JS_startup

I agree that it was a PR blunder, but I don't agree with the accusations of sexism (anyone else noticed the sexist witchhunt that's been started since the Boston code jam fiasco?)

The story should have been framed as a PR misstep, not a calculated attack against women. I'd say Shanley's crass behavior gives women a much worse name than the girl who showed some skin for a commercial.

Oh hey, a stupid slapfight on Twitter.

Frankly, Shanley was really offensive in her approach and Christian's responses seem pretty measured. Not sure what the big deal is.

How long do you work til? Going to the gym for me would entail: getting ready, driving there, working out for an hour, driving home, showering and then getting back to work. Seems nice in theory but it'd be way too disruptive for me.

Not really. Pricing gets complicated for enterprise sales so it can't be as simple as just signing up online. Furthermore, if it's a trial they are signing up for then they have to be put into the sales funnel (meaning they have to sift through a bunch of tirekickers to find the real buyers). Finally you'd have to worry about fraud, trial abuse and all of the other related pains of free and open signups.

There's a reason that basically every business in the industry does it this way.

There doesn't have to be anything high pressure about it. When someone calls me for a quote I simply ask them for the details I need and tell them exactly what it will cost.

In my experience, the fastest way to lose a prospect is by being ambiguous or flighty about the price which is exactly what you'd be doing if you posted ballpark figures on your site (as well as inviting lots of questions and raised eyebrows since our installations literally range from $1000-$25000)

I used to be of the same mindset until I got into enterprise sales.

Face it, some products and sales processes are going to be complex and can't be boiled down into a simple pricing scheme like a startup would use. It doesn't mean the company is old or dishonest or that you should take offense, just that it isn't practical to list prices on the site.

Examples would be:

Per user pricing (what constitutes a user? Any discounts for users past a certain number? What about simultaneous access? Can we share accounts?)

Revenue scaled pricing (what if we're pre-revenue? Any discounts for newer companies?)

Contracts (can we work off of a contract for an increased price? Do we get a discount for longer term contracts? Who owns the data? Do we get onsite support? How much does support cost, if anything?)

Basically, stop looking at large enterprise sales through a startup lens.

I'm open for suggestions as I would like to get the new iPad. The things holding me back are: the inability to expand the memory, the challenge of playing common video formats like AVI or WMV and being pushed into the iTunes ecosystem (I use an Android phone so theoretically I'll be repurchasing apps, movies, music, etc)

I saw some of those and, while they would help, it's still a bitter pill to swallow.

I really just wish there was a tablet with the app quality and build quality of Apple devices but the openness and options of Android devices. Currently I'm forced to either work around Apple's simplicity/limitations or Android's mediocrity/obsolescence.

Have you ever left your house? Lots of people enjoy watching movies outside of their homes too.

I'm in the market for a tablet right now and I wanted to choose the new iPad for its superior resolution, high quality app store and great pedigree.

But I can't. When I put aside any internal biases I realize that I want a tablet whose memory I can expand with SD cards. I want one that I can throw ripped movies onto without jailbreaking or going through time-consuming video conversions. I want one that lets me use it as a simple removable drive, free of the Apple ecosystem and its bloated iTunes client.

The iPad would be a great device for someone like my mom, but I can tell I'd forever regret its limitations and barriers.

The comment I was responding to is the one that brought up how FSF is beneficial for a "democratic society", not me.

The same argument can be made for any sufficiently complicated device or technology, not just code. I suppose I could deconstruct my smart phone and reverse engineer all of its drawings, designs and schematics. Practically speaking though I am bound to its original designer's implementation.

Furthermore, in a democratic society you're more than free to vote with your money -- I don't understand what having full access to someone else's intellectual property/the fruits of their labor has to do with democracy.

If Richard really cared about FSF he would stop making such a spectacle of himself as it's easy to discredit a movement with a gibbering lunatic as its frontman.

Then again, maybe he's setting an example of how programmers should make money in a post-FSF world (writing books and doing interviews)

Google's recent behavior was central in our decision not to embrace their technologies and APIs. If they're going to either be suddenly shut down or have prohibitive, anti-startup pricing applied to them then why should we hitch our wagon to their horse?

The fact is that it is on workstations, I'm simply judging what Microsoft has put before me. Telling me to ignore Metro if I don't like it is like selling me a muffin filled with chunks of pickle and suggesting I eat around them.

I would assume if Microsoft didn't intend for Metro to be used on the desktop then there would be no Windows 8 for PCs and it would be a dedicated tablet OS (like I suggested).