Disqus - Latest Comments for David Tebbutt

Re: Good ol’ Redmonk

David Tebbutt — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:34:17 -0000

Yeah Dennis, you're right. Congrats to all those who made it high on the list despite the odds, including our friends Redmonk and MWD.

Did you notice that both Freeform Dynamics and Dale Vile were up there too, further supporting your final paragraph. Just as traditional media has been challenged by talented writers such as yourself going online, so the analyst industry - especially the boutique companies - are making a lot of insight publicly available.

As this first iiar survey suggests, some of this cream is already rising to the top.

(Disclosure: it won't surprise your readers to know that I spend much of my time working for Freeform Dynamics.)

Re: David Tebbutt joins Freeform Dynamics

David Tebbutt — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 07:38:21 -0000

Good grief Dennis. Thank you so much.

Re: There is no debate

David Tebbutt — Thu, 10 May 2007 21:51:42 -0000

Cheers Dennis. Glad to be of help.

Re: Lead generation for professional services, Veotag style

David Tebbutt — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 00:09:57 -0000

Hi Dennis, thanks for the links.

Your readers might be interested to know that I then wondered if something similar could be achieved with Google Video and a bit of simple hackery.

Answer = yes!! And, of course, it can be achieved for free. And control is in the user's hands if they don't mind a bit of simple URL editing.

I uploaded the same screencast (picture quality in both cases suffered during the upload/processing, by the way - I'm sure it can be fixed though) and made a list of regular html links to the movie. Each had minutes and seconds added to the end of the link which made Google Video kick off the proceedings at that point.

eg to see the movie starting at 9m35s, add #9m35 to the end of the Google Movie URL.

There's an example on thinkerlog:

http://www.brainstormsw.com/weblog/archives/241

Re: Consultants make me furious

David Tebbutt — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 08:33:11 -0000

I spend a goodly chunk of my life trying to get people to think of their listeners'/clients' needs. This story is repeated daily and I wish I could get myself on the bandwagon somehow. (Not really, I wouldn't be able to live with my conscience.)

Only the other day I was approached to advise the top person in a country. It could have been a great consultancy gig. Lots of travel. Probably lots of luxury too. But I knew the outcome of the investigation without doing it.

Someone else went in there for a week, partly to see if my conclusions could possibly be correct.

They were.

Re: SCOOP: BT doing an AppExchange

David Tebbutt — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 02:08:55 -0000

It's (in theory) even better than AppExchange - vendors aren't building atop the SalesForce.com platform.

I went to BT to see what a search for "Business Manager" would turn up. This is the 'lame attempt' you and Thomas referred to. Here are the results from searching the BT website with the SMB filter on:

1. Business Communications Manager
Find out about a communications solution which integrates voice and data functionality into one system, which meets your current needs but also has the capabilities to grow as your business changes.

2. Advanced phone systems for small to medium businesses
Browse our portfolio of advanced phone systems for small to medium businesses

3. BT Business IT Manager
BT Business IT Manager provides a complete service that encompasses every aspect of a small to medium businessâ€™ IT needs â€“ from hardware supply and set up to advice and support for your systems.

4. IT Support Manager - Server
Don't let server issues prevent you from doing business. Our IT experts can help fix your server problems without even coming on site.
Similar pages

So, a 'lame attempt' it would appear to be. I wonder what happened to the people who signed up for it.

By the way, a link to David Terrar would have been nice. I suspect he may have had a hand in this story.

Re: SMB=SaaS sweetspot?

David Tebbutt — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 03:22:52 -0000

Thanks for the mention. The drag anchor isn't finance or technology, it's culture. Some will move quickly - the smaller the company the better in this respect - others will take years.

Re: Tax evasion – it’s acceptable (and how to fix it)

David Tebbutt — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 03:18:18 -0000

Dennis: no problem on the NCC stuff - I'll root around for the source of the misunderstanding and correct it.

