July 13, 2009
Dignity code hasn't survived modern life
Article by David Brooks on the death of dignity in modern life. Begins with George Washington and 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior. We no longer have time for decent actions or civility, and those of us that make time seem more out of step and less likely to survive...Then again it is the decent and civil that are remembered and honored still.
When George Washington was a young man, he copied out a list of 110 “Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.” Some of the rules in his list dealt with the niceties of going to a dinner party or meeting somebody on the street.
“Lean not upon anyone,” was one of the rules. “Read no letter, books or papers in company,” was another. “If any one come to speak to you while you are sitting, stand up,” was a third.
But, as the biographer Richard Brookhiser has noted, these rules, which Washington derived from a 16th-century guidebook, were not just etiquette tips. They were designed to improve inner morals by shaping the outward man. Washington took them very seriously. He worked hard to follow them. Throughout his life, he remained acutely conscious of his own rectitude.
In so doing, he turned himself into a new kind of hero. He wasn’t primarily a military hero or a political hero. As the historian Gordon Wood has written, “Washington became a great man and was acclaimed as a classical hero because of the way he conducted himself during times of temptation. It was his moral character that set him off from other men.”
Washington absorbed, and later came to personify what you might call the dignity code. The code was based on the same premise as the nation’s Constitution — that human beings are flawed creatures who live in constant peril of falling into disasters caused by their own passions. Artificial systems have to be created to balance and restrain their desires.
The dignity code commanded its followers to be disinterested — to endeavor to put national interests above personal interests. It commanded its followers to be reticent — to never degrade intimate emotions by parading them in public. It also commanded its followers to be dispassionate — to distrust rashness, zealotry, fury and political enthusiasm.
Remnants of the dignity code lasted for decades. For most of American history, politicians did not publicly campaign for president. It was thought that the act of publicly promoting oneself was ruinously corrupting. For most of American history, memoirists passed over the intimacies of private life. Even in the 19th century, people were appalled that journalists might pollute a wedding by covering it in the press.
Today, Americans still lavishly admire people who are naturally dignified, whether they are in sports (Joe DiMaggio and Tom Landry), entertainment (Lauren Bacall and Tom Hanks) or politics (Ronald Reagan and Martin Luther King Jr.).
But the dignity code itself has been completely obliterated. The rules that guided Washington and generations of people after him are simply gone.
We can all list the causes of its demise:
• Capitalism. We are all encouraged to become managers of our own brand, to do self-promoting end zone dances to broadcast our own talents.
• The cult of naturalism. We are all encouraged to discard artifice and repression and to instead liberate our own feelings.
• Charismatic evangelism with its penchant for public confession.
• Radical egalitarianism and its hostility to aristocratic manners.
The old dignity code has not survived modern life. The costs of its demise are there for all to see. Every week there are new scandals featuring people who simply do not know how to act.
For example, during the first few weeks of summer, three stories have dominated public conversation, and each one exemplifies another branch of indignity:
• Mark Sanford’s press conference. Here was a guy utterly lacking in any sense of reticence, who was given to rambling self-exposure even in his moment of disgrace.
• The death of Michael Jackson and the discussion of his life. Here was a guy who was apparently untouched by any pressure to live according to the rules and restraints of adulthood.
• Sarah Palin’s press conference. Here was a woman who aspires to a high public role but is unfamiliar with the traits of equipoise and constancy, which are the sources of authority and trust.
In each of these events, one sees people who simply have no social norms to guide them as they try to navigate the currents of their own passions.
Americans still admire dignity. But the word has become unmoored from any larger set of rules or ethical system.
But it’s not right to end on a note of cultural pessimism, because there is the fact of President Barack Obama.
Whatever policy differences people may have with him, we can all agree that he exemplifies reticence, dispassion and the other traits associated with dignity.
The cultural effects of his presidency are not yet clear, but they may surpass his policy impact. He may revitalize the concept of dignity for a new generation and embody a new set of rules for self-mastery.
David Brooks writes for The New York Times.
