At the Corner of Central and Prime

Let us make you a meal..Pic courtesy of Central Market

Today

Today is a bright, 50 degree Sunday afternoon -- brisk and beautiful. Have already had my invigorating walk at White Rock. I had a cool blog topic about a Netflix movie, but a month went by and I’ve lost the impetus not to mention the relevant details on that. So today will be a combo of recent TV, streaming entertainment deals, and dining out. Probably enough to constitute a blog.

Golden Globes

I was annoyed by the Golden Globes last week.. Ricky Gervais was a bit of an ungracious arse in his insults toward Mel Gibson and Ben Affleck among others. I don’t see the point of creating antagonism where there was none before. You can be abrasive and fun without being a total snark.

Golden Globes also annoyed me by giving awards almost pointedly to new, unheard-of shows (Mozart in the Jungle, Wolf Hall, The Affair etc). I decided to watch some of these unknowns to see how well they deserved their Globes. It just happens that Showtime is offering a freebie special on Hulu-- first episode of several hit series for free. I took the bait and watched episode 1 of The Affair. I must say -- the Globes probably nailed it on this one.

The Affair

I watched episode 1 of The Affair this morning -- it’s about two married people cheating on their respective spouses. I figured it would be a one-dimensional soap, but it quickly unfolded into a neo-noir mystery. The story is in flashback form .. the man and woman are at a police station, separately giving their versions of something that happened. Their stories differ noticeably and the viewer is all agape -- what brought them to a police station? What happened? I’m on edge now to find out. It seems clear from their stories that they are no longer lovers or even friends to each other.

Amazon Prime

I have to say, we are in an age of entertainment overload. We have Time Warner, iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, Vudu, etc, etc ad infintum. Now we can add Amazon Prime to that mix .. they have several exclusive offerings like Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle. This week they’re offering a year of Prime for only $76 (normally $99). A full season of a hit show can run $24 on Apple or non-prime Amazon. One movie rental is $5.99.. I figured it wouldn’t take much to run it up to $76. I’m now on Amazon Prime, God help my television addicted soul. I better watch my $76 worth.

Neighborhood Walmart and Central Market

About a year ago I praised the Neighborhood Walmart on Lower Greenville Avenue in Dallas. I thought it was a great remodel and a good alternative to pricier groceries in the area. Alas, I spoke too soon.. the store is being closed in 2 weeks. Apparently it underperformed. Am sorry to see that -- I liked their $4.99 deli chicken among other things. Some Greenville area snobs are glad to see Walmart go -- that attitude is also unfortunate. Now we lose tax base, local employment and we get a boarded up vacant building for weeks to come. Sounds like a lose-lose to me.

I decided to try out Central Market and see if they could address the void created by Walmart. My trial items were Starbucks Frappuccino 4-packs and 4-Way Nasal spray. Central Market carries mostly homeopathic type meds -- no 4-Way. They had only store-ground coffee and fancy specialty brands -- no Folgers or Starbucks. I was bummed that they couldn’t help on that, but decided to try their gourmet kitchen and cafe for lunch as a consolation for the failed scavenger hunt.

They offer weekly lunch specials in the 7-10 dollar range -- all prepared while you watch. They have a variety of items -- shrimp salad, ciabatta sandwiches and grilled pork. I had the ciabatta salami sandwich and fries -- while seated in their bright, modern sunlit cafe. I see why Central Market has been such a mainstay for these 15 years.. the experience was very enjoyable. I’ll be back.

Conclusion

I’ve stumbled upon some new things this past week, and am sorry to be losing Walmart. On the whole, it’s a week of positive discoveries. I have a show to binge watch, a cafe to frequent and $76 worth of benefits to squeeze from Amazon Prime. It could be better -- it could be a lot worse.

© 2016 Snillor Productions

The Holy Trinity of Hipster Capitalism

We keep coming back.. Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

TODAY

I’m in mourning that my two week Christmas vacation is over.. I love the time to be lazy and reflective. Today we have 55 chilly degrees under a bright blue sky – very invigorating. I’m sitting in new the Lakewood Starbucks, admiring the relaxed ambience. What a perfect segue to today’s topic..

THE TRIFECTA

If you think of “hipster capitalism”, many things spring to mind: Google, Facebook, Uber, Tesla.. and so forth and so on. The 3 companies I have in mind are noteworthy for being among the first of the hipsters and cementing themselves as part of our national identity and culture: Starbucks, Apple and Whole Foods Market. In 2015, I’d like to examine what we love now, what we loved then and if the dream is still alive. Let’s stroll thru our hipster places one by one...

Starbucks

EST: 1970
CLOSEST 1970 COMPETITOR: Dunkin Doughnuts

Starbucks had a slow build towards frenzied, Frappuccino success. Prior to Starbucks, coffee shops were more along the lines of greasy spoon hovels – with dirty ash trays and waitresses scuttling you along. Mavis needed to turn the tables. Starbucks gave us a trendy living room with comfy chairs and mood music. It brought unique coffee beverages into a pub-like atmosphere of convivial socializing. Who would’ve imagined? It wasn’t revolutionary per se, but revolutionary in the elements combined.

Apple

EST: 1976
CLOSEST 1976 COMPETITOR: Radio Shack

Computers for hobbyists had just been invented when Apple came along. They were hardly user friendly – they called for an engineering genius to put the pieces together and feed it programming instructions. For all its clunkiness, the Apple I gave the world an easy-to-use home computer. Osborn, IBM, Atari and others were asleep at the wheel. By the time they entered the market with their offerings, Apple had already entrenched itself with artists and educators. Macintosh was pretty far along on the drawing board.

WHOLE FOODS MARKET

EST: 1980
Closest 1980 competitor: Local delis, ethnic food marts

Whole Foods took food consciousness to a new level – with an emphasis on organics, purity of ingredients, local farm-sourcing and other wholesome factors. All of this was brought into a supermarket chain paradigm – one that gave customers a consistent feel-good experience from one store and city to the next. People seeking a special green tea didn’t have to do mail order or drive to Korea Town anymore – they could just go to a nearby Whole Foods Market. As with Starbucks, it wasn’t a revolution per se, but it was revolutionary presentation. This brings us now to a 2015 check-up... What have these guys done for us lately?

.. WHAT ABOUT NOW?

Starbucks has many competitors now.. The $4 Latte was too great of a boondoggle for others to ignore. Starbucks has hit a couple of bumps in an otherwise smooth ride. They closed a number of stores in the 2008 Recession and a few years later they made stores less luxuriant in an effort to turn tables faster. Some slackers were settling into the comfy chairs for an all-day visit. Overall, Starbucks is still true to its original concept: good coffee, good music, tolerable bench-like seating (now).

Apple has had an amazing trajectory. It was having a near-death experience in 1997 when Steve Jobs returned and brought his evangelical techno-wizardry back to the forefront. Apple is still riding high but with a couple of caveats (hinted at in a Simpson’s spoof)... It has a cult-like aspect both with employees and customers. A product's success should be based on intrinsic merit, not purely hipness or brand allegiance. There also appears to be an “Apple tax” paid for devices and accessories which is a monetary concern for people on a budget. Not surprisingly Samsung and Microsoft have wooed some people away with Galaxies and Surface Pro’s – you can’t sell to all of the people all of the time.

Whole Foods probably registers the biggest change from my own observations. Whole Foods Market was a fun, counterculture, quasi-hippie divergence in years gone by. Its parking lot had VW vans and cars plastered with provocative bumper stickers (“Eat brown rice” “Uppity Women Unite”). The whole shopping trip was like a reefer run to a hippie commune, or to an Austin health food emporium. It was fun and somewhat subversive. Stick it to the Man and buy cool stuff at the same time.

Whole Foods is now a snobby, pretentious experience – a gluten-free, cage-free, wine tasting affair with major appeal to law partners, CPA’s and soccer moms. The parking lot has mostly Mercedes, Porsche, and Lexus cars with a couple of reserved spaces for “eco-friendly” electric cars. Whole Foods’ 1980 concern over the ecosystem played well into the 2015 boomer fixation around global warming, recycling and carbon footprints. An obnoxious PwC Sr. Manager can assuage his capitalist conscience by knowing he just ate cage-free chicken and purchased a greeting card made from 100% recycled paper. Absolution never came so easily.

I might be judging these things in a harsh light and maybe not. I still patronize all these places in 2015. For Whole Foods, it might just be more of a people watching experience – but I must admit that their chocolate-toffee wafer cookies keep me coming back too.

© 2016 Snillor Productions

Church of the Latter Day Steves

What's playing in the App Store?.. Picture courtesy of Apple

TODAY
We had a horrible, rainy Thanksgiving week. This weekend has been a pleasant repudiation of that. Its 55 degrees, under a bright blue sky. I’m a fool to be sitting in a coffee shop when I could be out frolicking in the sun. But this important blog awaits.. Today’s topic is one for Apple fans and foes alike.

