After years of being ignored by major software vendors, Linux is starting to get the attention and respect it deserves. The open source OS has already nabbed a major partner in Valve as the company is working on bringing Steam over. Now Microsoft may be jumping on board by bringing its flagship productivity suite to the OS.
Phoronix, the site that broke the news of Steam coming to Linux, has heard from an anonymous source that Microsoft is taking a “meaningful look” at bringing Office to Linux in 2014. This recent change of heart is apparently due to Microsoft finding that Linux may just a profitable platform now.
The past few months have been good to the Linux community as more developers start to see the platform as a viable alternative to Windows and Mac OS X. We’ve already mentioned Valve making a native Linux version of Steam available, but other companies like Nvidia have also been working to bring better software drivers to Linux.
Microsoft may see Linux as being even more financially viable as Valve plans to launch its Steambox later this year. The mini-computers will run Ubuntu thus increasing the marketshare for Linux even more. The upcoming Ubuntu smartphones and Ubuntu for Android may also serve to get Linux into the hands of even more people.
Truth be told, Linux doesn’t necessarily need Microsoft Office as there is already a great open source alternative. It’s more about the principle than anything else as it means Linux is finally starting to get some recognition. Games are one thing, but getting official support from Microsoft would hopefully make Linux far more mainstream than it already is.
Companies increasingly use outside specialists to do their work. Driven by the ever-lower costs of global communication and online collaboration tools, Henry Ford’s vertically integrated organization is yielding to Procter & Gamble’s network of external innovators. Almost anything can be outsourced to specialists and reconnected.
While companies have outsourced low-value work such as payroll processing and call centers for decades, today they farm out critical activities. Apple gets mobile apps from independent software developers. Forbes.com uses external bloggers (not just internal staff) to write articles. And Indian mobile phone provider Bharti Airtel uses IBM to manage its computer systems and Ericsson to operate its cell tower infrastructure.
Consider how the largest consumer packaged goods firms are outsourcing an activity that has become vital to the top and bottom line: making sense of huge volumes of customer data. You might think these companies should crunch and analyze this data themselves. Don’t they live and die on quickly identifying key changes in shopper behavior and attitudes? That’s essential to tweaking products and marketing campaigns — or overhauling them when necessary. Yet Carrie Shea, president of AMG Strategic Advisors, the growth strategy consulting unit of Acosta Sales & Marketing, told me, “Most are leveraging outside partners rather than doing this all themselves to (1) make sense of the overwhelming volume of data that they have to analyze, (2) get a strategic view across channels and categories, and (3) be efficient in complex advanced modeling.”
TW Garner, which makes Texas Pete Hot Sauce and Green Mountain Gringo Salsas, has hired AMG Strategic Advisors for consumer, shopper, and category insights and analytics services. Steve DeCorte, TW Garner’s general manager of sales, told me that “as a small company, using AMG Strategic Advisors puts us on a level playing field with the largest consumer packaged goods companies when we call on retail customers.”
While companies are making greater use of outside specialists to improve performance, they face two trade-offs. The first is greater costs; outside specialists can be expensive. The second is increased risk of coordination and integration, such as managing service level agreements and handoffs.
How can you organize a fragmented team of internal and external people to improve the customer experience, rather than optimize each party’s objectives?
Create a shared purpose and an end-to-end process map.
Whether in sports or business, a team is a group of people with a shared goal. A fragmented process team needs a single, clear objective to focus and coordinate their activities. For example, as I described in a previous post, all of the doctors, nurses, therapists and other health care providers involved in delivering a hip or knee replacement need to believe they are primarily focused on delivering an excellent patient experience, and that any one of them can jeopardize the reputation of all of them.
But a shared purpose isn’t enough. To succeed in a process that crosses the boundaries of several organizations, workers must see it from end to end. Only by understanding the entire flow and logic can they see opportunities for improvement. And only by collaborating with other process workers can they implement the changes. The best way to get the team in synch is to assemble the key stakeholders of a process in a multi-day workshop to map the current and future process, identify areas of improvement, and define an implementation plan. After the workshop, everyone will have a common vision of what they are trying to jointly achieve. They will also understand how the various work steps affect the process or behavior of others across departments, customers, suppliers, or other stakeholders, and how they can jointly improve the process for the customer.
Liberally share information on process performance.