Posted by keefner at 03:37 PM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2009
Connecting the Dots and Getting Fired
15 minutes well-spent listening to commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs. Pretty amazing stories.
http://maturemarketexperts.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/steve-jobs/
Posted by keefner at 04:50 PM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2008
Politics 2008
After 8 years of mismanagement and misdirection by the Republican party, I waited to see if the 1st objective of the McCain platform would be to reform the Republican party direction. Difficult to reform a country when you won't reform your party first.
Instead he adopted the do anything to win mode.
Couple that with having to watch the Republican party doing everything possible to discourage and suppress voting and I am now at the point of officially leaving.
If there were ever a single issue I think could demand my vote it is our right to vote (and for that vote be counted). When a political party has it best chance of winning with fewer voters, then I know which party not to vote for.
Posted by keefner at 06:01 PM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2007
Oklahoma Painters and Artists : Part 4
Paintings from Joyce Keefner. Joyce is works mostly in oil and is currently living in Arkansas. She was raised in Eastern Oklahoma. Images 13 thru 24. |
Posted by keefner at 11:31 PM | Comments (0)
Oklahoma Painters and Artists : Part 3
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Paintings from Joyce Keefner. Joyce is works mostly in oil and is currently living in Arkansas. She was raised in Eastern Oklahoma. Images 13 thru 24. |
Posted by keefner at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)
Oklahoma Painters and Artists : Part 2
 Paintings from Joyce Keefner. Joyce is works mostly in oil and is currently living in Arkansas. She was raised in Eastern Oklahoma. Images 1 thru 12. |
Posted by keefner at 09:33 PM | Comments (0)
Oklahoma Painters and Artists : Part 1
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Paintings from Joyce Keefner. Joyce is works mostly in oil and is currently living in Arkansas. She was raised in Eastern Oklahoma. Images 1 thru 12. |
Posted by keefner at 03:05 PM | Comments (1)
October 08, 2006
Barbershop Mirrors
I remember sitting in the barbers chair, looking in the mirror in front of me and seeing myself. I could also see myself in the mirror behind me, and could see that in the mirror in front of me, and so on and so on...
Watching the news and big thing is page story right now.
What gets me is that they seem to be re-iterating the mistake.
The original mistake was when they found out about the dangers that one representative presented, and them asking themselves if they should bring it to light.
They decided "no". It wouldn't be good for the party.
Turns out that was the BIG mistake (putting power ahead of ethics).
So now that they are caught in that error, they say they are sorry but then they ask themselves if they remove themselves from power.
They decided "no". It wouldn't be good for the party.
This from the party declaring itself the one to return decency to government...
I've been a good West Houston Republican all my life (except when I voted for Jesse in Minnesota). I have lost a lot of faith in my party.
And the faith part of it might be the most ironic since we have our religious minority/majority to thank for these people being in power. People that were manipulated for sure.
What responsibility will our religious leaders take?
Posted by keefner at 04:10 AM | Comments (0)
September 17, 2006
Faith in Action
 How many fathers do you know that carry their crippled sons with them while in a triathalon? True story of Rick and Dick Hoyt. Read the story then watch the video. It's faith in action.
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Hope you enjoy it, I sure did, brought a tear to my eye and warmth to my heart.
MAKE SURE YOU WATCH THE "YOUTUBE" VIDEO LINK ON THE BOTTOM OF THIS AFTER YOU READ THE SHORT STORY OF THIS FATHER AND SON
This "Sports Illustrated" story about Dick and Rick Hoyt of MA is indeed amazing and inspiring.
To me, this is faith in action. Read the story, then watch the video.
Please read the story below before watching the video clip and make certain you have your speakers turned on.
Strongest Dad in the World
[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]
I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.
But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.
Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution.''
But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told.
``There's nothing going on in his brain.''
"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.
Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!''
And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.''
Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles?
Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks.''
That day changed Rick's life. "Dad,'' he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''
And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
"No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''
How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon?
Still, Dick tried.
Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?
Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way,'' he says.
Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon , in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.
"No question about it,'' Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century.''
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago.''
So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston , and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland , Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
"The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''
Watch the video now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCTIigaloQ
Posted by keefner at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2006
Final Immunity -- Thoughts on 9/11
Easy to write about beer, or cigars. What about something like 9/11?