Charles: what an interesting post. I've always (well, since about 1955) worried about immigrants who are not prepared to accept the values of the receiving country. Lots of food for thought in your comments.

Re: Tax evasion – it’s acceptable (and how to fix it)

David Tebbutt — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 07:27:17 -0000

Thanks for the mention Dennis. I don't advise the NCC on anything. I do, however, advise its clients, through writing and training activities. Cooperation, collaboration and communication, whether computer-mediated or not, is at the heart of my life.

So you're right in principle. But very slightly wrong in practice.

Now, if the NCC *would* like me to advise it on community, I'd be only too delighted.

Re: Goodman Jones – a winner

David Tebbutt — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 10:43:01 -0000

You think there might be something in this SaaS lark then?

Only kidding.

Well done to all concerned.

Re: Second Life, furry penises and PR

David Tebbutt — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 06:53:48 -0000

Who mentioned dope? Not me. Not in so many words anyway.

Re: Important site updates

David Tebbutt — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 10:16:06 -0000

Hi Dennis. Thanks for the link.

I've put a lot more practical stuff about Grazr, OPML and OPML Editor on the 'thinkerlog' blog if anyone gets serious about it.

And, of course, opml.org and grazr.com have plenty of information of their own.

If any of your readers get stuck/irritated/frustrated they can come to me. I'm not an expert but I've been playing with this stuff for a while. [I have zero commercial interest in OPML or Grazr. I just find them useful.]

Re: Why smart companies do dumb things

David Tebbutt — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 04:05:27 -0000

Seems to me that poking around rubbish that's been left out and passing off (or identity theft) are actually quite different things.

Re: Why smart companies do dumb things

David Tebbutt — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 03:04:02 -0000

"On ethics, guy says:

Spell things out. Itâ€™s not enough to say, â€œPlug this leak in our companyâ€ and assume that it will be done legally. You should say, â€œPlug this leak in our company by using only legal, ethical, and reasonable methods.â€ Thatâ€™s when youâ€™re done. "

Shame he wrote it *after* the HP debacle. I was prepared to be impressed.

Re: The two Dennis’s

David Tebbutt — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 06:08:09 -0000

Â£715M not "several billion quid"

Re: Client engagement letters suck

David Tebbutt — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 08:32:38 -0000

FYI, I have an 11-page document for my (minute) software company headed "Limited Companies: Total Exemption".

Re: Client engagement letters suck

David Tebbutt — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 03:02:06 -0000

Looks good to me Dennis. Perhaps I'll try it on my accountant. :-)

Re: Starting on a high – 1,000 posts on and still having fun

David Tebbutt — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 11:19:56 -0000

Well done, old fruit.

Re: ROI – revista 2

David Tebbutt — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 01:38:28 -0000

This all reminds me of discussions about ROI on Knowledge Management projects. (It doesn't matter whether you believe that knowledge can be managed for this discussion.)
So I figured that someone must have gone through this softer side of valuation. And they have. I Googled and first one up was a law firm:

http://www.llrx.com/features/kmroi.htm

It is written by "Kingsley Martin, formerly CIO at Kirkland & Ellis, a sharp guy when it comes to KM. Heâ€™s a lawyer (with law degrees from both Oxford and Harvard) who has been focused on KM-related issues for over 15 years."

I think you can climb on others' shoulders with this one Dennis.

Re: Re-branding

David Tebbutt — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 02:46:44 -0000

Depends what you're trying to achieve.

If you want to appear unbalanced or warped or distorted, the first word is fine.

Nothing wrong with 'view'

Where's the focus? Would anyone seeing "unbalanced view" know that this site is for accountants? Or wouldn't it matter?

Having said all that, gapingvoid works for Hugh. And what's that got to do with anything.

If AccManPro is getting you traffic, loyalty etc why change?

