Here comes the hard drive shortages

I caught this on another site and am reporting here. This could kill deals for the Christmas season and everyday business orders in the coming weeks…

“You’ve probably heard about the flooding in Thailand. You may not have heard about all the hard drive factories that are underwater and non-operational and will probably stay that way for at least the next six weeks. The next three months are looking really, really bad for hard drives — especially for anyone who’s buyin’.

Western Digital, Hitachi, Seagate, and Toshiba are all facing direct production issues as a result of the flooding, and even Korean companies such as Samsung are having trouble getting the specific components that they need to build their own drives, like a motor — responsible for spinning the disc in hard disc drives. Most customers have about two weeks of inventory, and distributors may have an additional two weeks, but beyond that, things are looking gloomy. On Apple’s earnings call this week, CEO Tim Cook said that he’s “virtually certain there will be an overall industry shortage of disk drives as a result of the disaster.”

According to Thailand’s prime minister, the flooding may take up to six weeks to recede, and after that, who knows how long it’s going to be before factories resume production and there’s enough logistical infrastructure back up to get drives and parts out of the country. On top of all that, China’s cuts to rare earth supplies are just going to make everything worse by the time the holiday season rolls around. This isn’t just speculation, either: it’s already getting bad out there.

Over the last two or three days, I’ve watch prices on the drive I’ve been looking at for a new PC build (a 1TB Samsung SpinPoint F3, if you’re curious) skyrocket from $60 to $110 to completely out of stock most places. As people start to worry, demand will increase, and since there’s not going to be any new supply for weeks (maybe even months), things may very well get frantic as soon as current stock runs out. So, if you’ve been thinking about a new computer, an upgrade to an old computer, or even just an external drive for backup storage, now is definitely the time to pull the trigger.

That is, if it’s not already too late.”

Immersive Computing coming from Transformyx

SmartDesks.  SmartGlass.  TouchWall.  Surface Tables.  Oh yes, faithful followers, a world of wonder is coming to a classroom and boardroom near you very soon.  Stay tuned for more!

Speaking engagements are rolling in???

Well they say be careful what you wish for.  Ive been marketing myself to different associations this year and am starting to get asked to make public appearances and speaking engagements!

Very pumped about this and am honing my topics down as we speak.  I’ll post them here soon so please comment or make some suggestions for me!

TechX 2011 wraps up…TechX 2012 gets underway.

I am proud to say that we did it.  It may have been my idea but Team Transformyx made this event go off without a hitch. 

For almost four days, 8 of us managed over 800+ attendees, 25 guest speakers and 30 exhibitors, all the while getting very little support from organizations that should have been supporting the event. (and you know who you are)

We helped our own Mayor Kip Holden get connected with executives from HP on getting HP involved in the growth of technology in our great city.

We watched as many new relationships were created and old ones were strengthened on the exhibit floor.

We watched as people were educated on a variety of topics and came out of class sessions begging for mre next year.

We heard much positive acclaim come from some of the largest technology companies in the world on the job we did and pledging their support next year.

But the most important thing we did was giving Louisiana a new vehicle to, support its consumers, educate its workforce and drive out-of-stater’s into our economy, and showcased the many wonderful organizations that Louisiana has to offer.

I am proud to say that I am an employee of Transformyx, and to have worked with the wonderful members of our team, and our community, to take a tiny idea and watch it become the foundation of this,event for many years to come.

Thank you Louisiana and I hope to see you all at TechX 2012.

TransformyxLIVE re-branding into TechX LIVE starting next week!

Based on the popularity of the radio program on 107.3FM and last week’s TechX 2011 Conference & Expo, we’ve decided to make a few changes in our branding. The radio show will now be a weekly live extension of the TechX Conference & Expo and will feature Guest Hosts as well as weekly guests from the world of technology representing all of the top companies and brands.

We’ll be releasing more info on these changes and start listening to our new ads running on 107.3FM starting this week!

Back to regular posts starting this week!

After spending the last two months getting TechX to launch, I am now resuming regular posts each week.  Looking forward to some comments and post-backs from my peeps!

