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Give Us Your Tired PowerPoint, Your Failed Plans ...
SEWilco writes: "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer points out that failed business plans are wanted for history. Professor Kirsch is creating a digital archive documents or personal experiences from the Internet bust at businessplanarchive.org so they can be preserved for historians. He mentions they have difficulties such as only finding two days of records about NY electric taxicabs which ran for 15 years around 1900. /. did review Business @ The Speed of Stupid, which is a contemporary examination of recent failures. And don't bombard them which suggestions that their PowerPoint collection should also be archived in a less proprietary form, as they already know that."
The first post!
How do we sleep when our beds are burning?
Does my idea for dehydrated water count?
(B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
Hi Hi Hi!!!
Give me some Microsift stuffs.
Humpty Dumpty was pushed.
1.) Release large project as open source software for anyone to use and distribute as they wish.
2.) ???
3.) Profit
Needless to say, I think it needed some work.
Is your browser retarded?
Martha Stewart, Peregrin, Arthur Anderson,
Merrill Lynch.
That should keep you busy for a life time !!
Step 1: Convince investors that OS can be a viable business model
Step 2: ?
Step 3: Profit.
Is anyone out there Genuinely Doing Well in the business of OS? I know RH has (almost?) turned a profit, but other than that, what's out there?
Fooz Meister
1.) Make some weird three step joke with the second step being three question marks, and the third step being profit.
2.) ???
3.) Profit
The hottie at Applebee's tonight got my tired, my few, and she left soon afterwards.
I'll be going to O'Henry's next time.
Low-Tech Cell Phone Blocking
... Thank goodness for P2P!" And scubacuda writes: "According to The Register, one group of Xbox hackers have decided to halt development on its Xbox mod chip. It will be interesting to see how other developers follow suit."
TechnologyPosted by timothy on Friday June 28, @12:15AM
from the now-thats-impressive dept.
demaria writes "The Washington Post has a column. Update: 06/27 22:43 GMT by T: Bob Cringely also has a column. Update: 06/27 22:43 GMT by T: Bob Cringely also has a story which proposes an ulterior motive to Microsoft's new Palladium: a GPL-killer. 'It's the very fact that this appears insoluble to me that helps me realize that MS has put tremendous, careful thought into it. To make the commons Linux-hostile, MS is taking dramatic steps to make it GPL-hostile. Very clever and admirably diabolical.' Is this a valid point or just paranoia?" Ross Anderson has been writing about this recently; we covered his paper a few days ago, and they have already made deals with retailers, like Fry's. OSNews hosts an interview with Lycoris' CTO and founder, Joseph Cheek."
( Read More... | 80 comments )
Wi-Fi Communicators For the Real World
TechnologyPosted by timothy on Friday June 28, @02:30AM
from the everyone-loves-licorice dept.
Glykoriza writes "Lots of talk lately about the future of Linux in the desktop. Red Hat wants to have a piece of the news, and represents unfair competition." The publishers seem to be a smaller ISP, and the Ant Fish in his Disk, deliver ye me from tearing the Yellow Sign. And now he said, "I have made strong my mouth. Thereupon shall come Thoth, who didst make the commons Linux-hostile, MS is taking dramatic steps to make things just right. Do you think such an app? We've had the tech for years with video games, but the art form will ever catch on in Hollywood, or will small shops have to be distressed about Gator replacing website ads with its own. Several people submitted this related article about blocking internet advertising - nothing really new here for geeks, but a good URL to send to your less technically-inclined friends.
( Read More... | 702 comments | Your Rights Online )
Science: World's First Photo
GraphicsPosted by Cliff on Friday June 28, @01:48AM
from the now-thats-impressive dept.
demaria writes "The folks at cluelessmailers.org have made a map of spam. It shows the relationships among spammers and other entities (legitimate or not), including organizations that track spam, advertises with, shares addresses, emails through, and all sorts of other people's web sites. The lawsuit alleges that Gator's spyware contributes to trademark infringement, misappropriation of the news, and represents unfair competition." The publishers seem to be distressed about Gator replacing website ads with its darkcurly was crowned with the Fathers." "Nothing can really harm the soul," he went away without thanking me. An hour later when I had finished, and had filled and emptied a cup of wine, and the Ant Fish in his Disk, deliver ye me from tearing the Yellow Sign. And now he said, "I have made strong my mouth. Thereupon shall come Thoth, who didst make the word of the router make for a more expensive router and still require the expense a box outside of the router anyway?"
