From Commodification to Commoditization. The mighty iPhone.
So the iPhone 5 sold out tonight within few minutes. Again. I went up to grab my wallet, and enter my card number, and a few minutes ago it was showing me that I could pick up iPhone 5 in this store but just minutes later, whooooshh! It was gone. Why am I not surprised? It’s iPhone 5. Surprisingly, this whole market and for that matter this existence of iPhone wasn’t even there few years ago. But now, this iPhone matters.
Consumerism is not a fad. It is a reality. We live in a consumerized world. And yes our needs and wants are dictated by this very much driven consumerism. So iPhone made it from commodification to its commoditization, but it still is a rarity when every time a new one comes out. Apple did great, for themselves, and has done much better for creating whole new set of new economy around iPhone. Google ditto’d with Android. And rest is history.
I’ll try again tomorrow night and see if I could order one, successfully.
© Manoj Khanna 2003 – 2012.
Development. Simplicity. Desperate Measures.
Sometimes the minute of the tasks around development seem to be mundane and tend to get ignored. And sometimes, those development exercises keep the heads down and development focused on what they should be focused on most of the times. This seems so simple, and so achievable. All it takes to do is the effort in pulling this together from a stand-point where everything seems to be organized and accepted.
That’s the beauty of the simplified processes that make complete sense, and that add value and enhance the confidence of any development team for that matter. Yes, I am talking about a simplified process that enables and empowers the developers do their job at best. And, I am indeed referring to agile/lean/kanban frameworks that make things easier than expected closer to what they should be in the first place. The best ideas are born out of necessity, and the brilliant ideas are born out of utter desperation.
And lean/kanban/agile all stem out from that necessity and desperation. And this is no surprise. Every effort the development teams put in making sure that the code is workable and there’s a viable product or feature out there builds more confidence for not only the development teams but also the business and its effects can be seen 360 degrees. The value these processes add is that they help achieve these objectives with efforts that sometimes are seamless but mostly methodical and structural. Its like building a structure with proper facade and support. And the old processes and methods are somewhat of a tie down trick which somehow used to work, but today there’s no capacity or risk chance possible to undertake such a method and jeopardize the development.
I would be interested in learning others perspective on this and their experiences.
© Manoj Khanna 2003 – 2012.
Waterfall vs. Agile – a thought
Recently I came across this debate on why some companies prefer Waterfall vs. Agile, and I must say that no matter how tempting it is to look the agile way depending on technical needs, but, it all boils down to the business value.
Waterfall has been working for years, and is practiced by all organization types – small or big, successful or unsuccessful, and start-up or established. Agile, though has been in the software engineering Eco-space for quite a number of years now, but primarily it has been adapted by companies which are experimenting with projects or programs that have lower risk ratios, or have a smaller enterprise footprint or is intended to produce a faster delivery around time to market for their products or customers.
There is truly no one on one to comparison between the two methodologies, and rather both methodologies speak for themselves and at times can be seen as complementing each other, but neither one should be taken as an alternative to replace the other as both of them come with their pros and cons. And they are not in any way shape or form trying to compete with each other.
Would be interesting to know other thoughts of how they feel about Agile and Waterfall – either complementing or competing with each other.
© Manoj Khanna 2003 – 2012.
USB Write-Protect / Reset-Erase
Once in a while when I get stuck with something so oblivious that takes a hercules stress, but tends to have a simple solution I turn to Terminal. And I’d my USB stuck with write protect – somehow in rushing from one machine to other you don’t allays eject the USB drive properly so it gives you the hellish treatment, I tried formatting using Windows but it still won’t write on Mac though will read. In the end I slider towards Mac and used the following utility (found it on MacOSXHints). A much better and simpler solution than downloading any tool or any malware unnecessary.
>> diskutil eraseDisk HFS+ newdisklabel /mount/directory/n/disknamenumHope others find useful as well.
© Manoj Khanna 2003 – 2012.
Posterous is dead. Blogger, well its revived.
So Posterous got acquired, and now it seems that they have better things to do at Twitter. So it’s dead. It’s kinda sad, but that’s the order I guess with startups getting acquired. It’s about talent, and less about technology and way less about the product conceived which got them there in the first place.
My blog was down for over a week. Couldn’t get to it. Had all the settings there, but something was wrong at Posterous. And after enough frustrating rounds of figuring out, I’m back with my old faithful, Blogger. And to my surprise Blogger has done some neat things, which I am still getting familiar with. But one thing which I didn’t like right off the bat was the integration of ads without taking anyone’s consent. May be I overlooked or simply ignored where it was asked – but seriously, integrated ads?
Posterous was good when it was launched, then it got better, and finally it was there but something happened and they got picked up by Twitter. Well, its the food chain. Whale has an appetite, so it has to survive eating others. But I’m not sure why whale tweets, shouldn’t it moan!
Anyway, getting on and forward with Blogger now.
© Manoj Khanna 2003 – 2012.
Basecamp. 37Signals. New Look. Happy or sad?
OK so Basecamp got upgraded this weekend – got a new facelift. A lotsa features aren’t working. Seriously. I was mostly shocked that none of my projects show up now anymore, and I believe they also do not offerr a free plan anymore. Really? I wanna know why.
Only time will tell how the new Basecamp evolves and is accepted. Some new ideas might be neat like my own calendar and daily progress – but I haven’t really seen what’s the working here for them. But I am anxious, very much so.
In the meantime I’m frustrated that all my projects are gone. And possibly sitting somewhere safe, I hope, before I could get to them. Does 37Signals cares about what their large user base be thinking or doing if they decide to snatch away and rip off all functionality – and just start with scratch? Looking at my first experience with Basecamp just now – they probably not right now.
Our World. Needs to be saved.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeXdv-uPaw?rel=0]
SocioSocial YYC – Interview with CBC Radio 1 – Day Break Alberta
I’d a pleasure once again to sit down and chat with Russell Bowers, and this time on SocioSocial. The program will be aired on Dec 3 / Dec 4, 2011. You can hear it however here.
Russel Bowers is also moderating the publishing session at SocioSocial YYC scheduled for Dec 07, 2011. Learn more about SocioSocial here.
SocioSocialYYC is a new style of conference. It’s not about lecturers at lecturns. The group says it wants to bring people together in a “relaxed, sociable environment to exchange ideas.” Taking place from 8am-4pm at the Engineered Air Theatre in Calgary, attendees will go over topics in publishing, technology and social media. Presenters will be vying for a place at a future IdeaCity or TEDTalks. Registration for attendees can be found here. Manoj Khanna of Rapid Books spoke with Russell about the event and his own experience as a new publisher.
Quote from Warren Buffet
My personal favorite:
[Gold] gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head. –Warren Buffet