I've been conned – and I don't like it

Usually my bullshit detector works pretty well. Many years in marketing has honed it into sniffing out the majority of dodgy deals. So, I’m feeling pretty hacked off that I’ve fallen for such a cheap trick – that with the benefit of hindsight wasn’t that cheap for me.

In my defence, I was pretty exhausted and off guard when it happened but none the less I am irritated. It happened recently in the dying hours of an exhibition at the NEC where I had spent 4 long, long days running a stand for the company I’m currently working for.

I was taking a break from stand duty and wandering around the other exhibits when I stopped to watch a demonstration of something called ‘The Pink Stick’. I had glanced down the aisleways at other times during the show and seen the crowds gathering around this company’s stands and I did think it quite strange that they had two separate stand locations in the same area of the exhibition hall.

The stands had mature ‘trustworthy’ looking men and women demonstrating this ‘revolutionary’ anti-fogging solution. Behind each of them was a mirror, suspended above a tray of boiling water that was giving off steam continually. The bottom half of the mirror was completely fogged with condensation and the upper half absolutely crystal clear – and I mean gleaming clear – not a single bit of misting, drop or dribble of water.

The demonstrators were all American and expounding the amazing properties of ‘The Pink Stick’ while doing hands-on demos including other mirrors, bits of plastic and pairs of glasses by holding them over more steaming trays at the front of the stands. Each time, the results looked impressive – untreated section fully steamed – treated section gleaming clear.

As I stood there watching this, my brain took the following journey…

hmm – I leave for work early in the morning; the winter is setting in now; my windows are always very steamed up; my aircon is a bit crap and takes a while to clear the windows or I have to keep wiping them when I first start my journey; this could save a lot of time and effort; £6 for one ‘miracle solution’ seems reasonable – £10 for two seems like a bargain!

Perhaps I should have been a little more questioning when I was given three ‘Pink Sticks’ for £10 rather than the advertised two – but I assumed that as it was the last afternoon of the show and the aisles were getting quieter they just wanted to offload stock rather than have to repack it. Off I went feeling pleased that I’d got more for my money and thinking how many more condensation free mornings and evenings I was likely to enjoy.

So… a few days later, I was parked up in my car at lunchtime and decided to use a bit of downtime to give my windows their first ‘Pink Stick’ treatment. I undid the container and the Pink Stick stunk. It’s a sort of waxy chemical type smell but I took that as a good sign – probably the secret ingredient that delivers the miracle I thought. I applied it to a cloth and set about coating my windscreen, side windows and mirrors with the stuff. First impressions were not great as it was like scrawling on your windows with a soft wax crayon and then trying to rub it off. The waxy sheen took quite a bit of effort to clear but my windows did look pretty clear after all the effort.

Anyway, I returned to the office, finished the day’s work and then returned to my car for the commute home. It was a cold evening and typically my windows would be steaming up a few minutes after starting the car but today was different. Miracle of miracles, the windows stayed clear and condensation free – the car was still full of horrible Pink Stick fumes but at least I could see out and begin my journey home immediately – feeling pretty chuffed with the investment I’d made.

The following morning was equally cold and wintery but after the previous evening’s experience I was relishing the thought that I could just start the car up and drive off without any condensation hassles. Then came the horrible realisation that I’d been conned.

This stuff is literally a ‘one hit wonder’. I’ve now experimented a few times with it and it absolutely only works for one application meaning you need to reapply it every time you want a morning or evening of clear windows. Then I twigged why the exhibition demos are so impressive – they are reapplying the stuff continually, day in, day out. However, for anyone using it in everyday life, it is no more useful than just using a plain cloth – in fact it’s harder work as it’s a bugger to wipe completely clean particularly on an area the size of a windscreen.

After the disappointment of the product not working as implied,I then looked at it a bit closer. It’s a lump of pink waxy substance that I wouldn’t be surprised is the waste residue from some horrible  industrial process which has had a fetching shade of pink dye added to it.  It is presented in what looks like (and I’m sure probably is) the type of container you typically provide a urine sample in and it has a very badly photocopied A5 size piece of paper tucked into the container that provides virtually no useful or informative details of the product itself or its usage. I’m guessing the unit cost is no more than about 10 pence. So… £6 for a single stick is going to be a pretty hefty profit.

