Magic Square of Innovation

Marcus Ting-A-Kee has a post on his blog with a great magic square diagram describing a perspective on innovation. This framework provides us with an easy way to assess the potential impact of an innovation. We will…

• show how to use the square
• look at some example innovations
• and use the square to prioritize requirements

The square is Marcus’ creation, and his post includes additional content – he’s given me permission to show it here. Thanks, Marcus

Potential impact

We can use this diagram to plot innovations and get a feel for how much potential impact they could have.

Points further to the right (having greater strategic scope) have more potential for revenue, by introducing new sources of top-line growth (new sales in new markets) for the company that is innovating.

Points higher up (improving organizational capabilities) have more potential for profit, by increasing top-line growth (new sales in existing markets) or by decreasing costs (gaining operational efficiencies or reducing material costs) .

Some examples in each quadrant:

Improve core business

• Firefox added tabs to browsing.
• Adobe made pdf documents interactive (you can fill in the forms directly within some pdf files).

Exploit strategic advantage

• Microsoft leveraged its operating system platform to sell MS Office to corporate clients (where the real money is).
• Google monetized search with advertising (instead of becoming a portal like Yahoo and MSN).

Develop new capabilities

• ICQ realized that instant messages could be sent over the web. [We are excluding talk/ytalk/wall, which only supported geeks. People can use ICQ]
• Paypal made it possible to pay an individual with a credit card.
• Dell optimized on process efficiency to allow them to dominate the PC industry

Create revolutionary change

• P2P file sharing utilizing file “fingerprints” and small portions of files (we think Napster was first, but can’t find a trusted answer).
• eBay enabled millions of people to bid and auction online in a trusted environment.
• Salesforce.com is making the ASP/SAS model viable for enterprise software.

Using this approach for determining the high-value requirements

We’ve talked about using ROI to prioritize requirements – we’re probably starting to sound like a broken record about it. Innovation isn’t assured to be valuable. Differentiated innovation is what we must strive for. Once we have our list of differentiated innovations, we can map them onto this grid to get a gut-check about how valuable they might be. We can also use this grid to sanity check projections based upon these requirements.

One way to do this is to write down all of the requirements that represent differentiated innovation on individual post it notes. Draw this magic square on your whiteboard. Put the post-its where they belong in the square. The further up and right the post-it note is, the earlier the release in which it should be scheduled.

source post [tyner blain] 

Dual Screen Wallpapers

If you are lucky enough to be able to run multiple monitors on your system, you may sometimes find yourself wishing you could find desktop wallpapers that are optimized across multiple screens. The folks at Dual Screen Wallpaper obviously decided to try to do something about it.

While I really like some of the wallpapers at Dual Screen Wallpapers, I should warn you that they have integrated the advertising in their site in such a way as to try to trick people into making false clicks; the titles and descriptions of each wallpaper are formatted exactly like the text ads that they display at the top of the screen, and they even display an image beside the text ads so that they blend in perfectly with the rest of the site. I'm sure this is a breach of the terms of service for their advertiser so they won't be able to keep this up for long, but for now just be careful of the top two links on the site. I simply can't help linking to them though, as the wallpapers are gorgeous and work beautifully on my dual-screen setup.

source post [download squad] 

Volkswagen-Google-nVidia navigation system

What do you get when you take Google Earth and put it in a Volkswagen? Something like this. Volkswagen has partnered with Google and nVidia to create an in-car navigation system based on Google Earth that shows a driver’s route in 3D. The touch-screen system is Internet-enabled and goes online to find real-time traffic and weather information as well as other travel information like gas stations, restaurants, or hotels. AutoMotoPortal has a half-dozen screenshots for your enjoyment. For now it’s just a prototype, so no word on when we could actually be seeing this in VW’s lineup.

source post [Boing Boing]

Boot XP on Mac right now

When they said “shortly” I didn’t realize just how shortly. narf2006’s $13,000 solution for booting Windows XP on your Intel Mac is available right now, in the form of a 777kb zip file. In order to accomplish the feat you’ll need a PC on which you’ll create a custom slipstreamed XP install disc. In case it’s not obvious, this is not for the faint of heart, but the distribution contains clear instructions in sensible English, which is promising. As you might expect, the XP-on-Mac site is under significant load just now, so if you have difficulties, head over to Engadget for a list of mirrors.

source post [download squad]

