March 31, 2006
face123
Hugh MacLeod
I’m Hugh MacLeod. I’m a cartoonist. Occasionally I write books. gapingvoid is interested in start-up culture, because changing business for the better is what we’re about; that’s what Social Object Factory is about. We live and breathe it; we help everyone from lone entrepreneurs, to mid-sizers, to Fortune 500’s do the same. Check out our work here.
We create art that helps companies kick ass, end of story.
We also have a daily cartoon newsletter that makes a lot of people happy.
If you just want to say ‘Hello’, feel free to email me, anytime.
If you want to talk business, then it’s probably best to please contact my business partner, gapingvoid CEO Jason Korman, here. We look forward to working with you. Thanks!
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Archive for March, 2006
ama-zone: since when does wage-slave cowardice count as brains?
[Inspired by Amazon CTO, Werner Vogel’s recent post. More backstory from Shel and Rick.]
[Update:] Scoble pipes in.
Where I gave them stuff like “blogging doubled sales at Stormhoek winery, according to its CEO.” Or “Munjal Shah, CEO of Riya, says blogging is very important to his new company.” Or “Axosoft raised more than $14,000 in just a few days with nothing more than a few links on some blogs.” Or “Foldera got more than one million signups for its service in 17 days by doing nothing more than talking to six bloggers.” Or, a tailor in the UK saw his sales go up by 10x by doing a blog. That probably wasn’t well enough communicated, or it wasn’t the kind of answer that would convince Werner. That means I need to go back and do some more homework.
And this is really rich: Here’s some anonymous Amazon folk in the comments bragging about how smart they are. OK, if they’re so smart, [l.] Why are they working for somebody else? [2.] Why are they posting anonymously? Since when does wage-slave cowardice count as brains?
Sure, Amazon offers a great product for us online shopping folk. And I’m sure Werner’s not a bad fellow, just a guy with strong opinions who likes a robust debate. But this episode [the anonymous commenters, more so than Werner’s opinions] made me very glad I don’t work for them.
[UPDTE:] Dennis Howlett pipes in here:
* First it is about ROi (little i is deliberate here.)
* Next it is not about predicting outcomes in the way Werner wants. It
March 30, 2006
swiss watches
An article in the Int. Herald Tribune about Swiss watches:
Cellini, an exclusive watch retailer in the Waldorf– Astoria Hotel here, waited nearly two years for its first Jean Dunand Grande Complication, a complex mechanical toy worth $775,000 to any number of collectors.
The watch, a display model, arrived at the end of February and “will be gone by the end of the month,” Philip Duffell, Cellini’s manager said.
In the highest reaches of the luxury universe the mere suggestion that something is unavailable seems to trigger a Pavlovian urge to own it.
Yes, the parallels between them and English Cut are many.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens to English Cut over the next half decade, as the number of top-drawer Savile Row tailors dwindles into single digits.
Meanwhile, our new line of $300 bespoke shirts is doing very well, so far. I know it’s still early days for the shirts, but I’m finding it all very exciting.
[Thanks to Boss Report for the IHT link.]
winecast blogs the geek dinner:
Over the past year, I have been following the Stormhoek meme over that gapingvoid (where the drawing to the left comes from). The winery is now entering the U.S. market and has an ambitious plan to supply their wines for 100 (wine) geek dinners across the country. I have volunteered to host one here in the Twin Cities on May 4, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. From my Frappr listener map, I see there are several local listeners who might be up for a nice evening of wine, food and conversation.
[Stormhoek Geek Dinner info here.]
[P.S. We’ve now added a Frappr map to the proceedings. If you’re signed up for the dinners, please add your name to it, Thanks.]
sprint
Like Tara Hunt, Sprint also offered me one of their freebie uber-phones this morning. Very nice of them etc.
Sadly, they offered it without realizing I live in the United Kingdom, not the USA, ergo not eligible for this offer.
Better luck next time, Guys. But thanks for asking.
me go work for microsoft
My list of Microsoft employee bloggers has reached 85. Wow.
sunshine facelift
The Sunshine movie blog has had a major facelift. Kudos to Gia etc.
About three years ago, I had this idea that a blog would be a great marketing tool for films. Later, based on what I learned from writing about Young Adam, I wrote the “10 Rules for Professional Movie Blogging.“
Two years later, it’s stood up rather well.
I think the most important rule is Number Seven:
7. Start early. To build awareness of the movie properly needs at least least a year, preferably two. It’s not about telling millions of people at once. You talk to a few thousand at a time. Let the word spread gradually. Give it time to seep into the Zeitgeist, like absinthe on a sugar cube.
we need a new word to replace “luxury”
[115m “Pelorus”]
From Fenderkicker:
Luxury, luxury, LUXURY .…aaarrrrgh
What an over-abused word these days!! We need the marketing genii of the world (no, I am not including myself in that little group) to come up with something a little less obtuse and more interesting to describe our amazing products. Considering it is blantantly used in the yachting industry for anything from 65 feet to 65 metres and upwards, there is an obvious need for a more discerning vocabulary.
