Author: Sammy G

I wanted to make a recommendation but instead this is going to be a book warning. I’m not recommending “JPod”, Douglas Coupland’s follow-up to his popular 1996 “Microserfs.” Actually, I’m not sure it was intended as a direct follow-up, but it follows the same format.

I loved “Microserfs”. I read it several times when I was in my early 20s and thought the book was great because it connected with me and my lifestyle. However, “JPod” couldn’t get me past page 50. I could have cared less about the characters and thought Coupland was trying to take every piece of modern tech culture and cram it into 300 pages.

Not worth your time, in my opinion!

Let’s take them juniors out back and show ’em how to use this thing right proper.

Attached.

Newspaper: News on Paper

I have an idea on how I would run a major newspaper.

Earlier this year, McClatchy bought Knight Ridder in a move that rattled the newspaper industry. The acquisition was called upon as an anathema by many stock analysts who continued to depress the industry outlook by acknowledging a shrinking circulation, especially by readers under the age of 30. The bears besmirched the bulls by bickering that the up-and-comings are copasetic getting their news on the internet or their PDAs instead of print.

Maybe I’m different than most people but I need my news in print. I don’t like the computer screen as the primary medium for in-depth, lengthy news. This is because the following scenarios have become “news time”:

• Scenario #1: The morning bathroom.
• Scenario #2: The morning kitchen table.
• Scenario #3: The Metro, bus or airplane ride.

Also, I’ve started to become increasingly irritated with the current newspaper format. First, they’re less of newspapers and more of adpapers. Seriously, you’ve got a front section that is 75% ads. I don’t care about the ladies’ fall shoe liquidation sale at the outlet mall. I don’t care about the new line of patio furniture. I care about the news, which happens to be stuffed into the upper corner of A4 while ads cover the rest of the double-spread. Secondly, I hate the type of paper. The paper is this drab grey with ink flecks that looks like it was put through the washer before laid out on the press. Furthermore, what’s up with the bulk? An unfolded paper takes up the size of an adult torso.

Here’s my idea, which I’m culling from an experience I had during s stay last year at an overseas hotel. It’s called the New York Times Digest idea. When visiting the Caribbean I woke up the first morning of the trip and found a copy of the New York Times Digest deposited outside my room. This thing was slick. It was a stapled printout of fifteen 8.5”x11” pieces of paper carrying slenderized, columned versions of the full daily’s top stories. It even included the crossword puzzle on the last page. I don’t care where you are in the world, you cannot escape Will Shortz!

Anyway, this got me wondering why it couldn’t be done with subscribers back on the mainland? I would much rather receive a fax or email in the morning with this version attached because I’m someone that wants to conquer the entire news on paper in 20 minutes and not feel as though I missed anything important. As a subscriber, I wouldn’t mind printing it out from a home printer each morning. I would also feel comfortable knowing that an online version is available for deeper coverage.

From a news operator’s standpoint, this layout and delivery tactic would lessen the large daily costs of maintaining a massive print, delivery and ad insert infrastructure. I would still keep the Sunday edition in print. Maybe a couple other issues a week as well? Actually, I would let readers select their mix and tier pricing that favors receiving a digitally-delivered digest edition.

Thoughts?

Sammy G has a major pet peeve, one that almost rivals the haute couture restricting me from wearing brown sandals with a black belt. This pet peeve is hearing those in the media industry misuse the term “independent.” I don’t think people recognize the true meaning of the term and the harmful implications of throwing that term around.

I haven’t felt the need to spout off like a discordant term-snob until The Rampant Coyote specifically featured the use of “indie” on his game development blog: http://www.rampantgames.com/blog/2006/07/what-is-indie-game.html

When most say “indie” to describe their production, concept, artistic statement, etc. they mean it to infuse a sense of hip, underground, and edgy into their operation. It’s used as a marketing term. It means to a fan or vendor or investor that your operation is rooted in core development values, pure of intent, uninfluenced by a “corporate” world driven by profit motive.