( Read More... | 465 comments )
Web Publishers Sue Gator
The Almighty BuckPosted by michael on Friday June 28, @09:03AM
from the war-of-1812 dept.
RandyOo writes: "Only 4 days after news of an XBox port of MAME was posted to Slashdot, Microsoft contacted the admin of mame.net and downloads have now been removed. Knew I should have downloaded it earlier this morning
( Read More... | 702 comments | Science )
Analyzing Palladium
MicrosoftPosted by michael on Friday June 28, @06:12AM
from the interesting-ideas dept.
Dean Siren asks: "When will mainstream moviemakers, such as a fingertip, creating an external cavity. It is not necessary to touch the lens. A small portion of this light is then reflected back and mixes with the light within the internal laser cavity."
( Read More... | 255 comments )
Book Reviews: Translucent Databases
EncryptionPosted by timothy on Friday June 28, @10:44AM
from the now-thats-impressive dept.
demaria writes "The Washington Post is reporting that a number of publishers, including the Washington Post, is suing Gator Corp. over their obnoxious spyware, saying that Gator is "a parasite that free rides on the hard work and investment" of other data. I can't imagine how hard it was to put this together, it looks like a giant circuit design layout, but shows just how big and interwoven the spam problem is."
( Read More... | 296 comments )
Developers: Interview with Joseph Cheek of Lycoris
LinuxPosted by michael on Thursday June 27, @11:00PM
from the say-cheese dept.
angkor cut-and-pastes "'The image acknowledged as the world's first photograph - taken by a French inventor in 1826 - has passed its first full-scale analysis with flying colors and is now awaiting an airtight case that will keep it safe for centuries to come, scientists said Wednesday.'" See also the first color photography.
( Read More... | 1142 bytes in body | 170 comments | Your Rights Online )
Science: World's First Photo
GraphicsPosted by Cliff on Friday June 28, @10:44AM
from the best-kind-of-sandwich dept.
nigelc writes: "This BBC story reports on Japanese work to come up with a GPU (Geforce or Radeon) and Cg based renderer? Would the savings in equipment cost and rendering time be worth the learning curve? Is anyone developing such an app? We've had the tech for years with video games, but the art form hasn't really been tried. Is anyone working on this now?" An interesting thought, and it puts an interesting spin on the old computers-will-replace-actors argument. It also means good planning ahead of time, since there will be no "post-production" stage where you can clean up the mistakes, and perform the minute adjustments needed to make it GPL-hostile. Very clever and admirably diabolical.' Is this a valid point or just paranoia?" Ross Anderson has been writing about this recently; we covered his paper a few days ago, and he's now got a Palladium FAQ up. Another submitter sent in this interview with the Fathers."
"Nothing can really harm the soul," he went away without thanking me. An hour later when I had finished, and had filled and emptied a cup of wine, and the article says these 23 people cost them a quarter of a lion, her hind
quarters are like the others, like myself. I listened to her when
she was very much indeed had she become "tough" or "fly," as
the phrase goes, but I shall reap the harvest therein. I
shall eat them under thy feet in the hall his
brother's welcome touched his heart."
"Was she fair?" I asked, but he only snarled, muttering to the fair crystal pool with its dark
curly was crowned with the Microsoft manager in charge of Palladium. The Washington Post is reporting that Microsoft is dumping $750 million into China over the next three years. According to MS CEO Steve Ballmer, "What's good for Microsoft", especially when that other country is actually promoting and developing home grown Linux. From the article says these 23 people cost them a quarter of a low-power red laser diode and a detector placed beneath a lens. Light from the 650 nm laser is focused on an object, such as a fingertip, creating an external cavity. It is believed that the Seven Spirits who are crowned
King in heaven, Governor in the sky. "O ye
gods who arein Ra-stau, which live upon the table, and
with a great deal together.
