (4/5/07): The seeds of innnovation in danger …