I know many readers are tired of my (too) many columns about IBM. So I won’t be posting the latest one here at all. It’s over on the Seeking Alpha investor blog. You can read it here. I mention the post simply because some readers do care about such things.
The Seeking Alpha post is about IBM earnings and how the company is using old business to prop-up new business and not being at all upfront about what’s really happening.
The Seeking Alpha column is also a complaint about blog posts related to earnings in general because they are often written by people who think they know a lot about financial numbers but clearly know little or nothing about the company reporting those numbers. You can’t consider one without the other. If you are stating opinions about forward-looking activities of a public company without ever talking to a customer or an employee of the outfit, well then you are surely missing something.
In other Cringely news we are finally getting close to shipping those $99 Mineservers, having evaded a pernicious Ethernet bug by switching the underlying operating system from Ubuntu Server to Arch Linux. As soon as our server management app is updated to support all three multiuser server platforms we can start to burn SD cards and ship boxes (aiming now for mid-June). Kickstarter backers are, of course, unforgiving, but we try to just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
You might find interesting, too, our Kickstarter update since it also covers Fallon’s 4th grade Science Fair project, which had to do with the effect of network latency on Minecraft game play. The simple question is whether it is better to spend $99 on your own Minecraft server or to invest in a faster PC?
Here’s a hint: buy the server and invite your friends to play (and lose) from their homes.
Actually, Kickstarter backers tend to be very forgiving. They were just expecting someone that supposedly ‘communicates’ for a living would actually provide communication during the prolonged Kickstarter journey. If there had been a posting every two weeks during the period I don’t believe any backer would have been upset. So denigrating the backers for your failure to communicate seems grossly unfair. I’m surprised that you just don’t seem to ‘get it’.
With regards to Seeking Alpha – you need to register to read the entire contents of the article and I have no interest in registering. And, of course, they spread the column to be several pages long for purposes of click bait.
JimA
Seeking Alpha has become an awesome financial news source. Worth registering. Occasionally you get to read a piece from someone who starts off by insulting everyone else who writes for their blog. You have some cajones Bob. Good story though.
Disable the browser’s javascript and you will be able to read the entire article without signing up.
Seeking Alpha requires registration to read the whole article. Interesting approach to building a spamlist.
To save anyone else the trouble, the article is spread across 4 pages. The first page is the article setup, and then the second insists you register to read any more. Like everyone else, I am delighted to have yet another username, yet another password, on yet another site which will have yet another timeframe for when it gets compromised, after having read none of the meaty content of an article. Or maybe that is sarcasm, and no frigging way do I or I imagine many others wanting to put up with this nonsense. Bob, can you also put the article somewhere out of the way on your site so the rest of us can read it?
Agree. I stop reading when ‘free registration’ requires an email address. Not that I want to hide under a tin foil hat (sometimes I do!) but don’t need more spam.
You’re all pretty sad for a bunch of tech geeks. No one ever hear of disposable mailboxes? I use Mailinator (mailinator.com). Here, I’ve set up an account for you:
Sign in to SA with: robertx@veryrealemail.com password robertx
Read, enjoy and let Mailnator cop the spam!
Yes there are workarounds. Just like there are workarounds that get me into your house, despite you locking it. In this case the SA site makes it clear that going to their house and reading the article content means registration. The correct thing to do for those who do not agree is to leave the site, and let Bob know so he can choose to make the article available in another way if he wants.
Thanks. Logging in even eliminated the threat of having to click through to multiple pages.
Visiting seekingalpha.com with JavaScript disabled shows the full article immediately without any annoyance.
Browser-Plugins to enable or disable JavaScript sitewise are your friend here…
Agreed – I would recommend NoScript. Sometimes (many times) it’s a minor pain to have to (temporarily) “allow” a web site, but not only does it thwart script-based viruses, it sometimes blocks those annoying “please register to keep reading” scripts.
Registering to continue to read. That’s not going to work Bob. And poof, there goes your readers base out of the window.
