Posts filed under 'Business'
Without intending to throw so much love towards 37signals tonight, I feel this is worth mentioning. Over the last few hours, I was unable to access the 37signals website in addition to our Highrise and Basecamp accounts (both 37signals web-based products). Here was the explanation just posted on their blog and in the top section of Highrise:
Downtime summary
On the evening of Monday, November 12, we experienced a few of hours of downtime due to an explosion at our main data center in Dallas, TX. This event lead to the eventual failure of a backup cooling system. Without adequate cooling, our servers had to be shut down to prevent permanent damage. We have detailed the events that led to the downtime. We deeply apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused and will work hard to make sure we reduce the likelihood of this happening again.
What they did well:
- The decidedly non-techie tone.
- They told the truth (as far as I know) and provided a detailed account of what happened.
- The notification posts were up as soon as the servers were.
- 37signals did not throw blame directly on Rackspace, their hosting provider.
Even though it was obviously a Rackspace issue.
- Their apology and offer to credit concerned customers.
Thanks for hanging in there.
Will be using this situation as both a wake-up call and a learning experience. While our systems are engineered to chug through major failure, this “perfect storm” chain of events beat both our set-up and our data center’s sophisticated back-up systems. We will work hard to further diversify our systems in order to make an future downtime event like this even more rare.
We apologize for any inconvenience this downtime caused your business. If you feel you were significantly impacted by this downtime please send an email to support and we’ll credit you for the downtime.
Will I be asking for a credit? Absolutely not, because I was not significantly impacted (now ask me if I would take a credit from Verizon or Comcast that I did not technically deserve). Well done, 37signals.
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November 13th, 2007
Don’t be everything to everyone. This is important to remember for people, businesses and in this case, software. Have an opinion. Be loved and hated. Be a strong brand.
This interview/discussion between Walt Mossberg (Wall Street Journal: Technology) and Jason Fried (37signals) covers a lot of good points. And many of them apply to much more than software development. It is worth watching even if you couldn’t care less about software.
A few takeaways:
- It is good to say no. Helps keep your idea/product/business simple.
- WWSJD - What Would Steve Jobs Do? Probably say no. This had helped lead to Apple’s success.
- A company should have an opinion.
- Being hated & loved is better than being (UMA) universally moderately appealing (I just created a new acronym).
- Consider your customer’s experience first. Open source projects often fail, in the consumer market, because the customer experience is not considered first. Open source software is built from the code out, instead of the interface in.
- Leaders make great decisions, not groups.
Watch the interview here.
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November 13th, 2007
If you are interested in honing your debate skills, I think I have found an effective method:
Join Verizon Wireless and call customer service, they will debate/argue with you regarding any issue. You are considered wrong until you prove your case. Truly an effective teaching method.
“Verizon’s new debate program improved my skills as an orator by 47%*. Thank you VZW!”
*results may vary
Or, if it is more convenient, just drop by a Verizon retail store. In fact, I think they recently launched a competition to see who can provide the most inferior customer service. Retail stores are in the lead by 1 point! Keep a close eye on that race folks, it is going to be close one.
/sarcasm
Verizon is lame. But, then again, so are Vermont’s mobile phone provider options.
[Update] This frustration stems from spending over one pleasant hour on the phone with Verizon customer service this morning on still unresolved issues. The Verizon rep promised she would find a supervisor and call me back within two hours. Well, it is four hours later…and still nothing. Should I have expected anything else?
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November 1st, 2007
Walt Mossberg on how the government needs to intervene and free the mobile phone from the carriers death grip:
A shortsighted and often just plain stupid federal government has allowed itself to be bullied and fooled by a handful of big wireless phone operators for decades now. And the result has been a mobile phone system that is the direct opposite of the PC model. It severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world, just as the cellphone is morphing into a powerful hand-held computer.
Read More
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October 22nd, 2007
Bill Maher on the iPhone price cut:
“Early adopters always pay a premium. “Early adopters” being a business term meaning dipsh*ts who stand in line for 6 hours…for a freaking phone. It’s not a price cut, it’s a repeal on the nerd tax.”
“If you didn’t have to be the first on your block to have the latest gizmo, you would now have an extra $200 to spend on your imaginary girlfriend.”
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September 17th, 2007
How far would you go run to get a new client? A team from BooneOakley literally ran from their Charlotte office to Saucony’s Boston office (all 859 miles) to deliver an RFP by hand. An interesting, and seemingly effective, way to generate positive attention for BooneOakley and their new potential client.
They recorded the journey on their video blog.
via AdRants
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August 14th, 2007
Steve Job’s on the next Mac operating system:
“Leopard is shipping in October. Basic version, $129. Premium version, $129. Business version, $129, Enterprise version $129. Ultimate version, $129. It’s all the same… most people are going to buy the ultimate version.”
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June 11th, 2007
In 1988, I wore fluorescent green snow pants, a black and hot pink jacket, and matching neon Zinc Oxide on my nose. Without a doubt, I was stylin’ on the ski slopes.
All of these bright memories came racing back when I saw the logo for the 2012 London Olympics, which was unveiled today in London.
