OPEN E-Commerce

via www.neurosurgical.com

Step by Step - Updating iOS 4.x Beta to your device

This seems to be a general problem that people figure out by word of mouth and I couldn't find and good instructions on how to do it.  Once the 3rd person asked me (after I had to ask a friend of mine), I decided to do a little post on it.

Notes:  

To download the beta, you need to be a paid member of the Apple developer program ($99/yr)

The file you download is a DMG file (disc image), so, that's probably the most confusing part.

Go do the Developer apple site and grab the latest beta:

http://developer.apple.com

Now, once it's downloaded (it's a BIG file 500+MB), it's a DMG file, so you need to double click it (just like you were installing it).  This will mount the disc image for you.  In Finder, you should see this:

The DMG file is mounted and you see the .ipsw file, which is what you need to select from iTunes to update your iOS.

Next, open iTunes and connect your device.

Hold down the "Alt" key and click "Check for Update" This will open a finder window for you to select a file.

Select your mounted image file and the .ipsw file is inside.

Select "Update" and just wait.  iTunes will take care of the rest.

If anyone has problems with this, let me know.

Changing the conversation on oil

I really enjoyed this article and I felt that it does a great deal to highlight where the real issues are with gas prices and it paints a realistic picture.  There is one interesting thing that I am honestly SHOCKED I haven’t a lot more of.  Since we know we can affect the market forces in terms of oil costs, why aren’t the politicians changing the market?  Amazingly, I did see a little of this with McCain’s new battery push, but I mean a real investment in alternative fuel solutions like Honda’s FCX car.  If the government gave several billion dollars and tight timelines around making these cars (and an array of vehicles) affordable, accessible and serviceable, dramatic change could occur in the next 5-6 years.

I looked at this report:

I retrieved the following data:

Automobiles:

USMS members report 2.17 cars per household. 49.4% report having 2 cars, with 19.7% having 1 car and 19.6% having three cars. 51.9% of households report buying a new car every 5 or fewer years. The average length of time between car purchases is 6.3 years. Given the average number of cars per household we can extrapolate that USMS households purchase a new car every 3 years, on average. Japanese car makers are the preferred automobile provider. 43.9% of members report preferring Japanese cars, 33.6% of members prefer American cars, and 14.2% prefer German cars. 8.3% prefer “other” countries of origin.

If we do something significant like provide a $5,000-$10,000 tax credit to ALL people (not tiered by income) in order to drop the barrier to entry somewhat on a new car purchase, I think we could affect that 6.3 years.  Since the car already exists by Honda, they could step up production significantly within the next 1-2 years and within the next 2-3 years most manufacturers could follow suit and we could change the market.

I would personally love to see the market changed vs. looking at how to fix something that is inherently broken and finite.

Additional notes:

Consumption Article:  http://www.usms.org/admin/surveys/May2006/consumption_report.pdf

Article Link:  http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2008/db20080619_412349.htm

Honda FCX Clarity:  http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/

What set top box is in your living room?

The contenders are the PS3, xbox360, Google TV, Boxee Box and the Apple TV. There are others, but in terms of what is sexy and usable and what will actually fit in most living rooms by the time you have your cable/sat box and your amplifier, I think this covers it.

Since believe in full disclosure, I think it's best I disclose my living room setup, which changes often as my wife or babysitters will tell you. I have a Dennon amp, an Aquos TV and my devices are a Wii, xbox360, and an Apple TV (the new one).

Apple TV

Pros:

Easy to use, very inexpensive, small, low power, networked, iTunes, Airplay, massive potential

Cons:

No 1080p, minimal codec support (formats must be apple friendly), No Games, No Camera

Xbox360

Pros: Powerful, kinect, games and set top, networked, can replace sat/cable box (for AT&T UVerse)

Cons:

Loud, expensive, Zune, requires xbox live gold for Netflix and other things that are free on other systems, has a poor track record for delivering on promises (media center, etc), requires media center to play networked media on a broad scale

PlayStation 3 with Move

Pros:

Blue Ray Disc player, high powered, Networked, Games

Cons:

Expensive, Weak media store, playing local movies requires hacking the system, No Camera, and yes - Blu ray (because who would consistently pay $30 for a movie you watch once?)

