Blind devotion helps no company...
Nearly 10,000 iPhone users were accessing the Microsoft employee email system last year...
via online.wsj.com
A Wall Street Journal article is making the rounds re: iPhone usage by Microsoft employees. The debate that's going around is whether MS employees should openly flaunt their iPhones or be more discreet. I can't really answer that since I'm not a Microsoft employee but my guy reaction is to say they shouldn't be sheepish about using a rival phone. If nothing else, this should be a wake-up call to Redmond to make a better phone so their employees wouldn't have to use iPhones.
I remember being a consultant to Apple back in the mid-90's and the team we were contracted by insisted that all work submitted to them be created on Macs. That was an excruciating experience since the Macs of the time were horrible - slow, buggy, and prone to crashes every couple of hours. It took a huge change in philosophy/management/vision for Apple to pull itself from that nightmare. Let's hope that Microsoft has the cojones to do the same. As much as I like the iPhone, I also think competition in the marketplace improves products for everyone.
Comments [0]
Amazon is looking for a WW Free Search Traffic Leader
My buddy Rich is looking for a person to head this group over at Amazon. If you're interested, let me know.
Rich Williams has sent you a message.
Date: 3/02/2010
Subject: I'm Hiring: Head of WW SEO/Free Search at Amazon
If you know of any great candidates, please send them my way.
For a little color on the job, the position manages the end-to-end delivery of technology solutions (and of course business results) for search engine optimization and free search traffic for Amazon's WW retail sites (and more). The role has a global, large scale revenue footprint and leads a fully integrated team--from channel and program management to software development and QA. The job description is posted below. Thanks in advance for your help! Cheers, RW
-----------------------------------------------
WW Free Search Traffic Leader Amazon.com is seeking an innovative business and technology leader for the Free Search team within its Global Marketing Organization (also referred to as “Traffic”). The Global Marketing or Traffic Teams at Amazon are responsible for all external communication with retail customers, wherever those customers are, except for on Amazon.com. Communication channels the teams oversee include Paid and Free Search, Display Advertising, Email, Mass Advertising, Amazon’s Associates (Affiliate) program, Social Network Marketing and more. The Free Search traffic team at Amazon.com is responsible for driving traffic and revenue from natural results on search engines. The team is responsible for Search Engine Optimization of Amazon retail websites Worldwide and manages the landing page experience from search engines for our Customers. This team builds and manages the core/scalable Engineering activities and systems to drive incremental traffic from search engines and works with other technical/business teams to prioritize the work required to drive incremental traffic. The leader of the team will be responsible for driving the product strategy and vision for Free Search and delivering scalable technology solutions to make the product vision a reality. The role is global in nature and is highly visible within the organization. The ideal candidate would have a mix of both business and technology skills and is expected to manage an engineering team and present business metrics and roadmap/strategy to senior management across the company. The broad scope of this role includes:
* Owning Amazon’s Search Engine Optimization program and the revenue goals of the channel
* Delivery of high quality and scalable technology solutions for driving incremental traffic and sales from search engines
* Analysis and presentation of weekly input and output metrics to senior management within the company
* Mentoring and growing Program Managers, Software Dev Managers and SDE’s within the company
* Evangelizing SEO concepts and best practices within the company
* Driving/influencing other technical/business teams to prioritize the work for driving incremental traffic from search engines The successful applicant will be a clear, strategic thinker with a strong technical background in delivering scalable technology solutions. The applicant must have a track record of solving hard problems and delivering business results in an aggressive, results-focused environment. Deep SEO knowledge and experience is obviously a huge plus. Communication skills and a passion for metrics and quantitative analysis are critical. Strong analytical, product and project management skills are required. BA/BS and 7+ years of relevant work experience required; MBA and Engineering/CS experience preferred.
Comments [2]
Bloom Energy ... Great technology ... Hope it can follow through
Just read about the Bloom Energy announcement over at TechCrunch. Great technology and good to see that it's actually being put to use. Now if they can only get the cost basis down, then it will be a game changer. Otherwise, I only see it being used by large corporations.
Comments [0]
I owe Stephen Curry an apology...
