Archive for January, 2008

Unbundling production from delivery can change the world

Monday, January 28th, 2008

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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Early adopters & the mainstream users

Sunday, January 27th, 2008

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!)

“Duh” warning label

Sunday, January 27th, 2008

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

Entrepreneurship Week 2008

Saturday, January 26th, 2008

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.

WSL: Parking Page Poker Face

Friday, January 25th, 2008

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.

Infecting malware with malware

Friday, January 25th, 2008

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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Who are you outside of your job?

Monday, January 14th, 2008

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.