Silly, Silly Patent Nonsense Some news floated around the email marketing world yesterday that is potentially disturbing and destructive but highlights some lunacy at the same time. I hope I’m getting enough of the details right here (and quite frankly that isn’t a joke, which it feels like). Tom DiStefano of Boca-based PerfectWeb Technologies is suing direct marketing behemoth InfoUSA for patent infringement of a business process patent for bulk email distribution that he received in 2003. I will first issue my disclaimers that I’m not a patent lawyer (nor do I even play one on TV) and that I have only quickly read both the legal complaint and the patent. But my general take on this is that it’s…
Archives / April, 2007
These Things Do Take Lots of Care and Feeding
These Things Do Take Lots of Care and Feeding Pete Blackshaw wrote a really thoughtful piece in ClickZ today entitled “Ten Reasons Why I Should Stop Blogging.” It’s a good read if you’re a middle of the road blogger…or particularly if you’re thinking about starting a new blog.
Calling for the Boss’s Head
Calling for the Boss’s Head Maybe it’s just a heightened sense of awareness on my part, but I feel like our culture has really turned up the time-to-fire-the-boss-o-meter to a new level of late. What is going on that has caused the media and vocal people among us feel this thirst for public lynchings over a single incident? The list isn’t small — just in recent weeks or months, you have Rumsfeld, Dunn (HP), Gonzales, Imus, Wolfowitz, and even last week, Snyder (Vonage). And I’m sure there are a dozen others, both corporate and political, that I’m not dredging up mentally here on a Sunday night. Now I’m all for accountability, believe me, but sometimes it doesn’t help an organization…
Highs and Lows, Part II
Highs and Lows, Part II A couple years ago, I wrote about the Highs and Lows of entrepreneurship, and how you didn’t just have to steel yourself mentally for a roller coaster of highs and lows, but that you had to really prepare for the whiplash of having the highs and lows hit you at the same time. My sequel to the original post was inspired by some conversations with my colleague George Bilbrey this week. It used to be that when the high/low whiplash occurred, while I probably shared either the high or the low with someone in the company, it was unlikely that I shared both. So other individuals might see a high or a low, de rigeur…