Go Slim Devices, go

September 10, 2006

in Gadgets/Hack

Normally I don’t like to do “me too” posts, but this profile of Slim Devices is interesting:

The company is not so boring either. Operated almost entirely in the Valley, Slim Devices is profitable on a sliver of seed funding, and set to do $10 million in sales this year. Led by a 27-year-old CEO, Sean Adams, with little-to-no senior management, the company employs only six engineers, and 20 more employees to take care of assembling the product and answering customer calls. It has open-sourced its software, with outside enthusiasts/developers dreaming up plug-ins that are quickly made into core features.

I love my Squeezebox, but my favorite thing about the company is that they open-sourced their protocol and server software.

{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }

Ben September 10, 2006 at 9:24 pm

If you’re going to do a “me too” about a gadget it might as well be from Om’s blog.

The whole company sounds pretty cool. Open sourcing the software was a shrewd move, I doubt their motives were as great as the result ;)

Marcus September 11, 2006 at 1:06 am

Also, slim devices are Perl programmers and use Catalyst, my favorite MVC framework. Go slim devices! :-)

PhilC September 11, 2006 at 2:30 am

I looked at the Squeezebox page you linked to, Matt, and this is what it says:-

30-day satisfaction guarantee.

I’d expect the satisfaction to last more than 30 days for $249!

;)

Jonathan September 11, 2006 at 7:04 am

I use pandora.com a lot and they are a huge sponsor, thye have good stuff :)

Everett September 11, 2006 at 7:31 am

Speaking of Pandora.com, Sqeezbox allows you to listen to your Pandora stations, which is fantastic for finding new music. I’ve discovered so many new bands through Pandora and the Music Genome Project…

Joel Tanner September 11, 2006 at 8:24 am

I’ve got an original SliMP3, Slim Devices’ original player. Awesome product, awesome company. Doubt he does now, but Sean used to handle tech support himself.

Stuey September 11, 2006 at 1:55 pm

Matt,

It’s not bad but I much prefer the Roku Soundlabs kit. This is open-source too and I like their big-ger vacuum display.

http://www.rokulabs.com

I suppose you’ve check these guys out ……….?

Ian September 12, 2006 at 2:53 am

It’s a nice approach, I hope they’re successful.

mad4 September 12, 2006 at 10:18 am

Hi Matt,

Sorry to post off topic but please try to help with my Google Analytics account. I have been apparently banned/deleted for weeks now and nobody can help me.

I posted details along with Googles response at http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=1407003

Patrick

Dennis September 12, 2006 at 11:05 am

Any slim devices are always sexier than those bulky ones

Other Matt September 12, 2006 at 3:49 pm

Even better, match up your Squeezebox with the Infrant ReadyNAS NV. It’s a great raid array of disks that runs Linux and SlimServer too. Brilliant!!!

James September 12, 2006 at 3:50 pm

I tend to agree with jonathan Pardora rocks!!

Maurice September 13, 2006 at 1:48 am

Its a bit of topic sory Matt

Imagine my surprise when reading the leader on the register about the stitch up over the HP board (thge CEO geting promoted when he should have resigned)

I saw a very dubious adsense add on the page take a look at this blog post where you can see the image

http://hauntingthunder.wordpress.com/2006/09/13/adsense-abuse/

i have reported it but i thought id post it here.

Harith September 14, 2006 at 2:28 am

So where is Mr. Cutts?

Maybe:

- Matt is visiting his parents in Kentuky

- Matt is visiting the in-laws in Nebraska

- Matt is in bed surrounded by: BRON-FRIGGIN-CHITIS, Emmy and Ozzie

- Matt is at the Plex tinkering around with 72.14.207.104

Have I forgot to mention any other possibility :)

The Adam That Doesn't Belong To Matt September 14, 2006 at 6:56 am

Yeah, you did. You forget “Harith is stalking him in all of those places and he needed a new one to hide from him in.” :D

Keith Cash September 14, 2006 at 10:43 am

What about Just taking a break??

You know enjoying the season change outside and doing nothing, I repeat NOTHING!

JLH September 14, 2006 at 1:22 pm

“Have I forgot to mention any other possibility(?)”

Maybe he went supplemental? We’ll see him update again in about a year. [tic]

Matt Cutts September 14, 2006 at 7:19 pm

What? I have a blog? Damn, I forgot. :)

Actually, there were a few logistical things at work I had to crank through, plus the bron-friggin-chitis was taking its sweet time leaving..

Harith September 14, 2006 at 10:30 pm

Ok.

So I can see that neither Adam, Keith Cash, JLH nor I have guessed correctly where you were….this time.

Better luck next time, may be :)

Peter September 15, 2006 at 1:22 am

Hi Matt – off topic but I need to ask you/Google a question. If there’s a form I should use instead please excuse me – I’ve scoured your site and Google but all I can find is the spam report. Does Google still have a general purpose contact form?

There are threads about this on WMW and WebWorkShop – lots of affected people. Here’s my example.

My site is .net. I don’t do link-building for it but it has around 60-70 UK IBLS from my UK hosted clients (with their permission!) and used to get a bit of exposure in local searches. However I note that the site: operator no longer shows my homepage when I search UK only results in Google UK (it’s there otherwise). I checked my client’s sites and out of 27 non .co.uk domains 20 have the same problem. None are MFA, none do reciprocal linking, none are affiliate. They are small UK business sites for small businesses.

So my questions are – are you aware that whatever geo-targeting is being tried out is dumping people’s home pages from your UK index? These pages contain the business location and some of the domains have a town name in them. They are all registered to UK addresses /businesses through a UK registrar!

I’m worried that this is going to continue to be a problem, so could you also indicate if it’s no longer wise to have anything other than a .co.uk domain if you want to feature in UK search. Most of these domains were bought 4 or more years ago when .coms were more in use but most clients also have the .co.uk. Would they be wise to switch?

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