I remember reading my history books and in there they talked about the Crusades and the all the other "religious conflicts". Even in modern times with Israel (setup in the middle of Muslim nations), I still felt other than a momentary rise in the gas price at the pump, I was still abstracted away from all.
I remember back a few years when Bush was first running for election and the concerted effort to use the religion right as a driver. We will appeal to the right and engage/awaken their idealism and they will be our army. Our defender. Our supporter...We'lll do the right thing.
The believers would be without compromise, they would be totally committed to achieving the cause whether it was a sympathetic judge in the Court or in the court of public opinion. You would be on our side or on their side.
To me it was a horrific manipulation of those people. The Bubba vote. The mostly not-college-educated NASCAR Saturday night. Worse, it would take Jesus and in a profane way, use and redress him as not the defender of the poor, but purely for politics.
Our spiritual leaders either led the charge or became invisible. They believed what Rove told them. We allowed our political leaders to lead/protect us in whatever way they determined was best, whether it was right or not.
I remember in the old days, religion stayed out of politics and in the community. Slowly as culture telescoped and became (and becomes) ever more ruthless, we became the silent majority. Twenty years later it is us electing the President/Republicans.
Now imagine you are God and you have these people claiming/misusing all of these things in your name.
Bad enough that we only have ourselves to thank for electing people that let oil companies write energy policies, bankers determine charity, and allow people to be in power that endanger children. That wasnt the plan as I remember it.
Do we think we have some sort of final immunity which eliminates any discretion by God to instruct? Are we without doubt "on Gods side" and fighting the forces of Evil (or Evil Doers as Bush as declared).
Could this be a sublime form of self-arrogance?
What if God disagrees, or considers it might be instructive to refine our misdirection?
Are our opponents Evil? They talk to God, they get instruction from God, they strictly measure their actions in relation to their laws regarding God. They pray more than we pray.
Some years later the U.S. suffers a horrific attack from Muslim extremists in which thousands of people die.
Is God on our side, or is he trying to teach us a lesson?
Or is God inflicting an instructive irony upon us?
God is all things -- not just what we prefer he is.
Somewhere in North Carolina and other states, strangers walk into farm supply companies and buy 200 lbs of amonia nitrate without any question. Profit overriding safety?
In its own "impossible to totally fathom" way is God responding to our misuse of his name, and his cause.
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And in asking/debating this question, what percentage of the American populace would consider doing this to be unpatriotic?
Why is it that I have to wonder whether or not I can say something?
Posted by keefner at 04:13 AM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2006
French Incident at World Cup
The "headbutt" by Zidane of France just won't go away. Now a new montage of video illustrates how different cultures are viewing this incident.
Posted by keefner at 03:30 PM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2006
Juggling to Golden Slumbers
A very talented juggle does his routine synced to Beatles Golden Slumbers.
http://marketplace.espeakers.com/movie.php?sid=5290&aid=10558
Posted by keefner at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)
December 31, 2005
Trip To Nigeria Africa
People and family have asked about my recent trip to Nigeria (I spent a week there). Nigeria seems to elicit a high level of curiosity.
I found the people to be extremely though the infrastructure and "order" in the society for lack of better word is way below even a poorer country such as Ghana. Here are some pics
Posted by keefner at 05:31 PM | Comments (0)
December 05, 2005
The yahoo of games is on its way
Cool article on the latest "yahoo for games". Forbes.
It's A Mod, Mod Underworld
Victoria Barret, 12.12.05
Gabe Newell is the envy of giants in the videogame industry. He designs games--then lets fans make them even better.
A 60-inch plasma screen at the offices of Valve Corp. roars to life with a heavy-metal soundtrack as a new videogame begins, and giant, gnarly aliens creep from the shadows of an ominous alleyway. The game, Alien Swarm, is the work of three creators who have piggybacked off of Valve's big hit, Half-Life 2, replacing the original game's main characters with a cast of their own creation.