When I hear the term “indie” in association with media, I instantly think just the opposite. I think of a business that is undercapitalized, devoid of strong managerial acumen, and without strong marketing to access customers and fulfill their expectations over time in the form of customer support.

Let me explain to you why the term is misused: if you were to start a record label (“record” being another term now clearly misused!), and you file your charter documents at the Secretary of State, and you pay some bucks to register your trademark with the USPTO, and you find a couple worthy folks to sit on your Board, then there is no difference structurally between your record label and Warner Bros. None. Both corporations are in good standing with their state, both pay income and withholding taxes, both retain the capacity to sue and be sued, and both have shareholders who vote at required annual meetings to elect a Board of Directors which carries a fiduciary responsibility to oversee that management earns a return for the shareholders. Structurally, there is no difference, unless of course you organized your record label as a partnership. And even then there really is no big difference.

In reality, however, we all know there is a big difference. One label is more successful than the other. One has lots of revenue. One has lots of customers. One has distribution.

So for those of you out there who use the term “indie”, let me warn you there are those who hear that term and automatically think you have a business that does not influence or impact the market in any significant way. It means, “we’re not as successful as others.” To some it means, ““we don’t know what we’re doing when it comes to selling our product.”

The only true “independent” sector in the United States, as recognized by the IRS for tax treatment purposes, is the nonprofit sector.

Just my opinion.

The World Cup is underway. I am way excited. I took off the afternoon to watch one of the opening day games. I have been following the U.S. men’s national team for the past two years. I watched almost all of their World Cup qualifying matches. I have cable so that I can watch US players work for their English Premiership and Bundesliga club teams. I have been counting down the months until the tournament starts. I’ve been flocking to the US soccer website for daily updates on the team.

I love soccer. And the older I get, and the more I start adopting a heterodoxic approach to life, the more I take the heretical stance of dismissing American football, baseball and basketball as lame spectator sports. I grew up following the Washington Redskins and dedicating my brain to memorizing player stats. Today, I think American football is a bunch of overgrown apes crushing each other in 5 second spurts. Baseball and basketball are equally as boring to watch and follow. I recognize that the hardest thing to do in professional sports is consistently hit a round ball with a round bat, but the overall sport doesn’t captivate. Basketball doesn’t do much for me either as a spectator sport. With so much scoring, I just want to tune in the last two minutes of the game, and even then I could care less about the outcome.

I laugh every time I hear someone call a US sports team the “world champion.” What a joke! Nothing compares to the World Cup in terms of international sports craze. It’s amazing to see a tournament based on a sport in which every nation on the planet pursues vigilantly. It’s the best of the world competing at the highest level. There is only one sport. It is soccer.

LET’S GO USA!

This article captured my problems with all those fancy advances in cell phone technology:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/biztech/05/29/cellphone.usability.ap/index.html

Actually, it’s really not the advances in technology that cause me problems. It’s the marketing losers who figure that the application of the technology needs to be packaged to consumers in the form of a cell phone with a built-in camera, internet interface, chat mechanisms, mp3 player and keyboard. Memo to cell phone marketers: the phone is not a personal computer, so stop trying to replicate how people use computers on a cell phone.

If I could go back and meet anyone in the annals of human history, it would absolutely be to meet Alexander Bell prior to his voice transmission breakthrough. I would want to explain to him the terrible truths about industrial engineering and human ergonomics. In terms of human performance, holding up a receiver cradle to the side of one’s head is one of the most obnoxious things I’ve had to deal with since birth (the other being payroll taxes). What was he thinking? The human species would have been better off if Bell had actually given proper thought to the design aspects of the bi-directional phone, and included bluetooth technology for a wireless headset before rushing to patent.

