gdp's Comments

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : The Challenge of Being a Russian Security Software Company

Fri, 24 Apr 2015 14:20:18 +0000

Thanks Iliya. It's interesting that you built on Azure rather than AWS, what are the reasons that led to this design decision? You have done a really nice piece of work with your marketing website and how you are messaging the product, I can only suggest drawing more attention to the hosting domicile and I would also suggest adding physical contact info to your website to avoid the scenario where someone is concluding that you are trying to obscure where you are located.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : The Decline and Rebirth of Retail

Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:34:17 +0000

It's entirely possible but I tend to believe we are a nation of consumers and I try not to attach a moral judgement to that. For much of the economy, consumption patterns have altered not because of a value shift but because the economy is still in really poor shape. I just don't see a shift to high quality preference, whatever that ultimately is because even low cost goods produced at absurd volumes can be high quality. The retail landscape is fine grained, the specialization attributes that retailers and manufacturers alike are pursuing is pretty fascinating to watch.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Lenovo Yoga–Straight up With a Twist

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 11:38:06 +0000

Goto "airplane mode" and dial back the screen brightness and you will get 7+ hours, is my experience

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Google+ Turns 2: How Hangouts Completely Changed My Work Routines

Wed, 3 Jul 2013 21:42:04 +0000

word... I look pretty dope in my beat lab while on video conferences.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Google+ Turns 2: How Hangouts Completely Changed My Work Routines

Mon, 1 Jul 2013 19:48:23 +0000

I am using the Siberia V2 with an inexpensive USB adapter (which I heard causes an issue in macs but I am on a windows machine now). Sound quality is fantastic, in and out, but I would prefer something a little less bulky. Another observation is that when wearing the headset and talking, it bothers me because I have the muffled voice in head problem. Usually I will pull one side of the headset off my ear so I can normalize ambient room noise and my own voice.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Microsoft Office 2013, Google Users Not Apply

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:12:16 +0000

yes but Google dropped EAS support and Microsoft has only soft committed to CalDAV and CardDAV so if you use Google Apps and want to use Office 2013 you are out of luck. There are some commercial products that fill the gap but they bring additional cost and complexity.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Tesla Lost the Minute Musk Tweeted

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 02:12:29 +0000

I use Chrome. On occasion I have noticed that IntenseDebate is not very well behaved. Thanks for the additional info, it's funny how 70 miles is a lot less driving that it used to be! I constantly marvel at how much I can drive in a day, and I don't drive all that much... maybe 10k a year. Given the availability of 3 phase power in industrial and commercial districts, I would not be surprised to see more 480v recharging stations emerge as industrial fleets embrace EVs, which does not seem like a stretch. You hit on the other key issue, battery technology. The physics problems are substantial but not insurmountable, and I am pretty excited about the development of polymer battery technology at scale (and newer technologies like ultra-capacitor carbon and magnetic tunnel junction). Combine better storage with power management and more efficient solar cells powering trickle chargers that can be vehicle mounted and there could be a tipping point.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Tesla Lost the Minute Musk Tweeted

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:29:15 +0000

thanks for the follow up, and to be clear what I wrote was that "...but I simply don’t see how EVs can ever be mainstream.". I am often wrong and don't have a problem admitting it, but if I am precisely in the target persona for a prospective buyer and yet have the concerns that I have after studying the issue as part of my evaluation, it suggests a problem for this category and consumer interviews do suggest the issue of range and complexity are holding buyers back. I would not argue that EVs are not more efficient, that is certainly fact and beyond debate. Given the torque output for traction motors these vehicles also have the potential to be more fun to drive as well. The Leaf looks like the best value going for right now, but I'm curious to know how your range is affected by weather and accessory usage (for example, if it is a cold and rainy day in December when you use your headlights longer vs. sunny in July)? Are you using mobile apps to locate charging stations and what do you do if you need to charge mid-day when you are out-and-around as opposed to parked and stationary?

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Tesla Lost the Minute Musk Tweeted

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:58:45 +0000

The horse and buggy metaphor is really tired, and not at all holistic as a metaphor either. The transition from horse to internal combustion was not a straightforward development. There were competing technologies to replace the horse, including, ironically, electric vehicles which like steam proved to be a less versatile and reliable form of transportation. Electric vehicles are not new, the documented history goes back to the 1830's. Fast forward to today and the EV again faces competitive threats, not the least of which is hybrid technology that overcomes the range and utility issues while providing the convenience and extended range of internal combustion. By the way, it's not like gas and diesel technology has been at a standstill, the development of high efficiency internal combustion engines continues on an impressive path and parallel developments in variable displacement engine technology is definitely in the mainstream, capturing performance and efficiency in one package. And then there is the waste heat that an internal combustion engine produces and the capacity to capture and convert that energy... perhaps Crower's 6 stroke engine technology will see light (4 strokes for gas, 2 strokes for steam)? Natural gas is ridiculously abundant and the conversion to a LNG/CNG infrastructure is linear, piggybacking on existing supply chains. Hydrogen fuel cells are ahead of schedule with 2 manufacturers offering production vehicles today, and more coming in 2014/15 model years... although the development of a hydrogen refueling infrastructure is not without its own complexity.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Windows 8 for a Mac User