My iPod Shuffle This logo not only comes in pink, but also shades of orange, green and blue.
The new design, which cost £400,000, has received a mixed response, but Lord Coe was adamant it put across the image and message that he wanted the London Games to deliver to the world.
“It’s not a logo, it’s a brand that will take us forward for the next five years,” he told BBC Five Live.
“It won’t be to be everybody’s taste immediately but it’s a brand that we genuinely believe can be a hard working brand which builds on pretty much everything we said in Singapore about reaching out and engaging young people, which is where our challenge is over the next five years.
“London unveils logo of 2012 Games” BBC Sports
All this being said, styles do repeat themselves eventually in some shape or form. Maybe I am just not forward thinking enough, or maybe this design trend was one I was hoping would be left in the 80’s; but this is the British equivalent of $793,216 US dollars ill spent.
[UPDATE] Expert says, 2012 Olympics logo is not fit for TV and may cause epileptic seizures. Good thing the Olympics are never televised…oops.
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June 4th, 2007
FedEx’s new Launchapackage.com “service” is fantastic! Not only is it fun to use, but also a great example of effective online branding. It is very simple to send a virtual package. You start by filling out your FedEx delivery slip, of course.
Add the contents to your package; write a message to your recipient, upload pictures and documents. Then launch your package (the fun part). Pull back on your rubber band loaded package and let that sucker fly. Don’t pull hard enough and you are warned by messages such as these:
(Posting continued after images.)
Now to be more critical of a service that could be truly outstanding and useful. The service is fun and a great marketing tool for FedEx, but it really does not do anything my email cannot. The maximum size for document attachments is 3MB (1MB per document). The total picture size limit is 2.5MB (500kb per picture). Most email services can send and receive attachments up to 10MB.
So, how about increasing the capacity of the service to make it more like Senduit, which allows users to upload and transfer files up to 100MB in size. The virtual FedEx service would then truly be useful, because it picks up where email file transfers leave off.
A more useful FedEx online delivery service would make sense. Make FedEx the first company/service that comes to mind when shipping or transferring any type of information. After all, as online transfer speeds and capacities increase, many will no longer be using traditional FedEx shipping services to send information (via CDs or DVDs). FedEx might as well capture the online file transfer market while they can.
5/20/07 - Interesting tie-in:
Traditional FedEx delivery still faster than file-transfer over a high-speed Internet connection, when transferring more than 1 terabyte of data. In other words, if you have a lot (a whole lot!) of data to transfer, just send it via an overnight delivery service. It will get there faster than the online file transfer (even if ideal transfer speeds are sustained).
Keep in mind that 1 terabyte of info is more than any typical company would need to send. We are talking about more than 212 DVDs of data to equal the 1 terabyte. So this info is more trivial, than useful. Nevertheless, still interesting…if you’re into this kind of stuff.
Check out the Royal Pingdom post.
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May 16th, 2007
The “Design for Living” survey, of more than 2,000 Americans, shows that young Americans are heavily influenced by good design. If you or your company has overlooked the importance of design in the past, maybe you should look again.
Excerpts from the “Design for Living” survey:
In marked contrast to other generations, young Americans ages 18 to 29 are driven by the influence of good design on major life decisions.
Compared to others, the 18 to 29 age group – the so-called millennial generation – places greater importance on design in the workplace:
- Millennials are happier (74 percent), more motivated (64 percent) and more efficient (31 percent) in a well-designed workplace.
- An overwhelming 82 percent of survey participants would let the prospect of working in a beautifully designed building influence their decision to accept a job.
- They give serious thought to public spaces (66 percent), beauty and architecture (42 percent) when considering relocation to a new city.
- Nine in 10 Millennials also care more than any other age group about sustainable design of new buildings for well-being and resource efficiency.
Survey results also show that design has a considerable influence in many Americans’ daily choices. Almost seven in ten respondents said that the last time they saw a product in a store that they “just had to have,” it was because of its design. In addition:
- Three-quarters of those surveyed – and more, among 30- to 39-year-olds – said they have enjoyed a movie simply because of its visual effects, despite other flaws.
- They are willing to pay more for an appealing product design, whether it’s a car (67 percent), furniture (60 percent) or a video game system (31 percent).
- A majority of those surveyed (55 percent) believe that good design can actually improve a product’s functionality while also making it look better.
BusinessWeek innovation editor Bruce Nussbaum urged the nation’s future designers at the prestigious Parsons School of Design to consider the increasingly important role of design in consumers’ everyday lives. Anticipating ever-greater influence of design on business and society, he stated, “Design, with a capital D, can move beyond fashion, graphics and products, services into education, transportation, economics and politics.” And as consumers design more of their lives, from their MySpace pages to their music experience, computer screens and cars, Nussbaum observed that “Design Democracy is the wave of the future.”*
- More research results can be found at www.autodesk.com/pressroom.
- * “Are Designers the Enemy of Design?” BusinessWeek.com, March 18, 2007.
- Survey by Kelton Research and commissioned by Autodesk, Inc.
- Thanks to Margo for passing this on.
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May 2nd, 2007
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