Review: Beware the Hype for Software as a Service

I first stumbled across the article Beware the Hype for Software as a Service when I read Dharmesh's rant pertaining to how awful this article was on OnStartups Blog. My first thought is quite simply when did Business Week begin inviting non high school graduates to write for their publications? One thing that I remember from high school is we were taught to research a topic before we write about it. This article has developed such an outcry from techie entrepreneur's that it lead me to my thought that maybe this was intentional. Maybe the author was taking advice from Dosh Dosh's article on How to Say Nothing in 500 Words, particularly the point #2 "Take the less usual side." But this is under the assumption that the author uses real information to back up their claim, not "SUVs are not cool. They never were." (Which I have to make a personal note here, when my wife and I found we were expecting our 3rd child, we had to upgrade, and gas prices being what they were, we purchased a 2004 Ford Expedition with the Eddie Baur edition with 50,000 miles for over $10,000 less than what a brand new minivan would have cost. I love our SUV and it has more features than I could have afforded otherwise. Thank you high gas prices! FYI, for work driving I drive a 10 year old Jetta (35mpg)) Despite whether it was intentional or not, lets move on with dispelling this article for what it is, an attempt of someone who is using scare tactics to "stop time" and prevent the natural evolution of software delivery. But before I begin my rebuttal, from the views expressed by Mr. Marks, email, online stock brokers, Google, GoToMeeting, and etc are all bad because they are not Federally insured...

• "Microsoft Vista is not a failure" - no, really it was not a failure... so explain to me Mr. Marks how when releasing new software, your market share goes down does not mean it is a failure? Yea they sold 150 million copies.. but that is peanuts to how many copies of XP have been sold, plus most people are being forced into Vista because MS will not sell anything else. Apple has been gaining market share for a while, in fact in October of 07 it was announced that they have gained 2% market share. Employees of MS have even publicly stated that Vista is a "work in progress"... all this ='s failure to me.
• "Myth 1: SaaS is cheaper" - your answer here should have been not always... but most of the time it is. Ok in comparison, Quickbooks can cost $300 a license. To use his example, 10 users would cost $3000. With Freshbooks it will cost you $1068. Quickbooks releases new versions once a year with new features (and you have to pay another $3000), Freshbooks releases new features whenever they want (you may see one next time you log in, no additional charge).
• "Myth 2: SaaS reduces hardware investment" "you still need fast access to the Internet."- What an idiot... access to the internet is not hardware! Anyways it truly does reduce hardware investment. Most SaaS applications can be accessed via an internet enabled cell phone. I bet your cell phone cost a lot less than your computer? What reduction of IT hardware does create is an environment where you do not have to be tied down to an office. True mobility comes from being able to access your data from anywhere, including allowing your staff to do the same. That is a key benefit of SaaS and decreased requirement for hardware.
• "Myth 3: SaaS is quicker to setup" - Gene, find a new job, please. What does Ikea furniture have to do with software? Despite the author's feeble attempts at discrediting the model of SaaS, SaaS is easier to setup. Think of it this way, when you needed Quickbooks, you had to call Intuit or drive to Office Depot. When you need Freshbooks, you type www.freshbooks.com into your web browser. Now if your homepage is Google you can save some keystrokes and just type freshbooks into the search box. This does not even consider what it is like for a company to implement an ERP system such as Oracle's Applications... much of the time any employee who will use it will have to receive training on how to navigate the interface and know what codes to enter to get a desired result. Not to mention usually 6 to 18 months to implement software of this nature. Good luck with that.
• "Myth 4: Your data is secure and backed up" - Gene, do you have aluminum foil covering the ceiling and windows in your bedroom? I also ask you this Gene, how many times have you left it up to your staff to swap the tapes in your tape backup or make manual backups of your data and they screwed up? Most SaaS providers make your data their highest priority. I am not going to say that it is 100% secure, but nowadays nothing is. Hell your identity used to be hijacked by someone going thru your garbage and looking for a void or torn up check.
• "Myth 5:" - WHAT? Software needs to be FDIC insured if you are going to use it? That doesn't make any sense. Currently working for a provider of Online Banking Software, the rules are not different. In fact, there are screwups here almost every week. Majority of them caused by user error which result in having to restore tables or refresh data from the core system. But your data here is no more secure here than in Google's servers or SalesForce's.