Google TV

Pros:

1080p content, Truly a media player, integrates with existing sat/cable box (this is being blocked for some providers), apps, Fling (I haven't seen this working)

Cons:

Different manufacturers with different approaches, no networked media serving working (the revue promises this, but reviews are saying it's not working http://gigaom.com/video/google-tv-review-a-first-stab-at-a-powerful-concept/ ), usability is good for a techie but bad for a novice

Boxee Box:

Pros:

1080P contentTrue media player, apps, content en masse

Cons:

more expensive than Apple TV, the box is awkward and too big, usability leaves something to be desired

To cut the cord.....  It's not quite there yet.  I don't think any of these players make cutting the cord a reality for the majority of consumers, however, there are certainly a lot of people that are now able to do it.  I think Apple may have the best shot at pulling this off in the short term, but if they do, Google will be right behind them.  Apple is about 3 major networks away from the tipping point on making iTunes a replacement for a cable box.  The issue will be timing.  So, the episodes should be available as of the moment they air to download.  If they aren't, cutting the cord will remain elusive because as Americans, we want our content, now and real time. 

Oh, my beloved Boxee box...  I have awaited you like a Cubs pennant or that next flight delay update, or for a politician to actually do something...  You get the picture :)  I have you installed on every computer, I have the original XBMC by which you are based, but alas you have failed me in timing and design and cost.  With Apple TV being so small and cost efficient, I have to say you lose and I would be open to you coming to my jailbroken Apple TV or Google TV in the near future.

Sony, you will fail because of arrogance sadly.  By trying to keep things in a closed system (blocking unix installs, etc), you are locking out the potential for what your system could be.  The PS3 is probably the one piece of hardware that could do it all, but Sony will never let it happen.  To win, Sony could create a small app based on VLC that has the basic network protocols for Mac and PC AND partner up hard with Amazon or GASP iTunes to provide your other content.  That doesn't sound so hard does it?  The problem is am I going to buy a PS3 for every TV in my house, probably no.

Microsoft, as Forrester said: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov98MFgrp2g&feature=share, you could dominate it all.  However, charging me an additional $60/year to watch my Netflix that I already pay for combined with forcing me to use Media Center on a PC that I don't want in order to stream my local library of HD movies makes you a losing proposition.  I have 2 XBOX 360s and I have tried for YEARS to make this setup work and no one wants to wait 45 seconds to boot up the XBOX and then 2+ minutes to get Media Center working which may or may not fail if the PC has crashed just to watch a movie on my local network.  To win, the formula is the same as it would be for Sony and PLEASE forget about locking me to a Windows machine.  At the prices you can pickup an XBOX 360 now, this "could" be an every TV solution.

Apple, well, so far I have you in a dead heat with Google TV.  Cost is the major factor here as well as your ability to link up to my iTunes library which contains my library of local content (NAS issue solved), however, please allow the VLC app into Apple TV or "Plex" so we can use additional codecs.  Continue to work on NBC and a the HBOs of the world to hit the tipping point for cutting the cord.  I REALLY wish you could push 1080p content though and that's really the only big mark against you (although in practice, videos are looking better on my Apple TV at 720p than my XBOX360 at 1080p and I don't know why).

Google, your path is the easiest I think.  Lower the price to match Apple and add a VLC app that has networking protocols in it for NAS based playback.  The problem is that I don't think Google "can" lower the price to match Apple, so therein lies the conundrum. 

What does it all mean? 

Well, what is best for you largely will be based on what your home setup looks like already and what is important to you.  I don't really see the XBOX or PS3 really making it to every TV in the house (currently 2.93 - http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/u-s-homes-add-even-more-tv-sets-in-2010/ ). So, that leaves the Google TV and Apple (since I have essentially eliminated Boxee based on the odd design and massive delays).  If I had to choose today, I would say most people have an iTunes account (Mac or PC) that they use to a large degree, so the Apple TV makes the most sense based on it's low cost.  For $100, you could buy an external USB harddrive to store movies plugged into any computer  with iTunes and for $300 you could put an Apple TV at each of your average 2.93 TVs for a grand total of $400.  That's palatable for most of us that are into these things.  That said, I see a lower cost Google TV on the horizon that could totally change my opinion.

