Consumerization of business is by far my favorite new tagline. It’s also known as “Consumerization of Enterprise” but screw that, it’s bigger then that. It’s all business.

Recently been hearing it on the interwebs.. on Techcrunch.tv introducing Bullpen Capital and then Techcrunch Disrupt.

It’s a new buzz [...]]]>

Consumerization of business is by far my favorite new tagline. It’s also known as “Consumerization of Enterprise” but screw that, it’s bigger then that. It’s all business.

Recently been hearing it on the interwebs.. on Techcrunch.tv introducing Bullpen Capital and then Techcrunch Disrupt.

It’s a new buzz phrase thats caught on but Jason Fried from 37signals was talking about this  wayyyy back in 2007. I personally remember hearing Jason talk about this at 2007 SXSW “we do extremely well in small departments inside of large enterprise”.

What this buzzy tagline is formalizing:
- new products becoming indistinguishable from enterprise apps
- reduction of large gatekeepers in the enterprise
- going directly to end users in companies
- consumer’ish startup price points
- self service FTW
- end of the IT department
- very low signup friction (google app integrations, etc)
- one hell of a marketing/customer penetration strategy  for growth companies

As Viddler has started as a consumer company and worked its way upstream to business services, this tagline is golden and plan on overusing it like Web 2.0 in 2007.

This really got me to reflect on last 5-10 years…

Google, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter never advertised early in the growth of their success.

They won peoples heart by offering such [...]]]> Today, I was on Pandora listening to some music, to find yet another LivingSocial ad.

This really got me to reflect on last 5-10 years…

Google, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter never advertised early in the growth of their success.

They won peoples heart by offering such a unique offering that they didn’t need consumer advertising. I put my 2005 hat on, and I remember at the conferences when advertising for consumer services was frowned upon as you should be able to capture users based on the quality of your product alone. Also, “the right type of people” (early adopters) signup when you are not advertising and feel more committed to the product.

It’s not only LivingSocial, new growth consumer companies have demonstrated more aggressive paid marketing levels including scvngr, Zynga, and GroupOn.

You can’t watch the superbowl or navigate an iPhone app without seeing an ad for these companies.

Is the cool “don’t need to advertise” attitude gone?
If so, what was the tipping point?
Did GroupOn 6B valuation change peoples psyche on this?
Have we reached hypercompetitive level for time to mass market that this is now required?
Is this acceleration a long-term trend or a short-term fad?

Not sure I have the answer but one thing has changed… Advertising is more accepted for consumer growth internet companies then it was a year or two ago.

For the last 10 years, the most frustrating part of halloween for me has been the manilla costumes that go with it. Vampire/Zombie/Elvis/Gladiator/anything from costume store only open for 3 weeks a year. I [...]]]> Thursday 9pm
So it’s Thursday night, my friend Pat tells me about his NYC halloween party at his new appartment.

For the last 10 years, the most frustrating part of halloween for me has been the manilla costumes that go with it. Vampire/Zombie/Elvis/Gladiator/anything from costume store only open for 3 weeks a year. I just can’t show up in an ordinary halloween outfit this year. After googling around for some ideas, I bump into Angry Birds halloween blog which immediately appeals to my geekier side. I emailed the editor and they even sent instructions to help share how they did it.

Friday 11am
After sifting many sites find the only way to make this costume is by having it custom done. I have no sewing skills nor do I intend to pick up a new trade. I can barely take my clothing to the dry-cleaners consistently and I got Viddler to focus on.

Friday 4PM
I put out a post on Craigslist in NYC saying:

Quick, I need help with a costume party for tomorrow. Looking for the angriest of angry birds costume. If you didn’t know Angry birds is a very popular iPhone/Android app.

I also put one up in Allentown that got no responses.

Friday 5PM
Within an hour I get three responses. My favorite is from Gabriela titled “Maker for your Angry Bird Costume”. She’s already laughing from the post and is a Prop/Artist Stylist and is around same age as me. We go back and forth on email on price and design and come to $150 for two costumes. It seems market rate is around $100/costume and I explained to her my situation and was very considerate. Pay her $75 at that point via Paypal with expectation for rest to come upon delivery.