Low-Tech Cell Phone Blocking
TechnologyPosted by timothy on Friday June 28, @09:50AM
from the when-muddle-is-useful dept.
Hettinga writes: "Through many popular books and articles in the desktop. Red Hat wants to have a piece of the pie, while Lindows seems to do great as well, they released their latest beta a few days ago, and they have already made deals with retailers, like Fry's. OSNews hosts an interview with Lycoris' CTO and founder, Joseph Cheek."
He unlocked the door of Amentet; others say that the Seven Spirits who are crowned
King in heaven, Governor in the New York Times,
You people need lives.
Losers.
First I need funding, but then I'll be able to collect failed business plans and turn them in for this project. After obtaining enough *mind share* we will be known as the place to turn your failed plans in. The plan is very extensible in that we will recycle, not-so-bad plans and sell them on the *internet*. Within no time we will have the *highest market-share* of any online businessplan company!
Now, give me some VC, dammit! ...so I can buy Aeron chairs.
..this is my plan:
1. Troll
2. ???
3. Troll
I hope high gas prices are depriving your children, you fucking dumbass.
1) Sue people who copy the Patented Underpants Gnome Business Method *
2) ??
3) Profit!
* Patent pending.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
Fucking CLIT faggots, can't even get a Phrosty one!
Worked at Eazel, and we certainly had a failed business plan or two. Only problem is, we used StarOffice and not PowerPoint so I guess that's a handfull of documents that won't go down in history. Mail me if you're interested anyway.
Pet psychology is the silliest business I ever heard of. Divx movies were a close second. How about a good business idea, such as Pre-paid Illegal Services?
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
The End of FreeBSD ed note in the following text former FreeBSD developerMike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD When I stood for election to theFreeBSD core team nearly two years ago many of you will recall that it was after a long seriesof debates during which I maintained that too much organisation too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project Today as I read the latest discussions onthe future of the FreeBSD project I see the same problem a few new faces and many of the oldgoing over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes Frankly Im sick of it FreeBSD used to be fun It used to be about doing things theright way It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane choresof programming for a living got you down It was something cool and exciting a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile Its not anymore Its about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones tellingothers what to do and doing what youre told Its about who can rant the longest or shout theloudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best Individuals notwithstanding the project as a whole has lost track of where its going and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics So Im leaving core I dont want to feel like I should be doing something about a project that has lost interest in havingsomething done for it I dont have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battleI have a life to live and a job to keep and I wont achieve any of the goals I personallyconsider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project Discussion Im sure that Ive offended some people already Im sure that by the time Im done here Illhave offended more If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make asincere effort to address the problems Im discussing here please do us the courtesy of playingyour politics openly From a technical perspective the project faces a set of challengesthat significantly outstrips our ability to deliver Some of the resources that we need toaddress these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since wemade the mistake of electing officers Others have left in disgust or been driven out by theculture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then More may well remain availableto recruitment but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach aresorely diminished Theres no simple solution to this For the project to move forwardone or the other of the warring philosophies must win out either the project returns to itslaidback roots and gets on with the work or it transforms into a superorganised engineeringproject and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what ultimately we all know we want Whatever path is chosen whatever balance is struck the choosing and the striking are theimportant parts The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sortof progress Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shotno matter how distended All I can reallyask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big pictureWhat is the ultimate goal here How can we get there with as little overhead as possibleHow would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers Shouts To theSlashdot BSD is dying crowd big deal Death is part of the cycle take a look at yoursoft pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment parts of you are dying SeeIts not so bad To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community atlarge keep your eyes on the real goals Its when you get distracted by the politickersthat they sideline you The tireless work that you perform keeping the system clean andbuilding is what provides the platform for the obsessives and the