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HOWTO : Flex your muscles

A tongue in cheek headline :-). The post is not about body muscle, but about how you can flex your market power (muscle).

Here is a screenshot comparison of default apps settings in Microsoft Windows 10 and Windows 11. Notice how instead of just giving one option to change the default browser, Microsoft has moved the option to change it by file extension? Does a layperson even know the difference between htm, html, http and https? A clever way for Microsoft to make it a bit more difficult to switch away from edge (Microsoft’s new Internet browser). Some might even call it sinister 🙂

Update Oct 11 : Looks like the main stream media is catching up on this. The Verge has a post on this topic https://www.theverge.com/22714629/windows-11-microsoft-browser-edge-chrome-firefox

October 9, 2021 by Technology Windows 0

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

Interesting article on Arstechnica (https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/10/revealed-the-secret-notes-of-blue-origin-leaders-trying-to-catch-spacex/) about an internal memo from Blue Origin. The memo is about the discussion and feedback from senior leadership at Blue Origin on a report put together by an external consulting company on challenges facing Blue Origin.

Bezos is famous for growing Amazon into a behemoth by focusing on principals like Customer Obsession, Hire and Develop the best, Frugality… https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles .

Wonder why he did not implement the same tried and tested playbook at Blue Origin.

My take, it is as important to have a team that can execute on your vision as it is to have a vision.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

October 4, 2021 by Management 0

Inflation

What happens when a private equity company buys one of your favorite tools? Prices go up 50% :-). At the same time, the cost of running this business has gone down (other than people cost) considering you can get faster, bigger infrastructure at the same or lower cost. Am using the public pricing of the big cloud providers (Amazon, Microsoft, Google) as reference. (https://www.isi.edu/~calvin/ec2.htm)

In the market for something that is as effective as lastpass and doesn’t cost as much.

October 4, 2021 by security 0

4th Grade Math Wonders

  • Take any 3 digit number
  • Multiply by 11
  • Multiple the result with 91
  • The end result will clone your initial 3 digit numbers and make a 6 digit number 🙂
September 29, 2021 by Fun 0

Oveheard : Pain

our ability to deal with pain is directly proportional to our ability to see pain elsewhere.

Subroto Bagchi

April 16, 2021 by OverHeard 0

HOWTO : Query json data in SQLite

A self note for querying json data in SQLite. BTW, I think SQLite is an under utilized and under appreciated swiss army tool for data storage and manipulation. And thanks to Richard Hipp, it is free.

If you have a column defined as a json type in your SQLite database, quickest way to search for the data is json_extract. A full set of functions available are documented at https://www.sqlite.org/json1.html

If you have a column named family_details in a table family with the following json in it as an example 

{
	"father": {
		"name": "dad",
		"birthday": "1/1/2000",
		"pet_name": "daddy"
	},
	"mother": {
		"name": "mom",
		"birthday": "1/1/2001",
		"pet_name": "mommy"
	},
	"sons": [
		{
			"name": "son_one",
			"birthday": "1/2/2020",
			"pet_name": "sonny_one"
		},
		{
			"name": "son_two",
			"birthday": "1/2/2021",
			"pet_name": "sonny_two"
		}
	],
	"daughters": [
		{
			"name": "princess_one",
			"birthday": "1/2/2020",
			"pet_name": "princy_one"
		},
		{
			"name": "princess_two",
			"birthday": "1/2/2021",
			"pet_name": "princy_two"
		}
	]
}

and you want to print the name of the father, you can use

select json_extract(family_details, '$.father.name') as father_name
from family

json_extract uses the name of the column and the json node as parameters. In this case, we used $(which denotes the root), father and name (under father) as the json node.

April 13, 2021 by Databases HOWTO Technology 0

Overheard : Services vs Product businesses

In the services business, you get paid to say yes to everything.

In the product business, you get paid to say no. By convincing the customer that you are not going to give what they want, but what they need.

– Sanveet Singh (CEO of $PAR) on a podcast with Richard Sosa

April 8, 2021 by OverHeard 0

Overheard : On appreciation

Everyone needs to feel appreciated. It doesn’t matter what they do, it doesn’t matter who they are, that’s a need in everybody.

– Grace McNiel (Hugh Jackman’s mom)

Hugh Jackman mentioned this quote on a podcast with Tim Ferriss. Highly recommend listening to the podcast. Hugh shared a lot more such wisdom in it. My admiration for Hugh went up a couple more notches after listening to it.

July 5, 2020 by OverHeard 0