Friday, May 30, 2008
While the Cat's Away
Well, it's Friday, and the boss has left early to catch a plane. He's going to go watch one of his buddies from the Navy command the space shuttle, which is scheduled to take off tomorrow and will include a much-needed toilet for the International Space Station.
No, I'm not making any of this up.
He's only been gone for about half an hour, so we haven't broken out the pony keg or anything like that (yet). Mostly, I'm struck by what an odd news week it has been. The toilet goes out on the space station. Corn syrup overtakes I-270. Rachel Ray is a terrorist.
Rather than come to any point or informed opinion about any of this, I'm simply going to sit back and be thankful that the world is a very odd and entertaining place.
Have a good weekend everybody.
No, I'm not making any of this up.
He's only been gone for about half an hour, so we haven't broken out the pony keg or anything like that (yet). Mostly, I'm struck by what an odd news week it has been. The toilet goes out on the space station. Corn syrup overtakes I-270. Rachel Ray is a terrorist.
Rather than come to any point or informed opinion about any of this, I'm simply going to sit back and be thankful that the world is a very odd and entertaining place.
Have a good weekend everybody.
Labels: current events, random
Thursday, May 29, 2008
They Always Said You Could Fry an Egg on the Pavement
File this under amusing current events:
Yesterday in Maryland Heights (St. Louis suburb, one township over from where I live), there was an accident that took out I-270, which loops around the city and is one of the major North-South arteries for the non-downtown areas of the city. 270's usually a mess anyway. As my boss is fond of pointing out, St. Louis has a North-South traffic problem, there just aren't that many major through-ways, and the ones that exist don't go very far. So when one of them gets shut off...
At 8:30 am, a four car accident caused a semi to empty its load of corn syrup all over the highway, completely shutting down the Southbound half of the freeway. Traffic was at a total standstill for an hour, and remained congested most of the day, finally clearing up in time for the evening rush hour.
And right now I'm just trying to think of something that would be harder to clean up than corn syrup. According to authorities, a lot of it oozed into the median and was soaked up, some of it got shoveled up, and then they brought in sand to clump up the rest. Still, I would think road would also need a thorough hosing-down before it was safe enough for cars.
Yesterday in Maryland Heights (St. Louis suburb, one township over from where I live), there was an accident that took out I-270, which loops around the city and is one of the major North-South arteries for the non-downtown areas of the city. 270's usually a mess anyway. As my boss is fond of pointing out, St. Louis has a North-South traffic problem, there just aren't that many major through-ways, and the ones that exist don't go very far. So when one of them gets shut off...
At 8:30 am, a four car accident caused a semi to empty its load of corn syrup all over the highway, completely shutting down the Southbound half of the freeway. Traffic was at a total standstill for an hour, and remained congested most of the day, finally clearing up in time for the evening rush hour.
And right now I'm just trying to think of something that would be harder to clean up than corn syrup. According to authorities, a lot of it oozed into the median and was soaked up, some of it got shoveled up, and then they brought in sand to clump up the rest. Still, I would think road would also need a thorough hosing-down before it was safe enough for cars.
Labels: current events
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
World's Largest Drawing a Hoax!
It's official, the world's largest self-portrait is a fake.
An artist named Erik Nordenenkar had announced that he was going to mail a GPS unit around the world via DHL and that the bread-crumb trail it left behind would be an image of the artist. You can see the picture at www.biggestdrawingintheworld.com.
It's an interesting idea, but there are a couple of flaws (that led many to rightly suspect the verity of this claim). Why, for example, would DHL make a giant loop in the middle of the South Pacific? Do they really deliver to coordinates?
Then there's the fact that, unless you're chartering a jet, you're going to be very limited in terms of the paths available. You can't send a package from Oxford to Atlanta and expect it to go in a predictable line. It will need to stop through various stations on the way.
At any rate, the artist has admitted that it was fictional, and DHL's cooperation (footage inside the plant, etc) indicates a publicity stunt.
Still, it's a fun idea, no?
An artist named Erik Nordenenkar had announced that he was going to mail a GPS unit around the world via DHL and that the bread-crumb trail it left behind would be an image of the artist. You can see the picture at www.biggestdrawingintheworld.com.
It's an interesting idea, but there are a couple of flaws (that led many to rightly suspect the verity of this claim). Why, for example, would DHL make a giant loop in the middle of the South Pacific? Do they really deliver to coordinates?
Then there's the fact that, unless you're chartering a jet, you're going to be very limited in terms of the paths available. You can't send a package from Oxford to Atlanta and expect it to go in a predictable line. It will need to stop through various stations on the way.
At any rate, the artist has admitted that it was fictional, and DHL's cooperation (footage inside the plant, etc) indicates a publicity stunt.
Still, it's a fun idea, no?
Labels: current events, GPS
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
The Music is Following Me Around
Have you noticed that more and more devices are being aggregates? You no longer have your walkman, your phone, your computer, your TV, your home stereo, your kids' dinky home stereo, VCR, etc. Now we have a variety of catch-alls.
I know many people who use their computers as stereos and movie-players (thanks to DVD, since VHS is effectively dead--this is, incidentally, another thing that will keep Blu-Ray from every taking off). I watch TV on my computer. I recently replaced my 6-piece component stereo with a 5-disc combination CD/DVD player with it's own surround amplifier and speaker set.
Many modern cell phones now are pocket computers that play music and video and can access the internet. It's interesting to me, because now it's no longer about finding the peripherals that do what you want. Back in the component-stereo days, you got eight devices that each did one thing. It was easy to customize, easy to upgrade. If your record-player broke, you didn't have to fix the whole system, just the record-player. But now you get two or three devices that each do three or four things. The consequence of this has been a move towards a more disposable view of electronics, for good or for ill.
So what's next? Maybe a single, central entertainment system for your home, and each member has their own interface, which grants access to certain features (e.g., you wouldn't want your 6-year-old to be able to watch Pulp Fiction). You could even fancy-it-up by pairing it with personal phones using BlueTooth (because Pulp Fiction aside, your 6-year-old will inevitably have a cell phone).
Seriously though, posit this. You're in the kitchen cooking, listening to Bob Marley. You get a call. Your phone sends a message to the stereo to pause it if it's an mp3 or to attenuate it if you're streaming audio from an internet radio station. You finish your call, the music comes back. You go off to the bathroom, and the system knows about where you are because of where it's picking you up via BlueTooth. Your spouse is in the living room watching a movie, so the music stops when you walk through there, but it starts up in the bathroom when you arrive there.
Etc, etc, etc. You could, feasibly, use the same system to keep track of your movies/television/games/etc. Maybe you could even tie it to your car--have something in your garage that allowed you to upload/download movies and music to your vehicle.