APPLE TV 4

Last month, I gave myself the 4G Apple TV for a birthday present. It is a wonderful device – the first Apple TV upgrade that I’d describe as a “quantum” change. The remote control is beautiful just to look at. It incorporates a smooth new touch interface that you have to experience – you glide through the options without any loss of selection control. Siri can be summoned to tell you what’s on (although I prefer doing a text search). Best of all, Apple TV 4G offers an App store which has already expanded the channel offerings from @ 40 to over a thousand. And – we’re only in the 1st month since it came on the market. What might the Apple geniuses be coming out with next?

SINCE STEVE…

This brings me to the topic du jour – what would Steve Jobs think of 2015 Apple? ..Is he rolling in his grave, or is he giving a thumbs up? Steve Jobs was an uncontrollable perfectionist. He was said to have obsessed over the color of beige plastic on the Apple II computer. He likewise sweated the details over the marble texture in an Apple Store. He personally approved the boxes and packaging his expensive toys came in. He also weighed in heavily on Apple commercial content. The Land of Steve was a land of slavishly specific details. Overall, I think Steve would like the fact that Apple is riding high money-wise. The financial proof is in the pudding – he would have trouble arguing with “most valued company”. But he would surely have nits to pick and here they are a few, IMHO..

1) Matter of Size – Jobs derided “phablets” and giant phones. iPhone 5 was the perfect dimension for an adult hand, he speculated. Any wider would invite cramping and joint issues. He also touted the iPad 1 as a perfect magazine size. The Mini and Pro sizes would probably elicit his disdain. But – in our Goldilocks world it turns out that different folks glom to different sizes of things after all.

2) Stlyus and pens – Steve positively hated the stylus. Any prototype featuring a stylus would get hurled out the window. He laughed at Microsoft’s 2001 tablet precisely because it relied on a stylus. Alas, the stylus has crept its way back into Appledom. Steve is not smiling from wherever he sits.

3) Think Different – During the Reign of Steve, Apple was well outside of the box. Many items were game changers and we must just as well say out of the blue. Since 2011, everything saving the watch has been an iteration of what already is. Size, color and shape have all shifted but basics have not. Steve would probably be masterminding another 21st century sea change by now.

Could Steve possibly be wrong about anything? Well yes – he could. His board of directors had to tie him down and sedate him at the idea of iTunes for Windows. That turned out to be the main marketing ploy that turned the whole US onto iPods and iTunes. Steve wanted to file a major lawsuit against Google Android for stealing the iPhone interface. His team wisely talked him down from this – he would have lost and looked silly in the process.

Apple has had a few duds along the way – G4 Cube, .Mac, ROKR.. Even a wizard can occasionally cast the wrong spell. Steve was brilliant overall at matching genius people (Steve Wozniak, Jonathan Ive) to innovative projects. His wins were quite a few more than his losses and they changed our world at that.

Steve would probably exhort his team of “Latter Day Steves” to recast the 21st century ..how about 3D, holograph, floating displays or tactile conversation? We do have the talk of an Apple Car. Maybe the Latter Day Steves are on their assignment after all.

© 2015 Snillor Productions

Roundabout with H-1B

Are we being underbid? - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by Trebor Snillor

Today I’m in Starbucks, during a holiday week. The temperature is plummeting outside and the throng has moved indoors.. I’m composing this in an easy chair next to the front door. Burrr! Today’s blog topic is one I’ve touched on in other blog entries (“Oink!”, “Stratus World”). I’m speaking specifically this time of the controversy surrounding H-1B visas granted to immigrants in the United States. Most of such immigrants come from India and China though many other countries also indulge. H-1B visas were conceived as a way to fill specialty US jobs (in science, medicine, engineering, accounting) with foreign brain power. The idea was that the jobs were unfilled – why not answer the call with 3-year visas?

This Road to Hell was paved with good intentions; limits were placed on duration and number of people. Politicians didn’t want to horn in on American jobs did they? (Or did they have something else in mind?).. The law is now a labyrinth of codas, exceptions and dangling participles – it makes the tax code look simple. The Fortune 500 companies of America were smitten with this mother lode of cheap white collar labor – how could they not exploit it? The issue has been conflated into a political issue, but I have to say it’s one that mostly pits populist Republicans (anti H-1B) against rich, patrician Republicans who are vested in the Fortune 500 (pro H-1B).

LOSE-LOSE SITUATION

Note -- the following discussion uses software engineering as an example, but it is equally applicable to accounting, medicine and other areas.

I have a good friend in human resources at a large accounting firm. He tells me that a newly minted American computer science graduate programming java commands $90K/year nowadays. That same job can be filled by H-1B Outsourcing firms for $65K/year. Software engineering isn’t controlled by organized labor – it responds directly to market pressures. Indians and Pakistanis have effectively underbid Americans for the same work assignments.

The cost to American citizens: We shrink the “specialty employment” pool dramatically. The only American grads commanding $90K will be the top 2% of the class. Otherwise the form letter reads “all jobs are filled at this time – thank you for your interest”. A question to Americans might be: have we bid the price too high for what we do?

The cost to employers: In treating software design as a generic commodity you get high turnover, buggy code and a serious lack of standards or continuity in your whole operation. A permanent employee can better understand history, strategy, business rules and overall company direction. A contractor is less likely to feel like a stake holder when a 3-year egg timer ticking away in the background. Throw in some language and cultural barriers – you have a situation that evokes the Neiman Marcus slogan: “Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten”..

The cost to the United States of America: The list of “specialty fields” has expanded to include basically any middle class occupation that is heavily dependent on computers or internet connections. Doctors’ jobs are even at risk as it becomes easier to farm out tests and x-rays to a Pakistani clinic halfway around the world. America’s middle class is hit by a wrecking ball of “friendly” outsourcing.

Where do we go from here? Some of the same people vehemently opposed to H-1B are also free market apostles who would be mortified by wage controls, hiring restrictions or unionization. Politicians tend to engage in double-talk and leave the status as quo.

CONCLUSION

If we do nothing, we will end up with an odd sort of America. Sanjay and Priya will make $65K a year which is still enough to live a middle class lifestyle. They will have a new Toyota Camry and a nice starter home. American-born John and Karen will be struggling to drive a used Yaris and will live in a dumpy apartment. It seems they can only find work as a car wash manager and a restaurant hostess. The America I describe isn’t so far away or ridiculous – it’s already under way. Something needs to be done, the question is “what?”

© 2014 Snillor Productions

Boutique Technology

New Store in Town - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by Trebor Snillor

ZONED OUT

I’m in about the 6th week of my “allergy from Hell”. My nose runs like a faucet and there is little I can do. I’ve tried every OTC medicine as well as prescription Flonase. The meds knock me out somewhat, so today’s entry may be lacking in quality.

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

I like having TV’s in my kitchen and bathroom. I actually do enjoy watching there – both rooms call for a small TV. In the previous age of CRT TV’s I had no problem getting a 9” or 13” TV to suit my needs. Those sets have expired and I’m back looking for replacements. Flat screens inexplicably start at 19” – only Fry’s offers a smaller one from an off-brand. Maybe there’s a technical reason for it.. I may join the ranks of on-line Amazon shoppers in my quest for flat and small. We don’t need a curved, 3-D 70” Samsung Home Theater for every environment.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Cold meds have affected my mind such that I can’t really do the story I wanted to do. I was going to examine “Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Clause” from a metaphysical standpoint. In my zonked state, I think I would do a disservice to Virginia, Santa and the Baltimore Sun if I tried that. I will proceed to a “fluff” commercial piece instead. I won’t have to spell metaphysical..

FINALLY, THE MICROSOFT STORE

I went to North Park Mall last week to replace a watch battery. First item of note – the crowd was ridiculous. People were parking in the church parking across the street. People, Black Friday is a ways off – chill out for a week! But one cool thing I noticed was the new Microsoft Store not far from the Apple Store. Apple began opening its own stores @ 15 years ago. They have become iconic, super-slick centers of hipness where creative people of means will drop a cool $2K on a MacBook Pro. Just the people-watching is fun. Steve Jobs is said to have obsessed over the marble and wood used in his stores – as much as he did on the Mac OS interface. Steve’s attention to detail paid off.. the young hipsters in blue Apple tee shirts now preside over a surreal space where people fight to spend top dollar on the latest gizmos.

Microsoft has awakened to the situation.. Technology is no longer just for ham radio operators and dweebs. Technology has become universal, accessible and essential. It has also grown into a dimension hated by engineers but loved by marketers – that of fashion trendiness. A device should be functional but it really needs to be beautiful and stylin’ at the same time. Ignore this dictum and you will be making the AMC Pacer of tablets – or the Studebaker of cell phones. I like Microsoft, I like Apple too. I don’t look upon it as a religion and I enjoy products from both companies. I’m typing this article on an ASUS Windows 8, but checking my emails on an iPhone 5C. Hey people, it’s called balance!  The Microsoft Store doesn’t much try to forge a new style – they read Apple’s playbook. The store is bright, white, modern and minimalist. The sales clerks tend towards young and attractive 20-somethings – and they wear matching red tees.

