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99 Cows (Book Review)

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

99 Cows by Seth Godin (cover)

Over the last weekend I got around to reading Seth Godin’s follow up to Purple Cow (which I admit I haven’t read yet) titled 99 Cows. Its a list of just over 100 examples of businesses which have been remarkable - worthy of being remarked on by sneezers (people who talk about your product, service, company). Each example is short and basically tells you what they do to be remarkable to their customers.

The thing that you won’t find in this book is a single generalist. None of the businesses discussed has aimed for the centre of the pack with a mediocre please-everybody response. Its a book about businesses that are successful because they operate on the fringes and target niche clients in a particular way.

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Information and Data Modelling (Second Edition) by David Benyon (Cover)With an eye toward implementing another web interface database solution from the ground up I'm casually revisiting David Benyon's Information and Data Modelling (Second Edition). Its critical to have a solid understanding of conceptual data modelling and knowing how to identify various things like fan traps and three way traps very early in the process. To that end, while its fine to have a basic understanding of third normal form and general ideas about relations (that which relational databases rely on), its also a great idea to spend time exploring the theory and case studies that lead to a higher understanding.

Often people I deal with just snuff their nose and say they can design a database - but often its a very naive approach. Having read this book about four years ago its time for a quick refresher over my holiday period. No, I doubt few will envy me.