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Comment Excellent Marketing Opportunity (Score 4, Interesting) 451

by univgeek (#42102297) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Troubling Trend For Open Source Company

Are the people calling you potential buyers of support? [Assuming they are not freeloaders by nature, individuals who might not want your business support, etc]

If they are potential buyers this is an EXCELLENT marketing opportunity. They are calling you for something they need. Converting that into a transaction is a clear path that many callers themselves may expect subconsciously. It's all about positioning and expectation management!

The key thing is to setup expectations, right from before they call, to the number they call, what they hear when they call, about the different levels of support, paid & free, how they can reach the right tier of support for their category, how they can upgrade their support tier, and how they can resolve their problem.

For instance, if you have a support forum + support FAQ, redirect all free callers to that --- AFTER telling them that free support is community supported, with customers just like them providing support.

If they want a specific type of support or customization, or installation support, then direct them to the relevant FREE instruction manual, and tell them that premium support for these is available for enterprise/business customers.

For callers make sure your IVR script takes into account both free and paid users [if you use the same 1800 number, you could also give toll-free numbers for premium support users, and toll numbers for free users].

Your script could be

1. Premium support users: Please enter your support id to be taken straight to our support team
2. If you do not have a support id:
                  Press 1 for free installation support options [list out website address, forum address, FAQ address, etc.].
                  Press 2 to buy premium installation support [[ Note the 'to buy' clearly setting their expectation ]]
                  Press 3 for free post-installation support options [list out website address, forum address, FAQ address, etc.].
                  Press 4 to buy premium annual support
                  Press 5 to reach sales

Wherever you list your number make sure it's listed as 'Premium Support Number' or 'Business Support' or something which will influence the caller to understand that this is not free support. For instance you may now have 'Toll-free support number' - which is misleading!

I guarantee if you do this right, you will have more satisfied users and potential customers!

If you want some consulting around this to help you implement this fully, drop me a note - I've been doing marketing/prodmgmt for an open-source based software vendor for a few years. [[ prasanna at wignite dot com ]]

Comment Mini-tables on tables.. (Score 1) 347

by univgeek (#41250897) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What's Your Take On Stand-Up Desks?

You've got many choices.

1. Get an over bed table ala http://www.amazon.com/Invacare-Over-Bed-Table/dp/B000QA0EHI $49, you can adjust the height, upto 42" which should be within a few inches of what you need.

2. Use a bed tray on your normal table - ala http://www.standsandmounts.com/winsomewoodnaturalwoodbreakfasttraywithtiltingtop.aspx

3. Get a shelf with adjustable racks ala http://visualadventures.com/gear-review/how-to-make-an-adjustable-stand-up-desk-for-about-50

4. El cheapo option, wooden boxes, or piles of telephone directories, or piles of soft drink can crates.

Get a tall stool to sit in when you need a break from standing.
Piracy

Has Any Creative Work Failed Because of Piracy? 1115

Posted by kdawson from the show-your-work dept.
A user writes "Anyone familiar with the piracy debate knows about the claims from organizations like the RIAA that piracy causes billions of dollars in damages and costs thousands of jobs. Other studies have concluded differently, ranging from finding practically no damages to a newer study that cites 'up to 20%' as a more accurate number (PDF). I figure there's got to be an easier way to do this, so here's my question: Does anyone know of any creative works that were provably a financial failure due to piracy? The emphasis on 'provably' is important, as some form of evidence is necessary. Accurately and precisely quantifying damages from p2p is impossibly hard, of course, but answering questions like this may lead us to a clearer picture of just how harmful file sharing really is. I would think that if piracy does cause some amount of substantial harm, we would see that fact reflected in our creative works, but I've never heard of a work that tanked because people shared it online."
Businesses