A lesson I learned a long time ago with my own company was always be upfront about the situation, even when you don’t like the situation – and take the lessons of Brooks, “The Mythical Man-month” seriously. If you think you are going to be a month late then start off telling everyone that you will be three months late – and then do your darnedest to make or beat the deadline.
I’ve been a reader for a long time and yet never felt the need to comment. I get that you need to make a living and all, but if Seeking Alpha is an indication on how you intend to do that, with a bait and switch strategy to read a simple article, I don’t think the long term outlook for that is very good. I’m certainly not going to register with a site to read it. Thanks but no thanks. I guess I won’t be following your IBM coverage any more.
You should cancel your subscription then MJ and ask for your money back.
🙂
I don’t know what to say, because I have no interest in either Mineservers or Seeking Alpha. I just enjoy reading Bob’s blog.
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As for IBM, I think the BOD and the top executives should all apologize to their customers and employees for mistreating them so badly. They also should acknowledge their extreme greed and gross incompetence. Failing that, I think they should all be sent to prison as punishment for destroying a once great company. Just my opinion, of course.
I’ll second the request for an alternative place to read the Seeking Alpha articel.
When I tried to read the rest of the article, it told me I had to download the app. Having to register – bad. Having to download an app – worse.
Sounds as though you were viewing from an Android or iOS device? That did not happen to me on a PC browser (SeaMonkey on Linux) aside from the “register” bit, but not an issue since I am already a SA subscriber, so I just signed in to view all.
How to read the article without registering:
Go to the bottom of the article, and highlight the last sentence. c for copy.
Right click the page. Select ‘view page source’ or similar.
Search for the text you just copied. The rest of the article follows. Not as easy to read, but it is there.
It’s just obscured by the script.
Yep, this works. I then pasted the guts of the article to a text editor, added simple HTML & BODY tags at top and bottom and saved it as a local .htm file – comes out nicely formatted!
Hmm your Seeking Alpha article sounds interesting but not interesting enough to use that site. A decision which I make every few months about articles on their site. I honestly don’t understand how anyone manages to monetize articles any more. There are just way too many very interesting articles out there that are not behind registration walls (including this very one).
I read both SA and Bob’s blog. SA has a fair amount of fools and shills so it’s not ideal compared to the blog. I don’t care how many times he talks about IBM, it bears hearing. So regardless of where he’s posting. I’m happy with whatever he wants to share and wherever he wants to share it. To be honest, I’d rather read it here if only for searching for the stories easier.
Second that emotion
If you are on an iPhone, just select the reader icon on the left side of the address bar to see the whole article.
Nice spot. I tried the same with Firefox, just enter Reader view, with identical results.
Internet Explorer with the Readability add-on does 3 things: avoids the login, displays the entire article, makes it readable (as in reading view).
People are still using Internet Explorer?
MS included IE11 with Windows 10 since they knew few people would continue to use Edge after trying it, in its current state. Chrome works no better for me, and doesn’t offer the handy, customizable toolbar, and internet options that IE has always provided since Vista. I especially like the ability to separately control zoom and font size, quickly, without clicking through to so-called advanced options. Of course, one has to learn how to use the parts of Internet Options that are important for any particular purpose. When IE gets its monthly update, it offers to use “recommended” settings, which I always decline since I don’t want to change my customizations.
Thanks for the tip! Reader view worked, and even made it easier on the (old, tired and) eyes. Cheers!
While I don’t like getting new accounts Seeking Alpha does have good contributors and doesn’t abuse my email. They are like Bob’s columns and other sources of information – some of it is good, some of it is bad, some of it I agree with, and some of it I don’t.
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At last count I have 216 accounts on the Internet. Seeking Alpha is one of them. And yes all the passwords are different. I don’t like having so many accounts but what is the alternative? Do I trust Facebook to be my single sign-on service? What are the chances a single sign-on service could get hacked? Can you imagine the havoc that would cause?
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Bob is trying to do what people want. Less IBM on his column. Some people want and need his IBM work, so he’s moved it to a different venue. So stop whining.
