Tonight is the night that kids go around houses and ask for candy.  In Ontario and I do believe most of North America kids say, "Trick or treat".  This can then be followed by any number of clever limericks, the one from my day included,
Not too big.
Not too small.
Just the size of Montreal.

Which just goes to show how things have changed because Montreal used to be the biggest city in Canada and immediately indicated something REALLY REALLY big in any limerick.

In Winnepeg, they say 'Halloween Apple" which is sung out in a G chord.  I had never heard of this before until a Winnepeger told me about it and even then I thought he was pulling my leg (until I confirmed with a second Winnepegonian.  The second 'Peger friend told me the limerick for Halloween Apples but I cannot remember what it is.

The whole Halloween apples thing seems like the best kept secret in Canada because I can't even find references to the limerick on Google. 

I really wish I could write a positive, even glowing review of "A Long Way Down" by Nick Hornby but I can't.  My summary review is "Get it from the library or borrow it from a friend".  I really couldn't recommend buying this book.

Nick Hornby's 'High Fidelity' was a great novel because (I find) it is equally enjoyed by women and men.  Men relate to the story and women enjoy it because it so accurately portrays the complex mind of the 'lad'.  Nick Hornby explained how men think in one novel better than an entire industry of women's magazines has been able to do for 50 years.

A Long Way Down is good idea, bad execution.  I am guessing that Hornby didn't want to write this book from the perspective of a single character but that is exactly what he should have done.  It is not a negative thing to say that Hornby isn't that great at writing the perspective of a teenage girl or middle age woman.  The novel would have been stronger if he had written it solely from the character of Martin, a middle age divorced father who was a morning show TV personality.  Why does someone like Martin act like such a jerk and do these reprehensible things?  That would have been interesting and likely something Hornby could have written well.

I don't think Hornby really explores the topics promised by the book's jacket cover - life, death, etc.  The character depth was not there and so none of these deep topics was really covered.  But more importantly, I didn't enjoy reading this book which was a shame since I enjoyed Hornby's other books so much.

When Ebay first bought Skype, a friend who is knowledgeablee about this business area said, 'I have three theories of why they did that.". 

The problem here is that acquisitions should not be so mysterious that you have three theories on it, the way you have multiple theories on why a date didn't call you back within a week.  Acquisitions are supposed to be done through careful valuation of the company that is being acquired. 

In the case of eBay, my 'theory' is that Niklas Zennstrom convinced eBay that he, Zennstrom, as an official producer of disruptive technology, was ready to disrupt all over eBay's business model.  I'm sure he did this with much hand waving, talk of Google, and some snazzy Powerpoint.  He also probably pointed out that Rupert Murdoch wanted to buy Skype but he wouldn't sell out to the 'man' i.e. someone who owned a traditional media conglomerate.  And besides the 'man', Murdoch, didn't really understand the full extent of the disruptiveness of this technology and would not give Zennstrom and Friis what they were asking for it.

At that point, this is likely what went down:

A senior eBay executive said, "This is crazy we can't buy a company for what he's asking when this service (VoIP) will trend to free in a few years.  Besides, if we need a VoIP service, let's just build our own by buying the components.  Its not exactly secret, how to do this." 

At which point everyone young in the room thought, uh oh old guy doesn't get it alert.  we majorly have to buy this company.  This would have been accompanied by Zennstrom rolling his eyes like he has heard this all before when people have said I don't think your technology, which is free, is so disruptive.

Then they left their boardroom, meet up at a bar (without the doesn't-get-it executive), ordered martinis.  Someone said, 'Hey, have you seen Google Earth.  That is so cool.'  Then Meg Whitman (who hadn't seen Google Earth) thought to herself my God, they have a product with the word 'earth' in it, that's our market!, and turned to Zennstrom "Listen I think I can get them to agree to $4 billion but you're going to have to give me your Powerpoint slides to use."

And so it was.  And now Meg Whitman had to use the word 'ecosystem' when talking to analysts.  I really applaud the communications people, they really digged deep for that one.  I mean anyone can quote a strategy concept from Michael Porter of Harvard Business School (Five Forces - duh) but you really have to know what you're doing on Google search to find one of those 'alternate strategy words'.

I'm really glad that my dad didn't name me after the Number 1 company on the Fortune 500 in 1974 and maker of his beloved Oldsmobile Delta 88, General Motors. 

Quote Below From Google's Official Blog

 "This just in: Walid Elias Kai, a Ph.D. in search engine marketing, is, it must be said, an avid fan of our company. Dr. Kai, who is Lebanese, and his Swedish wife Carol live in Kalmar, Sweden, where their son was born on September 12. His name? Oliver Google Kai.

About this choice, Dr. Kai writes, "When we first knew that my wife Carol is pregnant, I said, 'we will name our child Google.' Everyone laughed and did not take me seriously. My brother said, 'Yeah, name the next one yahoo fuji nikon." And then, says Dr. Kai, the day came to make the baby official in the Swedish Registry. "I was with my friend Magnus Foss and my wife Carol, and I said yes, GOOGLE KAI. Carol knew how serious I am – she knows how much I adore Google services."

Does Naomi Klein even cover the topic of naming your children after multinational corporations in 'No Logo'?

(Northbound Yonge Line, Friday night)

Tech employee at a Bank: You know I still haven't seen the movie Sense and Sensibility.

Fellow (non-tech) Bank Employee: I have the DVD, you can borrow it if you want.

Tech employee: No its okay, thanks.  I can probably find a bit torrent of it somewhere..... I mean I just don't want to waste time ripping a DVD for a movie I don't end up liking.

-------------------------------------------------------

Dear Hollywood Movie-Mogul:

Hope you are well.  Your business model is broken.

Take care!
siobhan

20 years ago this month, Microsoft shipped the first version of Windows.  Windows is much maligned of course but it took 95% of the market even though it did not have the first mover's advantage.  The advantage that Windows did have was that it was compatible with open architecture allowing it to be distributed on a variety of computing hardware platforms.  Of course, making the PC architecture open was one of the worst things IBM did for their own corporate success and led to that phrase of the late 80's and 90's, IBM-compatible. Without IBM's terrible strategic move, we would not have the computing industry we have today.  

It is easy to count Microsoft out now, as the day of PC dominance is clearly over.  But I still remember how people said Microsoft was 'done' because they didn't get the Internet.  Which they didn't.  But when you have as much cash as they do, you get a lot of time to make up for your mistakes.  

What am I looking for from Microsoft?  Some sign of internal entrepreneurship.  There is little evidence of that and it is necessary or else Microsoft will become about as innovative as General Motors.  A sign that new internal capabilities have been developed around either thin client computing or being a service provider. Their announcement this week to allow interoperability between their Instant Messaging users and Yahoo's is some indication of that.  

Both Dell and Intel, Microsoft's former partners in PC dominance have both shown lately that their focus is broadening away from the Dell Wintel cash cow.  Its time for Microsoft to the do the same.