We've been shipping the Tomato Tube as a sample on the WSO2 Mashup Server since before 1.0, but I think I'm going to try and convince Tyrell, the author, that maybe an IMDB based Mashup would be better. Why this sudden loss of credibility in my eyes I hear you ask? Rotten Tomatoes published a countdown of the Best Animated Films and there was not a single movie from Studio Ghibli in the top 10!
Now I'm perfectly fine with people not liking some of the books and movies I enjoy; I'm actually quite used to it because Sri Lanka isn't full of Science Fiction fans (I walked the length and breadth of the Colombo Book Fair last week and couldn't find a single book by Iain M. Banks, though there was a whole shelf full last year). I'll also be the first to admit that I'm not qualified to be a movie critic in any way, I just love watching them and know when I've enjoyed one more than another and why.
I'm not saying I didn't enjoy Toy Story 2, or any of the other movies in the top 10, because 'Finding Nemo' and 'Wall-E' would actually be in my top 10 too, but movies like Spirited Away, Grave of the Firefly or Howl's Moving Castle not making it in there is strange to say the least. If you read through the wiki pages, IMDB or just Google the titles, you'll see I'm not the only one who thinks they're great.
If the list was titled 'Best English Language Animated Films', I would have no issues with the selection. I should ideally run through the other 40 movies in the list and see if this is simply a mistake in the title of the list and there ARE only US/UK movies there, but I really don't think I should risk it. If I see Castle in the Sky ranked lower than, say, 'Barbie Fairytopia' I might just throw something at the monitor or whatever and be the ultimate loser!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Pressure sales vs. open source...
There was this vacuum cleaner salesman who managed to 'gain entry' to our apartment while we were living in Dubai, under the pretext of giving us some gift we had won in a raffle. The adage about vampires also applies to commission driven door-to-door salesmen - you DO NOT invite them into the house! He seemed so passionate about what he claimed to be the greatest vacuum cleaner in the world, which used space age technology and had a few hundred attachments, one of which would even give me a back rub or foot massage!
Now explaining the features of a product is good, but every time I asked him how much it cost, just to find out whether it was within our budget, he kept telling us about another feature or attachment! It was getting to a point where I would have to start being openly rude to him because I knew that there was no way I could afford all the 'free accessories' included and this guy just wasn't going to leave until we had committed to buying the product. Fortunately Navindee was 1+ at the time and when she got hungry nothing stood in her way - including our mafia salesman. He finally told us how much it cost (a little more than what my first car was worth) and we said 'no thanks' - obviously.
Why am I ranting about this now? It's apparently this approach to sales, where people are paid to push crap with no interest in the customer's actual needs or a long term relationship that's screwing up the world economy! The salesman I spoke about spent more than an hour doing his pitch and had I given in, I would have been holding onto an electric fan with a filter and 300 accessories I would never use, feeling like a sucker, while he would have been laughing all the way to the bank!
The typical open source way of doing business is the diametric opposite of this, where there is no sale or money made up front - we only make money if the customer wants a relationship. The customer downloads the product, tries it out and if it suits his or her needs, pays for support and/or services.
Open source products depend on actually providing value because we can't depend on hype and a cool marketing campaign to get the customer to pay us - there is no shrink wrapped box that we can push someone to buy. We're paid only if we deliver a great product that actually meets the customer's needs. Now everyone could figure out a formula that makes it mandatory to think of long term benefits to the customer, I'm sure we could prevent future financial meltdowns!
I've heard the open source movement being labeled as not being capitalist, but I say it is; the person with the best product and services offering will ultimately get paid. It just doesn't reward pressure selling and hype, which screws the customer and ultimately the supplier as well, which I think is capitalism gone mad!
For further reading, Jonathan wrote a post that will give you an idea of how a user of open source software can reward the creator without spending a cent, and this article talks about Open Source SOA offerings out there, including ours.
Now explaining the features of a product is good, but every time I asked him how much it cost, just to find out whether it was within our budget, he kept telling us about another feature or attachment! It was getting to a point where I would have to start being openly rude to him because I knew that there was no way I could afford all the 'free accessories' included and this guy just wasn't going to leave until we had committed to buying the product. Fortunately Navindee was 1+ at the time and when she got hungry nothing stood in her way - including our mafia salesman. He finally told us how much it cost (a little more than what my first car was worth) and we said 'no thanks' - obviously.
Why am I ranting about this now? It's apparently this approach to sales, where people are paid to push crap with no interest in the customer's actual needs or a long term relationship that's screwing up the world economy! The salesman I spoke about spent more than an hour doing his pitch and had I given in, I would have been holding onto an electric fan with a filter and 300 accessories I would never use, feeling like a sucker, while he would have been laughing all the way to the bank!
The typical open source way of doing business is the diametric opposite of this, where there is no sale or money made up front - we only make money if the customer wants a relationship. The customer downloads the product, tries it out and if it suits his or her needs, pays for support and/or services.
Open source products depend on actually providing value because we can't depend on hype and a cool marketing campaign to get the customer to pay us - there is no shrink wrapped box that we can push someone to buy. We're paid only if we deliver a great product that actually meets the customer's needs. Now everyone could figure out a formula that makes it mandatory to think of long term benefits to the customer, I'm sure we could prevent future financial meltdowns!
I've heard the open source movement being labeled as not being capitalist, but I say it is; the person with the best product and services offering will ultimately get paid. It just doesn't reward pressure selling and hype, which screws the customer and ultimately the supplier as well, which I think is capitalism gone mad!
For further reading, Jonathan wrote a post that will give you an idea of how a user of open source software can reward the creator without spending a cent, and this article talks about Open Source SOA offerings out there, including ours.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
How to upgrade your WSO2 Mashup Server and why
The past month has been fairly fruitful in terms of publications related to the WSO2 Mashup Server, with Keith, Tyrell and Ayanthi doing an article each and Jonathan running a webinar. That's the 'why'; to see the features Jonathan talks about and try the examples provided by Keith and Tyrell, you need to be running version 1.5! There's also a bunch of other cool new features in 1.5 that we're yet to write about, that you can discover by using the product or reading the documentation - consider them a bonus!
Now the 'how'. If you've not got any data in your existing WSO2 Mashup Server that you want to preserve across an upgrade, it's a simple matter of uninstalling/deleting the old and installing the new, just backing up your old Mashups and adding them to the new server. If, however, you have user info, ratings or comments that you want to preserve, you need to follow these instructions.
Have fun with 1.5!
Now the 'how'. If you've not got any data in your existing WSO2 Mashup Server that you want to preserve across an upgrade, it's a simple matter of uninstalling/deleting the old and installing the new, just backing up your old Mashups and adding them to the new server. If, however, you have user info, ratings or comments that you want to preserve, you need to follow these instructions.
Have fun with 1.5!
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