Posing as a Rebel

Sometimes I think of the extra curricular activities I participate in and wonder if I am trying to be something I am not.

Here's one way people may look at me: The Conservative Nice Guy

• a middle-class white american male
  
• an every sunday church goer
• son of parents who are still married and both college graduates
• a conservative when it comes to most political opinions
• senior class president of my high school class
• president of the largest religious organization on my college campus
• college graduate
• gainfully employed
  
• took out some additional life insurance on my wife and myself last month
  
• wear a suit and tie frequently
  
• most people who know me would describe me as a nice guy (I think)

Here is how other's may see me as: The Liberal and kind of a Rebel

• married to a liberal social worker (who I love not despite, but because of her opinions)
• I rode a skateboard to class most of college
  
• snowboard, not skis
  
• listen to punk music
• own and ride a motorcycle
• rarely tuck my shirt in (kills my dad)
• play frisbee golf (hippie game)
• rock climber
• work for an open source software company
  
• have a hard time shaving frequently
• I sold pest control as a door-to-door salesman for 3 years

At times I think there are some conflicting sides to the person that I am. I have thought about all the labels that are running around out there and wonder if they are good or bad for society. In some ways it helps people gain a sense of belonging. In the words of Reel Big Fish, "everyone who looks like me is my friend."

But it can also cause segregation and classes. We have all seen a teen movie and can pick out the jocks, nerds and popular kids from one another. This happened in my High School in a not so obvious way. A younger brother of mine was recently labeled as a Cerd = Cool + Nerd, by some girls who couldn't figure out what kind of kid he is. Another brother was called a hippie by a teacher because he rock climbs and has longer hair (this brother reads Micheal Savage books for fun).

I guess the point of my ranting today is that we should be slow to judge who people are, or just try to leave labels out of it. I just went to Christmas Party at a friends house where my friends were trading Magic the Gathering cards, talking about WOW (World of Warcraft for the non-geeks out there) and the girls were discussing their latest photo album of pictures of themselves as fairies, called 'fairy books' (not that there is anything wrong with those activities. These are some of my A level friends.

Just my quick take on labels.

Skype and other great Voip services

Many of you have probably heard of Skype. It is a service that allows you to make phone calls over the internet to landlines and other skype users, either for free or for a very affordable fee ($14.95 for a year). I also use it for IM and sending files. I have been using Skype for over a year and can't express how valuable it has been. I have a fairly open crush on Skype.

But there are some other services out there that allow consumers to make phone calls over the internet either for free or for a great price. I thought I would list a few just to get the word out.

*Before you go trying these, make sure you are not using dial-up, it just isn't worth it.

Just another great product from Google. They have about anything you want and give it to you normally for no cost. This is an IM service, Call service and allows you to send files easily. I don't think it allows you to call to landlines yet, but it is a great service.

Palore takes a different approach. It is a browser plug-in that works with IE or FireFox. It searches company phone numbers and gives you a review of that company/restaurant in a pop-up window. Then it lets you call the number from the pop-up window. A great product if you are looking for a restaurant on a business trip in a city you are unfamiliar with. I am excited about this one.

With some clever marketing Vonage has become the leader in taking Voip into people's home. Plans start at $14.99 and they are trying to replace the traditional home phone line. I am not a big fan, but it is a simple option to get off whoever is charging your $30 a month to have a home phone #.


This looks to be one of the more promising communications programs. It allows you to talk, conference, text message, IM (Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Google, Skype, ICQ), file transfer, email support, offline messaging, and dial-out services to landlines for a small fee. That is a pretty promising list.

I am really excited about where the industry is going. I think there will be more and more impressive changes in how we communicate in the near future.

Television on the Web

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SaaS (Software as a Service)

I am always interested in how great ideas come about. One of the most best ideas and movements in the software industry lately is Software as a Service (go here for a definition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_Service). I am a CRM program administrator that uses SalesForce.com. I can log-in securely to our companies data from any computer in the world. There have been many occasions when I have been away from my computer, or my computer decided not to work and I could log onto the internet and do my work.

I thought I would list a view great SaaS vendors.
www.salesforce.com
www.sugarcrm.com
www.webex.com
www.atroad.com
www.google.com (docs & spreadsheets, calender, blogger, etc.)