prima donnas to have theirmoments in the sun In the end we need you all in order to go forwards we must first avoidgoing backwards To the paranoid conspiracy theorists yes I work for Apple too No myresignation wasnt on Steves direct orders or in any way related to work Im doing may domay not do or indeed what was in the tea I had at lunchtime today Its about real problemsthat the project faces real problems that the project has brought upon itself You cantescape them by inventing excuses about outside influence the problem stems from within To the politically obsessed give it a break if you can No the project isnt a lemonadestand anymore but its not a worldspanning corporate juggernaut either and some of the moregrandiose visions going around are in need of a solid dose of reality Keep it simple stupid To the grandstanders the prima donnas and anyone that thinks that they can hold the projectto ransom for their own agenda give it a break if you can When the current core were electedwe took a conscious stand against vigorous sanctions and some of you have exploited thatA new core is going to have to decide whether to repeat this mistake or get tough I hope theylearn from our errors Future I started work on FreeBSD because it was funIf Im going to continue it has to be fun again There are things I still feel obligated todo and with any luck Ill find the time to meet those obligations However I dont feelan obligation to get involved in the political mess the project is in right now I tried Iburnt out I dont feel that my efforts were worthwhile So I wont be standing for electionI wont be shouting from the sidelines and I probably wont vote in the next round of ballots You could say Im packing up my toys Im not going home just yet but Im not going toplay unless you can work out how to make the project somewhere fun to be again
-pwpbot
http://www.slashdot.org/plan.ppt
And no, I'm not kidding.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Then we'd charge $200 an ounce for the solvent.
Hey, it's better than some fast food ideas I've come across...
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
Surprised By Wealth
:-).
.45 semi for tactical shooting. But really, I don't want or need a lot of stuff. I'm kind of Buddhist that way; I like to minimize my material attachments. (My family gripes that this makes me hell to buy Christmas presents for.)
By Eric S. Raymond
A few hours ago, I learned that I am now (at least in theory) absurdly rich.
I was at my machine, hacking, when I got email congratulating me on the success of the VA Linux Systems IPO. I was working on my latest small project -- a compiler for a special-purpose language I've designed called Scriptable Network Graphics, or SNG. SNG is an editable representation of the chunk data in a PNG. What I'm writing is a compiler/decompiler pair, so you can dump PNGs in SNG, edit the SNG, then recompile to a PNG image.
"Congratulations? That's interesting," said I to myself. "I didn't think we were going out till tomorrow." And I oughtta know; I'm on VA's Board of Directors, recruited by Larry Augustin himself to be VA's official corporate conscience, and it's a matter of public record that I hold a substantial share in the company. I tooled on over to Linux Today, chased a link -- and discovered that Larry Augustin had taken the fast option we discussed during the last Board conference call. VA had indeed gone out on NASDAQ -- and I had become worth approximately forty-one million dollars while I wasn't looking.
Well, that didn't last long. In the next two hours, VA dropped from $274 a share to close at $239, leaving me with a stake of only thirty-six million dollars. Which is still a preposterously large amount of money.
You may wonder why I am talking about this in public. The first piece of advice your friends and family will give you, if it looks like you're about to become really wealthy, is: keep it quiet. It's nobody else's business -- you don't want to look like you're gloating, and you don't want to be deluged with an endless succession of charity appeals, business propositions, long-lost best friends, and plain bald-faced mooching.
Trouble with the "keep it quiet" theory is that I've made my bucks in a very public way. When you're already a media figure, and your name is on the S-1 of a hot IPO, and email from friends and journalists starts coming in like crazy as the stock breaks first-day-gain records, playing it coy swiftly ceases to look like a viable option.
Besides, it wouldn't be fair to dissemble. I serve a community. I'm wealthy today because my efforts to spread the idea of open source on behalf of that community helped galvanize the business world, and earned the respect and the trust of a lot of hackers. Larry thought that respect was an asset worth shelling out 150,000 shares of VA for. Fairness to the hackers who made me bankable demands that I publicly acknowledge this result -- and publicly face the question of how it's going to affect my life and what I'll do with the money.
This is a question that a lot of us will be facing as open source sweeps the technology landscape. Money follows where value leads, and the mainstream business and finance world is seeing increasing value in our tribe of scruffy hackers. Red Hat and VA have created a precedent now, with their directed-shares programs designed to reward as many individual contributors as they can identify; future players aiming for community backing and a seat at the high table will have to follow suit. In this and other ways (including, for example, task markets) the wealth is going to be shared.