Pixrat: Social bookmarking for photos

Pixrat is basically del.icio.us for photos. I don’t say that disparragingly, though–Pixrat works as advertised and will definitely be useful for some people. By clicking on the Pixrat bookmarklet when viewing a page with a photo on it you can give the photo a description and tags, then later you can browse your boomarked photos with handy thumbnails, optionally searching by tag. You can also, of course, browse everyone else’s photos or view the most popular recent photos. Pixrat does lack a few of del.icio.us’ more powerful features like tag intersections and RSS feeds, but those issues aside, I can see Pixrat as being very useful people who keep track of a lot of stock photos, for example, at a number of different sites.

source post [download squad]

協和客機 英國20世紀設計NO.1

最能代表20世紀英國的設計品是什麼 超過20萬英國人票選他們心目中的「代表性設計」 (design i-con)，結果已經退役的協和客機成為英國頭號最愛，其他像是迷你裙和倫敦地鐵地圖也進入前五名。

這項票選由倫敦「設計博物館」和英國廣播公司 (BBC)合辦，從1900年以來最能象徵英國的25項設計中，開放民眾票選出十大「代表性設計」，結果共有21萬1700人踴躍投票。

25項設計包羅萬象，從倫敦街頭最具代表性的「紅色雙層巴士」、搖滾天團「披頭四」的Sgt. Pepper專輯封面，到流行的「橫行霸道」電玩遊戲，都是很有「英國味」的設計。

結果由「協和客機」飛向第一，其次依序為倫敦地鐵地圖、英國空軍戰鬥機Supermarine Spitfire、迷你裙和全球資訊網(WWWW)，是這次的前五傑。

協和客機由英國航太集團和法國航太公司Aerospatiale設計，外形流線，尖鼻造型雍容華貴，曾為名流最愛，但在911恐怖攻擊後，民航業一片蕭條，協和也難逃「停機」噩運。英航最後一個協和航班在2003年10月走入歷史。

曾負責協和客機的前任科技部長班恩表示，他很高興協和能拿下第一，他說「協和客機在空中飛時，人們會抬頭仰望，它的外型優雅美麗，是具有和平與國際共識的象徵」。

source post [聯合晚報] 2006.03.17

Gabbly: Real-time web chat that doesn’t suck

In the past few months I’ve seen no fewer than four services that let you chat in real time with people visiting the same web site as you. Most of them, I’m sorry to say, suck. Either they have crappy interfaces, require every user to install an extension or other software, or just don’t work very well. Gabbly is a breath of fresh air. For starters, it requires zero setup–just put the address of the target site after gabbly.com/, e.g. gabbly.com/downloadsquad.com–making it super-easy to get other people to join your chat (just send them the URL). Gabbly is easy to use and looks good, and it has a variety of docking options to keep it out of your way. Behind the scenes, it works by capturing the target web site in a frame, which has some drawbacks, but apart from that Gabbly is great for informal real-time chat. It even has built-in RSS feeds. For web site owners there’s also a Gabbly component that you can embed in any of your pages by simply copying and pasting a bit of code into your pages. At the moment Gabbly is under the heavy load of the Digg effect, but it’s definitely worth checking out if you can.

source post [download squad]

你們煩不煩呀？

藍軍三一二「拚生活、救台灣」遊行才剛落幕，綠營三一八「護民主、反併吞」遊行又要登場。撇開這些廉價的民粹口號不談，說真的，藍綠政黨領導人，你們煩不煩呀？台灣社會要到什麼時候才能真正休養生息？

其實，台灣大多數人都在默默耕耘、認真工作以對社會做出貢獻；但有一部分政治狂熱分子，卻用造勢大會、遊行動員來證明自己的存在。即使民眾已經對遊行疲憊厭煩，這些政黨領導人卻還是樂此不疲。

拿藍軍三一二遊行來說好了。拚生活、救台灣喊了半天，卻沒看到藍軍天王拿出什麼具體對策，搞到最後，還得靠民眾自己想辦法拚民生、救台灣；有這些打迷糊仗的在野黨領導人，難怪支持者不知為何而戰。

再來看綠營三一八遊行。護民主、反併吞固然重要，但這不已經是台灣社會的共識了嗎？執政黨三不五時上街頭，好像除了護民主、反併吞之外，就什麼都不會了；有這樣的執政黨領導人，難怪支持者的熱情逐漸消散，愈執政士氣愈低。

其實，台灣社會經過這些年紛紛擾擾，人民最想要的莫過於安居樂業、休養生息。但可悲的是，朝野持續惡鬥的結果，永遠是鷹派聲浪抬頭，鴿派被迫噤聲，最後總拿人民的平靜生活來陪葬。

