We’ve just released our latest software, FreshCrop MediaBACKUP. I’m very excited to tell everyone about it! It has been months of coding and testing work and it is exciting to finally have it available to the public.
There are many drawbacks to traditional backup software: only saves one version or a snapshot of your files, if you lose a document during editing you can’t get those changes back, setting up is difficult and even then it may not be getting the files that are most important to you.
There is an opportunity here to have a better experience and give you peace-of-mind knowing that your documents, photos, music and video are safely backed up. Setup is quick and simple, taking under 10 mins while automatically selecting the files and folders that you use the most. The BackInTime feature gives you a time capsule view of all versions of your files. Travel back and forth to find the file you want.
One of the first questions a new business owner must answer is “What should I name the company?” or “What should I call my product?” In a cluttered market space it is important for your name to be memorable.
It is worth spending some time on, but don’t bang your head on the wall for weeks trying to get it perfect. Pick something that feels right and run with it. I’ll lay out a few of the ideas that worked for us. You can apply these concepts to company names, product names or service names.
There are several reasons to get a name right:
You don’t want to have to explain the name after every meeting with a potential client.
How do you spell that?
You don’t want to pigeonhole yourself in to a niche or segment. Example: you don’t want to call yourself “Matt’s Tractors” if you plan to eventually expand beyond tractors to sell ATVs or side by side vehicles.
You don’t want to have a city, state, region in your name and then move the business away from that area.
You don’t want an offensive name in another language or culture.
Plain words don’t stand out in a crowd.
Step 1.
Brain dump a list of names. Quantity and diversity is the key here. We focused on three questions:
When a company decides to go with outsourcing some or all of their software development, they now get to deal with the language barrier. This is something new to a team leader for a company who manages his/her current local team in one spoken/written language. Once you are dealing with a programmer or team leader in another country, it can reduce efficiency in regard to getting any project scope understood and the job started.
This happens because of heavy accents, fast talkers, inadequate translators on the call, poor translation software being used by the offshore people. This can lead to many misunderstandings and delays if not properly managed or monitored.
If you find a company with moderate to good English skills where you do not need translators, it is a real plus. Many people in American companies think that because there were so many British in India that the India based programmers have the best chance of understanding their English, this is not always true. The British speak, read and write Oxford English and in several ways it is different from American English. In addition, many of the Indian programmers have a heavy accent and speak fast.
Filipino offshore outsourcing companies are thought to have better English because of the American presence in the Philipines for so many years. However, management usually has the best English skills and the programmers commonly having the same quality as the Indians. This can be aggrevating but they all mean well so patience is needed in extra doses to get through this.
If you manage to have an offshore outsourcing company with programmers that have moderate to good English skills, plan to patiently work with them to grow their skills to fit your needs. It will usually pay off in the end. As well, be sure to take the time to adequatly explain all areas of your expectations clearly so that they fully understand. They usually want to get the job on time and to your expectaions. If you do not make sure to go through every part of what you want, you may be let down.
“The web is the ultimate customer-empowering environment. He or she who clicks the mouse gets to decide everything. It is so easy to go elsewhere; all the competitors in the world are but a mouse click away.”
Skype – used constantly to keep in touch across multiple countries Basecamp – simple project management Highrise – simple contact management Salesforce – might drop it and solely use HighRise WebEx – might switch to CampFire Twitter – 140 characters of conversation Google Apps – Gmail, docs Google Chrome – quick, simple browser Thunderbird – plays well with Gmail Dropbox – simple way to share large files Blackberry – best email/sms/phone/gps on the go. Slacker Radio – Pandora is getting too pushy WordPress – simple blogging software Subversion – version control for our apps
It is too often that all of us as consumers take for granted the effort and cost that goes into any given product we may purchase or use. In regard to software, it is something we may feel that we need but shouldn’t pay much for, in fact many times the question is asked, why pay for it at all?
In today’s economy, there is little money to go around and something free is appealing, but if it could mean loss and further cost to cover the loss, it is surely something to think more about rather than making a quick decision.
Ultimately, a good percentage of the same people that ask why pay for it, end up doing exactly that, they pay for it in loss of their time, loss of their files, the computer stops working, the computer becomes very slow, they get a virus or some other malware, etc…
On the other hand, there is a good percentage of freeware out there that has the makings of great software and could potentially be great one day once they get enough resources and money to take the next steps needed to grow. Many great companies started in their garage or school dorm room with one person and grew their software to be some of the most recognizable names in the software industry.
The truly greatest companies may not be the largest or the most recognized, they just do the absolute best they can to fill the needs of the customer and sell their product for the best deal possible so that it is affordable to everyone.
Talk by David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals about keeping products simple, starting small, pricing, identifying a market and getting the most out of your time.
I read this advice the other day on a forum. A guy had a dead hard drive and the suggestion was to go on Ebay and buy a same model drive and swap the board. At one time that would work but those days are long gone.
It used to be that when a board failed that you could just buy another drive with the same firmware and swap the board and maybe your drive would work. The chances of this working on current drives is about zero. Modern drives are calibrated to extremely fine tolerances. The manufacturers are squeezing every last bit of performance out of the hardware. One way they do this is by calibrating each head and drive and platter at the factory. You see not all heads read and write with the same sensitivity. Platters do not have the same magnetic coercivity evenly everywhere. So the manufactures build the drives and then they run a bunch of tests to determine how much voltage each head needs for each part of the platter to write and read. All this information is stored in tables and saved in the drives firmware. These values are called ‘adaptives’ and are unique to each drive – so swapping a board won’t work. In order to swap a board you have to reprogram it or fix it. This requires special expensive equipment and knowledge.
Oh… and the other problem is finding a board with a matching firmware revision. Manufacturers change their firmware constantly. It even differs by country and head amplifier chip.
hmmm... fried brain.... Marvel chip on a Western Digital
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 
Posted by Korey
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