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It's Not Hell, but you Can See it From There

May 3, 2011 10:58:47.202

My brain hurts.

posted by James Robertson

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An Idea Whose Time Should Not Have Come

August 20, 2010 10:10:03.808

This is just ridiculous:

The chips will allow city workers to monitor how often residents roll carts to the curb for collection. If a chip show a recyclable cart hasn't been brought to the curb in weeks, a trash supervisor will sort through the trash for recyclables.

If you haven't brought the cart out "enough", they'll start sorting through your trash and fining you if you throw out "too many" recyclables. This is right up there with the Greek government - scanning Google Maps for pools that haven't been taxed.

Update: The irony of this post is that after I posted this, I charged outside to put my recycling bin at the curb. I had forgotten what day it was, and the truck was coming.

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posted by James Robertson

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Don't Know Much About Geography

August 19, 2010 14:05:26.142

Phillip Greenspun has a depressing piece up about the inability of people to tell which direction is which. My favorite test along these lines is to pull bills out of my wallet, and ask kids (high school age, since that's my daughter's cohort at present) who is on them. The quizzical looks are either amusing or disturbing, depending on my mood that day....

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posted by James Robertson

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That Voice Interface Thing

August 14, 2010 10:09:07.011

Based on how my daughter operates, I understand where things are going:

Last week there was an interesting article over at Wired about the apparent death of phone calls. Turns out that according to research by Nielsen, the average number of mobile phone calls people are making is dropping every year since it hit a high in 2007

Heck, even I fall into that "text over voice" thing. When I pick my daughter up from somewhere, I'm usually listening to music from Pandora or iTunes. I can text her without unplugging the phone, so I do. If we hadn't gotten unlimited texting on my daughter's phone, we would probably be bankrupt by now :)

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posted by James Robertson

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Not So Fast

August 13, 2010 11:11:22.414

Ian Hamilton thinks that an updated Touch with cameras and a microphone will be the beginning of the end for landline phone service:

An iPod Touch equipped with a front-facing camera is no longer an iPod Touch. It’s a device for making calls. Video calls. And with an app like Skype which uses the long-awaited multitasking functionality on iPhone to make and receive voice calls it’s also a fully functional phone. Apple could even build Internet-based voice call functionality directly into iOS for this very purpose. Goodbye house phones.

Yes and no. Inertia is going to play a huge roll in the transition from POTS service to IP based service - whether the phone companies fight tooth and nail is merely secondary. I figure that anone growing up now will be unlikely to opt for a landline - but the default will be mobile service, not skype.

What we really need to see is for services like skype to bring the same level of disintermediation to the wireless carriers that the breakup of AT&T brought to POTS service way back when...

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posted by James Robertson

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Too Good to be True

August 11, 2010 8:27:08.908

It's worth applying "if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't" to rising internet memes. Take the Dry Erase quitter from yesterday, for instance:

“Girl quits her job on dry erase board, emails entire office (33 Photos)” is indeed a hoax, say its creators John and Leo Resig.

At least "The Chive" got plenty of pageviews out of it...

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posted by James Robertson

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Someone Send Schmidt a Clue

August 10, 2010 7:51:52.111

I love the way Google thinks:

Schmidt's message was that anonymity is a dangerous thing and governments will demand an end to it.

I guess Franklin, Jefferson, Madison (et. al.) were all wrong then. Good to know that Schmidt is so much smarter than those guys were...

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posted by James Robertson

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Disintermediation Finds Books

August 9, 2010 10:12:05.069

With the drop in price of e-readers down to $139 (and I'm guessing we'll see $99 by Christmas), the era of the big box book store is ending. The high end will be owned by the iPad and whatever Android based devices come out - the low and mid tier will be owned by the Kindle and it's competitors. The losers will be printed books, which will end up being a niche product. Just witness what's happening to B&N:

Perhaps the most symbolic event this week was Barnes & Noble “exploring strategic alternatives,” including putting itself on the block. When America’s most iconic bookstore is struggling to make it, this is not a good sign. As I say in my analysis, over the next few years we’ll see the “hammer of low-priced e-books steadily nail coffins shut across the book-retailing landscape.”

A decade ago, my entire family looked forward to a trip to Borders or B&N. We'd easily drop a ton of money on books, and spend a happy hour or two browsing the aisles. We just don't do that anymore. Why? Well, the Amazon store is the primary reason.

Even before my wife and i got iPads, we were browsing the virtual bookstore more often. The selection is better, and between recommendations (based on past purchases), and "people who bought X also bought Y", we've both found things we would never have found in a physical store. Now add in the instant gratification offered by an e-book, and you've got full disruption. Finished book one of a trilogy at 11 PM, and can't wait for book 2? With an e-reader, it's a few seconds (and dollars) away. With a physical store (or even an Amazon shipment), it's at least a day. Doesn't sound like much, but eliminating the wait makes purchasing a whole lot easier.

It's beyond books though. Every so often I need a new A/V cable of some kind, or a new USB drive, or a replacement router. Once upon a time, that meant a trip to best Buy. Now? I hit Amazon, and either take the two day shipment that I have via Prime, or pay a little extra to have it tomorrow. Saves me a trip, and I usually don't need the item this very second. Outside of things like clothing, where you want to try it on, I think a lot of the big box retail is going to start running into a huge buzzsaw. Even groceries, which I thought were secure from virtualization aren't - we now order from Peapod as often as we go to the store, and that percentage is rising. It wouldn't surprise me much if the trend towards mega grocery stores reversed, with mega warehouses replacing them, along with smaller shops for trips you need to make.

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posted by James Robertson

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It's the New McNealy

August 5, 2010 8:07:08.352

Remember back when Sun's Scott McNealy said that "privacy is dead"? Well, Here's Google's Schmidt, saying the same thing:

"The only way to manage this is true transparency and no anonymity. In a world of asynchronous threats, it is too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you. We need a [verified] name service for people. Governments will demand it."

Right, because expressing a particular opinion is always safe in all places. There's just no chance that you'll be targeted if you happen to be the lone (insert political persuasion here) surrounded by a sea of (insert opposing persuasion here).

Nope, in the fantasy land that Schmidt lives in, everyone is perfectly safe having all of their thoughts hanging out for all to see all the time. No reason to ever create an anonymous blog, or comment anonymously on someone else's post.

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posted by James Robertson

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Do I Get a Membership Card?

July 28, 2010 8:29:02.629

Apparently, we're (my wife and I, that is) members of the selfish elites - and no one even gave us membership cards:

It’s not exactly official, but should also surprise no one: According to a new study the psychological profile of iPad owners can be summed up as “selfish elites” while have-not critics are “independent geeks.

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posted by James Robertson

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