Re: Reputation – the only thing that counts

David Tebbutt — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 08:20:09 -0000

If you can be sure it's one vote/one customer (contact?) and that they are authenticated somehow, sounds like an 'interesting' idea.

I'd hate to think of adversaries trying to 'game' the system to wreck your reputation in any indelible way.

Re: Microsoft atrophying as it loses another high profile staffer?

David Tebbutt — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 01:08:01 -0000

"What would it have cost? $200K to keep Niall on track? $300K? Thatâ€™s a fleabite for a company like Microsoft."

As a quiet backhander, it would have probably made Niall feel uncomfortable (I'm guessing, of course.) As salary, it would have caused distortion and resentment.

As stock, it would be an offer all too easy to refuse.

He's well off out of it by the sound of things.

Re: No brochures please

David Tebbutt — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 19:27:04 -0000

Hey Dennis. Send 'em to me. As long as I'm not expected to lie...

Re: My homage to Telefonica’s service

David Tebbutt — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 06:41:31 -0000

Seemed astonishingly robust considering.

Hope you didn't crack your floor tiles.

Re: Three letter acronym (TLA) meltdown

David Tebbutt — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 06:16:40 -0000

I'd say it takes the ME out. But what do I know?

Re: Three letter acronym (TLA) meltdown

David Tebbutt — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 04:05:16 -0000

People
Can't
Memorise
Computer
Industry
Acronyms

Re: Three letter acronym (TLA) meltdown

David Tebbutt — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 04:04:25 -0000

Do you remember PCMCIA?

Do you know what it stands for?

Re: Inaccessible accountants?

David Tebbutt — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 04:17:57 -0000

Yep. When explaining the realities of the press to our clients we refer to this sort of thing as 'wrapperware'. Goes in the bin still in its wrapper.

Sad but true.

How they sell ads, I have no idea.

Re: HMRC ‘interventions’ – just say no?

David Tebbutt — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 18:24:55 -0000

I'm from the other side of the fence. I don't have the experience or interest to read some of your 'insider' postings, although my eyes light up when software (as a service or not) appear.

Anyway, the HMRC stuff touched a nerve and I dropped Dennis an email. He suggested I share it with you, so here goes:

"Dennis,

Re HMRC interventions.

I'm just a humble taxpayer but it pisses me off when my accountant sends his annual 'insure yourself against our costs if you're investigated' letters. 'They could be substantial'. In other words try to frighten me into spending a goodly chunk of already limited profit. I may be insane, but I refuse to pay."

To which, let me add:

My accounts are so ridiculously simple, I cannot believe I would have to pay substantial fees to explain them to HMRC. I have always played it straight - paid high taxes in the good years and less in the bad.

The good years came before I started resenting the way my taxes were spent. At the time, I felt very fortunate to be able to return a chunk of my income to the common good. Now I just feel obliged to cough up, with some irritation.

Anyway, my point was that I resent getting what must be a standard letter which tries to frighten me into buying insurance.

Re: Office 2.0 is here

David Tebbutt — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:06:57 -0000

Well, let's see:

a) We could secure some editorial commissions (hard work, low pay)
b) We could offer to 'research' the event for people who need the intelligence but can't afford the time to go themselves
c) We could find some kindly souls to sponsor a 'British Expedition'
d) We could stick our hands in our pockets (least favoured option right now)

Shame we live where we do really.

Re: Office 2.0 is here

David Tebbutt — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 01:02:47 -0000

Hey Dennis, maybe we should put a trip together. We ought to be able to do it for around â‚¬1500.

Re: SAP CEO’s hilarious quote

David Tebbutt — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 08:41:01 -0000

"A man of words, and not of deeds, is like a garden full of weeds." - Mother Goose.

We should take heed.

Re: Consensus view

David Tebbutt — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 18:27:11 -0000

I didn't think you were having a go at me at all.

Just got me thinking really.

Something I do too much of perhaps.

I thought I'd post a whimsical response.

Sorry if I made you feel bad. Wasn't intentional at all.

