Expensive New Optimus Maximus Keyboard
Looking for a way to burn a couple federal rebate checks? Look no further.
The Optimus Maximus keyboard is the definition of cool. Just look at it! It has LCD screens for buttons. Not only that, but the new keyboard can be programmed with any language out there ranging from Cyrillic and Quenya, to special ASCII characters and symbols.
It is really pretty cool to see how they designed it, and the considerations that were made to extend the life and service concerns of an LCD keyboard. Each button on the keyboard consists of a stationary LCD display with a clear moving cap to reduce wear on the individual displays.
The keyboard can be connected to USB ports, requires USB or DC power to function and even has a slot for a memory card so you can save your configurations or create custom ones for various uses.
At almost $1900 US dollars the Optimus Maximus does not come cheap but if I had the money to burn I would definitely pick one up. Think about being the first guy at the LAN party with a “PWN” or “IWIN” key!
For more information on the Optimus Maximus check out the specs page.
Editor’s Note: With such a hefty price tag what are the mainstream applications that people see this product being best suited for? I can’t think of many situations where it would be worth the cost, but the cool factor would make it a fun business write off.
Too Many Business Requirements from End Users
An ambitious project using MSFA failed due to demand-overload
My company started an ambitious project to run our entire ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system as a web application, and they were prepared to throw a lot of time and resources at the project to make it work.
We hired a consultant who had experience managing large scale projects and also had an extensive background with writing web applications. We even hired additional staff solely for this project. Despite all of our efforts, the project still ended up as a costly failure.
Now, there were a number of reasons why the project failed, but I would like to focus on what I believe to be the most significant problem: “too much, too fast.”
First, let me provide a little background on the software that we are currently using for our ERP. It is approximately 10 years old, and extremely limited in what it can do. Although it supports some standards such as SQL (a given for any database application) it has a number of bugs that prevent these features from being usable, meaning complex workarounds are necessary for almost every facet of our business.
There are upgrades for the software that fix these bugs and expand functionality, but since it is an “off the shelf” retail application upgrading all of our existing systems is prohibitively expensive. Especially considering that the most recent version would not satisfy all of our business needs and would only be viable as a temporary solution anyway.
We have done pretty well with what we have available, but it is just not enough. Admittedly, many of the problems we have are not with the software itself but with how we use it (and abuse it).
This project, which we started in november of 2007, was not the first attempt to migrate from our disfunctional ERP system, however it was the first attempt we had made using a proven methodology instead of just “winging it”.
You may have heard of Microsoft Foundations for Agile Software Development (MSFA) before, which is the methodology recommended to us by our consultant.
Part of this process involved defining Business Rules (what the current software does now), Business Requirements (what the new software would be required to do), and Use Cases (examples of how the current software is used).
All of this is intended to give a very clear definition of what functionality in the old system needs to be preserved in the new system, and what it will be expected to do better.
So if we allocated plenty of resources for the project, followed a proven methodology, and had experience from failed projects in the past, then why did this project fail? I believe the reason that had the largest impact was the fact that the end users both defined the business requirements and approved them.
Needless to say, this is a recipe for disaster since end users are focused on entirely different problems than developers are. I’d hate to use a car analogy, but if we were building a car, the end users would be more worried about leather seats and air conditioning, while we the developers are just trying to get the engine and transmission to work together so that we can move forward.
Now don’t get me wrong here, nobody knows more about what a system should do than the end users, since they are the ones who have to put up with it.
Ideally, they could provide a wish list of things they want the system to do and the developers could prioritize them based on how feasible they are. Unfortunately, there were several people at each development team meeting that probably should not have been, prioritizing power windows as more important than having a windshield.
Although this project left a bitter taste in my mouth, I learned a lot from it.
As of today I have been told that the project “isn’t dead, it’s just sleeping”, suggesting that we will pick it up again sometime when there is less going on.
Fortunately, I’m not that naive and I can see that the project as we envisioned it this time around is not only no longer reasonable, but should not even be considered desirable.
What we need is to get back to the source of the problems we are having now, and carefully work out as much of the details as we can before we start hiring additional resources to help.
The Blogs First New Author!
Pseudorant Gets a Helper Monkey!
As of this weekend Pseudorant now has a new helper monkey / part time author named Joe. Joe has an extensive background in computers and technology and will be contributing articles here and there, for anything that he he feels people need to know about.
Currently he is involved in Linux / Programming / PHP / CMS / and Server projects which all lend themselves to the types of articles Joe likes to write in his free time. Because he is a part time author with Pseudorant, his articles will be posted sporadically as his schedule permits.
I am very excited to have another author helping out with the site because this will provide even better articles for anyone that is already interested in what we are doing here at Pseudorant.
As always, we plan to keep the focus on computer technology and the internet, and anything that relates to these topics. Keep checking back for future updates and anything new we are working on.
Thanks for checking out the site, we appreciate the support!
My iPhone Wishlist – Future Updates?
All the things I want from my iPhone and then some!
Driving home from work today I had a great idea in the car that I needed to write down so I didn’t forget. Now I love my iPhone to death, and use it all the time for taking notes. The only problem is when I am driving in my car this is not the safest or smartest thing to do.
It got me thinking about how I wish the iPhone had an audio recording feature so you could record mental notes for yourself when it is not convenient to write them down.