Many retailers’ supply chains stretch overseas and involve many steps and players. Orders go from the retailer to overseas vendors that manufacture products. After they’re made, the products are trucked from the factories to a container freight station where they are consolidated, then shipped by sea to a domestic port distribution center, transferred to rail or trucks for domestic distribution, and finally to stores. As Charlie Kantz, Vice President Supply Chain with Lighthouse Consulting, told me, many companies lack visibility into, and control over, their products as they move through the pipeline. Yet a number of easy-to-use software apps can provide managers with visibility and control of inventory from the order to a store shelf. The technology (browser-based apps and “cloud” infrastructure) for these apps didn’t exist five years ago, according to Steve Christensen, CEO of Babbleware. The apps sit on top of the underlying legacy systems, providing a communications layer for vendors, logistics providers, and the retailer’s employees at each step. The retailer now sees inventory accumulating in real time without the administrative overhead of phone calls, e-mails and faxes. By having more data on the process, they have much more control of the process.
Create an online community for your process team.
Social networking systems offer a new way to support process teams across organizational boundaries. In a previous post, I described how MITRE, which manages five research and development centers for the U.S. government, has deployed a collaboration system (“Handshake”) to build teamwork between its 7,600 employees and an external network of academics, former employees, vendors, industry, sponsors and front-line beneficiaries of its research (such as IRS workers, soldiers, and health care professionals). For example, a new mobile application MITRE developed was distributed to front-line soldiers, who then gave rapid feedback on the product through Handshake.
Question: How have you used a team of outside specialists to deliver a better customer experience?
When reading or hearing stories about the atrocities we humans can commit against one another, it’s easy to wonder what makes people do the things they do. Can “evil” behavior–such as murder, child abuse, and rape–be predicted by a particular spot in the brain?
Some researchers believe it can, and are looking at evidence collected in brain scans of criminals to prove it. Dr. Gerhard Roth, a neurologist, says that his study of the brains of people who have committed heinous crimes have all shown a similar dark spot in the same area; his belief is that different behavior dictates that the brain must be different, as well, not unlike those who suffer from learning disorders.
“When you look at the brain scans of hardened criminals, there are almost always severe shortcomings in the lower forehead part of the brain,” Roth said. “There are cases where someone becomes criminal as a result of a tumor or an injury in that area, and after an operation to remove the tumor, that person was completely normal again. When I will look at young people, and I see there are developmental disorders in the lower forehead brain, I can say that there is a felon in the making with 66 percent probability.”
In every brain scan he did on criminals during his studies for the German government, Roth says the dark spot showed up.
“We showed these people short films and measured their brain waves,’ he said. “Whenever there were brutal and squalid scenes the subjects showed no emotions. In the areas of the brain where we create compassion and sorrow, nothing happened.”
But Roth says that psychopathic behavior is not entirely dependent on that “evil spot”; some people may be genetically predisposed to it, and some are raised in environments which exacerbate the problem. He also says that these behaviors often start in childhood and are not difficult to detect.
“It is the task of society to offer widespread support to the children and their parents before they become criminals,” he said.
T-Mobile says that BlackBerry’s new Z10 smartphone is “more stable than … anticipated,” and could potentially get a faster-than-expected launch on the network. As it stands, the new BB10-based smartphone looks to be on track for a mid-March release, according to statements made by T-Mobile USA Head of Business Sales Frank Sickinger speaking to Bloomberg today. The company anticipates it could be the first U.S. carrier “out of the gate” with BB10 as a result, according to the report.
Anticipated launch dates for the BlackBerry Z10 in the U.S. had pointed to a March 27 launch on T-Mobile, according to a leaked roadmap published by TmoNews earlier this week. While that date may have originally been accurate based on the carrier’s assumption of how long the Z10 would take to clear testing, Sickinger’s words today suggest that the timeframe has been pushed up.
The Z10 is already out and available in the Canadian and U.K. markets, and BlackBerry has been issuing reports of early sales success in both countries. The launch in Canada on Rogers is reported to have seen initial sales numbering in the “thousands,” making for a record launch day for a single BlackBerry device, and in the U.K. many outlets report being sold out. That said, BlackBerry still isn’t releasing any specific sales numbers, which casts some doubt on how successful sales have actually been, in relative terms compared to the larger smartphone industry.
The Z10 will retail on T-Mobile for $199 with a new two-year agreement, and will be offered to business customers ahead of its consumer launch, with about a week’s worth of lead time. If T-Mobile can get the Z10 in customer hands a bit faster than its competition, that might help it win over some more business customers to its cause. But this could just spur other carriers to try to speed up their own testing processes, which should please the eager U.S.-based BB-heads out there.
The basic premise is that Google serves you ads in Gmail based on the content of your messages. Google has been doing this since Gmail launched in 2004. It’s been well known. They are doing nothing new or different than what they’ve done all this time. It’s completely algorithmic, and they have no humans reading emails and deciding what ads to serve. Google serves ads. It’s how they make money to keep providing users with products like Gmail.