Re: Consensus view

David Tebbutt — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 15:40:00 -0000

You could put me in that category. If I'm with someone and I think they're a tosser, am I being hypocritical for not telling them?

I think not.

On the other hand I wouldn't pretend they were anything other than a tosser if that's what I really thought. But, if asked for an opinion, I'd probably refer the asker to the source of my opinion than to my my pre-digested, one-word, conclusion.

That probably makes me a hypocritical tosser.

Re: Consensus view

David Tebbutt — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 13:53:33 -0000

Good for you, Hugh. I refrained from blogging my thoughts at the time (ie total lack of control, or so I assumed) and now I'm glad I did.

Might have mentioned them to one or two people though...

Re: New section to lighten this place up?

David Tebbutt — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 02:23:49 -0000

There must be something around counting the beans. Not that I can think what it might be.

Bean counter-view?

Re: Web 2.0 technology as an engine for practice innovation

David Tebbutt — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 02:50:21 -0000

http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/f...

Something I was commissioned to write for Information World Review. At first, I baulked at the theme because it was negative (why companies are scared of social computing) and then I thought "why not, if it's true?"

Re: Mark Lee – master communicator

David Tebbutt — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 07:13:42 -0000

Dennis, you are very kind to suggest I am a star maker. I guess I've had my moments as a writer for this that and the other titles. But really, all I do there is report what I find interesting, in the hope that others find it interesting too.

So the people are stars anyway. All I do is nudge a little.

The other thing is that people come to me if they need help getting their story straight - for the press, the board, a v.c or whatever.

Again, they're the stars, all I do is give a little help.

Now if I were the boss of a media conglomerate or a hollywood studio, then I could be a real star maker.

So, if you don't mind. As honoured as I am to receive your accolade, I would like to reject it. Or at least reduce it to something like star-nudger.

Re: National win for Winweb – CharterGroup

David Tebbutt — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 05:38:23 -0000

Was the use of "it's" deliberate, to show that the release wasn't written by a PR?

Sorry.

Re: I’ll be Gunning-Fogged

David Tebbutt — Sat, 27 May 2006 03:02:17 -0000

If you're in a position to do it Dennis: can you try the Economist and the Readers Digest? One (or both) of these were the role models given to me 27 years ago. (I mention the time in case the style has changed since.)

Re: Something’s going wrong

David Tebbutt — Sun, 21 May 2006 03:52:21 -0000

I'd suggest you go to a static page now - About, or a specific blog post - and choose View/Page source. Select all and copy to the clipboard.

When it goes wrong, repeat the above.

Compare the two files for clues.

Any problem contact me.

Re: LinkedIn as a social network builder

David Tebbutt — Tue, 02 May 2006 06:42:56 -0000

You might find my informal 'research' on LinkedIn of interest:
http://teblog.typepad.com/david_tebbutt/2005/03...

Re: David Milliband, government censorship and being punched from both sides

David Tebbutt — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 08:17:40 -0000

The BBC say Prescott's bit of fluff was Tracy Temple. The Mail on Sunday says it's Tracey Temple.

I took my lead from the BBC. Maybe that was silly of me.

Re: David Milliband, government censorship and being punched from both sides

David Tebbutt — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 04:05:37 -0000

It's why I said "this nation". I had originally added "other countries, such as Norway and France couldn't give a toss". But it was diluting my point.

The other thing which your comment raises is that a major function of the UK press is to entertain. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. In our case a bucketful of sugar helps the spoonful of news go down. It's probably why our daily press has such high circulations compared with other countries.

And, being less high-minded, this gives plenty of advertisers the chance to spend money.

Re: David Milliband, government censorship and being punched from both sides

David Tebbutt — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 01:03:26 -0000

We could ask Mr Milliband (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) for more information about the impact on his department of the story that's convulsing this nation, John Prescott's sexual shenanigans with Tracy Temple.