I hope you enjoyed my take... 

Offshoring - When should you?

I find this topic coming up a lot still and I am honestly kind of amazed that I still hear it so often.  When should you Off Shore some base of work for your business?  When you should off shore is very similar to asking yourself if something REALLY is a commodity.  Unless something is a commodity, it's not a good idea to outsource it.  Additionally, if your motivation is to save money, you will lose.

What is a commodity?  About.com defines it like this:

usually produced and/or sold by many different companies

Is uniform in quality between companies that produce/sell it. You cannot tell the difference between one firm's product and another.

If anyone has ever used any piece of software developed by anyone, it’s clear that the second point fails the commodity test badly.  However, maintenance to existing software can pass this test.  For instance, maintenance of a mainframe application or a web application should be largely a commodity.

Since we now know that NEW software development is NOT a commodity, we know that we need to pay special care to make sure that the individual or organization that is delivering us this software knows what they are doing and will meet and exceed our expectations.

In off shore development, meeting expectations is very difficult.  In speaking with people that have been through using it, the frustration levels are extremely high.  Issues are worst in communication (linguistics), time zone changes as well as tasks as simple as common status meetings quickly can become a large effort for both sides of the ocean.

There are countless stories out there detailing disaster after disaster with some organizations attempting onshore to offshore ratios as high as 1 to 11 or 1 to 15.  Even companies claiming CMMi level 5 will fall apart in situations like this (see comments for instance).  We all know the magic number to manage people even in your same office building maxes out at 7.  Even if you try and follow the hourglass model, exceeding 7 is difficult unless you are at the supervisor level which essentially implies a line worker in a factory.  Since we have proven new development insn't a commodity, that layer is essentially out.  So, a rule of thumb is if you have more than 7 direct reports, it’s too much to handle and that is if you are right there seeing these people all day, every day.  Imagine if the team you were managing were on the other side of the world.  So, when someone claims 11 or 14, watch out.

The best way I have seen off shoring work in a new development process is at a ratio of 1 onshore to a maximum of 4 people off shore.  The on shore resource will need to have personal relationships with each of the 4 off shore resources and the modules that they work on have to be able to be isolated and the requirements have to be so clear that my 7 year old would understand exactly what the ask is.

These are the best practices that I live by when it comes to off shoring, what do you think?

Honda FCX Clarity - Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle - Official Web Site

Dish Network Horror Story - my Dish Customer Journey

This is my letter verbatim to Dish following a horrible night which ended in me not only canceling my service, but writing a blog post and posting extensive angry tweets about Dish.  SO, in this one evening, I went from being just a customer that would have probably stayed with them for a long time based on not wanting to deal with change to someone who would write all this up.  For those of you scoring at home, this is a customer service disaster...

I joined Dish several years ago and early on I was a very happy customer.  I raved about the service and the customer service with the Sirius channels and all.  I had DirecTV in the past and cable and friends of mine have others like UVerse, etc.

I started with a single HD DVR and a couple of HD receivers and this was great for awhile.  Once Dish offered the 922 box with Sling Box, I had to have it.  I am big on TV and I think its great to have the option to stream your TV everywhere.  I replaced one of my low end boxes with the 922 and was in love.  

It worked AWESOME for about 8-9 months and then one day the hard drive blew up on it.  I called Dish and they promptly replaced it.  The first unit I got didn't work well, so they sent another and this one became the bane of my existence.  I am EXTREMELY technically savvy and I have extensive AV setups in every room of the house including Google TVs, Apple TVs, 2 Home Theatre/Projector setups.  SO, needless to say, I know my stuff when it comes to A/V things.  