Microsoft, on the “Scroogled” site, says, “Think Google respects your privacy? Think again. Google goes through every Gmail that’s sent or received, looking for keywords so they can target Gmail users with paid ads. And there’s no way to opt out of this invasion of your privacy.”
Of course, there is the option of not using Gmail, which is what Microsoft wants you to do, obviously. What Microsoft doesn’t tell you in the Scroogled campaign (which search industry vet Danny Sullivan does), is that Microsoft does go through your messages (also algorithmically) to help filter out spam and phishing attacks (which Google also does). The difference is that Google is also able to serve targeted ads as well – something that Microsoft has evidently chosen not to do.
Sullivan spoke with Microsoft senior director of Online Services, Stefan Weitz, who says that for security, the practice makes sense, and it’s the scanning for contextual targeting of ads that Microsoft objects to (again, this is after nearly a decade that they’re suddenly objecting). This is essentially the basis for MIcrosoft’s new ads.
Check out the natural dialogue in this one:
The next one asks, “Who wants a free pet exam coupon when the family cat has been put down?”
The cat thing is a fair point. It is always possible that ad targeting will go wrong, but that really just says to me that Google could get better at targeting.
An opt out option is certainly not a terrible idea for consumers, but it would be interesting to know how big a concern the privacy thing this really is to consumers to begin with. Gmail has become very popular over the last decade, and this ad targeting thing has always been a well known part of the system. Does every user realize it’s happening. Probably not, but this was a story that was covered in the media back when it was relevant, and it did little to stop Gmail’s popularity from growing. Here are the Microsoft-commissioned polling numbers the company is throwing around about consumer reaction:
88 percent of Americans disapprove of email service providers scanning the content of their personal emails in order to target ads, and 52 percent disapprove strongly.
89 percent of Americans agree that email service providers should not be allowed to scan the content of personal emails in order to target ads.
83 percent of Americans agree that email service providers scanning the content of their personal emails to target ads is an invasion of privacy.
70 percent of Americans didn’t believe or didn’t know that any major email service provider scans the content of personal emails in order to target ads.
88 percent of email users believe that email service providers should allow users to “opt out” if they prefer that the content of their emails not be scanned in order to target ads.
That second ad also pulls out some old footage of Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt smiling and saying, “There’s what I call the creepy line and the Google policy about a lot of these things is to get right up to the creepy line, but not cross it.”
Of course, that clip is completely out of context here. It’s from a 2010 interview with The Atlantic (which Google itself has posted to YouTube):
You can start about 14 minutes in. The line comes at a part where Schimdt and the interviewer are joking about brain implants, which Schmidt says would in fact cross the “creepy line”. Granted, he does follow up with “at least for the moment…until the technology gets better”. I’m eager to see the Scroogled ad about brain implants, for sure, but Schmidt was not talking about the algorithmic ad serving that takes place within Gmail. He does talk about Google Instant and the type of technology that would pretty much become the basis for Google Now (neither of which is being attacked in this Scroogled campaign).
So what does Google think about the latest attack from Microsoft? Here’s the statement they’ve been sending around:
“Advertising keeps Google and many of the websites and services Google offers free of charge. We work hard to make sure that ads are safe, unobtrusive and relevant. No humans read your email or Google Account information in order to show you advertisements or related information. An automated algorithm — similar to that used for features like Priority Inbox or spam filtering — determines which ads are shown.”
If you want a more in depth explanation from Google, here’s an old help center article about Gmail and privacy. Here’s the entirety of the ad-related section:
All major free webmail services carry advertising, and most of it is irrelevant to the people who see it. Google believes that showing relevant advertising offers more value to users than displaying random pop-ups or untargeted banner ads. In Gmail, users will see text ads and links to related pages that are relevant to the content of their messages. The links to related pages are similar to Google search results, and are culled from Google’s extensive index of web pages. They are selected solely for their helpfulness and are not paid advertisements.
In Gmail, ads appear alongside messages, in the same way that ads appear next to search results on Google. Ads are clearly identified as ‘Sponsored Links.’ They are displayed in a way that doesn’t interrupt users as they read their messages and ads are never inserted into the body text of either incoming or outgoing Gmail messages.
Ads and links to related pages only appear alongside the message that they are targeted to, and are only shown when the Gmail user, whether sender or recipient, is viewing that particular message. No email content or other personally identifiable information is ever shared with advertisers. In fact, advertisers do not even know how often their ads are shown in Gmail, as this data is aggregated across thousands of sites in the Google Network.
By offering Gmail users relevant ads and information related to the content of their messages, we aim to offer users a better webmail experience. For example, if you and your friends are planning a vacation, you may want to see news items or travel ads about the destination you’re considering.
