How 10 popular tech companies got their names article tells that you might be surprised to find out how some of global company names originated. What’s in a name? For these 10 companies, a lot; billions and billions of dollars as a matter of fact. Nowadays those companies make very calculated decisions on every move they make. At one point, though, they were all start-ups. And when you’re a start-up, you tend to be a bit more, how do you say, carefree, with the decisions you make. Decisions like coming up with a name for your company.
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How 10 popular tech companies got their names
Friday, April 20th, 2012Can you train people to innovate?
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012Can you train people to innovate? Financial analyst Barry Ritholtz has shared a helpful slide set titled “Innovation can be trained” that’s worth reading. Printing and then tacking individual slides to your cube walls can be used as a daily reminder that organizations can create cultures of innovation. It’s based on the work The Innovator’s DNA by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen and Clayton Christensen.
How Hi-Tech Retailers Are Screwing You
Thursday, February 16th, 2012There are a million little ways retailers can screw you on what you buy. But maybe nowhere is this more common than in the world of high-tech gadgets. 5 Ways Hi-Tech Retailers Are Secretly Screwing You article gives examples how high tech opens up whole new realms of screwing the customer. Examples of this can be found on printer inks, premium HDMI cables, warranties and “optimization”. Many electronics and electronics shops have a notoriously narrow profit margin, so all of the shady stuff is just helping them trying to stay afloat. On-line retailers have pushed down the consumer electronics products margins a lot from what the used to be.
Read also 8 Retail Ripoff Tactics and Top 10 Retail Ripoffs Exposed! Learn sneaky snake sales tricks and avoid being BIT!
Starting your own electronic-kit business
Sunday, February 12th, 2012Voices: 15 steps to starting your own electronic-kit business is an interesting article. This engineer started her own successful electronics-kit business. Limor Fried has made Adafruit Industries into a successful electronics-kit business. You can too. Based on her own experience, she offers 15 practical steps for engineers who dream of starting their own kit business.
About Things We Build and Fix
Thursday, October 20th, 2011When I was last night again fixing old Nokia N73 cellular phone (needed a touch of soldering iron to make volume button to work again) I remember this article I saw few days ago.
Are engineers early adopters? article claims that engineers aren’t early adopters of the latest technology. They are more like past the peak of the adoption curve. It’s not because engineers don’t like technology, instead it’s because engineers know how to keep older technology running longer than the general population. We fix and upgrade older technology when others simply replace it.
Me doing some small fixes to my smarphone, PC and some more electronics, is for sure keeping older technology running longer.
One Are engineers early adopters? article comment says: “Engineers are early adopters of truly new technology, but are not early adopters of trendy marketing or technology that is not a significant improvement over technology that already exists.”
I am curious by nature, so new technologies/products are first reviewed on-line, tested in the store, looked at on social networks for word of mouth/experiences then purchased if all checks out. I want to know the pros and cons of the new technology. Usually only the pros get marketed to the end consumer through reviews.
Another interesting article mentioned at Why We Love Things We Build Ourselves Slashdot posting mentions article Unfolding the IKEA Effect: Why We Love the Things We Build. The IKEA Effect refers to the tendency for people to value things they have created/built themselves more than if made by someone else. Research suggests that by asking consumers to do a little legwork, you can increase their belief in the value of the product they have created, even if it would have been better constructed by professionals. Study demonstrates that this sense of personal accomplishment is powerful on its own, without any social influence.
Would the IKEA effect hold in more complex situations? Is this the reason that open source software proponents are so “enthusiastic” about their products while the general market resists them? The proponents of them had a hand in developing them. All interesting questions for future research!
