Thinkcorps

Wired has finally jumped into the fray—everybody blog! The magazine still doesn’t have a Web site, but whatever. Let’s ignore that for the moment and focus on what’s really wrong with this:

First, they’ve got only one blog up:
Beyond the Beyond—i guess it’s a celebrity blog? It doesn’t have much focus beyond that, plus it’s way ugly.

Second, is this (from Sterling’s first post):

Note that there is NO COMMENTARY ALLOWED in my pristine, high-toned blog here. Why? Because you might be a spammer, that’s why! When I have a big red anti-spam button I can push that will cause Homeland Security to arrest you immediately and deport you to Guantanamo, then you may comment. Until then, no blog-reader of mine will ever be forced to endure your lame illegal product pitches, and that goes double for you harebrained flamers and trollers.

Blogging is about community. Community is about linking and commenting. There are lots of good people that are working hard to improve the community and deal with the comment spam issue. In fact, there are several simple strategies for addressing it. I just can’t get past the subtext “blogging systems suck”. If it’s so bad, why not use a better tool?

Third, and most important:
Wired blogs will fail. Why? Because they already have a much larger and compelling space from which to share their ideas and prognostications—it’s called the magazine. And let’s face it, Wired magazine is cooler than a blog. Given the choice, what are you going to work on? Your 3500 feature for the magazine (complete with cool design, pictures and everything) or a blog entry?

[disclosure: i worked at Wired back in the days when it was just as disfunctional, but way cooler]

I am a hug fan of Best Buy. Why? Because in their pseudo-infinite wisdom, they have deemed it acceptable for consumers like me to buy items from their stores, open them, play with them, and then, after every button has been pushed, twiddled and tweaked, take those items back to the store—no questions asked. Honestly, it’s kinda cool.

Big Box Retailers
All the big retailers—Best Buy, Circuit City, Good Guys (the “bad guys”)—have these no-hassle return policies. I’ve brought opened cables back to Best Buy and they’ve happily accepted them and refunded my money—not store credit, mind you.

When you’re considering a new purchase, you want to take the product for a test drive. Do not trust some marketing copy off a manufacturer Web site. You have to make sure it’s going to plug in to all your different components correctly, that it does what you think it does, that you like the remote, etc. These devices are complicated, if you’re spending the money, you might as well get something that works.

When you find something you like, simply take a spin around the Net and see if you can get it cheaper. If you can, you just saved some cash. If not, well, your product’s already installed and creating happiness.

When returning items, for God’s sake, do it on a weekday, preferably early in the morning. Take a little time and save a lot of time. The customer service folk are generally nice, but they’re rarely fast.

The Warranty
OK, I’m going to go out on a limb here. In some situations, you might actually want to consider that in-store warranty. I know, I know, it’s sacrilicious. But consider what you’re buying.

Take the iPod, for instance. It’s expensive, extremely difficult to repair, and comes with a 1 year warranty. And while Apple is generally very gracious in repairing product defects, once you’re beyond a year you are sh*t out of luck, my friend. One year just doesn’t cut it for as expensive and vulnerable a device as a portable iPod.

Many manufacturers have tightened up their warranty repair processes as well. You’re either going to have to shell out to ship the item to some facility several states away (this gets muy expensive), or dump it at some seriously disreputable repair shop from which you can pretty much forget about seeing your product again. Dropping your product off at the local Best Buy is looking pretty good. It’s much more convenient, it covers your product all the way through its expected lifespan, and there’s no shipping costs.

If there was a better option out there, I’d certainly consider it, but after my receiver crapped out on me, I took it back to Best Buy after refusing to drop it off at the authorized repair center, which looked like it was run by someone who’d died in the early 70s. I was expecting to get reamed, but to my surprise, I had already purchased a warranty. I can only assume, after a few rounds of product returns (I had tried out several receivers), that I had ended up with a credit balance that I decided to blow on the warranty. They fixed the receiver, at no cost to me, within a week.