If you read the fine print:

Gene Marks, CPA, is the owner of the Marks Group, which sells customer relationship, service, and financial management tools to small and midsize businesses. Marks is the author of four best-selling small business books and writes the popular "Penny Pincher's Almanac" syndicated column. He frequently speaks to business groups on penny-pinching topics. More penny-pinching advice from Marks can be found at www.xxxxxxx.com

(I refuse to put in his web address to possibly improve his search rankings.) Conclusion After looking at his website, he says he hates spending money on technology but he owns a technology company??? He markets his company thru the use of webinars, video tips, a monthly newsletter and whitepapers. Not to mention his website has a nice design to it. Gene Marks is nothing more than a fool, but one who is decent at marketing. The first line on his website states that he hates spending money on technology, which from the above is obviously a lie, he just hates spending money on new technology. What he has done here has created a controversy, he has written about a topic that many tech enthusiasts hold dear which has boosted his traffic. He plays on fears that are commonly held amongst less technology educated people and builds their trust through feeling like they are not alone. He takes them by the hand, and then most likely robs them blind with costs for server hardware, server setup, configuration services, licensing fees and support contracts. It is disappointing that BusinessWeek would let such a joke fly thru the net of their established organization. I honestly expect better. Chris *note: I am founder of a SaaS company which makes me biased, but I have been down the road and seen quite a bit, I am harsh on Gene Marks' article because it offends BusinessWeek subscribers' intelligience to think that this is good journalism.

HowTo: Index a ColdFusion Site for Search with VSpider

So in my studies of learning ColdFusion and working on my first few projects, I came into an issue. I was redeveloping the public website for the company I am currently working for. The previous site was poorly built with little or no code reuse ability and quite a bit of static navigation and content.

I redesigned and developed the entire site. When I finished I entered the coldfusion administrator and re indexed the search collection. I performed a search to test it and was immediately alarmed. My search results were displaying code... I was confused and immediately grabbed my book on ColdFusion to learn that the built in search indexing collection could be prepared two ways, by reading the raw source code and indexing it (which is fine for completely static pages) or by using the search spider that is built in from Verity.

The clear solution is to use the Verity Spider. So this post is dedicated to how I was able to index my dynamically generated site with the Verity Spider.

1. Make your site available on localhost, even if your site will not stay there. For example, http://localhost/mysite/


2. Create a text file called mysiteCmds.txt and save it to the verity folder within the ColdFusion directory. For Example, C:\ColdFusion8\verity\mysiteCmds.txt


3. In this document will be all of your commands for the vspider such as starting point, files to exclude from the index and so on. For Example, mine looks like the following:
   

   
   -style c:\ColdFusion8\verity\Data\stylesets\ColdFusionVspider
   -collection c:\ColdFusion8\verity\collections\mysite
   -exclude http://localhost/mysite/admin/*
   -indmimeexclude text/css
   -start http://localhost/mysite/index.cfm
   -cgiok



4. Then I open up the command prompt (start->run->cmd) and run the following line,

   vspider -cmdfile c:\ColdFusion8\verity\mysiteCmds.txt



5. Then you need to navigate to the CF Administrator (http://localhost/CFIDE/Administrator/) and add the collection under Verity Collections. Name it the same as you set it in the CmdFile, mysite. Be sure to select English Advanced.


