RE: OT -- marketing (was Windows vs. UNIX)

I know, I was just being droll/sarcastic.

Corporate-speak at Oracle is alive and well.

I could tell you about some bizarre fellini-esque and karka-esque conversations I've had with Oracle "account reps". You will be assimilated, resistance is futile (the Borg).

In political/social theory terms, it is a perverse outcome of meritocracy, where the customer is an "unworthy" (the hierarchical psychosocial equivalent, in consumerist society, of a medieval slave or "serf") whose existence is defined by an ethos of greed and competition. Not exactly the most noble, elevated expression of the human spirit.

But, like Churchill said, democratic capitalism is a horrible, brutual way of going about doing things, but it is better than any other known alternative.

regards,
ep

On 1 May 2001, at 12:20, Kirsh, Gary wrote:

Date sent:              Tue, 01 May 2001 12:20:26 -0800
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> Eric,
>
> Judging from their recent press releases, I'd say it does NOT apply to their
> marketing information. Check for yourself, trying running some of their
> finest marketing prose through the Jargonator at
> http://www.jargonfreeweb.com. I just tried the press release titled
> "Mykrolis Takes Oracle Straight to the Bottom Line", and it scored a 6 -
> "Put it in the bottom of your bird cage and start over", the highest (or
> lowest, depending on how you look at it) jargon score.
>
> To be fair, I've found Larry to be pretty good in this regard, but as you
> start moving down from the top of the Oracle management pyramid, the jargon
> really starts to snowball, to the point where I've seen (and worked for)
> some low-level managers who speak completely in meaningless, buzzword-laden
> techno babble. My theory is that the quantity of technical jargon used is
> inversely proportional to the speakers actual understanding of the
> technology.
>
> Gary
>
> Gary Kirsh
> Next Extent, Inc
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 3:40 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
> Does that apply to Oracle's complex, frequently nearly inpenetrable
> ever changing jargon related to product line/descriptions and
> marketing/pricing information, or "just" the technology? :)
>
> As far as the general topic of marketing effectiveness and/or
> failure, there used to be some sort of marketing industry award that
> was given out to giant corporations that spent vast sums on marketing
> consultants and ad campaigns that are huge flops. It is not unusual
> at all. Of course it is essentially a virtual reality industry, so
> you can imagine the difficulty of trying to q/a that stuff.
>
> My guess is that one of the justifications for big IT corps to spend
> vast sums on mass "public image" ads is to intimidate competition by
> creating the appearance of "normalcy" (about the corporation doing th
> advertising) in public opinion.
>
> In other words, when I see a TV ad for PacBell "data operations"
> I know that it is probably even more of a huge pile of cr*p than the
> average corporate ad, and somehow suspect it is related to Worldcom's
> ads, and some attempt to create a "perception" that PacBell is able
> (is is soon going to be able) to effectively compete with Worldcom in
> data services.
>
> etc.
>
> regards,
> ep
>
>
> On 1 May 2001, at 9:37, Kirsh, Gary wrote:
>
> Date sent: Tue, 01 May 2001 09:37:06 -0800
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
>
> > To hear Larry's take on IBM and their new ads, go to oracle.com and click
> on
> > this news story:
> >
> > "Oracle declares war on complexity. Watch the webcast of Larry Ellison's
> > interview with Salomon Smith Barney and press conference."
>
> ...
>
>
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
> --
> Author: Eric D. Pierce
> INET: PierceED_at_csus.edu
>
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> Author: Kirsh, Gary
> INET: gary.kirsh_at_gs.com
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-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
-- 
Author: Eric D. Pierce
  INET: PierceED_at_csus.edu

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