Entrepreneurs Mean Business - Entrepreneurs Mean Business Blog

Fad Self-Improvement Crapware Won't Help Attention To Detail

Jake — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:36:07 -0500

I live in Utah, and I've seen the waves of Covey fads come and go over the years. At the moment we're at ebb tide on the day planners, personal organizers, conferences, books, and other detritus. At least, as far as I know. I try to stay away from this stuff as much as I can.

Except. Except that I found Stephen Covey's "First Things First" audio book at a second-hand store for $1. Looking it over, I thought, "I'll give it a chance when I don't have anything else better to listen to." I didn't realize then that it'll be a long, long, time before I don't have anything better to listen to, God willing.

I began the book yesterday in the car, and only five and one half minutes into it, I heard this:

It's impossible to get deeply absorbed in this kind of profound self-knowledge and not emerge unchanged. Literally, you'll end up seeing the world differently.

"WHAT?!," I said out loud. Crystal was driving, so I reached for the MP3 player to listen again and make sure I'd heard that right.

Sometimes when a sentence is complex, it helps to take out the subject and focus on the action. Try that same sentence like this:

It's impossible to...not emerge unchanged.

Now, since two negatives cancel each other, if we take two negatives from the above, we'll end up with the root of the action of the sentence:

It's impossible to emerge changed.

I took out a "not" and an "un". And now you see. Mr. Covey didn't pay attention to his syntax and his negatives. But even worse, he's just trying to sound smarter than he is. The sentence would have been easier to understand, more succinct, and wouldn't have had syntactical negativity errors if it had been written more like this:

If you take these teachings into your heart, you will change. You'll see the world differently.

Simple is beautiful. I gave Coveydom a chance, and the man himself blew it. I don't think I'll be going back.

David Heinemeier Hansson - To Make Money, You Need To Price Things

Jake — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 08:41:35 -0500

Because if you don't have prices, people can't pay you. Interesting, right?

Seriously, check out this video, it's amazing. The poor guy is up there calling for a return to common-sensical days when businesses started and ran without a model that depends on Google acquiring them, and they only kept running if they made money.

This is so fundamental, but the Google age has set in so thoroughly that many folks aren't starting businesses anymore for the sheer joy of adding value to society and producing a cash stream of their own. Instead, they give the service away, pay everyone in stock, and wait for the buyout. Unfortunately, this can only lead to failure for the vast majority of acquisition hopefuls.

Enjoy the video.

Thanks to Blake for the tip on this! (The main link with larger video and slide show is here.)

Get What You Want; Be Firm, Be Consistent, And Be Polite

Jake — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:06:54 -0500

I have a 2GB Lexar JumpDrive that I was going to give to my Dad. And then I found that it had died.

Well, flash drives die, and that's ok. They're the floppy drive of our time, and as such, they get abused. Thank goodness for factory warranties!

But if it were too easy to get warranty service, Lexar would take a cut on their bottom line. Probably not a big one, and really, it should be easy. But someone's business decision makes sure that it isn't. So you've got to act like you want it.

Here's my chat with a Lexar agent tonight (with formatting to make reading easier, and editorializing in parentheses):