HP’s Kyle Poulson on TransformyxLIVE this Saturday, July 8

This week Ned returns on the big show TransformyxLIVE with special guest Kyle Poulson, Sr. networking specialist at HP. We’ll be talking about everything HP and how the company is adapting to it’s full frontal assault on Apple with the release of the HP TouchPad webOS next week. Saturday at noon on 107.3FM, call in at 225-499-1073.

AutoTask mobile app needs more work

We’ve been playing with the new mobile app from AutoTask at work recently and out of the gate it’s mediocre at best. AutoTask is an RMM platform, used to manage our company. It functions as CRM, support ticketing and project management, and some limited finance as we use a financial platform to handle the money.

So I was really excited when this app was announced because many at our firm are operating in the field on mobile devices. We don’t lug around laptops and most of us are on iPads, iPhones or Droids. I used it in Beta and realized immediately this thing has a LONG way to go to full release. So now that full release is out? We’ve still got some work to do.

Graphically, this think is a stinker. It’s rocking a sweet ruffled satin background image circa 1994 Netscape Navigator HTML collection. Inexplicably it also has a string of social media buttons at the bottom which makes no sense whatsoever. Why would I want to post private information from my portal of client info to a social network? From a time and ticket entry, the system works great but from a sales and CRM perspective, it’s pretty much lacking everything I need in sales other than being able to lookup customer contact info, which is already in my Outlook.

I know from Webinars that the company knows it’s not a hit and is working on it, but in this age of mobility they need to get this thing from the back burner to the front burner because it will easily become an indispensable tool for AutoTask users, like me!

Interesting reversal of business model from the LTC

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED HEREIN ARE MY PERSONAL VIEWS FROM PERSONAL INTERACTIONS WITH THE CHARACTERS HEREIN DURING THE PAST 5 YEARS AND NOT THE VIEWS OR OPINIONS OF TRANSFORMYX OR ANY OF ITS SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES. AS A SMALL BUSINESS OWNER FROM 2006 TO 2010, I WAS A PAYING MEMBER OF THE LTC AND COLLABORATED DIRECTLY WITH ITS LEADERSHIP AND WORKED TO BRING THEM INTO OFFICES IN BATON ROUGE AND WORKED WITH THEM TO BRING THE FIRST AFTER HOURS SOCIAL TO THE NOW DEFUNCT BIZTECH EXPO. THIS ARTICLE IS BASED ON MY PERSONAL FRUSTRATIONS IN IDENTIFYING YET ANOTHER ORGANIZATION THAT FAILS IN ITS MISSION TO ITS MEMBERS.

So yesterday as reported in the Daily-Report.com (aka BR Business Report, aka Louisiana Business Inc.) the LTC has made a surprising announcement that they (i.e., their Board of Directors) have decided to radically change their business operating plan. In order for you to understand my feelings on this as a long-term member and paying member of the LTC, I present the article in its entirety so that I can then pick it apart and complain ad nauseam:

“LTC touts new business model as it prepares for Governor’s Awards

The Louisiana Technology Council is implementing a new business model with a focus on expanding its demographics and scope of economic development promotion, says LTC Vice Chairman Robert Shreve, who is also Gulf South Business Systems & Consultants Chairman/CEO (1). Shreve says the nonprofit is shedding its image as an organization solely focused on the information technology and communication sectors (2), and continuing to widen its efforts across Louisiana in cooperation with the state’s higher education institutions and eight regional economic development organizations. LTC was launched in 1994 as a New Orleans initiative, and opened a Baton Rouge office in 2009. “That grid is already there, and so what we’re doing is serving as a vehicle to connect that grid,” Shreve says. “If we can get the right partnerships in place between the universities and the private sector, we can get a lot of things done and everybody can win (3).”

LTC began working on its new business model about a year and a half ago, Shreve says, with the help of hired consultants (4). The group changed the form of its governance about six months ago to impose term limits and stricter qualifications for executive board members (5). Seven LTC committees have been formed to concentrate on various efforts ranging from grants to events, and the chair of each committee will also sit on the executive committee. Shreve says the model is a first of its kind in the nation. LTC presents nearly 100 events throughout the state each year, Shreve says, and is considering a statewide publication to promote its efforts.”