In my humble opinion, this looks to be the direction we're headed. Portability, ease of use, flexibility, and I think more and more we're going to see a lack of physical media. Of course, the downside is this: if your record player breaks, do you have to replace your whole house?
I know many people who use their computers as stereos and movie-players (thanks to DVD, since VHS is effectively dead--this is, incidentally, another thing that will keep Blu-Ray from every taking off). I watch TV on my computer. I recently replaced my 6-piece component stereo with a 5-disc combination CD/DVD player with it's own surround amplifier and speaker set.
Many modern cell phones now are pocket computers that play music and video and can access the internet. It's interesting to me, because now it's no longer about finding the peripherals that do what you want. Back in the component-stereo days, you got eight devices that each did one thing. It was easy to customize, easy to upgrade. If your record-player broke, you didn't have to fix the whole system, just the record-player. But now you get two or three devices that each do three or four things. The consequence of this has been a move towards a more disposable view of electronics, for good or for ill.
So what's next? Maybe a single, central entertainment system for your home, and each member has their own interface, which grants access to certain features (e.g., you wouldn't want your 6-year-old to be able to watch Pulp Fiction). You could even fancy-it-up by pairing it with personal phones using BlueTooth (because Pulp Fiction aside, your 6-year-old will inevitably have a cell phone).
Seriously though, posit this. You're in the kitchen cooking, listening to Bob Marley. You get a call. Your phone sends a message to the stereo to pause it if it's an mp3 or to attenuate it if you're streaming audio from an internet radio station. You finish your call, the music comes back. You go off to the bathroom, and the system knows about where you are because of where it's picking you up via BlueTooth. Your spouse is in the living room watching a movie, so the music stops when you walk through there, but it starts up in the bathroom when you arrive there.
Etc, etc, etc. You could, feasibly, use the same system to keep track of your movies/television/games/etc. Maybe you could even tie it to your car--have something in your garage that allowed you to upload/download movies and music to your vehicle.
In my humble opinion, this looks to be the direction we're headed. Portability, ease of use, flexibility, and I think more and more we're going to see a lack of physical media. Of course, the downside is this: if your record player breaks, do you have to replace your whole house?
Labels: technology
Friday, May 23, 2008
A Price Increase That Isn't Gas
So postage went up by a penny earlier this month, and naturally someone had to run out to pick up new $.42 stamps. While there, a conversation ensued that went something like this:
"Would you like to buy 'forever' stamps?"
"What's a forever stamp?"
"They still work when the postage goes up."
"So do they cost more?"
"No."
"I don't get it."
Et cetera. When he got back, he asked me if I'd heard anything about them, which I had. He couldn't understand why such a thing would be available for the same price as regular stamps. Well, there are two main reasons.
First, 1 and 2 cent stamps aren't exactly profitable. They're sold because people inevitably have stamps left over from before the increase and would like to be able to use them. I would guess that 1 and 2 cent stamps are a loss (all-told) that is factored in when the decision to raise postage is initially made. Following this line of thought, it makes sense that the post office would just as soon sell nothing but forever stamps, and probably still only makes regular stamps available for collector's and philatelists.
(look it up--you'll be glad you did)
Second, the post office is not a business so much as it is a branch of the government. Sort of. It still wants to cover its expenses, but it ultimately is a service being provided to citizens and ought to reflect the will of the citizenry. So when people complain about postage increases, the forever stamp addresses that.
And as a caveat to that, there's a certain economic perspective. When you buy a stamp, what you intend to buy is a first-class stamp, but what you're really buying is $.42 cents worth of postage. So from the consumer's perspective, a stamp should be a stamp should be a stamp, whether the value of it changes or not. That's the way it is with every other good, why not this?
Have a good weekend, a good holiday.
"Would you like to buy 'forever' stamps?"
"What's a forever stamp?"
"They still work when the postage goes up."
"So do they cost more?"
"No."
"I don't get it."
Et cetera. When he got back, he asked me if I'd heard anything about them, which I had. He couldn't understand why such a thing would be available for the same price as regular stamps. Well, there are two main reasons.
First, 1 and 2 cent stamps aren't exactly profitable. They're sold because people inevitably have stamps left over from before the increase and would like to be able to use them. I would guess that 1 and 2 cent stamps are a loss (all-told) that is factored in when the decision to raise postage is initially made. Following this line of thought, it makes sense that the post office would just as soon sell nothing but forever stamps, and probably still only makes regular stamps available for collector's and philatelists.
(look it up--you'll be glad you did)
Second, the post office is not a business so much as it is a branch of the government. Sort of. It still wants to cover its expenses, but it ultimately is a service being provided to citizens and ought to reflect the will of the citizenry. So when people complain about postage increases, the forever stamp addresses that.
And as a caveat to that, there's a certain economic perspective. When you buy a stamp, what you intend to buy is a first-class stamp, but what you're really buying is $.42 cents worth of postage. So from the consumer's perspective, a stamp should be a stamp should be a stamp, whether the value of it changes or not. That's the way it is with every other good, why not this?
Have a good weekend, a good holiday.
Labels: business
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Jokes I Wouldn't Have Understood a Year Ago
There's a webcomic called xkcd that is pretty popular among the comp-sci crowd. It bills itself as a comic of "romance, sarcasm, math and language" and it frequently makes jokes that reference obscure bits of programming knowledge.
Also, it's populated entirely by stick figures.
The above entry is entitled "GeoHashing", and it's pretty funny if you know what a hash function is (hint: the image above is an example of a hash function), and if you know what geo-caching is. And if I didn't work in the world of GPS, I'd have no idea.
A geocache is a box (typically) with stuff in it. It is located at a specific place and the GPS coordinates will be available on a website. You go the location, find the box, take something out, and put something else in. There's often a log book you can sign. I'm told it's great fun with the kids, and there are supposedly hundreds of these in the country.
Or, if you are less interested in finding things and more interested in seeing a place you've never been--try the function above. Who knows where you'll end up?
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
We Built This City on Capcitors and PCB's
So Circuit City is in trouble. The big-boxer just couldn't keep up with Wal-Mart and Best Buy and is now looking to be bought out by Blockbuster. I think there's a lesson in this for all of us.
Red logos = bad
Blue logos = good
Clearly. Radioshack is another one with a red logo, and who shops at Radioshack? I sure don't.
I am, of course, joking, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that the aesthetic of a building, even something as elementary as the overall color scheme, has a noticeable long-term affect on traffic. Could it be that simple? Wouldn't that just be a kick in the head!