The 3rd 922 box would work great for a day or so and then all the sudden the guide would come up, but the tuners wouldn't pull up a show.  The only fix for this seemed to be hard resetting the whole box.  This was discovered after a series of calls with Dish Tech Support.  Eventually a pattern emerged where the receiver would work for about 8 hours and then it would die in the same manner.  The Dish people told me I needed to call Sling (even though they own Sling and they are Sling) but they gave me an 800 number to call.  I tried 3 times to get through and each time I ended up on hold for 25+ minutes and never got to speak to anyone so I eventually gave up and haven't used my sling service since.  Dish can confirm this in their usage logs.  The irony of this issue comes up at the end.  I am assuming when I added the 922 box, my contract was extended somehow secretly or they buried it in some long "listen to my 120 second terms and conditions".  Of course, the date that this happened is unknown and the only way to get said date is to call and ask.

Today:

The US National Soccer tem is on playing Scotland and since I am a big soccer fan, I wanted to see the match..  Unfortunately, on Memorial Day Weekend, it was only on in Spanish unless you subscribe to the top level of Dish.  DOes anyone else get the irony there?  How un-American can you get.  So, I post my irritation on Twitter and some guy from their Social Media tries to help and he says to try ESPN 2.  I am initially excited that they were paying attention and I thought, wow, I am impressed.  After I tell him that ESPN 2 is actually showing some odd form of racing and not soccer, he said it was on channel 159 which is an NBC Sports station that is only available if you pay for the full subscription of 250 stations (I only get the 200) which ironically blocks out History 2, Military, History international and a few other channels I really like but I had to draw the line somewhere...  So, if you only spend $123.99/mo you don't get any of that AND you can't watch the US National team.  How incredibly insane is that?  At this point, I am now annoyed and I start thinking about what my options are.

First phone call - I was disconnected and didn't get a user ID.

Second Phone Call:  User ID: 8UF - Front-Line person - I called about contract - was told I don't have a contract since I was past my 2 year agreement with Dish.  I also called to complain about it being Memorial Day weekend and I needed the 250 channel plan in order to see the US National team in English.  I had them on 4 stations in Spanish.  I also asked again about Fix issue with my 922 receiver - and I asked about the Hopper vs. my current setup.  They transferred me to Advanced service.  For those of you that don't know, the Hopper is Dish's answer to the whole home DVR and it's a very nice system.

Advanced Support:

User ID GVT - I asked again about the Hopper vs. DirecTV due to 922 issues and being out of contract - He walked me through issues on 922 and offered to replace or send a tech out for free.  I told him I wanted to talk it over with my wife before I had them send a replacement or do the hopper.  This individual was very nice and helpful in was trying his best to give me every option to stay with Dish.

Call One to DirecTV

I then talked to my wife and called DirecTV.  The cost was determined to be right at about $70/month vs. $123/mo on Dish with all the receivers included and no cost at all on the equipment.  The service is similar to a hopper and 3 Joeys (which is not an option) - so I would need 2 Hoppers and 2 Joeys.  Based on cost and the DirecTV solution appearing smoother and everything involved, I decided to switch.

Third Phone call:  Cancellation line:

User ID: RMS - I called back to cancel.  Upon hearing I wanted to cancel, I was advised I do have a contract.  This was the FIRST mention of a contract at all.  I asked for a supervisor.

Supervisor Andy

User ID: ZTH - Andy got on the phone and made it clear that he was a no nonsense guy and that I was wasting my time asking for anyone else.  He said I was under contract and if I wanted to cancel, it would be $60.  There is no recourse to my being told by all previous reps that I wasn't under contract AND it's impossible to find out your contract status unless you call in.  Since I was told one thing before I was going to cancel and another thing after, it's obvious to see why I am upset.  