Okay so where the hell do I begin with this? Let’s take a look at facts in the bullets below:

(1) So how do you jump from CIO roundtables and SQL Saturdays to deciding your organization is more suited for Economic Development and “expanding its demographics” whatever in the hell that means. Economic Development is one of the most over-used terms in our culture right now and should be banned from discussions of business and technology because it almost has no meaning any more. Question: When was the paying membership of the LTC notified of this plan? LTC survives based on a few grants and the dues of paying members which it in turn also solicits to sponsor events, where it pockets the money. Nothing wrong with that model, it’s what we all signed up for. But we also signed up hoping for an ROI, or “return on investment” for all you non-economic development types out there. An ROI for the most part, is what has been missing from our LTC membership.

(2) This is something so a-typical of Board Chairs for nonprofits. I think Boards of Directors either make or break nonprofits and in this case – it’s broke. Does Robert Shreve, who I confess I do not know or have ever met, although my mother sees him quite often in her establishment here in Baton Rouge, think that telling your entire technology company membership that “shedding its image as being solely focused on technology and communications” was a good move? I mean I may be wrong here, but it sounds like you just told your paying members who keep you afloat “thanks for the memories but we’re leaving the dock without you”? But wait it’s really okay because they are going to partner with 8 economic development offices and universities to broaden their scope. Um….wrong. You are now controlled by the elements who are very adept in pulling the strings of those with the cash and are hitching your wagon to the Universities in the hopes of seeing more revenue generation. I mean what’s to stop LTC from getting into early stage companies in University incubators and then people like Shreve and Mark Lewis actually PROFITING FROM THIS VENTURE? It certainly begs the question and I think more technology firms that are paying members of LTC should wake up and smell the bullshit because we are now floating in it.

(3) WHAT GRID IS THIS GUY REFERRING TO? Oh! Wait! You mean the fact that LTC – LITE, LDGI, AIE, LEDA LSU-SBTC the LA TECH PARK and a few others are ALREADY DOING WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. Again how do you go from SQL Saturdays and CIO Roundtables to becoming a catalyst for creating relationships with Universities. Not that Mr. Shreve or Mr. Lewis isn’t more than capable of doing so as businessmen, but who the hell will support this initiative now that you just dumped a pile of steaming hot poo on the people you begged to support you for the last 5 years or so and have just jettisoned into the dumpster? My guess is…not many. The grid…meh…

(4) So let me get this straight Mr. Shreve. You guys used OUR MEMBERSHIP DUES to hire consultants who told you to shit on your members and dump them and go a different direction? And you did this 1.5 years ago? All the while Mark Lewis ran around telling tech companies to join up and grow strong through collaboration? WOWZA. I wonder if either of these guys will win any popularity contests in the near future?

(5) So 6 months ago without any notification to the general membership of the LTC they made moves internally to alter how their leadership works and what they have the right to do. Folks this is not a nonprofit association that seeks to help its members grow, this is an organization that was failing and used us all as mezzanine funding to get itself set for a whole new way of doing business that will not benefit more than 1% of the total membership. Very few established local technology firms will ever have the opportunity to work with Universities because they simply don’t need us and it’s not our market anyway. This move helps no one but the leadership of LTC.

Bottom line. LTC’s recent moves to isolate itself and insulate itself have only proven that there are still forces at work that everyone is blissfully aware of that control things from behind the scenes. Hypocrisy is sooo last year and most of us would appreciate a little honesty if you are going to ask for our money.

TechX 2011 shaping up to be one of the largest regional events in recent memory for BR.

Each week since March, the growth of interest and sponsor support for TechX continues to inspire me.  This event is poised to become the single largest technology event in Louisiana since post-Katrina.  We’ve got more interest than we have capacity so we are already looking forward to next year and the year after.  Big announcements coming this week and next so stay tuned!