Jan

28

Unbundling production from delivery can change the world

Filed Under business, changing the world, did you know, innovation, mobile, product management | Leave a Comment

From this article from the McKinsey Quarterly,

Technology helps companies to utilize fixed assets more efficiently by disaggregating monolithic systems into reusable components, measuring and metering the use of each, and billing for that use in ever-smaller increments cost effectively. Amazon.com, for example, has expanded its business model to let other retailers use its logistics and distribution services. It also gives independent software developers opportunities to buy processing power on its IT infrastructure so that they don’t have to buy their own.

Interesting, but that (Amazon Web Services) seem like an obvious application since IT assets are consumed remotely/virtually, i.e. one isn’t actually physical interacting with it. Does unbundling apply outside of the virtual world too?

Unbundling works in the physical world too. Today you can buy fractional time on a jet, in a high-end sports car, or even for designer handbags. Unbundling is attractive from the supply side because it lets asset-intensive businesses—factories, warehouses, truck fleets, office buildings, data centers, networks, and so on—raise their utilization rates and therefore their returns on invested capital. On the demand side, unbundling offers access to resources and assets that might otherwise require a large fixed investment or significant scale to achieve competitive marginal costs. For companies and entrepreneurs seeking capacity (or variable additional capacity), unbundling makes it possible to gain access to assets quickly, to scale up businesses yet keep their balance sheets asset light, and to use attractive consumption and contracting models that are easier on their income statements.

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Jan

27

Early adopters & the mainstream users

Filed Under marketing, product management | Leave a Comment

This short article on R/W Web gives a quick intro on why you should pay attention to early adopters of your product, but also not wait until it’s too late to “cross the chasm” and rake in the mainstream users.

rw web cross chasm 1 Picture from the Chasm Group.

A common entrepreneur misstep, ignoring early adopters and instead going straight for the mainstream market:

rw web cross chasm 3 Picture from Tara Hunt

rw web cross chasm 2

Read the full article, I do no justice summarizing here (on purpose!)

Jan

27

“Duh” warning label

Filed Under uncategorized | Leave a Comment

I just got a new pair of gloves today, after waiting by the lost & found bin at my ice hockey rink. I guess whoever took my gloves decided to keep it for themselves (bastards!). Anyway, I thought the warning label inside of gloves was … well, obvious. See for yourself (click for bigger):

Mission Fuel 60 Senior hockey gloves

What? Ice hockey is not a safe sport?! There’s actually a chance that I might get hurt? Who would have thought! :D

Jan

26

Entrepreneurship Week 2008

Filed Under changing the world, ideas, innovation, people i like, stanford, startup, things to ponder about | Leave a Comment

At Stanford, nonetheless. Best youtube clip I have seen all week :) The star-studded cast in this short video clip includes the likes of, Tina Seelig, Ann Winblad, Steve Jurvetson, Randy Komisar, Guy Kawasaki, and many more. I had the opportunity of meeting Ann Winblad from Hummer Winblad Ventures. She’s so nice, knowledgeable, and totally driven. I like her.

I love this quote from Tina Seelig: “Entrepreneurship is an extreme sport. You gotta get out and do it!” Maybe that’s why I have a thing for this! :D Tina’s voice sounds familiar to me although I’ve never met her. That’s because her talk at STVP is one of my favourite that I listen to over and over from time to time. Tina is awesome, I hope to meet her in person one day.

Jan

25

WSL: Parking Page Poker Face

Filed Under security research, websense | Leave a Comment

Yeah, so I’ve been busy and haven’t posted for a while here. But today, I posted a blog for work, so I’m cross-posting it here. Read: recycling information because I am lazy. That’s right, I’ve said it.

What’s in a domain parking?

Wikipedia defines this practice as “an advertising practice used primarily by domain name registrars and internet advertising publishers to monetize type-in traffic visiting an under-developed domain name. The domain name will usually resolve to a page containing relevant advertising listings and links. These links will be targeted to the predicted interests of the visitor and may change dynamically based on the results that visitors click on.”

Or in normal people jargon, random marketing material that is mostly pointless for most people. Typically, our readers immediately navigate away from such pages upon visiting them by accident.

Continue here.