The tables are piled with excellent loss-leader deals (unlocked Windows phone for $99, HP mini tablet for $99). They also have a giant Xbox area where you can play games on a 10 foot screen. Let me reach into my box of aphorisms: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and it’s better late than never. I can’t predict how the market will go, but I think Microsoft might’ve caught the right wave. If Kate Spade and Ralph Lauren aren’t designing cases for your gizmos – you’re at risk of dying from technical virtuosity and nerdiness.

CONCLUSION

I’m hyped up from my skinny peppermint mocha with 3 shots of espresso. I probably need to walk it off and contemplate these deep thoughts. Happy Thanksgiving to my regular two readers -- let’s hope that my allergy has lifted in time for my next blog entry.

© 2014 Snillor Productions

My Dinner with Joe

Exotic fare - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by Trebor Snillor
Today the warm weather is returning after a freakish week of cool July temperatures. We actually had a record “low high” of 79 degrees a couple of days ago. I’m not complaining, just making note of the pleasant change. I’ve recently installed a fancy sprinkler system and an upgraded A/C – I should expect all that to bring cool, rainy weather to North Texas.

OUT OF THE ARSE

David Letterman once accused Dr. Phil of pulling advice “out of his ass”. Dr. Phil thought it was funny and even became a regular guest on Letterman after that. Today, I’m going to also pull a topic from that same place – the heat and a busy schedule prevent me from doing any kind of graduate level research on a topic. (Yes that’s right – I do graduate-level research on most of these articles :-) ).

LOWER GREENVILLE, DALLAS

The Lower Greenville area in Dallas (the blocks roughly from Richmond down to Ross) has just undergone a makeover. The street has actually been narrowed to make it more bike and pedestrian friendly. Benches, trees and landscaping have been added to make it a destination block – one where you might just hang out on a pleasant day. The strategy is working; the area has recently acquired the Truck Stop, (entertainment-cheap food venue) Trader Joe’s and the Tango Frogs back atop Taco Cabana. The long-vacated Whole Foods building has been made into a Neighborhood Walmart giving the area a practical anchor grocery store on top of all the trendy shops and bars.

NEIGHBORHOOD WALMART

When Neighborhood Walmart was suggested @ 3 years ago, some neighbors were up in arms. They envisioned a giant, gray “big box” with 200 acres of asphalt. In fact, Neighborhood Walmarts are much smaller than full-fledged Walmarts. Walmart repurposed the existing building with no expansion at all to its footprint or parking area. They gave it a modern exterior with pleasing brown/green earth colors and drought tolerant landscaping. I probably wouldn’t do my major shopping here – some food selections are limited compared to a Kroger or Tom Thumb. But it’s great as a supplementary store to round out my basic needs and the prices are very reasonable. I drop by when I’m already in the ‘hood shopping at Trader Joe’s.

TRADER JOE’S

Speaking of Trader Joe’s, I shop here almost every week. The California chain opened its first store in 1967 – it has recently become a Texas phenomenon with stores popping up all over. TJ’s is rumored to be founded by German ex-Nazi’s which seems ironic. The irony comes from the fact that TJ’s has a laid back, hippy dippy liberal feel to it. I went today and they were playing Led Zeppelin on their sound system. The employees all look like youthful members of a commune or maybe employees at a legal marijuana farm.

What Trader Joe’s is not: a place where you would buy all your weekly staples. Much like Whole Foods, TJ’s is a “specialty” grocery store. I like to tell people it’s for fun food – chips, dips, cookies, wine, cheese, mixed nuts and virtually any food used in entertaining or porking out in front of a TV. Their food includes lots of organic and exotic fare, competing again with Whole Foods. The Neighborhood Walmart across the streets yields a perfect complementary relationship. Buy your Charmin, suds and practical stuff at Walmart; then run across the street to TJ’s for your exotic fare.

Trader Joe’s differs from Whole Foods in one notable way (based on my own unscientific observing) – the prices appear way (like 33%) less than Whole Foods. Maybe that’s my imagination running away with me. TJ’s gets a really fun, interesting yuppie crowd which lends it an entertainment factor as much as anything. My only complaint would be that it’s so crowded – get there early or be ready to fight for your Trader Joe Hazlenut Cookies.

FIN

In conclusion, it’s obvious I had not much to say today. If you make it to Lower Greenville anytime soon, just come check out my new favorite places.


© 2014 Snillor Productions

Stale Apples

The Thrill is Gone - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter

Let me preface today’s blog by saying that I’m an Apple fan – I’m offering some constructive criticism as a person who many would describe as a rabid Mac Head. You might ask what problem I have; there are a couple of areas of concern..

STALENESS

If you walk through the Apple Store today, you’ll be impressed by the clean, modern, minimalist store. You’ll like the birch wood display tables tempting you with all the newest offerings. If you haven’t hovered for too long around Planet Apple you might be downright excited by what you see. All the retina displays, the bright visuals and smooth lines will be mesmerizing to a newcomer. As a veteran Apple follower for decades, the spell is lost on me. I have to say that I find myself …rather bored. Yes, I think it’s a yawn-fest.

Let’s take a stroll down Apple Lane and maybe you’ll see what I mean ..

Mac OS X – This UNIX-based operating system was revolutionary when it came out in Spring 2001. It was remarkable at the time and highly imitated. There have been several iterations to improve on it, but the basic experience is the same as 2001. New and improved are not synonyms so I’m not suggesting meaningless changes. But the excitement wanes, as competitors offer things like a highly configurable Windows 8.1 display or a highly extendable Chrome/Android interface.

MacBook – Esthetically speaking, the 2006 MacBook was really an extension of the 2001 PowerBook G4. The metallic square offering of 2014 is virtually the same look as the 2001 PowerBook. If we came back in 10 years, I’m thinking we’d be greeted with another square, aluminum box. Of course, the insides are different across 13 years. But the look stays the same.

iMac -- This device has gone through several nice iterations but reached its current clean “all-in-one” style in 2007. In 7 years since, it’s barely changed at all – you’d be challenged to say what year model you were looking at. The insides have been modernized, the outside is 2007. Computers don’t have to visually fly like a car, and yet the thrill is gone if the same outside greets you all the time.

Is MacBook a 1963 Porsche 911?

The Porsche 911 has barely changed its look since 1963 – the car’s maker considers it perfection reached 50 years ago. Is MacBook a Porsche 911? To some enthusiasts the answer would be an emphatic yes. Why tamper with perfection? Porsche is a small, luxury niche in the car market – Ford, GM and Toyota would probably not want to swap places with the tiny footprint of Porsche. I think Apple may start to get the snobby crowd and little else. It’ll be the Porsche of computers. If you dare go downscale and venture to Best Buy, you’ll see the enticements of a $199 Chromebook or a Windows convertible tablet. Surprise! The computer isn’t finished either on the inside or the outside… Apple’s competitors have not (and never will) just twiddle their thumbs in boredom or acquiescence. There are new things to see.

RECENT MISSTEPS

iOS7 - As a middle aged man with poor eyesight, iOS7 is a challenge. It has a faint, small font and even the desktop icons are drawn with faint lines. There are some (inadequate) accessibility options that might mitigate some of this but – iOS7 is best used by a young person with 20/20 eyesight. Why would a whole OS be designed around such an exclusionary esthetic? I don’t know, but it was.

2013 Mac Pro – This newest device is purely bizarre. It looks like a bedroom humidifier and nothing at all like a computer. If you were going to make it look like an appliance, wouldn’t you choose something more attractive? Maybe a Michael Graves vacuum cleaner? I realize my earlier comment is that they haven’t changed enough and here I complain because they stuck their necks out and did something new. New and improved are not synonyms but they can (and should) be simultaneously in effect.

CONCLUSION

In a recent press announcement, Tim Cook announced some “amazing new products” coming down the Apple pike. I’m looking forward to whatever they have to offer. Let me visit the Apple Store and not feel like I’m in an Ambien-induced technology haze. Let’s be invigorating and shake things up a little bit.

© 2014 blogSpotter

An IKEA State of Mind

The Swedish-inspired shopping paradise - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Today I drove 25 miles to Frisco, TX to indulge one of my shopping habits -- I shopped at IKEA. Most people are familiar with the home furnishing megastore in blue and yellow (the national colors of Sweden). Like the lemming shoppers around me, I followed the arrows which guided me through an upstairs showroom and then through a downstairs market section. I love contemporary furnishings and bargain prices -- this store is a double jackpot for me. I’m not too crazy about the arrows since I might get stalled behind a baby carriage or slow people. In those moments I take the store’s shortcuts to get my my next destination.