Saturday 11am
In a little bit of a panic Gabriela informs me that I should bring a backup costume just in case. Due to us going back and forth late Friday night all the fabric shops closed down.

I get a little worried but g/f has a backup devil costume and I can only assume I can find a costume last minute in NYC if need be.

Saturday 4pm
Bus leaves Allentown to NYC. Gabriela starts sharing photos of the costume half-done, which only makes me worry more, cause I know I couldn’t put something like these together in a few hours and baseball game starts at 6pm and party starts at 9pm.

Saturday 6pm

This looks like it’s still days from completion. Plus the red one isn’t done!

Okay, so not going to be dressed for the World Series part of the event but I should be okay as the real party doesn’t start till 9.

Saturday 9pm
Party has started and Gabriella has informed me she is in route. Should be there in 20 minutes. Luckily most people are fashionabily late but not the biggest deal.

Saturday 9.20pm
Gabriella arrives. We still hadn’t talked on the phone at this point. She is at the door in taxi holding two bags with costumes. We both hug and rejoice in the effort. I give her many thanks and she seems relieved that this is craziness is complete. Don’t even look at the costumes and give her additional $80 that I owed and we both walk away almost saying in sync “what would we do without craigslist!“.

Saturday 9.30pm-2am
The night’s a blast. Angry birds is a huge hit at the party especially for iPhone owners.

A few shot’s of the night:

What Now?
Not sure what will happen of the costumes. They were very well made. Maybe hold out for an Angry Birds gathering? Maybe put them up on craigslist? Save it for next halloween?

What I know for sure is that Craigslist rocks and it’s folks like Gabriela that make it so amazing. I am never going to buy a costume again from a retailer. Maybe this could be extended to pumpkins, decorated christmas trees, easter egg bunny costume? I do like making things, but I love the adventure of craigslist.

Brian Brushwood from Scamschool would be proud of this….

Was able to prank Backblaze on Failblog yesterday by submitting a screenshot generated by a modified URL on Backblaze.

Allow me to share how I did this:

I realized when I checked my [...]]]> Am a huge fan of Failblog and Backblaze.

Brian Brushwood from Scamschool would be proud of this….

Was able to prank Backblaze on Failblog yesterday by submitting a screenshot generated by a modified URL on Backblaze.

Allow me to share how I did this:

I realized when I checked my download status with backblaze they left the variables in the URL to come up with a length

https://secure.backblaze.com/online-backup-speed.htm?os=mac&mb=63264&throttle=50&kbitspersec=4264

For 63GB still have 24  days to complete the backup and it’s all visible in the URL:

So all I did was change the total space to something very high (630 TB) in the URL:

Submitted to failblog, and bam.

It would be cool if Backblaze said something more graceful, like. “WOAH,  you have a ton of stuff.. it’ll be a few years before this is complete.”

Viddler has the man, the myth, the legend – The Todd.

I just gotta burst out and say that intelligent Sys Admins are invaluable in a small startup looking to stay [...]]]> Signal vs. Noise posted an interview by Mark Imbriaco, their super intelligent sys admin: Who would win in a fight between Erlang and Rails?

Viddler has the man, the myth, the legend – The Todd.

I just gotta burst out and say that intelligent Sys Admins are invaluable in a small startup looking to stay efficient.

Exclusive/secret underground footage of Todd working on his computer, matrix style:

Update – forgot to mention the JAMES.. rockstar lefty that comes in as a closer for Todd.

As a product guy, it’s been very apparent Myspace has been on it’s way out for many years, mainly due to it’s inability to innovate, and putting advertising efforts clearly ahead of it’s users.

When Jay Leno, a mainstream comedian, uses Myspace as center of a joke, it really questions the mainstream perspective on [...]]]>

As a product guy, it’s been very apparent Myspace has been on it’s way out for many years, mainly due to it’s inability to innovate, and putting advertising efforts clearly ahead of it’s users.

When Jay Leno, a mainstream comedian, uses Myspace as center of a joke, it really questions the mainstream perspective on them.