Alien Swarm is a "mod," a modified add-on to the Valve title, and the rise of mods--letting your fans and even rivals freely tap into your game to redesign it--is a key reason behind the success of the privately held company. The Half-Life series has sold 15 million copies, and its first hot mod--Counter-Strike, a rapid-fire shoot-'em-up pitting online teams against each other--has racked up 4.8 million units. Never mind that Counter-Strike was designed not by Valve's 50 programmers but by two rookies who had never even met--a high school senior in New Jersey and a college student in Vancouver, B.C. Valve bought the game and hired its two kid creators.
Now comes Alien Swarm, an unfinished mod being shown to Valve Chief Executive Gabe L. Newell by three programmers who make up the entirety of Black Cat Software. They nervously watch for his reaction, and Newell thrills them by leaning his ample 6-foot-4 frame toward them and asking, "So when are you guys going pro?"
They decide that once Alien Swarm is finished, Valve may sell it for downloading on its Web site, steampowered.com, splitting the sales 50-50 with the three game designers. The Steam site has already begun promoting it.
"No one has created the Yahoo for games. That's our opportunity," says Newell, who plans to start selling music and minimovies on Steam next year. He is one of the most sought-after hitmakers in the $8.4 billion U.S. videogame industry. Valve, a nine-year-old Seattle company owned by Newell and a few employees, will do at least $70 million in revenue this year, double last year's sales, with operating profit of $55 million.
Newell's Web storefront, Steam, has 3 million members logging in every week to play games and get automatic upgrades. And while he started out selling in retail stores, in 2004 he became one of the first game developers to successfully sell direct to consumers online--a move retailers typically despise. Newell makes an operating margin of more than 80% on downloaded games; titles sold at retail get a 36% margin.
Users who visit the Steam site get weekly marketing missives and can choose to let Valve scan their computers online to learn new insights. In the spring Valve discovered that its users with the most advanced graphics had tripled to 10% of all players. So it released a new, snazzier level of Half-Life aimed just at them. "Valve has a much better feel for who their customer is than the rest of the industry. It's admirable," says Sega of America President Simon Jeffery.
Says Microsoft Xbox executive Gregory Canessa: "Valve is closest to figuring out how to make online sales work."
Valve has done so by relying on the kindness of strangers: its own customers who are "modders." Valve gives away the software tools that let even amateur programmers make mods, because you must buy a copy of Half-Life to be able to create your own mod or play someone else's.
Newell sells 15 mod versions and knows of 500 mods floating around in cyberspace, but there could be thousands. Half-Life pits a geeky scientist (you) against corrupt government agents and lethal aliens at a top-secret government site. The Counter-Strike mod transforms this into a multiplayer game of terrorists versus counterterrorists. Day of Defeat applies the premise to World War II. Half-Life Rally has cars racing through the original site (and no killing). Vampire Slayer is self-explanatory.
"We let our community of players make up the rules," Newell says. If he likes a mod, he sells it online himself and shares half the sales with the modders. If a modder wants to sell it on his own, he must pay Valve a $200,000 licensing fee, plus royalties, in exchange for using Half-Life's development engine.
Newell, 43, learned from his first employer, Bill Gates, that success in software comes from getting outside developers to write programs that sell more copies of your own. Newell was the 271st employee at Microsoft and, like Gates, is a Harvard dropout. (Steve Ballmer, then Microsoft's head of sales, talked him into leaving college.) Newell spent 13 years in Redmond as the lead developer of the first three versions of Windows.
He was brilliant and wildly productive. "He was doing 30 products a year," says former colleague Alex St. John, now chief executive of WildTangent, a Web shop selling smaller games.
Newell quit Microsoft in 1996 and cashed in his stock options to launch Valve that year. He has put a daunting $15 million-plus of his own money into the company, buying out a cofounder and eschewing venture capital backing. He was inspired by the story of Id Software, producers of Doom and Quake, two massive PC hits that let amateur designers modify the games' code to change details and scenery. One popular mod inserted Homer Simpson as the main shooter.
So Newell licensed some Quake code from Id to create Half-Life, which debuted in 1998 and sold 2.5 million copies at retail in its first year. And there sales would have stalled, but modding extends a game's life and sparks further sales. Newell hired the two young Australian programmers who had created the most popular Quake mod, Team Fortress, and bought the rights to their game. They added more powerful graphics tools for Half-Life modders.
