http://www.oliviertravers.com/ en-us olivier_travers@scifan.com 2008-06-14T01:48:19+00:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/06/14/why-i-unsubscribed-from-the-economist/index.php?rss1 I used to really like this magazine. A couple years ago they changed their Editor in Chief. Seems the new guy's goal is to turn it into another wishy washy leftist vehicle. Look, there's Newsweek, Michael Moore movies and countless... 3205@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ politics 2008-06-14T01:48:19+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/06/13/all-thats-wrong-with-microsoft/index.php?rss1 Here's a really excellent wrap-up of the staggering mediocrity at Microsoft for pretty much a decade. Detailed, informed, right on target.... 3203@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ industry players & news 2008-06-13T21:24:01+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/05/02/zoho-sheet-supports-pivot-tables-and-charts-macros/index.php?rss1 I'm not going to trust my precious Excel pivot tables to a web app given how crappy the current generation of browsers is (I've lost count of how many times Firefox crashed on me) but this is impressive: For people... 3202@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ 2008-05-02T03:53:17+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/04/20/newsflash-to-hp-the-internet-is-a-global-marketplace/index.php?rss1 Hilarious email from HP today: "On Thursday, April 17th, HP suspended operation of the HP Upline Service. We fully anticipate that suspension of the Upline Service will be temporary and short in duration, and will notify you when the Upline... 3201@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ web apps 2008-04-20T01:51:39+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/03/30/seomoz-on-a-1m-runrate/index.php?rss1 If they really do have 2,000 Pro members at $49/mo or $399/year, that's around $1M/year provided there's not egregious churn and depending on the monthly vs. yearly mix (I suspect there's a majority of monthly subscriptions). Those are their self-reported... 3200@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ business models 2008-03-30T03:46:11+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/03/28/consulting-the-people-in-a-benevolent-dictatorship/index.php?rss1 The fine people at EllisLab have a quite interesting post on how they see feature requests. Generally speaking, I like their voice. Unlike many web 2.0 companies, they're not delivering the usual pandering bullshit: "it's all about you the users... 3199@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ building online products 2008-03-28T12:25:52+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/03/26/blist-gets-it/index.php?rss1 In August 2005 I wrote The Microsoft Office I Really Want. When I tried to engage Robert Scoble at the time on the topic, he showed he relied too much on speed reading to properly address my points and/or was... 3198@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ web apps 2008-03-26T13:42:32+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/03/12/wordpress-dont-touch-my-content/index.php?rss1 Lately we've been struggling with Wordpress and its HTML shenanigans. Not that they are new but we're more actively pursuing a number of bugs that have been open for a while. Even after you remove TinyMCE, WP will insert closing... 3197@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ web apps 2008-03-12T12:05:44+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/03/04/guaranteed-google-acquisition-of-the-year-splunk/index.php?rss1 You read it first: Google is going to acquire Splunk in the next 18 months, and it's going to cost them. They'll ship it as an appliance for enterprise customers as well as give no-nag freebies to (geek) consumers. Well,... 3196@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ search engines 2008-03-04T23:26:03+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/02/24/dear-enterprise-software-vendor/index.php?rss1 I'm a small business co-owner, but we're also a growing business, and ambitious at that. Dear "Enterprise" software vendor that desperately tries to look mightier than it is, understand that I'm making sure it's in our DNA to filter out... 3195@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ best & worst practices 2008-02-24T18:11:40+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/02/13/impressive-marketing-at-skybox/index.php?rss1 As much as I think Chile can be world class in some areas, its web sites are usually a parody of bad mid-90's layouts and broken code. Exhibit A: popular starting page chile.com (competitor sitios.cl isn't much better). However, a... 3194@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ sales & marketing 2008-02-13T18:35:20+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/02/11/getting-real-about-internet-realpolitik/index.php?rss1 There's sound, healthy skepticism about crazy conspiracy theories ("George Bush paid Mossad to blow up the Pentagon with a missile and make believe it was a plane"). Then there's plain stupidity. People dismissing speculation about what caused the backbone cable... 3193@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ management & operations 2008-02-11T14:37:35+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/02/07/losing-money-to-make-money/index.php?rss1 Got the worst and best out of Macy's today. It didn't start that well. They have a clearance right now but when it was time to pay on their site, they wouldn't take my debit card. Since I have a... 3192@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ best & worst practices 2008-02-07T23:20:23+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/02/07/distributed-workforce-gone-wild/index.php?rss1 Steve F., web developer, Maine USA: "I gotta go help my girlfriend with the snow blower, her car's stuck." Olivier T., COO, Central Chile: "Sure. Meanwhile I'll go walk along the beach to ogle the hotties in thongs hired to... 3191@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ fun 2008-02-07T23:04:09+00:00 http://www.oliviertravers.com/archives/2008/02/06/apparat-walls/index.php?rss1 Walls is one of those albums showing that two decades in, electronic music still has legs. There's really good stuff coming from Germany these days. I haven't been in Berlin since about 18 months after the fall of the wall... 3190@http://www.oliviertravers.com/ music 2008-02-06T09:18:40+00:00