BlogSat

I was reminded last week of a story someone who worked at Netscape a while ago told me. This person was at an industry conference wearing a Netscape T-Shirt, when someone who apparently worked at Microsoft walked up to him and said, "We're going to kill you." and completed the picture by glaring manically, gesturing a slit-of-the-throat and laughing as he clicked his tongue and left. Thats the sort of rubbish stays with you, and is the sort of the thing that comes right from the top. That sort of rubbish is also the kind of stuff I never want to deal with if I can help it. It takes a special kind of corporate brainwashing to get people to behave that way. Such zeal is usually the domain of religion...and sports fans. :) Most companies have a tradition of painting the competition in a negative light. Some do it subtly, others don't. Google, fortunately, is run by adults and in general our internal attitude and conversations towards competition (respectful, honest, ge...

Woohoo, example of how competition benefits consumers, but also why competing on price is dangerous (especially when you're sitting on piles of cash!) C'mon Walmart! Lower the price one more time! :) From this SeekingAlpha article First blow: (10/14 - in the am) - Wal-mart announces they will offer 10 pre-release hard covers for $10. Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez is quoted as saying: "If there's going to be a 'Wal-Mart of the Web', it is going to be Walmart.com. Our goal is to be the biggest and most visited retail Web site." in this WSJ piece. Second blow: (10/14 pm ) - Amazon counters Wal-mart with $10 on each books and of course free shipping for Prime/$25 super saver. Third blow: (10/15 in the am) - Wal-mart lowers prices again to $9 Fourth blow: (10/15 hours later) - Amazon matches the $9 price target.