Hazard’s kick exposes the sadness of life on Twitter
It's 12 minutes of normal time to go in a League Cup semi-final and Chelsea are playing away to Swansea. Given the direness of their performance up to this time, Chelsea are deservedly losing the tie though it is nil nil on the night and a couple of late goals could send it into extra -time with the chance of an unlikely victory. The ball goes out and the self-appointed king of the ball-boys faffes around delaying to give the ball back to Chelsea's young Belgian forward Eden Hazard. The ball drops to the floor with the ball-boy hitting the deck as fast as Didier Drogba hunting for a penalty, with Hazard still seeking the ball for there is the small matter of the game to get on with (which the ball boy is obliged to help with on account of his current employment). But no, he promptly manages to position himself over the ball like a flanker having broken free from a scrum to score a try with all at stake in the Rugby World Cup final. Hazard feels around for the ball using all his bedroom tactics for such unsighted foraging under heavy clothing and having felt the ball delivers a swift kick which loosens it from under the ball boy and delivers it on the other-side. Cue pandemonium.
What follows is a truly sad reflection on modern life.
The ballboy, who can be found on Twitter, has at the last count now accrued 90,000 followers! How sad do you have to be to want to follow the ballboy who comically feigned injury whilst deservedly having had a ball kicked from underneath him? Unfortunately twitter is full of such types despite anything that techies and journalists would like to tell you about it. Truly sad in a very amusing way.
Related articles
I quite fancy TheFancy.com
I've just seen a review on Venturebeat about a photo sharing and discovery website called Fancy. It's sort of like Pinterest but with the inbuilt ability to purchase items in the picture or book hotels and flights to the places depicted. The nugget is that it all seems to have been done in a non-intrusive way which still puts the user experience first and the commerce distinctly in the background.
For some reason the author of the Venturebeat article doesn't like this and he thinks they should have done the classic start-up move of concentrating on the users and finding a business model later. To be honest I never believe it when start-ups like Twitter et al pull this move. To me it just means that either they've got a cool but useless technology which no one will pay to use or that they will put ads on their app, but only after fooling 10 million people that they won't ever pimp them to the highest bidder.
Fancy haven't done anything new but they've obviously looked at similar apps and wondered if it all could have been done better. That's something which I've mentioned on this blog as one of the hallmarks of a solid business idea. I personally don't really use photo discovery apps apart from the odd time I stumble onto a great Flickr stream which I'll fully explore. But if I did I wouldn't mind if Fancy offered me the option to buy the stuff in the photo in a very discreet way that doesn't take away from the experience. I'm not talking Google text ads here people!
I think they may be onto something which Facebook, Google and Flickr would love to have done. Now look out for the Fancy guys to pimp themselves to one of those companies and get a decent bag of money for their start-up; which is entirely fine by me as long as they don't pimp me around. Check them out.
Source Venturebeat
The screwing game: Cable companies vs Fred Wilson
Perenially on the cusp
Fred Wilson on AVC recently wrote a blog post about how he ended up 'illegally' streaming a New York Knicks match because there was no 'legal' way for him to pay for it without actually going to the match. In that situation he had been willing to pay even $25 for the priviledge. The post is aptly titled #screwcable!
In and amongst the support for what Fred did were some well argued contrarian views. The quote below is not one of them though it raises an important issue.
The players, owners, league spend money to enter into contracts with cable companies and specialized networks, who in turn negotiate with advertisers to bring viewers an entertainment medium. They have real costs to all of this. But because someone doesn't like that there are fees or limitations or other obstacles within the creating group's model, it's okay to simply "hack" in and take what one likes?
I agree that a lot of planning and investment goes into making a profitable business out of a sports team or even any other entertainment performance like a music album or whatever. Those investors and operators are perfectly entitled to charge what they want and how they want in order to recoup their costs.
For me the big caveat in all the above that turns someone like Fred into a 'pirate' is the fact that during business planning a conscious decision has been made to have this sports package not appeal to him. That is through a combination of pricing, segmentation rights, down to stadium capacity, match day scheduling and location. When all is said and done the rights holders have put together a package which they believe will earn them the most revenue possible in order to recoup costs that they have deemed as appropriate for this enterprise.