Welcome to Lexar Media's Live Chat. A Live Chat agent will join you in a moment... Please do not begin typing until you have been connected to an agent.
Hello, my name is Rekha . How may I help you?
Jake Wilcox: Hi. I need to get my Lexar 2GB Jump Drive replaced. It shows as an unknown device on every WinXP machine I plug it into.
Jake Wilcox: It's the silver kind, shaped a little like an hourglass, but without the e-ink.
Rekha : If you could provide me with the model number of your JumpDrive? The model number should be on the back of your JumpDrive and it starts with JD.
Jake Wilcox: A lot of the paint has worn off of it. I don't see the model number here.
Rekha : I understand that you have a Lexar JumpDrive and It shows as an unknown device on every Windows XP computer. Am I right?
Jake Wilcox: Yes, that's correct. It's been 4 PCs now. Oh, here we go. It's a Lexar JDSE2GB-431
Rekha : I will help you out.
Rekha : Thanks for the information.
Jake Wilcox: Thank you.
Rekha : You are welcome.
Rekha : Please Plug-in the JumpDrive in any rear port of the computer.
Jake Wilcox: Ok, that's done.
Jake Wilcox: Want me to go to Device Manager?
Rekha : Yes .
Jake Wilcox: Ok I'm there.
Rekha : Check whether the Lexar Jump Drive is listed under "Disk Drives"
Jake Wilcox: No, it isn't.
Rekha : Please check whether you see any unknown device or USB mass storage device under "Other Devices" with a yellow "?" or "!" mark.
Jake Wilcox: And the light on it doesn't light up.
Rekha : Okay.
Jake Wilcox: No, there are no ? or ! marks, but there is a device called "Unknown Device" under Universal Serial Bus Controllers.
Rekha : Okay.
Rekha : Please go to Universal Serial Bus Controllers.
Jake Wilcox: Yeah, that's where I am. There's one called "Unknown Device", but there's no Lexar.
Jake Wilcox: Or Jump Drive.
Rekha : Okay.
Rekha : Please right click on the unknown device and click un install
Jake Wilcox: Ok, done.
Jake Wilcox: Unplug and replug the drive?
Rekha : Yes.
Rekha : Please
Jake Wilcox: USB Device Not Recognized.
Jake Wilcox: And Unknown Device is back.
Jake Wilcox: Please arrange an RMA for me.
Rekha : have you tried to format this drive once?
Jake Wilcox: I have formatted it many times in the past, but now it doesn't mount as a drive letter, so I can't.
Jake Wilcox: Please arrange an RMA for me.
Rekha : Okay.
Rekha : May I know when and where you purchased this product from?
Jake Wilcox: I think I bought it at NewEgg. It was one or two years ago.
Rekha : Okay. Close all the windows that you have opened from the JumpDrive. Then unplug the drive and restart the computer and plug the drive back to the computer
Jake Wilcox: I'm not going to restart my machine. Please arrange an RMA for me.
Jake Wilcox: For one thing, If I restart, I lose this conversation with you, and I'll have to try to get another agent to start an RMA for me.
Jake Wilcox: Please start the RMA for me now.
Rekha : If still the problem persists, please get back to us, we will help you to replace the product.
Jake Wilcox: The problem persists. The drive is dead.
Jake Wilcox: I'm a PC technician with seven years experience. I've seen plenty of dead drives. Please start the RMA for me.
Rekha : Please be online for a couple of Minutes. I will check with my resources.
Jake Wilcox: Thank you
Rekha : You are welcome.
Rekha : Thanks for being on hold.
Jake Wilcox: It's no problem.
Rekha : Please try to update the generic drives for your Xp computer and then try it once.
Jake Wilcox: I have many other flash drives that are working fine on this PC and the others that I use. Please start the RMA for me.
Jake Wilcox: If the generic drivers weren't fine, the other drives would not work.
Rekha : Okay.
Rekha : It seems that the drive is defective.
Jake Wilcox: Yes, that is correct. (Try to encourage good behavior, no matter how small.)
Rekha : We would like to provide you with a replacement product as part of the warranty service. You will be receiving your RMA # and the shipping instructions once we receive these details. RMA requires that you take care of the one-way shipping charges to send it to our offices in the US.
Jake Wilcox: That's fine.
Rekha : Okay.
Rekha : To register your request, please furnish the necessary details that apply for this case: .
Rekha : First Name.
Last Name.
Email Address.
Phone # .
Product Code
Problem Description
When and where did you purchase it? (* Mandatory) .
Complete Mailing Address (including City, State, Zip code, Country)
* No P.O. Box address is accepted.
Jake Wilcox: (Removed my info here)
Jake Wilcox: Ok, that's all of it.
Rekha : Okay.
Rekha : thanks for the information.
Jake Wilcox: No problem.
Rekha : You will receive the RMA# and the shipping address through the email./
Jake Wilcox: How long will that take?
Rekha : You will receive the email within an hour.
Jake Wilcox: Thank you very much.
Rekha : also may I know is there any data in the drive?
Rekha : You are welcome.
Jake Wilcox: Yes, but it doesn't matter.
Jake Wilcox: I keep backups.
Rekha : Great.
Rekha : Is there anything else I can help you with?
Jake Wilcox: No, I'm just looking forward to the RMA email. Thanks again for your help. Have a great day.
Rekha : It's my pleasure assisting you.
Rekha : If there is nothing further I can assist you with, I’d like to thank you for visiting Lexar..com. Have a great day.
Your session has ended. You may now close this window.

