Using a nice audio plugin to play a Franz Ferdinand tune

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[Cartoon inspired by Shel Israel's recent post]

[UPDATE:] Brian Rethinks Dell

Brian Baily, who follows me on Twitter, emailed me the following re. my work with Dell. Got my attention, to say the least:

The thing I keep trying to figure out is why did a few 140-character comments by a guy I had never met have more impact on my view of Dell than anything else over the last 2 years. I used to love Dell and worked with them all the time in my former life. Over the last few years, I began to see them as a big, soulless company obsessed with only the product and its price (and especially the price of all the pieces that make the product). All of their advertising seems to be about the stuff and the specs and not about me, or my company, or the amazing things I can do with their it. Even if they want to emphasize their price advantage, which is important, tell me that how I can afford a better health plan for my employees because I’m not wasting money on overpriced hardware.

Your few tweets and posts about Dell have already made me think about Dell differently. I’ve heard a little about the determined, loyal people inside who want Dell to build the best products for the best price. I have a sense of the soul inside the machine, and their passion to do what they do better than anyone else, but also to do well by their customers. Dell seems like a company worth paying attention to again. Hell, I even looked up the Dell Mini – the first time I’ve been on a Dell product page in a long time (unfortunately their web stuff and product naming still sucks and is ridiculously complicated… “Dell Inspiron Mini 9″). As a Texan, I want Dell to thrive. I hope you can play a part in making that happen.

I’ve been saying this for years: Blogging [and all its social media cousins] is a good way to make things happen indirectly. Sure, it takes forever and it’s a bitch to measure, but when it works… Boy, it REALLY works.

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