In simple terms; when selling their package rightsholders are consciously saying #screwyou to a certain percentage of interested parties. Nothing wrong with that. It's their prerogative and a balance HAS to be found.
What I find interesting is that there seems to be a belief that it's okay to then go after these people who have already been told to screw themselves as if they actually mattered to the business model. They don't really; and any plan should not have taken into account revenue from someone who has been told where to go or revenue lost by that person consuming that service in a way that does not deprive other willing buyers. The fact is no business can sell all their products to everybody all of the time. Someone has to be out of the loop even though digital products make that scenario theoretically possible.
Naturally there are people who infringe copyright and would have been perfectly able to legally consume it. It is wrong of course, but I believe that every business model has to try to have low enough barriers to allow people to take up the product. In a previous post I referred to the concept of a consumption threshold. This is something that is generally not a feature of high quality digital content, though Louis C.K seems to have found a balance between price and protection and he is succeeding despite those who are saying #screwyou to him. It's probably because he only tried to 'screw' relatively few people in the first place!
Related articles
- #screwcable (avc.com)
I’m tired of explaining Facebook and the internet to people
Technology is here, get used to it
Maybe it shouldn't amaze me because the world is full of dumb people and it should be expected that now and again I'll run into the misguided opinions of some of them. But it's amazing that in this day and age some people still don't get that Facebook is just another communication tool. Same as text, MMS, letter, postcard, fax, phone, email, smoke signals or Morse code.
Facebook and the internet enable communication in general and are not specifically for narcissists and voyeurs. The dumb people who don't get this irritate me by trying to put across to me that they are somehow holier than I because they don't use Facebook to share their 'pregnancy news'. To say that a communication tool is sad and pathetic doesn't make sense to me. A tool is only as sad and pathetic as the information going through it. In other words if you think Facebook is sad and pathetic maybe you need to look at your 'friends' first. A communication tool can only be labelled useful, useless or other such adjectives. This doesn't apply to Twitter which as an open publishing platform that is actively trying to take on the soul of it's content. Go ahead and call Twitter sad if you like.
What people should realise is that you can have 3 connections or even less on Facebook and exclude your cousins or whoever because of that long running feud your Mom hold's against her sister for not letting her borrow her mascara when they were teens. If you were going to send photos of your newborn to your 3 siblings, Facebook is just as good a tool as any to send those pictures with. You don't even have to accept one more friendship request or make yourself discoverable to that crush from Year 6 who thinks you're the one that got away simply because one curious day you decided to give him a quick peck on the lips.
It's true that voyeurs and narcissists do have it slightly easier on Facebook but only in broadcasting to other voyeurs and narcissists. There are plenty of people who very privately share information and pictures with only the people they care about. The internet can be a lot like real life in that sense. Most of the people saying dirty jokes online would likely have been saying them offline.
Anyway, let me stop this rant before I point out about the absolute contradiction of someone actively publicising the fact that they don't publicise something! LMAO!! (as the Facebook generation would say).
Copyright infringement is not stealing
Maybe that ought to be a picture of a hammer cracking a nut.
Some time ago Fred Wilson on AVC.com posted an article about how annoying he finds it when people describe copyright infringement as stealing. He has a point. Infringing a copyright is not stealing. It is just that an infringement. Both are wrong and in most countries illegal, but they are not the same.
I also find it very annoying when people use words that should apply in an effort to get me on their side. It's a bit like that scenario where someone tries to turn you against another person by telling you something bad they are meant to have done. Except in this case the the squealer doubts that they have sufficient ammo to get you worked up and have to dress it up. A lot.
And so it is that the digital protection agencies and creative unions are uncomfortable about factual copyright debate and it seems that 'By-Any-Means-Necessary' is their new strategy. Unfortunately Fred didn't eloquently put his point across and his article soon generated into another 'How do I make money from my digital product?' debate.