Myspace is far from over though, and still has a chance to come back.

If I were over at myspace I would do two things to combat this before it’s too late:
What: Make it clear Myspace is going to change attitude on advertising, putting users first. Scrap all ad units and start over with more engaging campaigns. Reinvent itself.
How: Become socially transparent in this effort. Get feedback from users. Turn it into a conversation as apposed to a one way battle.

Update: NBC has pulled the commercial from it’s site. It used to be here and when you still google “Jay Leno new material” you will find it once existed on the site.  NBC and Myspace have a relationship on many levels, wouldn’t be suprised if someone asked for it to come down due to it hurting the relationship.

Mapping USB Thinkpad Keyboard Middle Scroll Key to OSX

Originally uploaded by sandieman

I am in love with my IBM Thinkpad keyboard and how much it saves your fingers. When your on your computer 10+ hours a day, efficiency is everything with the mac red nipple, saving [...]]]>  

Mapping USB Thinkpad Keyboard Middle Scroll Key to OSX

Originally uploaded by sandieman

I am in love with my IBM Thinkpad keyboard and how much it saves your fingers. When your on your computer 10+ hours a day, efficiency is everything with the mac red nipple, saving moving hands on mac from keyboard to mouse 1000+ times a day.

There is one thing that is missing though when using it with OSX which is very annoying. What I am trying to get to work is the middle scroll key that you press and when pressing it it allows you to scroll up and down a website page or document. This is very important function for keyboard to work for me.

Alternatively a shortcut for scrolling (Ctrl-J) would be acceptable as well.

Apple OSX’s default keyboard mapping function is pretty simple and isn’t apparent howto get this to work.

If you have any ideas on howto get this to work, please let me know in comments below or @sandieman me on Twitter!

Thanks!

UPDATE: Smart Scroll fixed this problem for me. It’s a payed shareware application but worth it.

Recent Mac commercials (which I always love) share Windows guy freezing 2150 many years into the future. It’s making fun of the Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates commercial where Bill hints at next version of Windows. That being said, all this poking and competition has got me thinking on where it will be in 2040 (2150 [...]]]>

Recent Mac commercials (which I always love) share Windows guy freezing 2150 many years into the future. It’s making fun of the Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates commercial where Bill hints at next version of Windows. That being said, all this poking and competition has got me thinking on where it will be in 2040 (2150 being too far away).

What are pretty much guarantees:
Dropping prices in hardware
Culture changes at Apple and Windows
Opensource movement to continue to grow
Steve Jobs will die. (sorry folks, everyone does)

Rating past, present, future
Without using any formal metric (market share, revenue generated, etc), I would like to post my prediction of how the market will evolve based on a Wine Spectator point scale. Have made a few notes on why each of the trends.

What do you think?

Geoff DiMassi (godfather of Philly) did a great job helping put together the Ignite Philly event and shot some great video. I really need to get his camera as not only did he shoot amazing videos (in vidget below) but great photo’s.

Make sure to watch the Josh Kopelman’s [...]]]>

Geoff DiMassi (godfather of Philly) did a great job helping put together the Ignite Philly event and shot some great video. I really need to get his camera as not only did he shoot amazing videos (in vidget below) but great photo’s.

Make sure to watch the Josh Kopelman’s amazing intro in the IgnitePhilly Vidget:

First, I love you mom.

Second, this is an amazing technique. My mom doesn’t know I am listening to music and I can hear her very clearly.

First of all, if you were even thinking about New Media Expo, you should be going.

If you haven’t introduced yourself yet and are going to New Media Expo, do it via Video. All you have to do is tag your video “newmediaexpo” or “newmediaexpo2008″ and it will go in general category of [...]]]>

First of all, if you were even thinking about New Media Expo, you should be going.

If you haven’t introduced yourself yet and are going to New Media Expo, do it via Video. All you have to do is tag your video “newmediaexpo” or “newmediaexpo2008″ and it will go in general category of NewMediaExpo Videos. If you want to do an introduction, tag it as “newmediaexpointroduction” for it to go in introduction section.