Obviously, this type of sale requires the impulse buying decision triggered by the impressive demo and air of ‘exclusivity’, which explains why they had more than one stand operating in the same exhibition area and why they had targeted the high flow aisles. They need a good supply of suckers over a four day period to cover the space costs and turn a good profit before high-tailing it back to their nondescript and possibly non-existent offices in Hawaii.

Anyway – my learning from this experience is new confirmation that ‘if it looks too good to be true – it usually is’ and also that ‘The Pink Stick’ stinks – literally and metaphorically.

You have been warned…

Warning! License violation!

Swedish Police rounding up violators

If someone was to ask me what the difference is between EPiServer Content Management System Versions 4, 5 and 6, the three words in this post’s headline stand out the most. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many ‘license violation’ warnings on a software install than our recent roll-out of EPiServer 6 and its associated add-on modules. At times, I’ve half expected the Swedish police to come crashing through the doors and windows as the latest black on yellow warning notice flashes up 😉

As commented by John Goode on Twitter and in his recent ‘Profit Imperative’ blog post, the reason for EPiServer’s significant changes to its licence model earlier this year became clear, with its acquisition earlier this month by IK Investments.

This prompted me to look back at previous comments I’ve made relating to EPiServer in this blog over the last couple of years that started following a visit to Stockholm. In doing so, the following comment, written after attending the 2009 UK Customer Day stood out…

As with many activities and tools where you spend a fair amount of your working life, ‘familiarity can breed contempt’ and I think the real test for me will be EPiServer and its partner bases’ ability to recognise and address key pain points and bugs quickly. If developing the latest and greatest functionality comes at the expense of improving the core web content management capabilities that make for a reliable, productive and effective user experience, then EPiServer will risk turning off established and loyal customers who are its best advocates and often help to do the marketing job for them.

hmmm… so having selected EPiServer based on very positive experiences in two previous projects, I have to say I’m disappointed with the direction things have been going with things in the last six months or so.

Over the years I think I’ve developed a bit of a gut feel when it comes to evaluating software and whether it represents value for money and will deliver a Return On Investment.

When I first used EPiServer, it exceeded my expectations. It was a user friendly, adaptable and flexible solution that was a solid platform for consolidating multiple international websites into one environment. There seemed to be some flexibility in the licensing model that helped keep the product affordable for achieving ambitious global goals and adapting to changing marketing demands. I was also impressed with the speed of innovation and the ability of the company to deliver some big chunks of development such as the community and ecommerce capabilities through smart partner/community development, acquisition and partnership.

Having started to use and experiment with open source content technologies in recent years, I think what also appealed to me a lot about EPiServer, as an organisation, is that it seemed to be evolving into a potentially powerful hybrid of a well established and proven commercial developer that was increasingly adopting open source philosophies and best practices. As there is a growing trend within open source towards commercialised operations ie; Drupal/Acquia I think it’s healthy to see commercial operators heading for the middle ground from the other direction.

Sadly then, other than some largely cosmetic changes to the interface, the only difference I’ve really noticed with EPiServer 6 are repeated ‘license violation’ warnings popping up all over the place. Whereas in the past, I’ve felt keen to experiment and stretch the solution in new business and marketing scenarios, the frequency and prevalence of these license violation warnings make me feel extremely cautious about planning subsequent phases of development as I get the sense they are going to come with bigger and bigger price tags attached.