Here on Stunted By Reality we don't like minced words and I tip my hat off to the commenter who noted the real difference between copyright infringement and theft.
Theft would be stealing a sculpture, or... picture.
Copyright infringement would be taking a picture of the sculpture and posting it online, or producing a replica of the sculpture.
Either act deprives the author the right to enjoy the benefits of his/her work, but they are totally different concepts.
I'll add that theft will definitely deprive an artist of the ability to sell his sculpture, however infringement does not do so. I am not saying that infringement is OK; I'm just saying lets not use hyperbole in trying to paint the picture.
If a serial groper terrorised women on public transport, by all means we should throw the book at him and even throw away the key, however it still wouldn't mean that he committed rape. That would be sexual assault no matter how depraved his groping technique was.
If you have a great idea someone has already thought of it
Now that's a bright idea!
I'm always coming up with business ideas based on my own experiences and needs. One of the best I've had recently was a phone application to document the things that my kids say and do. Actually it's third best idea I've had recently.
The idea is to be able to compile a document or repository of the funny, weird and wonderful things that my (our ) children say, because they do say a lot of funny stuff. I already take a lot of pictures and video of them but sometimes I just want to note down a quote that I found funny. My solution was to build an application that allows you to store little things like that; notes, pictures etc. and you would be able at a future date to have it all published into a book. Perhaps even an annual about your kids.
I think it's a great idea, and one that I don't even need to ask what your opinion is because frankly anything to do with kids is going to sell. The hard bit would be the marketing but that's the case in any business. However, women are probably the best demography to market because they talk so much. If one gets to like something, best believe that the whole world is going to hear about. Plus most women don't really shop around. I've always said that if I sold cars I'd sell only pink hatchbacks! Anyway, the idea is also great because lets face it, which parent doesn't think that their kids are the funniest and cutest, despite us constantly observing at first hand other seemingly deluded parents?
So I got round to checking the idea, as I normally do with all my ideas. No matter how good your idea is always check that no one has yet done it. I've said before on this blog that a good idea either solves a problem, or copies another good idea well, or exploits lack of market knowledge or serves a neglected market.
All those factors mean that if you have had a good idea then someone has already done it; if it's a great idea then ten people are already doing it. If no one is doing it you have to ask yourself why.
So after Googling my idea, I found that someone has already done it. Not only that, but they have done it in almost exactly the way I envisioned it. I'm not really upset though, but just impressed with the other guys execution. My fan-boy brother is away so I don't have an iPhone to test their app, but it looks good. And one thing I believe is that if I can't do something better than the other guys then there's no point doing it. Take a bow Kid's Quip Journal.
*Okay I have to admit I could have come up with a better name than that, but touché!
The stupidity of ad targeting
I've never been annoyed by online ads. I just never really pay any attention to them but the more interesting ones sometimes catch my eye. Whether it's because the targeting has been spot on and I am actually looking for that item or just it's plain eye catching. Consequently I've never installed an ad blocking plug-in in any of my browsers. Until today.
That's because in the last few months I've been bombarded by ads of products I've already taken up or ones I've already decided against. Basically this behavioural targeting stuff just recently seems to have got even dummer. The only criteria they seem to be using is "you visited X site and looked at Y, so we'll keep showing you ads of Y regardless of whether or not you bought it already".
I signed up to GiffGaff (a new UK mobile network) about a month ago and did it from their website. I even managed to convince four people to switch to them, and guess what I get in return? My browser is now polluted with GiffGaff flash ads. WTF? Whose idea is this?
Preaching to the converted
Sadly enough this stupidity isn't just reserved for whatever network is running this campaign but also to Google who also try to get me using Chrome even when I'm surfing on their browser! So now I have been moved to install Ad Block Plus. No more dumb ads for me. Well.... except for the Google Chrome BS.
HP’s margin envy will be the death of them
The first ever phone with a lip.
It didn't come as a surprise when HP decided to kill off all it's WebOS related projects. From the time they paid $1.2 billion dollars for Palm in order to get their hands on the by all accounts 'great' operating software they have consistently made the wrong moves.