Alas, the phone companies are still muddling with my experience today. I do not understand why there are phones embedded in a device that I use primarily to talk to other people. Because I like using the full extent of written language to express my thoughts to others, I do not appreciate having to use a miniature keyboard to send ugly, truncated syntax. Viewing the internet over a tiny screen is lame. Having to charge my phone every night achieves a high level of lameness. Trying to review and make changes to MS Office docs over a 2″ screen is exceedingly lame.

Actually, I think I understand why marketers have modeled the fusion of voice communication and entertainment. The functionality appeals to teenagers. Did you know that teenagers don’t use their voice mail? I found this out from my teenage cousins who told me that using voice mail is an unknown practice. Teenagers call each other and then resort to texting if there is no pickup. Teenagers are the most destructive force on the planet and we should not bow to their demands.

Voice communication as a desirable, primary function seems to be on the demise. Here’s what I might like:

-A phone that is basically a headset device. Nothing else. No hands are involved in the operation. -A headset device that is voice activated. -Phone numbers and contacts stored inside the headset. -Powered by a combination of solar thermal energy and internal battery. -It’s used just to talk to other people around the world.

I should have put this entry under Matt’s ‘Pet Peeve’ thread, but figured this subject deserved a separate and distinct home.

Over the past year, I have seen many front-page newspaper stories characterizing the actions of particular political representatives and political groups as “quiet.

Today, the MN House passed a bill that makes it more difficult for government entities to acquire private property by strictly defining the situations in which eminent domain powers may be used. Although a bipartisan majority supported the bill, those who expressed concern that the bill goes too far were House reps from urban areas. The feeling is that it’s going to be hard for local governments to prove that a property is blighted and that cleaning up urban neighborhoods with environmental or crime problems will be virtually impossible.

I couldn’t find this blog’s prior stream of conversation on this issue. I recall that it was sparked last year by some big case.

The way I see it, this bill could result in more government corruption. If you’re a city council member, and some blighted (when speaking about eminent domain, this term is code for either ‘poor people with their family car jacked up on blocks in the front yard, or ‘old people who have been sitting in the same string of houses for 50+ years’) neighborhood is dragging down the tax base, you’re going to have to line up a developer in the shade with promises of increment financing, road construction, surrounding area improvement, etc. Most developers won’t take a leap to acquire blighted land unless they’re given some covert approval of preference beforehand.

Today, I heard an NPR report on a company that wants to help the environment by having you pay them for a convenient way to dispose of all your old or outdated electronic devices, including cell phones, computers, TVs, printers and cartridges. I figured that by getting air time on Future Tense, that GreenDisk must have a solid offering. After checking out their site, I thought their offering was not enough.

I would like to provide my fellow bloggers with an option for ridding of old tech gear.

When it comes time to buy something new, such as a 21″ flat-screen monitor, donate the existing item(s) you are replacing to the local school system. By doing this, you are essentially buying new tech gear at a discounted price while helping children, courtesy of the IRS. Most school systems have IT departments that are set up to accept contributions. When you stop off to donate items, the school system hands you a blank donation form. You get to determine the worth of the old items getting donated.

In practice, you might go out and buy that new dual-output video card for $100. Swap out that old video card and donate it to the local school system. When they give you a donation form, you would assess the value of that old video card. It might be worth $50. It might be worth $125. One can never tell these days, since there isn’t a computer electronics parts pricing guide that rules the after-market.

Each calendar year, households are allowed up to $5K in charitable contributions before an audit on the individual contributions is required by the IRS. We keep impeccable records at our house.

Help!!!

I have a problem with audio CD-Rs not getting played back on certain devices. This is a problem because for the first time I had a customer call and complain that they can’t get my CDs to play.

I’m burning audio CD-Rs from a external Mad Dog 7×1 using Nero Express on XP. Once the customer complaint came in I took a CD and played it back without problems on an office boombox, office computer, car stereo, home computer…and then it wouldn’t read on my home CD player. Yikes!!!

What am I doing wrong? I couldn’t find any configuration settings in Nero that would account for older CD players. Are CD-Rs not the correct media?

Help!!! If the issue is too much for posting, phone calls appreciated.