A year later the community produced its first hit: Counter-Strike. Newell bought it for a pittance in 2000 and hired its two creators (the high school kid in New Jersey and the college kid in Vancouver). Half-Life itself didn't reach its sales peak until its third year; most games peak after a few months.
Flush with success, Newell embarked on a five-year, $40 million effort to make Half-Life 2 (similar setting, better tools). Introduced in 2004, it has sold 4 million copies and inspired 100 new mods. Alien Swarm may be the first mod Valve itself will sell for Half-Life 2. Mods now provide 20% of Valve's total revenue and someday could account for up to 50% of sales.
It is the upside, Newell says, of letting customers take total control, and the practice shouldn't be limited to videogames: "George Lucas should have distributed the 'source code' to Star Wars. Millions of fans would create their own movies and stories. Most of them would be terrible, but a few would be genius."
Posted by keefner at 03:43 AM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2005
Why Everyone Hates The Music Industry
Does the music industry bother you? Does it seem like they are more interested in making a buck than being good (and highly profitable) corporate citizens?
By Fredric Paul, TechWeb.com
I recently read a research report from Forrester Research with the provocative title "Music Lessons: Is Your Industry At Risk?" That's a very important question these days, as the recording industry struggles with falling sales and critical challenges from new technology. No one wants to be the next passenger on that train.
But as I leafed through the exhaustive, well-thought-out report, I started thinking that the authors—along with most observers—may have missed the most obvious, most important points.
Subtitled "Why Media Monocultures Are In Big Trouble," the report posits that media businesses that derive all their revenue from a single source tend to exhibit rigid monopoly-oriented thinking behavior that makes them vulnerable to technological and cultural changes. True enough, but if you ask me, that's not what wrecked the record companies.
No, the record companies' real problem is that everyone hates them.
He Hate Me
Musicians hate them for habitually sucking the creativity out of the music and the profits from the CD sales. Usually they do it legally, if not morally, but all too often naïve musicians with few options end up swindled out of their rightful earnings.
And music lovers—don't call us consumers; music can't be consumed—see the record companies as greedy, clueless profiteers quick to jack up prices while placing limits on what music gets released and how you can listen to it.
Record companies add little real value to the process of creating and distributing music, and technological advancements make their role increasingly irrelevant. Movie studios and publishing houses still stand for something, some artistic orientation, but the big record companies don't. These days, who knows or cares which label their favorite artists happen to have signed with?
The only people willing to defend the record labels seem to be a handful of superstar performers who have gotten rich on the blockbuster mentality pervasive in the music industry. Or in the film industry—movie studios seem determined to follow the same antagonistic path. Oh, and a smattering of radio DJs who rake in the payola to play what they're told to play.
Forrester report author Josh Bernoff (with Chris Charron, Jennifer Joseph, and Tenly McHang) acknowledges that the music industry "was out of touch with users," but that drastically understates the severity of the problem. It's not that vendors (musicians) and customers (listeners) aren't in touch with the record companies, it's that they know them and loathe them. And that was the rule even before the companies started suing thousands of their best customers.
The Five Stages Of Musical Death
Forrester's report argues that the music industry is finally coming to terms with its situation. Adapting Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' famous five stages of death and dying to track the music industry's suffering (no, I'm not kidding), it argues that the industry has moved beyond "shock and denial" (stage 1) over Napster to "anger" (stage 2) by suing file-sharers, through "bargaining" (stage 3) by offering digital music subscriptions and into "depression" (stage 4) when it realized that approach wasn't going to work. The fifth and final stage, "acceptance," comes as iTunes exceeds half a billion legal downloads and the industry tries new download services.
I'm not convinced. iTunes was a good start, but that service still has more digital rights restrictions than I'd like. And the companies are once again bickering with Apple over pricing and DRM issues. Plus, they're still suing listeners, and they still don't see their own culpability in their demise.