My mind started to wander, thinking about all the other functions that I wished the iPhone was capable of. I have had my iPhone since the week they first came out and this has given me plenty of time to come across numerous things I wish it could do. As if it doesn’t do enough already, I’m sure I am not alone when I say it needs to do more!
The first thing that is at the top of my list is an audio recording feature like I mentioned for making quick notes of things you need to remember. You could then set these audio reminders to calendar events that could be triggered as reminders or just look them up in a “notes’ type browser.
I really love the camera on my phone and I use it a lot. For the most part the pictures come out great! That is, when I have good lighting. If it is dark out, it is really hit or miss with the camera. Some pictures will come out nice, but most of the time they tend to come out grainy looking which can really ruin some shots.
I can understand why the iPhone doesn’t have a flash as this would probably chew through the battery life in no time, but I wish the camera had a higher megapixel count and some extended options for it. It is just so convenient to have the camera function that I use it all the time, and wish I had a little more control over it.
One thing I am really disappointed my iPhone doesn’t have is a video recording function. This seems like something that could have easily been incorporated since most digital cameras out there have the ability to capture motion jpeg. I am guessing this was also probably a battery life consideration but considering how great the video playback is on the phone it’s disappointing that you can’t record video with it.
Another really nice feature would have been a GPS capability. It seems silly, since most phones are required to utilize some sort of GPS technology for emergency services, that this can’t be put into practical use by users. The incorporation of Google maps and how well it works on the phone always drives me nuts when I think about how cool it would be to be able to track myself on that map as well. Between Apple and Google this seems like it should have been there from the start.
This next one is something I am sure I am not alone on, which is full fledged java and plugin support through Safari, especially for playing simple mpeg videos. Because of competition between Apple and Microsoft I can understand why the phone does not support WMV files but mpeg is pretty much standard. It is frustrating to be limited to videos in YouTube or content you have downloaded to the phone. It would make the internet experience on a phone unmatched in my opinion, if they could add this ability in the future.
Another thing that has really bugged me along these lines is that I cannot save files to my iPhone directly from a website. I’m talking about images to use as backgrounds, mp3s and videos to enjoy when I’m bored, and text files for projects I am working on. I can understand that this may be to protect the phone from potential security flaws, but having an 8GB hard drive that can’t store things at the touch of a button is like having a beach house I lost the key to. I don’t want to climb in through the window every time I want to enjoy that luxury.
The last 2 things I wish the iPhone had are an external keyboard similar to what some of the PDAs out there have, because I take lots of notes with my phone and I mean LOTS! I will use it for taking meeting notes, jotting down ideas, making lists, writing down songs to download, etc. I would really love a keyboard for those times when you are sitting down somewhere and you really want to get your ideas out in full. Especially for things like blogging!
The second thing along these lines would be a stylus. Now don’t get me wrong. The iPhone has one of the best touch screen systems I have ever used. In fact I was blown away by how good it actually is. You see it in the commercial and think there is no way it can be that good and then you use it yourself only to find out it’s better! I would just really like the ability to use a stylus for when I am messing around with various options and sliders in settings that are smaller than the standard keyboard letters. It would also be nice because then you could incorporate some type of doodle program for me too!
Ok have I asked for enough yet?
Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPhone. (Did I already mention that?) I take it everywhere and use it all the time. I have used it so much in fact that my battery is finally starting to show some slight signs of aging after about 10 months.
Requests like this show how good you have made something when people make all sorts of unreasonable demands about “lacking” features. Whenever I read a review on an item and the negative comments are “Did not come with a universal remote to start the vacuum from the other room”, I immediately buy that product because you know it must be good if that’s all there is to gripe about.
Speaking of which, where is my universal remote function Apple?
Why can’t my phone control all the things in my real life like it does in my cyber life? Oh wait that’s right! Check out the following article for information on rumors that apple is developing limited universal remote functionality for the iPhone. (For use with iTunes of course)
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/rumor-apple-to.html
But considering they can do this, it would be nice to control all the rest of the stuff in the house with my iPhone too.
Even if it can’t do these things I guess I can settle for what it currently offers me. It’s like having someone cook dinner for me, and then complaining that I wanted to get Chinese take out. I guess I have set pretty high standards for my iPhone but it is only because I see the potential for this device and all the things it can be used for in the future.
I hope Apple sees the same thing and continues to build on the great device they have already created.
HEMA Viral Marketing Webpage?
HEMA’s Viral Marketing Approach to the Web
Define: Viral Marketing - Marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message.
I received an email from a friend the other day with a link to a really cool viral marketing campaign for a Dutch store called HEMA. I wasn’t sure what HEMA was at first or if it was even a real store, or just the theme for someone’s amazing flash presentation.
I have come to find out that HEMA is a Dutch department store that would be similar to Target. They focus mainly on houseware products at low prices.
HEMA which stands for Hollandse Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam translates into Dutch Standard Prices Company Amsterdam. They were founded back in 1926 and have made quite an impression for themselves online considering how far this viral marketing campaign must have traveled to get emailed around Madison.
With that being said check out the email I received. Once you click on the link wait a few seconds for the fun to begin.
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HEMA is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam. Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands.
Take a look at http://producten.hema.nl:80/
HEMA’s product page. You can’t order anything and it’s in Dutch but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens.
This company has a sense of humor and a great computer programmer.
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For more information on the “real” HEMA website you can check their mainpage here:
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