To ensure a quality user experience for all Gmail users, we avoid showing ads reflecting sensitive or inappropriate content by only showing ads that have been classified as “Family-Safe.” Gmail’s filters also block ads from running next to messages about catastrophic events or tragedies, erring on the side of not displaying an ad if the content is questionable.
Many people have found that the search-related ads on Google.com can be valuable–not merely a necessary evil, but a welcome feature. We believe that users will also find Gmail’s ads and related pages to be helpful, because the information reflects their interests. In fact, we have already received positive feedback from Gmail users about the quality and usefulness of our ads and related pages.
The part about the scanning of email content is particularly relevant here as well:
All email services scan your email. They do this routinely to provide such popular features as spam filtering, virus detection, search, spellchecking, forwarding, auto-responding, flagging urgent messages, converting incoming email into mobile phone text messages, automatic saving and sorting into folders, converting text URLs to clickable links, and reading messages to the blind. These features are widely accepted, trusted, and used by hundreds of millions of people every day.
Google scans the text of Gmail messages in order to filter spam and detect viruses, just as all major webmail services do. Google also uses this scanning technology to deliver targeted text ads and other related information. This is completely automated and involves no humans.
When a user opens an email message, computers scan the text and then instantaneously display relevant information that is matched to the text of the message. Once the message is closed, ads are no longer displayed. It is important to note that the ads generated by this matching process are dynamically generated each time a message is opened by the user–in other words, Google does not attach particular ads to individual messages or to users’ accounts.
We recognise that seeing ads based on the content of an email message can be unsettling at first. Our experience has been that this feeling recedes as users become more familiar with Gmail. However, some people, many of whom have not used Gmail, have reacted by condemning all automatic scanning of email content, on the grounds that it amounts to a violation of privacy. We think this criticism is misplaced. All major email services, including Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail, automatically scan email content for the benefit of users. When email messages are fully protected from unwanted disclosure, the automatic scanning of email does not amount to a violation of privacy.
On the other hand, delivering information gathered through email scanning to a third party would be a violation of privacy. Google does not do this. Neither email content nor any personal information is ever shared with other parties as a result of our ad-targeting process.
Emphasis in both sections is Google’s.
“Emails are personal — and people feel that reading through their emails to sell ads is out of bounds,” says Weitz. “We honor the privacy of our Outlook.com users, and we are concerned that Google violates that privacy every time an Outlook.com user exchanges messages with someone on Gmail. This campaign is as much about protecting Outlook.com users from Gmail as it is about making sure Gmail users know what Google’s doing.”
The Document Foundation released LibreOffice 4.0 FINAL. The open-source, cross-platform productitivty suite, which is based on OpenOffice, has evolved to the point where the developers are happy to assign a major new version number.
Version 4.0 includes a number of relatively minor new features, but the big changes will come under the hood, marking the first radical development in the program’s API since the app it was built on — OpenOffice — was first released. Other changes include support for Firefox Personas, integration with CMS and online storage providers, plus support for importing both Microsoft Publisher and the latest VISIO documents.
While the new API won’t in itself manifest itself visibly to end users, the hope is that it will facilitate more radical changes to LibreOffice going forward. It also marks the beginning of LibreOffice’s evolution into a separate animal.
Besides a new API, LibreOffice 4.0 debuts a new graphics stack based on XML UI definitions, which, according to The Document Foundation, will lead to “new UI widgets, cleaner looks and new opportunities to handle new tools and improve our interface”.
The new build also promises to integrate with a wide range of Content Management Systems and online document storage providers via the CIMS standard.
Another major behind-the-scenes change is LibreOffice’s licensing, which now adopts a dual licensed approach, ostensibly to make future versions of LibreOffice’s tablet build — due later this year or early next on iOS, Android and Windows Phone 8 — more compatible with mobile store restrictions.
Visible Changes
Despite the lack of major changes, there are a large number of minor additions and improvements to LibreOffice 4.0. Users of Writer, the suite’s word processor, will find the tool now supports first page header and footers as well as left and right ones — users can now untick a box marked “Same content on first page” in the Page Style dialog to set this up. Note, only OpenOffice’s native ODF format currently supports this.
Writer also introduces a new LibreLogo toolbar, which will allow programmers to produce a Logo-like, Python based programming environment for creating vector graphics using LibreOffice.
Other tweaks in Writer include support for attaching comments to document text ranges as well as allowing extra word boundary characters for the purposes of generating word counts. Writer can also now import ink annotations from DOCX and RTF documents generated on Tablet PCs running Microsoft Word. Users will also find clicking on fields selects them rather than placing the cursor before them.
