As someone who spends a fair amount of his time working to present ideas and information graphically, I found this very entertaining (via The Big Picture from the WSJ). It is all about scale so if we are talking about $100 billion dollars total, being on the "low end" of loss like Bear, Countrywide, or JP Morgan with a measly $1-2ish billion pales in comparison to Citi, Merrill, or UBS. This is very unsettling b/c this much loss doesn’t come without consequences. It’s sort of like the real estate binge of the past several years was a game of musical chairs with crap debt being passed from originator to underwriter to "safe" fixed income holder. Kinda like a game of musical chairs and somebody smashed the iPod with a boot….the music has stopped and those at the high end of this loss chart didn’t find a chair. 
Month: January 2008
Lots of buzz about Xobni
I’ve seen a recent uptick in both coverage and inquiries about Xobni. We can debate the merits of naming your company a word spelled backwards (inbox – get it?), but they are definitely getting some buzz. I have been using the beta for a while and plan a summary of my thoughts when I get spare moment. Good for them..they have tapped into the universal pain of email and our daily combat with Outlook. It does a lot of good things but not sure it solves the larger problem. More on that later.
I still have a couple of invites so ping me if you want one.
A great movie you’ve probably never heard about
I saw this movie many years ago and for some reason thought about it the other day. The "humor" is dark so be warned, but A Shock to the System starring Michael Caine ranks up there (for me) with the great flicks about office politics and power. Again, this is no Office Space, but as the clip below illustrates, it is highly entertaining. This was the only clip I found on YouTube…
Kirkland featured on NPR
Check out this short audio from NPR on Kirkland (via Kirkland Weblog) and the changes to my adopted hometown over the years. They are building "Googleplex north" here which is discussed in some detail. Lots of development (still) going on here – let’s hope the growth is managed for the benefit of us all.
Suggested reading for TSA
It is a bit too easy to complain about air travel and the circus that goes along with it so I thought I would do something to try to improve the overall process – a reading recommendation. If you work for TSA or are responsible for managing the security process at any airport, please read "The Goal
Those of us that travel for a living can easily spot the "Herbie" in the process and would it be too much to ask for a place for me to reassemble my clothing after running the gauntlet? Watch what people do before, during, and AFTER security screening…and at least give me a place to put my shoes back on.
How to differentiate a commoditized product
I’ve referred to this a couple times over the last few days as an example of a clever way to use new media to promote more mundane products so thought I would do a post on it. This is one of a series of videos by Blendtec designed to profile their blenders in a creative and entertaining way. Now, I’m sure you thought a blender was a blender and that there was no real way to differentiate beyond price. Well, here’s what one of these little babies can do to an iPhone:
If there was any doubt that email drains productivity
The folks over at Basex have now confirmed it by naming "information overload" as the problem of the year for 2008. Here’s an article on it. Ok, great. Not sure anyone would debate that interruptions and reply all emails are not a pain, so what to do about it? The recommendations are all focused on end-user behavior changes like not immediately following up on an email or call, being better about subject lines and selective use of "reply to all." All good advice but of all the things to change in organization, human behavior is the hardest.
More good news from Goldman
Looks like the folks at Goldman are not feeling too rosy about Salesforce and Tibco downgrading both to "sell" ratings (via Paul Kedrosky).
Why? For Tibco looks like a a "challenging IT spending environment" and exposure to the financial services sector while valuation is the culprit in Salesforce’s case.
Back in the saddle
I hope everyone had a great holiday. I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging due to both being stricken with something nasty and flu-like I picked up traveling on a few end of year sales calls the week before Christmas as well as doing my best to be unplugged for a bit.
Venture Vice 