You can find the complete web-cast here: web-cast

# Younger people should pay more

# Healthier people should pay more

# Older people should just die- they’re “too expensive”

# There should be “less innovation” in medical technology

# You should not expect to live longer than your parents.

People cheering and clapping at the fact that grandmas going to be denied care and die.

Thawte Personal Email Certificates and the Web of Trust will be discontinued on November 16, 2009; http://j.mp/cin6x

This idiom is used across the English speaking world.
Packed in like sardines, is used to describe the situation when a place is very crowded.

“The night club was so full everyone was packed in like sardines.”

The idiom is sometimes spoken as “packed like sardines”

“The night club was so full everyone was packed like sardines”

Learn more English online and interactive with our professional teachers at www.SmartLanguageSolutions.com we look forward to meeting you soon.

Seriously. Have you? If you’re interested at all in Biology, Natural History, or even just critters in the back yard, it’s totally amazing. Think wikipedia, except just for organisms… the goal is to have an electronic information page for every living thing on the planet. Pretty high goals, right? Well, at its inception last year, I was a fan, but knew it was going to take awhile for them to get going. The difference between wikipedia and EOL is that organism content is moderated by real, actual, honest-to-gosh scientists. This really does make all the difference, but it also means it takes much longer to get stuff uploaded onto the site.

Anyway, the point is that the site is getting better all the time, and my favorite new feature is that if you’re inclined towards photography, EOL has made it super easy to contribute photos to their site via Flickr, or through a sweet iphone app.

Anyway, if you get a chance, certainly check EOL out in all it’s glory. It isn’t the tool that it should be yet, but hopefully it will be in the upcoming years.

The Encyclopedia of Life

Note: This is the 3rd of a 3 part series of articles by guest blogger Chris Brown. If you feel inspired to write a guest post of your own, click here to find out how to submit it to us.

Part 3: How to Kill a Product

No one wants to manage a dying product. No one wants to sell, support or, certainly, buy a dying product, either. The role of the product manager includes performing the kill analysis – thoughtful, thorough and completely unbiased – and making a recommendation that is best for the business.

Time to Pull the Plug

The process of discontinuing a product will vary greatly by industry and company, depending on the structural makeup of the organization, the sales channels, the customers and, of course, the product itself. But there are some basic steps.

First, the product manager needs to perform the analysis described in the earlier posts. Once the decision has been made to kill a product, the product manager should provide a timeline with the following action items:

Communication plan. Work with the Marketing and Sales teams to create a plan that includes customer notification, internal communication (including FAQs), collateral updating, branding consideration. Make sure the tone and level of communication are appropriate. If the product is purely ancillary, the communications may not need to be extensive. If the product has a deep connection to the brand, for example, but is no longer performing, or is being killed for strategic reasons that may not be apparent, a more carefully considered story may need to be crafted.

Shut down marketing. Any outbound or customer acquisition efforts should cease on the prescribed date.

Sales and Finance. Work with the Finance and Sales teams to make sure sales goals are properly adjusted to account for the lost revenue. Review final billing procedures, outstanding receivables, etc., with Finance.

Provide support to Customer Support. The Support team will also need to be ready to field concerns and questions from customers, partners etc. Provide the necessary training and documents (FAQs, email response templates, talk-tracks, etc.).

Provide direction to the Technology team. If the product requires any ongoing technology, e.g. it is Web-based, make sure Technology knows when to permanently suspend functionality, and that doing so will not impact any other services. Have a plan for warehousing code and/or data, if necessary.

Make sure it’s all legal. Confirm you are within the bounds of any contracts with customers and suppliers, and that official cancellation notification is vetted or provided by the Legal team.

When working on these steps with internal teams, the product manager needs to make it clear why, at a high-level, this decision has been made. Don’t assume everyone from sales to tech knows the history of the product, or that, if they do, that they don’t have an attachment to it. A summary of the criteria that led to the decision will provide context and buy-in, which is very important since many of these people will have to do much of the dirty work of killing the product.

Product managers must make their kill recommendations by thoroughly and objectively examining the financial, organizational and strategic factors. Recommending the discontinuation of a product one manages can be a difficult prospect. But often the manager, especially a good one, will be the first to admit a product has run its course. This creates an opportunity to focus on more important, rewarding initiatives.

-  Chris Brown

Chris is vice president of product management at Apartments.com, a division of Classified Ventures, LLC. Email him at cbrown@apartments.com or follow him @Brown784

Previously:

Part 1 Why?: If it’s generating some revenue, even a little, why kill an underperforming product? Because ineffective products divert focus and resources from core and growth products, and ultimately dilute the overall value proposition of the business.