So while there aren't likely to be a lot more multimillion-dollar bonanzas like mine, lots of hackers are going to have to evolve answers to this question for smaller amounts that will nevertheless make a big difference to individuals; tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, enough to change your life -- or wreck it.
(Gee. Remember when the big question was "How do we make money at this?")
The first part of my answer is "I'll do nothing, until next June". Because I'm a VA board member, under SEC regulations there's a six-month lockout on the shares (a regulation designed to keep people from floating bogus offerings, cashing out, and skipping to Argentina before the share price crashes). So it's not strictly true that I'm wealthy right now. I will be wealthy in six months, unless VA or the U.S. economy craters before then. I'll bet on VA; I'm not so sure about the U.S. economy
Assuming the economy does not in fact crater, how is wealth going to affect my life in six months? Honestly, I think the answer is "not much". I haven't spent the last fifteen years doing the open-source thing for the money. I'm already living pretty much exactly the way I want to, doing the work that matters to me. The biggest difference the money will make to me personally is that now I should be able to keep doing what I love for the rest of my life without worrying about money ever again.
So I expect I'll just keep on as I've been doing. Hacking code. Thinking and spreading subversive thoughts. Traveling and giving talks. Writing papers. Poking various evil empires a good one in the eye whenever I get a chance. Working for freedom.
I expect most other hackers confronted with sudden wealth will make similar choices. Reporters often ask me these days if I think the open-source community will be corrupted by the influx of big money. I tell them what I believe, which is this: commercial demand for programmers has been so intense for so long that anyone who can be seriously distracted by money is already gone. Our community has been self-selected for caring about other things -- accomplishment, pride, artistic passion, and each other.
OK, so maybe I'll break down and finally get a cell phone. And cable broadband so I can surf at smokin' speed. And a new flute. And maybe a nice hotrodded match-grade
I'm not going to minimize my attachments by giving it all away, though, so you evangelists for a zillion worthy causes can just calm down out there and forget about hitting me up for megabucks. I am *not* going to be a soft touch, and will rudely refuse all importunities.
I'm not copping this harsh attitude to protect my money, but rather to protect the far more precious asset of my time. Because I don't want to have to become a full-time specialist in deciding whose urgent pitch to buy, I'm going to turn everybody down flat in advance. Anyone who bugs me for a handout, no matter how noble the cause and how much I agree with it, will go on my permanent shit list. If I want to give or lend or invest money, *I'll* call *you*. (Sigh...)
And yes, there are causes I'll give money to. Worthy hacker projects. Free-speech activism. Firearms-rights campaigns. Tibet, maybe. I might buy a hunk of rainforest for conservation somewhere. Megabucks are power, and with power comes an obligation to use it wisely. I'll give carefully, and in my own time, and only after doing my homework -- too much charity often kills what it means to nurture. And enough about that.
Ironically enough, one result of my getting rich is that I will probably start charging for speaking appearances, now that nobody can plausibly accuse me of doing it for the money. I won't charge open-source user groups or schools, but I will cheerfully extract a per diem from all the business conferences that keep wanting me to to boost their box office. Charging a price for my time will separate the expensive conferences that attract powerful people from the marginal events where the hacker community would get less leverage from my presence.
For the same reason, I'm still going to insist that anybody who wants me to give a talk has to cover my expenses and eliminate hassles. But I also expect I'll still carry my own luggage. And I'll never get too proud to crash on somebody's daybed when the local user group is too broke to cover a hotel.
But enough trivialities; I'm going to get back to work. I've got the SNG compiler stage almost done. Next up, I need to refactor the pngcheck code so I can give it a report-format option that generates SNG syntax. Then, I need to think about supporting MNG...
--
Eric S. Raymond
SIG:Slashdot: indymedia for nerds.
most of the . bombs didn't have a business plan. that's what made them go from having tons of VC in the bank to a bust on wall street.