If you watch late night TV, you’ve heard jokes about the difficulty of IKEA assembly instructions. They usually are printed in 7 languages, in faint, tiny font. Then, the diagrams might challenge a mechanical engineer from MIT -- that’s if you can get past the tiny print. I bought a plastic milk crate that required assembly and somehow managed to muck it up. I pressed tab “A” into hole “C”... unfortunately the pressing was irrevocable! The crate still functions, but looks like someone’s learning disabled teen put it together. Lesson learned -- only buy things that are small, modular and pretty much ready to use.

The first IKEA store as we know them opened way back in 1958 in Sweden. The stores gained popularity across the decades, but didn’t reach the “explosive” pace until the 2000’s. As of 2011, IKEA had 332 stores in 38 countries, and sold $23.1 billion in goods. IKEA is the world’s third largest consumer of wood after Lowe’s and Home Depot. I thought the store in Frisco was large, but apparently there are some much larger -- I can only figure you’d need hiking shorts and a walkie talkies to tackle one of those.

The name IKEA is an acronym of its founder (name and home town: Ingvar Kamprad of Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd). The chain was long since sold to a Dutch company, but the Dutch have maintained IKEA’s Scandinavian mystique, not wishing to disturb their Swedish-inspired cash cow. Things you might not know about IKEA:

o They once were protested for selling items with things like PVC and formaldehyde (many years ago). They’ve now gone the other extreme of supporting Green Technology and building stores that run completely off renewable energy.
o They give to charities worldwide, including UNICEF, American Forests, and Save the Children.
o They’ve attempted small stores, boutique stores and other formats -- nothing has worked as well as the blue/yellow megastores with arrows that we all know and love.
o In Europe, they’ve branched out into IKEA hotels and IKEA modular homes.

Americans are fairly chauvinistic; we figure that we’ve conquered the world with KFC, McDonald’s, Apple and Starbucks. We certainly have done that, and there’s no need to diminish those super-Capitalistic achievements. BUT let it be known -- a blue/yellow leviathan has been unleashed from the Northern reaches of Europe. It doesn’t stop with a food court or a cup of coffee -- it seeks to furnish all our dorm rooms and apartments. And I myself need to go back to IKEA just to get the multicolor LED lights I saw today. My only complaint is a minor one -- IKEA please build a store in Dallas proper. Save me that 25 mile round trip on the tollway. That probably won’t happen because part of IKEA’s strategy is to develop suburban sites where the land is cheap. So be it -- I’ll drive the drive to get my Swedish shopping fix.

© 2013 blogSpotter

A Tale of Two Stores

        

Hindsight is 20/20 - Pics courtesy of Wikipedia

Preface/addendum
I didn't realize when writing this that Ron Johnson was the turnaround artist who did wonders for Target.  In essence, I'm comparing two Ron Johnson efforts -- one that succeeded beautifully and one that flopped.   As you read along, you might ask yourself why a strategy that worked so well at Target was such a disappointment at JCP.   -- blogSpotter, 4/24/2013

by blogSpotter

I’m actually at home, typing today’s blog article. Hail storms are in tonight’s forecast and I don’t care to play hail dent roulette with my cars.  I’m watching a Family Guy from its first season, noticing how differently the characters were drawn 14 years ago.  But I digress ..

TWO STORES

Unless you’ve been living on a desert isle, you’ve heard of the trials of JCPenney, the American department store that has recently lost a billion dollars and experienced a year over year sales decline of 28%.   JCP (as they now call themselves) hired away Apple’s Ron Johnson to be their CEO in June 2011.  JCP had already been struggling to become hip and relevant – the hope was that Ron Johnson would visit the chic, trendy minimalism of Apple Stores on the staid conservatism of JCP.

Obviously a high end electronics store is hard to compare with a department store – I’ll stand away from that apples-versus-oranges comparison.  Penney’s (in its previous life and nomenclature) was an American tradition in the same mold as Montgomery Wards and Sears.   It offered similar merchandise with value pricing, frequently serving as an anchor at popular shopping malls.  It was no-frills and no big surprises, but gave middle-American bargain shoppers a place to save money.  In the 1990’s and 2000’s, there was a sort of retrenchment – many mall locations closed and were replaced by stand-alone stores in popular shopping strips.    The new stores shed quite a bit; gone were such things as furniture or lawn and garden.   The stores more closely resembled Kohl’s with a heavy emphasis on clothing and bed linens.

JCP still comes across as a store for middle-aged yentas – looking maybe for a scarf, a table lamp and a pair of slacks.  It calls to mind such Texas traditions as Beall’s, Steinmart and Horchow Finale.  A new JCP opened in 2011 at Timber Creek plaza here in Dallas.  I strolled through the whole store and was personally underwhelmed.   Its extreme emphasis on women’s clothing and frilly house wares fairly restricts its audience to women.   The addition of upscale labels (Polo, Levis) still does little to combat my feeling of being out of place.  I really can’t imagine what would draw me back even with coupons and sales prices.

For contrast, the store I’d like to mention is Target – a chain which is making profits and expanding aggressively.  I must preface, Target is one of my favorite stores.   It carries many name brands but its store brand (e.g., in food and clothing) is hardly shabby.  The stores are colorful, clean, brightly lit and stylish.  The furniture is a pretty good knock-off of things you might find at West Elm or Crate & Barrel.  It has an in-store “Apple Store” to rival the Apple Store.  Let’s not forget that it also has Starbucks. Here are things I see at Target, absent or lacking at JCP:

• Groceries
• Furniture
• Lawn and garden
• Home electronics
• Toys
• Hardware

Target also offers value-minded people the Target RED card which gives an additional 4% savings on anything purchased with it  (on top of any sale prices already registered).  Not only does Target offer a wide range of wares, it gives a permanent shopping incentive to the bargain-minded (i.e. cheap people like me). JCP is wise to bring back the coupons, everything considered.

COUPONS

JCP was so intent and impatient to become Nordtstrom Lite, it momentarily forgot its value-oriented customer base.  JCP hoped that its "every day low prices" as hawked by Ellen DeGeneres commercials would be value enough.  In truth, doing away with coupons and sales did away with many of the customers.   I realize that my analysis here is armchair quarterbacking   -- we can all make the same kind of post-mortem remarks on someone’s missteps.   I think there’s some validity to it here.   

  

CONCLUSION

I’m not a marketing whiz and can’t explain this or that.  Radio Shack has always amazed me – selling overpriced items a year out of date.   Sears these days is a dark depressing tour through a shabby, Spartan space that looks like a thrift store. How do they stay in business?   Why haven’t they taken any notes from more successful competitors?  

I actually think that Ron Johnson has a good idea about where JCP needs to go – the stores do need to be reinvigorated and brightened up.  His store-within-a-store concept has worked well at Target.  I think his problem was miscalculating the departure point rather than the destination.  I hope for the sake of JCP and the local Dallas economy that something is worked out without the sale or dissolution of the whole company.

© 2013 blogSpotter

The Digital Piggy Goes to Market

This little piggy had roast beef, this little piggy had none - Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter

PROLOGUE

 It’s a cloudy, cool Saturday night in mid-May.  I got up from a nap 30 minutes ago, and I truly hope that this large coffee at Starbucks will wake me up completely.  Today’s blog entry is along the less controversial lines of shopping habits and preferences.  My nap-addled brain can do no better. I had an idea about Star Wars prequels but that will probably need to wait.  

 A-SHOPPING WE WILL GO …

 I went to Central Market today – the HEB-owned enterprise at Greenville and Lovers Lane.  I hadn’t been in about 12 years, since it opened.   At the time @ year 2000, I thought it was a confusing, claustrophobic maze that forced you through a winding itinerary of snobby wine samples and bread boutiques.   Passing by today, I noticed the parking lot was jammed as always.  Maybe I misjudged … in a dozen years it could’ve changed its layout.  

 I parked ¼ mile from the door and ventured in.   Much to my surprise it was still a confusing maze, with people lining up 5 carts deep to order brisket or gourmet cheese.  I can’t even imagine someone having that much time – it would surely take 3 hours to complete your shopping list. Even if you have epicurean tastes, Whole Foods and Tom Thumb can surely get you to gastronomical bliss a lot sooner.  The Central Market layout reminded me of IKEA with arrows pointing “the way” and shortcuts offered to the impatient such as me.

 Any readers out there who love this store – tell me why.  Convince me of what I’m missing … keep in mind that I’m even a shopaholic foodie who likes free samples.

 THE ITUNES STORE

 Moving along, lets look at another form of retail – the iTunes Store.  The digital media giant opened its doors in 2003, and eventually became the biggest music retailer in the nation.  Along the way, it added movies, TV shows, audio books, podcasts, and lecture series as well cross-platform support for media-starved Windows users.  (Linux and Android users must as always “suck it” – no easy shopping portal for you).