A year ago, I wrote a piece about the ‘future of Web Content Management’ in which I emphasised the importance of user experience. A classic example of this is the layer upon layer of dialog boxes that you have to click through to undertake core content management functions such as adding images and links. These are things that impact productivity and ease of use, particularly if you have to remember where to click to achieve a particular task. In that post, I linked to this article on the age of user experience and I’ve summarised the key points below…

1. More features isn’t better:
2. You can’t make things easier by adding to them:
3. Confusion is the ultimate deal breaker:
4. Style matters:
5. Only features that provide a good user experience will be used:
6. Any feature that requires learning will be adopted by only a small fraction of users:
7. Unused features are useless and diminish ease of use:
8. Users do not want to think about technology; what counts is what it does for them:
9. Forget about the killer feature: the new killer app is a killer user experience
10. Less is difficult; that’s why less is more.

I particularly like the explanation of point 10…

Do well what 80% percent of your users do all the time (and don’t worry about the other 20% who want to do more) and you create a good user experience.

I’ll finish this post with a link to another recent article by John Goode, which emphasises the importance of ‘customer advocacy’ in software development and provides further illustration of the points above.

Learning the art of Espionage

I’m delighted to say that the company I’m currently working for has wholeheartedly supported my desire to learn a skill often associated with undercover intelligence gathering and the murkier underworld of international espionage.

The skill I’m referring to is ‘lip reading’ – the ability to determine what somebody is saying without actually hearing the sounds they are making.

The majority of us lip read to certain extent even with good hearing. No doubt you can recall a time when you found it more difficult to hear someone because their face or mouth was covered. I’ve also heard some people say they hear better when they are wearing their glasses.

I’m now 8 weeks into a 30 week beginners class and it seems I have some apptitude for it. This is probably due to the fact that I put off wearing hearing aids until I couldn’t really function well without them so I imagine I’ve been compensating for poor hearing for quite a number of years by using my own efforts at lip reading.

At the end of 30 weeks I will gain a qualification and the option to move on to intermediate level. Despite the fact I clearly have some self-taught experience, learning to lip-read is not easy. It’s more appropriately called ‘speechreading’ as only 30-40% of words are visible on the lips and the rest of the comprehension of speech comes from  facial expression, body language and context.

So far, we have covered things like ‘confusion sounds’ (ie; p, b, m and ch, sh, j – that all make the same shape on the lips) and ‘homophenes’ – an expression I’d never heard before and raised a few eyebrows in the office but basically means words that look the same on the lips – such as ‘share’ and ‘chair’.

Based on the experience so far, this looks like being one of the hardest qualifications I’ve ever studied for. Hopefully once I’ve completed it I’ll open up new employment opportunities with the Secret Service. However, given all the complexities of trying to read lips, I’ll only be able to help if the people I’m lip reading speak English, in a regional accent I’m familiar with (Hampshire Carrot Cruncher), are only 3 to 6 feet away, are in good light, looking straight at me and not covering their mouths in any way. I reckon the work’s going to flood in 😉

When East meets West – what will the World look like?

Some earlier posts on this blog express my fascination with China and its increasing impact on the world. The marketing department I’m running in my current role shares its office space with purchasing and my two immediate colleagues are Chinese. Much of my day is filled with the sound of conversations in Chinese as information about our latest product innovations is exchanged with our offices in Hong Kong and suppliers in Guangdong. This is my 3rd job in a row where Asia has represented a significant part of the organisation’s operations and it has heightened my interest in Asian countries and cultures.

With this in mind, I jumped at the chance (excuse the pun) to take the family to see a preview showing of The Karate Kid at the weekend. The original film was a classic during my youth so I did have some reservations about the remake. The story is a good one, which is always a useful starting point for a remake and the passing of 26 years since the first film makes for some interesting analysis of how the world has changed – the biggest of which is the film’s location – from California to China.

Well, back in the cold war days of 1984, you wouldn’t imagine a US film-maker getting such uninhibited access to the authentic sights and sounds of Beijing (probably still better known as Peking in the early 80s), detailed shots inside the Forbidden City, such awe-inspiring views of those pointy mountains in the southern Guangxi province, amazing tours of the Wudang Mountain monasteries and incredible panoramas of the Great Wall in the north. For me, it was this Chinese authenticity and insight that marks the film out as a worthwhile remake.

