Dysfunction
Posted on Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Filed Under Quotes
The descent into dysfunction is a long, slow process. At no point is there a conscious choice to be dysfunctional.
permalinkRedefining WMD
Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Filed Under General
MSNBC ran the startling headline this morning: Man arrested near Capitol faces WMD charge. How intriguing! Was a criminal mastermind skulking through the streets of DC with a nuclear bomb in his trunk?
<the suspect> tried to manufacture a “weapon of mass destruction, that is, an explosive device capable of causing multiple deaths or serious bodily injuries to multiple persons, or massive destruction of property,”
At the height of the Cold War, “weapons of mass destruction” meant nuclear warheads that were capable of eliminating broad swaths of humanity with a single explosion. With the onset of the “war on terror” we expanded WMD to include bio-weapons that could infect the water supply for an entire city or chemicals that could poison the air of a local community.
Now it seems that our redefinition of the phrase has gone too far. From the article:
The device was made of a can of gunpowder taped to a box of shotgun shells and a bottle with buckshot or BB pellets, according to court documents.
Excuse me? Our BB Bomber constructed a make-shift bomb from a coffee can and some shotgun shells and he is being charged with trying to manufacture a WMD? What can the phrase mean if a quick trip to Wal-Mart and some duct tape yields a weapon of mass destruction? I fear that our language is deteriorating faster than our laws.
What’s wrong with online advertising
Posted on Saturday, March 15, 2008
Filed Under Business
When the news broke today that a crane had fallen in New York City I immediately went to the web in search of video footage. CNN was my first stop. As expected, they had a video clip at the top of the page.
The next two minutes were a stunning realization of all that is wrong with the current attempts to monetize online video. The clip was 75 seconds long. In order to watch the clip I had to endure a 30 second pre-roll advertisement . . . for VIAGRA!
I am a woman in my late 40’s who has no need or interest in Viagra. The length of the ad was nearly 1/2 as long as the length of the news clip and I had absolutely no interest in the product. What a waste of my time.
I used to pay CNN an annual subscription to access their online content without advertising. What a pity that they discontinued this service. I would rather pay a few dollars a year for their service then waste precious time and have my brain cluttered with useless advertisements.
David Byrne On The Music Business
Posted on Saturday, January 12, 2008
Filed Under Business
David Byrne has an excellent article on the music business over at Wired. He offers this brilliant insight into music business today:
What is called the music business today, however, is not the business of producing music. At some point it became the business of selling CDs in plastic cases, and that business will soon be over. But that’s not bad news for music, and it’s certainly not bad news for musicians. Indeed, with all the ways to reach an audience, there have never been more opportunities for artists.
A very good read.
Julian Schnabel
Posted on Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Filed Under Art
In a recent episode of The Treatment, Elvis Mitchel interviews artist and director Julian Schnable. Elvis is struck by the idea that all of Julian’s movies are about artists whose view of the world is not understood by other people and so they are constantly trying to communicate with the world. Elvis says that the movies are ostensibly about art, but they are also movies about communications. They portray figures, who for some reason, can’t get an essential part of themselves communicated through any other means but their art. Julian replies:
That is true about all art. The conflict is to try and take what is inside of you and put it inside somebody else.
This is such a wonderful idea. It has made my day.
I am reminded of a wonderful story of a modern dancer who gave a very expressive, very moving performance. When she had finished, a member of the audience approached her, asking what she was trying to communicate with her dance.
She replied, “Well sir, if I could explain it, I would not have needed to dance.”
Thought for the day
Posted on Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Filed Under Quotes
What if there were no more rhetorical questions?
FedEx Trumps UPS
Posted on Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Filed Under Business
A few years ago Book of Joe inspired me to open a personal FedEx account. His logic was impeccable and extremely practical. Since then I have shipped numerous packages enabled by the wonderful tools on my account at the FedEx web site. Some of the outstanding features include:
- Create the order online.
- Print the shipping lable.
- Send emails to yourself, the recipient, and any third party when the item is picked up, delivered and if there is any interruption in the delivery.
- Track your shipments based on your account history.