I got what I wanted. I didn't have to be rude, but I did have to be firm and consistent. It's clear the agent was just doing his/her job, so that's cool.

Why NOT to Talk To The Police

Jake — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:24:15 -0500

I generally try not to post things I see at BoingBoing because everyone seems to do it, and I don't like contributing to making the Internet more of an echo chamber. I guess I could be called a Civil Liberties Nut though, and this is a really great post about why you should never, ever talk to the police if you're under suspicion for anything. Ever.

The first half of the talk is given by an experienced defense lawyer, and then he's backed up completely by an extremely experienced police detective. These guys know their stuff, and it's stuff that you should know, too.

Real, live criminals are generally stupid, and they'll self-select themselves out of knowing this stuff. Universal karma remains intact. Ever thus to deadbeats, Lebowski. But you're not a criminal, so go ahead and find out why you should keep your trap shut until your counsel shows up. This advice might very well save you from getting shanked (or shivved, I don't really speak the lingo).

Here's the first video. Head on over to the post for the rest of it. You won't regret it.

Why indeed

Jeff — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:16:59 -0500

Alright, so since I heard about the wiifit, I was sure I wouldn't get one, and I haven't heard of a good reason to do so.

Touche.

Thoughts on the pirate's dilemma

Jeff — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:36:38 -0500

I've seen a couple of times the Pirate's Dilemma featured on BoingBoing. this last video is a good one.

The question is, how can you play the pirates' game and still be profitable? My favorite strategy (and the only one I can think of off hand) is to let your customers determine the price of your product, a la Radiohead.

I'd be interested to know what other strategies would be viable. I'll keep an eye on the comments here to see what you guys come up with.

ArsTechnica Breaks Startling Revelation about Capitalism

Jake — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:41:32 -0500

Dig this headline:

Cash, not idealism, behind ISP embrace of music biz

I had to laugh at this story. The tone is so incredulous....GASP!! The ISPs, they want...well you'll never believe it...MONEY!

Wait, they do?

Ok fine, there's idealism in plenty of companies. Google seems to be the current poster child for corporate idealism. But let's not forget that this particular Dot Com is also absolutely lousy with money, and that's the reason its idealism is possible.

I love ArsTechnica. Such an attitude of being shocked, shocked! cheapens ArsTechnica's credibility and makes it hard to take its stories seriously. Not to mention the fact that even though it's now a Wired property (hello, money?), spelling errors, mixed metaphors, and cliche abound.

Please clean up your act, Ars. Your smart readers deserve better. Have your new Wired bosses provide some editorial support.

Huh. A second post about money.

Jeff — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:47:02 -0500

I ran across this in BoingBoing today: http://jtaplin.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/fiscally-responsible-john-mccain...

Apparently, John McCain has a higher net worth than Barack Obama, most of that worth is from his wife, and they have quite the credit card bill.

Barack, on the other hand, has about 1/10 of the net worth of McCain, but earned it himself, and although the article said nothing about what he owes on credit cards, he has put a size able amount away for his kids' college fund.

Hm. I wonder who will manage the country's finances better?

*Quick note: I'm not here to push a political agenda, though I will make no secret that I'm leaning heavily democrat this election, as I do most elections. I just wanted to make an observation.