New Media Expo is going to be a big event for Viddler. We are happy to setup our “virtual booth” up at the video section of New Media Expo, to help promote our next launch of “Brand Yourself” at Viddler. More information will come soon but watch the video for a sneak peak! forced teens vids: anime rape videos. public nudity movies nudity in public. teen lesbians toying in the shower christian sex toys.

Like Colin’s it added some flavor to the photo and am not all that mad.

<robertsandie> is a prefix I have been thinking about and is my #1 pick

#robertsandie was another one [...]]]> This blog is going to start picking back up.  With that my first goal is to get everyone of you that follows me on Twitter to listen up when I got something “worthwhile” to say.

<robertsandie> is a prefix I have been thinking about and is my #1 pick

#robertsandie was another one I thought about but am not really sure that’s the right solution for this (let me know thoughts).

The tool I am using is Twitter Updater by Victoria Chan.

Long live the blog!

If Google Reader implemented this, I would never leave and blog a whole lot more. Anyone else feel the same? Comment and let’s tell Google how we feel!

Techcrunch recently announced a free 36 hour read of Inside Facebook. Great idea, and after reading it found that they use TRAC as there source control and documentation system. I am a HUGE FAN of the opensource TRAC and the flexibility and [...]]]>

Techcrunch recently announced a free 36 hour read of Inside Facebook. Great idea, and after reading it found that they use TRAC as there source control and documentation system. I am a HUGE FAN of the opensource TRAC and the flexibility and control it offers with linkage to SVN.

It’s great to know that an opensource PM tool like TRAC is used in some of the most popular websites. Go TRAC!

technorati tags:opensource, project management, trac, facebook

https://USERNAME:PASSWORD@gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom

Now if only [...]]]> Lately, I have been becoming much more dependent of Flock’s RSS reader for my news. With integration with your browser and blogging it has turned out to be my favorite RSS feader I have use so far. After googling around I found this trick was very simple:

https://USERNAME:PASSWORD@gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom

Now if only Flock would only team up with bloglines, then I would have ultimate RSS usability.

technorati tags:rss, flock, gmail

Lately, I have wondered into a seemingly age-old question: PHP vs. Java. From my perspective Rapid Application Development has lead to PHP as a technology of choice for quickly getting sites up. On the other hand there is a real complaint that it is simply a scripting [...]]]>

Lately, I have wondered into a seemingly age-old question: PHP vs. Java. From my perspective Rapid Application Development has lead to PHP as a technology of choice for quickly getting sites up. On the other hand there is a real complaint that it is simply a scripting language. After doing some research found a couple commmon themes out there:

• PHP & Java Both Scale
• Java is complex – PHP can be complex but simpler to jump into
• Java & PHP both need to be planned out for larger websites
• PHP is much better for small websites
• Language Shootout says Java is Faster, PHP uses less memory.

At the end of the day, it seems that the underlying technology is simply a tool and should be focused on what your developers at hand are comfortable with.

References

• PHP vs Java IMHO
• OnJava: PHP Scalability
• Java versus PHP Shootout

technorati tags:java, php

I know this sounds like a horror movie, but I promise this event won’t be that scary. Schools like Berkeley are offering blogging journalism classes and we are not even RSS feeding our school newspaper!

Hope you can make it, look forwards to presenting.

Here is the [...]]]>

I know this sounds like a horror movie, but I promise this event won’t be that scary. Schools like Berkeley are offering blogging journalism classes and we are not even RSS feeding our school newspaper!

Hope you can make it, look forwards to presenting.

Here is the what the flyer said:

Description of Presentation:
—————————
Are You?
Interested in boosting your portfolio and resume with a website presence?
Live far from home and want to share experiences with family back home?
Have something to say to the world?
Tired of simply posting to Webshots and ready to step it up?
Interested in how businesses are spreading informal communications via Business
blogs?

If you answered yes to any of these come join Robert Sandie, former Lehigh
Football Player, CSB student, macromedia employee, and a current Blogger as we have an informal, hands on discussion/presentation going over State of the Blog on 10/14.

This discussion pertains to business students, arts/science, and engineering
students alike.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Public Speaking , Journalism, Computer Science, Lehigh, Resume