 The iTunes Store is a wonderful idea and I for one have hardly purchased a movie, book or album anywhere else in 5 years.  I have to say though, that this shopper’s paradise has become so huge and unwieldy it couldn’t help but have some trouble.  Jason Snell, editor of Macworld, pointed out that in his house iTunes routinely gets confused by iCloud versus local synchronization.  It also gets confused by his iPad versus his kid’s iPod.   iTunes has tried to be too many things to too many people, juggling too many balls in the air.   I won’t pilfer from Snell, I’ll share my own iTunes woes …

•  My Music collection has mostly wrong artwork.  My iPod songs show art from albums I never owned.
• I purchased “Best of Ottmar Liebert” – 15 greatest hits.   iCloud has given me 22 songs from two other albums, including many of those hits.   But that’s not what I bought.
• Just loading iTunes on a (relatively new, powerful) Windows PC, causes my machine to go into a 5-minute lockup.  What the h*** is it loading – maybe it could wait until I make a demanding request.

 Snell thinks they should break it apart into separate apps like iSynch for synching only or iPlayer for playback only.  I have to agree in general even  if I’m not totally sold on specifics.  The iTunes Store needs a massive iTune-up.   Like a Wall Street brokerage, this behemoth is “too big to fail” and yet it’s faltering an awful lot.   Apple – fix your cash cow before it develops any further mad cow derangement.   I love it too much to leave it, but Google isn’t sitting idly by…. Other people less devoted to Apple may be drawn to the charms of a simpler interface.    

        

© 2012 blogSpotter

Occupying Wall Street

When the rain comes ... - Picture courtesy of Lionsgate

by blogSpotter
I’m sitting in Starbucks on my 54th birthday...yes, I’m 54 years young. There has been so much weirdness in my life lately, I’ve fallen behind on my blog entries again. Will try to do a system reboot here at Starbucks ….

Quick Update on Android

After 6 months, I lost my LG Optimus V phone. Think it fell off my belt in a 7-11 parking lot on Harry Hines Blvd. To be honest, I wasn’t loving that phone … it had some issues. The 3G was slow and often unavailable. The pop-up keyboard had tiny little keys. The screen had lots of glare and the contrast was poor. Worst of all, the Android operating system has a rigidness to it that I never mastered – I kept exiting an app when I wanted to look at its menu options. Esthetically, Android OS reminds me of the spare Linux Ubuntu compared to the lush and beautiful Mac OS X. It was a prepaid, pay-as-you-go phone so the separation shouldn't be too traumatic. OK, enough about phones, let’s talk about Wall Street Occupation…

Margin Call

I just watched Margin Call with Kevin Spacey and Demi Moore. The movie is loosely based on actual events that transpired on Wall Street in 2008, just prior to the epic meltdown of September 14, 2008. My initial prejudice was that the movie might be wonkie and dull, appealing mainly to bean counters and political science majors. It wasn’t like that at all – it was a gripping, financial thrill ride that moved at a good pace. Nobody in the whole cast of characters is blameless but the shades of moral slippage go from light indiscretion (junior analysts following orders) to pure, vile nastiness (Jeremy Irons as CEO using people as collateral blame objects). A warning – there are aspects of this movie that may remind you of things still on-going. You may walk away feeling like you need to occupy Wall Street yourself. This leads me to me next topic…

Occupying Wall Street

Ann Coulter who is my favorite mean-mouthed conservative wench wrote a hilarious piece recently about the Occupy Wall Street movement. Though I’m from the opposite side of the political aisle from her, I have to agree with Ann. Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is without a leader and is without a manifesto. Its members are all over the map in their opinions – sometimes at odds with each other. Some are staunch pro-Obama liberals and some are libertarians angry about Obamacare. When I saw their profiles in Newsweek, I saw jobs like performance artist, life coach and unemployed actor. These don’t sound like people who would ever be working at anything resembling an office job in the concrete jungle.

I like the idea of OWS in general, but am an overly practical, middle-aged guy. I think OWS should have structure, goals and leadership. I know that rains on the parade of 20-something potheads who are mad at …the men who did … that thing… that was really bad. I totally support their right for civil disobedience – carry on. But do it with some semblance of knowledge and direction. I have my own thoughts about Wall Street and why it’s so discouraging…

Nobody went to jail – The only people who have done time are over-the-top con artists like Bernie Madoff. Where is anyone being held accountable for the largest loss of national net worth in history?

The insiders were recycled back into the Bush/Obama Administrations – What of people like Ben Bernanke, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and Henry Paulson. These men weren’t necessarily directly involved in the 2008 debacle but their fingerprints are all around it. Why do we keep having the foxes watch the hen house? What was clear from the 2008 events (and made clear in Margin Call) is that many people in business and government saw the disaster coming. The insiders’ last 2-3 months were spent with damage control, blame mitigation, and how to break it to the public.

There were already laws on the books – My first impulse in 2008 was to say, “There ought to be a law!”. There were and are a host of laws – there should’ve been 3 layers of protection. But when SEC, Federal Reserve, Attorneys General and so many others turn a collusive blind eye, it doesn’t matter what laws were on the books. Why weren’t the laws enforced?

This is late 2011, and basically nothing has been done to rescue or mend the situation of 2008. The only reason it hasn’t happened again is that the American public has a newly cynical attitude – American’s are actually in a mode of frugality right now, much like Japan in its "lost decade".

I’ll close by saying to Occupy Wall Street – Keep it up! Wall Street needs to be occupied. But academia, the White House and Congress might also need occupy themselves – with a greater sense of what “doing the right thing” means in the aftermath of 2008.

© 2011 blogSpotter

In Search of a Lost Decade

Japan in better days (1856) -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
For an American looking at 1990’s Japan, it’s a little like looking into a reflective pond, with a few minor details changed. Japan of 1989 was on a massive borrowing binge, fueled by easy credit and a powerful yen. Land speculation pumped Tokyo’s residential prices to thousands per square foot. The Nikkei index broke an all-time record in December 1989, reaching 38,957.44. Stocks and real estate were puffed into an unsustainable bubble that burst, leading to a market crash as well as a credit crisis. Does any of this sound familiar?

The events that followed created what I call a “sloth market” -- neither bull nor bear. It was (and is) more a moss-covered, sleepwalking mammal clinging to a branch. The Finance Ministry bailed out companies “too big to fail”; some of these propped-up enterprises were called “zombies” as they became the walking dead, never to regain profitability. The cautious Japanese also fell into a deflationary liquidity trap caused in part by their own frugality. There was retrenchment all around as businesses and families tightened their budgets. The Finance Ministry tried to finagle a recovery with 0% interest rates, to no avail.

Now we fast-forward to 2010 and what can we say? Japan never really recovered. The Nikkei only reached half its former height in 2007 before being knocked asunder by the same worldwide tsunami that took down Wall Street and most of Europe. As of this writing (and 21 years into Japan’s greed-induced coma), Japan is still laid low by insolvent banks that can’t issue loans while waiting for bad risks to turn around. Insolvent companies hire foreign contractors and fund any paltry improvements from their savings, not from loans.

All of this makes an American wonder if President Obama was right in suggesting that we might be headed to the same place. Japan’s crisis is not precisely a crisis -- their unemployment has never been as high as ours is now. It’s more like an Epstein-Barr virus that has given them (and us) a dull malaise that will neither kill us nor energize us. It will just take us down for an interminable nap time where factories and able-bodied men develop rusty joints and faulty wires.

I find it sad that purely capitalistic systems can only engage forward gear if someone is hitting a financial jackpot. Speaking as an unrepentant, Krugman-loving Keynesian, I can’t help but think that a Works Progress Program (a la FDR) could set us back on the right path. While Dow and Nikkei basically flatline, the Chinese are building airports, bridges and miles of new highway. Is any of China’s output pegged to a financial market index? Does it matter?

We in the USA have a Barnum and Bailey system that’s been based on gluttons who dream of getting rich quickly, be it with blue chip stocks, blue chips on a poker table or a 7-11 lottery ticket. The engine of work and progress is geared towards cranking out plasma TV’s and stainless steel appliances -- the material contrivances of the bored and the terminally uninspired. How tragic, ironic and altogether fitting it will be when somewhere down the road, the Chinese have bridges and plasma TV's to boot.

Can it be that forethought, fairness and sensible assessment might actually give you what you need? Fairness and forethought smack of socialism, it's true. I’m not recommending socialism outright -- it's possible to strike a balance between a command economy and one that's purely capitalistic. Harrah’s Casino is certainly not a model to admire. When the gamblers get wise and realize that probability and house rules don’t work to their advantage, they’ll quit placing bets.

Capitalism sputters and stalls when high rollers switch over to the slot machines. That looks like what happened in 1990's Japan and it bears an eerie resemblence to what we have here.