拚ＸＸ、救ＸＸ、護ＸＸ、反ＸＸ，朝野政客不斷玩著各種排列組合遊戲，人民卻只想問一句：你們到底玩夠了沒有？

source post [中國時報] 2006.03.15

星座排行榜-最沒有撒嬌天份的女生星座

星座排行榜最沒有撒嬌天份的女生星座(參考太陽跟水星)第一名：處女女處女女遇強則弱，遇弱則強，當她的另一半是大男人時她就會擺出小女人的姿 態，另一半是溫柔的小男人她就會變成強勢的大女人，可是在同性面前她絕對不會讓人知道她示弱的這一面，愛面子的她一律會表示自己很強勢，即使雙方感情有危 機或者她很介意另一半的一舉一動，可是她還是會好強表現出不在意的姿態。

第二名：魔羯女魔羯女搞笑的本事贏過撒嬌這一塊，每次一談到女人的本能撒嬌這一塊她就會搞笑給大家看，可是在異性面前她只會臉紅以及擺臭臉，魔羯女要不就端起架子裝優雅或者是豁出去搞笑，要她撒嬌！實在是沒辦法。

第三名：天秤女天秤女跟另一半相處都是以朋友的姿態，個性中性的她可以接受別人對自己撒嬌，可是自己完全不會這一套，如果硬要她撒嬌她反而會越冷硬，甚至會說出會說出：「現在是怎樣？我不撒嬌你就不跟我做朋友？幹麻逼我！」她非常討厭這種感覺。

不吃撒嬌這一套的男生星座(參考太陽跟水星)第一名：射手男射手男面對異性撒嬌時會讓他忽然間的冷眼旁觀，如果另一半撒嬌是真情流露他還會很可愛，可是如果是有目的的撒嬌他一律免疫，射手男比較不能抗拒的是有個性的女人，而不是所謂女人味的女人。

第二名：金牛男金牛男認為撒嬌很無聊，他覺得有需要直接說出來就好了，因為金牛男很不能接受不自然的東西，對方越是撒嬌他會越是一副觀眾的樣子，最後往往會讓另一半有一種自取其辱的受傷感受。

第三名：雙魚男雙魚男腦袋很清楚，他知道對方跟自己撒嬌絕對有目的，如果對方不是他確定的真命天女，對方的撒嬌反而會激起他的警戒心，開始防備心升起的雙魚男這時就會故意裝呆或聽不懂，甚至還會搞失蹤。

source post  [東森新聞報]

星座排行榜-容易把老公寵壞的老婆星座

星座排行榜容易把老公寵壞的老婆星座(參考太陽跟金星)第一名：牡羊老婆牡羊女一旦愛上了就是全心全意的投入，在她付出的時候只要看到對方臉上 欣喜的表情就會覺得一切都值得，而且牡羊老婆很愛面子，老公不會打扮，她會幫老公全身上下打扮，即使自己出錢都無所謂，或者老公失業，為了不讓老公難受， 她還是會想辦法讓老公開好車穿名牌，讓老公還是一副走路有風的樣子，即使自己扛貸款累的半死都ok，牡羊老婆有神力女超人的特質，身兼數職也不會叫苦。

第二名：射手老婆射手老婆就像老公的秘書一樣任勞任怨，因為射手女挑對象是挑對方的智慧以及個性，個性越獨特的人越能雀屏中選，所以她會為了另 一半犧牲奉獻，甚至離鄉背井跟隨對方，在事業上射手女會是很好的助手，而且對老公的事業目標非常專注，除了幫助老公之外還會嚴厲的鞭策老公往目標前進。

第三名：雙子老婆雙子老婆寵愛老公的方式就是把自己的資源分享給老公，例如讓老公分享自己的人脈，逢人就推薦老公有多優秀等等，超級推銷員的她一講之下老公身價馬上扶搖直上，所以娶了雙子女的老公通常會飛黃騰達知名度大增。

第四名：巨蟹老婆巨蟹老婆會在生活上貼心的照顧對方到無微不至的程度，不自覺的就像個小媽媽，在一些生活上的小細節上，例如天冷幫老公拉被子或 者倒溫開水等等，雖然不是很大的事情，可是老公會感到自己很被關心以及疼愛，而且只要老公用撒嬌的方式對待她，巨蟹老婆什麼都會答應。

第五名：天蠍老婆天蠍老婆寵老公的方式是用管教的態度，因此常常會讓人覺得她像女教官，而且天蠍老婆的幫忙屬於介入式，恨鐵不成鋼的她會捲起袖子來幫助老公，可是會一邊幫又一邊罵老公沒出息，因此老公必須要有很強的心臟才能接受，否則會覺得自己被虐待施暴。

source post [東森新聞報]