Making Money From Those Who Won't Pay
One positive sign: Universal Music, the world's largest record company, recently announced that it's "transforming itself into a broader entertainment company that derives more revenue from untapped sources like advertising and apparel," according to Reuters. The goal is to "tap into the enormous demand for free music, and generate revenue from those who can't or won't pay." Instead of being obsessed with controlling how people listen to music, a few record execs may finally be starting to recognize that they need a new business model, that selling recorded performances can no longer be the cash cow it was during the 20th century. (And really, is that such a bad thing? Most of the money from CD sales never reaches the artists anyway, and it makes more sense for records to be loss leaders for live performances and other merchandise. Mariah Carey might have to sell one of her houses, but she'll be OK.)
But most insiders still seem to want to finesse the rights issue. I recently chatted with Stefan Roever, CEO of Navio Systems in Cupertino, Calif. Navio supplies technology to record companies so they can "sell rights, and not just files." The idea is that these rights would offer more flexibility, because listeners could use the right to access the content on multiple platforms, for example, or to download the file again if your media was lost or destroyed. But I think that's putting the cart before the horse. People don't want "rights" to the music they buy. They want to own it. Only when everyone accepts that fact will we be ready to worry about what Navio is selling.
Don't Hate Me Because I'm Rich
It may be too late for the music industry. But what does Forrester's report tell us about other technology and media sectors? Well, I guess if your industry exists in a monopoly monoculture, heavily depends on a single channel and revenue stream, and steadfastly refuses to change along with advancing technology and cultural shifts, it's clearly time to start worrying. According to Forrester, that means TV networks, radio networks, and especially newspapers.
But I say all that stuff is just window dressing. If your vendors and customers hate you, you're dead.
Fredric Paul is Director of Online Editorial Development for CMP Media LLC, TechWeb's parent company.
TechWeb's editors are busy assigning and editing and linking and otherwise creating the content you see on TechWeb.com and the Pipeline sites, but we wanted the chance to tell you what we see and what we think about it directly. So, each week, The TechWeb Spin will bring you the informed insight and unique perspective of a different TechWeb editor: Fredric Paul, Scot Finnie, Tim Moran, Stuart Glascock, Alexander Wolfe, Val Potter and Cora Nucci. We hope you like it, and even if you don't we hope you take the time to tell us what you think about it.
Posted by keefner at 04:16 AM | Comments (0)
September 07, 2005
Technology Usability Fails Us Again
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has not exactly won hearts and minds with its ability to manage an emergency. The agency, and its boss Michael Brown, has been widely slated for its handling of the post-Katrina disaster in the Southern US.
Although its latest failing hardly compares to the litany of incompetence already exhibited but it does manage to make the situation slightly worse for some people. FEMA's website can only be accessed by people using a PC which has Internet Explorer 6. Some of it is viewable using Firefox but anyone trying to apply for Disaster Assistance needs to use IE 6.0 or higher. There is a workaround for Mac that is available.
The alternative is a phone number on which you can apply for a postal application - not terribly practical for people still in emergency accomodation or waiting for a boat-borne postal worker.
Posted by keefner at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)
September 03, 2005
Oil and Safety
The best thing that can be said about the recent disaster in New Orleans is that at least it wasn't the Straits of Hormuz. A couple of terminals in Saudi (Abiqaig and Ras Tanura) account for 10% of oil production.
I sure hope the Houston Ship Channel isn't a target in the U.S.
Posted by keefner at 03:43 AM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2005
The media world of Googlezon
In the year 2014, EPIC, or evolving Personalized Information Construct, is born. Interesting 8 minute movie on the future of information.
click here
Posted by keefner at 03:05 AM | Comments (0)
October 20, 2004
Comedy Meets News Analysis
 Pretty interesting video exchange between the comedian Jon Stewart and the CNN Hosts of Crossfire. Described as brutal and probably not recommended for Tucker Carlson fans. Link
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Posted by keefner at 05:56 PM | Comments (0)
July 26, 2004
Darwin Awards Released
Subject: Darwin Awards Nominations
They are finally out again. You all know about the Darwin Awards - Its an annual honor given to the person who did the gene pool the biggest service to mankind by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way.
Last year's winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke machine which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out of it.
And the nominees are:
1.) A young Canadian man, searching for a way of getting drunk cheaply, because he had no money with which to buy alcohol, mixed gasoline with milk. Not surprisingly, this concoction made him ill, and he vomited into the fireplace in his house. This resulting explosion and fire burned his house down, killing both him and his sister.
