Looking through coloured eyes

In her article, "Fox In Yahoo!'s Henhouse", Wendy Tanaka of Forbes wrote:

"Icahn will have help in getting a Microsoft deal done. As part of his settlement with Yahoo!, two of his cronies will also get seats on the board."

Regardless of your opinion of Carl Icahn, I find it odd that a reporter for a reputable financial news organization has chosen an emotional word ("cronies") to describe Icahn's original slate of candidates for the two remaining board seats, particularly when it includes people like Jonathan Miller, former chief executive of Time Warner's AOL business, Frank Biodi, former chief of Viacom, and billionaire Mark Cuban. (Ok, I'm sure you'll have issues about the last one.)

No doubt writing a news piece through coloured pens makes an interesting read, but it also lends the article (and its author) less credibility.

Related posts:
Would Yahoo! have gotten funded today?
Another BusinessWeek columnist takes a hit

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Pope and the hairdresser

A New York woman was at her hairdresser's on Park Avenue getting her hair styled prior to a trip to Rome with her boyfriend. She mentioned the trip to the hairdresser, who responded, "Rome? Why would anyone want to go there? It's crowded and dirty and full of Italians. You're crazy to go to Rome. So, how are you getting there?"

"We're taking Continental," was the reply. "We got a great rate!"

"Continental?" exclaimed the hairdresser. "That's a terrible airline. Their planes are old, their flight attendants are ugly, and they're always late. So, where are you staying in Rome?"

"We'll be at this exclusive little place over on Rome's left bank called Teste ... "

"Don't go any further. I know that place. Everybody thinks it's gonna be something special and exclusive, but it's really a dump, the worst hotel in the city! The rooms are small, the service is surly and they're overpriced. So, whatcha doing when you get there?"

"We're going to go to see the Vatican and we hope to see the Pope."

"That's rich," laughed the hairdresser. "You and a million other people trying to see him. He'll look the size of an ant. Boy, good luck on this lousy trip of yours. You're going to need it."

A month later, the woman again came in for a hairdo. The hairdresser asked her about her trip to Rome.

"It was wonderful," explained the woman, "not only were we on time in one of Continental's brand new planes, but it was overbooked and they bumped us up to First Class. The food and wine were wonderful, and I had a handsome 28-year-old steward who waited on me hand and foot. And the hotel -- it was great! They'd just finished a $5 million remodeling job and now it's a jewel, the finest hotel in the city. They, too, were overbooked, so they apologized and gave us their owner's suite at no extra charge!"

"Well," muttered the hairdresser, "that's all well and good, but I know you didn't get to see the Pope."

"Actually, we were quite lucky, because as we toured the Vatican, a Swiss Guard tapped me on the shoulder and explained that the Pope likes to meet some of the visitors and if I'd be so kind as to step into his private room and wait, the Pope would personally greet me. Sure enough, five minutes later, the Pope walked through the door and shook my hand! I knelt down and he spoke a few words to me."

"Oh, really? What did he say?"

He said, "Where did you get the crappy hairdo?"

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One reason to vote for Obama

"It's easy to be against something. It's harder to be for something."
Barack Obama

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Poor use of a multimedia device

According to Parks Associates' Digital Media Habits II report, people are increasingly using their TVs to play music at home. The report was based on a Q3 2007 survey of 2,000 broadband households in the US and Canada.

The survey found that the number of households using a TV to listen to music equalled the number of households using MP3 players at home to listen to music. Furthermore, at-home music listening through portable game players, game consoles, or cellphones was reported by only 10 percent or less of households.

This led Parks Associates research director John Barrett to conclude: "iPods are sexy, but not everybody has one. TVs are ubiquitous and increasingly capable of delivering a range of content, especially with new features like digital music delivery and place-shifting services."

Sorry, but I don't agree with the analysis. Would TVs be as ubiquitous or as mobile as iPods on an individual level? No. You can't use the TV as your personal music player, unless you're the head of the household (even that's a moot point - those with kids will understand). And you don't (and certainly can't) carry the TV around with you if you want to listen to music on the move, even within the confines of your house, unless you have no intention to skip music tracks and adjust the volume from time to time.

Besides, I would presume that when you listen to music using your TV, you are unlikely to be watching a TV programme at the same time (I'm saying "unlikely" because there are people who like to reminisce about the good old days of silent movies). This is not the case with listening to music using a PC, which offers users the flexibility to perform non-audio functions simultaneously. Validation: about two-thirds of the surveyed respondents regularly use a PC to play music at home, compared to one-third who use a TV for the same purpose.

The same logic explains the low response rate for portable game players and game consoles. For cellphones, however, it's a different matter as these devices are not normally associated with music listening, especially at home where better options are available. Here again, the iPod has a distinct advantage with the proliferation of docking stations and home audio systems with iPod docks.

Technorati Tags: Parks Associates Digital Media Habits John Barrett music survey TV iPod broadband

iExtort

In his post "The iPhone iFiasco", Mitch Wagner wrote about his seven-hour ordeal buying an iPhone 3G and concluded:

Well, some kind of apology would be nice, along with a bit of cash to compensate customers who had problems with activation, similar to the gift certificates Apple gave out last year when they cut iPhone prices too much too fast and left customers feeling ripped off.

But more importantly, Apple needs to sit down and figure out what went wrong on Friday, and make sure it never happens again.

Woah... demanding an apology and compensation for your own stupidity of chasing the latest fads used to be unheard of. But these days, anyone with access to blogging tools will not hesitate for a moment to rattle off crap disguised as opinion, without the decency to check in their thinly-veiled extortionary thoughts through intellectually-challenged brains before unleashing them on the unsuspecting public.

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Don't argue

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Need a laptop? Go to the airport!

Apparently, 12,000 laptops are lost each week in major airports in the US, more than 65% of which are never reclaimed, according to a study sponsored by Dell and conducted by the Ponemon Institute. (You can download the PDF here.) The problem is not just a matter of hardware loss, but "53% of people admit to carrying business confidential information and 65% of those people do not take appropriate steps to safeguard their information," says a Ponemon executive.

Could it also be that some of those laptops are left intentionally by people who see the disappearance of their laptops as the only surefire way to get their companies to give them an upgrade that matches what is provided to new hires?

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