There are a few drawbacks to SaaS. Companies will need to build infrastructures to keep up with demand. If the servers go down or something else happens that hinders a users experience, customers will go elsewhere. The great thing about the software industry today is that you can get the entire LAMP (linux, apache, MySQL & perl/php) stack for little or no coat. This allows companies to purchase commodity hardware and load a stack of hardware for a fairly inexpensive cost.

The more and more the internet moves towards Web 2.0, the more companies will start moving towards SaaS. If you are building a company, make sure to look into saving costs with vendors that provide Software as a Service.

Right to Work in Idaho

There is always some talk in Idaho about how horrible it is that we are a Right to Work state. My uncle is a proud Union member and my father and he have some great debates about this subject. While I realize that Unions helped shape the good working standards we have in this country, I don't think anyone should be forced into a Union. Here are some basic stats about unemployment that might let people know that Right to Work is not all that bad.

The following is taken from a U.S. Department of Labor report (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/laus_10202006.pdf). The unemployment rates shown are only those that are significantly different from the national average.

Unemployment Rates

United States 4.6%

Right to Work States (that are significantly different than the national average)
Idaho 3.3%
Utah 2.8%
Nevada 4.0%
Wyoming 3.6%
Alabama 3.3%
Florida 3.2%
Arizona 3.7%
Iowa 3.4%
North Dakota 3.1%
Mississippi 7.2%
Virginia 3.2%
South Carolina 6.4%
South Dakota 3.2%
Nebraska 3.1%
Average 3.5%

Forced-Unionism States (that are significantly different than the national average)
Oregon 5.4%
New Hampshire 3.2%
Michigan 7.1%
Minnesota 3.8%
Washington 5.3%
Montana 3.6%
Minnesota 3.8%
Alaska 6.6%
Ohio 5.3%
Vermont 3.7%
Hawaii 2.5%
D.C. 5.9%
Delaware 3.7%
Average 4.6%

It seems that there is a correlation between Forced-Unionism States and higher unemployment rates. I am grateful to live in Idaho and believe that it will continue to be a great place to live as long as people think resonably about the causes they support. There is a wealth of information out there. Before you jump on a bandwagon, please do some research.

Just my quick take on Right to Work in Idaho.

Political Marketing

It is the day after the elections and I am a little disappointed in the Marketing efforts of the Idaho candidates. I can't believe how many lame ads on my TV I sat through about how bad a candidates opponent will be for Idaho. Gerry Brady's entire campaign was how both He and Idaho are not for sale. A slam on Butch Otter's once position that Idaho should sell some public land. Of course Butch couldn't just leave it alone, he had is own slew of ads slamming Brady.

I wish politicians would live by three simple rules.

• Tell me why you are qualified for the job.
• Tell me what side of the major issues you are on.
• Tell me what your most important goals are when you are in office.

I think election day would be much easier if every candidate would follow these simple steps. Perhaps there could be a few less red, white, blue and (insert a bright color here) posters on every street corner as well. Too much clutter. I guess most importantly I want people to represent what they stand for and if elected, do what you said you were going to do and make a concerted effort to find out what the people want. I think once elected, some government officials forget who they are there for.

Just my quick take on political candidates.

Five Things I would change about Boise State, my Alma Mater

I graduated from Boise State University with a degree in marketing in December of 2005. I enjoyed my time there and think that the university has many great programs. But I do have to shake my head at a few disappointing things that need to change at my alma matter.

1) The College of Business and Economics (COBE) Website - http://cobe.boisestate.edu/ I guess my main issue with the site is that is looks like someones first website. Perhaps they grabbed a template and added a few different links. All I know is that anyone that is looking into attending Boise State for it's business program is probably thinking the same thing. I understand that BSU is a state college and most student commute from the Treasure Valley, but if the university is going to become a metropolitan research university, upgrade and put some class in the websites.

2) www.BroncoSports.com - I realize that you are trying to promote the Logo for Boise State, but the website is too busy and gives me a headache. Please clean it up a bit. It just doesn't look clean.

3) Better Technical Solutions - Using Oracle and many other propriety software solutions is great for a lot of what Boise State needs. I would like to hear about a cost saving method using Open Source Software to reduce costs.