Agree. I already subscribe to SA since it is a rich source of financial blogs that I can pick and choose from based on my CHOSEN daily email feed from them. There is nothing very sinister about it, although I use a “disposable” email address (just as I do with Bob’s column). If they get too annoying, and don’t honor my unsubscribe request, I will kill that email addresss (i.e. remove it from my email client), and re-subscribe the subscriptions I still want to a new throwaway email address – that’s how it plays out for me on the ‘Net these days, which is not too tough to manage. YMMV
I have a registered account at Seeking Alpha. There are occasionally articles in which I’m interested. For what it’s worth I don’t get the same experience others are reporting. The article is all on a single page, including comments.
That is the benefit of signing in when registered with SA as I am, also. Another benefit is that many other commenters in that venue have a lot of investing savvy, and offer interesting views from that perspective that the techies on this blog don’t necessarily tend to have. I like getting both perspectives, FWIW.
I’d much rather read about IBM here than to read at a site demanding an email to merely read before they stop annoying me with popups. Yes, I can get around it. No, I won’t encourage that sort of web design.
Seeking Alpha backdoor w/o registering …. in Google Chrome (maybe Firefox too) extension Readabiltiy Redux will (on some sites) automatically follow next page links to give the whole thing on one page.
I like the posts about IBM. If you can’t write them here I hope you’ll continue to at least give us a pointer when you write those articles at other web sites so I can continue to read them.
I retired (not laid off) 3 years ago after 35 years with IBM. I had a great career and it’s breaking my heart to see what’s happening at IBM and what IBMers are going thru.
If you save it to Pocket, it gets the whole article without the shenanigans.
Actually, as someone else mentioned, kickstarter backers are very forgiving. When, however, someone makes a claim that “This beta test will last no more than two weeks.” and then you hear diddley-squat for nearly two MONTHS (after having said previously “Sorry to have gone so long without an update. We won’t do THAT again.”), yeah, people get a little testy. But I don’t think that’s a kickstarter thing; I think it’s a common decency thing.
And then you go ahead and insult those very same backers, as if we were just some sort of less-than-human necessary evil. What a lovely example to set for your kids.
Of course Kickstarter backers are “unforgiving” in the same fantasy world where his kids’ project was “successful”. In the real world, successful means more than collecting money.
I hate to pass judgement on someone I don’t know, but he sure sounds privileged to me. He sits there in Marin County with his airplanes and huge playroom whining about the unforgiving backers who are so very demanding? Don’t they realize it’s so hard to be rich and famous? And all those little people complaining about their $100 — why, $100 is pocket change! It’s lunch money!
If it had been me, I would have told my kid that there was no way they were doing a science project or anything else until their responsibility to their backers were fulfilled. But then I didn’t grow up privileged and my kids know full well how fortunate they are.
Bob is famous, but I doubt he’s rich. He has to put kids through college, and remember those very kids think he types for a living. I wish I could type for a living. I agree that he could do a better job with updates on Kickstarter, though.
Maybe not rich in the trump/koch sense, but compared to much of the country (if not the world) he’s doing very, very well. His kid has a far better laptop than I do and there are houses around here smaller than the room shown in the project photo. So, yeah, I’d say rich. (And his kids aren’t in college yet.)
In your first post you said you didn’t know him. Perhaps you could share a link to the public source of these statements? Which photo?
I can understand why you might need to post elsewhere. It seems you’ve collected a bunch of Luddite followers here.
I’ll read you anywhere.
I’m guessing you have had too much “Koolaid” to even know what the actual Luddites were. What has gotten the Kickstarter backers upset is the lack of professionalism in how this campaign has been carried out. We realize that his kids are involved but based on Cringley’s comment from today, the stink comes from the top. This entire project started with a statement that all of the engineering was already done and they they only needed funds for custom cases. The first posting after funding ended with “We will never let you down”. We realize that Kickstarters are not “guaranteed” but most of us have backed projects before and know that due dates can slip. But this project has had the worst success at giving any signs of actually trying to give actual, timely updates. There have been several updates of “shipments will start next week”. There have been two different apologies for the lack of updates and and promises “to never do that again”. Then they go right back to not saying anything for at least another 6 weeks. Of course, there are the posts here about his kids’ successful campaign and “unforgiving” backers. For a professional communicator, you have not communicated professionally.
