August 2006 Archives

Let's see now...

Dumb-ass doc-com name? Check.
Unclear revenue stream? Check.
Poor understanding of user behavior? Check.
Windows-only dumb-ass DRM? Check.

Add 'em all up, and you get this:

Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, has agreed to make its entire library of songs available for free Internet download as long as consumers watch advertisements while downloading the tune.

The experiment between Universal Music and New York startup SpiralFrog marks a significant shift for an industry that has long sought to force people to pay for music.

SpiralFrog will allow people to download any Universal Music song free of charge, as long as they watch one 90-second advertisement per song. Video downloads will require viewing a two-minute ad. Additionally, users must log onto the Web site once a month and watch additional ads or the songs cease to play.

In return, users can listen to songs, ad-free, as many times as desired on a computer, portable music player or music-enabled cell phone equipped with Microsoft Windows digital rights management software.

However, the service will not work with Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh computers or its market-leading iPod music players.

Um... yeah. The kids'll really dig it, they think!

SpiralFrog hopes that young consumers will be attracted to the service because it's free.

"The currency we're using is time," SpiralFrog Chairman Joe Mohen said. "Young people are already downloading free songs illegally on peer-to-peer networks. We believe that advertisers will pay to show those consumers ads, and that those payments will rival what music companies get from iTunes or other online retailers."

Again, the catch:

SpiralFrog's site is expected to go online this year. When it does, users will be able to save downloaded tunes to a hard drive or portable music player. They won't be allowed to burn songs to a CD. Users also will have to visit the SpiralFrog Web site once a month to watch more ads. Otherwise, digital locks on the music will make it inaccessible.

Not to mention — how the heck are they going to make that much money on advertising?

Personally, I'm sticking to Emusic, and tunes that I can play anywhere.

On a side note: what the heck kind of name is SpiralFrog? Is the new trend to add a movement or direction to an animal's name, run the two words together, and call it a company? In that case, I'd better hop on the bandwagon! Here are some suggestions. Remember, you saw them here first!

DownwardDog (oops, the Yoga folks came up with that one first)
DiagonalZebra
PerpendicularPuma
DescendingDalmatian
UpYourAssCheetah

So there are your names! Sorry, if you want to come up with a dumb business idea to go with, you're on your own...

He had a history of mental illness. And he just got married last month. Normally a nice guy, by many people's accounts. Not this Tuesday!

Also, for somebody who likes cars and works on them (he was training to be an auto repair person) he wasn't a very good driver... lots of traffic violations.

Weird.

Not a huge surprise, since he was 94, but I was sad to read that Naguib Mahfouz had passed away. My grandmother introduced me to his novels about 15 years ago — the Cairo Trilogy is great. (I should reread it...)

Ninety-five people have been murdered in Oakland this year.

What a fucking asshole.

SAN FRANCISCO -- As many as 14 people were injured this afternoon by a motorist who drove around San Francisco deliberately running them down before being arrested by police, who believe the same driver struck and killed a man earlier today in Fremont.

He drove ONTO THE SIDEWALK in his black SUV. He hit kids and old people. Wanker.

I've been getting a lot of these messages from an entity called "Fifth Third Bank".

An interesting twist is that the email isn't text -- it's an embedded image designed to LOOK like text.

Dear Fifth Third Bank client,

The Fifth Third Bank Technical Department is performing a scheduled software
upgrade to improve the quality of the banking services. By clicking on the link below you will begin the procedure of the user details confirmation.

{link omitted}

These instructions are to be sent to and followed by all Fifth Third Bank clients.
We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for cooperation.

Fifth Third Bank Technical Service

I thought they'd made up "Fifth Third Bank" — what kind of silly-ass name is that for a bank? But they exist:

Fifth Third Bank is a financial services bank serving Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Florida, Michigan, and West Virginia markets.

Then there's this one from "Wellsfargo":

Dear Wellsfargo Customer,

We regret to inform you that we had to lock your wellsfargo account access because we have reasons to believe that it may have been compromised by outside parties. In order to protect your sensitive information, we temporarily suspended your account access. This is a fraud prevention measure meant to ensure that your account is not compromised. We encourage you to log in and restore full access as soon as possible. Never reveal your password to another person. You should periodically change your password in the User Option screen of online banking. Regularly check your bank, credit and debit card statements to ensure that all transactions are legitimate. Please click on the link below to complete the verification process and restore full access to your account:

http://www.wellafargo/customerserviceonline.html

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
Sincerely,
Wellsfargo Customer Service

Regards

Wellsfargo Bank and its affiliates.

Yep... they didn't even bother to try to spell "Wells Fargo" correctly... wonder how many people they'll snag?

Like...

WHY THE FUCK AREN'T THERE DECENT SUSHI DELIVERY SERVICES IN OAKLAND!?!?!?!!?!