With the company making most of their money from selling hardware to other companies it was always a dumb move in my opinion to get rid of the Palm brand once the acquisition had gone through. Palm had pedigree in the high-end consumer market that formerly crossed over into the business user market way before RIM ever got there. It didn't stop HP from renaming all the Palm devices with the HP prefix which I think never had the same brand cache to compete with Apple. HP definitely skipped a beat there as they could have had their own 'Lexus' of the mobile world. A brand with which they could package the best part of their low-end stuff in a shiny slightly different case and still have users falling over themselves to buy it in the mis-guided belief that it was somehow more exclusive because it was pricier. Works every time in these days were even us poor people can buy a Mercedes or an iPhone without paying a penny upfront.
In addition I think that Palm had only lost the battle with Apple simply because their pockets were not as deep. The only thing they probably needed from HP was their money. Can you imagine where Palm would be now if HP had poured in another billion, given the Palm access to their manufacturing base and stayed well clear? The initial Palm Pre wasn't good hardware, but I think there was enough to work on and if they'd simply been given the money to match Apple's annual release cycle and copy HTC's lineup of all-touch and qwerty keyboard handsets, they might have made an impact.
Only 18 months after the right move was stunted by the wrong strategy we now hear that HP are throwing the towel in following the dismal sales of the WebOS tablet. Not only that, but they are also looking to spin off the whole PC and hardware business and acquire the UK software house Autonomy. Leo Apotheker the CEO who has only been in the job less than a year has called the moves and it seems that just like Mr Elop at Nokia he already had pre-conceived ideas about what direction he wanted to go before he joined.
I can see where he's going with this. He wants HP to be making high margins. Well higher than they are right now and higher than you can get flogging hardware to corporates. It's admirable but sometime you just have to stick to making money the best way you know how. There's isn't much evidence that HP know the services and software business or that they can stake out a claim against, Microsoft, Apple and whilst fighting away the millions of small start-ups with new and innovative ways to do the same things cheaper and faster.
Frustration on Freecycle
Yes son, it is the thought that counts. But your mom would appreciate an expensive thought much more!
Like most people who go through a lot of stuff, when I heard of the idea behind Freecycle, I thought it was brilliant. Advertise any stuff you wouldn't mind giving away for free, or post a request for stuff you're looking for and anyone can offer you their own unwanted but useful items.
I signed up about a year ago after moving home because I fell into both camps. I wanted to be a giver but I could also use some stuff that I didn't need to buy brand new. Well today I'm cancelling all my subscriptions because in a year, I haven't completed one freecycle either in responding to a wanted ad or when I've wanted to pick up the stuff advertised by others.
My biggest frustration is that all the stuff is always taken. That's not a bad thing in itself of course. However, I only get to know that an item has been taken AFTER I have clicked on a posting, been forced to log into the site, and then filled out a message to the advertiser. Only when I've clicked send does the system tell me that the item is no longer available! Well, if they knew that the item isn't available, why am I forced to jump through all the hoops just to find that out?
There are other annoyances too, like
- the huge number of 'freeloaders' who seem to use the site as a source of free stock to sell-on. A scan down the wanted ads can be disheartening, though there are of course some genuine people.
- the huge number of emails you get (mostly of said wanted items) even when you're only getting a digest of site activity. Invariably when you come to click on an ad, the item will be taken, thus rendering all those notifications useless.
- The broken nature of the website. You can't freely move from one group to another without signing up and logging in to each group. Groups are based on area you see, but of course most people are near enough to 2 or 3 groups and to want to join them all. There's no free movement in freecycle, because the tech is really quite outdated.
- The fussy posters on the wanted ads. I've responded to some wanted ads only to be told that my item is not exactly what the poster is looking for. Ah, dude I'm offering you something that would suit your needs and is in good condition, for free and you still wanna be fussy about it? Man, whip your card out and go to a store!
- (Updated) People are also pointing out that it's very common for someone not to turn up and collect items they have requested. I guess the fact that items are free, means that people can't be bothered really!