I asked Andy if there was any worse company than Dish - He advised me DirecTV was worse than dish because their ETF fees are worse and they don't waive anything.  I asked him how this helps me at all since nothing is being waived for me.  I asked for his supervisor and he advised me they don't take calls and this was a take it or leave it situation.  Since I have already signed up with DirecTV, I was left with no option but to pay the $60.  If the card that I signed up with 3+ years ago wasn't still good, I would be billed for the $60 plus any additional fees needed to cancel.  Obviously your card numbers change when your cards expire and I am pretty sure any card I had 3+ years ago has changed and he didn't even know what card it was.  So, using a scare tactic, I felt compelled to give him my credit card for the $60 and given how this discussion was going, I REALLY didn't feel comfortable giving him my information.  However, if I didn't, he implied my costs would escalate to cancel.  Andy further told me that any future deals with Dish would be null and I would have to pay more to get back in with Dish since I was canceling early saying something like I would have to pay in advance for service or something like that.  At this point, I was completely disgusted with Dish and I didn't really even understand what he meant.  I also decided it would be a good time to document and Andy became excessively evasive.  He would only give me User IDs (not even first names) of the people I spoke with previously and I had to identify what each conversation was about before he would acknowledge anything.  For those of you at home, your shady meter should be on over drive at this point.

I know this will go nowhere because I am just one customer who has had a horrible experience with a person who was an incredible jerk given what I have had to deal with (broken 922 receiver and being told I was no longer under contract, etc.).  However, I figure if this goes into a file where there are other complaints maybe someday someone will read this and take corrective action.  Needless to say, I am basically done with Dish for good because with Andy's threats of me not getting deals again, any advertising you do to me is going to hit deaf ears.  This whole situation is a terrible way to deal with customers though and I am hoping I heard him wrong.

I hope this diatribe goes somewhere in helping someone else avoid getting into this situation with Dish and essentially avoiding them as a provider.  My last Day with Dish is Wednesday, May 30 2012.  I will update you all on my conversion to DirecTV and what my thoughts are.  I will try and avoid the Honeymoon phase that is sure to occur.

One extremely frustrated former Dish customer.

via www.dpi.inpe.br

Content Management and eCommerce

I feel like I have been doing Content Management for my whole life.  It actually has been a long time, but the real calculation places me just short of 1/3 of my life.  In that time, I have run the gamut in terms of "What is Content Management".  I have been through Web Content Management, Enterprise Content Management, Records Management, Catalog Management and more.  Content Management can take many forms, but I wanted to look at it a little closer and see what makes "sense".  What makes "sense" in this world of ever reducing costs is to be able to do content management better, faster and cheaper both today and in the long-run.

The first thing I look at is we need to agree that following the KISS method is of the utmost importance. (Keep It Simple Stupid).

The second thing to look at is your Information Architecture.  After realizing that Content Management needs to be easy, this is the most important in order to understand so that all of your base level pages, media types and content items can be defined.  Your solution should be able to accept new media types and the addition of pages should be simple and straight forward.  By identifying your content types and what pages they live on, new pages and new content can be easily automated.

Many people feel strongly that the creative defines the content management system, however this is one of the biggest mistakes in the field.  Since we all know the only constant in life is change, we can assume that the creative will change and in some cases change significantly.  When this happens, it is important that the content management solution doesn't need to be rebuilt.  Content types should be defined by what they are, not how they look.  Defining content in this manner is called loose definition and it allows for the best reuse of content and the most flexibility.  Most pure content sites can be handled with less than 5 content types (navigation item, media item, article item, and promotion).  CSS can and should handle the details.  Since we know the sites will change every 12-18 months, changing the out the content management system (CMS) as well makes even having a CMS questionable based on the cost to implement one.  there is no ROI in saving 500K by having a CMS if it costs you 700K to implement it every 12 months.

The next question is eCommerce.  Products are just content at the end of the day, and should they really be managed as anything other than as another content type?  The obvious answer is no.  I am amazed how often I see content and products managed by different systems.  The cost for something like this is almost unimaginable.  Now, a product may be a more strictly defined content type depending on the requirements for making attributes searchable.

“Keeping it Simple” means keeping your content simple and keeping the number of solutions simple.  If multiple solutions are in place for products and other content, it might be time to re-evaluate your solution to something like ATG (Art Technology Group) as a solution that handles all content within a single application.  Additionally, if your system has more that 10 content types, it might be time to re-evaluate your solution to see where things can be streamlined in order to not have the cost of implementation become a barrier to entry for updating your site and keeping your brand fresh.

This is me :)