The trip to OCC BBQ, part 2

Talks ”How to start your own WISP from scratch” by Martin List-Petersen Martin was a smart guy filled with enthusiasm and had a lot of interesting things to say. It inspired me to start looking at mesh networking again though, as Martin says, with mesh you lose 30% of your bandwidth. “Multi-platform video content” by … Continue reading “The trip to OCC BBQ, part 2”

Talks

”How to start your own WISP from scratch” by Martin List-Petersen
Martin was a smart guy filled with enthusiasm and had a lot of interesting things to say. It inspired me to start looking at mesh networking again though, as Martin says, with mesh you lose 30% of your bandwidth.

“Multi-platform video content” by Mairin Murray
Mairin showed considerable enthusiasm for her subject, highlighting her experience with delivery of video content and the change from corporate content to user-content and talked about the future – the development of platforms for content delivery.

“Distributed content – how it is changing the world of training, education and working with clients or trying to promote ideas that go viral.” – E. Alana James
I missed the point of this talk. There were some points, like how it’s easier to use a mobile in Africa than it is to get clean water and good food. I didn’t see much relevance.

“Energy?” – Phoebe Bright
This was interesting from the statistics on energy conversion (though I’d like to see their figures). It really made me think that I should be rigging up an exercise bike to a battery. We’re heading towards an energy crisis.

”GlobalDMX – a Global Digital Media Exchange” by Michael Walsh
This one made me think the most as it covered the serious problems with digital content distribution networks and the fear that the ‘analog’ content owners have with them. Some things are broken.

“Zimbie demo/talk” – Sean Lyons
RSS feeds being fed into Instant Messenger. Not really inspired. I want it the other way round. A presence bot online which will feed all content I receive into an RSS feed for later consumption. Yes, I’m time-shifting my conversations. Nothing wrong with that.

The Raffle
I threw a tenner at the Raffle and we ended up winning two Raffle prizes – a copy of Microsoft Office for Mac (which is funny) and the hamper from Spicendipity (which there’s going to be a fight over). Bonus!

“Dragons Den” competition
There were a couple of presentations that were Dragon’s Den quality. There was an elevator pitch about a specialised bag for Hurling gear. There were two American women who were pitching something that I couldn’t quite grasp – something about education and the other was custom hand-made furniture. The fourth pitch was WeddingDates.ie which was a pretty good pitch though I think her optimism in the organisation of wedding venues (who tend to use paper ledgers) in relaying booking information was seriously misled. The last pitch was for a software-configurable radio system – pitched at totally the wrong level and containing only information relevant to tech-heads – none of whom were judges. The winner was the affable bloke with the Hurling Gear bag.

21:30
Due to the cold and the lack of red wine, the Belfast contingent decided to repair to the Derg Inn for beers and pudding.

00:00
We’re heading back to the cottage. It’s only 23:44 right now – but that’s the plan. I’m tired and we’ve an early start ahead of us.

Finally, the BBQ

Bring on the meat. Tasty tasty meat. photo posted from my iPhone Related posts: BarCamp Belfast 08 mini review This month is going to be bumper…. OCC BBQ, Terryglass, Tipp – 16th July Preparing for OCC BBQ

Bring on the meat. Tasty tasty meat.

photo posted from my iPhone

We came, we saw …

… we won some raffle prizes. Woohoo! Result for the Belfast crew! photo posted from my iPhone Related posts: The trip to OCC BBQ, part 2 Star Command Movember update, Week 3 iPhone. 4.

… we won some raffle prizes.

Woohoo! Result for the Belfast crew!

photo posted from my iPhone

The trip to OCC BBQ, part 1

Would you believe it’s 14 miles from Terryglass, the location of OCC BBQ to the nearest source of cash? This is odd because every hole in a hedge up north has cash machine facilities. 18:30 After arriving at the cottage (which is lovely), we ventured into Terryglass and had a sit-down meal in the Derg … Continue reading “The trip to OCC BBQ, part 1”

Would you believe it’s 14 miles from Terryglass, the location of OCC BBQ to the nearest source of cash? This is odd because every hole in a hedge up north has cash machine facilities.

18:30
After arriving at the cottage (which is lovely), we ventured into Terryglass and had a sit-down meal in the Derg Inn (while Evert worked on his WiFi provision). A short walk later and we were down at the Terryglass Quay admiring the boats and reminding myself to join a yacht club – though that’s something for next year. Why would I want to join a club like that – I think it’s important to cultivate some pre-technological skills and the ability to handle a boat is one of them. I’m fine with oars – but have no experience with sails and, you never know when it might come in handy.