I'll admit that I hardly ever go to a CC. Of course, to be fair, I choose Target over Wal-Mart any day of the week (so I guess the whole blue/red thing doesn't really hold up), and it's not like I've never shopped at a Circuit City--I'm pretty sure I bought my TV there years and years ago. But the Valley shopping center has both Best Buy and Circuit City in the same parking lot, and I go into the Best Buy every now and then, but I seldom remember that the Circuit City even exists, wedged, as it were between a Greatlands Target and a Golf Galaxy.
I wonder why that is...
Just a quick addendum. I just wrote a post about aesthetics and electronics, and I would be remiss to not at least mention Fry's. Those stores have bizarre themes, like Alice in Wonderland, or Alien Invasion. The last time I was in a Fry's, you'd walk around and see resistors, hard drives, a crashed UFO, capacitors, little green men with death rays, sound cards, etc.
Red logos = bad
Blue logos = good
Clearly. Radioshack is another one with a red logo, and who shops at Radioshack? I sure don't.
I am, of course, joking, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that the aesthetic of a building, even something as elementary as the overall color scheme, has a noticeable long-term affect on traffic. Could it be that simple? Wouldn't that just be a kick in the head!
I'll admit that I hardly ever go to a CC. Of course, to be fair, I choose Target over Wal-Mart any day of the week (so I guess the whole blue/red thing doesn't really hold up), and it's not like I've never shopped at a Circuit City--I'm pretty sure I bought my TV there years and years ago. But the Valley shopping center has both Best Buy and Circuit City in the same parking lot, and I go into the Best Buy every now and then, but I seldom remember that the Circuit City even exists, wedged, as it were between a Greatlands Target and a Golf Galaxy.
I wonder why that is...
Just a quick addendum. I just wrote a post about aesthetics and electronics, and I would be remiss to not at least mention Fry's. Those stores have bizarre themes, like Alice in Wonderland, or Alien Invasion. The last time I was in a Fry's, you'd walk around and see resistors, hard drives, a crashed UFO, capacitors, little green men with death rays, sound cards, etc.
Labels: business
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Indiana Jones and the Continuation of Franchise
So the new Indiana Jones movie is coming out later this week, and the critical responses are coming in mixed, but more good than bad. The consensus seems to be that it's entertaining, if a bit clunky, but better than than Temple of Doom and not nearly as good as Raiders of the Lost Ark. The other critical consensus is this: it doesn't matter what the critics say.
Now, as a modest film buff, I will typically read multiple reviews of highly anticipated films, and the four or five that I've personally scanned all say the same thing: it doesn't matter what we think, people are going to see it anyway. One review even cited The Da Vinci Code, which was universally panned (and not just by critics--I have yet to meet anyone who genuinely enjoyed it) but still grossed $750 million in the box office. That's not really what you would call a successful film. That's a colossally successful film, even after the tens of millions spent on advertising. It was the second-highest grossing film of 2006 (following behind Star Wars Episode III), which is pretty impressive for a flick that is... well... bad.
So there's little doubt that Indy 4 will win back it's budget. And, it seems, you could film three hours of Harrison Ford in a fedora playing chess with Norman Mailer and fans would fork over $8.75 to see it, because you can sell a movie on hype and ride the wave of the film's predecessors or sources, especially if you have a substantial advertising budget.
On the other hand, a dismal Indy 4 would certainly hamper attempts to make an Indy 5, or any other film with Harrison Ford or Steven Spielberg or George Lucas... or Norman Mailer.
So it all comes out in the wash, I guess.
Now, as a modest film buff, I will typically read multiple reviews of highly anticipated films, and the four or five that I've personally scanned all say the same thing: it doesn't matter what we think, people are going to see it anyway. One review even cited The Da Vinci Code, which was universally panned (and not just by critics--I have yet to meet anyone who genuinely enjoyed it) but still grossed $750 million in the box office. That's not really what you would call a successful film. That's a colossally successful film, even after the tens of millions spent on advertising. It was the second-highest grossing film of 2006 (following behind Star Wars Episode III), which is pretty impressive for a flick that is... well... bad.
So there's little doubt that Indy 4 will win back it's budget. And, it seems, you could film three hours of Harrison Ford in a fedora playing chess with Norman Mailer and fans would fork over $8.75 to see it, because you can sell a movie on hype and ride the wave of the film's predecessors or sources, especially if you have a substantial advertising budget.
On the other hand, a dismal Indy 4 would certainly hamper attempts to make an Indy 5, or any other film with Harrison Ford or Steven Spielberg or George Lucas... or Norman Mailer.
So it all comes out in the wash, I guess.
Monday, May 19, 2008
How do you Spell GPS in Cyrillic?
Economists often jest about the Law of Unintended Consequences--a kissing cousin of Murphy's Law, and a concept that dates back to the Scottish Enlightenment. I only throw that last little tidbit in because I'm amused by the thought of enlightenment with kilts. I digress. It's a simple idea, if you try to do a task that produces output "A", output "B" will show up as well, and not only will it be there, but it will be something that never occurred to you when you undertook project A in the first place. Which leads me to Russian GPS.
GPS tracking is one of those businesses that actually benefits from the ills of society: car theft, lazy/fraudulent workers, etc. Much like private security, it's a measure that a person or business can take in order to protect one's own assets against, well, crime. Typically, you associate crime with a bad economy, but that's not always the case.
Take a look at Moscow. Right now, they're in a construction boom, but the supply of construction equipment can't keep up with the demand. Consequently, bulldozers and backhoes (et al) are highly valuable in Moscow and are being stolen at an alarming rate. So construction companies are starting to equip them with GPS tracking devices, so if you're in Russia and in the GPS business, this should be a good time for you. It may not last, if the production of bulldozers and excavators increases dramatically or if people decide to suddenly stop making new buildings. But here and now (and by "here and now" I really mean "over there and for the foreseeable future"), GPS is a good Muscovite industry, if only totally as an unexpected consequence of a spike in construction-related crime.
GPS tracking is one of those businesses that actually benefits from the ills of society: car theft, lazy/fraudulent workers, etc. Much like private security, it's a measure that a person or business can take in order to protect one's own assets against, well, crime. Typically, you associate crime with a bad economy, but that's not always the case.
Take a look at Moscow. Right now, they're in a construction boom, but the supply of construction equipment can't keep up with the demand. Consequently, bulldozers and backhoes (et al) are highly valuable in Moscow and are being stolen at an alarming rate. So construction companies are starting to equip them with GPS tracking devices, so if you're in Russia and in the GPS business, this should be a good time for you. It may not last, if the production of bulldozers and excavators increases dramatically or if people decide to suddenly stop making new buildings. But here and now (and by "here and now" I really mean "over there and for the foreseeable future"), GPS is a good Muscovite industry, if only totally as an unexpected consequence of a spike in construction-related crime.