Calc users should see improved performance – particularly when opening larger files. This is due in part to an option that allows files to show the values of formulae in ODS and XLSX files as they were when the file was saved, rather than being recalculated in OpenOffice.
Other improvements include the automatic rotation of chart axis labels if they overlap each other, doubling of the supported size limit of uncompressed ODF files to 4GB and improvements to the XML Source dialog when importing arbitrary XML content.
Also promised is better quality rendering and print/PDF export of charts, support for new conditional formats (including date formats) and better conditional format dialogs, new icon sets and the ability to export a single chart as a JPG or PNG image. Finally, the Pivot table now supports multiple selections in the page field.
Notable tweaks to Impress, the suite’s presentation tool, include a new Impress remote control app for Android phones (currently restricted to Linux builds of LibreOffice), much accelerated multimedia previews and Presenter Console RTL support.
The Draw vector graphics tool now uses supersampling to improve the quality of page previews, and adds several Linecap improvements, shear transforms for GraphicObjects and the addition of the Circles and Ovals toolbar already found in Impress.
Linux Base users can now access their Thunderbird address book from within the database app thanks to a new mork driver implementation on non-Windows platforms, while the AutoFilter portion of Forms no longer treats values as patterns.
New import files include support for Microsoft Publisher publications, plus extended support for Visio files up to Visio 2013. GUI enhancements include a new templates manager and support for using Firefox Personas (access this feature via the Tools > Options… > Personalization > Select Persona dialog).
Despite, or perhaps because of, all these major changes, LibreOffice has been reduced by around 20MB in size. LibreOffice 4.0 FINAL is available now as a free, open-source download for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Despite being one of the coolest features in Kinect, its voice recognition software was often overlooked in favor of arm waving shenanigans. That may not be the case with the next Xbox as Microsoft is rumored to be greatly expanding the software with new features and functionality.
The Verge reports that the next Xbox “will support wake on voice, natural language controls, and speech-to-text.” The current Kinect can only recognize simple speech patterns that are pre-programmed into the software. The next Xbox will greatly expand this to include natural interaction – the kind of voice recognition that you see in Apple’s Siri and other similar software.
So, what does this mean for games? The Verge uses the example of a user being able to ask the Xbox, “What are my friends playing?” and the system would immediately bring up the player’s friend list. Other examples include the user being able to ask questions with the system returning a relevant answer, no doubt provided by Bing.
The real advantage here is if more games started supporting voice commands or interactions. The current Kinect’s voice sensor has only been used in a small selection of games, most notably Mass Effect 3. It would be far more interesting if something like Peter Molyneux’s ill-fated Project Milo were to launch on the next Xbox featuring natural interaction with an on-screen character.
This rumor is just the latest to hit the net in regards to Microsoft’s next console. Just yesterday, a rumor came out saying that the next Xbox would feature an anti-used game system in the form of always online DRM. The console’s specs, which paint the system as being fairly powerful, has also been leaked.
George Zimmerman, the man who fatally shot an unarmed teenager last year after an altercation while the boy was walking home, has been denied the chance to delay his trial, which is set to begin in June.
Zimmerman claims he shot in self-defense after he approached 17-year old Trayvon Martin for looking “suspicious” as the boy walked home from the store. Zimmerman was a self-appointed neighborhood watchman at the time and had called police to alert them of a suspicious presence; they advised him to stay away from the boy, but he confronted him anyway and a fight ensued. If convicted, Zimmerman faces 25 years to life in prison.
Zimmerman’s attorneys originally asked for the trial to be pushed back so they could have more time to prepare and so they could raise money for his defense, but Judge Debra Nelson ruled that the trial would start on time.
“The state has virtually unlimited resources to prosecute George,” Zimmerman’s defense attorney Mark O’Mara said. “To finance his defense, however, George relies on the generosity of individuals who believe he is innocent.”
Outside the courthouse, supporters of Martin and his family gathered with candles and handmade signs featuring photos of the boy. Tuesday would have been his 18th birthday.
“The spirit of Trayvon Martin was definitely in the courtroom today on what would have been his 18th birthday. The judge ruled that the trial would not be delayed,” Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump said.
The last developer update on the upcoming standalone version of DayZ included just about everything fans of the game could want to know. Dean “Rocket” Hall revealed that many of the proposed overhauls are complete and that others are being worked on.
What the last update did not include, however, was a video of gameplay. This week’s update on the DayZ Tumblr blog has corrected that oversight.
The first DayZ standalone video blog includes a look at configuration options, map improvements, and new areas, including swamps, an expanded military base, and an all-new island. There is also a long section that gives a basic overview of the new clothing available in the game.
