Brian Prentice

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Entries from January 2009

What Happens When Google Goes Bankrupt?

January 31st, 2009 · No Comments

No, this is neither a prediction or an imminent possibility! But I’m just wondering – what if Google went bankrupt?
I think this question is extremely pertinent in the light of our current economic fiasco.  At the moment we’re learning a very painful and very expensive lesson. To avoid the systemic collapse of an industry central [...]

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Tags: Trawling for Trends

When the Pink Slips Drop, So Does The Penny

January 23rd, 2009 · 1 Comment

With Microsoft’s announcement of their financial results and the impending reduction of 5000 employees – their first major layoff – I find myself thinking back on one of the more profound experiences I had in my professional life.
It was the late 80’s. I was a young man who had been working at Apple for nearly [...]

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Tags: Trawling for Trends

Pimp My Technology? Well, It Didn’t Work In The Kitchen!

January 20th, 2009 · No Comments

Boy oh boy – my digital life just keeps getting better!
Just last year, as I was starting to use the MP3 feature of my phone, Apple made me realize I could use the phone feature of my MP3 player. Of course, I’ve been known to listen to music on my GPS device while I’m using [...]

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Tags: Feature-itis & The Design Imperative

Unwanted Emissions? Blame It On PowerPoint…Or The Dog!

January 13th, 2009 · No Comments

Well, it turns out that the ballyhoo over the 2 Google search = 1 cup of hot tea’s worth of CO2 emission is turning out to be hot air itself.
It turns out that the 7 grams of CO2 per search was a misquote from physicist Alex Wissner-Gross who has been working on a set of [...]

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Tags: Trawling for Trends

Google & The Triumph of White Space

January 11th, 2009 · 7 Comments

Some interesting research from J.P. Morgan has been doing the rounds recently. Internet analyst Imran Khan (not to be confused with the legendary Pakistani cricket player of the same name) first looked at the most frequently used search engines and found:

He then asked people what it would take to for them switch search engines. The [...]

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Tags: Feature-itis & The Design Imperative

Interface Design Is No Panacea For Over-Engineering

January 6th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Thomas Otter has been posting a number of thoughtful blogs on the topic of user interface design. Design is a topic near and dear to my heart. It is my firmly held view that one of the ramifications of the consumerization of IT is that enterprise IT will either become “design-focused” or it will become [...]

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Tags: Feature-itis & The Design Imperative