Investors, start shorting Microsoft stock

Maybe I am stupid.
Maybe I do not know how to use computers properly.
Maybe I am not skilled enough in supporting customers.
Or maybe it’s not me….

Due to my work requirements I have to install Windows Vista on my beautiful iMac. Urghhh, horrible you say? I agree, but it gets worse.

I failed. And I failed again. All because I cannot obtain the Vista from Microsoft.

The company I work actually signed a partnership with Microsoft, we are good buddies now, we are part of the Microsoft Developer Network and that’s where I tried to download a legal version of Vista from.
But I failed with my Safari because obviously the MSDN downloads require something call Microsoft Download Tool, which is some silly ActiveX plug-in for IE only.

So I needed IE. I patiently download Windows XP from our company’s ftp and installed it. Rejoicing, I logged into MSDN again, tried downloading only to find out that it failed again.
Why?

“There is a known issue with the Download Tool and Windows XP SP2, please use workaround blah blah blah.”

I read the whole damn workaround three times, I tried the steps described in it diligently and still I can’t get it work.
Typical story I suppose…
So do you know why most software on Windows is as user friendly as hedgehog stuck in the ass and looks like a blind chimp with crayons designed the GUI? It’s because this is the attitude and environment the developers are used to. If Microsoft can do it like that, why can’t we?

Of course Microsoft must realize this and that’s why they are changing the layout of their download center. The following diagram is supposed to explain it.

Beautiful, innit? So basically if I understand this state of the art, 21st century visual aid, after the changes it will actually bypass the faulty crap piece of tool and work as any other site on the net? Yippeee!

Don’t forget, this is the company who even needs to post a “How to open a Windows Vista box”. So either engineers, marketing and most of other people at Microsoft are morons, or their users are. You choose. But in either case I am glad I do not own MS stock.

Master in Business Bullshit: MBA round 2

I know it has been a long time since I wrote my first part of this post, but hopefully you are still interested in what I have to say. So what is the second thing that I feel you should consider when deciding on whether (or where) to take your MBA and that is:Business school do not do what they preach. This was another issue that I had with my short-lived MBA studies. It’s beautiful to hear about proper management techniques, but some of your professors treat your or some of your fellow students in a way that no manager should. It is beautiful to hear about proper planning and organization skills, but nobody gives you the time nor opportunity to implement them in the actual studies. Or what about HR telling you how to create a stress-free environment, when you have to study four subject in ten weeks including exams and no-one gives a shit about your stress. And those few naive souls who try to object to it are being told off that they need to learn how to work under stressful situation and conditions.Anyone smells bullshit as much as I do?I mean seriously. These guys stand in front of you and teach you the theory how you should behave, but in reality act almost contrary. What is the take-out for you? That the gap between theory and practice is so big, that there is no way that all those fancy models can be implemented.So why teach them? Why not be honest about it? Why not say: “Once you get a middle-management job or above, your life will be stressful, you will work too much and you and your co-workers will hate each others guts.” I know I am exaggerating here, but it really bothered me. It bothered me because most of the people who graduate from a full-time MBA studies will see this kind of stress and workload as a norm and will not think twice about inflicting it on other people as well. “When I was doing my MBA I did not sleep more than 4 hours a day, so stop whining and get to your work.”This kind of logic simply bothers me and unfortunately with the advent of students who want to degree for the paper only and want to get to their flashy careers and corporate jets as soon as possible, this will get even worse.So second reason why not do an MBA: It is going to screw up your perception of fair amount of work and the stress levels and tolerance you create here will follow you throughout your career until you either break down, or smarten up. 

To stay or not to stay, that is the effect

What woke me up from the stupor of not writing? My boss got fired.

To all of you future managers, team leaders and multi-billion dollar CEOs, did you lose your job or were you potentially threatened to lose it?

I hope so. This was a first for me.

Sure, people get fired. I have seen it, I have been in awkward situation before, but I was always in the position of either unrelated to that person or in superior one.

This was the first time, when my boss, basically person who created my job for me got fired (unexpectedly) and thus when I had to question my future with this company. Hopefully I still do have a feature and although I feel very sadden by departure of my superior, life needs to go on.

But I tell you this. Suddenly all those Strategic HR Management lessons I took make more sense. Suddenly I can actually feel the effects of lay-off on morale and outlook of other people.  people. Fire people in order to scare or motivate them? Bullshit! When you start firing without warning, your best people are those that will go willingly. Best people have future, best people have possibilities. By behaving irresponsibly your competitors will strengthen their ranks.

