2014 Aug 29

Klondike Wastes

In Seattle, south of downtown, is the National Park Service Klondike Gold Rush Museum. It is 2 floors of fascinating exhibits on the history of the 1897-1898 Klondike, Alaska, gold rush. Like most parks, they have Junior Ranger booklets and badges, and even participatory activities; my kids "panned for gold". What struck me most about the entire exhibit - businessperson that I am - were the numbers on a plaque hung near the door.

2014 Aug 28

There and Back Again: A Transportation Technology's Tale

With respects to JRR Tolkien, whose writing I greatly enjoy (Peter Jackson's movies somewhat less), I have been thinking about the changes in the infrastructure of transportation technology since a visit to the San Francisco Cable Car Museum a few weeks ago. I recommend it for a great short visit. It has history of the cable cars and the 1906 Great San Francisco Earthquake & Fire, lots of historical pieces, and the mechanism that actually drives today's remaining cable car lines.

2014 Aug 26

Why Pay for Something You Can Get for Free?

A few weeks back, I took the family on a big vacation. Normally, that means hefty airfares - upwards of 18,000 miles covered can cost a pretty penny - especially for a large family. However, since I am a regular traveler, I did every single ticket on airmiles, and paid only the taxes required. As my readers know, most of my miles are on United, which opens up the Star Alliance network for tickets - Air Canada, Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels, Singapore, ANA, etc.

2014 Aug 25

Lessons of a Vacation

After a short hiatus, I am back to my regular publishing cycle. I took a few weeks of much-needed and long-overdue vacation time, making my way through the Canadian Rockies out to Kamloops and Vancouver, then down to Seattle and San Francisco. I look forward to your readership and comments again. To get us started, a few lessons from vacation (or "holiday", for our British colleagues): Take a break.

2014 Jul 16

Apple and IBM

Apparently, Apple has decided to partner with IBM in selling to the enterprise, as reported by CNBC and the Verge. Apple is open to new distribution channels, i.e. IBM, to expand sales of its iOS devices into the enterprise. There are a number of striking elements and open questions about this partnership. Jobs vs. Cook It is highly unlikely this partnership ever would have taken place under Steve Jobs. Referencing Ben Horowitz who was paraphrasing the Godfather, an Apple employee was quoted only last week in the WSJ as saying that Jobs was a wartime CEO, while Cook is a peacetime CEO.

2014 Jul 14

Is Greed Good?

I always find it interesting when I visit Europe and find Europeans fulminating over the American penchant for "excessive greed" by sellers and consumerism by buyers. This past week, I had the ironic experience of overhearing precisely such a conversation... in the business lounge in Zurich Airport, where Internet access is terribly slow, and only available for one hour, even for business travelers and paying lounge visitors. After that, whoever you are, you must pay, 6.

2014 Jul 10

Pricing Lessons from a Groupon

Last week, I had a lovely "prix fixe" dinner with my wife at a very good steak restaurant for 50% off, courtesy of Groupon. The Groupon was definitely valid when I noticed it, but the terms and conditions required that you check with the restaurant for a particular date, just to make sure it was available and open. I called, spoke with the hostess. "Sure, it is valid, and tonight is fine, but we stopped selling that groupon a month ago.

2014 Jul 8

A Free Nest?

Over coffee this week, I was discussing technology, startups, markets and business models. One of the topics that came up is Nest, the smart thermostat company that Google bought in January of this year for just over $3BN. At first blush, it seems a strange match. Google is not a hardware company by any stretch, nor does it sell almost anything that masses of consumers buy at retail outlets, with warranties, return policies, and all of the headaches.

2014 Jul 7

PCI, POS and RTH (Road to Hell)

Two interesting events came to light in the last week for me. First, I am working on getting a company towards compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS or just PCI). These are the standards that govern the technology and processes you use to protect data when you handle credit or debit card transactions. An auditor checks your questionnaire or audits your systems and people, "recommends" changes if necessary, and then issues a PCI certification, which must be renewed each year.

2014 Jun 30

Netscape, SOX and the Price of Housing

Between the terrible events of 11 September 2001 and the financial crisis of 2008, US - and eventually global - housing prices rose to absurdly high levels. It is interesting how quickly people become used to high prices as "natural;" when I was selling property in 2009 in a bad market, just about everyone advised me to wait it out until prices returned to "their natural levels." For some reason, housing prices of 50% higher than their long-term average against income are considered more "