New loot spawn mechanics are also detailed in the video. Instead of piles of a few objects sitting on floors, loot can now be found on the tops of tables or other surfaces, as well as underneath objects or hidden away in hard-to-find locations. Unfortunately, the re-vamped inventory system is meticulously edited out of the video.
In addition to the video blog update, Rocket mentioned that closed, internal beta testing has uncovered many bugs, and closed, external beta testing still has not commenced. He provided no date for when external testing may occur, but did promise to provide regular updates on the title’s progress.
Growth. In my world of venture capital, we hear all the time that growth drives value. It is how some investors justify putting sky-high valuations on companies that are growing, but not yet making any money. Consider Zynga, which lost $209 million in 2012 — but is still valued at about $2 billion because of the cash it raised and because its revenue is still growing. On the other hand, there’s Groupon, once lauded as the “fastest-growing company ever.” Its stock price peaked weeks after the company went public in 2011 and is down about 80% since. The market has come to question whether its growth can be sustained, and with what underlying earnings.
Focus on growth and growth alone is always a temporary strategy. Over time, a company’s value becomes a function of both growth and cash flow. Superior earnings eventually lead to superior value creation.
Put another way, quality (i.e. sustainability) of revenue matters as much as quantity (i.e. growth) of revenue. High-quality revenue has three main characteristics: predictability, profitability and diversity. So in addition to looking at year-over-year growth, you should be looking to these three metrics to drive long-term value:
1. Predictability. What is your predictability metric? That is, how much of an “annuity” does your business model have? This is best measured by counting your customers from last year, and seeing what percent of them remain customers this year. For example, if you had 1,000 paying customers in 2011, how many of them were still with you as paying customers in 2012? At our venture firm, we look for companies that have the potential of getting to 90% of their customers returning year over year and spending at least the same amount or more. With that level of recurring revenue, your product has gone from “good-to-have” to “must-have.” The client-recurrence count year over year (or its inverse metric, churn), along with a measure of whether those recurring clients are spending at least the same amount in aggregate (recurring dollars), are the best proxies for predictability of revenue. It’s always easier to forecast if you can be confident that 90% of last year’s customers and dollars will be back this year.
2. Profitability. Where does your profit really come from? A company’s earnings are the sum of many different revenue streams contributing different margins and by extension different profit streams. At a fast-food establishment, for example, a fountain drink is likely a key profit driver relative to other elements of the meal. Or take giant online retailer Amazon. It makes its money as an e-commerce giant by selling goods, right? A closer look would show that the majority of its profits come not from e-commerce sales but from its third-party marketplace, media, and growing web and cloud services. Unpack your profit margin to see where you really want to drive your sales — to higher-margin areas. A practical approach is to divide your revenue into higher-margin and lower-margin categories. What is a benchmark for a good margin? It obviously varies by sectors — for example, retail businesses will have lower gross margins than SaaS (Software as a Service). We like business models that can generate gross margins of over 70%.
3. Diversity. When we evaluate companies we look closely at revenue concentration. While early-stage companies may often have a couple of customers that make up a large portion of revenue, over time you want to build a diverse revenue base. In general, we urge companies to ensure that none of their top five clients makes up more than 15% of revenue.
So there you have it. It’s a simple enough framework, but often difficult to achieve. High-quality revenue requires predictability, profitability and diversity. Do you have highly predictable revenue with high gross margins and without revenue concentration? Growth fueled by low-quality revenue can be exciting, but it eventually fizzles out. For the long run, as with most things in life, high quality is the way to go.
WASHINGTON D.C. — The Institute for Energy Research study, entitled “Beyond the Congressional Budget Office”, received more recognition today from influential Congressional leaders. The study, conducted by Dr. Joseph Mason, a professor at the Louisiana State University and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, is an assessment of the economic impact associated with policies to immediately open federal lands and waters.
U.S. Senator John Barrasso (WY) Chairman, Senate Republican Policy Committee“For the past four years, this Administration has used almost every excuse in the book to block responsible energy production on federal public lands. As this report confirms, increasing energy production on federal public lands is a win-win for our economy and American taxpayers. It’s a much more effective way to generate revenue than raising taxes on Americans families and businesses. It’s time for the Administration to finally acknowledge that we can responsibly open access to our public lands, create jobs, and strengthen our nation’s energy security.”
U.S. Congressman Darrell Issa (CA)
Chairman, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
“I welcome the analysis done by the Institute for Energy Research as it explains the potential of American energy sources to grow our economy. The report, “Beyond the Congressional Budget Office: The Additional Economic Effects of Immediately Opening Federal Lands to Oil and Gas Leasing,” offers an effective analysis of how opening up federal lands for energy development will ensure that Americans receive the full benefit of these resources through increases in jobs, wages, and tax revenue.
