Monthly Archives: June 2007

Our 56 pound 9 year old can beat yours.

By
Steve Poppe
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0
Here on Long Island lives a little phenom by the name of Victor M. De Leon III (don’t forget the III part.)  Victor is a 56 lb. 9 years old and though that almost sounds sub-Saharan, he is a very healthy kid.   What makes this little boy unique is that he is quite the gamer.  If you know what Halo is, you probably know “Lil’ Poison (his gamer name.) When I was 9, I couldn’t spell poison.
 
While most 56 lb. 9 year olds around the world are foraging, this little dude is kicking some major ass in his Holbrook basement. Oh yeah, he also has just about paid for college with gaming tournament winning. He’s been on “60 Minutes.” And he has more frequent flier miles than your average business exec.  Today his amazingly determined face is on the front page of the New York Times.
 
While the adults are debating whether Victor will grow up to shoot people in the head with real bullets, or become an anti-social nerd with half a friend, Victor is taking the world by storm. Who deserves the publicity more, Lil’ Poison or Paris Hilton (also about 56 lbs. and sitting in a basement.)? Go Victor Go!
 

Avandia

By
Steve Poppe
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0
I’m sure glad I don’t have type 2 diabetes. If I did and was taking GlaxoSmithKline’s medicine Avandia, I’d have to be doing a lot of talking to my doctor according to the drug’s safety information. It said so in a letter published today by GSK’s chief medical officer Ronald Krall in which he states that Avandia is safe as far as he knows.  Except, that is, for the swelling, brittle bones, exacerbation of heart problems, swelling in the back of the eyes, pregnancy complications, breathing issues, etc.  
 
So let me get this straight — while I’m sitting for an hour in the doctor’s office waiting to  see the doc and the pretty young women with the pearly whites and tray of luncheon meats cuts the line , she’s telling the physician about all of these side effects?  I don’t think so.  That would be bad for sales. GlaxoSmithKline is putting it on me to know all the side effects of its products? I’m supposed to play 20 questions with my doctor? Pharmaceutical companies can’t publish pages of side effects and expect normal people to read them. Somebody is not doing their job and I’m betting it’s the FDA.
 
There was a time when my doctor knew if a medicine was safe for me. Not any more.
 

Are you a poster or paster?

By
Steve Poppe
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0
There are two primary types of people involved in social computing today: posters and pasters. 
 
Posters generate original content for the Web. Many are bloggers. They write about themselves, their experiences, opinions and values. Posters may create and edit videos. Posters are also artists. They share their photography, paintings, music and other musings. (One of my favorite posters is Brooklyn’s Marie Lorenz of the Tide and Current Taxi http://www.marielorenz.com/tideandcurrenttaxi.php.)  Posters are responsible for the surge in consumer generated content found all over the Web and are the lifeblood of social computing.
 
Pasters, on the other hand, are the people who search the Web for interesting stuff so they can share it. The first people who sent jokes and video around the Web were pasters. Today’s pasters are Web filters and repurposers — finding, cutting, pasting and mashing up content. They have websites, social networking spaces and are voracious communicators.  Pasters may also be bloggers; they just aggregate and post content others have written. Think of them as reporters. Pasters may not be the lifeblood of social networking, but they are certainly the body. Pasters are the mass in the massively growing social computing phenomenon.
 

A good ear for PCs.

By
Steve Poppe
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0
Todd Bradley, the head of Hewlett Packard’s PC business has affected quite a turnaround at a company that had for too long on run on printer powder. Business journalist accounts of the turnaround are manifold; many of which pin the success on a renewed retail strategy. I, for one, believe the turnaround is due to the man in charge. When Mr. Bradley stepped in, he left the comfort of his office. He toured production facilities, talked to production teams, suppliers, channel partners and consumers. He asked questions and then listened for the answers. When patterns of information started to form, the big picture issues emerged and he began to made decisions. Where are we weak? Where are we strong? What can I fix near-term? Long-term?  What do I want to be known for tomorrow? What do people want today?
 
Here’s a man who knew what questions to ask and to whom he should address them. And he listened. In deference to multivariate statistical analysis, sometimes a good ear is all it takes to turn around a business.
 
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