Jan

25

Infecting malware with malware

Filed Under ideas, security research | Leave a Comment

This story on \. today reminds me of a “what if” thought that I’ve had once before.

Wired story about scientists who plan to use genetically modified mosquitoes to reduce the population of Dengue-carrying insects. The altered genes cause newly born mosquitoes to die before they are able to breed if they are not supplied with a crucial antibiotic. This is a more aggressive approach than the anti-Malaria work we discussed last year

In the security arms race against black-hat hackers, it’s common for them to copy our security measures and use it against us. Perhaps it’s time we did the same. What if we made malware to infect their malware? I mean, they make malicious stuff to infect victims, so how about us infecting their malware with our payload (malware for malware? If the two terms cancel out, does that make it goodware?) — just like the genetically modified mosquitoes?
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Jan

14

Who are you outside of your job?

Filed Under things to ponder about | Leave a Comment

In my quest to better understand myself, I found these words by Penelope Trunk to be pretty insightful:

People do what their strengths are regardless of what their job description is. Real leaders will lead in any situation they find themselves. Real writers will always write, no matter what their day job is. And real strategists will always think in terms of the conceptual future, from any job they have

** and to rant a little, a big thank you to the script kiddies who are DDoS’ing my web host. If this site seems slow or unresponsive, it’s because it’s under attack. Just come back later.

Jan

12

Poverty myths busted by Grameenphone

Filed Under changing the world, microfinance, mobile, poverty, things to ponder about, wokai | Leave a Comment

Myth: Government needs to provide economically viable services
What Grameenphone proved: Private companies can provide them

Myth: Government needs to subsidize private companies
What Grameenphone proved: Private companies can help government with taxes

Myth: Poor people are recipients
What Grameenphone proved: The poor are a resource

Myth: The poor are uneducated and can’t do much
What Grameenphone proved: They are eager learners and capable survivors

Myth: Poor countries need aid
What Grameenphone proved: Businesses raise GNP far more than aid

From the a slide at Iqbal Quadir’s TED talk.

Coincidentally, Courtney from Wokai has just posted her thoughts on this CNN article about mobile money transfers taking off in Kenya–where not everyone has a bank account or even a home address. I believe the saying that creativity can’t flourish without constraints is true. In well off countries like the United States, *everyone* has a bank account and home address, so it’s quite natural to see why the average normal person would care much about being able to conduct banking sans a bank account or home address.

Mobile/cellular technology is a great example. What cell phone users are offered here in the US make us look we’re still living in the stone age–when compared to oh say, Japan.

Sometimes having good things in life can be a burden, in the sense that they might block you from seeing other opportunities. Ever felt that way?
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Jan

9

What a man can be, he must be

Filed Under passion, quotes, things to remind myself | Leave a Comment

What a man can be, he must be
– A.H. Maslow, A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review 50 (1943):370-96.

Jan

8

Strangers who know you well

Filed Under things to ponder about | Leave a Comment

Recently, I had two people I know who were relatively distant to me, make spot-on comments about me that really confirmed some thoughts I have been having about myself. When I say “distant”, I mean that we don’t regularly hang out, rarely meet each other, and don’t exchange communication much.

This is not to say that all strangers know you well, because that would be just absurd. What I have come to discover is that some of these “strangers” may inherently possess a skill: where they can quickly cut through surface clutter, size you up, and see the inner you quickly and quite accurately. This is also to say that sometimes it’s the people who are the closest to you, who see you day in and day out, that might not be able to give you insightful advice.

My attempt to reconcile this counter-intuitive phenomenon leads me to think that this might be one of those scenarios in problem-solving where the person who has the problem is too close to the problem, or too entrenched in the problem, to possibly see a solution. Hence the saying, “think outside of the box”. Too close to the source of the problem, and sometimes you’ll not just have difficulty coming up with more plausible solutions, but even have trouble in making the right judgement.
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Jan

1

Steve Johnson on Software: Business or Hobby

Filed Under engineering, marketing, product management, things to ponder about | Leave a Comment

Steve Johnson of Pragmatic Marketing, the winner of Software Idol 2007, gives an entertaining talk about the role of product management in software companies. A 6 min 35 second-clip:

And oh, Happy Q1 of 2008!