Comments on: Worlds Greatest Guitarist

By: PB

PB — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:46:15 +0000

For me, and I hope many of you, if you want to hire a de-facto expert or buy the best product, etc, you ask around to find out who people know or what products they use. Then, if your friend or colleague says “I use product XYZ” or “I know this person that is perfect for what you are looking for” then you go with that word of mouth recommendation. Word of mouth is such a powerful tool. Some of the most successful business people I’ve met do very little advertising and get most of their business through word of mouth. Forget the hype.

By: Michael Fontana

Michael Fontana — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:06:50 +0000

Reduce storage requirements by a factor of 12?

Does Larry give people raises when they write software that does this, or has he realized it’s just cheaper to hire a marketing copy writer with an inventive style?

By: osborne

osborne — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:49:44 +0000

Ha! I forgot about Al DiMeola! I went to a workshop back in the 80’s where he was the instructor. All I can say is wow! He was showing us the warm up routine he did before shows which consisted of various fingering exercises that got faster and faster as he went along. The last one was very complicated and mind blowingly fast. And he says, “If I can pull that one off, I know it’s going to be a pretty good night.” He got a big laugh from the participants.

I remember that bit from the Mad Magazine. My favorite part of the magazine was the fold over pages that would turn one picture into something completely different!

Kerry

By: joel garry

joel garry — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:09:39 +0000

Robert Fripp, Al DiMeola and John McLaughlin! ;-)

I always thought those Mad Magazine bits about “what they say and what they really mean” were so funny, cheap and easy shots.

But I’m still waiting for to never see again ora-155x errors, as one presentation said about a decade ago…

two words: Dec climaxes

By: osborne

osborne — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:08:57 +0000

That’s a tough one Karen. We are all bombarded by this stuff day in and day out and so I think most of us have developed a healthy scepticism. I basically don’t believe anything I hear anymore (and only about half of what I see). It’s a kind of a sad commentary on our world, but it’s true.

It reminds me of the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote - something to the effect of:

“Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

And a couple from the Bible:

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

“… let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay …”

So anyway, I don’t really have an answer for you, but my hope is that people will know us by our actions (at least the people that matter to us).

Kerry

By: Karen Morton

Karen Morton — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:13:55 +0000

Here’s what I wonder, particularly about the whole self-aggrandizing propaganda where people claim to be the “best on the planet” and such:
If you’re really good at what you do, how do you sell yourself in a way that works? Ads that say “I’m good…really” just don’t stand out in a world where you’ve got trumpets blaring and banners waving about how great your competition is. I still find it utterly baffling that anyone would buy those kinds of lines (and hire those that spout them or buy products that make such over the top claims) but, at least in some way, it must work or marketers wouldn’t use that swill. Geesh…

By: Ram

Ram — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:40:51 +0000

I have seen a commercial for cooking oil long ago where a young good looking lady dressed in brand new clothes and fresh-out-of-the-shower look cooking with their brand of oil, all the while smiling brigtly. I remember my friend telling that he wanted to know the lady who smiled while cooking.

They say that if you repeat something often, it becomes a truth.

By: John Brady

John Brady — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:13:36 +0000

For me the best quote about marketing is from the late, great comedian Bill Hicks:

“By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourselves. Kill yourselves, seriously. You are the ruiner of all things good. Seriously, no this is not a joke. [...] you are Satan’s spawn, filling the world with bile and garbage. [...] Kill yourself.”

Never a truer word.
John

By: osborne

osborne — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:05:18 +0000

Well it will probably only run 5X faster then instead of 10X.

Kerry

By: michaelpaddock

michaelpaddock — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:31:04 +0000

Oracle’s claim:
- increase DBA and Developer productivity by a factor of 2

What if I don’t want to work twice as hard?!?