© 2010 blogSpotter

Remembering the Dream Machine

1956 DeSoto Firedome -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter

Let me preface this by saying that I love cars from a standpoint of style and culture -- I have absolutely no mechanical knowledge of cars. I know zip about pistons or transmissions. Nevertheless, some of these observations still stand. Pictured above is a 1956 DeSoto Firedome, one of the finest-looking cars ever made in my view. You could get it with A/C and power windows; it also came in 55 color combinations. The sweeping sheet metal, size and stature made the car almost have the eminence of a sculpture or a work of art.

The 1960’s brought a lot of heightened awareness about safety, ecology, fuel efficiency and such. Much of the critique was justified. In fact by the late 60’s and early 70’s we had rallied to the cause with better designed cars that still had style to spare (e.g., Ford LTD and Pontiac Grand Prix).

What happened after that is hard to describe, and differs from your vantage point. Stylistically we started making pimp-mobiles throughout the 1970’s -- ghastly creations with faux Rolls Royce grills and opera windows. We became status-aware and quality ignorant. Cars made it to show rooms with loose molding, runny paint jobs and engines poorly assembled. You’d like to say it was the low point but maybe not.

In the 1980’s we transitioned to square-looking Fairmonts and K cars -- then to jelly bean creations like the 1986 Ford Taurus (copying Audi style but not necessarily quality or engineering) . From the 1990’s thru the current period, cars could aptly be described as “competent boxes”. We improved on quality out of absolute necessity -- Japan was kicking American butt. But the awe-inspiring beauty of a DeSoto never returned. Whether you’re looking at a boxy Ford SUV or a Nissan sedan, you’re looking at a pleasant square carton, blandly painted in a 21st century non-color -- black, white, silver, gray or gold if you want to be daring.

Now it appears with Toyota’s recent recalls, that Japan may have taken exactly the wrong page out of the American auto experience. They've made a sacrifice of quality for sales volume, and still never displayed the pulse or the energy that once made cars (sold or built in America) so great as American cars in the Golden Era. Europe and Asia never glommed on to American style, but at least they inspired us with quality. Let’s hope that someday the twin virtues of beauty and reliability come back to us. It can be as a Dodge or a Toyota as long as it actually is.

If you look at where we're headed, the prospect is dimming for the 50's Dream Machine experience. Mass transit is coming more and more popular and that brings the impersonal presence of light rail cars. Bitsy smart cars and tiny hybrids are also becoming more le mode. It's not at all hard to envision a future where cars are autopiloted and don't even come with a steering wheel. In days to come (admittedly safer and less polluting days) we may fondly look back to a time when we actually commanded our own travel machines, and damn pretty machines they were.

CATCHING UP ON OTHER TOPICS ...

I’m a little behind again on my blogging, so will catch up on a few topics here at the close. All of these merit more than a catch-up sentence, but we do what we can do.

Aloha, Macbook -- When I updated my 2008 MacBook to Snow Leopard OS last October, I thought I was doing a good thing. I’ve been an early adaptor before, and never been bitten like this. The Airport function quit working and I lost my wireless internet connection. Mind you, everything else in my house using wi-fi continues to work fine -- two HP’s, an old mac mini as well as my iPod Touch. I searched the support groups to see an answer to “Invalid IP address” or “Self-assigned IP address”. I got a lot of bum feedback about needing a new router. I have a fairly new 2Wire router and I’m disinclined to throw it out because of one device upgrade gone bad. Hate to say, but after 6 weeks of messing with it I’ve boxed up the MacBook -- life is too short. It was a toy, more than anything else so it won’t be missed a great deal. It will go the way of eBay or be a donation to a relative.

I am Conando! -- I’m very sorry to see the big brouhaha with Conan, Leno and NBC. Sorry to see Conan leave; I knew that his conceptual humor might be a hard sell for early evening, general audiences. He may very well go to FOX (home of The Simpsons and The Cleveland Show), so he should be able to cut loose and really be NC-17 Conan again.

Scott Brown and Massachusetts -- Have to agree with Froma Harrop on this one. Brown’s election is not so much an indictment of Obama or an over-reaching Congress. It is indicative that these New England voters, who already have state health care, were afraid that they’d be double-charged on national health care. Congress should still carry on as they were, and try to hatch out a program for the rest of the nation. I do think that Obama has exhibited a weak, overly cautious leaderhip style that has been off-putting to many of his original supporters. Won't be surprised myself if he's a one-term President.

Samsung no longer the blues -- I was able to get the wireless “dongle” (suppress urge to giggle) even though it’s in short supply -- Samsung didn’t even have it at their warehouse. Best Buy did have a new shipment. I put one on hold and bought it. Have to say that Blockbuster and Pandora are great -- they will give Apple some competition and maybe merit another blog.

OK, all caught up! This is what happens when weather and work take me away from blogging.

© 2010 blogSpotter

The iPad has Landed

Ignore the nattering nabobs... -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Today’s blog is timely “fluff” until I finish some research on another article I’m working on. But of course it’s worth reading like all of my great blog entries. ;-)

After much hype and rumors galore, Steve Jobs finally introduced the iPad to an anxious, Apple-worshipping public. The device is much as trade papers had described -- a magazine-sized flat-panel device that runs Apple software and lets you read “print” media from the comfort of a couch. No need for a level desk surface, or even a steady seat.

The device has been greeted with ferocious criticism from the technoratti and here are just a few of the things found lacking in iPad:

Camera
Flash compatibility
GPS
USB Port
HDMI
Multitasking
Etc (the list goes on).

As if that’s not enough, some feminists are upset by the name “iPad” because they think it calls to mind feminine hygiene products. Give me a break on that – Stridex Pads have been around forever and have nothing to do with women’s monthly matters.

As to the technical complaints, I think a lot of people were expecting a tablet-style MacBook with all the bells and whistles of a Mac. I disagree with a lot of that anti-iPad negativity and here are three major features to recommend iPad:

1) Instant-On – Since it’s using the iPhone OS, I’m figuring it will be instant-on. Every time you turn it on, this should give you back two minutes of your life that would normally be spent watching a white apple emblem on a gray backdrop. I use my iPod touch to do quick checks on mail, weather and even crossword clues. It beats waiting on a computer to boot any day of the week.

2) $499 – Does everybody remember the MacBook Air from two years ago? The price was something like $2K. Early adaptors and tinkerers were immediately discouraged by the grandiose price. iPad (the 16GB wi-fi only version) is priced competitively with netbooks. $499 is pretty doable.

3) 9.7” bright screen display – I’m an Apple fan to be sure; I have a first generation iPhone and also an iTouch. I love them both – I like the Accelerometer and the Multi-touch feature. BUT I have middle aged eyes (see my previous blu-ray blog entry). Even using all the cool stretch and magnify features it can be very annoying to read a USA today article -- even with reading glasses. I’ll welcome a quick easy device where I don’t have to stretch the text – the text is already the right size.

I do have a couple of predictions about iPad – one good and one that will probably make Apple stand watch…

• iPod Touch sales will be cannibalized – I’ll probably ditch the iPod Touch since iPad does everything as well, only bigger and splashier. My iPod Touch never leaves the house – portability isn’t that big a deal. The iPad costs a little bit more and has more accessory options (as well as AT&T 3GS licensing fees later on) so maybe Apple doesn’t mind a little bit of cannibalism there.

• American business can probably make ample use of an iPad form factor – There are myriad tablet-style applications right now that use small monochrome displays w/ limited I/O capacity. (Think Palm handheld). I can pretty easily see iPads being adapted to dental offices and other places where fast boot-up and compact display matter a lot.

In sum – iPad has a lot of potential. Technoratti snobs and N.O.W. will also come around to it once they give it a try. After all, no good deed goes unpunished or unaccompanied by negative reviews.

© 2010 blogSpotter

Redbox Killed the Video Store

The little red box that could... -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Redbox LLC is a company that specializes in vending machine retail of DVD's. I recently started seeing these "red boxes" popping up at various familiar places around town -- HEB, Walgreens and Wal-Mart to name a few. Thought nothing much of it; I currently rent movies from Apple TV which is the ultimate in butt-on-the-couch convenience if you don't mind the $2.99 rental fee for a standard-definition movie. Netflix offers a similar service with the Roku set-top box -- customers can rent and stream a movie to the TV without leaving the house (or even the couch).

Not everyone can afford Netflix or Apple TV -- both of these services have hefty entry fees (purchase of the set-top box) or a monthly service charge. When I recently visited my Mother in Round Rock, she lamented that her favorite Hollywood Video was being shuttered. She doesn't have Netflix or Apple and the nearest Blockbuster is a ways away from her house. We were in a bit of a quandary until we saw the Redbox summoning us at a nearby Walgreens.

Several things amazed me right off that bat. The vending machine has an easy, intuitive interface with a huge selection of recently released movies available for rent. More amazing is the price structure:

$1/movie per night.
$1/night late fee.
After 25 nights, you’ve purchased the movie for $25.00.