6. Next you need a search form.
   

   
   <_cfform action="search.cfm" method="post" name="submitSearch" ><_INPUT class="btn" type="submit" value="SEARCH" /><_/cfform>



7. Last, you need to be able to display the results.
   

   
   <_cfsearch collection="mysite" name="results" criteria="#searchterm#" type="simple">
   <_cfloop query="results">
   <_cfset score2 = (score * 100)>
   <_span style="font-weight:bold ">#currentRow#. #score2#% : <_a href="#replace(url,"localhost/mysite/","www.mysite.com/")#">
   <_cfif title eq "">
   #replace(url,"localhost/mysite/","www.mysite.com/")#
   <_cfelse>
   #title#
   <_/cfif>
   <_/a><_/span>
   #left(summary, 150)#
   <_/cfloop>
   

   
   Remove the underscores, I had to add them so that the code would display.
   

Resources:

http://www.monkeyflash.com/coldfusion/using-vspider/
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion/articles/vspider.html


Chris

iPhone 2.0 Not Meeting Expectations

Apple appears to have made some mistakes with this recent launch of the new 3G iPhone. On top of a poorly operated scarcity marketing strategy as explained by Seth Godin, there has been problems with activations and signs of poor stability. David of 37signals.com describes his unhappy experiences with the new Apple device over the last week.

In summary, the increase in speed using the 3G network has been fantastic, that is when it works. David stated that he feels the phone dropped the 3G network and used the slow EDGE network approximately 80% of the time. The new 2.0 firmware shows signs of sloppy performance with consistent delays and instances where the device freezes for several seconds. David also told the readers of Signal vs. Noise that while the phone is on the 3G network it burns through battery life, causing the user to recharge daily.

I can imagine that the iPhone uses more power than most cell phones, but Apple needs to effectively match that power consumption with the appropriate battery. That is under the assumption that the new iPhone is under powered. Lets just hope for Apple's sake that this is not the case and that their iPhone is using more power than it should be, and in this case they can identify the problem and release a patch to the firmware to fix it.

The Apple iPhone has been on a consistent path to capture not only the majority stake of the US' market share of cell phones, but also on a global level. If they cannot quickly address these issues, they will see a drop off in consumer loyalty.

In Seth's post regarding the 5 principles of a scarcity campaign, Apple could have done a better job at making their customer's feel as if they were actually cared for and many of these issues would not have been as upsetting.

Review: Rich Dad's Before You Quit Your Job

So I read this book after completing Rich Dad Poor Dad which I reviewed. Before I completed this book I read John T. Reed's attacks on Robert Kiyosaki. Reed accuses Kiyosaki as being a fraud and he does not recommend any advice from the Rich Dad series. After thoroughly reading Reed's argument, I continued to read Before You Quit Your Job and I came to my own conclusions about the book and Robert Kiyosaki.

Negatives:

• Some of Kiyosaki's stories do not add up
• Some of Kiyosaki's advice is not good
• I guarantee that he exaggerates his accomplishments
  

Positives:

• Some of Kiyosaki's advice is great (i.e. Pay Yourself First, Creditors Last - at one point I was not happy with Chase Bank, I owed them several thousand dollars and a rep made a promise that he could not keep, I refused to pay them. 3 days before my stale account was being passed to litigation a very nice rep called me, I told her I refused to pay, she attempted to plead with me until I requested a settlement. I settled with Chase for 2/3's of what I owed them. About 2 months after the debt was settled my credit score went up about 8%.
• I walked away with some valuable information
• I was more motivated to reach my goals

I take it from Sir Isaac Newton and believe that for every force there is an equal and opposite force. For every offense there is a defense, for every hot there is a cold, for every plaintiff there is a defendant, for every author that speaks against the norm there is a critic that speaks against the author.

I cannot say that I know for sure that Robert Kiyosaki is a legitimate author, honestly attempting to improve the lives of as many people as he can reach (declared by his books) through financial education. What I can say is that Kiyosaki is a good author, that he provides some fabulous advice and some poor advice, and he is a strong communicator. I am a firm believer that quality advice and inspiration can be found in the strangest places. Considering the information age, anyone can publish a book and when reading any book, the information presented needs to be validated by the reader, just the same as researching a topic on WikiPedia.