2.) Three Brazilian men were flying in a light aircraft at low altitude when another plane approached. It appears that they decided to moon the occupants of the other plane, but lost control of their own aircraft and crashed. They were all found dead in the wreckage with their pants around their ankles.
3.) A 22-year-old, Glade Drive, Reston , VA , man was found dead after he tried to use octopus straps to bungee jump off a 70-foot railroad trestle. Fairfax County police said Eric Barcia, a fast-food worker, taped a bunch of these straps together, wrapped one end around one foot, anchored the other end to the trestle at Lake Accotink Park , jumped and hit the pavement. Warren Carmichael, a police spokesman, said investigators think Barcia was alone because his car was found nearby. "The length of the cord that he had assembled was greater than the distance between the trestle and the ground," Carmichael said. Police say the apparent cause of death was "Major trauma."
4.) A man in Alabama died from rattlesnake bites. It seems that he and a friend were playing a game of catch, using the rattlesnake as a ball. The friend, no doubt a future Darwin Awards candidate, was hospitalized.
5.) Employee in a medium-sized warehouse in west Texas noticed the smell of a gas presumed a leak. Sensibly, management evacuated the building extinguishing all potential sources of ignition: lights, power, etc. After the building had been evacuated, two "technicians" from the gas company were dispatched. Upon entering the building, they found they had difficulty navigating in the dark. To their frustration, none of the lights worked. Witnesses later described the sight of one of the technicians reaching into his pocket and retrieving an object that resembled a cigarette lighter. Upon operation of the lighter like object, the gas in the warehouse exploded, sending pieces of the warehouse up to three miles away. Nothing was found of the technicians, but the lighter, being at the exact center of the resulting melee, was virtually untouched by the explosion. The "technician" suspected of causing the blast, had never been thought of by his peers as "all there."
And the Winner:
6.) Based on a bet by the other members of his golfing threesome, Everett Sanchez tried to wash his own "balls" in a ball washer at the local golf course. Proving once again that beer and testosterone are a bad mix, Sanchez managed to straddle the ball washer and dangle his scrotum in the machine. Much to his dismay, one of his buddies upped the ante by spinning the crank on the machine with Sanchez's scrotum in place, thus wedging them solidly in the mechanism. Sanchez, who immediately passed his threshold of pain, collapsed and tumbled from his perch. Unfortunately for Sanchez, the post of the ball washer was more than strong enough to support his body weight, and his sack was the weakest link. Sanchez's scrotum was ripped open during the fall, and one testicle was plucked from him forever and remained in the ball washer, while the other testicle was compressed and flattened as it was pulled between the housing of the washer, and the rotating machinery inside. To add insult to injury, Sanchez then broke a new $300.00 graphite shaft driver that he had just purchased from the pro shop, and was attempting to use as a cane. Sanchez was rushed to the hospital for surgery, and the remaining threesome was asked to leave the course.
This last one wouldn't normally count, because the golfer didn't die. But because he cannot reproduce as a result of his qualifying act of stupidity, we have allowed it.
Posted by keefner at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2004
In Passing
 | Tough week for us Music legend Ray Charles, center, laughs as President Reagan and Nancy Reagan joined him at a salute to country music at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., on March 16, 1983. Reagan died the 6th and Charles the 10th. |
Posted by keefner at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)
June 03, 2004
I say pop, you say coke, some say soda...
Here is a geographic visualization of the United States and for each county whether they say Pop or they say Coke or say Soda.Posted by keefner at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2004
Cool Sites
Dive Into Mark -- http://diveintomark.org/Posted by keefner at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2004
Nice quote database
We're in a war, dammit! We're going to have to offend somebody!"
-- John Adams
Nice quote from a nice quote database.
Posted by keefner at 04:06 PM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2004
BK and Marketing
Burger King launches new marketing site at http://www.subservientchicken.com and it turns out to be very popular.
Posted by keefner at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)
Seinfeld and Superman
Jerry Seinfeld does commercial with Superman... http://www.jerry.digisle.tv/room.html
Posted by keefner at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)