All transactions are Debit or Credit card; you can get a receipt and track late fees if you supply an optional email ID. My Mom and I rented 3 movies (Wolverine: X-Men for me, Management and another chick flick for her). Total cost with tax, for 3 new movies: $3.25.

That same 3 movies would run about $9.71 from Apple or Blockbuster. They’d be cheaper on Netflix but since most of Netflix movies are mailed you have a very delayed movie gratification. Apple, Blockbuster and Netflix have the advantage of selection depth. If I want Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Redbox won’t have it. I discovered one other Redbox drawback when returning my movies; there can only be one person served at a time. All I wanted to do was return 3 movies – had to be patient and let the customer make his careful choices. It was lightly misting so I got to get wet while I waited.

Redbox had a little hiccup when 3 movie studios (Universal, 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers) thought that Redbox’s cheap prices would eat into their own sales. The studios put in a 28-day delay for new releases, prompting a suit from Redbox. As of this writing, the suit is still active, advantage Redbox. Looks like the studios’ actions could be seen as monopolistic although the jury is still out.

CONCLUSION
If you are a person “of means” you might like Apple TV best of all. You have a huge selection with instant streaming delivery to your TV. You don’t even have to put down the popcorn or the remote control. Netflix is a middling choice – I personally don’t want to wait for a movie to be mailed to me. Blockbuster is becoming less and less relevant (except for their own DVDPlay vending machines which compete with Redbox). Very shortly the only customer base for Blockbuster will be technology-challenged old people or the economically disadvantaged who can’t afford broadband.

What does that leave at the “economy” end of the DVD rental market? It leaves Redbox of course. People will brave the wind, rain and occasional waits to rent fantastic movies at $1 a pop. Chances are, you have a Redbox machine at the end of your street. And chances are, after you see the amazing convenience and selection to be had, you’ll be a Redbox convert.

ADDENDUM
This blog has some erroneous info and I need to amend it. First a simple factual correction -- the Netflix box is Roku not Roxio as stated earlier.

Also, Apple appears to have the 20+ day delay on current movie releases. Several movies now on redbox won't be available for rent from Apple until mid-November. Frequently the Apple movie server is slow and your movie selection isn't available to view until hours after it's been rented. This makes the "instant gratification" factor cited above way less important and less accurate. Apple is still great -- when it serves up the movie quickly or it's the exact movie someone is looking for. But redbox is looking better all the time.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Perez in the Springtime

Giving us the scoop and some doodles -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Why do I envy Perez Hilton? Because the nonchalant, 30 year-old publicity hound is one of the world’s most successful bloggers. His real name is Mario Lavandeira and he was born to Cuban American parents in ’78. He’s worn many hats already in his short career. He’s been a GLAAD publicity agent, actor, receptionist and managing editor of Instinct magazine. He finally struck pay dirt with his on-line gossip rag, http://perezhilton.com.

The web site leverages off of Hilton’s LA celebrity connections -- many photos are originals from events that Perez personally attends. Hilton claims the site has received 8.5 million hits in one day, a staggering number. (That would probably bring my site down). His “stage name” Perez Hilton is an obvious play on Paris Hilton -- a devoted BFF who receives a lot of promotional build-up on Perez’s site.

Others are not so fond of Perez -- his site has been drawn into much controversy. He’s been accused various things -- falsely reporting Castro’s death, playing copyrighted music of Britney Spears, and defaming an LA DJ by reporting a drug arrest. One of his biggest ongoing controversies is the outing of GLBT celebrities who aren’t ready for the spotlight. He so far has maintained that the outing is perfectly OK although civil litigation begs to differ.

The latest Perez brouhaha has been the Miss California controversy where he, as a judge, asked the perky bimbette her opinion on gay marriage. She replied that marriage should be between one man and one woman. There was a media storm that followed when Miss California lost the competition (as a result of how she answered the gay marriage question?). Perez poured gasoline on the fire by referring to Miss California as a “dumb bitch” on his blog… The controversy whip-sawed a different direction when it turned out that Miss California had posed for some topless photos earlier in her career. (“It was windy”).

The bombastic "angel of mercy" Donald Trump gave Miss California a break for her tawdriness, probably hoping to quell the prior controversy with a little after-the-fact forgiveness, letting her keep the title.

Stir, stir, stir. What have we with Perez? We have an extreme, successful far-out-of-the-closet gossip maven who knows how to “work it” from a business standpoint. Closeted gays and Christian conservative models would probably do well to stay out of his way. And 5-hits-a-day blogSpotter would do well to capture any part of Perez’s momentum or business know-how.

© 2009 blogSpotter

The Great Burger Sweeps

#1 -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
With today's blog, I'm entering a consumer reporting category that I've not done before. My views here are totally unscientific, opinionated and oriented towards me. However, I know the topic pretty well and have a good sense of what's right, foodwise. I'll also preface this by admitting that I love fast food. I think it can be very convenient and nutritional; those of us who like an occasional visit to "Jack in the Crack" will momentarily need to tune out the food snobs who have such low regard for high calorie, soul-satisfying carbs.

I live in East Dallas, so my reviews are oriented towards the major places close by me. I have an "honorable mention" section to single out great chains that weren't ranked because: they don't qualify as fast food, they're not ubiquitous chains, not big in Texas, or (to be frank) I haven't gone enough to form a good impression. With all that being said, let's get on with the greasy burger ranking...

#1 -- Whataburger
This chain has a fairly limited menu and dated concept. That being said, their food is by far the best, the restaurants are clean and the service is friendly. Caveats: the food is cooked fresh, made to order so it might take a solid 10 minutes to get your food. Go somewhere else if you're "jonesing" for an immediate food fix.


#2 -- Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

#2 -- Wendy’s
Wendy’s has a sprawling menu that allows you all kinds of healthy choices and side substitutions. My blog is focused mainly on burgers so I don't really care all that much about the healthy aspect of it. Wendy's burgers are pretty darn good, the restaurant is clean and the service is lightening fast. This puts Wendy's as a close #2 behind Whataburger.

#3 -- McDonalds
McDonalds used to be the gold standard of fast food hamburger restaurants -- they still have probably the best fries and shakes on the market. They are an enduring emblem of American capitalism, with a worldwide reach and some of the best commercial jingles around. BUT (and you knew it was coming) my last few trips to McDonalds have been frustrating. It's chaotic to tell who's waiting on me or who's next -- the lines are hard to gauge. Also, the one nearest me has had dirty tables and/or whole sections of the restaurant cordoned off (with mops and buckets?) for cleaning I suppose. IMOH, the whole restaurant should be pretty clean, well-lighted and available for seating, if the dining room is open.

#4 -- Jack in the Box
Jack in the Box has terrific commercials let me say. They also have pretty clean restaurants and good service. What they don't have is food that tastes very good, and that's the business they're in. I had a Panini sandwich there that tasted vaguely like Ajax. I've had French fries that were rubbery in texture and in taste. How can you even do that to a potato? There might be something in the recipe our military could use for weaponry.

#5 -- Burger King
How the mighty have fallen -- BK used to be my favorite -- back in the 80's. Since then, I think they had some changes in management, and all did not go well. My past few experiences have included dodgy, nay bad service. The cashier doesn't speak English well, or is bantering with another employee. Restaurant is dirty along with the restroom. I went to one where my tennis shoes made a clicking sound with each step -- there was such an accumulation of spilled catsup and soda pop on the floor. On top of all that, the food was poorly prepared and rashly assembled. They got my order wrong @ 25% of the time. It was bad in every major category. Maybe the BK branches close to me are lacking and I don't have a good sample ... who knows?

HONORABLE Mentions. The following are worth checking out; they just aren't widespread or frequent enough in my own dining experiences...
o Burger Street -- small chain w/ delicious (albeit salty) burgers, limited seating
o Braum's -- Family restaurant, not really fast food, wide variety of items on menu
o Carl Junior's -- California chain, recently come to Texas (not been there myself)
o Dairy Queen -- Delicious food and desserts, but hard to spot one in Dallas close to where I live
o Snuffer's -- Delicious burgers and fries in a pleasant "fern bar" ambience
o Sonic -- Good, but a little put off by the service model. Good food though
o White Castle -- Some people (Harold and Kumar?) swear by this -- not big in Texas

© 2009 blogSpotter

Ted, Transfigured

He needs no colorization ... -- Picture courtesy of Grand Central Publishing

by blogSpotter
70 year-old Ted Turner is a well-known media entrepreneur -- actually something of a living media legend. In earlier, feisty career phases, he was called “Mouth of the South”. As you will see, he saw the light and started speaking words of wisdom on the road to World Media Domination. Mr. Turner had a vantage point that only a multibillionaire could have, and he used it to everyone’s advantage. His book “Call Me Ted” illuminates this amazing butterfly transformation.