One of the most unpleasant jobs I ever had was writing a 10,000 word brochure for a luxury 60-foot yacht.
The agency thought because the product was “upscale”, the writing style had to be pretentious and fake. “Imagine yourself surrounded in the sumptuous, princely luxury that only the discerning few will have the rare priveledge to experience yak yak yak…“
It was 6 weeks of hell, writing that. Utterly dreadful.
March 28, 2006
how’s your strategic vision, fred?
[You really need to read the comments in this post to fully understand the story behind this cartoon. Utterly bizarre.]
[BONUS LINK:] Interesting thought from Ed Byrne:
How to de-commoditise your product.
Why do people buy branded premium (eg. Apple) products? Why do people stay as
“s.a.p. killer”?
Last Thursday Sigurd Rinde gave me a virtual demonstration of Thingamy, his workflow application. I mean business modeling application. Err, database. No, reporting tool. Maybe an
March 27, 2006
big web 2.0 story
Newsweek cover story: “A new wave of start-ups are cashing in on the next stage of the Internet. And this time, it’s all about… you.“
Flickr was a good business, too, as many users chose to pay the $25-a-year fee for unlimited photo storage and relief from advertising on the site. But that’s not why Yahoo bought it for an estimated $35 million. “With less than 10 people on the payroll, they had millions of users generating content, millions of users organizing that content for them, tens of thousands of users distributing that across the Internet, and thousands of people not on the payroll actually building the thing,” says Yahoo exec Bradley Horowitz. “That’s a neat trick. If we could do that same thing with Yahoo, and take our half-billion user base and achieve the same kind of effect, we knew we were on to something.”
all aboard
[More pics of Tom and me on the yacht are here.]
Robert Scoble listed his top ten favorite blogs here.
gapingvoid is on the list. Very cool. Thanks, Robert. That’s a serious honor.
I’m still in Antibes, which I love. Yesterday I visited Monte Carlo for the first time, which I didn’t care for AT ALL. I found it utterly fake and prententious. Antibes is far more low key.
March 25, 2006
so you can’t afford a superyacht…
These superyachts are pretty expensive to buy.
Luckily, if money’s a bit tight this month, you can just rent one [known in the trade as “charter”], instead of having to buy it outright.
For example, the “New Century” [pictured above] is a steal at only around
billable-hour consultant’s hampster wheel of death
Thingamy is almost ready for its next phase of testing. Says Sigurd:
Doing some finishing touches to a works-nicely with-a-little-list-of-missing-features version of the thingamy (you’ll never hear me say pre this or that, and no alpha, no beta) that will go out to a few IT consultants and system integrators for some real life playing.
Because consultants can build their own, unique stuff with it, they’ll have something other than billable hours to sell to their clients. Which should be music to the ears to anyone who’s ever spent time on the billable-hour consultant’s hampster wheel of death.
Right, Dennis? James? Hamish?
[MEANWHILE:] Congrats to Tara for Riyah launching etc. A million pictures uploaded in 24 hours? Intense.
still in antibes…
Thomas, his mother and myself were checking out yachts today.
Thanks to Lars and everybody at BCR for showing us around.
Hopefully should have more photos to show you on Flickr this weekend.
[PS: Details of the boat we’re standing in front of can be found here. I was particularly impressed with the massive sunroof, for some reason.]
“the more geeked-out your blog, the more frickin’ yachts you will sell.”
This is pretty geeky.
[NB: I’m in Yacht Mode today.]
[Bonus Link:] From James Governor:
Hugh is seemingly shooting to create a 21st century LVMH on steroids, a stable of super-luxury brands with post-ironic vulgarity, or should that be post vulgaric irony as a masthead… If you have to ask — you’re not invited. Beyond the blog A-list and into the world of the super-rich. Hughtrain as luxury juggernaut.
March 23, 2006
fenderkicker.com
[NB: A “fender kicker” is a term for people who spend a lot of time shopping for yachts, without ever buying. Not unlike “tyre kicker” in the car business.]
I’m writing this from Antibes, deep in the heart of the French Riviera.
Regular readers will know I’ve been spending a wee bit of time in Antibes lately [1]. Pourquoi?
Well, besides the obvious reasons– wonderful weather, superb local food and drink, and hanging out with my friend Sigurd– I’m here on business:
Fenderkicker is the company blog of BCR Yachts, a yachting sales and charter company in Antibes, Cote d’Azur, France.
As of today, it seems I’m in the yacht business. Rock on.
[Disclosure: Sig is also involved in this enterprise.]
