Category — Life

Ok, I’m gonna go on a bit of a rant here. I want to create a simple app/widget that I can put in the sidebar of this blog so I can share my song of the day with anyone who might be interested (mostly so I just have a musical history of my life - a mlog if you will)

Why is this so difficult?

I dont understand last.fm at all. Half of the songs I want to listen to it only allows me to “preview” but only if I’m logged in. If I log out, I can listen to any song I want as many times as I want, but if I am logged in it limits what I can do. What the crap is that? Their FAQ’s say I can listen to most any full legnth song up to 3 times. So I can just log out and then listen as many times as I want?

Pandora allows me to customize my stations to an unbelievable degree of quality and accuracy. But it doesn’t allow me to really share that at all. Pandora give me a widget!

I just want to share music with people. Isn’t music supposed be shared? Take down your walls already music industry!

Thanks Vint. 

Everyday I find the internet more valuable. I found out about todays plane crash through an email chain I share with about a dozen of my friends. It even beat twitter. But not by much. I just found an amazing set of mashups of Jay-Z and Radiohead (jaydiohead.com - its amazing). My brother sent me the link. A skype chat with our development team led me to Girl Talk. I’d heard of him through twitter, but never checked it out. Great find. I also found a sick new band (Pinback) trying out last.fm. Although Last.fm kind of bothers me because it limits how many times I can listen to a song, which is kind of annoying. 

I was stuck in LaGaurdia yesterday for several hours waiting on a very similar flight to NC to the US Air flight that landed in the Hudson this afternoon. It is so amazing that everyone survived, truly heroes walk among us everywhere and it really goes to show how great we are when we come together.  I’m simply taking a few moments to reflect on our society tonight. It has become a place where people are instantly able to connect, across vast distances or across town. Some people understand the added value the internet brings to our lives, and some don’t. But really thats ok, because when it comes down to it, life is really about people. 

As much as I love the internet, I love people alot more. Today was a great day for people.

I was watching the daily show last night and a commercial came on for weight watchers. Along with several seemingly good features offered by Weight Watchers program was the fact that it will teach “ways to eat filling foods so you don’t eat when you’re bored.” Now I understand that some people have eating problems and this isn’t at all meant to address that topic. I feel as if boredom is an issue that affects our country and it is ruining America.

I haven’t been bored in so long. I don’t really get bored, ever. The reason for that is my natural human curiosity. Curiosity which was oppressed or restrained throughout my childhood. Again this is not a topic about me, I’m making the point that Americans have become so mentally lazy that discovery or self-discovery at a young age is frowned upon. Sure there is a segment of each generation that becomes early adopters and trendsetters/makers, but the bulk of each “class” (meaning a sort of graduating class) turns into “do what they tell you and don’t raise your hand unless you have the right answer” people.

“I am Rick Wagoner, I have worked all my life to be CEO of GM and now that I’m here I’m not going to anything differently than the last guy, lest I screw something up even worse than were screwed now.”

These are the people who are running our large companies into a wall. Really smart and competent people who simply play by the old rules and do what their or their companies legacy behooves, rather than thinking forward and making something better.

Cars depend on technology. But if Intel made chips that were only slightly faster than their previous generation, there would be no reason to buy new chips. Same logic applies to Apple; if the new macbooks were the same as last year but they put 2009 in all their marketing, people would not rush to buy them. If you were to take a 1992 ford Taurus and compare it to a 1999 ford Taurus there was little difference. In 1992 the Ford Taurus was the best family sedan on the road. In 1999 the Camry and Accord had leapfrogged Ford and GM two times over. But look at a 1992 Camry and compare it to a 1996 camry then compare to the 1999 Camry. Each is significantly better than the last.

The car comparison is a perfect example or fading American industry in the face of international competition. The same thing happened to the financial industry last year. Sure there were lots of really complicated things that made all this happen, but imho it was laziness. Laziness on the part of the SEC to regulate the industry, but really laziness on the part of the executives to really analyze what was happening. “We have been trading mortgages and subprime loans and all sorts of credit swaps for years now, how could anything go wrong?” Well the world changed and technology and communication advances made it easier to do business far away. People took loans they couldn’t afford because the guy who gave them the loan was 2000 miles away, what are they gonna do? The guy who sold the loan doesn’t care at all what happens to it because his company just bundled all the loans and sold them to somebody else “Not my problem.” The credit traders kept buying debt and re-bundling it and reselling it - and making money - “as long as other people want to buy this debt there’s no reason we can’t make money off of it” What happens when no one wants to buy that debt anymore? And when the music stopped the ball of debt fell to the ground and everyone involved just stood up and pointed fingers and dealt blame and did nothing.

