Category: Oddlies

Web by Joe WilcoxJul 22, 20093:25 pm

The Problem with Free

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMpwJn_4NtE]

Damn, I must read Chris Anderson’s book Free: The Past and Future of a Radical Price. Based on the WNYC video (below) and Q&A—”The Gift Economist”—in the July 19, 2009 the New York Times Magazine, I must disagree with Chris’ concept of free as applied to digital products. Free and the Internet go oddly together, and not necessarily well together.

Chris may be right, but for other reasons than he presents here. In the video above, Chris asserts that on the Internet “free really can be free.” Nobody has to pay. He presents his view, which does allow for combo free and paid models, by way of marketing and economic history and theory.

The Arts by Joe WilcoxMar 20, 20097:48 pm

Subway Art Gallery

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NU5K3k8Xo] What better disruptive improvisation than an art gallery on a subway platform?

Society by Joe WilcoxJan 29, 20099:07 pm

Traffic

So here I am driving down Qualcomm Way into Mission Valley, when this motorcycle cuts across my lane. He moved from the right through the middle lane to the left. The guy was lucky that […]

Society by Joe WilcoxDec 28, 20082:41 am

You Do What While Driving?

Late Christmas Eve afternoon, while driving my daughter to the skating rink, I spotted a roadsign about California’s no texting and driving law, which goes into effect Jan. 1. I just chuckled. Who the hell texts and drives? At the ice rink, I mused to two friends: “What kind of world do we live in that there has to be a law to stop people from texting and driving.”

The Arts by Joe WilcoxApr 4, 20088:21 pm

Can I Have a Napkin, Please?

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYZ6rbPU2M] Improv Everywhere brings music and mayhem to a Los Angeles shopping mall. Their performance and the food court go oh-so oddly together.

Society by Joe WilcoxMar 16, 20089:37 am

Let the Bears Eat Bear Stearns

I agree with Gretchen Morgenson, writing for the New York Times. The Fed shouldn’t bail out Bear Stearns. The fed crossed a line by keeping afloat a major architect of the housing debacle.

I wrote my first blog post about the housing bubble in August 2005, a year after deciding not to buy a home in the Washington, DC suburb of Bowie. It was already clear to me in summer 2004 that something akin to a repeat of the dot-com bubble was taking place in the housing market.

Had we bought in 2004, we would likely hold a mortgage that exceeds the house’s reduced value. We could never have moved to San Diego.

Food by Joe WilcoxMar 13, 20084:58 pm

Food Court Musical

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYZ6rbPU2M] Improv Everywhere brings music and mayhem to a Los Angeles shopping mall.

Living by Joe WilcoxJan 20, 20089:18 am

It’s Not Alaska, It’s an Adventure

Jean McDermott cracks me up. She’s got a wry, dry sense of humor. Maybe the humorless can’t survive Alaskan winters.

Today, Jean posted a picture of her freezer and, separately, commented on the weather: “A couple days ago we got 10 inches of snow in one night. People up here walked around just beaming. Finally! The bumps in the ski, snowmachine, mushing and skijore trails would finally be smoothed out. No more skidding around on dirt! Not only that, but it has warmed up to a positively balmy 20° ABOVE so everyone is having a bit of a respite from having to put on so much bleeding gear every time one goes outside!

Digital Lifestyle by Joe WilcoxJan 3, 20089:59 pm

Scoble Scrapes Friends’ Trust

Robert Scoble has been the talk of the Web today, for getting booted from Facebook. Robert is back on Facebook now, but he shouldn’t be. Facebook suspended the former Microsoft evangelist blogger for a terms-of-service violation. He used a testing Plaxo tool to mine, or “scrape,” information from about 5,000 of his contacts. [Editor’s note, April 4, 2017: Three Scobelizer posts gone; links removed.]

Society by Joe WilcoxDec 28, 200712:58 am

Environmental Question

I hear a whole lot of ruckus about global warming and carbon emissions spewed into the air. I have a question for the environmentalists—some of them extremists—pointing fingers of accusation: How much worse off is the planet because of you and your political maneuvering that ended US adoption of fission reactors in the 1970s?

Environmentalist FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about radioactive waste disposal was a major factor halting nuclear power plant construction in the United States. Meanwhile, many electrical facilities resorted to coal and, gasp, oil—fossil fuels that produce carbon dioxide when burned.

Apple by Joe WilcoxAug 5, 20073:07 pm

Fake Steve Jobs is Revealed!

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs is one acerbic—and hugely popular—Weblog. Also known as Fake Steve Jobs, the author has had quite a following over that last 14 months. There has been a concerted effort to reveal Fake Steve Jobs’ identity. No longer.

In New York Times story, “A Mystery Solved: ‘Fake Steve’ Blogger Comes Clean“, reporter Brad Stone reveals the identity as Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes. Today, Fake Steves acknowledged, “Damn, I am so busted, yo“.

Stupidity by Joe WilcoxJun 5, 20076:27 pm

LOL, The 20-Hour Work Week

When reading that Gartner predicted the end of the 40-hour work, I assumed more hours. Not the case. The analyst firm proclaims the 20-year work week will come by 2015. Say that again?

“As the need to employ skilled staff from demographics unable or unwilling to work 40 hours a week increases, Gartner believes the ’20-hour-per-week job description’ will emerge—a role that can be successfully accomplished in half the normal time…Rather than a draconian measure to halve the working hours of all employees, the 20-hour job description, as suggested by Gartner, is an approach to help increase an organisation’s ability to attract and retain skilled and highly qualified workers”.