Update: iPhone arrives

Here's an update to my previous entry regarding the arrival of my new iPhone. The phone did eventually arrive, but not before about 4 visits to the Optus store to ask them where it was. I'm not sure who was telling stories in this process, Apple or Optus, but the bottom line was simply that the user experience of acquiring the phone was pretty crappy.

One good thing was that when the phone did arrive, the guys in the Optus store went out of their way to provision it for me, considering I walked into the store about 5 mins after it closed. It did require me to have a minor conniption first, but in the end they stayed around for an extra five minutes to make sure the phone worked.

As for the phone itself ... well, that's another story altogether. Apart from one freeze-up on the wife's phone (yet to be repeated so far), we've not had any of the problems that seem to have been reported elsewhere. Apparently, there will be a software update soon. We'll see.

One of the most impressive things about the phone is the AppStore. The ease with which I can get an app deployed to my phone as an end user, and the equal ease with which I can build a deploy an app to a ready marketplace as a developer are a truly remarkable bit of business building on the part of Apple.

M@

Moving to a new hosting provider

Today I kicked off the process of changing the company's hosting provider. What I initially thought was going to be a nightmare process, actually turned out to be pretty easy. I'm amazed at the level of sophistication of hosting providers these days, and the prices are pretty low as well. As expected, I'm still waiting for all of the domain transfers to happen, so we'll see if I'm still thinking this was good idea in two days time.

M@

Two different ways to say the same thing

[1] Ideas are just a multiplier of execution Derek Sivers, ONlamp.com

It’s so funny when I hear people being so protective of ideas.
(People who want me to sign an NDA to tell me the simplest idea.)
To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a
multiplier. Execution is worth millions.

Explanation:
AWFUL IDEA = -1
WEAK IDEA = 1
SO-SO IDEA = 5
GOOD IDEA = 10
GREAT IDEA = 15
BRILLIANT IDEA = 20
NO EXECUTION = $1
WEAK EXECUTION = $1000
SO-SO- EXECUTION = $10,000
GOOD EXECUTION = $100,000
GREAT EXECUTION = $1,000,000
BRILLIANT EXECUTION = $10,000,000

To make a business, you need to multiply the two. The most brilliant
idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes
great execution to be worth $20,000,000. That’s why I don’t want to
hear people’s ideas. I’m not interested until I see their execution.

[2] The Hollow Men T S Eliot

...
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
      For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
      Life is very long
...


Tip o' the hat to Daring Fireball for spotting the first one. Which twigged me onto the second one - probably my favourite lines of poetry ever.