A few weeks ago we moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We now live a stone’s throw from a UPS Store so when I had a few packages to ship recently I decided to give the competitor a try. I logged on to UPS.com and created an account. Within minutes I had created three entries in my address book and printed three shipping labels.
I dropped the packages at the nearby UPS Store and declined a receipt. I mean, why bother with a paper record right? I assumed I could just go home and track the shipping status via my online account, where I had created the shipments!
Imagine my surprise when I logged onto my UPS.com account later that evening and could find no record of my shipments. The UPS online system has no tools to keep track of history. My packages are gone and I have no idea what the tracking numbers are. I guess I will call my family tomorrow and see if they arrived.
I am sure that the UPS shipping tools for corporate customers have all the history and tracking that one could want. But for a personal account, my money is with FedEx.
The Demise of Lofts
Posted on Saturday, October 20, 2007
Filed Under General
I fell in love with the idea of living in a loft in the early 80’s. I was just about to graduate from college and Jennifer Beals was dancing across the screen in Flashdance in a beautiful, industrial-strength loft. It was a beautiful living space — about 2,000 square feet with no walls and no rooms. Ever since then I have dreamed of living in a completely open floor plan. Bed at one end, kitchen at the other, living and dining and working in between.
We are in the process of relocating to North Carolina and have entertained the idea of living in a loft. Unfortunately, today’s brain-dead developers have co-opted the term “loft” in their attempt to be hip. The marketing people have not been talking to the architects and builders.
For example, consider the Lofts at Lakeview in Durham. Download their brochure. Take a look at the floor plans. Granted the living room is open all the way to the kitchen. But the bedrooms and closets are crammed behind ugly and unnecessary walls.
These are not lofts by any definition of the word. They are urban apartments with an over abundance of LCD TVs in the common areas. Some day I will live in a loft. But it looks like it will not be offered by any of today’s urban developers.
Contracts, Contracts, Everywhere
Posted on Monday, October 8, 2007
Filed Under Business
Long term contracts and petty fees are everwhere.
When we moved to Princeton last year we signed up for Poland Springs water delivery. (Poland Springs is owned by that bottled water juggernaut, Nestle Waters.) They offered an inflexible monthly service plan of 4 bottles per month for $32.96, which was the best deal in their array of undesirable options. You can skip a delivery, but not a payment.
When the first bill arrived I was surprised to find a $2.00 fee for an Oil Surcharge. What? This is nothing more than a price hike disguised as a fee, hiding behind rising fuel prices. They are in the delivery business. Fuel charges are integral to their cost of doing business and should therefore be integrated into the price.
My biggest disappointment came when I set out to cancel the service due to a pending move to North Carolina. I knew I had signed a contract for their flat rate service but I remembered it as being a one year commitment. Imagine my surprise to discover that I had, in fact, signed a two-year contract and was now facing a $50 cancellation fee. With our move date rapidly approaching, I paid the fee . . . and said goodbye to Nestle Waters.
The cell phone industry introduced us to contracts with the rationalization that they were subsidizing the price of the phone. Our “commitment” helped them ensure that they recovered the cost of the phone. Now that we let them in the door, the industry is charging contracts everywhere. AT&T requires a two year contract with the iPhone despite the fact that there is no subsidy for the hardware. T-Mobile required a one-year contract extensions just to upgrade my handset to a Blackberry. No thank you.
Contracts have a modicum of acceptability if the company incurs set-up costs, such as when the cable guy has to come out to your house to set up your cable box. But Poland Springs had no startup costs with my service plan. They delivered four bottles of water to my house once a month for a cost of $8.74 a bottle (or $1.75 / gallon). The entire delivery too mere minutes each month. It seems to me that they should be able to make a profit on each delivery, beginning with the first one.
I guess I have learned my lesson with bottled water. There has been a lot of buzz in the news lately about the potential hazards of plastic bottles leaching their chemicals into their contents. (Check out the great Smart Plastics pdf at the The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy). Time to get a water filter.
What, me crazy?
Posted on Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Filed Under Quotes
Answer me this: If I’m so “crazy,” then why did they choose me to be their spokesperson to the people of Earth? — Jim Rosenberg
Club Ruminations