Part 2 When?: When is it time to kill a product? Part 2 offers up six areas to keep an eye on for telltale signs. It’s examining these areas that will help product managers build the case to kill or keep a product.

Note: This is the 1st of a 3 part series of articles by guest blogger Chris Brown. If you feel inspired to write a guest post of your own, click here to find out how to submit it to us.

To Kill a Product, part 1: Why?

It’s there somewhere, in the quarterly business review, a line item that shows a couple dozen customers, down from a year ago, which was down from the year before. It brings in a little revenue, probably less than a percentage point of total, but revenue being revenue, why not keep cashing the checks?

“It,” of course, is the Product That Wouldn’t Die, its longevity no longer due to any real practical purpose but to management’s reluctance to pull the plug. But pull the plug they should. Even if costs are negligible (and sometimes they’re not), ineffective products divert focus and resources from core and growth products, and ultimately dilute the overall value proposition of the business.

The role of the product manager includes performing the kill analysis – thoughtful, thorough and completely unbiased – and, if necessary, making a recommendation that is best for the business.

Why the hard decision might be the right decision

Why should an organization kill a product, particularly if it generates even a small amount of incremental revenue? The first reason should be obvious: The product isn’t profitable. But products that are clearly bleeding money are not what we’re really discussing here. The harder decisions have to be made for products that have some revenue, some customers, have low or justifiable costs, but no long-term plan, prospects or strategic relevance.

Here are some examples of how a moribund product can have a draining, distracting effect on an organization and its customers:

On the Product team: Product managers and analysts are required to field customer feedback, analyze market data and track KPIs for a product that most likely represents a tiny fraction of the company’s business, and takes focus off of supporting the profitable products and, more importantly, new product discovery and innovation. While the beleaguered product manager is trying to keep a past-its-prime product on life support, her competition is dreaming up the “next big thing.”

On Sales and Marketing: The sales team needs to be trained on a product that very few customers actually use. Often dying products are more complicated than they’re worth (hence, why they’re in decline) and therefore can require a disproportionate amount of time and knowledge to effectively sell and support. Marketing, in addition, needs to account for these products in their collateral and messaging, adding not only to expense, but to the clutter they’re continually tasked to cut through.

On Customer Support: The best customer support teams are fluent in all the products in your company’s portfolio, even those with a small number of customers. But customers of troubled products can often fill up a Customer Support’s team queue, generating a disproportionate number of phone and email support tickets. Meanwhile, customers of more profitable products are left on hold or waiting for their email response.

On Technology: Not only can there be hard technology costs associated with supporting a product, such as server and bandwidth expenses, but also the time required to maintain both internal and external (e.g. customer-facing) processes. After all, if a product breaks, even one with relatively few customers, someone has to fix it.

On customers: With customers there’s a risk that the poorly performing product becomes a customer’s focal point, and that its performance, presumably poor, will be used as ammunition in contract negotiations or, worse, as a proxy for all the company’s products. This can present considerable sales challenges and erode the company’s reputation.

All of these distractions have associated costs, which can be harder – though not impossible – to quantify. If a kill decision is particularly contentious, it may be necessary to put a dollar amount on these costs, which can be calculated by multiplying the number of hours spent supporting the product by the estimated hourly salary of the individuals doing the supporting.

The most important reason why ineffective products need to be killed, though, is because they dilute the company’s overall value proposition. If you can measure the total value your products deliver (and you should), perennially poor performing products will naturally drag down the sum of that equation. And with that downward pressure on value come declines in employee morale, confidence in senior management, and customer loyalty. No one wants to manage a dying product. No one wants to sell, support or, certainly, buy a dying product, either. To preserve its overall value, focus resources on core initiatives and customers, and maintain a vibrant workplace, a company should be willing and able to quickly put underperforming products to pasture.

-  Chris Brown

Chris is vice president of product management at Apartments.com, a division of Classified Ventures, LLC. Email him at cbrown@apartments.com or follow him @Brown784

Coming up in this series:

Part 2: When is it time to kill a product?
Part 2 offers up six areas to keep an eye on for telltale signs. It’s examining these areas that will help product managers build the case to kill or keep a product.

Part 3: How do you kill a product?
You’ve made the decision to pull the plug, now follow these steps to ensure a smooth sun-setting process.

I received an email in my inbox tonight – ESX 3.0.2 support ends as of August 7th 2009. More information can be viewed at VMwares site here.

