The Post Money Value

Secret New Enterprise Blackberry

Secret New Enterprise Blackberry
Originally uploaded by RickSegal.

Here's the problem with those people at TechCrunch, Engadget, etc.

They are successful which makes them soft. They now have cushy day jobs. No more digging through virtual trashcans trying to outdo the next blog. Naaah. Now they just phone the stories in.

Some of us, still look for the glory. Some of us have to travel all the way to Newfoundland to find the secret testing site of the new enterprise Blackberry device by RIM.

On a slightly more serious note, don't you want to talk to the person who thought this up? Remember in 1995 when AT&T deployed those phones with keyboards and for a brief (3 months) you could dial into CompuServe (or the Unix email system I was on at MSFT).

The people who thought this up probably had the business objective right, probably even had a business case that would make sense to you and I (assuming it was for a mobile device).

I asked the desk clerks on various nights if they had ever seen anyone use that keyboard. All didn't even realize the keyboard was there and most said people used cell phones anyway.

Time flies, eh?

Newfoundland Icebergs and Your Excuse

Newfoundland Icebergs
Originally uploaded by RickSegal.

For those of you looking for an amazing vacation: Newfoundland. I've uploaded a set of iceberg photos that should be able to convince you why.

The people, food, b&B accommodations, etc, were all just amazing.

The full set is here.

Thanks but They Ain't Windows Live Writer

Many of you have been kind enough to send me links to the Mac blog writing applications. They are all nice but they are not Windows Live Writer.

Why? Because I'm lazy and I want to concentrate on writing, not formatting a post.

MarsEdit (which this post is written in) comes close and they get major points for answering a technical question via email within 45 minutes. For a free download? That's off the charts goodness in the technical support world.

Lazy:

1. I don't want to futz with markup language, even those it is fairly brain dead. I used Wordstar, I get this stuff.

2. I want it to preview as it will look on my blog.

3. I want tables, pictures, etc, to just be dropped into post and away we go. Futzing with sizing, moving around, etc, thanks, pass.

etc, etc, etc.

So far, a couple of bids around the $6,500 mark to clone Windows Live Writer. Stay tuned.

From the Hmmm Department

Up here in Atlantic Canada, Mary rules; the Colonel ain't squat.

It seems the good folks in Mary's marketing department decided to combine a little of the old fashion (Billboards) with this Internet thingy.

So, of course, there is an assumption that you can simply zip over to your computer and pop Mary Browns into Google and get right to those money saving coupons. Not exactly.

You can type wwww.marybrowns.com right in your favorite browser and see the video. You can see the small monthly special logo/link at the bottom of the page which has the word coupon right there. You can click it, see it, download it, and finally print it.

All this to save a few coins on a Big Mary chicken sandwich. My Hmmm, is simply wondering about the number of people who will do all of this vs. other ways to get people into the stores.

I wonder if it wouldn't have made more marketing sense to tell people to SMS chicken some place to get back a free drink code word or something. Yeah, the SMS message would, in theory, cost something but people love to spend good money on free. Or call a free *chicken number to hear the secret code word.. Whatever.

It's observation while I chase down a salad for lunch.

P.S. I could be wrong but Sandwhich is not a correct alternative spelling of Sandwich. Somebody should let Mary's web people know.

A Different Approach to Getting My Attention

You just can't make this stuff up.

Here is an email thread that wandered through my inbox:

From: Mark xxxxxxx Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2008 To: Rick Segal Subject: Time Sensitive - Invest Opp

Rick,

I got your name from [] who indicated you might be a good fit for our company. After reviewing your public profile, blog, general google results, we've concluded that we can allow your firm the opportunity to review our company for investment. I've attached a one page summary of our company. As you will see, we believe that within 9 months, we will obtain $200 million in revenue with only minor losses of $10 million.

We will accept your investment proposal up until midnight, Oklahoma City time, tonight. If you will require an extra hour or two, please notify me within 7 hours of the expiry time so I can convene a management meeting to review this request.

We will consider moving to Canada should we receive a binding notice of tax benefits and inducements from the Canadian Government along with your investment proposal.

Our investor due diligence process will be required prior to finalizing your investment.

Thank you.

I love this gig.. My reply back:

To: Mark xxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2008
From: Rick Segal
Subject: RE: Time Sensitive - Invest Opp

Mark,

Thanks for writing. I've always appreciated it when [] sends me a referral. I've given your proposal careful consideration and, in order to beat both the midnight and 7 hour prior deadlines, I've decided to pass. I believe timeliness is an important quality.

Be careful out there!

best,

>R<

I forwarded this thread to [] with a big smily face and within 2 minutes got back OMG and then within 7 minutes after that, got an Amazon gift certificate with 'sorry sorry sorry' as the card.

As I said, I love this gig!

Congrats to Qik and Flixwagon

As a start-up, nothing is more rewarding, more gratifying, more empowering than being joining the big leagues. To reach the top of your game and be welcomed into the elite group is an honor not lightly bestowed on just any company.

So, it is with great fanfare and enjoyment that I congratulate mobile video companies Qik and Flixwagon for being declared dead right alongside RIM and Microsoft.
First, we have Michael Arrington doing up mushroom clouds when it comes to what he thinks Apple is going to do to RIM and Microsoft. Yeah, iPhone is going to kill RIM and Microsoft's mobile business. Right. Next fantasy?

And the next fantasy comes right on cue. We have Robert Scoble using the "kill" phrase with respect to Qik and Flixwagon. It seems Robert found another company in the same space and because at this very moment, the new flavor of his month has features that the other two don't have at this very moment, the other two must, according to Scoble, surely die.

I could spend an hour ranting about these blog posts, in particular Scoble's who should know that it's only software and the words "next release" usually cover the feature hopping. And let's not even debate the whole notion of different apps for different users, etc, etc.

Let us just do two things.

Item one: A hearty congrats to both Qik and Flixwagon. When you are declared dead these days, you are in good company. Apple, RIM, Microsoft, Amazon, Ebay, etc, have all be declared dead at one time or another. Sometimes they get dead multiple times! So, well done, takes a lot to get into this crowd.

Item two: The lesson for you is simple. Take it all in as feedback, adjust as required, and ignore the rest.