“Instead of wasting the money of hardworking taxpayers on technologies that have yet to prove themselves, Congress must consider a different path for our economy. This new report adds to arguments for achieving economic goals through a smarter energy policy.”
U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (ID) Ranking Member, Senate Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife
“One of Congress’ main priorities should be addressing our nation’s massive debt problem, and this study shows commonsense policies that could contribute significantly to deficit reduction.
“A successful national energy policy should be shaped like a financial portfolio made up of many different energy sources. This study demonstrates that expanding our domestic energy sources could immediately create millions of jobs and generate billions in revenue to reduce our federal debt, while also furthering our energy independence. Utilizing our diverse resources is central to energy affordability, economic recovery and national security. If the administration is truly committed to identifying and overturning burdensome, unnecessary regulations that stymie economic growth, this study shows a good place to begin.”
U.S. Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO)
Chairman, House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources
“I intend to continue to push an aggressive legislative agenda in this Congress to open up America’s vast energy resources on our federal lands. This report should be required reading at the Obama White House. According to the study, if the Obama administration were to simply open up federal lands currently closed to energy production, it would jump start the economy.
“This economy could use the boost. Millions of American families are barely making it each month as they struggle with high taxes, high gasoline prices, and high unemployment. We can do better, and boosting domestic energy is a great place to get started.”
U.S. Congressman Mike Pompeo (KS)
Member, House Committee on Energy and Commerce
“While the president insists we need to waste billions of taxpayer dollars propping up risky and unreliable energy sources, we already have vast resources available to us. Our GDP just shrank, yet, according to IER’s study we could easily replenish it by committing to expand exploration on federal lands. Unemployment ticked up, yet we have the opportunity to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. The White House must stop neglecting the needs of Americans and allow our economy to grow.”
One of the most-rumored features of the mythical Apple television set is Siri integration that would allow you to naturally ask questions and issue commands to your TV, but Microsoft may beat Apple to the punch, if a new report from The Verge is accurate. Microsoft already has some voice features built into the current generation Xbox, but the next-gen console will get much-improved abilities including natural language processing powers, the report claims.
New voice-based abilities include the option to wake the new Xbox from sleep mode with an “Xbox on” command, as well as a system that can use Kinect to detect people in the room and offer up multiplayer game suggestions. Users can also query the new Xbox to ask it what their friends are currently playing, tell it to pick up playing a movie where it was last left off and more. The new system will also be much better at vocalizing responses to voice-based user input, according to the report, which should make the overall experience feel much more like an ordinary conversation.
Natural language input for Smart TV platforms is a trend that’s just starting to find its sea legs. The tech was discussed at CES this year by many CE companies including LG as part of their upcoming or shipping platforms, and language processing industry leader Nuance launched its Dragon TV platform last year at CES, to be offered up for integration into OEM hardware and cable/satellite services that want to start building in NLP functionality.
Microsoft is clearly interested in more than just games with the Xbox, and the next generation version of that console will probably take its efforts to be the locus of the living room further still. Building a Siri-like experience into that platform is one way to increase its value proposition over competing, more affordable devices like the Roku and current Apple TV, for users who might not be so interested in the gaming side of the equation.
We’ll see the next Xbox at E3 this year, but also possibly before if Verge’s sources are correct, at an event similar to the one Sony is holding on February 20th in NYC. Both consoles are also expected to make their official commercial debuts later this year, in time for the holiday shopping season.
Although it may be tempting, you should avoid clicking any links on Facebook claiming to house a leaked sex tape featuring Grammy award-winning artist Taylor Swift. That’s because it’s a hoax that will lead you down the annoying road of a survey scam.
Facebook users are seeing a viral scam message that suggests a page called “TMZ Leaks” has stumbled upon a new Taylor Swift sex tape.
“The famous singer Taylor Swift had her iPhone hacked Monday and a sex tape between her and former boyfriend Harry Styles has been leaked on the internet,” one of the scams reads. “Taylor’s publicists are trying to take down all of the websites hosting it, but we found a working one! Watch the video before it’s taken down! CLICK HERE,” says the message.
If you click the links, you’ll be directed to a series of online surveys – some of which phish for personal information. No sex tape exists at the end of the rabbit hole – instead you may be prompted to download spammy toolbars and other software.
Facebook sex tape hoaxes aren’t uncommon, and you should be aware of the various survey scams that plague the network. You may think that there’s no harm in simply clicking, just to see if this is finally the legit sex tape leak you’ve been waiting for – but don’t do it. That’s how viral hoaxes spread across the network.