4) Tuition - I would like the students to have a better understanding of what they are paying for with their Tuitions fees. Go look at what your tuition and fees pays for. If you don't like it, go talk to the ASBSU front office in the sub and find out how you can get involved. Attending one of the Budget planning meetings (open to the public) is an interesting event.

5) Boise State Football - This is more of a rant on fans. Please do not participate in the 'wave'. I can't stand it. I have recently read a few articles on the wave and it's origin. I am sick of it. I am an Oakland A's fan and loved the wave during a slow 3rd inning. But if I get interrupted in the 3rd quarter on a visiting teams' 3rd and long situation by some dumb kids in the student section waving their arms because the wave is coming through, I am going to do and/or say something harsh. And I don't want to do it. Save the wave for halftime if you must do it.
__________________________________________________________________

These are my simple thoughts on what Boise State could do to better the situation and just make me a happier Alumni. I know I haven't contributed anything yet, but these would give me some compelling reasons to do so when I get the extra cash.

Thanks for the diploma and the education BSU, now win me a BCS game.

Novell Brainshare 2006: Booth Babes and Giveaways

Last week I attended the 2006 Novell Brainshare in SLC, UT. This was the first conference of this type that I have attended. It was an eye opening event for me seeing the benefits and disadvantages of attending a conference. Novell did a great job with the event as far as a sponsor is concerned. There was a lot of traffic through the sponsor hall and even an event one night in the sponsor hall. But the most interesting aspect of the event to me was Booth Babes and Giveaways.

Booth Babes, by my definition, are the attractive paid help that boost your booth from a nice piece of marketing to a magnet for bored geeks. Sure these girls might have some product knowledge, and might even know enough about the products to peak interest and boost sales. But the real reason for Booth Babes: stop a geek in there tracks and get them to your booth.

The best example I have is Tuesday night at Brainshare. In the sponsor hall there was Disco night. This included a 6 foot disco ball, music and all the food, beer and wine you could get. There is nothing better than a geek with three or four beers in him asking you about which platform is best to run your cluster solutions. You would think that with all of the giveaways going on (Plasma TV’s, PSP’s and iPods) that the giveaway booths would be stuffed with people. But the big buzz was coming from the Blackbird booth.

I have no idea what Blackbird software does. My brother-in-law claimed that they were the hottest Booth Babes and they definately attracted the most people at Brainshare’s Disco Night. Their Babes were dressed up in some great disco era outfits, showing off their assets and dancing to the music. Blackbird set their booth up so that anyone could take a picture with there Babes with a Blackbird background to boot. What amazed me was the line for getting your picture taken with these girls. It stretched back crowding the entire room on the south side. You could barely walk over there. I am not sure how many leads they got, but they sure attracted the middle-aged white males that made up 80% of the demographics at the conference.

So I guess the results of my conference experience is that Sponsors should spend their money on Booth Babes not Giveaways, if your objective is to get people at your booth. The ROI of both is questionable at best. I got a free jump drive and skype headset from companies I will never purchase from.

I had a good time at Brainshare and our company got quite a few good leads. I am sure we will go again and again because MySQL is used so much in Novell products. I may even attend again myself next year. Who wouldn't want to attend a conference held in SLC?

First Blog

This will be the first blog of many for me. I will soon be using my education and life experiences in a work environment. I am a graduate of Boise State University in Business Marketing. I wanted to start blogging about my work experiences and other thoughts about Marketing and Technology.

I work for MySQL, the world's most popular open-source database. I was recently promoted to a Marketing Manger position for the company. This will involve many diverse responsibilities and challenges. I will be working with some extremely talented and well know people in the industry. While at college, most of my courses focused on advertising and campaigns for Consumer products. Towards the end of my University experience I took some classes that opened my thoughts to other aspects of marketing. Specifically a class on Customer Relationship Mangement (CRM) and Internet Marketing Strategy. It was nice to learn some things that were somewhat new to college curriculum yet important in the market place. This helped me quite a bit moving from an entry-level sales position to an opportunity in the marketing department of my company.

I look forward to moving into this position and will continue to voice my opinion about various aspects of Marketing in the Database and Technology market. Don't hesitate to give me your feedback.

Rich Taylor