UNC and Duke are good at basketball every single year. Every year they are good. They aren’t good because they have long term contracts with the best players. They are good because their coaching staff trains them to work together as a team, to work as hard as they can, to the best of their ability. The Yankees were so good for so long because they worked as a team, they won close games - in the 9th inning! And their players developed into a team. Today the Yankees are lazy, they just spend as much money as possible on the best players and expect them to win.
GM was the largest auto company in the world for so long, not because it was the best or worked the hardest, but because it was the only biggest auto company in the world. Today there is competition and GM’s competition is working harder than them, evolving faster, and making better products.

I doubt there are many people who know more than Rick Wagoner about the auto industry. Its hard to argue that there is a more talented baseball player than Alex Rodriguez. In 2007 Lehman Brothers was one of the richest companies in the world. But how many World Series has A-Rod won for his team? How is GM doing? We know what happened to Lehman.

I’m not blaming Arod for the Yankees playoff miss last year, but I’m blaming the Yankees for Arod. They brought him in to win, they didn’t so its his fault - blame him. Last time I checked there are 2o-some people on their roster? But its easy to blame Arod. Its easy to blame Rick Wagoner and Fuld and every other high profile person who’s catching blame. That way we avoid the curiosity that might reveal our own piece of guilt. We avoid self-discovery that could expose a flaw in ourselves. We avoid actually doing anything and we move on. Its all ok, this was all Maddoff’s fault, he’s gone now so everything is ok. The inauguration hype is another perfect example. All the people who mocked Bush’s “Magic Wand” statements are now expecting Mr. Obama to wave his magic wand and fix everything. “I voted, I did my part so they better fix everything!”

Well your part isn’t done. We aren’t along in this thing alone. This is a huge world and there are hundreds of people you see everyday, hundreds of millions of people in this country and over 6 Billion on this earth. Take that into perspective next time you make a decision. Teams are built - not made, teams become champions and heroes arise from champions. Heroes are not made with blame, cynicism, or hate. They are made through hard work, effort, and desire to succeed.

The underlying reason that people in this country are getting fat because they eat when they are bored is the same underlying reason why so many problems are surfacing throughout this country’s economy. We are lazy, we are quick to blame and we lack desire to succeed. Aiming for good enough will end your streak pretty quickly. Being bored is being lazy. Read a book, write a blog, see what twitter is all about - go for a jog or a walk, do something productive. But rest assure blame is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you any where.

The world has fundamentally changed, and everyone who remains lazy and bored will be left behind. This includes companies, people, businesses large and small. Its time to innovate and look at yourself and your competition and decide whether you are going to be better/faster/smarter than them, or blame some market condition for you’re situation. Its hard on everyone, so try something new and learn something. Or just sit there in your rocking chair, blaming and doing nothing, bored.

I live in a nice apartment building.  It isn’t the nicest one you can live in, but the rent isn’t cheap and they try to present a very high class image.  But they only do just enough to keep me from complaining. When they come to fix the something in my apartment, they do about 90%. The gym is always a mess. It is just good enough to not lose people.

But it isn’t excellent.

My New Years Resolution it to never once say to myself “good enough.” Good enough is exactly the oposite of what it should be, great. Clearly I am not a revolutionary here (if you haven’t read the book you should), but thats my resolution. To be great. Not really good, or almost. But great, all the time in everything I do.

I’m starting tomorrow. Every day I’m going to add a “song of the day” and at least a few short words about my thoughts. I have so many, but I never seem to get them down here, and I’d like to use this blog to look back at ideas and to have a conversation about them. Clearly the latter is not happening.

Dear BlackBerry,

I love you.

I love you’re easy to use features. You’re quick response. The convenience key that lets me switch applications as fast as I need. I have loved you since I had the first BB, with the side scroll and the strange-at-first double letter qwerty keyboard. I loved my 8830 even more than I could imagine I would love a phone. I enjoyed that phone for nearly 2 years. Crushing google maps, downloading new apps and dealing with the adequate browser that could out Google an iPhone. Man do I miss those days.

I purchased the Storm the day it came out. I spent the weekend after playing with it, trying to love it. But it just wouldn’t happen. I customized it the way I needed it to be and the I wanted it. Touch screen is cool. I’ve avoided an iPhone because I didn’t want to give up my keyboard. I wanted an iPhone so bad, but it was on AT&T and my good friend couldn’t make or receive phone calls in his apartment in Battery Park. Manhattan. Really - you’re phone doesn’t make telephone calls in Manhattan - I don’t care where you are - this is the capital of the modern world here in NY. Your cell phone should work everywhere.

My Storm is faster than any iPhone with the browser, including the 3G. I haven’t used any special testing software to gauge milliseconds or nanoseconds - to the common eye it is significantly faster. Give me a first generation iPhone and you’re not even in the running. Verizon’s network is MUCH better than AT&T with everything that I have compared.