Yesterday, we told you about another hoax making the rounds on Facebook. It suggests that Facebook will close for a three day maintenance period – from February 29th to the 31st. If you think really hard (or check a calendar), you should quickly see why that’s untrue.
Halo 4 was one of the most critically lauded games of last year. It proved that 343 Industries has what it takes to carry the Halo torch. Of course, it can’t really be deemed a critical success until it gets a pass from the toughest critic of them all.
Clueless Gamer, Conan’s insanely delightful game review show, takes on Halo 4 in the latest episode. Of course, the game doesn’t get much of the attention as Conan is too busy invested in Cortana, Master Chief’s AI companion. He does get in a few good jabs, however, including a particularly insightful comment on how games focus too much story at the expense of gameplay.
Personally, Clueless Gamer is wasted on Conan’s late night show. The latest episode only further proves this point. In fact, just get him into focus groups and game testing from now on. I’d love to play a game that was built around his expectations of what a good game is.
A.G. Lafley, former chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble, led the company to think about fragrances in a new way and grew a successful new product line. He is the coauthor of the HBR Press book Playing to Win.
After experiencing a roller coaster pre-production period, the folks over at FormLabs have announced that the Form 1 3D-printer is entering into full production.
The “large majority” of Kickstarter orders set for delivery by the end of April. They’ve purchased enough components to build out over 1,000 Form 1 3D printers.
The company first launched the Form 1 on Kickstarter to an awesome reception, scoring over $2.9 million in pre-orders after asking for a mere $100k.
But before the company could begin production, it was hit with a patent infringement lawsuit from 3D Systems, which also accused Kickstarter of promoting the allegedly infringing product.
FormLabs pressed on, and is now ready to begin full production of the 3D printer.
FormLabs claims that it can offer better accuracy than competitive 3D printing offerings, like the Makerbot, at a similar price.
According to FormLabs, the team will begin by vigorously testing the first small batch of Form 1 printers. After that, the company plans on setting exact ship dates.
Last month, U.K. electronics retailer HMV entered administration. Employees and customers were left wondering whether the business would be shutting down.
Today, Deloitte, the firm hired to oversee HMV’s administration, announced that 66 HMV stores will be closing throughout the U.K. These stores collectively have 930 employees, and no plans to relocate them were revealed. HMV currently has 220 stores in the U.K.
This step has been taken in order to enhance the prospects of securing the business’ future as a going concern,” said Nick Edwards, joint administrator of HMV. “We continue to receive strong support from staff and are extremely grateful to them for their commitment during an understandably difficult period. All other key stakeholders remain very supportive and I continue to be hopeful of securing a future for the restructured business.”
No date has been set for the closure of the stores, but they are expected to shut down sometime in the next two months. Below is the list of stores that will be closing. Consumers near these stores would be well-served to keep an eye on them to watch for closeout sales.
Stuart Freeborn has been credited with creating some of the most recognizable faces of the past forty years and has been called a “legend” by “Star Wars” director George Lucas. Indeed, the artist behind Yoda, Jabba, and Chewbacca had already worked on several successful/future classic films, such as “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Superman”, and “The Omen”. Having began his career in 1936, he often took jobs that would leave him uncredited in the film’s list of contributors just so he could have the experience. He quickly rose in the industry to become one of the top names in makeup and special effects.
“He brought with him not only decades of experience, but boundless creative energy,” George Lucas said. “His artistry and craftsmanship will live on forever in the characters he created. His “Star Wars” creatures may be reinterpreted in new forms by new generations, but at their heart, they continue to be what Stuart created for the original films.”
Freeborn once said that he felt pulled into a creative life, shunning a more traditional job in favor of what he loved.
“I didn’t want to spend my life in an office,” he said. “I felt I was different.”
Freeborn died on Tuesday at the age of 98, his granddaughter confirmed. Michelle Freeborn also said her grandfather was her hero and inspired her to go to work in the film industry.
“He was a really fun and imaginative individual.” she said. “He gave you the feeling that if you wanted to achieve something, you should just get on and do it, and don’t ever use excuses. He enjoyed life and the amazing world we live in.”
There are a lot of 2012 internet video compilations that have surfaced, and even though we’re already in February of 2013, I expect there will be plenty more. 2012 was the biggest year for internet video – bigger and more powerful than 2011, which was bigger and more powerful than 2010 and so on.
Although there are a lot of 2012 video wrap-ups, this is probably the best and most fully-realized one I’ve seen so far – although it leans pretty heavily on sports, auto, and other feats of athleticism.
Here’s twelve and a half minutes of what everyone was watching for the past year. Buckle up:
The Document Foundation released 
