Tralfaz

Author: geoffand

  • The City (San Francisco)

    The City (San Francisco)

    This week, I spent a couple of days up in San Francisco. There was a big trade show, SPIE Optics and Photonics West at the Moscone center.

    As always, it was YUUUUUUUGE in the colloquialism of The Donald. Three halls, and seemingly a thousand exhibitors. Cameras, Software, Lenses, a LOT of lasers, and everything else that might be related to optics and optical devices.

    Since I know a lot of people in this space, it was good to get up there to reconnect, and to catch up. I was there Tuesday and Thursday, and met with a lot of people, getting some leads. Good stuff. (more…)

  • Product Management Truths

    Product Management Truths

    Being in the product management / product marketing game a long time, these are some truths that have been constants across my career. Time and time again, there are the same challenges, and I suspect that many of you have similar or related tales. This is by far not a complete list, but it is a start.

    Here goes: (more…)

  • Skype fun

    Skype fun

    Way back in 2008 or 2009, I worked at a place that wanted everybody to use Skype for instant messaging, and for impromptu phone calls. Ostensibly to “save money”. So I was a good doobie, and got me a Skype account. My handle is gander2112.

    I used it off and on for a year or so, then I left, and frankly, except for when someone insisted upon using it, I didn’t even have it installed on my computer.

    Last summer, I got a few people hitting me through non-standard channels that my Skype account was spamming them. Alas, it had gotten hacked, and taken over. (more…)

  • Five little words

    Five little words

    Five little words. “That feature doesn’t sell products“. Seems innocuous enough, but it is the death of product development when uttered by engineering.

    Product Management is tasked with defining what a product should do, what features are needed, and how to compare/differentiate vis-a-vis with the competitors. We write requirements, and guide them into and through the development process.

    All to have engineering remove features that they don’t believe drive value. Unfortunately, engineering often isn’t cognizant the concept of “whole product“. That beyond the core widget are the services and traits of the product that extend the offering, and provide the unique value proposition, thus enticing the customer to choose to purchase your product or service. (more…)

  • Review: The Story of Maths

    Review: The Story of Maths

    A couple of weeks ago, I got a “recommendation” from Netflix about a show called “The Story of Maths“, so I tossed it on my list to watch.

    Last night, I was playing bachelor, so I fired it up. It is a BBC created series, with 4 one hour episodes (57 – 58 minutes each), with an engaging host, Marcus du Sautoy, who provides a lively narration. I watched the first two episodes (The Language of the Universe, and The Genius of the East), and was impressed.

    The focus is on the story, and he tells a (brief) compelling tale around the origins of mathematics, and the contributions of the Babylonians, the Egyptians, and the Greeks in the first episode, and then moves into the Chinese, Indians and Arabs in the second, before the West becomes a significant contributor. (more…)

  • Attributes of a Product Manager

    Attributes of a Product Manager

    The role of Product Manager is demanding in any organization. The list of what it takes to be successful is long, and daunting. A great product manager is a great communicator, has technical chops, can climb enormous learning curves with ease, and can contribute at all levels in the organization, from the production floor to the C-suite.

    Often I am asked “Where do you find good product management candidates?” or “How do I become a product manager?”. Not easy questions to answer, and I have posts elsewhere to answer specifically. (more…)

  • Oops – medications

    As a heart attack survivor, I monitor my blood pressure every day. I wake up, fire up the coffee maker, and then sit down to measure my blood pressure. I take it three times, to make sure that it is consistent.

    I take a variety of medications, an ACE inhibitor and a Beta blocker for my blood pressure. I also take a statin, and a anticoagulant, as well as an 81mg aspirin.

    I average a little below 120/80 (often in the 117/77 range), so when I measured at 139/101, 143/97, and 137/99 this AM, I was a bit concerned.

    I checked my pill organizer, and oops, I missed my meds last night.

    I have forgotten it twice in 6 years. Clearly, I will never be able to go off my meds.

    (of course, I had a touch of insomnia last night too. Probably related.)

  • Foiled by old tech – FAX

    Foiled by old tech – FAX

    We are doing some financial things, and needed to send some important documents. As many of my old friends at Open Text would not be surprised by, I needed to Fax these documents. Scan and email is not acceptable, it had to be a fax.

    Not a big deal, we have Comcast with a voice line, and an old but very serviceable Brother Fax machine. It has served us well for probably 15 years.

    I printed, filled out, and signed the forms, extracted the Fax machine from the hidey hole it was stuffed into, and connected it to our POTS port on our Cisco cable modem/router.

    Dialed the number, it range, answered, and negotiated the line. All seemed good.

    Key word: "Seemed".

    Alas, after 5 minutes, and not completing the first page, I hung up and tried again.

    No dice. Alas, my suspicion is that the POTS port is not really a full telephone line, analog converted to 64kbps, but more likely a VoIP compressed optimized for voice 8kbps channel. Pretty common, but it does mean that things that expect the full bandwidth (like modems and fax machines) will error like crazy.

    So, off to the FedEx office, and $2.00 a page later the fax was sent.

    Fax isn't dead, but POTS lines are on life support.

  • Bad times – iPhone died

    Bad times – iPhone died

    When you wake up in the morning and see that your iPhone is giving you a “No SIM detected” error, you know it is going to be a bad day.

    My iPhone 5s is well aged, but it has performed quite well for almost 2.5 years. I was hoping to get another year out of it, but alas, it decided to give up the ghost.

    It worked well, but the “No SIM” error was a harbinger of doom. It is not an uncommon problem in this version, and the last time, the “trick” of turning on and off Airplane mode worked to snap it out of its doldrums. Alas, this time, no such luck.

    The next step was to head to the AT&T store and try a known good SIM card, so at 10:00 AM, I was off to the local retailer (about a 5 minute drive.)

    No dice. (more…)

  • Formal Web Presence

    As I am looking to create a more formal, shall we say “professional” web presence, I am learning a few things.

    First, while my personal sites (like here) are self hosted, and currently managed by myself on Digital Ocean, I want something where I know that if I screw up I don’t lose it all.

    There are plenty of options, but as I am familiar with WordPress, and even got my start on wordpress.com, their hosted solution, I decided to go straight to it as a solution.

    wordpressI get a lot of benefits for this decision. They handle any security issues, they back up my content, and they keep it all up to date. I have a domain, prodbistro.com, I paid for a year of google apps (to get the email), and it was a simple click, click, click process.

    Of course, there are limitations. You can’t add plugins ad hoc. You can’t use themes that you buy elsewhere. You don’t get to add things like Google analytics. Inconvenient, but not fatal.

    Of course, I am currently using a free theme, and have tried several of them. They don’t suck, but they are quite limited. I am good while I am building my presence, but I can see myself opening my wallet and buying a premium theme.

    There is a benefit of buying one of the wordpress.com premium themes, they host the support, and from browsing the support forums, it looks like the support is quite efficient.

    However, my web presence is rising, and I am working on polishing my words, and preparing my offerings.