About face

 

In about 326 b.C. Alexander the Great reached India after having created the mightiest empire to date. He had built that empire based in his will and determination together with the support of his military commanders in less than10 years since he succeeded his dad as King of Macedon.

After having overstretched his resources and capabilities beyond any conceivable limit, he had to face that India was too much, too complex, to far away, too powerful per se.

Alex did not realize this, and in fact he launched the invasion.

But his up-to-then-loyal commanders understood better their own limitations in front of India, and made their own U-turn and headed home.

This lack of support forced Alex to head back too… and in less than three years, he was actually dead.

His generals ripped the Empire, split is into fiefs and Macedon’s ruling on the mightiest empire on earth was over for ever.

The once almighty empire of RIM has reached India… and commanders supporting yesterday’s success are realizing that their India is too much for their Alex…

 

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Cheap fuel

 

As long as cars need fuel, its price (as insurance’s, maintenance’s, taxes…) ought to be added to the total cost of owning one.

Cheap gas or lower taxes do not guarantee any given car is better than other using a different type of fuel or subject to higher taxes.

It’s the total ownership and driving experience what matters.

And, by the way, the fact that a given fuel type today might be cheaper than another does not ensure it won’t change in the future, once the car has been bought.

Not really sure smartphone users have really analyzed their potential expense on apps when they decide to buy one.

We do not therefore think this is necessarily going to provide any effective help to Windows Phone 7 in its struggle against iPhones or Androids… and we are not really sure this is going to make very happy developers, as their financials won’t have the same prospects as the ones provided by developing for Androids or iPhones.

 

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Katie’s concert

 

The other day there was a great concert in Seattle. One of the most popular pop stars of the moment was performing, and all the youngsters in the area were dying to be there.

The place was fully packed, al the tickets had been sold out.

Wandering around, we saw very many teenagers and kids enjoying a lot being there. Casually, they were dancing, singing, and even sharing their experience.

Some of them took their iPhones and Androids to make pictures of the scenery, the public, their friends or even themselves. And we are sure before the song was over, lots of those pics were already posted in Facebook, YouTube and other social networks or blogs.

Before taking the children there, their moms and dads surely used their Nokias and Balckberries to check in Google Maps where the place really was, and verified as well what was traffic like. Kids would not forgive them ever if they had failed to take them to the concert on time.

As well we noticed some of them were texting like crazy: “Y’know, mom still carries one of those old phones with no internet”, one kid was telling his friend…

In a certain moment, we happened to run into Katie. Katie is the daughter of a charming couple who are friends of ours. She loves pop music, which she used to play all day in her old mp3 player, and recently in her brand new iPod she got for her 15th birthday. She had asked for an iPhone, but mom and dad suggested her to wait for her Verizone’s current contract to expire.

“Hey, Katie! What a surprise to see you here”, we said. “It must have been difficult to get tickets, so full the place is”.

“Yeah, it was a surprise for me too. We could not find tickets anywhere, but the other day mom came home with several of them. I think she told me she got them in a PC shop or something that had opened recently somewhere nearby, and they were being given away for free. But not really sure, in fact”.

“For free?”, we asked.

“Don’t really remember, but when I get back home, I can check for you if you want. We can search the internet in our Mac.”

 

 

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Incrediboy’s Syndrome

 

Lovely story the one in The Incredibles movie, wasn’t it? Everybody can easily recall the glory days when Mr. Incredible, on his own, was carrying on his war against evil. Alone.

Focus on minute 4…

So admired was he that one of his fans, a young teenager, wanted to emulate him. Incrediboy was the name the kid chose, and gallantly offered his services to Mr. Incredible who bitterly rejected the offering. “I work alone”, said he.

Incrediboy was pissed off and seriously outraged, to the point that years later, when superheroes had been called off, he had amassed an enormous wealth and power to turn himself into the most fearful super-villain ever, Syndrome by name. Rejected by superheroes as a teenager, he had turned to the opposite side, and changed his personal aims to end up with any trace of past superheroes and end up dominating the world, as all decent super-villains usually do, of course.

I would say everybody knows how the story ended.

But now we have the modern version of Incrediboy trying to imitate superheroes again… True that todays Incrediboy looks more like the retired Mr. Incredible before he resumed his past glorious times, but still an Incrediboy with a big big big post traumatic stress syndrome…

He as well tries once and again to be like his hero… and his hero kingly ignores him once and again…

Being like this as Incrediboy, we resist ourselves to imagine how he’d be like as Syndrome.

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By George, they did it!

 

One of the greatest musical milestones in classical movies is My Fair Lady, based on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion.

Poor Eliza Doolittle, from lowest social extraction, is used by Professor Henry Higgins as an experiment about teaching English, in an attempt to prove his methods can bring such a low-class person to the ranks of Aristocracy. At least in what relates to speaking English properly.

Professor Higgins takes care of her completely, as she is poor and has no resources of her own besides selling flowers in the street for a living. She totally depends on his wealth while she receives her lessons.

