On Brains and Thinkings

"There's a go-playing part of your head."

-Kevin Lacker

For further information, see http://www.sedl.org/reading/topics/brainreading.html

Classic Magic Battle!

It appears that Wizards of the Coast has archived all of their ESPN2 Magic: The Gathering footage.

Herein you can see me get smashed by Scott Johns, who just couldn't seem to shut up. Skip to time 4:42 for the action, and you can see me lose $10K. Randy Buehler has always maintained that I should have won the match, and I of course vociferously deny that to this day.

Le Mardis Gras in Pictures

SureLogic

The SureLogic website has been launched at www.surelogic.com, and I think it's a beauty. Let me know if you notice any bugs or typos!

The Bots that Ate the Internet

This blog post from CIO magazine really resonates with me, as I have been having problems on my home internet, and because my company has been having the exact problems described. I'm confident that humanity will think of a solution (yay shutdown all Windows machine!) but this is pretty scary and annoying nonetheless.

Everybody panic!

Dell Bloatware Update

After I ranted about Dell's bloatware and business issues, Dell wrote back with this PR gem, and then I continued it with a venomous and somewhat confusing dissection of the PR flack's comment (that Dell really wouldn't have been wise to acknowledge).

They did visit back to check it out though, and quickly thereafter Michael Dell took back over as CEO, and I'm taking full credit for that. Afterall, I know from working with a Gazelles consultant recently that Dell's culture and Dell himself are particularly obsessed with reading customer feedback.

So, Michael Dell, if you are listening here's my advice:

1) Focus on fast and easy, cost and value. That's Dell.

2) Make it faster to buy a Dell online by clearing out the marketing junk and making it more obvious what the best deal is. Current profit maximization scheme isn't worth the ill will.

3) Push all the garbage software off your machines and get open source friendly. I don't think the ads are worth it, and you need to return to your roots: hardware. Open source will let you maintain your cost edge. Ubuntu or no?

4) Get creative. Make a wiki aimed at helping people understanding what the best thing to buy for their needs is.

5) Or get really creative. Make an application that provides a popularity ranked list of categories of applications like anitvirus, operating system, search, browser, and let people choose a la carte when they first turn on their Dell.

6) Speed up your customer service times. One thing you could do is create protocols for dealing with common defects. For example, just send someone a new battery if there's a good chance that's the problem. If it isn't, go from there. I bet the math works out if you account for my loss of time, on the phone with India, which equates to a negative reputational effect on you.

Anybody, what do you think Dell can do to once again become a premier PC company?