Sunday, November 14, 2004

I'm back on the web with my once beloved and now reviled laptop, here's some biz things and etcetera from around the triple W:

AOL is breaking up into 4 divisions to have the company better focused in those areas. Hmmm, seems like that might be counter the integration of services model. I also totally don't get the "European" division, won't that be a division based on geography (roughly the same size as the US) that handels all their products just like AOL before the 4 division split? So let me get this right, you're splitting up AOL into 4 divisions for better "clarity" and direction on the macro level, but you're modeling one of those divisions in the same structure as the one you're moving from? Yeah I can get arguements like "the European market has totally different requirements, customers and opportunities/threats which deserve special focus" but I'm just not buying. Sounds a little like change for the sake of change... the discussion on the slashdot forum is pretty funny and insiteful. Update: Looks like the first fallout from the 4 division breakout has already happened, dropping Broadband services in favour of increasinly obscelete dial-up service? Sounds like a great plan for future profits. At least they've validated my thought that these 4 divisions were a bad idea.

In light of my recent laptop fiasco I'm thinking of bitting the bullet and getting a new top of the line model after only a year and a half of owning a previously outdated model (which I saved about 1500 bucks on). When should you upgrade?

I'll admit, I hated cell phones before cuming to Europe. The Canadian market for cell phones is where the European market was about 4-5 years ago, the late-growth or an early mass adoption phase. As my monthly 150 - 200 euro phone bills (DO NOT go with Vodaphone if you are a first time student buyer, go with a much cheaper O2) will attest I am a convert, but I still don't think mini (in size and time, about 1 minute) episodes for cell phones will ever take off. Although this is cuming from someone who can't understand how all those annoying "klingletone" commercials ever break even.

My transition to Skype for home telephony will commence when I get to Utah, let the VoIP experiment begin! Here's a great interview with the founder of Skype.

Should I pursue an MBA? Well it's a little late for someone like me to wonder about that since I only have one semester to go, but it's a good reflection on the pro's and con's. Here's a link I stole from that site (who stole it from another site) of an article comparing the life of the great entertainer John Ritter to Arafat. A great read.

I hate the show "Gilmour Girls", my sister loves it. I found an article mixing business musings with one of the episodes. I didn't like the article either, my sister (manager of food and hospitality services) loved it. When will scientists admit that the dinosaurs died from watching too much "Gilmour Dino's"?

Intro to prime number algorithms... yeah my undergrad was in Mathematics and I still get sentimental about putting some semi-related math content on the site, the opportunity just doesn't cum around all that often :-)

That's all for now folks, wish I could knock off this friggin' cold...