simonb.com: blog > articles tagged with business

We’ve got great backing

We managed to convince VCs to give us money but we haven’t convinced any actual customers to do so.

More here

See also:

• Top Ten Lies of Engineers
• Top Ten Lies of VCs

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Good documentary on the absurd state of software patents and its impact on new business and therefore growth.

Further reading:

• Math You Can't Use
• Patent Failure

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Ever seen this on a menu?

"15% service charge not included"

Who exactly does this serve? This message is all about the service provider and nothing to do with customer service.

The service provider is essentially saying:

"Not only are you paying for our goods but there's an extra fee for the privilege of paying us money."

Or

"We like ripping off our customers."

Or

"The people who made the menu couldn't multiple by 1.15."

These lines about service charges leave a bad taste in my mouth. This is unfortunate as they're usually found on menus; always in very small…

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An ice cream shop made the best pistachio ice cream around. It was the only flavour of ice cream it made. For years it sold well but one day sales started to decline. Some of the customers told the shop owner they should think of serving different flavours. But pistachio had sold well for years so the ice cream shop continued to make only pistachio. The ice cream shop told its customers that if they didn’t buy more pistachio ice cream, the shop would go out of business and they'd never again taste their pistachio ice cream. Some of the…

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A new book shop sprang up on Fuxing Lu last week. This book shop is a little different, it sells by weight: RMB 11.8 per 500g. Another example of content being regarded as free in China. The other obvious example is DVDs. The costs are based on the media not the movie. That is, DVD-9 is more expensive than DVD-5.

In a country which keeps a tight control on (official) content, clearly content is regarded as having a value. The power of words and images etc. But at the same time it is considered to be of zero value -…

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Last night, at my local DVD store, I purchased a Blu-ray disc for RMB 80 (USD 12). The same disc on Amazon costs USD 17.50 (down from USD 35). It is safe to assume, just like every other title in the shop, it is a fake. When Blu-ray was introduced there was doubt as to its viability due to the rise of Internet delivery and competition from HD-DVD. But the appearance of fake discs means Blu-ray has arrived as a standard. It must be viable because there is a big enough market for pirates to be shipping discs. Therefore, I…

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China has been in the news a lot lately. Not all of it good. But here is some good news. The New York Times is reporting on China's rise in renewable energy industries - already World leader in wind turbines and solar panels. And The Guardian is reporting that, in the wake of the US plans to scrap moon missions, China could be the only country remaining with the goal to place men on the moon. Good luck to 'em it will be a marvellous achievement.

See also: China's Scientific Rise

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Above is a graph of RMB vs USD over the last few years via Google Finance. Below is a graph of RMB vs Euro also on Google Finance. Notice the lovely curve on the RMB/USD chart. Compare this to the (more random) Euro chart. Clearly a very long term plan going on here.

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Hands up if you like receiving junk mail... Let's count. Oh, no one. Why is it that when a product or service is purchased from a company, the supplying company assumes that this means it is OK for them to send you junk mail? And not only that, it gets better, they also assume it is OK for them to invite 3rd parties to send you junk as well?

I just renewed my Word subscription. On the final checkout screen I get the junk opt-out form shown below. Here's the problem: the customer - i.e. the person who is keeping…

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This is a brilliant video (embedded below from YouTube) of the relationship between designer and client. NSFW. Been there. It's made using Xtranormal which is a very cool site for turning a script into an animation. You just type in your script and directions and out pops a movie with Lego like people. (Other people are available). Great fun to play with.

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