Hi Robert,
I registered at SeekingAlpha just so that I could read your articles (and the comments!)
You’ve been the best reporter on IBM for many years now, digging to find the truth behind the company’s obfuscations and outright lies.
Please keep it up.
Nice article Bob, and your insight to IBM should be presented to audiences like Seeking Alpha. That article is not the sort of nerdy technical stuff that I look for when I come here, but maybe it will attract a few nerdy financial types to look here for more interesting stuff?
You were spot on with your Seeking Alpha article. I have used Seeking Alpha for some time now, probably 2 or more years. IBM wasn’t my first Seeking Alpha watchlist stock either.
Fundamentally, corporations are supposed to ADD VALUE in what they sell to customers. Customers are going to open source software because they are seeing MORE VALUE in what they get for what they invest than they do in commercial software. And no, open source isn’t free, you still have to pay for people to learn it within your organization. If you work in a regulated industry, you most likely will have to buy an “enterprise support contract”. That being said, for almost all companies, open source represents a significant cost savings and reduction in hassle factor to commercial software. Especially when you factor in software audits and the “hassle factor” of the sales representatives calling and the annual support and renewal fees.
For commercial software to win, it will have to ADD MORE VALUE than open source. Right now, that is not happening. Most commercial software is rapidly becoming just repackaged open source, with documentation and some useful wizards. Commercial software will have to do better. Or commercial software companies need to buy up the the Open Source, as is being done right now with products like MySQL. Oracle now owns MySQL.
In the end, customers buy software and services (whether SaaS or business services) which provide the MOST VALUE for their money. I actually think the future is with what I call the “small furry mammals” which will provide targeted business platforms for specific niche markets. Here are some examples from areas you would not expect:
A web portal for:
Managing high school and even college music programs. Band, choir, and symphony.
Schools to communicate grades to partners.
Parents to manage their kid’s school lunch programs.
Find the best price for college textbooks.
Rate professors, and locally some are teaching at both the major university and the community college.
Managing Clinical Trials of Experimental Drugs
There are literally thousands of of these yet to build, and some which “could” be built and very useful to local governments.
How about a portal for me to manage and monitor my energy and water usage in my home? With a smart meter, and a next thermostat, and a smart sprinkler system (do they have it yet), I could:
See if I have water leak in my home, for looking at water usage when no water should clearly be running (like at 3am). Talk about solving California’s drought problem? Just send notifications for homes which never have zero water usage at any time (why is the water always on? toilet leak? foundation leak? other leak?)
Look at my home’s electricity usage. Maybe with the Next thermostat adjust the home temperature up if it is event that no one is home in the summer, or down if no one is home in the winter. Compare my home to other homes with the same square footage and number of people living in the home. High usage might also indicate the existance of a server farm, or some small business operating out of the home.
Smart sprinkler system. Do for sprinkler systems what Nest has done for electricity usage. If the weather is showing a rain event, turn off the sprinkler up to one day ahead of the event. If there was documented rain, turn off the sprinkler based on the amount of rain received at a nearby monitoring station. I’ll bet half the sprinklers in my neighborhood do not have working “rain testers” now that the homes were are 10-15 years old.
Monitoring for older patients living in the home? Sensors installed in the attic to “watch the movement” of older persons in their homes. Document on a home map the locations of chairs and beds and bathrooms, and then if an older person “gets stuck” out of an “expected location” notify a caregiver or emergency services…. How hard would that be? How many lives would it save on falls and such?
The future belongs to the small furry mammals, the dinosaurs are dying.
This is my first time we visit here. I found so many exciting stuff in your blog particularly its discussion……
Bob, IBM articles are the only reason I come to this site. Keep writing them. I tried the Seeking Alpha site but they lost me when they demand registration to read past page 1.