Labels: business, GPS, technology, theft
Friday, May 16, 2008
Craigslist and Amazon and eBay (Oh My!)
At dinner last night, I couldn't help but overhear (because they were speaking quite loudly) a group of people talking about the internet--how it was dangerous and how they could not understand people's, especially young people's, fascination with it. I wanted to say that the future is always dangerous and fascinating, but I instead cowered minded my own business and finished my Hunan Tofu.
I've spent the week talking about internet business models and have come to (what I feel is) the last major one: the marketplace. The big three are eBay, Amazon Marketplace, and
Craigslist.
There are two hallmarks of an internet marketplace: the don't buy or sell themselves so much as they facilitate (and charge commission on) other buyers and sellers, and they really only work if they are ubiquitous.
Amazon Marketplace is the most structured of the three. It takes care of the product listing and photos and shipping charges. You simply give the price and condition of the one you're selling. This works out great for consumers--multiple sellers compete with each other to offer the lowest price, and the price stabilizes because when it reaches the theoretical market-determined-value, buyers are purchasing the product at the same rate as sellers are offering it. More or less.
EBay is less structured, giving sellers more freedom to tailor their listings/images/shipping-charges/etc. It's auction-style format is good for sellers because buyers bid the price up. The price stabilizes because if something is selling well, more sellers will offer it.
Craigslist is the most free-form and also the most bare-bones. It's strictly a classified listing, and they only charge commission on specific types of listings in very specific markets. Furthermore, it's region-specific, so the price of a Metallica CD in Brooklyn will reflect that market and may not be the same as the price of the same thing in Poughkeepsie.
Of course, this also means that while you can find absolutely everything on Craigslist in Los Angeles, you're a bit harder pressed to find as much on the Jefferson City version.
I have been fascinated by the idea of a marketplace since I first learned about them. I enjoy watching market forces at work, or seeing how the "value" of a thing may have very little to do with the price of it at Wal-Mart. Nintendo Wii's, for example, seem to have a market value of around $350, even though the price tag is only $250. Metallica CD's, on the other hand, seem to run around $4-5 despite their $16 price tag in the shop. And in a testament to the laws of supply-and-demand, despite the fact that their formats are vastly different, prices on eBay and Amazon Marketplace end up roughly the same.
Had I a bit more wherewithal at the age of 21, I would have written my undergraduate econ thesis on this topic. Oh well.
Have a good weekend.
I've spent the week talking about internet business models and have come to (what I feel is) the last major one: the marketplace. The big three are eBay, Amazon Marketplace, and
Craigslist.
There are two hallmarks of an internet marketplace: the don't buy or sell themselves so much as they facilitate (and charge commission on) other buyers and sellers, and they really only work if they are ubiquitous.
Amazon Marketplace is the most structured of the three. It takes care of the product listing and photos and shipping charges. You simply give the price and condition of the one you're selling. This works out great for consumers--multiple sellers compete with each other to offer the lowest price, and the price stabilizes because when it reaches the theoretical market-determined-value, buyers are purchasing the product at the same rate as sellers are offering it. More or less.
EBay is less structured, giving sellers more freedom to tailor their listings/images/shipping-charges/etc. It's auction-style format is good for sellers because buyers bid the price up. The price stabilizes because if something is selling well, more sellers will offer it.
Craigslist is the most free-form and also the most bare-bones. It's strictly a classified listing, and they only charge commission on specific types of listings in very specific markets. Furthermore, it's region-specific, so the price of a Metallica CD in Brooklyn will reflect that market and may not be the same as the price of the same thing in Poughkeepsie.
Of course, this also means that while you can find absolutely everything on Craigslist in Los Angeles, you're a bit harder pressed to find as much on the Jefferson City version.
I have been fascinated by the idea of a marketplace since I first learned about them. I enjoy watching market forces at work, or seeing how the "value" of a thing may have very little to do with the price of it at Wal-Mart. Nintendo Wii's, for example, seem to have a market value of around $350, even though the price tag is only $250. Metallica CD's, on the other hand, seem to run around $4-5 despite their $16 price tag in the shop. And in a testament to the laws of supply-and-demand, despite the fact that their formats are vastly different, prices on eBay and Amazon Marketplace end up roughly the same.
Had I a bit more wherewithal at the age of 21, I would have written my undergraduate econ thesis on this topic. Oh well.
Have a good weekend.
Labels: technology
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The Rental Business
The story goes like this: A computer-science test had a question that asked the taker to calculate the "bandwidth" of a truck carrying DAT's down the highway. Even though it was moving slowly, it was carrying a huge amount of data, and in numbers, the bandwidth was ridiculously high. One of the students realized that it would be a very cost-efficient to send discs of data through the mail. Thus was born Netflix.
Who's to say whether the story is true or not? I don't think it is, but it's a good story. Regardless, Netflix is certainly a net-juggernaut. Its impact on the video-rental industry is so profound that Hollywood Video is going under and Blockbuster had to develop it's own version. The secret to this business model? People like to rent movies. People hate movie rental stores. People hate driving to a store for a movie only to find out that it's not in stock. People hate scouring for a title and not finding it because it was listed as a "drama" rather than a "comedy". People hate late fees. Fans of foreign films and anime and other obscure sub-genres hate being left in the cold because there's not enough demand for their local branch to stock them.
The Netflix model is based purely on customer convenience. You give it a list of movies you feel like watching, they mail you whatever's next on the list. Send it back whenever you're ready, and they send you the next one.
It's not really any cheaper than going to a rental store (unless you rent a lot of movies--and there are folks that do), and you may or may not be able to get the latest new releases, but it's extremely convenient. You never have to leave your home to do it, and they have everything, no matter how obscure..
Bonus: The video rental business is (obviously) fairly young. Prior to 1970's, the idea of renting or even owning a commercial movie was pretty strange, and when the VCR first came out, they sold it as a "time-shifter". It was intended to let a person tape television shows and watch them later. The video rental market didn't really flourish until the early 90's.
Who's to say whether the story is true or not? I don't think it is, but it's a good story. Regardless, Netflix is certainly a net-juggernaut. Its impact on the video-rental industry is so profound that Hollywood Video is going under and Blockbuster had to develop it's own version. The secret to this business model? People like to rent movies. People hate movie rental stores. People hate driving to a store for a movie only to find out that it's not in stock. People hate scouring for a title and not finding it because it was listed as a "drama" rather than a "comedy". People hate late fees. Fans of foreign films and anime and other obscure sub-genres hate being left in the cold because there's not enough demand for their local branch to stock them.