On the technology side, I’m finding Push email to be a frustration more than a benefit. This is mainly because I only have Push available for my .Mac/me.com email address and not for my other accounts. I want to be receiving updates from quayperformance.com more often and, frankly, couldn’t give a toss about the mailing list stuff I receive on my me.com account. So, looking at that when I get back will become a priority and it may mean moving quayperformance.com to host.io as it’s a bazillion times more flexible there.

07:40
At about 01:10 I gave up the ghost while the others stayed up. Much wine, cheese and beer was consumed which probably led to some nightmares during the night but this morning everyone seems pretty chipper (those of us who are actually awake). As I mentioned, the cottage is lovely but some of the amenities, like the shower, would frankly wake the dead.

Though we’ve not actually attended the event itself yet, I’m really glad I organised this little trip. Even just between the five of us there’s a surprising number of ideas and inspiration and it’ll be interesting to see what’s going on down here in Ireland.

08:38
Today is the main event itself and we’re getting ready in our own ways. There’s some ambient music in the background and every ow and then a few cheers from a group of children (from an iPhone game being actively developed here).

I’ve spent a little while this morning reading over some Cocoa code and trying to work out where the code needs to go to make things work. I’m going to have to make a more formal effort with learning the code if I’m going to achieve anything.

I’m guessing that around 10 am we’ll start to see some movement towards the main event. There’s a few people I’m really wanting to talk to – but all will become clear as time goes on.

Preparing for OCC BBQ

The guys track down essential supplies. photo posted from my iPhone Related posts: BarCamp Belfast 08 mini review This month is going to be bumper…. The trip to OCC BBQ, part 1 The trip to OCC BBQ, part 2

The guys track down essential supplies.

photo posted from my iPhone

1 million handsets? Big Deal.

Carlo Longino takes some issue with Apple’s recent PR trumpeting 1 million handsets sold in a weekend: “Just to let reality back in for a second: – Total Q1 handset sales: 282 million (from Strategy Analytics) – Nokia Q1 sales: 115.5 million (from Nokia PR), or roughly 1.28 million per day” I don’t think it’s … Continue reading “1 million handsets? Big Deal.”

Carlo Longino takes some issue with Apple’s recent PR trumpeting 1 million handsets sold in a weekend:

“Just to let reality back in for a second:
– Total Q1 handset sales: 282 million (from Strategy Analytics)
– Nokia Q1 sales: 115.5 million (from Nokia PR), or roughly 1.28 million per day”

I don’t think it’s fair to compare the iPhone to, for example, to the non-smartphone that I rented from O2 when my iPhone went in for repair.

We know the handset industry is going to be about 1 Billion this year. We also know that around 10% of these are smartphones which puts that market for 2008 to 100 million. Apple already has 6 million first generation iPhones out there and last weekend they just sold another million. Suddenly the comparison of a billion to a hundred million becomes relevant.

To be honest, with Nokia in such disarray with Symbian, Maemo and their home-grown non-smart phone operating systems and with RIM, HTC and a dozen other companies nipping at their smartphone marketshare, it is something that Nokia needs to take into account.

I know this. Nokia knows this. And yes, losing 1% of your market is just the start of it. As I said earlier today in “Save Your Business”, Nokia would be stupid to ignore changes in their marketplace.

In three days…

Apple sold over 1 Million iPhones in 3 days. “iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” reads a PR statement from Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.” and the AppStore … Continue reading “In three days…”

Apple sold over 1 Million iPhones in 3 days.

“iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” reads a PR statement from Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”

and the AppStore did okay as well:

Over 10 million downloads have been made from the newly-launched iTunes App Store, according to Apple.

Are we still wondering if the iPhone 3G is doing well?

Save your business.

From a post on Enterprise Ireland’s forum “We’re a small software consultancy in business since Q3 2006; we’ve recently lost our main customer (they’ve pulled out of Ireland), upon whom we were dependent for about 90% of our revenue; we’re a small team made up exclusively of engineers; in advance of winding the operation up, … Continue reading “Save your business.”

From a post on Enterprise Ireland’s forum

“We’re a small software consultancy in business since Q3 2006; we’ve recently lost our main customer (they’ve pulled out of Ireland), upon whom we were dependent for about 90% of our revenue; we’re a small team made up exclusively of engineers; in advance of winding the operation up, I would like to explore our options with regard to getting new business; we have deep familiarity with many technologies, mainly in the enterprise computing area and I think it would be a shame to go back to the day jobs, considering we have a very strong team and can compete on cost and results with just about any comparable firm, but alas we have no sales function to speak of.”

