Blog
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November 04, 2008
US Tax System - Explained With Beer
Following is a fantastic email that is making the rounds this Election Day. I don't know if the math works out correctly but it makes for a great story.
Begin forwarded message:
From: XXXXX
Date: November 4, 2008 11:39:46 EST
To: XXXXX@enilsson.com
Subject: Taxes explained with beer................
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. 'Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.
But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 ( 25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 ( 22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
'I only got a dollar out of the $20, 'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'
Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'
'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'
'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier. -
October 07, 2008
FlexBuilder update to 3.1 SDK
Hopefully this little nugget will help someone, cause I sure wish I had known this a little earlier...
Yesterday I upgraded my Flex Builder with the Adobe Update manager to include the new 3.1 SDK and it led to some very strange behaviour. Basically the software stopped compiling on save and I had no idea why. This was on top of some other errors that manifested before that where Flex Builder was seeing errors on commented lines of code...
So after some frustrating time trying to work out what the hell was wrong, I finally stumbled upon this...
The update some how turned off the auto compile feature!! Wow did that raise my stress levels, in a week where our new product needed to be ready for a show and tell I spent more than a few hours struggling to get my main dev tool running. Awesome!
Hopefully someone will find that useful!
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October 07, 2008
Will Obama's iPhone App translate into votes?
We are kicking the tires of the Obama iPhone App this week. The application is interesting in many ways but what will its true impact be?
Mike Nobil gives the Obama iPhone app a test drive
First the numbers:- 14.000,000 iPhones will be sold by end of 2008 (Goldman Sachs)
- 4,183 active Obama iPhone users (according to our Obama app)
- 19,021 calls have been made on the iPhone app to talk about Obama (again, according to the app)
- 100 calls have been made by the "Top Caller" for Obama (everyone loves a high-score)
The other features of the Obama app include:
1. the location of the closest local Obama HQ to the iPhone
2. ability to sign up for email and SMS campaign updates
3. local and national campaign news feeds
4. campaign events in your area (which seems pretty geographically broad as I wouldn't drive to Cape Cod for a event)
5. campaign videos and photos
6. talking points for Obama's position on about 24 issues
7. a "donate now" button that automatically calls the donation hotline
Except for the phone-banking features, most of these features are included on all but the most rudimentary campaign websites.
My big question is, what sort of information is the Obama application collecting from my iPhone? Is it capturing names and phone numbers of those people you call? Is it raiding my address book? The application doesn't have any privacy information which really scares me!
IMPACT
In terms of a campaign's view of the world, their goals are to capture
1. supporter contact info
2. volunteers,
3. donations,
4. good press, and
5. votes.
In terms of #1, depending on the privacy features of the app, it may be great at stealing all your contacts and adding them to the Obama database. I have yet to find a privacy policy on the app that tells me if it is or isn't doing such a thing.
Regarding volunteers, hey I downloaded this tool, I must there for want to volunteer to make calls. I give it a thumbs up for #2.
Political donations... If someone is willing to make calls for Obama then, I would have to assume that they have already donated via other means. If anyone has data on donations made by iPhone, I would love to hear about it.
Number 4 is a slam dunk, the press loves the confluence of "mobile gadgets" and politics. I bet there have been thousands of articles about political organizations leveraging the power of phone texting. I can't imagine how political texting has garnered a single vote but the press eats it up. They are going to love this app.
Lastly, voting is were the rubber hits the road for campaigns. Will all these Obama supporters actually vote? If the iPhone app developers were smart, this app should turn into one big get-out-the-vote tool on election day. It should notify the user of the closest polling station, it should give the users repeated reminders to "vote now!" and it should provide a steady stream of election day news.
Election day could be the greatest opportunity for this application. From my own political views, I hope the Obama development team didn't think this far ahead. -
October 02, 2008
How not to market a product 101
In today's Advertising Age, Al Ries writes a great article on how many marketers focus too much on a product rather than the consumers' perception of the product in the market as a whole. Ries refers this broad approach as an "holistic" approach gives some great examples that really got me thinking about our own approaches to products:
Tiger Woods
Do you really think a guy who made $115 million last year drives a Buick? Based on the fact that Buick's sales have dropped each of the past five years, my bet is that you think Tiger probably drives a Merc, a Cadillac, or probably a Bentley. Great spokes person, wrong product for him.