ScienceBlogs.com Deals With Community Backlash Over PepsiCo Column 299

Posted by Soulskill from the ray-charles-would-be-disappointed dept.
History's Coming To writes "Several writers for the ScienceBlogs.com collective have publicly resigned from the site, and many more have voiced concerns over parent company Seed's decision to include a paid blog under the nutrition category from PepsiCo. The blog was to be written by PepsiCo food scientists, detailing their work. The UK's Guardian newspaper has picked up on the story, and includes a letter from Seed editor Adam Bly which covers the company's rationale." The ScienceBlogs Team later canceled the PepsiCo blog and apologized, instead leaving their users with a few tough questions: "How do we empower top scientists working in industry to lead science-minded positive change within their organizations? ... How do companies who seek genuine dialogue with this community engage?"
Businesses

Dell Says 90% of Recorded Business Data Is Never Read 224

Posted by timothy from the sounds-lowball-no-matter-the-methodology dept.
Barence writes "According to a Dell briefing given to PC Pro, 90% of company data is written once and never read again. If Dell's observation about dead weight is right, then it could easily turn out that splitting your data between live and old, fast and slow, work-in-progress versus archive, will become the dominant way to price and specify your servers and network architectures in the future. 'The only remaining question will then be: why on earth did we squander so much money by not thinking this way until now?'" As the writer points out, the "90 percent" figure is ambiguous, to put it lightly.
Space

15-Year-Old Student Discovers New Pulsar 103

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the sky-isn't-the-limit dept.
For the second time in as many years, a student has made a discovery while participating in the Pulsar Search Collaboratory (PSC), a joint program between the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and West Virginia University designed to get students and teachers involved in analyzing data from the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT). This time it was high school sophomore Shay Bloxton, who discovered a brand new pulsar. "For Bloxton, the pulsar discovery may be only her first in a scientific career. 'Participating in the PSC has definitely encouraged me to pursue my dream of being an astrophysicist,' she said, adding that she hopes to attend West Virginia University to study astrophysics. Late last year, another West Virginia student, from South Harrison High School, Lucas Bolyard, discovered a pulsar-like object called a rotating radio transient. His discovery also came through participation in the PSC."

Comment Mostly irrelevent replies... (Score 1) 834

by univgeek (#27906543) Attached to: Go For a Masters, Or Not?

Most of the replies are irrelevant as they address different fields. While an MS is less useful than work experience in many fields, that's not nearly as true in Elec Engg, or Comp Engg. or any math-heavy fields.

I've done my MS in the Elec. dept. If your MSCE is like CE at my school, then it's going to be a lot of Comp. Arch., VLSI, Solid State, Analog Elec., Signal Processing, etc. which you CANNOT learn on the job. My rule of thumb - heavier the math in a course, lower the probability that you can learn it on the job. Very few employers let you learn on the job - and math-heavy stuff is far easier to learn at school.

An MS is a minimum qualification to get into the mid-level of places like Qualcomm, Analog Devices, TI, Intel, AMD, etc. So my advice? Do an MS CE, make sure you do interns at every possible opportunity. Or if you're near a school which lets you do a part-time MS, start working, and start your MS too. Not doing an MS will get you stuck very soon!

Comment It is about creativity , not about utility!! (Score 1) 310

by ma_sivakumar (#23635639) Attached to: goosh, the Unofficial Google Shell
A lot of planning and thought would have gone into creating this page. It might not be directly useful as others point out. But, this is a lesson for any web developer on how to use available tools to create a webpage, the way one wants.

I salute Mr. Grothkopp and agree with the poster that it is the coolest thing I have seen recently.

Linux 2.6.20-rc6 Kernel Performance 226

Posted by CmdrTaco from the up-and-to-the-right dept.
Michael writes "The Linux 2.6.20 kernel will feature KVM support, Playstation 3 support, and a variety of other improvements. With the Linux 2.6.20-rc6 kernel out the door, Phoronix has written a performance comparison of the Linux 2.6.20-rc6 kernel against the 2.6.19 and 2.6.19.2 kernels in a variety of benchmarks."

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