Stephen Curry joined an elite list in Wednesday's win over the Clippers, becoming sixth rookie to post a 35-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist performance in NBA history.
via espn.go.com
A few months ago, I lamented the drafting of Stephen Curry by the Warriors. I thought he was just another undersized guard who dominated a weak conference in college and would create a log jam for an already guard heavy team. Fast forward 8 months later and I'm eating my words. Curry started slow but with the injuries to many key players (including Monta Ellis), he's stepped up his game as of late. Right now, it's a 1-2 race between him and Tyreke Evans for Rookie of the Year. Given tonight's performance against Sacramento, I'd say he's made up a ton of ground. I still think Evans will end up winning unless he really stinks it up the final few months of the season. But I wouldn't trade him for Brandon Jennings given his recent free fall and inconsistencies. Curry seems like he can only get better with experience and a good coach (not Nellie). Here's hoping Avery Johnson follows Nelson again like in Dallas...
Comments [2]
Great day out
It's a slow but nice President's day. Weather is perfect here in Oakland. About mid-60's, sunny, very light breeze.
Comments [0]
Laptop comparisons
So I was accused the other day of being a Mac snob which is odd given that I only started using them a couple of years ago (not counting my Apple IIe days). The first Mac I bought at that time was a Macbook Air. I had been using a 15.4" Dell Inspiron which was pretty heavy and also on its last legs so I thought it was a good opportunity to try a super-light computer. Also, I had been using the iPhone for about 6 months and wanted to see how pairing a Mac with an iPhone would be. The experience was good so my next machine was an aluminum Macbook (the one that was stolen). During that time, I wouldn't have been against going back to PC laptops but there weren't any compelling reason to do so. When I switched from the Inspiron to the Air, it was because I wanted the lighest laptop available at the time. Is there a PC laptop that could make me want to switch back? I guess I did my version of the Laptop Hunters commercial...
I had pretty strict requirements for my laptop. 13" to 14", about $1200, light, and must have good battery life. On the Apple side, the 13" Macbook Pro was the standard by which I would compare all the PC laptops. Here's the rundown on what I found: Dell M240014.1" WXGA+ LED
2.53ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB RAM
160GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
DVD burner
3-4 hour battery
Bluetooth
Backlit keyboard
Webcam
4.77lbs
$1,464 after $328 instant savings HP Envy 13
13.1" HD LED
2.13ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
3GB RAM
250GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
DVD burner
~6-7 hour battery
Bluetooth
Webcam
~4lbs
$1,899 Sony Vaio SR590
13.3" LED
2.20ghz Intel core 2 Duo
4GB RAM
250GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
DVD Burner
5.5 hour battery
Bluetooth
Webcam
4.4lbs
$939.99 It actually looks like the Sony Vaio SR590 is pretty decent. Still not enough to make me want to switch back to a PC laptop but I think it's a good laptop for the money.
Comments [0]
I don't blame Microsoft. I blame the hardware manufacturers.
Ever since my unfortunate incident, I’ve been working on a Lenovo R60e spare laptop we have in the office. It’s a huge adjustment to make going from an Macbook to a plastic feeling laptop. But it’s a hardware adjustment and not a software one. For the record, I actually really like Windows XP Professional. It’s stable, easy to use, and very effective for most work related tasks. Office 2007 has its issues but it’s no biggie. I actually prefer Office 2003 but maybe that’s because I’m just more used to it. Vista and Windows 7, however are garbage but I’ve already discussed that before.
Though this is an older laptop (probably circa 2006), I haven’t really seen a huge leap in usability/comfort/innovation from PC laptop manufacturers. Either they build really expensive machines with a bunch of useless features (Sony VAIOs or Lenovos for instance) or they err on the side of cost effectiveness and build cheap laptops that make CFO’s happy but are lackluster from a usability standpoint (Dell, HP, etc). Yes, I can buy a Dell Vostro for under $500 but it’s heavy, bulky, and feels cheap. The really sad part is that in about 6 months, the value of that machine is basically halved by a combination of its cheapness and the fact that Dell builds its computers to be relaced within 2 years. When I bought my Macbook Air in early 2008 for about $1600 (got a sweet deal). I sold it over a year and a half later for about $1200. It held 75% of its value 18 months after I bought it! When was the last time you could say that about any computer technology?
With rumblings of an update to the Macbook Pro line coming soon, I’ll hold off on getting another Macbook until then. I’ll probably just pick up the version just before the latest one and save a few bucks.
Comments [0]
Comments [0]