I am not commenting on whether this action was proper or not. I am not in a position to judge that. I am simply stating that I learned a lesson: When you dismiss people, have a damn good explanation for everyone around or else your best people will start following a different leade and you will be stuck with those you should most likely avoid.

Good night and good luck.

I am not dead although this blog was

Hi, it’s been a long, long time. I actually don’t even know what happened. I suppose I had so much free time that I actually did not manage to write anything?

Sounds ridiculous, well it isn’t. Last couple of weeks (or months) I have been actually for the first time in a long time not doing two schools and job at the same time, I wasn’t doing an Pan-Asian Airport marathon or anything closely that exciting. I was actually simply doing one job and enjoying life.

True I was also moving to a new apartment, finishing my MBA exams and other stuff, but all in all this period was closest to holiday I got in a long time.

This post (besides being a silly excuse) has a point though. The point is that working from home is not an easy task (which I will surely elaborate on later) and most importantly, when you are less busy, you become less productive.

You wouldn’t believe it, but I have emails back from August that I still did not reply to. Some of my friends must think that I am a total asshole, some of them already know that I am an asshole, so at least they are not surprised. So the point is this, the less you do the less you manage. So please all of you that are still waiting for a reply/phone call/visit/chat: I am not dead, I am merely not as busy as usual and I don’t know how to cope with it.

Kindle, Kindle Little Star

So the ugly cat is out of its Amazonian basket and after the exclusive Newsweek article, it attracts a lot of coverage. All deserved. And most of it negative.

Seth Godin provides some interesting insight into future Amazon strategies and it starts to seem that the Amazonian king is naked.

And Fake Steve nails it again. Apparently my initial reaction is not so uncommon around the World, but I am not so sure whether Apple is interested in this segment. Although heaving a reader device that would allow you to purchase books via iTunes, for example bundled with audiobooks… hmmm… maybe the rumoured tablet Mac might have features like that…. We will have to wait and see.

And until the killer gadget is revealed, I will go back to my drawing board. 

Why Amazon is not Apple and Kindle not an iPod

Maybe you have heard that Amazon (finally) revealed its e-book reader Amazon Kindle. Maybe some of you know that I have been talking about this idea for years, harping about the ridiculous readers of that time. One or two of you might know, that as a hobby and some kind of a mind training I have been designing plans for my own e-book reader and so naturally I was really excited to read the news about Amazon Kindle.

And I got terribly disappointed.

Of course I am student with no funding and hardware expertise. Of course the possibilities of me actually producing an e-book reader compared to Amazon whose future business depends on it are like 0.000001% (maybe even squared But still it does not mean that I can’t recognize a good design when I see it.

And from I can gather, Kindle is not it.

Jeff Bezos is simply not Steve Jobs and Amazon is not Apple. What does that mean? That Kindle is not an iPod as Bezos likes to call it and many will surely follow.
What made iPod special?

Its ease of use. Design excellence. Innovative user interface. Integration with iTunes.

What does Kindle seem to have?

Integration with Amazon. Fantastic. Unbeatable. (Unless Google really succeeds and wins the copyright haggle)

Ease of use? Who knows until it ships.

But the rest?

C’mon Jeff, you can’t be serious to ship a device in 2007 that looks like an extension to Commodore 64. Where is the tape drive? You want me to be seen with this in Starbucks? Are you serious? Just look at it! (via MacNN)

This is not an iPod for books. Because people WANTED to be seen with iPods. This is Rio Mp3 player for books. (Anybody remember that thing? I even wanted it when it came out, but then again I am a geek

And I am glad. iPod did not hit the market until almost everybody had their players out. The other created the market, Apple stole it for themselves.

Thank you Amazon and Sony for going out there and developing terrible looking products and creating the market. Thank you because in future there will come a true iPod for books, but I will eat my shoes if it will come from Amazon.

Until then, let’s support book digitalization and e-book sales, but please please please let’s get smart about the DRM. People listen, we really need to be aware of what these companies try to feed us. If the Amazon DRM scheme will be closed like the iTunes are, we are looking at a very bleak and dark future where we will miss the good old times, when borrowing a book from a friend was not a crime.

To MBA or not to MBA? Round 1

This might start to appear as a theme, unless I make a decision about it sooner than I anticipate, but I am starting to re-value why am I doing an MBA and what is it going to bring me.