That’s a much happier ending than I got with my 2nd-gen iPod and its crappy broken headphone jack (a recallable design flaw, in my humble opinion).

It’s hard to believe people still eat up this garbage.

“More than a million households deleted all the digital music files they had saved on their PCs in August, according to new information released today by The NPD Group. NPD credits the ongoing RIAA anti-piracy campaign and related media attention as having had a measurable effect on the actions of many consumers in regard to the illegal sharing of digital music. In a related survey of consumer perception, however, NPD found that consumers’ overall opinion of the recording industry is suffering as a result of the record industry association’s well-publicized legal tactics.”

Their methodology consists of 40,000 volunteer computer users. People who know they’re being watched. I guess we’ll let that one go for the moment.

Second, deleting files can mean anything. An increase in the number of garbage Kazaa files, for instance. Or an increase in HD swapping with friends, leading to the removal of duplicate files. Or more errors using CD ripping software.

Third, NPD reports that 80 percent of these ‘deleters’ retained fewer than 50 music files on their hard drives. These are not music lovers, people. These are newbies, and if history has taught us anything, it’s that you simply cannot predict what a newbie is going to do or why they’re doing it.

Full Release:
NPD Press Release – November 5, 2003

Lists are basically magazines’ way of telling you that you’re stupid, and that just like crows, you are easily distracted by shiny objects—in this case, big numbers and the word ‘Best,’ usually bolded in red, sometimes overlaid on a pair of breasts. It’s holiday time, folks, so get ready to be patronized—to the EXTREME!!

It’s still early—we’re not seeing the buying guides just yet—but apparently the next new thing is “best of the year,” which is actually easier to do, since editors don’t actually have to cull all that contact and pricing information, or ensure that the product is either available for purchase or doesn’t actually suck big fat air. [note: I did the first Wired Tools gear supplement, so I have some experience in this arena.]

For brevity’s sake, I think I’ll just point out the really stupid items, it’s more fun this way.

1. Time: Coolest Inventions of 2003
1) The iTunes music store isn’t that cool: $.99/track for DRM you don’t own and Apple doesn’t actually make any money off it. 2) BeoLab 5speakers: I like Bang & Olufsen as much as the next guy, but $16K for speakers doesn’t make them cool. 3) The NeCoRo robotic cat is freaking me out (I say: cage match between the robo-cat and the lobster). 4) The Gibbs Aquada is the stupidest f*cking product of the year. How much of an asshole do you need to be? 5) Invisible Tech: You have to be perfectly in line with the video camera for the illusion to stand muster. ‘nuff said.

2. Popular Science | Best of What’s New 2003
PopSci is an interesting hybrid, trying to bridge its old-school astronomy-loving audience, with the new breed of tech-loving readers. Not an easy challenge, by any means. Their best of list goes more traditional (defense tech, auto) than most.

1) There’s that damn aquacar again. Why do people think that’s cool? 2) iTunes Music Store: still a raw deal. 3) Computer manufacturers selling digital CE isn’t that revolutionary, if you actually think about it. 4) Sharp LCD TVs: $1700 for 15 inches. Wow. Cool. 5) Garden Groom Hedge Trimmer: Trimmers are exactly the wrong way to trim your hedges. Seriously, ask those This Old House guys. They’ll tell you.

3. NYT Circuits: A Little Digital Something for Everyone
NYT has a pretty typical grab bag of products, nothing really outstanding, though I have to point out the strange love letter to Mac accessory-maker Griffin Technology (I like the company myself, but why so many products?).

Standouts: Recommending satellite radio just seems weird to me (some people love it however, I’m sure. People loved Who’s the Boss?) Sidetalkin’ Nokia 3300—guaranteed to drive away potential dates and mates. Kid’s stuff is all basically crap, but they’ll break it anyway, so who cares? Pacific Digital MemoryFrame digital photo display (LCD in a frame)—and you thought technology couldn’t be pretentious. And finally, ‘cause I’m tired of this, not cause I’m at the end of the list, the Sharp Aquos Mobile: Yes, Virginia, Wifi is cool—ground-breaking even—but it’s a 15-inch TV for $1800. Seriously, people wake up.