The Netflix model is based purely on customer convenience. You give it a list of movies you feel like watching, they mail you whatever's next on the list. Send it back whenever you're ready, and they send you the next one.
It's not really any cheaper than going to a rental store (unless you rent a lot of movies--and there are folks that do), and you may or may not be able to get the latest new releases, but it's extremely convenient. You never have to leave your home to do it, and they have everything, no matter how obscure..
Bonus: The video rental business is (obviously) fairly young. Prior to 1970's, the idea of renting or even owning a commercial movie was pretty strange, and when the VCR first came out, they sold it as a "time-shifter". It was intended to let a person tape television shows and watch them later. The video rental market didn't really flourish until the early 90's.
Labels: technology
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Beware of Seller
Aldi's has an interesting business model. Rather than customer service, rather than trying to meet all of their customer's needs, they focus on getting the best price for maybe 50% of the customer's needs. If you've been to an Aldi's, you know that they don't take checks, they don't bag your groceries, they don't play music, and they don't have shelves. But they have good prices on staples, and that's usually worth a trip.
Well, a "trip" on the internet is a couple of clicks, so it's much more worthwhile to comparison shop. On the internet, you have more and more retailers who specialize in offering the best price for one thing. Some people have taken the Aldi's model to a ridiculous extreme. Woot comes to mind; Woot sells one product per day at a very low price, and when they sell out, it's gone. You can't back order, you really can't get refunds or exchanges. There's no guarantee that they have enough of any one item to satisfy demand, and they have subsequently developed a cult of followers who go to their website at 11:59 and jam the F5 key until midnight, just to have a chance at buying the new product or catching the new promotion.
It seems hard to fathom that a successful company could embrace such contempt for a typical customer's demands, but there it is. And they can get away with this because the anarchy of the net has bred a generation of online shoppers who have "buyer-beware" pre-programmed into their psyches (or perhaps they're all just eBay burn-victims, but that's a rant for another post). There is an understood risk discount. I know that what I'm buying may not work and I may not be able to easily get it returned. I'm taking that into account and am therefore willing to pay less for it than I would at a brick-and-mortar store. I buy a $15 mp3 player online, I understand that there is the very real possibility that it will disappoint. That's why I was only prepared to pay $15 for it, and if I need to return it, I'm going to lose money on shipping.
And it's the shift away from a customer-oriented shopping experience that can sometimes drive prices down. The overhead of having a sales floor with shelves that need stocking and the money spent on theft-prevention, not to mention return and coupon scammers--these are all very real costs of doing business. Doing away with them means that you can reduce prices significantly. Is it significant enough to offset the costs of shipping and risk?
I guess that all depends on what you're selling.
We sell GPS trackers. We cut out middle-men, and that is what makes us competitive. Also, the risk discount is not insubstantial for products that cost $85 or $200, so we offer refunds and customer service. Shipping is not a major, major part of the end-customer's cost. Also, you can't exactly "steal" GPS service off of a store shelf. It makes sense for us to focus more on the customer.
But it's a different story with, for example, mp3 players--which are high-theft. So you can frequently find good deals on the web--far better than what you would ever find in a store. Just be careful what you buy.
Well, a "trip" on the internet is a couple of clicks, so it's much more worthwhile to comparison shop. On the internet, you have more and more retailers who specialize in offering the best price for one thing. Some people have taken the Aldi's model to a ridiculous extreme. Woot comes to mind; Woot sells one product per day at a very low price, and when they sell out, it's gone. You can't back order, you really can't get refunds or exchanges. There's no guarantee that they have enough of any one item to satisfy demand, and they have subsequently developed a cult of followers who go to their website at 11:59 and jam the F5 key until midnight, just to have a chance at buying the new product or catching the new promotion.
It seems hard to fathom that a successful company could embrace such contempt for a typical customer's demands, but there it is. And they can get away with this because the anarchy of the net has bred a generation of online shoppers who have "buyer-beware" pre-programmed into their psyches (or perhaps they're all just eBay burn-victims, but that's a rant for another post). There is an understood risk discount. I know that what I'm buying may not work and I may not be able to easily get it returned. I'm taking that into account and am therefore willing to pay less for it than I would at a brick-and-mortar store. I buy a $15 mp3 player online, I understand that there is the very real possibility that it will disappoint. That's why I was only prepared to pay $15 for it, and if I need to return it, I'm going to lose money on shipping.
And it's the shift away from a customer-oriented shopping experience that can sometimes drive prices down. The overhead of having a sales floor with shelves that need stocking and the money spent on theft-prevention, not to mention return and coupon scammers--these are all very real costs of doing business. Doing away with them means that you can reduce prices significantly. Is it significant enough to offset the costs of shipping and risk?
I guess that all depends on what you're selling.
We sell GPS trackers. We cut out middle-men, and that is what makes us competitive. Also, the risk discount is not insubstantial for products that cost $85 or $200, so we offer refunds and customer service. Shipping is not a major, major part of the end-customer's cost. Also, you can't exactly "steal" GPS service off of a store shelf. It makes sense for us to focus more on the customer.
But it's a different story with, for example, mp3 players--which are high-theft. So you can frequently find good deals on the web--far better than what you would ever find in a store. Just be careful what you buy.
Labels: technology
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The Tip Jar
There's a McDonald's commercial that shows a cable-repairman staring stupidly at a couple of wires. There's a tin can next to him. Someone reaches over and drops a few dollars into the can, and the cable man thanks them and connects the wires. And this, it seems, is very much like the internet.
Internet Business Model #2: The Tip Jar
Several websites make money solely on the basis of "If you love us, you won't let us go out of business." The most notorious of these is probably Wikipedia (although they may have other revenue streams I don't know about). But there are others: several internet radio stations keep themselves funded by soliciting donations PBS-style from their listeners, sometimes pairing this up with kickbacks and referrals.
Continuing the line of thought from yesterday, right now there's not really the infrastructure to allow people to pay small amounts of money. But what if there was a button on your browser that, when you clicked it, would give $.05 to the site? Would a lot of people donating a nickel net more revenue than a few people donating $100's?
What's most interesting about these sites is that they place valuation completely on the user. If you like the service, send us something to help keep the lights on. How much or how little is up to you, but every bit helps. Invariably, a lot of users donate nothing, and invariably several users donate substantial chunks of change. So, in the end, the same service that may absolutely taken for granted by one person is over-valued by someone else. And that's just a little bit fascinating to me.