Despite providing her all possible physical comfort, he is so much oriented to his own personal success with the language experiment he is using her for, he does not really care for being considerate at all with her, and actually treats her like a scientist would handle a guinea pig.

Naturally, she ends up completely fed up, and quits, disregarding and ignoring all the good he claims to have provided her with. She simply does not stand his arrogance and tyranny any more, and looks for alternatives that indeed could work for her.

By George!

We would say that “Professor Ballmer”, with all his wealth, power, aristocratic profile (well, this one under discussion), and methodologies, really can not stand up to all the Eliza Doolittles that so much have depended on him for so long, can he?

 

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There’s a “cap” for that

 

A few days ago we went with some friends to a shopping mall for a walk and buy a few things here and there.

In a certain moment, we walked by a Starbucks coffee shop, and one of us suggested making a break and stopping a short while for a coffee. It was a great idea, and many of us already headed into the shop.

No wonder, Starbucks is indeed a nice place to have coffee. Fresh environment, cool style, lots of variations and flavors of different coffee styles indeed. You can even have some extras, like assorted pastries, cupcakes, muffins or cookies… or alternative chocolate beverages. Fantastic service, quite personalized, young waiters and waitresses will call you by name to give you your drinks in hand. Fancy people here and there, from youngsters having a chocolate shake to senior people peacefully enjoying a cappuccino. There is all you could ask from a coffee shop…

However, one of us hesitated. He was not really sure about stepping into Starbucks. So he took his smartphone, and with a couple of gestures, he checked into something, and called all of us.

He suggested we went to his place, which was not really far from there, about a 5 minutes drive, so he would offer us what he said was really good coffee, the style we preferred. He only asked us allow him a 2 minutes stop on our way.

Shortly after we were comfortably sitting in his living room, and he asked us what sort of coffee we wanted. One of us asked for a strong long black coffee, another two wanted espressos, and there were requests for cappuccinos and even café au lait too. Strong and mild coffees were asked for within the group.

A minute later, our host came with a nice coffee service, and a special tray with different capsules so we could choose ourselves the actual coffee we would have. Can’t remember all the names, but there were red, green, purple, blue, black, brownish, yellow capsules, and each one of us could see in the cover what was the coffee like in each cap.

Clean and neatly, a few minutes after everybody had chosen his or her cap, we were enjoying a nice friendly conversation, fostered by the pleasant atmosphere, and one of us asked our host: “Hey, so are these all the different flavors you can have with Nespresso?”, pointing to the tray with all the remaining caps.

“Not at all”, he answered. “There are plenty more available, I just have at home my favorites”.

“But how do you manage when you run out of caps?”, another one asked.

“Well, know what? There’s an app for that”.

No kidding, he produced his smartphone from his pocket, and there it was: A nice Nespresso App from the iTunes online store, where his customer profile was predefined, and after keying his password in, a predefined order was ready for his to confirm, the ready to deliver in less than 24 hours.

In the meantime, we were really enjoying our coffees, the company and the conversation that was going on.

Another question popped up: “There are quite a lot of your favorites there in the tray, and yet there are many more available. Why do you prefer these ones?”

Our host smiled and promptly came with an answer: “Make an educated guess”, said he. “In fact, the coffee I might have in a given moment depends on many things. It depends on who you are with, the time of the day, the sort of conversation you are having… It is not the same to have coffee for breakfast than to enjoy a warm decaf after a lovely dinner with your sweetheart, is it?”

“Ah, so you have different choice for each different moment, don’t you?”

“Indeed… when I feel like having a coffee, unconsciously I think of the particular situation I have, and for each of them I know there’s a cap for that”.

What else? A touch of class indeed… Smiling, he sipped what was left from his coffee, and confirmed his caps order with a gentle touch on his iPhone while a long queue of people looking and behaving like androids was forming at different Starbucks shops all over the country, where customers did not find any more seats available, conversations were getting louder, and nervous waiters starting yelling customer names instead of politely addressing them with their orders.

what else?

 

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(Do not) play it again, Steve

 

Who could not remember the famous quote by Rick to Sam, the piano player, in Rick’s café in Casablanca?

“Play it again, Sam”, as Rick was willing to remember good old times in Paris with Ilsa.

And Big Ape Steve keeps playing his worn out tune once and again, still under the spell of his unreal world where Microsoft reigns all over the marketplace.

As they have launched precisely Windows 7 Marketplace exactly the same way they launch everything: An incomplete product with less functionality than promised, and just under the stress of claiming they were on time to market.

Again, they follow the other Steve (Jobs by name) that already has had an AppStore up and running for years.

Again, they engage their partners and developers into a potential nightmare of upgrades and patches.

Again they promise first and deliver later: They won’t honor any payouts before 2011.

The same old tune once an again, like a scratched vinyl record in the times of mp3, video streaming and online connectivity.

In short, again late and short to expectations.

Still anybody surprised Forbes believes for the first time the good Steve is more powerful than the Big Ape Steve?

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