Well done to Xero – who managed to raise the $15m targeted in their IPO. That will see them out for a year or two. It seems that investors got the first 5,000 shares asked for, and half of the rest. That’s for the ‘public pool’, which was, as far as I can make out …
Author Archives: Lance Wiggs
Truemors
Truemors is a cool fusion of news and rumors, and perhaps a new word we need to learn. It was launched by Guy Kawasaki for just $12100, although he also has an enormously popular blog and a huge following. I’m not sure it is useful yet, but one thing I do like is that I …
April is shorter than March
I just have to quote this Dow Jones wire article – via the subscription walled WSJ. “Yahoo! UK Web Sites’ Vistors Dn 3% On Mo In April – ComScore’ Yes – that’s the real headline, complete with 3 shortened words. “DOW JONES NEWSWIRES May 29, 2007 6:02 a.m. LONDON (Dow Jones)–Unique visitors to Web sites …
Telecom confirms GSM/EV-DO network
…and incumbent Alcatel-Lucent will build it. Nice scoop Juha. You have to wonder at the price Telecom can get when faced with such an incumbent supplier. It’s a dhame Telecom are not changing their new international roaming prices just yet – I guess subscribers will keep either paying too much or switching to local (GSM) …
Brass monkey
I’m off on the brass monkey for a few days. brrrrrr.
AFR.com.au
Someone (at Crikey.com) has finally written about the usability travesty that is AFR.com.au. The article is pretty entertaining, but the points about the usability of what should be the wsj of this region are right on: The article starts with a bang… “The AFR’s new multi-million dollar online push is in serious trouble, with the …
A future for newspapers?
Andy Kessler’s A Future for Newspapers in the (subscription required) WSJ makes a few good points: “Media, after all, is about owning a pipe …. The tighter the pipe, the less the competition.” For broadcasters, the pipe is spectrum For cable operators, it is often the sole cable franchise For phone companies, it’s those regulated …
IE7 spoof site checker is.. compromised
Paypal and eBay fake sites are meant to turn IE7’s address bar red – but it appears that this feature has already been bested by the black hats. I can’t say I am shocked – the scammers are pretty good at this stuff, and Microsoft… well what can you say.
Should you buy Crocs?
I had no idea that Crocs was a $3bn enterprise value company. The Gross Profit margin of 60% and operating margins of 25% I can believe. Their shoes are elegantly simple to make, (mold, foam, boom) and shipping would be cheap – by volume not weight. Apparently they’ll be the next Nike. (says bloggingstocks) But …
Amazon shipping… more thoughts
To close the loop on earlier posts – the last of my 19 packages containing 22 books arrived shortly after the rest. Isn’t that a sight? They all came from the same US address, albeit a different one than the other books. None came from Germany – which has happened often in the past. Actually …
Refining….
So this week has been interesting….. and a lot different from last week – 6:10am in the car on Monday morning, and no later than 6:45am in the car each day thereafter – 11-12 hour days at the refinery – no access to local email on site (too hard for IT to set up) – …
Local coverage from afar: Outsourcing journalists
From Rodney Van Meter via Dave Farber’s IP list, here is news that could make local news reporters nervous: “The website Pasadena Now, a local online news source, has created a stir by hiring a couple of reporters to report on Pasadena City Council meetings. Why the stir? Well, the reporters live in Mumbai and …
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Xero – to invest or not – again
There has been some good discussion around the traps about Xero’s IPO. As I whizz to my plane I’d like to pop some more things into the mix: 1: The emphasis on SAAS to me is missing the point. The USP of Xero is its promise to reinvent the usability and the approach to processing …
Refining refining
So I’m enroute to Perth – where I’ll be consulting for the week to BHPB’s Kwinana Nickel Refinery – which is the world’s third largest producer of refined Nickel. I’m looking forward to it – the change of industries is pretty dramatic – Friday night at the black tie Qantas awards, Saturday on Qantas planes, …
Air New Zealand is shrinking leg room
This drives me nuts. Air NZ is plonking an extra row of seats into domestic planes. Seating was already cramped for passengers of medium height and those taller than 1.9 metres (6ft 3in) “find it uncomfortable as it is”, Mr Thomas said. It’s uncomfortable for me at 6ft. It’s not just about the literal leg …
Lance Wiggs 