Coca-Cola
Coke gives you a big refreshing punch of sugar and caffeine. Diet Coke gives you no calories but makes you think you are getting a big refreshing punch. Coke C2 gives you... what? I'm not sure, and based on sales, nor are you.
Red Bull
Do Red Bull drinkers care about calories? Doesn't "energy drink" stand for "massive dose of calories" (i.e. sugar)? That's the reason Red Bull sold in small cans, because its syrup and caffeine, right? So what do you think the market demand is for Sugar-Free Red Bull? And for the not so swift consumers out there, humm, if there is a sugar-free Red Bull, how much sugar is there in regular Red Bull? Hey, this stuff isn't so healthy.
Campbell's Soup
Same problem here, if there is a Low Sodium soup, then the regular soup must contain an entire salt-lick. If there is a "chunky soup" then the regular soup must be thin. Mmmm mmm good, thin soup.
Charmin
We have the softest toilet paper. "Squeezably soft," remember. Oh wait, we lied, that regular stuff isn't so soft so we created "ultra soft." What's next, super ultra soft?
TAKE-AWAYS
Really think about your entire market or product line when you do a line extension. Are your spokes people or reference cases credible? Does your new product fit a customer need in you product line, or does it just cast doubt on the strength of your your old product.
Again, what a great article. -
September 22, 2008
Humor Sells Laboratory Equipement?
I can't say that I've thought about pipetting since my sophomore year of college but Eppendorf's foray into the music video world has definitely changed my view of what goes on in a laboratory.
Pipetting all those well-plates, baby, sends your thumbs into overdrive
And spending long nights in the lab makes it hard for your love to thrive
What you need is automation, girl, something easy as 1 2 3
So put down that pipette, honey, I got something that will set you freeIs this how a company sells laboratory instruments and consumables for the life sciences? Eppendorf AG (Hamburg Germany) seems to think so.
Eppendorf created a funny "boy band" music video to promote it's automated pipetting machine. My understanding is that this video is enthusiastically making the rounds among lab jocks and university PhD denizens.
The question is, will the video help sell laboratory equipment? My guess is yes. Eppendorf is now the first (and only) name I think of when I think "highest quality laboratory instruments and consumables for the life sciences," but... I am not their target market.
I will have to have an intern give the Eppendorf marketing department a call and see if they have seen any increases in interest in their auto pipetting robot. How many "epMotion" machines do you have to sell to pay for the video and website?
Kudos to the lyricists, this is a great rap:DNA
RNA
Proteins
Cell Cultures
Less reagents
Faster workflow
Saves you money
Well, well, well
Note that Eppendor also allows you to download MP3 versions of the song or ring tones. I would be very interested in seeing those download stats.
I wonder if you can use epMotion to make cocktails? If so, it would be the coolest kitchen appliance known to man. -
September 01, 2008
Protestors or Terrorists
I think the protestors have lost their minds. I am sitting on a Republican Convention bus full of elderly delegates from Florida and Washington State on our way to the first day of the RNC Convention.
While exiting Interstate 94, a large object was dropped on our bus as we passed under a bridge. This could have been a major catastrophe had the object gone through the roof of the bus or struck the windshield.
The police have just come off the roof and the object was a 30 lb sand bag.
How would injuring or killing elderly delegates help the public opinion for any cause? Another wonderful example of vandals behaving poorly under the guise of "protesting." -
July 05, 2008
"McCain Campaign, in Relaunch, Seeks Tighter Message Focus" - Wall Street Journal
According to today's WSJ, "The McCain campaign will also rely more heavily on surrogates for the candidate, a technique they say they have used ineffectively in the past. To keep control on the message, ads will carefully brief surrogates on specific talking points and then deploy them to reinforce Sen. McCain's message."