Internet Business Model #2: The Tip Jar
Several websites make money solely on the basis of "If you love us, you won't let us go out of business." The most notorious of these is probably Wikipedia (although they may have other revenue streams I don't know about). But there are others: several internet radio stations keep themselves funded by soliciting donations PBS-style from their listeners, sometimes pairing this up with kickbacks and referrals.
Continuing the line of thought from yesterday, right now there's not really the infrastructure to allow people to pay small amounts of money. But what if there was a button on your browser that, when you clicked it, would give $.05 to the site? Would a lot of people donating a nickel net more revenue than a few people donating $100's?
What's most interesting about these sites is that they place valuation completely on the user. If you like the service, send us something to help keep the lights on. How much or how little is up to you, but every bit helps. Invariably, a lot of users donate nothing, and invariably several users donate substantial chunks of change. So, in the end, the same service that may absolutely taken for granted by one person is over-valued by someone else. And that's just a little bit fascinating to me.
Labels: technology
Monday, May 12, 2008
The Value of a Search
What is the value of a Google search? Or an e-mail? How do free services pay for themselves? How does a business model come into existence from the anarchic void of the Internet? A coworker and I had an interesting discussion the other day about micropayments and the values of internet services. How invaluable, for example, are the search engine or the e-mail account? And yet these services are widely available absolutely free.
Virtual products or virtual services typically have extremely low marginal costs, and then pricing becomes a bit, well, weird. Let's say you spend $10 million developing a piece of software. Once it's developed, you can make copies with packaging for $1 apiece. What do you charge for it. Traditional economics principles would tell you to set the price low, because your marginal costs are low. But that becomes impractical. If you charged $2 for a unit, then you would need to sell 10 million units for it to become profitable, but if you charge too much, then there is a high likelihood that people will be turned off by the price and you won't sell many at all. Is it even practical to charge $2 for a product that may cost $5 to ship and be subject to a $.30 fee for credit card processing?
Then consider a company like Google, whose marginal costs per search are probably something like a tenth of a cent. Google is set up with an advertising business model, but what if there had been another option? What if it had been possible to charge a penny, or half a penny per search. For most of us, that would be an extremely reasonable. If you did a thousand searches in a month, that would be $5--that would be extremely profitable for Google and, again, quite reasonable for a consumer.
What if it cost a half a penny to send an e-mail? That would not be a particularly huge amount to your typical net-user, but it would cut down on spam and e-mail forwards tremendously. Unfortunately, there is no infrastructure in place to accept payments of 1/2 a cent.
But maybe there will be someday. The internet is still in its infancy (in many ways), and it's worth taking a look at prominent sites 10 years ago and comparing them to even run-of-the-mill sites today and seeing just how far technology has come. How much more will it grow in the next 10 years?
Virtual products or virtual services typically have extremely low marginal costs, and then pricing becomes a bit, well, weird. Let's say you spend $10 million developing a piece of software. Once it's developed, you can make copies with packaging for $1 apiece. What do you charge for it. Traditional economics principles would tell you to set the price low, because your marginal costs are low. But that becomes impractical. If you charged $2 for a unit, then you would need to sell 10 million units for it to become profitable, but if you charge too much, then there is a high likelihood that people will be turned off by the price and you won't sell many at all. Is it even practical to charge $2 for a product that may cost $5 to ship and be subject to a $.30 fee for credit card processing?
Then consider a company like Google, whose marginal costs per search are probably something like a tenth of a cent. Google is set up with an advertising business model, but what if there had been another option? What if it had been possible to charge a penny, or half a penny per search. For most of us, that would be an extremely reasonable. If you did a thousand searches in a month, that would be $5--that would be extremely profitable for Google and, again, quite reasonable for a consumer.
What if it cost a half a penny to send an e-mail? That would not be a particularly huge amount to your typical net-user, but it would cut down on spam and e-mail forwards tremendously. Unfortunately, there is no infrastructure in place to accept payments of 1/2 a cent.
But maybe there will be someday. The internet is still in its infancy (in many ways), and it's worth taking a look at prominent sites 10 years ago and comparing them to even run-of-the-mill sites today and seeing just how far technology has come. How much more will it grow in the next 10 years?
Labels: technology
Friday, May 9, 2008
This Car Has Been Jacked
True Story.
They say you can tell a lot about a person by the type of car that they drive. A coworker was downtown and saw a car that had writing in the back windshield. It read:
"Attention police. If an old white guy isn't driving this car, it's been jacked again."
For the moment, let's ignore the potential age-ist/racist/sexist implications and assume that "old white guy" is purely descriptive. What, then, can we tell about the driver of this car?
Well, for starters, the owner is going to be elderly, caucasian, and male. That's sort of a gimme. What else is there? The car has been stolen before and recovered. Possibly, it's been stolen and recovered more than once (hence "again"). So the owner probably lives or works in a not-so-great neighborhood. Maybe the neighborhood used to be better, but has gone downhill and the man, who's lived there all his life, doesn't want to move. Or maybe he's on a fixed income and can't afford to move.
So that's what we can get from content, but what about the language? Use of "jacked" instead of "stolen" implies that the car was taken at gunpoint, rather than disappeared from a lot. If that's the case, the owner would have seen the thieves, and that probably inspired him to put a description of himself on the vehicle. We can surmise, then, that the thieves were probably youthful and non-white, and that the owner doubts that future thieves would be elderly and white. "Attention police" might indicate that, even though the car was recovered, he had trouble dealing with the cops.
And what can we say about the fact that he wrote a message at all? It's clever, but it's not very dignified. Clearly the value of the vehicle is more important to him than the embarrassment of driving around with that sign on the back. Of course, I say all this without knowing anything about the make, model, or condition of the vehicle.
And, to be fair, this is all conjecture. It could just as easily belong to an African-American woman whose neighbors have a wicked sense of humor.
Have a good weekend.
They say you can tell a lot about a person by the type of car that they drive. A coworker was downtown and saw a car that had writing in the back windshield. It read:
"Attention police. If an old white guy isn't driving this car, it's been jacked again."
For the moment, let's ignore the potential age-ist/racist/sexist implications and assume that "old white guy" is purely descriptive. What, then, can we tell about the driver of this car?
Well, for starters, the owner is going to be elderly, caucasian, and male. That's sort of a gimme. What else is there? The car has been stolen before and recovered. Possibly, it's been stolen and recovered more than once (hence "again"). So the owner probably lives or works in a not-so-great neighborhood. Maybe the neighborhood used to be better, but has gone downhill and the man, who's lived there all his life, doesn't want to move. Or maybe he's on a fixed income and can't afford to move.
