Software Maintenance is a Scam

Do not pay any vendor software maintenance.  This is a rediculous practice that does nothing for the consumer and everything for padding profit on the software vendor side.  Do not pay it.   Ever.

Longer post coming on this later.

-Kris

Microsoft SaaS Sucks

My version of Jeff Jarvis' Dell Hell.

My organization has been using a version of Dynamics that is hosted by Microsoft as a pilot for the last 6 months.  The experience has been terrible.

We want to use Dynamics to run our business but Microsoft continues to show they have no concept of what it means to run a service people pay for.

We continue to have 4 hour maintenance windows sometimes weekly but at a minimum twice a month!  These windows happen in our core operating time frames of 6pm - 10pm that cause us REAL DOWNTIME and no one seems to figure out how to change.

I suppose the issue is a bit different than Jeff Jarvis' lemon laptop but frustrating and bad customer experience nonetheless.

Don't buy SaaS from Microsoft.  They have no clue what they are doing.
 

Maintenance

I was reminded today about a quote from someone - something I've seen multiple times and always makes me laugh and nod in agreement every time I read it.

Write your software as if the guy who will come behind you to maintain it is a sociopath who has your home address.

-Kris

Mobile Internet Adoption or How are these things related again?

This graph from Morgan Stanley via Paul shows a pretty compelling story for how people have picked up on Mobile internet usage based on the iphone/itouch platform.

I find this interesting for a number of reasons:

1) Mobile internet was around for a decade before the iphone/itouch hit the scene - so its not entirely accurate to make a headline about "mobile internet adoption" and not include the 100+ devices that allowed this to happen prior to Apple catching up to the market.  I don't think I was the only person using a mobile browser before I had an iphone.
2) Its not apples to apples.  In the comparison between Netscape and AOL they are radically different products and offerings.  AOL was a portal much link Compuserve - pay a fee and they will give you internet access AND a portal for Email ("You have mail!") and other social items.  Netscape also had a poor man's version of a portal but they were much more well known for their browser technology.  Netscape Navigator was a window to the web, not an online portal NOR an internet access provider.

I think adoption on the iphone/itouch has been awe-inspiring and maybe this graph is telling us that, but its not accurate and like Rick points out about someone posting an incorrect article we need to make sure readers understand what they are looking at and why its good to question our normal sources from time to time.

-Kris

Quick Link - Evolution of Web Design

If you haven't seen this yet, a fun look back at how things look from a design perspective on the web.  Its a little light on content but still fun to browse the pics and listen to the ideas behind what drove design.

http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/the-evolution-of-web-design/?

-Kris