I can’t believe May is here already. April feels like a blur to me; where did the month go?! May reminds me that I need to soon start on the second draft of THE RIVER’S EDGE. I panic a little when I remember how much Reading & Research I wanted to accomplish on my between-drafts break, yet I did little R & R. I wish I could have a longer break; but with only three weeks of preschool left, I have to take advantage of my dwindling writing time. I hope to get TRE into the hands of my lovely CPs by July… which means I have two months of hard work ahead of me. No rest for the wicked. *evil grin*

I still need to add to the Kids and Teens pages—I apologize for the delay. My son’s been sick all week, and my immune system is doing its best not to collapse. Hopefully I can work on the website over the weekend. 

One of the wonderful fifth graders from River Ridge asked me where I write. So I thought I’d post a picture of my office:

Slightly messy, as usual. The other side of the office consists of two windows and a glider for reading in. Sometimes I take my laptop and sit in the glider to write, since my desk chair gets uncomfortable. My poor, overworked bookcase is so stuffed, one day it will probably just explode. I hung the “Welcome E. M. Rowan” banner on my bulletin board for inspiration! Thanks again!!

One of the boys from River Ridge (I’m sorry, I don’t know your name! Leave me a comment and I’ll credit you!) asked me if I could post my first novel on my website. After I explained why I couldn’t do that, I did offer to post a teaser. I realized that I’d never shared an excerpt of EYES OF LIGHTNING online, though I did post a small excerpt of TRE here. 

A little background for this scene: it’s told from the point of view of a 15-year-old girl named Ivy. She’s just had a fight with her friend Cal, and she’s upset as she races home on her bicycle. Gabe, a boy she likes, is her closest neighbor. So without further ado, here’s the excerpt from EOL:

———————————————-

Half-blind to my surroundings, I never saw the rock that popped my wheel and catapulted me over the handlebars. 

Luckily, I landed in the ditch instead of on the asphalt. I lay there with the wind knocked out of me, the taste of grass in my mouth and strange smells in my nose. My heavy backpack pinned me to the ground; I felt too tired and stunned and broken to get back up again. 

This was kinda nice, actually. I couldn’t breathe, so that ruled out crying. I’d just stay in the ditch for awhile, until it was late enough to go home without looking suspicious. Hardly anyone drove on this road… no one would notice me. 

“Ivy!”

Can’t a girl get any privacy around here? I listened to the footsteps running toward me through the weeds, but I didn’t look up or even move. Denial seemed like my best option.

“Ivy!” yelled the person again, and this time I recognized Gabe’s voice. Which made sense—he was the last person on earth I would’ve picked to watch me fly off my bike. Today must be the Irony Feast with me as the main sacrifice. 

I buried my face in the grass, wishing the ground would just swallow me whole. Then I could be Swamp Girl, protector of stagnant waters and roadside ditches. 

———————————————

Hope that gives you a taste of my writing style. Thoughts or constructive criticism? 

Well, I can’t think of anything else to share at the moment. Anyone else want to share weekly news? It can be writing-related, or a great book you just read, or whatever makes you want to frolic.  :)

Remember to come back tomorrow for the first ever “YA on Saturday!” Writers of all ages are welcome! Happy Friday!

Remote control is frustrating- and it’s unnecessary!  Think of all the extra costs with remote control-

• Computer at work
• Server at work
• Power at work
• Network at work
• Operating system on home computer
• Operating system on work computer
• Software Licenses
• Firewall/configuration issues
• Dependency on work computer functioning
• Extra expense of remote control software

It doesn’t make sense!  VOS™ is far better and it’s the logical solution for business today!

   World-Class security for your programs and data
   Dramatic cost savings and operational efficiency
   FREE upgrades on Microsoft® Office programs
   FREE daily backup of your programs and data
   Easily connect remote sites or work from home
   Enjoy consistent speed and responsiveness
   24 x 7 technical support
   and MORE!!!

Visit www.GETVOS.com or call (877) 2TRY.VOS today!

Amos Struck - Gründer Die Idee hinter IT Stocklist

“Die Idee hatte ich schon länger. Seit ca. 8 Jahren betreue ich als IT-Wiederverkäufer Händler aus ganz Europa. Dabei ist mir aufgefallen, dass eine zentrale Lagerliste [engl. Stocklist] den Händlern europaweit  mehr Geschäft bringen würde. Besonders hilfreich wäre es, wenn man zusätzliches Geschäft mit den Produkten machen kann, die es in der Standard Distribution nicht mehr gibt. Remarketing und HP Renew Produkte lagen mir besonders am Herzen, diese werden bis dato nirgendwo transparent gezeigt.