Ahem.

Excuse me.

When I was a kid, my mom did all her grocery shopping at the Co-op in North Berkeley. Nice place, from what I remember. It has long since become a fancy-schmancy Andronico's. Sure, the Cheese Board is doing a brisk trade, but the idea of grocery store as cooperative enterprise is long past.

Except where it isn't.

Fledgling Grocery Pledges Quality Goods at Affordable Prices

Berkeley, CA (August 1, 2006) - A group of local Berkeley and Oakland residents is launching a food cooperative, the Berkeley Cooperative Grocery (the CoG), in early 2007. The CoG’s mission is to serve residents of the Bay Area by offering reasonably priced food and products that are sustainably sourced.

Quality and affordability are the two main tenets of the CoG. Its founding members state that “The CoG believes that every person has the right to affordable food and goods that are healthy and sustainably sourced.” Further, they proclaim that such food and products “should not be the choice of a few, but an affordable standard for every individual.”

The average for-profit grocery routinely marks up organic items as much as 100% above wholesale. As a nonprofit, the CoG plans to sell the same high-quality brands as other health- and environmentally minded stores at a much reduced markup (only enough to cover operating expenses).

How can it afford to do this? Traditional groceries spend about 70% of their revenue on labor. At the CoG, every member will be required to work approximately 2 1/2 hours a month in areas such as purchasing, stocking, child care, marketing, and Web maintenance. This keeps payroll expenses to a minimum and permits the co-op to offer products at a substantial savings. The goal is to have at least 75% of the co-op be run by members, with a staff comprising no more than 25%. The CoG also plans to accept food stamps and offer low-income membership investments once the store is up and running.

Requiring members to work not only keeps payroll expenses to a minimum, it also reflects a democratic system. In a true co-op each member gets one vote on every major decision, so it stands to reason that the workload be shared equally as well. In addition, says board member Shannon Kelly, “A sense of community and cooperation is gained from each member contributing to the co-op. Members take pride in the cleanliness of the co-op, get involved in suggesting new products, and feel as though their contributions are actually making a difference in their store and in their community.”

Members must also pay a one-time $25 fee and make a $100 investment to the co-op, which is refundable if the member chooses to leave the co-op (the investment may be paid in monthly installments). These charges cover overhead, administrative costs, supplies, and facilities.

The $100 investment may be too steep a barrier for a lot of people, unfortunately... neat idea though! I hope they succeed. (If the prices are good enough, I'm going to be tempted...)

Why, oh why, would any but the most demented spammer think people would respond positively to a message with the subject line "fecal"?*

*out of curiosity, I did preview it in Gmail, and the contents seemed to be a text dump from some short story, and an image touting some stock "pump and dump" scheme.

Taking this "Jews should have supported Joe Lieberman" argument to its logical conclusion, I should now start defending people I totally have no point of agreement with or find totally revolting — Leona Helmsley for example (O.K., not fair, she's dead) — because they're female and I am female!??!

He lost because Barbra Streisand's highly publicized contribution to Lamont and because of the number of Jews who hated Bush and the war more than they loved Joe. That's why he lost, and I don't get it.

Erm, yeah. On one side we have a president who in his previous job made fun of a woman on death row, has gutted programs I care about, has launched two wars that aren't going so well, has divided this country in myriad ugly ways, has sanctioned torture, and, let's face it, is generally a bit of an incompetent prick. Oh yeah, and war. What is it good for? Huh. Absolutely nothing! Say it again, y'all! Yeah, two rather hateworthy targets there. On the other hand, we have Joe Lieberman, who is at best, kind of a genial schlub with some decent accomplishments on his record, and a lot of recent disappointments, and a tendency to back the wrong horse rather consistently the last few years. Not a lot to love. Why is this columnist surprised?

Oh, and if you keep reading, there are some rather revolting generalizations and stereotypes. I thought only anti-Semites used terms like "cosmopolitan Jews" but I guess I was wrong.

This columnist over at TPM Cafe says:

Editorial from today's NY Times: "The most frightening thing about the foiled plot to use liquid explosives to blow up airplanes over the Atlantic is that both the government and the aviation industry have been aware of the liquid bomb threat for years but have done little to prepare for it. What saved everyone was apparently superb intelligence work by the British, who apprehended the terrorists before they could carry out their scheme. It is unlikely that any of the scanning machines or screening personnel deployed at airports would have detected the potentially destructive materials before they could be carried aboard."

In other words, the Bush administration is not even meeting the bare requirements of fighting a war on terrorism: arming us to fight technologies they know are out there and which terrorists will use to kill us. It's just like it's ignoring the container ship issue. I wonder how many other of these technologies are out there which DHS knows about and does nothing to thwart.

