The idea of cheating at hackathons isn’t new, and a few people have written about suspected cheating at hackathons. Rob Spectre even (humorously) suggested that cheating is the easiest way to win first place at a hackathon.
Tag Archives: business methods
Sprint, T-Mobile execs explain the MVNO explosion
One way that Sprint and T-Mobile are helping make the MVNO business a success is by enabling many of the back office functions that the MVNOs of the mid-2000s had to do on their own. For example, Chartier said that T-Mobile offers a couple of different options: For traditional MVNOs, the company will provide just network access and the MVNO will handle the billing and logistics. For partner brands, which Chartier compares to a brand licensing arrangement, T-Mobile offers reverse logistics, carrier billing, marketing support and even distribution.
via Sprint, T-Mobile execs explain the MVNO explosion – FierceWireless.
Orange Embraces the Partner Paradox
For example, in its bid to seed homes with smart meters, it has found partners in utilities.
“In the end, the utility becomes a client with service providing,” Arndt said. “But, if we want that to happen, we have to partner and understand [the market] together first.”
How Facebook threatens HP, Cisco, and more with its “vanity free” servers
Facebook, Amazon, and Google are all very picky about their server hardware, and these tech giants mostly build it themselves from commodity components. Frank Frankovsky, VP of hardware design and supply chain operations at Facebook, was instrumental in launching the Open Compute Project because he saw the waste in big cloud players reinventing things they could share. Frankovsky felt that bringing the open-source approach Facebook has followed for software to the hardware side could save the company and others millions—both in direct hardware costs and in maintenance and power costs.
via How Facebook threatens HP, Cisco, and more with its “vanity free” servers | Ars Technica.
The OCP hardware designs are “open” at a higher level. This way anyone can use standards-based components to create the motherboards, the chassis, the rack-mountings, the racks, and the other components that make up servers.
AT&T’s new monthly stealth fee has some crying foul
Because the fee is so small, some call it a below-the-line charge because customers aren’t likely to notice it. That aside, it is also provides a way for carriers to advertise a lower fee than customers are actually charged. Presently, AT&T already charges about 50 cents as regulatory cost recovery charge per phone line, something that has been part of the carrier’s bills for about a decade.
via AT&T’s new monthly stealth fee has some crying foul – SlashGear.
Apathy and refunds are more dangerous than Piracy.
People have to WANT to buy your software, people have to WANT to support you. People need to care about your employees and your company’s well being. There is no better way to achieve that than making sure what you put out there is the best you can do and you treat your customers with respect.
via VA==65731089732bGl2ZXMh – Apathy and refunds are more dangerous than Piracy..
This article is in response to the current SimCity fiasco; one of the most revered gaming franchises that had its recent product launch botched.
Customer Reviews: SimCity – Standard Edition
The hours upon hours since launch that I haven’t been able to log in, whether it be sitting in queues, or server busy messages, or just plain old not working screens, I’ve managed to do a heap of things that I never do when I’m locked in my man cave playing video games.
I’ve washed the dishes, the laundry, changed the oil in the car, mopped the floors, dusted, did a spot of gardening, greeted my children who I hadn’t really seen since Christmas, walked the dog, asked how my wife’s day has been and listened to the entire response, restocked the groceries and many more things! My family has never been happier that they’ve got a father and husband again.
In fact, I feel like Simcity has given me a new lease on life. This wouldn’t have been possible without the seemingly crazy decision to have constant online connections and server side save points even for single player.
So I can only thank EA and Maxis. Your failures have been my rewards. 5 stars!
via Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: SimCity – Standard Edition [Download].
I don’t ever recall a product launch that went this badly. I’ve been playing Sim City since version 2 and was looking forward to this. This needs to be filed under what were they thinking?!
Chicago options market goes nuclear, files $525 million patent suit
However, a few key financial institutions have embraced patents enthusiastically. This week, the Chicago Board Options Exchange has taken finance-patent wars to a new level. CBOE filed a lawsuit against a competing options exchange, International Securities Exchange (ISE), demanding $525 million for the infringement of three patents: US Patent Nos. 7,356,498, 7,980,457 and 8,266,044. The board asked for the first patent in 1999, at the height of the patent-everything craze, and the patents were issued between 2008 and 2011.
via Chicago options market goes nuclear, files $525 million patent suit | Ars Technica.
Facebook Page Owners Can Pay $500 For 250,000 Eyeballs With ‘Promoted Posts’
‘Promoted Posts’ didn’t come up much during Facebook’s recent earnings call despite being launched at the end of May, but COO Sheryl Sandberg did spend a lot of time talking about the importance of advertising — such as Sponsored Stories — that appear organically in Facebook News Feeds rather than explicitly as ads. This was Sandberg’s only nod to the new strategy of asking Facebook users to pay to reach more eyeballs with their “normal” posts, via the transcript of the call on Seeking Alpha:
via Facebook Page Owners Can Pay $500 For 250,000 Eyeballs With ‘Promoted Posts’ – Forbes.