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Spring column cleaning

Correcting my mistakes and others.

By James E. Gaskin, Network World, 04/03/08

It's spring, even if you're still sloshing through snow where you live. Traditionally, this is a time for cleaning up the muck of winter, so let me address some messes I and others have made. I like to think I only make misstatements while others make mistakes, but you can judge.

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In my recent story on Vertical Response, I talked about the leader in the space, Constant Contact, and its size and the size of its customers. I said the company tended to focus on large customers, because I see its name on big company mailings regularly. Constant Contact sent a note saying it focuses on small and midsized companies. To emphasize that point, all the customer samples on its Web site are smaller companies. I'm working on a time to speak with the CEO, and I'll tell you Constant Contact's vision of the e-mail marketing world soon.

I misquoted Ridgley Evers in my story on NetBooks about the profitability status of the company. Evers says the company is doing well and investors are pleased, but NetBooks is not yet profitable. That makes sense, because the costs of building a company, whether from bricks or software, are front-loaded and it takes time to amortize those costs. Evers is focused on growth, and works hard to make sure his customers are profitable. NetBooks will get there before too long, I'm sure, based on what I've seen and heard from its customers.

Now that every mistake I've made over the winter has been cleared up (personal life mistakes excluded, of course), let's look at mistakes by companies with people employed to stop them from making mistakes. Yet the mistake train keeps chugging along.

On track one, here chugs Microsoft. What better summation of the travails of Vista than this headline: Vista SP1: Threat or Menace? So let me extend my cautions about refusing Vista until SP1 appeared to maybe resisting the inevitable until SP1a appears. Stories of drivers trashed and major applications disabled gives me pause. If you have a choice about when to hold your nose and move to Vista, keep holding both your nose and the hard line on upgrading to the mess that continues to surround Vista.

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