This is a natural issue for the Dems to use in the fall. But I see no evidence they will. As other posters have written, the Dems have allowed the GOP to own the terrorism issue. Most of them (not all) shrink from criticizing the administration on this because they are scared. In their hearts, they think the Repubs are more credible on terrorism so they keep quiet.

That is why Bush never had to answer for being asleep at the switch on 9/11. And it's why the GOP, and not the Dems, are likely to benefit in November from exposure of the UK plot.

To put it simply. If Dems allow the GOP to use the terrorist issue against them, they do not deserve to control Congress or the White House.

And this is the NY Times editorial... which starts criticizing the Bush administration for falling asleep at the wheel on this one, but then inexplicably seems to applaud airlines for not letting people bring anything on the planes at all... ever again?

That makes us wonder if aviation authorities may have inadvertently hit on the wisest approach in their stopgap response to this latest plot. The Transportation Security Administration banned virtually all liquids and gels from carry-on luggage. That includes beverages, shampoos, toothpaste and other common items — everything but baby formula and medicines, and those have to be inspected.

Some passengers have complained about the inconvenience, and many more might complain if they were not allowed to keep their iPods, cellphones or laptops with them. But forcing passengers to check most of their items and bring very little aboard with them might be the surest and cheapest route to greater security.

Attention people: you do not want me on a plane without any water to drink or anything to read. You really, really, don't.

Guess I won't be flying for a while... but I knew that already, for other reasons!

"I am disappointed not just because I lost, but because the old politics of partisan polarization won today. For the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot and will not let that result stand." So sayeth Joe Lieberman.

Excuse me? You got beaten by another Democrat because you disappointed the voters in Connecticut. I'm sure that comment just sealed the deal.

Oh yeah... and if getting beaten by a Democrat is partisan polarization... what party does Joe Lieberman think he belongs to, anyway?

Next time I get frustrated with the political situation here, or get sad about people moving out of the Bay Area because of soaring housing prices, I should reread this journal entry to put it all in perspective.

At least I'm not in Baghdad.

I have nothing against the hijab, of course, as long as it is being worn by choice. Many of my relatives and friends wear a headscarf. Most of them began wearing it after the war. It started out as a way to avoid trouble and undue attention, and now they just keep it on because it makes no sense to take it off. What is happening to the country?

I realized how common it had become only in mid-July when M., a childhood friend, came to say goodbye before leaving the country. She walked into the house, complaining of the heat and the roads, her brother following closely behind. It took me to the end of the visit for the peculiarity of the situation to hit me. She was getting ready to leave before the sun set, and she picked up the beige headscarf folded neatly by her side. As she told me about one of her neighbors being shot, she opened up the scarf with a flourish, set it on her head like a pro, and pinned it snuggly under her chin with the precision of a seasoned hijab-wearer. All this without a mirror- like she had done it a hundred times over… Which would be fine, except that M. is Christian.

f M. can wear one quietly- so can I.

I’ve said goodbye this last month to more people than I can count. Some of the ‘goodbyes’ were hurried and furtive- the sort you say at night to the neighbor who got a death threat and is leaving at the break of dawn, quietly.

Some of the ‘goodbyes’ were emotional and long-drawn, to the relatives and friends who can no longer bear to live in a country coming apart at the seams.

Many of the ‘goodbyes’ were said stoically- almost casually- with a fake smile plastered on the face and the words, “See you soon”… Only to walk out the door and want to collapse with the burden of parting with yet another loved one.

Puts Mel in his place; puts the whole thing in perspective.

So it surprised me to read where an L.A. rabbi invited Gibson to speak to his congregation on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the most sacred of all Jewish holidays.

Sure, Gibson had apologized for his remarks and reached out to the Jewish community. That is not uncommon after a high-profile misstep: It's called damage control. Yet, according to news reports, Rabbi David Baron of a Beverly Hills synagogue called the Temple of the Arts, invited Gibson to speak so that "you might directly express to the Jewish community your remorse."

I have a better idea. Leave the remorse on Yom Kippur between Jews and God, which is the holiday's intention. And let Gibson figure out his own demons.

Otherwise, you elevate this guy to a status that he didn't deserve before and doesn't deserve now. The biggest mistake in the whole Mel Gibson deal is to keep making the same mistake over and over.

"How can Mel Gibson make amends? Well, if he's gonna drink, he's gonna have to start drinking Manischewitz." (Jeffrey Ross, quoted in the New York Daily News)

Oh, and "Please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot"?!? Sorry, but if I'm gonna get lessons from somebody on who is or his not a bigot, I'd rather that somebody not be an alcoholic, Holocaust-downplaying, religiously obsessive washed-up actor who makes antisemitic remarks, thank you!

From Doris Hastings today, with the subject line "bilateral toot."

The imagination boggles.