The Itinerant Engineer

A few people have asked what I’ve been up to since leaving Microsoft.

• I’m building an internet service with Dr. Lyle Berkowitz and Aleem Zafar. The service, which we haven’t yet named, will help medical care coordinators manage their caseload. We’re actively researching our customer base and haven’t yet incorporated the company, but I’ll be sure to post details as they develop.
• I’m contracting through Prefiat, my new company created for this purpose. We provide technology implementation services—hardware, software, and websites—to customers of all sizes. The company’s primary place of business is Office Nomads, located at 1617 Boylston Ave in Seattle.
• I’m organizing Barcamp Seattle, a technology/lifestyle/2.0 event to be held in June.
• I’m doing pro bono math tutoring to help struggling high school students succeed.

Suffice to say, I’m definitely keeping busy. There are so many great things to do in the world, and so little time; I can hardly imagine ever being bored.

Let’s have a look at four marketing campaigns I saw recently.

In only 52 seconds, we see: automatic search completion, spelling correction (in French!), maps, translation, definitions, flight times, and consistently high-quality search results. All useful features, tied together with a compelling storyline about a guy falling in love in Paris.

Photo sharing, eBooks, email, web browsing, movies, and calendaring, in just 30 seconds.

AT&T vs. Verizon 3G coverage (image courtesy of Engadget). AT&T wanted this ad taken down so badly, they actually sued Verizon, claiming it misrepresented Verizon’s coverage (it didn’t).

“The New Busy”. What’s the product? Does it make me busier? Do I even want to be busy? (Personally, I consider busy a four-letter word.)

Good advertising explains how a product satisfies a customer need. The first two ads are powerful because they show nothing but the product. The Verizon ad visually depicts the carrier’s coverage, a major concern to high-end data customers, who tend to be quite mobile.

The Hotmail ad, by comparison, feels like a beer / soda commercial; it tries to be catchy because there’s nothing unique or special about the product. I can’t believe Hotmail is really that bad of a product. This ad campaign is terrible. Someone should get fired for this.