Crack The Frac!

January 22, 2008

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It’s 10:53 pm as of writing – I’m thinking we could do with an online repository of ‘retail prices’ of all available software sold in Malaysia. I’m also thinking this repository could extend to say … other hardware, peripherals and more.

The thought flashed when I was waiting for quotes from Retailers – they must realize that the concept of ‘Time’ that they’ve clearly adopted very well as human beings should be reflective to the efforts they’d put inside trying to get and retain customers.

I dislike waiting – especially when it extends to more than a day or two – especially when I’m asking for a simple quote of a certain software, hardware or even peripherals. A cataloging system similar to what we may have on Amazon.com would be ideal – maybe with an option to preview data with or without images. A panel of retailers could sign-up on the system and offer the best prices, promotions and/or offers. Once a buyer is satisfied, s/he can not only get to print out the rough quote, but also save the list and/or send it directly to the chosen retailer therein the repository.

Business is not difficult in Malaysia – sometimes alternative ways need to be looked into to facilitate buyers. We are after all living online these days, and if Malaysian retailers want to truly migrate to On line selling, they’d have to creatively think laterally.

I was scouring the Net just after Desperate Housewife/wives, and noticed that a giant repository could also be implemented for other tangible goods that is feasible enough to be sold online – from Mushroom soups, to paperweights… from writing instruments to Caffein tablets. Whatever the case maybe, collective business in a not-so healthy economy does wonders.

A couple of days ago, Lynne {Snr. Editor} invited me to beta test the latest revamped Circle of Friends {CoF}, Fast Company’s social network that has been there for quite some time – {just to recap, they were there before MySpace, Facebook and the plethora from Orkut, Hi5 and Xing!}. They were one of the very few online magazines in the last century that have implemented ‘Social’ networking within degrees of separation. After having vetted though, I wasn’t the least surprised to see that they’ve adopted Drupal. Drupal, the excellent SMS {Social Management System} is going places – from NGO’s to Fortune 500 sites to Educational Institutions to … simple 5-pages static websites.

The beauty of Drupal is with a click on your mouse, you can easily install a multisite without having to reconfigure the dbase for each site – Something other CMS and Social Network developers might want to seriously consider.

Just think WordPress Mu, but Drupalish instead. Make it simple, modular, with fast simple installation and uninstallation just like WordPress. Make it user-friendly – not everyone is cut out to be a geek, and that’s where Joomla surpasses Drupal {only where the installation and uninstallation of modules are concerned!}, Elgg, and Dolphin where module installations and uninstallations are concerned.

I have not tested the latest v6, though I hope it will have more surprises in-store for non-techies. Time to rethink – re/engineer the pseudoflow and simplicity for all available add-ons without having to half destroy the backend, when a module doesn’t work and needs to be uninstalled… and this goes to all existing CMS, and SMS altogether.