So that's what we can get from content, but what about the language? Use of "jacked" instead of "stolen" implies that the car was taken at gunpoint, rather than disappeared from a lot. If that's the case, the owner would have seen the thieves, and that probably inspired him to put a description of himself on the vehicle. We can surmise, then, that the thieves were probably youthful and non-white, and that the owner doubts that future thieves would be elderly and white. "Attention police" might indicate that, even though the car was recovered, he had trouble dealing with the cops.
And what can we say about the fact that he wrote a message at all? It's clever, but it's not very dignified. Clearly the value of the vehicle is more important to him than the embarrassment of driving around with that sign on the back. Of course, I say all this without knowing anything about the make, model, or condition of the vehicle.
And, to be fair, this is all conjecture. It could just as easily belong to an African-American woman whose neighbors have a wicked sense of humor.
Have a good weekend.
Labels: theft
Thursday, May 8, 2008
It Concerns Me, That's Whom
"To Whom it May Concern" has always been a pet peeve of mine. Not that there's anything wrong with it, per se, but I've never liked it. In my managerial days, a cover letter starting TWIMC always set me off on the wrong foot about the applicant. Not that I ever passed up a qualified candidate because of it--it just grates on me.
I realize that it's convention, like putting the www at the beginning of a URL. I also realize that my frustration is probably just a symptom of a broader neurosis, but follow me on this. People use it because "Dear Sir" is gender-biased and they haven't quite grased "Dear Sir or Madam" yet. But generally, if a cover-letter is well-written, the applicant has taken the initiative to find out exactly "whom it may concern" and addressed it to them personally. In my experience, 90% of the people who start a letter TWIMC would never use "Whom" under any other circumstances.
The problem, you see, is not that that TWIMC is bad writing. It's actually pretty decent writing, but it's tired, it's overused, it's cliche, and therefore it generally kicks off a letter that will embark upon a journey through many, many layers of awful prose before arriving at the inevitable KTHX BYE conclusion.
"To Whom It May Concern" is a harbinger of disappointment. It's that shiny new car that breaks down every 1000 miles. It's the promising athlete who breaks his ankle two games into the season. It's the Oscar-winner who goes on to make B-movies.
It's Cuba Gooding, Jr., really.
I realize that it's convention, like putting the www at the beginning of a URL. I also realize that my frustration is probably just a symptom of a broader neurosis, but follow me on this. People use it because "Dear Sir" is gender-biased and they haven't quite grased "Dear Sir or Madam" yet. But generally, if a cover-letter is well-written, the applicant has taken the initiative to find out exactly "whom it may concern" and addressed it to them personally. In my experience, 90% of the people who start a letter TWIMC would never use "Whom" under any other circumstances.
The problem, you see, is not that that TWIMC is bad writing. It's actually pretty decent writing, but it's tired, it's overused, it's cliche, and therefore it generally kicks off a letter that will embark upon a journey through many, many layers of awful prose before arriving at the inevitable KTHX BYE conclusion.
"To Whom It May Concern" is a harbinger of disappointment. It's that shiny new car that breaks down every 1000 miles. It's the promising athlete who breaks his ankle two games into the season. It's the Oscar-winner who goes on to make B-movies.
It's Cuba Gooding, Jr., really.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Honda 2, Humans 0
My car likes to play pranks on me. It's a 91 Honda Prelude--a little boxy number with a manual transmission. And if I could go back in time to 1990 and have a word with the designers, I would point them towards the sunroof.
During a particularly heavy rain, water will leak through the sunroof and pool in the lip that holds the roof's cover. There it will sit and cool to approximately 33 degrees (or 1 degree Celsius) and wait, patiently, for me to back out of my parking space. Once the car has been tilted slightly, it will dump icy water on either my head and neck or in my lap.
It rained particularly hard last night, so I'm sopping wet.
This has only happened to me twice in the three months I've owned the car, but I nonetheless find myself starting the engine with trepidation after even a moderate shower. My car is waging a psychological war on me. And winning!
If I didn't absolutely need it to get to work I'd kick it to the curb. Honest. But for now, I will plan its comeuppance. Your day will come, 91 Prelude SE, your day will come. (Insert evil laughter here).
During a particularly heavy rain, water will leak through the sunroof and pool in the lip that holds the roof's cover. There it will sit and cool to approximately 33 degrees (or 1 degree Celsius) and wait, patiently, for me to back out of my parking space. Once the car has been tilted slightly, it will dump icy water on either my head and neck or in my lap.
It rained particularly hard last night, so I'm sopping wet.
This has only happened to me twice in the three months I've owned the car, but I nonetheless find myself starting the engine with trepidation after even a moderate shower. My car is waging a psychological war on me. And winning!
If I didn't absolutely need it to get to work I'd kick it to the curb. Honest. But for now, I will plan its comeuppance. Your day will come, 91 Prelude SE, your day will come. (Insert evil laughter here).
Labels: humor
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
If a Tree Falls in the Woods, Do You Still Get Billed?
It's never a good thing when your phone bill arrives in a box.
One of our testers was trying out software on his Blackberry. He has an unlimited data plan, and it occurs to me that this story will only work if I explain a couple of things about active GPS. Our trackers are constantly getting in touch with GPS satellites. They can, in theory, get a new position fix every 1-2 seconds. For most people, this is too much information--so rather than report every single position, we program trackers to report at different intervals depending on the speed and movement of the vehicle. That way, if a vehicle is driving a mile up the highway, you see 3 reports rather than, I dunno, 50.
And to whomever proofreads this, I swear, I'm advertising our service, not giving away trade secrets.
I digress. Since this tester of ours was, well, testing, he had the report frequency cranked all the way up so he could check out the data. So his Blackberry was sending data to our server every 1-2 seconds while he drove around making sure it worked. And even though he had an unlimited data plan, his carrier felt the need to itemize the activity of his phone.
And that's how his phone bill got to be 400 pages long.
That's right, we butcher forests to make sure our products are up to spec! Actually, I'm going to blame the cellphone carrier for this one. Do the math. Here's a 400-page-document (which is a novel to most people or a short story to Stephen King) devoted to a $40 unlimited data plan. In that case, every page addresses about $.10 worth of bill, which I doubt covers the costs of paper and postage (what with the rising costs of toner and gas), to say nothing of all those little data transfers.
So, perhaps, around page 50 or so, maybe the phone company could just put "et al", or ellipses or something.
One of our testers was trying out software on his Blackberry. He has an unlimited data plan, and it occurs to me that this story will only work if I explain a couple of things about active GPS. Our trackers are constantly getting in touch with GPS satellites. They can, in theory, get a new position fix every 1-2 seconds. For most people, this is too much information--so rather than report every single position, we program trackers to report at different intervals depending on the speed and movement of the vehicle. That way, if a vehicle is driving a mile up the highway, you see 3 reports rather than, I dunno, 50.