It does make you wonder whether this is more reinforcement for the idea that freemarkets (pun intended) are able to solve society's problems better than some of these utopian ideals. There are certainly a lot of moderators as a result of the disenguonous swamping the genuine. Ironically the moderator involvement on Freecycle only serves to put off the genuine people. It's as far removed as you can get from Laissez-faire, but it still lacks the order of a highly structured, social utopia which I think was being aimed for.
Even as an ardent capitalist, I still like the idea of social utopia, but I just don't think it would work on any sort of big level. However I would have thought it would work in doing something as simple as redistributing unwanted goods. For me that hasn't turned out to be the case, and I'll be cancelling my subscription today. So long freecycle.
Me and my nokia n900
N900. A handheld computer.
I got a Nokia N900 two months ago to replace my old Nokia N770 internet tablet. Just like the old tablet, this one has been one of the best buys I’ve EVER made.
I’m a media junkie. I like to consume as much of it as I can on any medium, and for me that used to consist of watching a lot of TV (no it’s not bad for you), listening to radio, reading newspapers and books. A LOT. Like most information junkies its a masochistic thing isn’t it? Its the thrill of possibly stumbling onto some stuff I absolutely disagree with and just going mental about it. I’m that guy you see shouting at the radio when you’re stuck in a traffic jam!
N770. Finger not required.
Anyway, the N770 when it came out, was my way of extending my media consumption. It came out in 2005 and I got it towards the end of that year. On that device Nokia realised early on what other tech companies are starting to get now. Modern portable devices have to combine the function of two to make them worth carrying. As well as being an internet tablet that did internet and email very well for it’s day, the N770 also did satellite navigation.
I’ve had a great five year run during which I used it quite a lot at first; Mostly by reading books and feeds whilst listening to music. It has great battery life and was able to multi-task way back then in 2005. Who would have thought it eh Apple? After two years I was not a using it as much; but then lately I have once again been using it a great deal since last year. During the current online music craze I found a Last.fm app for the N770 and that was what got me back into it.
In March this year my mobile phone contract expired on the Nokia E71 I carry. For me it doesn’t make sense not to have a mobile contract if you’re going to be spending anything upwards of £15 per month on phone calls. You might as well get a free phone on a £15 or whatever contract. So it was logical I get the N900 just so I could keep it at home as an always on internet device.
Nokia have put phone capabilities on the N900 but to be honest that’s not what it does best. I’m really please with it because it does internet the best of any similar sized device I’ve used. It has proper Flash in the browser and doesn’t squirm when someone posts a video of a 2 year old kid in Indonesia puffing away on a cigarrette to my Facebook wall.
The slide-out keyboard is very good despite only having three rows. It’s like someone building an eight bedroom house and thinking that it would be good to save space by having three instead of four bathrooms! That doesn’t make sense because the N900 is already on the big-ish side. Nevertheless is still pocketable though I wouldn’t carry it if I wore skinny jeans.
Apps are there though not as much as for that other phone or on Android. In fact apps on the N900 are mostly functional stuff and some games. I’m not really a games person but I get the feeling there are'nt too many native ones for N900. To compensate it does run a good number of emulators.
The one thing missing so far is the free navigation that Nokia has given to all the newer phones. I hear that this will be corrected sometime and I look forward to that day. When that happens I will probably no longer carry my Sony digital camera because the N900 shoots decent daytime pictures. Night time pictures are better than you’ll see on most phones because of the dual LEDs and Carl Zeiss lense; though they are nowhere near as good as a decent digital camera.
Overall there’s enough on the N900 to make it the best gadget I’ve ever bought simply because it’s so usable. It’s not as big as an iPad which I think it’s actually more in competition with than the iPhone. The weight and portability are just incomparable making it useful even when lying in bed. I know there are better things to do in bed, but hey…
Of course I’m yet to play with an iPad, but the thought of a beautiful, 1.5lb ‘portable’ device that doesn’t do anything unique is not appealing to me. Convergence is what it’s all about nowadays and the N900 does that very well.
