billso.com

Bill Sodeman writes about management, mobile computing and information systems

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MySpace comes to China

ism tech

Posted Thursday, 26 April 2007

The New York Times reports that News Corporation is bringing MySpace to China as a start-up venture. The venture will be headed by Luo Chuan, who managed MSN’s China portal.

MySpace China hopes to surpass over 100 competitors in the Chinese social networking market. The default first friend for these MySpace users will not be Tom - it will be a Chinese friend.

Tags: China, network, social, strategy

A day in the life of a typewriter repairman

ism tech

Posted Thursday, 26 April 2007

From the Christian Science Monitor: a blow-by-blow account of a 90-year old typewriter repairman’s work day.

I sometimes use typewriters as an example of legacy hardware that may be obsolete but must be maintained.

Sometimes companies must give customers products that feel familiar in order to create a competitive advantage and fulfill existing key success factors. IBM typewriters were very popular in corporations. Users loved the keyboards!

For many years, the IBM PC keyboard used the same “clicky” keypress technology as IBM’s electric typewriters. Early versions of the IBM PC could be connected to an IBM Selectric typewriter to print high quality documents.

Photo courtesy of Selectric.org

An IBM Selectric

Photo courtesy of PC Magazine.

Tags: computer, hardware, IBM, legacy, USA, value-chain