Michael Gracie

There is this compilation of best business books, supposedly “known to mankind,” which looks a hell of a lot like a pack of book writers (and Amazon affiliates) trying to hock their wares under the guise of good information. Give me a fricken break! Every book within the links is something new age, from some author within the last decade. What are you saying? Everything new in terms of process and ideas has been created in the last couple of years?

Throwing up a list of Amazon links does not a “must read” list make. You want good business books? Then start with the basics - everything else is a derivative. Pick up Mises’s Human Action, Charles Mackay’s classic Extraordinary Popular Delusions…, Ann Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Read John Maynard Keynes and Adam Smith, and roll up Karl Marx for comparison purposes. Read Hank Greenberg’s Memos from the Chairman, or just about anything from Peter Drucker (a genuine monarch mentioned in the linked poll - someone with a real track record).

This recent stuff? Yea, read it if you must, but keep in mind that fundamentals are where it’s at. Use what you absorb from them to stimulate new ideas of your own. That’s where it’s really at.

Note: references are provided without links to Amazon, even though I am an affiliate, so you know I’m not just trying to sell you something.

XSEO questions whether email spam can hurt a brand. Blatant slander of a company, in multitudes of millions of inboxes, may, but filters and subsequent web-based discrediting can mitigate and/or repair that pretty easily.

…the internet has become a great soap box where anybody can say anything about anybody.

I think it is the “me” brand you really have to worry about, at least that is if spam starts following The Long Tail.

***UPDATE***

Don’t care about the “me” brand? Well, how about your nerves.

Like my memory of their once superb support.

I am not going to debate Dell’s now inherent negatives - Jeff Matthews has a lock on that - instead, I’ll speak to the experience I last remember, and it was a good one.

The Dell C840 I purchased (and subsequently hacked up) was a refurbished device. When it arrived, the screen had a ding in it, and the LCD was blurred as a result. Bad. I called Dell support, and they immediately scheduled an onsite repair. Two days pass, and no tech arrived. I called Dell again.

I remember not one, but two fine humans taking the case. Once I was transferred from entry level to “priority,” the tech wasted no time telling me they’d help, and help bigtime. Solution - pull a brand new machine off the line and send it my way. No replacement refurb, mind you, a brand new machine. I received it four days later.

That is what I remember about Dell, and the pundits can’t take that away from me. Unfortunately, Apple Computer can make that memory less significant, as my time on the phone with them (due mainly to my early unfamiliarity with the OS), was met with cordiality, patience and rigor as well.

I wish them all luck, as that is where value is headed in the computer age - towards kindness, consideration, and a take-action attitude with the customer.

If only the rest of the world followed that path.

Silicon Valley Sleuth says Vonage is using adware in its marketing efforts. This announcement comes on the heels of a piss poor IPO, including spamming subscribers regarding the stock hock.

I’ll withhold conclusions, as it isn’t apparent whether this is Vonage themselves or the work of a renegade intermediary. But if it is the former, and someone comes up with a way to port existing Vonage numbers to another service, say SkypeIn, someone is in deep doodoo (and no, there is no direct cause and effect relationship here, but the bad PR is not something Vonage needs right now).

The housing sector, including the companies involved, is experiencing “a slowdown” complete with rapidly rising inventories, rising debt, and P/Es reminiscent of a back alley beating.

Who cares, because the Fed Chairman says it looks ‘orderly’.

You have to love how for years the markets swayed on one man’s statements. Does that kind of magic still exist, or is someone saying what someone else tells them to say?

Truth, or summer doldrums before hurricane season. Retail performance heading into the last quarter will tell us if the ATM on every street in America has run out of money. Until then, stay tuned.

***UPDATE***

Maybe you don’t have to stay tuned quite as long as I originally thought. Just don’t sit there wringing you hands - get creative instead.

A really technical guy talks net neutrality, and how all the partisan positioning may wind up killing the internet altogether.

Death of the internet, or just a slowing of its growth via lack of innovation - it makes no difference. None of this bodes well for the web hermit.

A late breaking worm running around MySpace touting 9/11 conspiracies has been stopped. While I think it is awfully timely that we are hearing about bugs pushing politically charged topics at naive internet users, that is besides the point. What we are seeing is a shift from the inherent dangers of using the service, which really don’t exist unless you are voluntarily posting your name, address, social security number, and mother’s maiden name on the site (i.e. being really stupid), to the danger of getting some type of virus or malware from your visits.

Along with the worm, MySpace was getting hit by widespread adware exploits (that only work on Windows boxes, of course) over the last few weeks. Makes perfect sense with the advertising model. But what’s next - who knows?

My guess: when MySpace realizes the ad model isn’t getting them anywhere, they’ll start charging for products and/or the service itself. Then their databases will start getting pilfered. Of course, all the MySpace users may already be doing duty in the military or shopping at Walmart by then. Then they’ll be really safe.

***UPDATE***

According to TechCrunch, MySpace is trying to plug the holes, but may be doing more harm than good (to themselves), and still leaving users vulnerable as well.

Your website may be safe from all the cross-site and cross-frame scripting attacks that the kiddies throw at you, but that doesn’t mean you are in the clear. Real hackers (meaning those over the age of 16, with degrees in computer science and an empty fridge that needs money to fill) are trying to get at your database, and with rising frequency.

Now you can wait for your database provider to issue a seemingly never-ending series of patches (and get the same warm, fuzzy feeling as being a PC user), pull out the dusty manuals (dusty since your app has been doing all the queries for you and you forgot what an SQL command was) and fix it yourself, or shift data collection to another provider (which may be less costly at the margin line than spending the time on the first two options).

Your call.

If email is losing its clout as a communications medium, does that mean Bill Gates was just a little early with his prediction?

Liquidity makes markets. Without a fair share of buyers and sellers to keep the spreads reasonable, nothing works. If you were to suck a big player out of the market, say one that provides a lot of “insured liquidity,” the same thing would happen, inefficiency, if not wholesale disruption.

What are some of the signs that a big player desperately needs an exit door?

Start with some fraud. Toss in backing out of early stage deals. Throw in a mass exodus of its managers.

I think that is plenty in the way of signs.