But RIMM, you disappoint. My Storm freezes. It displays the camera while I’m typing an email - for no reason. It gives me black screens - flashing sometimes, for who knows why. I try to change from side to upright - the accelerometer is slow to respond. I shouldn’t have to count and show my friends how long it takes to react.

Man am I pissed.

I did the upgrade that Verizon recommended. Worlds better. But still not good enough. Not good enough to compare with 3 years of faithful BlackBerry loving. This device is barely worth the Verizon name and is not anywhere near the value of a BlackBerry name. It is a really cool phone, but when I need to make a call/ text/ email and I have to turn it off, disconnect the battery, then restart because the screen is not responding. That is bush league. And BlackBerries should not be bush league.

I’m trading this back in for my Curve and getting an iPhone. I still hate AT&T and I would pay $1,000 for a Verizon iPhone. But the iPhone is cool, and it does work. And thats what I need in a phone I use for work. Not a fancy clickable touchscreen. Not even a touch screen. I need a phone I can depend on. To Google, to Map, to Email, to text. I can get all the fun stuff I want from an iPhone. But when I need it to work, well BlackBerry - the Storm just gets blown away.

The holidays are a time of traveling, eating gift giving and spending time with Family. I turned off the blackberry for a few days and tried to avoid any lcd screens (other than my tv, because I crush James Bond during breaks). It was brilliant. I feel refreshed and ready to get back to work, of which I have plenty.

Of course it didn’t work entirely. My mom and brother got new iPods. My dad got a new all in one charging dock and in place  of Christmas cards, we sent hundreds of photos out digitally to the extended family. I was needed for all of these actions and had to troubleshoot a Picasa issue that was not letting my Dad share photos properly.

The point of this post is to layout some predictions for 2009. I have been way to immersed in my own technology recently and I really don’t know enough about emerging technologies to comment on which ones will be the most famous next December. But I do know that digital is going to be it. Everyone is going to realize that the cost-effective power of the internet is actually something to take advantage of - not just to talk about how “neat” or “cool” it is.

Heads of businesses are going to adapt or get passed by leaner more efficient companies. Layers of Presidents and Vice Presidents that clog the business process are going to be gone. Large excessive manufacturing is going to begin to disappear. Newspapers will realize that spending millions of dollars printing papers is not cost effective and actually do something about it.

The power of the internet will become mainstream in 2009.

Yes today the internet is mainstream, everyone uses it from time to time. Most everyone uses email frequently and people can find things they need with Google. But everyday people are going to realize all the great benefits of the internet. The communication mediums that it has created (blogs, facebook, twitter, etc) and not just look at them and say “wow, this technology is really cool. look how many people use it!” but they will sit down and actually use it themselves to make something worthwhile and relevant. Average users will take advantage of the really cool tools the “web 2.0″ world has made us. They will make their business process more efficient. To gain new customers. To make new “real” friends. Even to buy real world virtual goods.

I’m not in tune enough to tell you whos going to be behind all the great apps and widgets. I just feel very strongly that it will be 2009 that makes it all mainstream.

A buddy just sent me this video, it put me in a Holiday Mood for the day. I’ve been busy the past week, but I’m almost done with my Christmas Shopping. I’d say roughly 70% of the volume of my purchases have been online, but probably 80% of the $$ dollars spent were offline. Interesting to see how that would compare with the rest of the world.

Peter Schwartz didn’t post my comment on his article today. Why? I presented a brief logical counterpoint to his general premise. And he didn’t like it. Because he was speaking from a position of presumed authority. The same presumed authority many companies use when interacting with their customers.

Its frustrating to see so many people ignoring the opportunities of the “web 2.0″ ideas of user generated content that Mr. Schwartz was hating on so hard. Instead of having a relevant conversation with a user, a visitor - one of the very people who give him his job - he ignored it. He ignored it, shunned it and censored a legitimate comment, and in doing so alienated me. I don’t know Peter Schwartz, I don’t follow his work, but now I think hes just another jerk. Another jerk from an age that already died, from a world of Tribunes all waiting to topple like dominoes.

But he found a way to keep going. To use this whole “web phenomenon” to make a living. I need a sword to cut through all this irony.

I found this today somewhere I was as I was venturing off into one of my late night web travels. (On StartupMeme here, actually) I just thought this is pretty cool.

I used to have a ping pong table in my office …

I was shopping with Michele all day today, and we really got nothing accomplished. We spent 30 minutes in Target looking for a Christmas Tree stand, they were all out when we finally found the place they were located. But it made me think: Wouldn’t it be convenient if I could just use my phone to search Targets database, along with directions to where the item was actually located on the shelf in the store.

This would eliminate me asking one person where “widget example 38923″ is, having that person ask someone else, finding the scanning gun, thinking for a second, then winding through the isles (I think it might be this one…) then using the scanning gun to tell us what the empty shelves were clearly telling us. “Looks like we’re all out”

Oh, well thank you for your help.