4. Business 2.0 Gizmo Guide (subscription required)
OK, I have to immediately take points off for using the word ‘gizmo’. It’s not me, these are the rules. But beyond that, I have mostly positive things to say: partly because I don’t have the print mag in front of me right now, and partly because it was put together by Shoshana Berger (Readymade founder) who knows what she’s doing and is pretty damn cute to boot.

Shana has products grouped into several typical user types (also typical B2 reader types, I imagine). I didn’t really feel like the products picked for the “CEO” were that good—but they did tend to scream “asshole”, which is probably appropriate. All in all, one of the best gift guides I’ve seen this year.

more to come …

This is pretty obvious to anyone who’s either got a Tivo or dl’s video off P2P nets. It’s far easier to record/dl files than to watch them. This is why video piracy will never match that of music. I can work with music, but I can’t work watching TV. Everyone will generate this backlog quickly, and adjust. The stress level is only propped up by the limited storage space on the Tivo—if you could simply add more, you wouldn’t worry so much about your unwatched archive.

All of this, of course, has nothing to do with how the nets are going to regenerate lost ad revenues from commercial skipping.

SignOnSanDiego.com – TV viewers find TiVo addictive

Nice overview of mobile phones’ role in a networked society as the devices take on more responsibility and functions. And by extension, how screwed you’re going to be when you leave it in the restaurant, car, subway/train, friend’s house, wrong coat, etc.

Mobitopia – The Ubiquitous Network Society of Today

That cheapo Ritz Camera disposable digital camera has been hacked, which means that for about $20-25 bucks you’ve got a crappy digicam. I’m going out to find one today.

The point is that: 1) your digital product will be hacked eventually, and 2) it’s probably not that big a deal since most techno-weenies and gadget-freaks aren’t so good with a soldering iron. Nor do we have the time. (Of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t/won’t expand our repertoires—just for kicks, mind you.)

RevJimWiki : DakotaDigitalCamera
Disposable Digital Camera Interfacing

A report (not study) from the Internet Home Alliance (never heard of ‘em) says consumers want ‘eHubs’—basically one-device PC servers for their home entertainment networks. I’m gonna have to call them out on this one—this is propaganda from PC manufacturers, plain and simple.

“There is a clear indication that consumers want to have the PC become part of their entertainment world at home,” Barra told internetnews.com in an exclusive interview today. “It’s not that the set-top box won’t be there, or that gaming consoles won’t have some role, but that the perception out there today is that consumers are expecting the PC to become the entertainment library for their homes.”

Tivo, recording DVDs, digital cable, home networks—these are all appealing, yes. But that doesn’t mean that we need or want a central home media server. Why?

A single server—made by PC manufacturers—is likely going to be too expensive and too complex, while serving as a single point of failure. Gateway, one of the supporters of this eHub concept, has already proven that a few chips in a DVD player can serve as a cheap digital media player, allowing TV viewing of PC content.

We’ve got many options here. A network is designed to bridge many devices, the hub-spoke model is only one configuration. The emerging WiMedia standard is designed to form P2P networks between devices, alleviating the need for a central server.

With storage cheap and plentiful and technologies like Apple’s Rendezvous, I’d be happier to see all my specialized devices on the network, talking to each other, sharing and collaborating—including my PC —than be reliant on a single server (with a single OS & GUI).

Consumers Ready and Waiting for ‘e-Hubs’

The Onion | Mom Finds Out About Blog

I admit it, the first and only tie I tried DDR in the arcade, I blew. I’m just too white, I think. Of course, after watching a semi-pro couple take over the machine for 20 minutes (they arrived in gym-wear, for god’s sake), I realized that DDR requires a serious level of dedication. Which is why this PS2 accessory looks so sweet. It’s cheaper than most home fitness machines too.

Metal Dance Platform Deluxe with Rail – Always in stock!