I am working on a product that solves a problem for writers. Editing on computers was a big breakthrough, but a problem I experience is at some point scrolling back and forth in a chapter gets so confusing that I have to print out the chapter and review it in paper.
Once in paper I make notes of what to move where, what to delete, what to add, then take all that back to my computer and make the changes, starting with the last page working backwards, because the other way around will so distort the page order as I move forward, I'll never follow my notes.
I understand one is supposed to make a outline and write from that, but schools are wrong to teach this to those of us with the gift of ADD/ADHD, because that is not how we work. We are creative and messy. So my solution is to adapt video whiteboard technology to writers who have my gift.
In essence I want to get say 30 pages of a chapter up on an interactive whiteboard at once. While I was checking these out in Hong Kong 2 weeks ago at a trade show, the problem was one of pixels on editing white broads. Theoretically we can get maximum 10 pages readable on one 70" board. For 30 pages, I'd have to string 3 boards.
Also, the editing software would have to accomodate showing that many pages at one time in an editable mode. That software may not exist yet, and ideal would be if googledocs could do it.
A list participant recommended I check out 60" hdtv screens. There are no real high end electronic stores (except Apple) but BestBuy bought high end retailer Magnolia hifi, and sure enough they acted like a high end store when I came in and tried to buy my idea. According to the staff, all I will get with a 60" screen is 60" of wysiwyg from my computer screen. I had 4 guys messing on the problem (I purposely visited on a sunny friday afternoon, place was empty and there was even a pesky comcast salesman trying to sell me too since I was looking at 60" tvs... finally they sent the problem to their "commercial" division, and I spoke by phone with these guys, who will go to their suppliers and look to see if there is anything available to solve my problem. (this, as a process, somehow feels familiar.)
So far the problem gets down to pixels. On a 60" screen, you cannot get a sheet that has been reduced to 8 x 11 readable... but the rumor at best buy was, sony etc have actually produced prototypes that can do it, and dumped the idea since it does not serve the home movie viewing market. Well, I am a different application. I salivate at how much money they must have spent, and that somewhere in a Fukuoka garage is sitting a 90" screen that can resolve a 8x11 sheet....
As I proceed on this I'll update the blog.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
New Product Development
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Forbes On Bribery
After the power abuses of the Nixon administration, Congress passed some reforms. Things got worse. One reform was campaign financing. Yet, we have now have a lower turnover in elections than ever, a rate that would embarrass the election officers of North Korea.
Another reform was anti-bribery acts. Well, apparently bribery is no lower now, but it is a real big money career path for "public servants." The Forbes article tends to suggest that it is better to fight law enforcement than cooperate. This is chaos setting in.
At the small business level we do not "own" operations overseas, we exchange our money for goods on the docks, and let our corresponding merchants worry about making a living in their countries. We worry only about complying (and complaining) about trying to make a living here at home.
People ask me what I read, what I subscribe to, and Forbes is the only business mag I read.
Imports and Exports Continue To Rise
US Census is reporting today the March 2010 numbers for both imports and exports for USA, and we now have a solid year of growth. Check out the link for massive information on all sorts of USA trade data.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Timber!
I watched a show on the government channel last night that dealt with the destruction of the wood products industry in Oregon. The show was clearly from the early 1990's, and all the participants lamented the shift from selling processed wood products to whole raw logs led to the end of a once vibrant economy. The blame was placed on short term quick profit motives of big logging companies.
Of course the proper analysis of what went wrong will start with management costs. Japanese and Chinese managers cost less when producing finished lumber products than big business managers in USA. Whether in Asia or USA, wood processing is mechanized intensive. Labor costs matter little.
If the USA did not have the policy of "get big or get out" timberland would be owned by countless small foresters, who would put a natural break on clearcutting and whole log exporting. Such small businesses would be competitive on management costs, so the Asians would gladly have the logs processed here.
The entire national forest movement was motivated by a desire to steal treaty lands from the Indians, and keep the rest out of homesteading, so it could be reserved for big business. The federal government land should be limited to WAshington DC, and everything else is state or private. There is the solution.
Selling Services
One beginner's mistake in selling services is to assess one's skillset and then price according to the value of the entire skillset. Say you identify ten specific traits at which you excel. The mistake is to say, "I can do services 1-10 for your company, at $250.00 per hour." The problem is companies, your customers, are likely to only want service number three, and have no use for your other 9 offerings. When you ask what they want from you, and you find out "only service number three" you may mistakingly calculate that is only worth $25 an hour, since it is only 1/10th your skillset.
If you decide you need to make $250 an hour selling your services, or forget it, then your offer should be for $250 an hour for the only service the customer wants, service #3. Regardless of what the custoerm asks for, the price is $250 an hour.
Aboout 15 years ago I came across an outline of how to write a service proposal, by John Fellows. I searched the net to link to him, but could find nothing. The magazine I pulled the article from no longer exists. So what I am going to is reproduce a jpeg scan of the article for you to review. (Maybe Mr. Fellows will contact me and I can link to him instead. His work is good. I believe you can click on it for a larger image.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Charities Destroy Bike Business in Africa
I guess giving away free used bicycles is the new imperialism. USA once gave away fighter jets. How far done we've come. A week or so ago I blogged about the bicycle millionaire who was setting up a semi-charity to distribute bikes. His inspiration was the carcasses of disposed of bicycles along roads in Africa. There were no parts or repair facilities for bikes. So when broken, bikes are discarded. Now I see my Parish is working up a bike-donation scheme for Africa too.
Who benefits from bikes leaving USA? I heard BMW maintains their high resale value for their cars by taking in and shipping some units to South America to keep a balanced scarcity enough to maintain high resale prices. The net cost of the program is more than made up for in higher BMW prices all along the USA BMW supply chain. Used bikes leaving usa makes the price of new bikes higher.
And who believes these bikes will magically end up in anyones hands for free? For the bikes to get into the countries, they have to go through govt channels and checks. These are all run by Harvard educated minions of USA imperialism who will exact a high price for these bikes.
This program will ruin African bike merchants. What is your job? Are you in insurance, furniture or have a restaurant? What if Africans decided there was not enough of what you offered in USA, and decided to ship it in for free to help out? What if insurance, furniture of food could be had for free, compliments of Africa? What would happen to your business. Struggling African bike merchants will not be pleased by USA "charity."
Africans don't need free bikes. They need freedom to contract, with reliable banks, so they know if they earn money banks won't just steal it. HSBC is in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, so Georgians are enjoying trustworthy, reliable banking.
And far more important, Africans need freedom from kleptocratic govts, backed by usa kleptocrats. Trustworthy banking is necessary, but not sufficient. Africa, like USA, also need freedom from kleptocratic govt. No point in opening banks where government is just going to steal all of the producers money. No point in keeping banks where the government is just stealing all the producers money.
Bikes are old technology. What makes us think, that given the chance, Africans would not just skip old technology? Mongolians, in the 80's when they had relative freedom, did not buy up used, defunct usa telephones systems, they skipped that technology and went straight to cell phones. If Africans had freedom, we could expect them to skip bikes, and internal combbustion engine, and go straight to mag lev.
We cannot have mag lev becuase our regime is based on internal combustin engine. I think it was Emerson who complained (referring to the usa war between the states) that it took so few people to get democracy into a war. Those few people who got usa in continuous war have their wealth based on internal combustion engine. USA will end before that changes. (USA as we know it will end because that will not change.)
Free Africans may decide that a finite series of explosions to gain transportation (internal combustion) is not as good as the permanent continuous propulsion that comes from two magnets resisting each other (mag lev).
WE can't have that. So our response is to ship Africans our used bikes, and call it charity.