Ted was born to a successful Georgia car salesman & billboard magnate -- he wasn’t entirely “self-made”. His father Ed probably had a net worth of @ 1 million at the time of his death. Ted’s mother Florence was a quiet matron and barely receives mention in his book. Reading between the lines, Ted’s family wasn’t close. His parents dispatched him to boarding schools (McCallie) and military academies throughout his childhood. His one younger sister died from complications of Lupus when she was only 17. Ted’s personal tragedies were compounded when his parents divorced and then his chronically depressed father killed himself with a shotgun, later in mid-life. 24 year-old Ted was left holding the reigns of Turner Billboards. Ted had just been expelled from Brown (for having a girl in his room) and never finished a college degree. Many associates thought that the young “punk” was too small for the task of running his Dad‘s company but the manic Ted proved them very, very wrong.

It would take 70 pages to enumerate all of Ted’s business and life successes so I’ll just touch on the highlights:

o He expanded Turner Billboards into Turner radio advertising and then into Turner broadcasting
o He decided to expand the reach of his Atlanta Turner station beyond the South (considered a technical impossibility at that time) -- he defied the naysayers and created a satellite uplink company for Atlanta and harnessed the power of then-new cable signaling.
o Moved mountains as necessary -- sued RCA when they wouldn’t offer alternative satellite coverage (after a new satellite designated for CNN crashed). Sued the U.S. government when CNN was barred from being part of the White House Press Corp (won both lawsuits).
o Turner’s new Super Station concept rewrote the industry rules and forced changes in national TV ad rates as well as cable fee structure
Turner innovated 24-Hour news, all-movie channels and a cartoon network along with other new concepts
o In addition to his many business successes Turner was an avid sailor and won the America’s Cup for sailboat racing in 1977.
o Turner purchased the Atlanta Braves in 1976, initially as a ploy to attract viewers to his channels. In the process he became involved in the coaching and helped them to become Series winners (albeit many years later)

Turner ran into rough waters in the early 90’s and what some might call his undoing was really his “doing”. He wanted to vertically integrate Turner Broadcasting, which possibly entailed acquisitions of a movie studio, a broadcast network and/or other big venues. Turner didn’t have the resources and allowed a merger with Time-Warner to provide the needed capital. Turner quickly lost influence in the merged company -- CEO Jerry Levine gradually moved Turner out of all network decisions and basically into a non-acting role “down the hall“. Turner feels that he was vilified for predicting a dot-com meltdown and for seeing problems in the merger with a hugely over-valued AOL. Turner was right, and Levine was eventually given the boot (in essence) but Ted, Time Warner’s largest share holder at the time, was tired of the whole affair and sold his shares soon after. It’s estimated that Turner lost 7 billion dollars in the entire sequence of events -- leaving him a relative pauper with only a billion or so left.

Unlike many other wealthy moguls, Turner’s success gave him pause -- how much megalomania do I really need to demonstrate? Can I make a qualitative as well as a quantitative difference? Starting in 1986, Ted embarked on a series of philanthropic actions that have truly transformed the world:

o CNN hosted the Good Will games of 1986 (and later years) so that athletes who were shut out because of the 1980/1984 Olympic boycotts could compete. These games are thought to have advanced détente with the USSR.
o In the early 1990’s, Turner donated $1 billion to the United Nations, founding the United Nations Foundation. In addition to fighting disease, hunger and overpopulation, Ted’s donation shamed other mega wealthy people into giving more money.
o Ted purchased over 2 million acres of ranch land with the express purpose of restoring habitat and endangered species.

Ted married the beautiful and oft-controversial Jane Fonda in 1991. She was his third wife. In his book, he makes little mention of his mother or first two wives. Again, reading between the lines I can tell that Fonda was the late-September love of his life. Though they divorced in 2000, he discusses her at length, and still professes his love for her. She still lives near him in Atlanta and serves on a couple of his non-profit boards. The divorce was probably more due to incompatible lifestyles than any disrespect -- they both appear to still enjoy quite a bit of each other’s company. Turner said that he was raised in a conservative Republican household and never questioned those ideals growing up. As he became ensnared in the hustle-bustle of business he started to realize that supposed "conservative values" did not really suit him. He states that Jane Fonda was both brave and right in her anti-war stance. He admired her fortitude then and admires it now.

Turner’s most recent enterprise has been a chain of Steak Restaurants (let’s ignore the fact that they serve bison). His other efforts are largely philanthropic -- fighting pollution, global warming, overpopulation and disease. Turner has become solid friends with the progressive community (Al Gore, Tom Hanks et al). In the near completion of his political/intellectual metamorphosis, he embraces Democratic politicians and their causes. Ted has been to the mountain and back -- it is good to know that with all his capacities and experience, he’s settled into a lifestyle of giving, caring and loving our troubled world back to health.

© 2009 blogSpotter

It's All a Ponzi Scheme

What Madoff Made Off with? -- Picture courtesy of Yahoo

by blogSpotter
America was shocked, simply shocked when 70 year old investment strategist Bernard Madoff was recently arrested. The genial, well-liked and well-connected businessman was charged by the FBI with the largest investment fraud ever perpetrated by a single individual -- 50 billion dollars. How could this pillar of society who formerly chaired the NASDAQ stock exchange do something so heinous? The grandfatherly Madoff headed his own well-regarded investment security firm from 1960 until his arrest this year; who would've dreamed it?

Madoff made off with money from some of the most prestigious (and usually financially savvy) people and groups; among those sucked in: HSBC Bank, Lappin Foundation (its 401K) and even several celebrities including Kevin Bacon. People who normally know better, knew worse. Consider the following "mommilies":

"If it seems too good to be true it probably is".
"Water doesn't flow up hill".
"There's no such thing as a free lunch".

Why do the platitudes of the wise seem to lose their influence when needed the most? I have more news for everyone so shocked; it's all a Ponzi scheme. Wall Street itself is a Ponzi scheme. I've often wondered why people of the early-21st century have been so eager to privatize Social Security -- thus using their retirement for a Day at the Races. Let's look at the definition of Ponzi Scheme from dictionary.com:

“Ponzi scheme - a pyramid investment swindle in which supposed profits are paid to early investors from money actually invested by later participants”

If you replace “swindle” with “arrangement”, that’s basically how all stocks and mutual funds behave. The investment houses can make no promises about what the returns will be, but they’re certainly glad to take your money, the money of a new investor, up front. Greater pyramids were never built in Egypt, and all of this is legal. It is the very definition of how it works.

In his defense, Madoff did nothing but add more blur to an already blurry line – he only did ‘what was in his nature’ and what is in the nature of unbridled capitalists everywhere.

In my quasi-socialistic, deterministic mind-set I like gains that are measured, modest and within reason. Fixed rates are preferable to variable rates. Low, guaranteed returns are preferable to speculative big returns. The tortoise predictably beats the hare, according to Aesop’s fable -- there's no disagreement there. And in the bullshit world of high finance, pyramids come tumbling down.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Spotlight on Henry Paulson

Strange Fascination's Man of the Year? -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
In a recent column, op ed columnist Paul Krugman despaired that there are no adults present to handle our current banking crisis. In his article titled “Where are the Grownups?”, Krugman was dismissive and critical of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. He said that Paulson’s $700 billion bailout would benefit his cronies, and that Paulson is partly to blame for the current crisis.

I’m generally a liberal who concurs with other liberals – I might choose to close ranks with a liberal columnist in lambasting a conservative leader. However in this case, Krugman is way off-base. His reaction to the proposed bailout is fairly knee-jerk, like reactions we’ve had from both the far left and the far right. (More about that in a minute).

As a former CEO of Goldman Sachs and as a former staff assistant under the Nixon administration, Paulson’s conservative credentials are pretty substantial. But Paulson actually has some liberal credentials too. He as done work for the Nature Conservancy, and worked toward solving global warming and as well as saving endangered bird species. Other items in Pauson's mini-biography color in more details -- he is a serious, thoughtful and accomplished man. Pauslon is a devoted Christian Scientist; he distinguished himself early on in life as a Dartmouth Phi Beta Kappa and an All American offensive lineman.

Paulson isn’t proposing to make America socialistic – his personal ideals are not aligned that way. Also, he isn’t trying to give the store back to rich financiers who already “pissed it away” the first time. Rather, he is working toward a bipartisan solution that will save our banks from a credit crisis – a matter that affects every living American with a bank or retirement account.

Paulson is reaching across the aisle with such "intimidating" Democrats as Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank to help ensure that some of the debt can be recovered, struggling home owners can stay in their homes, and that nefarious tycoons get salary caps along with much-needed bank regulations. None of this sounds bad to me – it sounds pretty reasonable in fact. The solution will be painful and costly no matter what – that’s what we get for laissez-faire management and lax rules.

We’ve had many trials throughout American history. If we’re lucky someone steps into the role to steer the ship to a safe harbor. For the first few months of the Civil War, we had no Lincoln but one finally came to the fore. Paulson isn’t an elected official, nor is he running, but I think we have a captain nonetheless.

© 2008 blogSpotter