Den Namen  „IT Stocklist“  habe ich gewählt, weil er die Gründidee gut wiedergibt. Eine Lagerliste soll die verfügbaren Produkte für die IT Fachhändler ans Licht bringen.”
Amos Struck (Geschäftsführer und Gründer)

Wir bringen auf unserer Plattform Hersteller, Distributoren und Händler in direkten Kontakt

IT Stocklist bieten Ihnen alles, was Sie für einen erfolgreiche ITK-Geschäftsverlauf  benötigen.

Wir ermöglichen den Einkäufern aktuelle und abgekündigte Produkte zu guten Konditionen zu finden, anzufragen und umgehend übersichtliche Angebote zu erhalten.
Dabei werden die günstigsten Anbieter und Lieferbedingungen angezeigt. Faxanfragen oder E-Mail Verteiler sind nicht mehr nötig, da die gesamte Kommunikation über IT Stocklist stattfindet.

IT Stocklist überzeugt durch die einfache und schnelle Preis- und Produktrecherche. Sie können die Lagerbestände der angebundenen Anbieter anhand einer Produktnummer oder einer Beschreibung durchsuchen, dabei ist jedes Produkt mit der entsprechenden anbietenden Person verknüpft. Für die Kommunikation und Geschäftsabwicklung wird als Basis das integrierte Social Network genutzt.So erreichen Sie sofort den richtigen Ansprechparnter für die gesuchte Ware.

Grundsätzlich läuft alles über Anwenderprofile ab. Damit geben wir unseren Nutzern die Möglichkeiten sich selbst zu präsentieren und direkt zu sehen, mit welcher Person und Firma Sie ein Geschäft machen können.

Produktsuche, Anfragen und Angebotserstellung sind durch unsere optimierte Oberfläche einfach zu bedienen.

Ein besonderer Vorteil ist unsere Anbietersuche. Finden Sie erstmals Personen, Firmen, Foreneinträge und Veranstaltungen über eine einfache Suchfunktion europaweit. So entsteht ein lebendiges IT Fachhändler Netzwerk. Wir bieten damit eine enorme Zeitersparnis bei der Suche nach neuen Partnern, Lieferanten, Kunden und natürlich Produkten.

Jeder kann seine Ware anbieten
Das Hochladen von Produktdaten läuft individuell ab: per E-Mail, Excel-Datei oder FTP Schnittstelle.

Unser Team erstellt anhand der eingegangenen Dateien eine Vorlage um die künftigen Importe zu standardisieren.

Der Anwender entscheidet selbst ob der Preis mit eingespielt wird. Verpflichtend sind die Eingaben über den Zustand des Produkts, den Hersteller und die Stückzahl. Je mehr Produkte Sie einspielen, um so mehr Anfragen werden Sie erhalten.

Es besteht ausserdem noch die Möglichkeit Aktionsware einzustellen, die besonders hervorgehoben auf den Startseiten jedes Benutzers erscheint. Damit bringen Sie sich und Ihre Firma immer wieder in Erinnerung. Diese Aktionsware kann innerhalb einer halben Minute über einen Assistenten selbst eingestellt werden.

Unsere Ziele und Kooperationen
Als oberstes Ziel strebt IT Stocklist eine langfristige und kooperative Zusammenarbeit mit unseren Kunden, Partnern und Herstellern an.

Durch die Kooperation mit Hewlett-Packard (HP) und dem Value Add Distributor Avnet haben deutscher Reseller über IT Stocklist direkten Zugriff auf Server- und Speichersysteme aus dem HP Renew-Programm.

Wir sind ausserdem mit weiteren Herstellern im Kontakt, die ihre Restposten und EOL Produkte exklusiv auf IT Stocklist zum Kauf anbieten werden.

Zudem gibt es internationale Zulieferer, deren Produktbestände gar nicht in den Standarddistributionskanälen zu finden sind. Wir geben auch diesen Anbietern die Möglichkeit, ihre Produkte effektiv zu inserieren.

Gemäß unserer Wachstumsstrategie erweitern wir stetig unser Produktangebot. Dabei agieren wir nicht nur europaweit. Von unserem Hauptsitz in Bonn aus wollen wir unser Netzwerk auch nach Osteuropa, Russland und Asien expandieren.

Wir sind davon überzeugt, daß unser Angebot auch für Sie langfristig interessant ist.

Testen Sie uns mit einer kostenlosen 3-monatigen Mitgliedschaft.

Während dieser Zeit haben Sie die Gelegenheit, alle Leistungsmerkmale und Funktionen von IT Stocklist ohne Einschränkungen zu nutzen.

Wenn Sie weitere Fragen haben, stehen wir Ihnen unter folgenden Telefonnumern jederzeit gerne zur Verfügung:

Hotline:
Tel.: (+49) 228/9080-703
Mo. – Fr. 08:00 Uhr – 17:00 Uhr

Fax: (+49) 228/28692-189
Handy: (+49) 160/90526959

E-Mail: team@itstocklist.com

Golden Dynamic and CD posters.

