The Fall

Well, as the Second Coming has turned into the second leaving and Yosemite Sam slopes off to get plugged into the Love, autumn approaches and all the little plants get put to bed for the winter.

The Lab is cocooned in suspended animation while OSgrid makes the shift to Hyperspace and the Life Force is sucked out of the Lab rats, along with every dollar possible....

Will we be deleted like our emails to the Boys? Will a knight on a white horse appear? Will we all end up in that great Digital Inventory at 0,0,0.....

Speculation is rife in the Blogosphere.

Did we fail our Great Leader by hating the Wretched Viewer and sinking the Myth Of 100 Million Users, or did he get the hump in the Boardroom? I guess we will never know.

One thing is for sure, however, is that you don’t start looking for a new job after you left your last one anymore than you start looking for a new CEO after the old one left.

Interim and Temporary are slightly different terms. A bit of foresight is usually the norm in these matters...unless... Mr. Cockup has been visiting.

Now.... Brodesky Linden added a comment on a JIRA: “Why don't you stop wasting time and put in comments in the correct tickets. We filter your emails to trash. Gmails makes that very easy to do....”

...and maybe he was over worked and stressed...but....

I have to believe that a fair proportion of the Lab sees us as sad fools. I cannot explain the attitude that has employees trashing our emails or CEO’s just walking out the door...


History lesson..... once upon a time.....In England there was a jewellery manufacturer and retailer, Ratner... this from Wikipedia...

“Although widely regarded as "tacky", the shops and their wares were nevertheless extremely popular with the public, until Ratner made a speech at the Institute of Directors on April 23, 1991. During the speech, he commented....

“We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price?", I say, "because it's total crap".

He compounded this by going on to remark that some of the earrings were "cheaper than an M&S prawn sandwich but probably wouldn't last as long".

After the speech, the value of the Ratners' group plummeted by around £500 million, which very nearly resulted in the firm's collapse. Ratner resigned in November 1992 and the group changed its name to Signet Group in September 1993.

Today, Ratner's speech is still famous in the corporate world as an example of the value of branding and image over quality. Such gaffes are now sometimes called "Doing a Ratner", and Ratner himself has acquired the soubriquet "The Sultan of Bling". Ratner has said in his defence that it was a private function which he did not expect to be reported, and that his remarks were not meant to be taken seriously.”

Now, we are all grown-ups and we know companies rip us off to make profits, that’s consumerism... however, treating your customers as fools tends to attack their self-respect, often then it is worth it for the customer to turn their back on the company and never look back.

I could not let slip a comment like Ratner or Brodesky and stay in business..

Watching the Apple launch yesterday I was, of course, relieved to see that I am not completely mad. There are companies that perfect products before they release them. There are companies who know how to do PR and use the feedback they get. There are companies with business aware CEOs.

We must just live in hope that one of the nascent grids out there develops a management team that can shine, that can feel a pride in their product and a respect for user feedback. A group of grown-ups who don’t go off in a huff when things get tough.

Success will follow such a group.

So, Fall, and The Fall.......anyway........a dormant period is now expected as SL is put to bed like all the little plants... awaiting Spring.....and possibly a white knight.

If the Boys could just stop digging .....

:))