This is very exciting for eNilsson as the McCain campaign has had us make a few major adjustments to the Elephant Scheduler which will help the campaign with their new strategy.
The first feature is that we can now track all campaign events, surrogates and event proposals based on the media markets in which they take place. This allows the campaign to make sure they have either target states or major markets covered at all times.
The other great new feature, which is key for the McCain campaign, is that campaign aids can now attach custom talking points to individual events, or to specific surrogates. These talking points are automatically included in each surrogate's briefing book.
With these two new features, it will be infinitely easier to get the right surrogate into the right place with the right message meeting campaign strategist Charlie Black's demand for "more surrogates, more appearances, more air time." -
June 15, 2008
Amazon Web Services - EC2 AWS
So we decided to test Amazons Web Services – mainly their elastic compute cloud or “EC2” – Its pretty straight forward to setup although it can be somewhat tedious especially with the bundling, uploading, registering and relaunching to make a change to the server. Having said that EC2 has proved a useful base on which to install subversion and a plethora of other server applications such as sphinx search (see my other post), apache and mySQL. Having root access to the machine also gives us greater control on the server settings and allows us to do things such as converting word documents to pdf and experiment with some new software.
There are some drawbacks – mainly that the instances are non persistent and the IP addresses of the machines are dynamic – but if you can work round these by using dyndns and writing some bash script to save your settings and files to Amazons “S3” you end up with a reasonable system that seems pretty stable.
Currently you don’t have much of a choice when it comes to the location of your servers - It’d be nice to see some servers in different countries other than the US – somewhere in Asia would be nice. The ping time from Sydney to the East Coast is about 255ms, which is pretty poor and means when we view websites on EC2 they tend to be a little un-responsive.
It’s got to be said that EC2 would defiantly benefit from persistent storage (which is now in its beta stage) as well as static IP addresses. This would make setting up and maintaining EC2 much simpler. Persistent storage at least is in Amazons pipeline and you would presume that static IP addresses would follow. Weather Amazon will eventually make servers available in different countries remains to be seen – I’m somewhat doubtful. -
June 03, 2008
Don't be a bad client - Part II
I have some good news and some bad news.
First the good news, we have found a consistent tool for turning bad clients into good clients, AND, more importantly, reducing the risk of having a new client go bad. (see my February 29th post)
Now the bad news, the tool is a contract with lots of fine print... boo.
In our decade of providing services, we've prided ourselves on our simple, plan-english contracts. Clients loved them for the uncomplicated and easy reading. We loved them because clients quickly signed the simple contracts. No need to "run the contract by legal."
Unfortunately a few clients took advantage (usually unintentionally) of our "friendly" contracts. The communication breakdown was typically when a client demanded total control of a project and requested innumerable unnecessary changes.
We have experimented with all kinds of tools to control these "bad clients." We've tried weekly client meetings, client intranets, timely project management reports, weekly invoices with time-sheets, you name it. Most of these tools create more work for us and the "bad client" continued their excessively demanding behavior.
Finally, after falling into a endless project that looked like it would never see the light of day, we managed to get a difficult client to agree to a very detailed contract. This contract specified every aspect of our client/vendor relationship.
It was a very painful process from both the word-smithing side and the "gee, this goes against everything eNilsson stands for" side, but... in the end both parties are much happier. The client knows their boundries and, most importantly, the contract makes it very clear when a client request is going to take the client off the agreed upon budget.
With this ridged relationship structure, everyone is happier and can focus on the work rather than "project management issues." We've found that a byproduct is that creativity actually increases.
My good news/bad news story has a very happy ending. -
June 02, 2008
More is not always more
Remember that when it comes to software development, more is not always more. My appologies for the trite Apple/Microsoft comparison but Windows Vista is a great example of more not being more. Steve Jobs gets it:
"I know you have a thousand ideas for all the cool features iTunes could have. So do we. But we don't want a thousand features... Innovation is not about saying yes to everything. It's about saying NO to all but the most crucial features."
- Steve JobsFocus your development list on the most critical features and your software will come in on time and on budget.
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