My desktop.

Work mate, Cow.

Hello, buddies,
It is my working place, Golden Dynamic, online music store.
Yes, you pay for the music.There are 30 seconds sample for free download.
I respond to upload the contents, it was fine at first few weeks,but it is getting bore.
Anyways, the office is warm and people are nice,smiles all the time^.^
Take care, see you later!

“Imagine an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth, available everywhere by single access on command.” – Edward O. Wilson

Sonhos como o de Edward Wilson, de permitir o livre acesso as informações de diferentes espécies à qualquer pessoa, existem a muito tempo na humanidade.Foi neste ambicioso sonho que o fundador da Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales idealizou  o Wikispecies, um diretório de espécies aberto e livre onde diversos pesquisadores e estudiosos poderiam colocar informações sobre espécies conhecidas pela humanidade, criando assim um imenso banco de espécies disponível on-line.

No entanto, acredito que a wikispecies ainda não chegou nem perto do EOL -Encyclopedia of Life.

O EOL é um ambicioso projeto para organizar e disponibilizar através da Internet praticamente todas as informações sobre as formas de vida presentes na Terra. São mais de 1,8 milhão de espécies conhecidas catalogadas no site.

O site sintetiza o conhecimento sobre a biodiversidade de todas as espécies conhecidas, incluindo a sua taxonomia, distribuição geográfica, coleções, genética, história evolutiva, morfologia com algumas descrições fisiológicas, comportamento e relações ecológicas. Além das descrições o site reúne uma grande coleção de imagens das espécies apresentadas, todas com licença Creative Commons (“some rights reserved”).

Para interessados no assunto, amantes da vida, ou curiosos em conhecer sobre a diversidade do planeta, aqui segue o link

Encyclopedia of Life

Der Numark iCDX. Ein zuverlässiges Arbeitstier

Eine traurige Nachricht ereilte uns: Einer der wohl besten CD-Player der Numark iCDX wird nicht mehr hergestellt. Dies könnt ihr zu eurem Vorteil nutzen, denn die Preise wurden somit knallhart reduziert. Hier noch einmal die wichtigsten Features im Überblick:

• USB-Port zum Anschluss von iPods, Festplatten und Memory Sticks
• USB-Port zur Unterstützung HID-kompatibler Software
• Beleuchtetes Slot-In Laufwerk mit CD/CD-RW /DATA DVD Support
• Berührungsempfindliches Scratch Wheel
• Großes, hintergrundbeleuchtetes LCD-Display zeigt Systeminformationen und MP3 ID Tags an
• Integrierte DSP-Effekte mit Phaser, Filter, Flanger, Echo und anderen
• Key Lock (+/- 100%)
• Pitch Bereiche +/- 8, 16, 25 und 100%
• Automatischer BPM Counter, manuelle TAP Funktion
• Hot Starts, nahtlose Loops, Scratching mit Sampling, volle MP3-Unterstützung
• Digitalausgänge

Statt eines Preise von 555 € kostet der iCDX jetzt nur noch 499 €. Ebenso sind geringe Stückzahlen an B-Ware erhältlich (technisch komplett einwandfrei, technisch gecheckt, mit neuen Laufwerken (!!) volle Garantie) für schlappe 379 €. Also wer hier nicht zugreift ist selbst schuld

Link Numark iCDX 499 €

Link Numark iCDX B-Ware 379 €

It’s unnatural, it’s unethical, and it’s just plain wrong.  Why would anyone want to support an end of life version.  There are three reasons why:

#1 : Despite the fact that updates have ceased, there are situations where the end user might not have an internet facing machine or has backported their own updates, and has self-maintained their system and did not see upgrades as worth the time because after all, the machine is still sitting there working.

#2 : One of the biggest reasons I started using Fedora was that I had just bought a new machine and was annoyed that if I put Windows on it, there were restrictions about what I could or could not do with my own machine.  Fedora allowed me the freedom to do whatever I wanted with my own machine.  I can respect if someone really liked FC5 in a way that other versions failed to grab them.  After all, it’s their machine and their freedom to accept the risks of an end of life OS.

#3 : Because there may be community members willing to help those with EOL versions.

I have registered a new channel on freenode, #Fedora-EOL.  Anyone who wants support for an end of life version of Fedora or wants to help out is welcome.  This is just a support channel.  I am not backporting packages or trying to revive Fedora-Legacy or start a new debate about Fedora LTS.  This is solely a medium for community support for a left out demographic.

Helpers welcome!!