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Notable quotes about Android, open source, and HIPPOs

By November 21, 2011Uncategorized

“I engaged [four people using high-end Android devices] in some innocent tech talk. It did not go well. I casually brought up how excited I was that my phone was updated, and asked each person what software they were running. I might as well have been speaking Klingon.”
Matthew Timmons, commentator for The Verge, a tech-focused news publication
“Transparency is something that starts vanishing pretty quickly when you [pirate]. Not only do you hide from others, but you end up having things in your own company that are hidden from you — there is no accountability when you go in for pirated software.”
Bharat Somany, director at Hindusthan National Glass & Industries
“Most companies are, unfortunately, managed by HIPPOs — ‘highest paid person’s opinions.’ They need to be managed more by data, as in Moneyball! And this means a move away from reporting on what happened yesterday and more towards predictive analytics. It is crucial to roll [this capability] out to everyone who’s making operational decisions, not just the higher-ups.”
Andrew de Rozairo, business development director, strategic partners EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) at Sybase
“Technology is not just an enabler of business anymore. It often is the business.”
Bill McDermott, SAP’s co-CEO
“Open source also implies a degree of sharing. It’s not absolute – open source companies have always been free to retain some “secret sauce” and sell their innovations. But, as I’ve written here many times, it’s shared infrastructure, a single structure used by many that puts all these competitors on a level playing field against proprietary competition. … You will still find companies with hole cards and companies trying to protect their own ‘secret source’ from prying eyes. But that will be just a small portion of the whole, the cherry on top of the whipped cream, not the ice cream in the sundae. Or should I say the [Android ice cream] sandwich?”
Dana Blankenhorn, business journalist