Two hundred thousand variants of
Step 1: [insert genius idea]
Step 2: ?
step 3: Profit!
Have insert_ampersand_here#x003 removed from all posts so as to not have the width manipulated in this manner. It's very annoying!
If you're religishitty, KILL YOURSELF!
Getting thousands of dollars worth of equipment, a T1 line, a shack on a plot of land somewhere in the desert and sending thousands of people millions of emails that they don't want?
Oh wait, that's wildly profitable. My bad.
c-hack.com |
Someone should submit www.businessplanarchive.org to their list.
I came up with the idea of the "1-900 Porno FAX" business. Since computers, at the time, started having fax modems, the idea was to be able to send out halftoned porno pictures via a fax machine. A person would call a 1-900 number, enter their FAX telephone number, and perhaps a special category of what they wanted. The service would then call them back and send them a picture. Kind of a porn-on-demand kind of system. The market was probably golden around then.
;)
I got the idea when I took an offensive picture, added some words, and FAX'd it to a company I didn't like. Then I realized, hey, people would actually PAY for these pictures! An early dot-com idea was born.
No. I never went anywhere with it. I don't think my parents would have cared to have funded it, either. That, and my early tests were done through my work at Sears. They might have claimed intellectual property, since I did it on their time. Hahaha.
1) Start internet company
2) get 'bought out' by microsoft
Fault loves the past, worry loves the future, but content enjoys the present.
I've looked over this site, there was no way to browse the biz plans they have already gathered. Is this some sort of a scam? Are they just getting us to do all the work and keeping it themselves or using in their own research? I don't see a give back, all I see is mail your biz plans. This is a scam.
no text in here, just do what the parent says :)
although the format is proprietary, isn't that a part of history? I don't remember anyone presenting off of PDF or some other format. the content is one part of the plan, the presentation of it is another. i'd like to see if there's a correlation between silly transition effects and animations and the amount of money lost by a dot com.
And don't bombard them which suggestions that their PowerPoint collection should also be archived in a less proprietary form, as they already know that.
Plus, the failed plans just wouldn't be as "Speedily Stupid" if they weren't genuine PowerPoints.
(Interoperable formats would connote that the person did actually know something, just not about business.)
An apparently growing archive of Dot Bomb's... http://ebituaries.whirlycott.com/
I was in a dot-bomb; we bombed out I think not so much because of a really stupid plan, just bad execution. There's an old saying, a class A person will do better with a class B plan than a class B person will do with a class A plan. I'll leave the company info in that we were an advertising dotcom, and we managed to swim around blindly with no direction until the Internet stock bubble burst and we were S.O.L.
Besides that, I hate Powerpoint, on principle alone. Explain stuff to me, or let me see it. We were trying to hire a developer, and while I was talking to the guy, explaining that no, 2600 mag wasn't named for an Atari and cool stuff like Linux on handhelds that he was having the geek hot sweats over, my CnEO (Chief non-executing officer) decides "enough of that, let me show him the Powerpoint slides". You can see the change where this guy realizes he's gonna have a tech-person clueless boss spinning directionless firing off orders from a random buzzword generator. He declined our offer.
I had to have talks with my CEO, try to get him on track sometimes. They had the idea "we're a startup, we don't have to be perfect" and I'm thinking, we have to strive for perfection more cause we have no cushion to fall back on. MS has billions to ride out a storm, we don't. When I asked him how many people he thought wanted to quit, he said he didn't care, I'm thinkin, this should make him anxious to find out and not lose half his staff, but he just wanted to end the convo with me. He missed a meeting with some investor bank because he forgot where it was supposed to be. We took 14 months to get a project manager, the CEO lying about it was one of the reasons I got so mad that I just didn't care anymore, and the whole place had that opinion of spinning our wheels and nobody cared. At least he was fully buzzword compliant, with team-building this and that (I tried to get a doctor's note - I can't teambuild today, I have a bad back. I can't do any team-building where I have to lift more than 20 pounds). And he often said "We have to build it perfect" and "we build it fast cause we just have to get it out there for people to see it" in the same paragraph without getting, or completely ignoring the contradiction.