Logitech Harmony One Review

Jake — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:05:34 -0500

Harmony ReviewDisclosure: I'm a member of a word of mouth campaign, and the Harmony One remote I'll be writing about here was given to me for free. I get to keep it whatever I say, and in fact I'm encouraged to say exactly what I think about it, whether I think it's good or bad. I promise to do exactly that.

I bought my Logitech Harmony 659 remote from Amazon in January of 2006. The $95 Amazon charged me for it at the time was a very good deal, and I remember my excitement at the thought of upgrading to it from the pretty but garbage All-For-One Kameleon I had been using previously.

To rewind just a little, Kameleon was like a high-minded art school student's pet project; pretty, rule-breaking, expensive, and difficult to use as intended. It had a blank blue face. It was meant to turn on and show the available buttons when picked up, and sometimes that worked fine. More often though, it would turn itself on while sitting still on a coffee table, or I'd pick it up and it wouldn't turn on without a good hard shake. Because of this, it sucked batteries down vigorously.

To add to those issues, the flat, featureless face of the Kameleon remote made it impossible to use without looking at the thing. Even if you had your thumb right where a button was, you'd have to press the button once to turn the remote on, and then press it again to send the command, and odds are your thumb had slipped by that time and you weren't just perfectly on the button, and no command would be sent at all. The Kameleon was an extremely frustrating remote for me to use, and I'm glad that I got a Harmony.

When I did get the Harmony, I loved it immediately. The software to set it up on my PC was easy to use, all of my devices took commands from its powerful IR LED array every time, and batteries lived a reasonably long life inside it, even though its monochrome LCD screen never turned off.

So when I was offered the new Harmony One to test and review recently, I jumped on it quick. I don't want to give away too much too quickly, but I'll say now that I'm glad I did. I like this remote. Here are the pros and cons, ArsTechnica style.

The Good:

Fits well in the hand (just like the Harmony 659).
Controls all of my devices (just like the Harmony 659).
One-touch activities work great (just like the 659).
Knows the time and date.
Has a rechargeable Li-ion battery with a good charge life, and comes with a charging base and wall wart.
The pretty color screen really stands out, makes tasks a little easier to get to.
Uses the same standard mini USB cable as the previous remote and most other modern devices.

The Bad:

If you remove the battery, the remote forgets the date and time.
The Remote Assistant program on the remote is annoying and useless (But it's easy to turn off).
The Logitech Harmony software no longer runs in a browser; it's now a dedicated app (I liked it in a browser better).

The Ugly:

The Harmony software would not allow me to have two remotes (the Harmony 659 and the Harmony One) with two different configurations in one account. I had to create a new Harmony user account in order to keep my original Harmony 659 configuration untouched and create a new one for my Harmony One. Who knows if I'll remember the new user/password?
HarmonyRemote.exe uses 155MB of RAM and does not close itself when you're done. Watch for this in your Task Manager.
The software will not tell you the model numbers of the devices you've already programmed in. I couldn't just look at my Harmony 659's configuration to get the model numbers, I had to walk to the living room, write them all down, and come back to the PC to get it done.
Some idiot at Logitech decided that the user sessions should expire in the configuration software. I spent twenty minutes entering in model numbers, had to go to the living room for one I had forgotten, and when I got back and entered it in, the software kicked me back to the login page. The model numbers I had entered were gone, and I had to enter them again. This made me very, very angry.

Overall, it's a great remote. Not perfect, or even close to it. But it's very good.

I think it's very telling that all of the items in the Ugly list apply to the Harmony software, not the Harmony Remote itself. It seems pretty clear that there's a discrete team for each, and the Harmony software guys are way behind their hardware counterparts in usability.

Verdict: Buy, but wait until the price comes down just a bit. The current $250 price tag isn't quite justified with the remote's flaws, especially in the software arena.

World of World of Warcraft!

Jeff — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:37:36 -0500

Alright, this is just funny as hell

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=359...

And you know that WoW nuts would really go for it.

(For those of you unfamiliar with the Onion, it's a comedy site that posts fake news. So in other words, no, this isn't a real game.)