Where's Nate?

living large in the four-oh-eight. wicked large.

6.05.2006

waking the giants.

Just got back from a great game at Pac Bell Park in which my Giants beat the Marlins 14-2 and Barry ripped #716 to center field. Back home, the first thing I did was fire up my newsreader to find three interesting articles in the Merc.

1) Google is releasing a spreadsheet app. Big surprise. Remember a few months ago when they acquired Writely, a Word-killer? And I wrote about Google's quest for world domination? Consider this a strong flanking move around Microsoft's Maginot Line. While the company insists that it's not a high powered Excel competitor, it's yet another push to move productivity apps to the web. And by enabling the import and export of .xls and .csv files, intentions appear to be clear at the Googleplex.

2) Apple is downsizing in India. Didn't Steve read "The World Is Flat"? The answer, I'm sure, is "Yes." And the moral of that story is that you offshore the parts of your business that free up strategic resources elsewhere. To be fair, Apple never really got started building up the Bangalore operation. But perhaps the fruit company sees better, more efficient talent elsewhere. Like Europe. Or China. Either way, it's an interesting anti-trend move, the kind of move that makes Apple so compelling.

3) HP is discouraging telecommuting. There are days when our favorite Garage Band is the most innovative company in the Valley. And then there are days when it looks more and more like a dinosaur. This is one of those days. Didn't these guys practically invent the notion of "working from home" several decades ago? In an era when the young tech talent is going anywhere but HP, this is the kind of short-sighted move that might impact recruiting and retention. Either that, or company-wide productivity will increase two-fold. A trend to keep an eye on.

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