A brief history of music in the office

Warning: this post contains reminiscing, nostalgia and faded memories.
When I began my career of sitting in a chair looking at a computer, in a horrible block in downtown Auckland, we would often have music playing in the office. But this was 1995. It wasn’t streamed, ripped or downloaded or even shared across a network. It [...]

The power of online recommendations and reviews

Who influences my buying decisions? I know who doesn’t: the product manufacturers.
When I’m in purchase mode, I look to people who know. And who are unbiased. People I trust (or software I trust, but I’ll get to that later).
This isn’t new of course. Word of mouth has been a key influencer for a long [...]

Family Guy podcast: crapping on your own great product

Fans of the grubby, puerile and absolutely hilarious Family Guy are predominantly young and wired - the perfect audience to connect with through the internet. You’d think.
But Fox have messed up with their promotion of Family Guy through the UK version of iTunes with their low-value collection of podcasts.
Here’s a comment from one not-so-happy-anymore fan:
“Seriously, [...]