Category: history
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Marketing and Propaganda
In its best form “marketing”/”advertising” is just “information” If you have a great product that does “whatever” the best use of your “marketing” budget is to build awareness of the products benefits among folks that need to do “whatever it is that your product does” e.g. say you make beer or running shoes – and…
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Profit Margins
If a company is “profitable” over a long period of time that PROBABLY means it is “well run” or “managed properly.” Of course we need to define “long period of time” — in a healthy economy companies will come and go just by the natural cultural shifts and technological advances. e.g. Thirty years ago multiple…
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… have a drink on me
… “spirits” as a reference to “distilled alcohol beverages” apparently traces back to the belief that they drinks held the “life force” (i.e. “spirit”) or the “essence” of the grains or plants that were used. the English word “spirit” (first usage as a noun – 14th Century) traces back to the Latin “spiritus” (literally, breath,…
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Random Thoughts about Technology in General and Linux distros in Particular
A little history … In the 30+ years I’ve been a working “computers industry professional” I’ve done a lot of jobs, used a lot of software, and spent time teaching other folks how to be “computer professionals.” I’m also an “amateur historian” – i.e. I enjoy learning about “history” in general. I’ve had real “history…
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George Lucas, Jedis, and the Knight errant
Full disclosure: “Star Wars” was released in 1977 – when I was 8ish years old. This post started as a “reply” to something else – and grew – so I apologize for the lack of real structure – kind of a work in progress … I am still a “George Lucas” fan – no, I…
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cola wars, taste tests, and marketing
Coke or Pepsi? I just watched a documentary on the “Cola wars” – and something obvious jumped out at me. First I’ll volunteer that I prefer Pepsi – but this is 100% because Coke tends to disturb my stomach MORE than Pepsi disturbs my stomach. full disclosure – I get the symptoms of “IBS” if…
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Modern “basics” of I.T.
Come my friends, let us reason together … (feel free to disagree, none of this is dogma) There are a couple of “truisms” that APPEAR to conflict – Truism 1: The more things change the more they stay the same. … and then … Truism 2: The only constant is change. Truism 1 seems to…
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Industry Changing Events and “the cloud”
Merriam-Webster tells me that etymology is the “the history of a linguistic form (such as a word)” (the official definition goes on a little longer – click on the link if interested …) The last couple weeks I’ve run into a couple of “industry professionals” that are very skilled in a particular subset of “information technology/assurance/security/whatever” but…
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experience, time in service, and understanding
Another of my quixotic projects is making a video production of reading Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays – which I’m sure would appeal to maybe a handful of folks worldwide. BUT considering my track record in “estimating market potential” something that I think has zero potential would probably perform better than the ideas that I think…
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geeks, nerds, and reboots
memes Merriam-Webster tells me that the word “meme” dates all the way back to 1976 (coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene) with the meaning of “unit of cultural transmission.” Apparently the “-eme” suffix “indicates a distinctive unit of language structure.” Dr Dawkins combined the Greek root “mim-” (meaning “mime” or “mimic”) with “-eme”…