[John Prescott is the Deputy Prime Minister and, by an amazing coincidence, this story totally eclipsed two rather more important stories about Home Office incompetence and two attacks by National Health Service staff on government minister Patricia Hewitt. Maybe Mr Milliband would like to talk to us about how this (allegedly old) story was leaked on the very day that the government was in desperate need of some covering fire. Will it be Lord Prescott next? A gesture of a grateful nation.]

Re: Improving marketing value at zero net cost

David Tebbutt — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 15:07:19 -0000

Be sure that the deal covers the necessary transaction logging and backup to restore you 'adequately' in the event of a system failure.

You define, and pay for, 'adequately'.

Re: Sage end of year payroll updates – more service issues

David Tebbutt — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 02:50:07 -0000

Sorry Dennis, that was my fault entirely. When we spoke on Skype, I was muttering that the 'crash splash panel - tell Microsoft?' was the equivalent of the old blue screen of death.

Until I saw your comment just now, I hadn't realised that it wasn't quite the same thing.

Re: Sage end of year payroll updates – more service issues

David Tebbutt — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 19:58:59 -0000

Dunno if you want to edit that slightly - it was a program crash, not a machine crash.

Re: Storage or backup?

David Tebbutt — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 07:43:38 -0000

Me again. Just been reading about Amazon's S3 storage service.

* Pay only for what you use. There is no minimum fee, and no start-up cost
* $0.15 per GB-Month of storage used
* $0.20 per GB of data transferred

I recently (on another website) started getting 20gb+/day downloads. It only lasted a few days but the one thing we needed was a service provider that could expand to cope with the demand rather than penalise us by shutting us down.

I'd much rather have bunged Amazon a few dollars than lose the people who were denied access to us during the downtime.

This service seems ideal for people who have no idea how popular their bulky online materials (podcasts, program files, shared work in progress) are going to be.

Re: Storage or backup?

David Tebbutt — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 06:10:54 -0000

So you're a man who's comfortable knowing that Telefonica sits between you and your valuable information?

Cripes. They must be reliable.

Re: The ROi conundrum

David Tebbutt — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 17:36:27 -0000

I didn't say it was an MSM argument. That just happens to be where my next feature on the subject will be.

Mind you, re-reading your post: you are talking about blogging at the edge and I'm writing about social computing behind the firewall.

So we are at cross purposes but for different reasons.

Onwards and upwards.

I think I'll stop commenting.

Re: The ROi conundrum

David Tebbutt — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 17:05:16 -0000

Well you'll just have to wait for my next feature article to find out what the negatives are. :-) Sorry, MSM still has me in its grip.

Re: The ROi conundrum

David Tebbutt — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 15:30:34 -0000

I quite like the Euan Semple approach of, 'If the I is low it doesn't matter about the RO"

I also like Professor Ian Angell's observation about 'methodolics' - essentially people who are happy as long as they have a spreadsheet with some 'proof', no matter how spurious the assumptions.

People like Ross Mayfield will cheerfully throw out statistics about the benefits that wikis bring: in terms of slashing email and accelerating projects. Not quite the same as 'internal blogging' but I'm sure he'd have views on that too.

Perhaps the alleged desire for an ROI is an attempt by the command and control brigade to postpone the inevitable reduction in their personal power.

Re: Why the minnows matter – Jeeves ERP

David Tebbutt — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 05:25:01 -0000

Your job application has been noted. We will be in touch.

Re: John Newth’s excellent analysis…and my workaround

David Tebbutt — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 07:44:33 -0000

Hi Jason. Like Dennis, a fair number of my visitors use FireFox - 26% against 54.5% for Internet explorer. Opera scores 3.5%.

The problem for website design generally is that IE is not W3C compliant. It's best to get stuff working in FireFox then tweak it for IE.

I have been through this agony recently with one of my sites. I'd be happy to share what I've learnt.