It was with some sadness therefore that later on Sunday, I read the review of ‘When a Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save Mankind – Or Destroy It’ an assessment by journalist Jonathan Watts of the environmental impact economic advance has had on China. The review makes grim reading, as do the preview pages accessible via Amazon.

However, although I’m sure I will find this book fascinating and depressing in equal measures, it struck me that the immediacy with which I could satisfy an impulsive urge, place an order for it via an iPhone from my bed and have it delivered to my door the next day sits at the heart of the issues it highlights.

This is a monster of our making. Mass consumerism in the West has led to what the book preview describes as a ‘pass the parcel’ approach to the detrimental environmental effects of manufacturing – the tatty remnants of which China is now holding. But our excesses are just the start. Understandably, the Chinese wish to enjoy the fruits of their hard labour. For the majority of them to meet the levels of lifestyle enjoyed today in the West means a level of consumerism beyond anything this world has yet seen. So, this does indeed raise the question ‘when East meets West – what will the World look like? It’s undoubtedly a question we all play a role in answering.

From King Bluetooth I to SmartEars V1.0…

I’ve muddled through for quite a number of years now, but my level of hearing loss is now such that I can’t get through a working day effectively without wearing a hearing aid or two.  I’ve well and truly crossed the line where the awkwardness and issues created by bluffing/pretending to hear  a lot of the time far outweighs the irritation and discomfort of having lumps of plastic in and around my ears – day in, day out. You could say that I am now almost totally reliant on technology to function properly in work and family life – which, as I’ve mentioned before, is one of the key reasons I’ve always been interested in digital communications technologies.

The runic inscription of Harald Bluetooth

I wrote a post about a year or so ago now about my process of acceptance of hearing loss and love/hate relationship with hearing aids and, looking at my blog stats, my hearing related posts seem to gain more interest than the work related stuff I’ve written – so I hope it is proving useful to someone,  somewhere.  Please ‘speak up’ if you empathise/agree or disagree with my comments and observations.

The good thing about wearing the aids daily is that I won’t get moaned at so badly on my next visit to the audiologist. The aids have a data-logging capability that monitors exactly how long they have been worn between visits.

The effectiveness of the aids is also determined by use – as they are smart enough to learn about the environments/volumes you are exposed to regularly and make adjustments based on your hearing loss pattern. So I am pleased to report that they do indeed work better and better the more you wear them and it is well worth persisting beyond the irritation factors.

My latest hearing aids also incorporate wireless technology to communicate with each other – therefore changing the settings on one aid automatically updates the other one.

This technology is Bluetooth based and although my current aids don’t have the ability to connect with other Bluetooth enabled devices, the latest generation of aids do. Although, given the size and power requirements of the Bluetooth chip, this happens via a separate unit. The dream, of course, is the time when full Bluetooth connectivity can be incorporated into a hearing device as small as those now used widely – and at reasonable cost. The cost is an important factor when you look at the astronomical prices of top of the range hearing aids today.

Having vaguely tracked Bluetooth related developments over the last decade since my time working for a mobile network technology provider this term has taken on greater significance for me in recent months – not just relating to hearing issues.

From a software perspective, I am a big supporter of Scandinavian originated developments, as other posts on this blog particularly relating to content technologies illustrate. So it has been interesting to remind myself of Bluetooth’s mainly Scandinavian driven history, from the name itself – an ancient Nordic King who united many tribes into a single kingdom – to its underlying principles of low power, interference-free, limited range transmission.

From a work perspective, I am currently immersed in launching a new range of innovative Bluetooth products built on a first generation of developments that are illustrated here… http://www.my-io.com/

Our clever technical team have been building on this music streaming and hands-free learning to develop the Bluetooth experience ‘on the go’. My job is to spread that message faster and further than before…A few clues as to why and how we are doing this can be found here…

It’s these type of developments that help to stretch the Bluetooth experience in new directions and hopefully by 2020 we will see the arrival of ‘SmartEars V1.0’ – truly clever hearing aids that enable full onboard integration with other Bluetooth capable devices. Who knows, maybe hearing aids will become so smart, they’ll even be ‘cool’ one day 😉