If you are considering reading the Rich Dad Books but are hesitant, whats stopping you? Information can only be as dangerous as the methods in which it is used and if you walk away from the book with even the slightest bit of inspiration, motivation or good advice that improves your life, your business or your investments, then what did you loose in doing so?

Laws of Simplicity

I recently stumbled upon John Maeda's website titled The Laws of Simplicity, which offers an intellectual approach to design, whether it be a product, graphic or computer application. Maeda has been recognized for his outstanding work in design, and his current research and book are based on the fundamentals of simplicity.

On his website, The Laws of Simplicity, he lists what he sees as the 10 laws of simplicity:

• Law 1: Reduce
  The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.
• Law 2: Organize
  Organization makes a system of many appear fewer.
• Law 3: Time
  Savings in time feel like simplicity.
• Law 4: Learn
  Knowledge makes everything simpler.
• Law 5: Differences
  Simplicity and complexity need each other.
• Law 6: Context
  What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral.
• Law 7: Emotion
  More emotions are better than less.
• Law 8: Trust
  In simplicity we trust.
• Law 9: Failure
  Some things can never be made simple.
• Law 10: The One
  Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.

I Strive to be a 'Rich Dad'

So I recently reached the back cover of the Rich Dad Poor Dad book by Robert Kiyosaki. This must be one of the most controversial business books that I have read. Many criticize Robert Kiyosaki's best selling book, stating that they doubt he has done any of the things that are written within its pages.

I began reading this book with an open mind. I feel that his writings are sincere and knowledgeable. Yes, he is cruel in his presentation of the Poor & Middle Class, but he is doing so for a reason, to illustrate the philosophies included within the book. He says that your home is not an asset, I can relate with this statement. Because he says that a true asset is one that provides income, although a home can be used as an asset for a loan, it does not provide income. In fact in many cases it sucks up your income through the need for repairs and improvements.

I feel that people are free to their opinions, but I think that many of the people who harshly criticized this book probably never read it, or if they did, they read it with their mind closed shut and unwilling to understand the teachings that Robert was attempting to pass along.

Lastly, Kiyosaki was criticized for his lack of detail in how he made his way to the top. The problem is that this book was not intended to be a detailed account of what he did to become successful. It was to open up your mind to the possibilities and opportunities that lie in front of each and everyone's face. Opportunities are everywhere and you must have the 'Rich Dad' mind set to take advantage of them.

I recommend this book and support the efforts of the rich dad team.

I Cannot Wait to be a Hacker...

Ok, so when I was growing up I never knew what a hacker was until the initial days of AOL dial up internet, but even then the term hacker had a negative vibe. I also never expected to become a programmer. I had aspirations to become an engineer, I think more so because I thought that people would respect me. While in school I took C++ for engineers, and hated it, thinking I could never be a programmer.

So today, I am a programmer. I now also know multiple answers for what a hacker is. Ironically enough, I fit one of them and hope to become another. From pursuing the life of a serial entrepreneur, I have come to terms with being a hacker, someone who is a programmer / entrepreneur hacking away at code and business concepts to create something great. Which is what I am trying to accomplish with my startup, property management software. I am trying to create something great.

I recently finished reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Feriss, let me say that this book is an absolute must read. As I read the last page, I realized that I wanted to make a change in my life. I realized that I wanted to become a new type of hacker, someone who travels to new lands and not just embraces the native culture, but injects themselves into it. Learning the language, eating the food, and living the life of that native land. The best part is doing it all inexpensively.

In the book, Ferriss, encourages you to free your mind of the norm and embrace the principles and lifestyle of the New Rich(NR). The NR is not about having more money, but about having enough money to support a specific lifestyle. This lifestyle is ultimately defined as a liberation from the norm, being free to travel and try new things while the rest of the world is on the clock 9-5.

Ferriss enlightens you to the possibilities, he does this by teaching you some very key principles. All this from a man who is in his low thirties and travels the world for months at a time annually. I extremely recommend this book for anyone who wants a new perspective on lifestyles and wants to break free from the norm.