Re: John Newth’s excellent analysis…and my workaround

David Tebbutt — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 07:17:25 -0000

Jason: your website looks horrible in FireFox. Just thought you'd like to know. It seems okay in Opera and Internet Explorer.

Re: John Newth’s excellent analysis…and my workaround

David Tebbutt — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 01:44:38 -0000

Thanks for the mention Dennis.

May I mention a most superb recorder? It's simple, it's low cost, it needs no external equipment - I have recorded absolutely clearly from 12 feet away. It's an iRiver 790.

I dare say it's been updated since I bought it (December last year) but I can't see that the quality will have been reduced.

It also contains a radio and the ability to record from an external source (line in) and play back MP3 files. The accompanying desktop software allows you to convert recordings to MP3 as well. Great for simple podcasting. And meeting tax inspectors.

Re: We got into Cnet (+ZD Net)

David Tebbutt — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 13:42:54 -0000

Shame ZDNet doesn't include hotlinks. What's up with them?

Re: Off to the races

David Tebbutt — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 07:50:36 -0000

You're very kind Dennis. Thanks for the mention

Re: Online collaborative wordprocessing

David Tebbutt — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 02:46:39 -0000

You can see how early the wartznall project is - I always spell it with lowercase W. Dennis and I clearly have things to discuss.

Re: Hello WordPress, goodbye TypePad

David Tebbutt — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 00:42:57 -0000

Oh bloody hell, this is getting me down.

Anil: what's this supposed to mean: "David's been fairly active in promoting his post on this topic." ..... I've probably posted comments to five or six blog which were already expressing a desire to migrate. You make it sound like a campaign. Which it isn't.

Re: Hello WordPress, goodbye TypePad

David Tebbutt — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 00:15:54 -0000

Well Anil (I'm David by the way), it's run on a professionally run hosted platform - Total Choice Hosting. Not sure what your database comment is all about. Export-wise, it is running mySQL, an open, standards-based database which makes it easy for the community to create an export to MT or TP should the demand arise. Or, indeed, should you guys want to do it to make it easier to welcome people into your particular fold.

In fact there are a few solutions around but, since I haven't tried them, I can't advocate them.Re:accountants, you're correct. They won't want to mess with the technology. If they saw my instructions for migration, they'd either run a mile or call someone to help them. The same person that sets up their existing system I would imagine.

Re: Hello WordPress, goodbye TypePad

David Tebbutt — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 03:45:42 -0000

If any of your readers want to know how to migrate from TypePad to WordPress, here's my account of how I did it following last week's crash: http://teblog.typepad.com/david_tebbutt/2005/12/moving_from_typ.html

Re: http://www.techwinter.com/2006/06/04/conferences-that-rip-you-off/

David Tebbutt — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 08:13:37 -0000

Actually, it was a one day conference.

Throws your calculations out somewhat.

Re: California to set up a $1B electric car network

David Tebbutt — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:05:08 -0000

What fuel will be used to satisfy the increased demand for electricity?

Re: It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future

David Tebbutt — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:31:16 -0000

Hi Mike. Very kind of you to mention me. I still think Grazr is a terrific piece of work, even without the soon to be dropped extra facilities. I wish you well and, if I'm ever in your neck of the woods, I'll buy you a meal. Of course, if you ever come to London (UK), be sure to let me know you're coming.

Re: What’s a Blog?

David Tebbutt — Fri, 13 May 2005 03:05:18 -0000

If stuff begins at home, why don't you go first?

Re: Have I outlived my usefulness?

David Tebbutt — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 12:27:43 -0000

I think you'll find I'm David Tebbutt. :-) Happy new year.

Re: Have I outlived my usefulness?

David Tebbutt — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 12:55:45 -0000

Thanks.

Re: Saturday Breakfast

David Tebbutt — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 08:22:38 -0000

Have you breakfasted at Tres Amigos at the harbour? The huevos rancheros feeds you for a week.