DataWebTect

This time around Love has won against the Money.

Geeks can be unpredictable and no wonder we had the y2k issue. Recently I came across a similar if not minor situation with the dates in Oracle database. Here is the scenario, you need to compare transaction date with the system date of birth but the catch is that you need to make sure that they are 12 years or older. Remember there is no date of birth passed on from the front end. So the easiest way they figured was to get the date extract only the year for e.g 29-Feb-2008 you extract the year 2008 and subtract the 18 years and you end up with 1990 and then add the date which in this case would be 29-Feb-1990 and convert it to a date and compare it against the date of Birth and off you go. Well it was fine until today when Oracle tried to convert the date it failed and you have errors all over the place. But this was the easiest thing to do and they did it. Now they can have another four years to fix it.

Seth has a detailed discussion on what he calls as “placebo effect” in marketing. Detailed discussion of “Placebo surgery”. He compares the marketing to that of the medical placeboand says that the importance of telling stories. I agree that the way you tell the story is more important than your product itself. Therefore, if you are marketing a product you need to make up a good story to make it successful. A very good example I can think of is the partnership between Nike and Michael Jordan to create Air Jordans.  The jordans are no doubt good shoes but what made them extrodinary was the fact that Jordan told a story for them.

DinoArt is the place where the artists can display their and the Art connoisseur can view the art.
DinoJokes displays the user contribution of Jokes from across the world to make you laugh and contribute. Happy laughing!!
Dinodreams :A showcase for the people to track their dreams and for others to read the dreams. As somebody said “If you cannot dream you cannot achieve anything”
Dinonews : The world news at your finger tips from all the countries and channels in one place. A one stop destination for news content across the world.
DinoClassifieds : Free classifieds, Imagine sitting at home, having a cup of coffee and thinking of selling an item/service across the world. yes it is possible,now you can list anything in our classifieds website for free whether it is electronics, house, export, import jobs, business service , personal,friendship,matrimony

Recently I tried to call about my credit card balances. Eventhough I look at the websites sometimes the payoff amount might be slightly different. Therefore I decided to call two credit card companies and had two different and interesting experiences.

  First I called HSBC and as usual I got the machine(IVR). Based on my phone number it recognized the account and said that if I am the owner of the credit card ending **** and if so then press 1. It was and I accepted it and immediately it gave me the balance outstanding as of the date including the interest. I got what I wanted and am happy as a clam and disconnected. I liked the interaction crisp, accurate and to the point.

   Second I called Citi Cards and it asked for the account and pin number and then transferred to the call center across the continent. The greetings were good and asked what I was looking for and repeated the same for me. I got what I wanted but the interaction did not end there. He said I had excellent credit and wanted to offer some additional credit. I did not want any of it. But thought was a good way to sell services. Although it left a different taste, overall I would not complain the experience.

  This kind of shows the approach taken by the companies. On the one side the machine is serving the needs but on the other company is using the interactions to sell additional goods.

The counselor also helped me write up a sample bait letter to send it over to the potential manufacturers. Then he showed how the public libraries have access to the business directory information and walked me through that. After that I did mail the bait letters to around one hundred potential businesses. Of those couple came back asking for more information and they rejected my idea that it would not fit into their line of business but I am hopeful that there is someone out there who might be interested in pursuing the development and marketing of my idea. Essentially I was able to patent my idea with less than $1000 as against the common notion that it takes thousands to get a patent done. This just proves that if you are passionate about an idea, you can always find some ways to make it happen. I am happy and already I have couple other ideas which I am planning to patent waiting for this one to materialize.

Nothing happened until accidentally I met a score counselor. If you are not familiar Score is an organization with volunteers who help the small business entrepreneurs to get help and mentor them to achieve success. I was able to meet one counselor who had many years of experience in filing patents. I told him that I do not have $10,000 to file the patent and he suggested that we will be able to get a provisinal patent with less than $500. Then he asked if I had any experience writing patent lingo and suggested that I meet with somebody who can write up the patent specifications. I spent around $200 for writing the specifications. Then I filled out the provisional patent application with the help of the counselor and the fee is just $125. Within few weeks I had the provisional patent acceptance. I am really thankful for the help provided by the counselor. There is more and will continue in the next part.

Since my childhood, I wanted to be an inventor. But I always thought that to be an inventor you need your own laboratory and stuff that goes with it. Then about a year ago, I was reading a book and it stuck me that it was easier than I thought. Then I started writing my ideas in a notebook. Couple of ideas were stricking. Then I was not sure what to do next. The obvious choice was to get it patented. I reviewed the Patent office whis has more details than I really wanted to know. Then I got information about a patent lawyer and used the county law referral service to get the initial consultation with a patent lawyer for $35. But the lawyer was not there and an assistant walked me through the process and told that the costs could be between $2500 to $10,000. But I was not sure if I spent that much whether I would be able to get it back. Then I got another idea, may be, just may be if I made a prototype and sell it without patenting. I met couple of CAD tool companies to design and develop a prototype of the product. The thinking here was to make a prototype and then take it to the  companies and see if they will be interested. Turns out it would cost me around $1000 for the drawings and the prototype. Well that was cheaper but not what I wanted. Then I got in touch with a long time friend in India to see if he can help me with the CAD drawings and then create a prototype. My friend kept his word and I am really thankful to have received the drawings. I just left it like that.

 David St. Lawrence always has a wonderful post that I can relate to very well. Being a project manager the only thing that matters to you is the end goal. We are not worried about the few issues that come along the way as long as we can complete it on time. Along the way our team memers always said what we want to hear for the fear of getting in trouble. The suppressed issues will manifest itself at some point in the future when we step away from the project.  Therefore he suggests

“Achieving a target in a way that you can be proud of lets you end cycle and move on to other targets. Cheating your way to achieving a target leaves open issues that will always come back to haunt you, even if you go on to achieve nobler things.”

Truly amazing and if only we can stop to think about it!!