And to whomever proofreads this, I swear, I'm advertising our service, not giving away trade secrets.
I digress. Since this tester of ours was, well, testing, he had the report frequency cranked all the way up so he could check out the data. So his Blackberry was sending data to our server every 1-2 seconds while he drove around making sure it worked. And even though he had an unlimited data plan, his carrier felt the need to itemize the activity of his phone.
And that's how his phone bill got to be 400 pages long.
That's right, we butcher forests to make sure our products are up to spec! Actually, I'm going to blame the cellphone carrier for this one. Do the math. Here's a 400-page-document (which is a novel to most people or a short story to Stephen King) devoted to a $40 unlimited data plan. In that case, every page addresses about $.10 worth of bill, which I doubt covers the costs of paper and postage (what with the rising costs of toner and gas), to say nothing of all those little data transfers.
So, perhaps, around page 50 or so, maybe the phone company could just put "et al", or ellipses or something.
Labels: humor
Friday, May 2, 2008
Also, Don't Steal Cars
So the big story in entertainment news is that the opening of "Iron Man" may be eclipsed by the release of "Grand Theft Auto 4" this last Tuesday. That's right. There is a fear that people will be too busy playing the latest video game to go out and see the latest comic-book-turned-movie...
I just don't even know how to respond to that. Except to say that I saw "Iron Man" last night and was thoroughly entertained. You could do a lot worse for $8.75.
The phones have been busy today. Most callers fall into one of three categories: 1) they want more information about our product, 2) they have a question about an existing account, 3) they want to sell me toner. But once in a while I get a real doozy of a story; here are a couple of my favorites:
A woman's ex-boyfriend had installed a Tom-Tom in her car and she was afraid that he was stalking her from three states away. She wanted to know what could be done about it. I told her that I was pretty sure the Tom-Tom just did navigation, not data reporting, but that she was welcome to call their support line to verify it. Also, if you think you're being stalked, call the police. Instead of me.
Someone called wanting to know how small GPS devices were because he was interested in using GPS technology in an invention. I told him that you can find them as small as USB thumb drives, but he didn't know what that was... which is not a particularly firm footing from which to launch your career as a technology inventor, but whatever. The size of the device has a lot to do with the functionality you want to get out of it, but he wouldn't tell me any details because the idea hadn't been patented yet.
That wraps it up for me for the week. The Vista Sidebar Weather Gadget tells me that Webster Groves is currently 64-degrees and is being electrocuted (could the T-storm graphic be any more ominous?). Have a good weekend. And go see "Iron Man".
I just don't even know how to respond to that. Except to say that I saw "Iron Man" last night and was thoroughly entertained. You could do a lot worse for $8.75.
The phones have been busy today. Most callers fall into one of three categories: 1) they want more information about our product, 2) they have a question about an existing account, 3) they want to sell me toner. But once in a while I get a real doozy of a story; here are a couple of my favorites:
A woman's ex-boyfriend had installed a Tom-Tom in her car and she was afraid that he was stalking her from three states away. She wanted to know what could be done about it. I told her that I was pretty sure the Tom-Tom just did navigation, not data reporting, but that she was welcome to call their support line to verify it. Also, if you think you're being stalked, call the police. Instead of me.
Someone called wanting to know how small GPS devices were because he was interested in using GPS technology in an invention. I told him that you can find them as small as USB thumb drives, but he didn't know what that was... which is not a particularly firm footing from which to launch your career as a technology inventor, but whatever. The size of the device has a lot to do with the functionality you want to get out of it, but he wouldn't tell me any details because the idea hadn't been patented yet.
That wraps it up for me for the week. The Vista Sidebar Weather Gadget tells me that Webster Groves is currently 64-degrees and is being electrocuted (could the T-storm graphic be any more ominous?). Have a good weekend. And go see "Iron Man".
Labels: humor
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Google, Google, Everywhere, Not a Drop to Drink
So apparently someone at Google accidentally kicked a plug out yesterday. All day it was slow/intermittent.
At first I assumed that there was something wrong with my router. But when I got to work, the problem was still there, so I knew it couldn't be a local problem. I could get the internet to come up, but it took forever to load the home page. E-mail was slow, my feed reader was slow, my chat client kept disconnecting. I attempted blogging, but Blogger was on the fritz as well.
But our website was just fine.
I tried a couple of other sites: eBay, Amazon, CNN. They were fine as well. It was just Google, and it's associated by-products. This was slightly earth-shattering for me. Back when I was trouble-shooting modems in a call-center, I always told people to do a Google search to make sure their connection was working. Google is fast, easy to spell, and even if the homepage is cached, the search results wouldn't be. And if only one site on the internet was functioning, that one site would be Google.
And then yesterday happened, and there went that theory. Now maybe it's more complicated than that (both my home and work internet are provided by AT&T, for example), but the fact that only Google sites and apps were on the fritz is too much of a coincidence to overlook. And we use Google for a lot of stuff. We advertise through Google AdWords, Google Checkout is an option on our shopping cart, Google Talk often serves as an inter-office intercom system. I use Google for e-mail, RSS feeds, documents, advertising on my other blog (which is also a blogger blog, which is owned by Google), not to mention my home page and primary search engine.
Methinks, perhaps, I've put all my eggs in one basket, when it comes to web services.
At first I assumed that there was something wrong with my router. But when I got to work, the problem was still there, so I knew it couldn't be a local problem. I could get the internet to come up, but it took forever to load the home page. E-mail was slow, my feed reader was slow, my chat client kept disconnecting. I attempted blogging, but Blogger was on the fritz as well.
But our website was just fine.
I tried a couple of other sites: eBay, Amazon, CNN. They were fine as well. It was just Google, and it's associated by-products. This was slightly earth-shattering for me. Back when I was trouble-shooting modems in a call-center, I always told people to do a Google search to make sure their connection was working. Google is fast, easy to spell, and even if the homepage is cached, the search results wouldn't be. And if only one site on the internet was functioning, that one site would be Google.
And then yesterday happened, and there went that theory. Now maybe it's more complicated than that (both my home and work internet are provided by AT&T, for example), but the fact that only Google sites and apps were on the fritz is too much of a coincidence to overlook. And we use Google for a lot of stuff. We advertise through Google AdWords, Google Checkout is an option on our shopping cart, Google Talk often serves as an inter-office intercom system. I use Google for e-mail, RSS feeds, documents, advertising on my other blog (which is also a blogger blog, which is owned by Google), not to mention my home page and primary search engine.
Methinks, perhaps, I've put all my eggs in one basket, when it comes to web services.
Labels: technology
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