Contrast this with a famous Joel Spolsky quote:

Watching non-programmers trying to run software companies is like watching someone who doesn’t know how to surf trying to surf.
“It’s ok! I have great advisors standing on the shore telling me what to do!” they say, and then fall off the board, again and again. The standard cry of the MBA who believes that management is a generic function.

The cult of the MBA likes to believe that you can run organizations that do things that you don’t understand.”

Now, I’m not promoting the use of the MBA as any yardstick of competency but I can both agree and disagree with Joel in the same quote based on the first paragraph from the Enterprise Ireland forum.

This small software consultancy has found itself up the creek without a paddle because they didn’t have someone smart in the ways of business at the helm. They may have had the best programmers they could source but their business is going down the toilet because they didn’t think of the business eventualities. They maybe didn’t think that their client would depart the country and this highlights two things to me:

  1. Don’t Assume Anything: The directors of the company were not directing. They were just managing. A director needs to be anticipating the direction of the company from the minutiae right up to the ten-thousand-foot view. They should have been expecting the worst. In my own experience, I’ve always considered what would happen if Mac-Sys had a credible competitor and it’s done us well. Now, with the Belfast Apple Store only weeks away, Mac-Sys will have another potential challenge. I think they will be okay due to other things they have in place but the reality of a competitor or a change in business has to be fully realised.
  2. Remove your Cataracts: The directors of the company are concerned because their client is leaving Ireland and they’re looking for alternatives. The most immediate thing that springs to mind is why their product is localised to Ireland? Can’t their client use their product elsewhere? Government agencies are always encouraging local companies to export – in this case there’s already a market. What about competitors? Can the product be re-purposed? Rather than winding up the company and posting on a local forum, they should get everyone who is able to walk out on the street looking for new software gigs).

This is why the person running a company, even a software company, needs to be a business person. She can be a programmer as well but she needs to understand the business world and take the unpredictability of business into account. It’s not the just the cult of the MBA who expects people to run organisations they don’t understand, Joel is taking for granted that the person running the software company is a programmer and therefore can understand business as well. While that may be great for him with his established pedigree, it’s not going to be the case for every person. Some people are lucky enough to be able to see with both sets of eyes: that of a programmer and a director. Some can’t. If you can’t you need to recognise this and stop running the company.

I was told a story a couple of years ago about a business that was kept running via multiple handouts from the directors and it wasn’t until the directors themselves were bankrupted that they thought to involve the workers in their own destiny. He was honest with the workers. He had no money left. And with only days to payday, he had to shut up shop unless they could do something. And do something is what they did. They worked on getting new customers, convinced them to pay within seven days and, most importantly, kept every promise they made.

Joel is fond of telling us that a great company needs great infrastructure and that the programmers may find themselves in the minority in a software company. Management is part of that infrastructure. Experienced programmers have been telling me over the last year that programming isn’t hard but you’ll hear an analogue from experienced business managers.

A software company certainly needs competent programmers – individuals who can work together to create a compelling product right from the sketch on the back of a napkin through to the version 1.0 and bug fixes. Without them you have no product. But without someone with a bit of business ken, you’ve no market.

Duplicate Names on AppStore?

Erica Sadun writes: “The two people currently selling “Voice Notes” on the store are not me. I’ve sent them both C&D letters (my first ever). My version is still “pending”. … It may be generic, but I have prior art plus a year’s headstart on the iPhone. I just want them to rename it, that’s … Continue reading “Duplicate Names on AppStore?”

Erica Sadun writes:

“The two people currently selling “Voice Notes” on the store are not me. I’ve sent them both C&D letters (my first ever). My version is still “pending”.

It may be generic, but I have prior art plus a year’s headstart on the iPhone. I just want them to rename it, that’s all.”

This surprised me.

Prior art extends to Copyright, not Trademarks.
Considering that Erica’s application is still not released, then it cannot be said that she is using “Voice Notes” as a Trademark (to be a trade mark, you have to be using it to trade, for selling).
Plus she’s just admitted that the name is generic and the name “Voice Notes” has been used umpteen times in the computer software marketplace by 37 Signals, Microsoft, Apple and others.

Erica has no rights here at all. It’ll remain to be seen whether the application vendors on the App Store take up her offer of them renaming it after receiving Cease and Desist letters. In fact, the other two vendors have more entitlement and could well serve C&D letters to her when she does release her application as they have priorly traded using the name.

IANAL, usual caveats apply.