Why? Well, obviously I have doubts about it.I have some prior experience with living with MBA’s in Copenhagen and many of them remain my friends and I track their progress and careers (hi guys , so I already have a base on how to compare the schools and potential outcomes from different career choices.

Ever since I started doing that, I also started having doubts whether MBA is the right choice for me, but none the less, I decided to go for it and try ti find my way in.Now I did and it’s time to review this decision. Today’s though it on MBA and market value.I am a young guy, merely 24 years of age. I have some work experience in various industries and can already fit more on my cv than many people of my age. On the other hand, there are extraordinary entrepreneur’s that shame me by having running and growing mature business by now, but let’s leave that aside.The fact is, that after my Master’s I will probably hit my full-time career. And I need to find a proper job, where to get a serious experience.

Is MBA going to help me? Hardly. Maybe even on the contrary.

Interestingly, the reason why so many people are taking MBA is do just that, but they are in a different position. If you are around my age, having an MBA might impress some, but the fact is that it will artificially inflate your market value.Without a job experience, unless you are lucky or have extraordinary network, you are most likely to be looking at the same job offerings MBA or not. But having those three words on your cv might actually mean that people won’t hire you because they think you would be too expensive or too overeducated for such a position and what’s worse, you might think so as well.

So MBA for early career makers? Probably more a detriment than an advantage. Interestingly enough, I can hardly find anyone who agrees with me on this. Well, it might be because my social circle currently consists of people exactly like that.So round 1? MBA is not suited for me right now as it will increase my market value despite the fact that having this education will not justify it.

P.S: Feel absolutely free to comment on my thoughts here, especially if you disagree. You might change my mind and don’t forget, this is my career I am deciding here Thanks

SAS Bombardiers Bombed

You might know my attitude towards SAS. Well my friend Christian obviously knows, so he sent me a press release that went under my radar since I am currently busy with new studies (5 weeks remaining of this term, bear with me and my complaints .
SAS permanently grounds its Dash 8 Q400 fleet. Now that is interesting news. If you know SAS, you know how extensively they use them. Even though the release says it consists of only 5% of customers, it is still pretty serious blow. And if other carriers who had problems, such as ANA follow, it is going to hurt Bombardier quite a bit. I wonder what is SAS going to replace them with…
And despite I feel a bit sorry about this (I have a nostalgic feeling towards turbo-prop planes), I cannot pass this opportunity to take a jab at SAS. In the press releases, the current SAS director says: SAS’s flight operations have always enjoyed an excellent reputation and there is a risk that use of the Dash 8 Q400 could eventually damage the SAS brand.”Too late buddy, too late. It’s not just planes that make up a carrier. SAS people hurt the SAS brand the most. I wonder when was the last time this guy flew SAS economy.

Damn Australians have summer in winter, it’s so confusing

Now it seems obvious. Australia is in the Southern hemisphere and thus has summer when the ‘normal’ time says it should be winter.Logical, right?
But has anyone of you considered the implications of that? I surely have not when I set up my clock one our backwards as I would in winter. But it’s summer time here! So in fact, you need to set it up one hear aheadsds in winter.And that means that inads European summer the difference to Australia is 8 hours, but during European (or North American for that matter winter the difference is 10 hours.
Now that can screw things up
Cheers from summery Melbourne.

Information addiction progress: internet-me 1:1

Yesterday I managed. Seriously, I checked my RSS feeds only once. I was so proud of myself. Today the internet beat me. I had to check a second time. But Hopefully you will understand why (well you will if you are as geeky as I am

Today was an important day in regards to information. First, Apple OS Leopard was officially announces, so as a true believer I had to pre-order it

And then keeping true to my geeky nature, I simply HAD to see the layout of the Airbus A380 for Singapore Airlines. I am sure that ever since it was announced that Singapore Airlines ordered only roughly 450 seats for a plane that can house more than 700. You must have been wondering what did they use all that space for, right? I know I did

So check it out. SA redefined First class. Now it’s called Suit class!

This is the stuff I was talking about. It’s about time to redefine air travel and premium offerings and I am glad (however not surprised) that Singapore is the front-runner in this direction. New era of travel is starting.

If I had the money I would pay 10.000$ for the round trip quicker than you can say: “sex on a plane” Gotta keep stocking my miles And speaking of miles, now even the rich and less adventurous will be able to join the mile-high club Not that I have had the plesure….yet