Last Wednesday I blogged about how bigger companies, like Dell and Sony, do a poor job of providing a rapid response to online orders and customer concerns. However, I was hasty in my blogging and need to (partially) apologize to Dell (but not Sony in this case.) The computer arrived on Monday, one day after I …
Trying to help them, and they snub you!
Via Scoble, Mike of HackingNetflix.com blogs about Bloggers & Corporate Public Relations Departments. Seems Mike’s site is a(n oddly naming) tribute site to NetFlix, yet when Mike asked to be on their press list they declined, and when he asked them to support an "Ask Netflix" column on his website they wouldn’t return his calls …
Often, Big Companies Suck when compared to Smaller Ones
I have a new employee starting on Friday and needed a new computer. Generally I like to buy from Dell because they keep all system info online for future retrieval. So yesterday (Monday, June 21st, 2004) I went online to Dell’s Outlet and selected a pre-built system and requested it to be shipped Fedex Saver …
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Where do you buy your .NET Components and other Programming Tools?
Disclaimer: I run a company (Xtras.Net) that sells .NET components and other programming tools so this topic significantly affects my own livelihood as well as that of my company. Over the past 10 years, since we launched our first printed VBxtras catalog, the state of Windows-based programming has changed. In those days most Windows programmers wrote …
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An honest history of Xtras, plus a glimpse of what’s to come
This past March my company Xtras, Inc. had its ten (10) year birthday. We’ve come to a crossroads of sorts and I thought it would be a good time to document those past ten years, and provide a glimpse of our future. I’ll do my best to describe things as I remember them, but I’ll …
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Another Patent Gone Bad
Wired reports Forgent Sues Over JPEG Patent. According to the article, Forgent acquired a 17-year-old patent when it purchased Compression Labs in 1997 that Forgent believes can be applied to JPEG. Also according to the article, Forgent has generated about $90 million in fees on the patent from 30 licensees in Europe, Asia and the …
What major advantages does C# have over Java?
Matt Davey just posted about a presentation to management types where they asked the question (among others) “What major advantage does the C# language have over and above the Java language?“ My first thought was “attributes“ which allow developers to tag code with metadata that can be programmed against but I was sure there was …
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RSS for Periodic Report Distribution?
I just had an epiphany! (So everyone, go ahead and send me 50 links that I personally have yet to run across where others have already suggested this. :) I’ve always wanted to review key numbers related to my company’s permformance on a periodic basis; i.e. each day, each week, and each month, etc. I …
Lhotka: SOA a Big Train Wreck Just Waiting to Derail
Rocky Lhotka has some sobering things to say about the hype surrounding Service Oriented Architectures, or SOA. He says SOA is about crossing trust boundaries but thinks (consultants will counsel) people to use it within apps and replace their tiers with SOA concepts. This he says will cause huge problems: SOA is going to cost …
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Scoble’s Corporate Blogger Manifesto
Another item for my favorite’s list is Robert Scoble’s Corporate Weblog Manifesto.