First, let me say that I'm just as disgusted as you are with people who try to use the newsgroup to sell stuff. I am NOT trying to sell stuff through the newsgroup, and I WILL NOT in the future. So if I'm off base here, let me know and I'll just use the newsgroup for education.
However, what I'm trying to do is develop a new product for the bandsaw, so I turned to you guys because I know lots of you have bandsaws. I'm making some prototypes of the product, but I am going to need some guinea pigs to try them out and give me feedback. What I'm trying to find out is how to meet some bandsaw owners who can really use the prototypes and give good feedback on the product. Like a lot (most, maybe?) of woodworkers, I'm kind of shy and tend to be solitary, hanging out in the garage making stuff instead of meeting people. Any suggestions on how to find some people (preferably in the Seattle area) to test my prototypes?
's a WW guild out of the Tacoma/Puyallup area and they have a bunch of very active members. They've been used as guinea pigs before, and would probably enjoy hearing from you. Gotta warn you though, they can be a cranky bunch (and you can tell them I told you :) so if the feedback is less than positive, you'll hear about it!
Actually, calling it a product makes sense. As a start, he doesn't want to announce it to the world yet, so he doesn't present the name. As he said, he's not selling it and won't sell it here.
Second, he may not have thought of a good name for his product yet.
Charlie Self If God had wanted me to touch my toes he would have put them higher on my body.
You know how some people get irked when someone uses your for you're, when there are dangling participles or when a sentence is ended with a preposition? Dangling your participle in front of me and I probably wouldn't see it.
My gripe is people using MBA speak, particularly the word 'product', when referring to something specific.
I tuned into TOH part way through a demonstration on a roof. I missed the shot of whatever the worker was doing, the camera stayed on Thomas and the person he was talking to. I listened for what had to be several minutes and had no idea what they were discussing as they kept calling it product.
Then theres the time TOH was in a manufacturing plant and the person giving the tour reefers to his livelihood as product. As in the product then goes to this machine which .... Good God, they make countertops or cabinetry or windows, the 'product' is a slug for a countertop or a stile or stringer, and it's not even a product yet. That is unless they sell loose stringers and rails or countertops with rough edges.
Years ago I read a Royco column where he pointed out MBA new speak and how it was working it's way into the language. How the word Widget had a feel to it. The word widget created a mental image, maybe a vague image but an image none the less. Royco wrote how institutions started using the word product and how product is a word that congers no mental images, it's a word of externalization. I thought it was a good column but wrote Royco's rant off as just another Royco rant. Until I read an interview with the VP ICO Marketing for Lexus.
I was reading an interview with the Marketing VP for Lexus in Road & Track during the pre launch period of the car. I was all tuned up to learn what I could about the Lexus because I think Toyota builds superior vehicles. From what I had learned I thought the Lexus was going to make a successful and well deserved attack on the world of the Snob Euro Sport Sedan.
In this interview the VP referred to the Lexus as a product. Now hold on. The Lexus is not a product line like Ford or Chevy, it's a singular machine. At the time when one said Lexus they meant one thing and one thing only.
Royco's column came back to me and I've been paying attention to MBA speak ever since.
While writing this the phone rang ... This is Blah and Blah blah blah ... refinance .... product. {sigh}
Product is used everywhere. And it's way overused.
Boy would I love to continue this rant but I have a trough to install and wires to run. Shops getting some lights.
Well, I can't argue FOR MBA speak after spending something over a year working for an MBA. But there's a mindset there I didn't find in the OP's use of the word.
MBA-speak contains such phrases as, "I'm not the boss! I'm just (let's just say no-name to protect the guilty)." Then, two months later, "You're fired!"
Except that the MBA above that MBA puts it thusly, "You've worked yourself out of a job."
Well, that's not necessarily MBA-speak. It's more likely to be plain stupidity on the part of the producer and video editor.
Yeah, it did make that attack. It's now the Snob Asian Sport Sedan.
Agreed.
Enjoy!
Charlie Self If God had wanted me to touch my toes he would have put them higher on my body.
I used to work for a small software company that ultimately went bankrupt, due mostly to stagnant sales -- which was in turn due, IMO, at least in part to the names of the flagship products: "The HHPC Systems Product" (run on a mainframe) and "The HHPC Network Product" (run on an NT LAN).
Really. I'm not kidding.
I told the CEO that they needed better names. He disagreed. I said "As product names go, 'Model T' isn't very flashy -- but how many cars would Henry Ford have sold if he had called it 'The Ford Motor Company Transportation Product'?" Made no headway at all.
-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)
How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?
FWIW, *I* understand where you're coming from. Inventors have to be secretive and mysterious as a matter of self-preservation. Even *after* you get the patent, it's still almost impossible to actually make any money off of an idea.
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