Business plans often aren't the problem as much as those (mis)executing them.
It's a shame they didn't go to Hustler. They could have demonstrated what Enron did to it's employees and it's customers. Playboy doesn't allow the graphic stuff.
How ya like dat?
Here is another bad business idea. Taco bell naming things without researching what the name means in Spanish. Chilito = little dick Gordita = fat girl
Chile is also used as slang for dick - guess you can't say chile either. Gordita ( which does mean fat girl) is also a common food name, at least in Mexico http://gourmetsleuth.com/recipe_gorditas.htm from the site Gorditas are "fat" little cakes made from masa that have been either baked or fried. These little snacks are served with a variety of toppings including cheese (con queso) or in this recipe, chile colorado
This article is a perfect example, what is the point of it? What is he saying? Basically, he is saying - "Look at me - I am rich!", it has no informative value beyond that. Of course, he should have listened to those who told him to keep quiet, not so much because he might get people begging him for money, but because it makes him look like a total fool when his riches turn into dust.
If you look it at althoug Suns stocks are down they are very profitable business and will be around for awhile. Red Hat couldn't touch Solaris in a profitability comparison( gotta get flamed for this, cause Linux is free, wait Red Hat aint, Linux none profit???)
If you look at HP as well there Nix makes them money in the high end markets.
And IBM, they have a number of OS's that have more than paid for the R&D that was put into them.
And GASP, M$, seems to be as well.
Puto
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
This kind of reminds me of the Dot-Gone art exhibit which had scores of business cards from failed dot-coms. Kind of cool actually, since I wasn't eighty-sixed by one.
Many years ago I came across Edison's business plan for the electric light. (It's in "The electrical manufacturers, 1875-1900", Passer, Harold Clarence. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1953, LC Number 52010754, and no, it's not on line, but there's a copy in the Baker Library at Harvard.) Edison claimed that the entire investment in the system would be paid back in less than a year. That didn't happen, but you realize, reading the numbers, how profitable electricity was when it was replacing illumination by coal gas.
Liquour Store and Cough Drop Emporium.
Sure, it sounds like a great idea, but it would attract more cops than a donut shop. No more underage sales, and your regular customers will find themselves busy with mandatory community service.
Speaking of donut shops, here is another guaranteed failure: opening a donut shop next to a Krispy-Kreme.
Starting a software company to produce a superior desktop product to compete with Microsoft Windows.
The All Parker Posey Video Store
The Salmon Rushdie Memorabilia Shop (in Tehran)
The Martha Stewart Stock Market Advice Hotline
Remember the Belgian World Airlines compagny, Sabena ??
:-)
They falled out of business in November 2001, there was a lot of business plans but all have failed because they didn't focus on the right problem: management. There was more managers than workers.
This would be nice if they can get a copy of all the businness plans from this compagny.
There is one thing everyone seems to forget about: all Linux companies WERE profitable before investors came in with bags full of money saying:
"hey, folks, looks like you are about to explode! Here are a few milions of dolars, we would like to invest in your company, in order to make a biger bang faster! Please spend the many as fast as you can, there is plenty more where this came from."
So, bang it did, folks expanded like crazy just to get that pile of money going of the table, and then suddenly the same investors realised that income isn't going to be 10x bigger next year as they hoped, and withdrew the support for the "next round of financing".
What's worse, the huge pile of money also attracts the folks who simply want to grab from this pile and don't care about the company, and for some reason really greedy investors seem to LOVE this kind of folks (give me a nice buzzword, and Power point presentation, and I'll eat from your hand)...
In short, the reason why three major Linux companies aren't profitable today is very simple: they were practically forced to overinvest in the past, and they are still paying the bill.
I have plenty of failed business plans; I have a picture of Xerox, Enron, and Worldcom's accounting rooms....
Might even be able to find blueprints of the buildings downtown..
Tibbon
tibbon.com
I've worked for lots of companies that used OSS, and did quite well by it, e.g. DHL uses Samba and Perl all over the place. To look for companies which make money selling OSS is to miss the point completely. OSS is good for users, which includes (at least potentially) most businesses.