Fri, 4 Jan 2013 18:47:41 +0000

Wow, lot of comments on this topic. I've been a full week on win8 and am still bullish, have only opened my macbook air this morning to transfer files in bulk and completely commit to the Asus. A couple of additional comments. I was really struggling with the touchpad on the Zenbook and yesterday I almost returned the machine. I dug into it and updated some drivers and voila that touchpad went from tragic to usable. It's still not up to the level that mac hardware delivers and point in fact an end user should never have to mess around with drivers and registry settings. Asus should never have shipped this touchpad in the shape it is in, especially when competing hardware like the Samsung can deliver a really good touchpad experience. I have figured out where all the necessary features are in Windows and feel comfortable with the corner gestures. It is becoming clear where they are going with this and I like the direction. Performance is fantastic, I could not be happier with how speedy everything is. The screen is a winner, by any measure, and it pleases me just to look at it. I thought fingerprints would bug me (it's one of "my things") but perhaps we have all become accustomed to fingerprints as a result of smartphone and tablet usage. I have some large sized microfiber cloths and a quick wipe takes care of anything particularly annoying. The windows app market is pretty crappy, I miss the selection of apps I get on Google Play and iTunes (although I really didn't load much stuff via iTunes). Most of the apps on the windows market are pretty lame... they should clean that up.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Customer Service: Getting the Basics Right

Tue, 7 Aug 2012 16:30:08 +0000

To be clear, I was in the aisle and then I went looking for someone to help... I only called the store as a last resort (I even walked to the customer support counter but they are only interested in selling you cigarettes and lottery tickets... funny how those two seem to go together). As for voice/data/sms consumption, it depends heavily on what demographic group you are in and research does show that customers want to have more options, e.g. SMS, for customer support than just voice. However, having said that it is important to recognize that when I absolutely need help now, as was my situation on Sunday, then voice is still the best option and what companies should do is optimize multiple channels of delivery in order to map to customer preferences and optimize loads so that when someone does call - defcon 5 - then someone is there and able to help.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : The Art of Pitchcraft

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:39:45 +0000

BTW, there is a music software product called Pitchcraft: http://www.bias-inc.com/products/masterPerfection...

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : The Art of Pitchcraft

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:47:48 +0000

No, sue me.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : SaaS 101: 15 Day Trials Suck

Wed, 3 Aug 2011 02:37:18 +0000

I think you are raising a good point but it also goes to the core of how you structure the product packaging and pricing. We stripped away add-ons last year and this simplified our operational issues, and provisioning, but the real impact was increasing customer satisfaction. Customers like a clear path to value. Another point is that not all subscriptions are equal, annual and monthly subscriptions have some key variables related to the nature of the contract that can complicate the up/downgrade paths. Zuora is a very solid offering and certainly lessens the challenges of subscription business models.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : SaaS 101: 15 Day Trials Suck

Tue, 2 Aug 2011 23:49:27 +0000

It's a good point, I've seen data that goes both ways so it's hard for me to offer a view on the efficacy of various trial periods. I would love to be able to A/B test that but I don't have access to the infrastructure to do that.

Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing : Groupon new customers or devastating discounts?

Mon, 6 Jun 2011 15:16:23 +0000

Don, You have provided a good summary. IMO the key question revolves around retailers and the data here is not encouraging. While admittedly anecdotal, if you speak with retailers who have run a Groupon promotion in the last 9 months you will find waning enthusiasm for the service. Many retailers I have spoken with point out that they went with Groupon on the premise of establishing an expanded base of repeat customers, only to find that the people who bought Groupon deals were one time buyers looking for a deal. Interestingly, Groupon's own data reveals a related trend, which is declining revenue per subscriber in established markets. This engagement dimension was also revealed in their Risks section of the S-1, where Groupon admitted that their customer database a high degree of dupes and unverified customers. I'm not one to subscribe to groupthink, in fact I am the consummate contrarian because I like to debate, but I also recognize that quite often groupthink is highly accurate for the same reason that Occam's Razor is a reliable theory, some things are obvious as a result of actual observation. I won't offer a forecast on their IPO, but I do think a lot of really interesting negative comments are being raised right now that are worth paying attention to.

PeteSearch : http://petewarden.typepad.com/searchbrowser/2011/05/facebook-and-twitter-logins-arent-enough.html?u

Wed, 11 May 2011 17:11:34 +0000

Hi Pete, Charlie is right, invest the time to ensure you are COPPA compliant, it's becoming a pretty big issue.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Social CRM at the Crossroads

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 20:28:58 +0000

not sure what happened to my post... I *fortunately* had a copy of it in Word because I wrote it on the train this morning, and was able to copy/paste it in. It's not exactly what I wrote the first go around but pretty close.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Mountain Lion Shot Dead

Fri, 8 Apr 2011 15:59:33 +0000

It seems pretty logical, according to Fish & Game the tranquilizer would not immediately and the animal could have attacked in the interim. I think there is another point that keeps getting missed here, this is an area with dense housing, there is nowhere for the animal to run to except another backyard. Yes, the deer population is becoming unsustainable and one proven tactic for controlling it is opening up the area to hunting.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Mountain Lion Shot Dead

Mon, 4 Apr 2011 02:54:56 +0000

It wasn't fleeing, it was in a backyard of a dense residential area (there is one wildlife throughfare in this area where an underground water pipe (Hetch Hetchy) is located and it's a few blocks away. This animal had to transit through a lot of backyards. This is probably the same mountain lion that has been triggering sightings and SMC alerts for the last few months, every other week on average (I get SMS messages). It's not PC but I'm glad it's gone, there is no space for mountain lions in these neighborhoods and I'm not apologetic about it either, I have no romantic notions about mountain lions in these parts. For the record, it's not a fleeing mountain lion that concerns me... but one that familiarizes itself with residential neighborhoods in my immediate proximity does.