Category: Tech

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My Comic-Con 2009 Gear

I spent the last two days at Comic-Con 2009 here in San Diego. I sacrificed Day 1, and not happily, to cover Microsoft’s fiscal fourth-quarter and year-end earnings. Several big Microsoft stories broke on Friday, but I refused to give up another day at Comic-Con; it’s the 40th show. Comic-Con is fun and chaotic. More importantly, for a journalist, people are willing to talk—and why not? They’re playing a role and ready to perform.

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.

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Spotted: Vivienne Tam Netbook

Here are a few things that go oddly together: A Mexican vacationer, Coronado Public Library and designer netbook. This picture tells a story.

Yesterday, I took my daughter over to Coronado High School, where, in other circumstances, she would attend. But we don’t live in Coronado, and San Diego School District is rumored to be resistant to transfers. We’re late trying to get in, too.