A lot of start ups formed from refugees from other companies often fall into the trap of thinking that sales is someone else’s job. In large companies, you’ll find employees who think this part of the company codes; that part of the company sells. It is a sickness that can cripple the big boys and kill start ups. (more…)
Here is the second deadly sin of a software company CEO - running out of money. In fact, there is another deadly sin related to financing, but lets cut to the quick of it and talk about a software company’s money supply for meeting goals. As simple as this sin may sound (and you think, avoid), it happens because of very common misconceptions. (more…)
About two months ago I attended a facinating roundtable discusion at the Software Association of Oregon’s monthly industry meeting. The topic of the round table were the top seven deadly sins that can kill your software company. It was directed towards CEOs, but there was plenty of interest to anyone who works in a software company. I had already been working on a list and description of self destructive behavior I have come across in my experience, so this was of great interest to me. The first deadly sin covered was “ignoring your customers and their real needs.” (more…)
Mark Baard at Wired News is reporting on hackers who have figured out a way to get the proto version of MacOS X for Intel machines to work on non-Apple hardware. Apple must be loving the extended attention from the open/free software crowd. (more…)
Just when I was thinking Apple had out-Microsoft Microsoft on licensing, Microsoft strikes back! Microsoft will use a security system built into the xBox 360 to ensure that only peripherals made by royalty paying licensees will actually work with the xBox 360. Earlier this year, Apple announced its logo program to extract a 10% royalty from iPod accessory makers. But Microsoft takes it a step further by securing their hardware against pikers. (more…)
Jeremy Birn’s Summation on SIGGRAPH 2005 and what Ive been hearing from various partners and clients in the 3D industry lead me to believe I didnt miss much this year at the second LA show. I attended SIGGRAPH 2004 in LA last year, and the one in San Antonio, Texas (which was scorching hot! great planning SIGGRAPH!). From what Ive heard, it was all incremental upgrades. (more…)
Earle Castledine over on DevX.com wrote an interesting article about AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) about how it can be used for nefarious purposes. AJAX lets a web page act much more like an application, in that it doesnt necessarily require you to hit a “submit” button to get a response out of page code or, from a server. The way the web has worked, you click the button and you are commited (unless you are using almost any version of Internet Explorer which commits you to an open door for a lot of viruses just by loading a web page); prior to that, your web page was a passive thing, waiting for stimulus. Not any more. (more…)
MacOS online communities are generating a lot of noise over this statement on the Sony UK website, regarding the operating system support on the PlayStation 3. It means nothing. (more…)