On the Fej

Moving Day

2007-11-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

Hey! I've moved!

This page should automatically redirect in a couple of seconds. But if it doesn't, you could just click over to lechtanski.net yourself.

Thanks Blogger!

Siriusly... I knew it!

2007-02-21T07:40:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I called it. Now I know it's not that special, but now I'm thinking about buying into satellite radio... maybe.

Variety is reporting that XM and Sirius have agreed to merge. This makes total sense for the reasons I pointed out early last Summer.

>> But the thing holding up satellite radio is the “format” battle.
>> Do you want XM or Sirius. Sirius has Howard Stern and
>> Martha Stewart. XM has Opie & Anthony and Oprah. It
>> may sound like deciding between satellite-TV providers,
>> but it’s not. The difference is Dish Network, DirecTV and
>> Cable all show the same channels (Food Network, Bravo,
>> FX, local affiliates…); subscribers are paying for the content
>> delivery. Satellite radio is both different content and delivery.
>> At some point XM and Sirius are going to get together. One’s
>> going to buy the other, or there’ll be some crazy merger or
>> synergistic alliance where subscribers to either can listen to
>> content from both. Then it’ll work just like the cable TV and
>> we won’t think about it.
-- Why Radio will never go away from Fej July 28, 2006.

Now all they have to do is figure out how to get local stations incorporated and we're cruisin'.

Fiber-to-the-Future

2007-02-11T21:07:00.000-08:00

How much data do you need to move? Or more accurately, how fast do you want to get at your digital stuff? Whether it’s music, video or PowerPoint presentations, the trend is to access your digital files from anywhere, and to be able to download anything at the drop of a hat. The trend is fiber optic cable.

But this new technology requires a new physical network. And not just of fiber optics spread across the globe, but fiber stretched to every individual house, a.k.a. “Fiber-To-The-Home”. Construction of these networks will likely to represent the largest communications infrastructure upgrade in decades and Alpha Technologies is set to play a significant role.

But how much difference can a fiber network make? Consider that downloading a 5-megabyte MP3 with dial-up access - the original Internet technology - can take 10 minutes. DSL may take 30 seconds. Cable is pretty fast at 10 seconds. But, fiber? One second. That’s it. Snap your fingers.

And it’s not just for data. Opting for fiber service means you’ll not only get access to incredibly high-speed Internet access, but recently announced TV and telephone service. All of it… now…

An optical fiber network can reach millions of homes and everyone one of those home requires a power conversion and back-up system. That’s where Alpha comes in. Unlike cable networks, you only need power solutions at the front and the end, not the middle. And because of these power solution needs, customers include telephone companies and cable providers, and municipalities, property developers and even homeowners impatient for someone else to bring the technology around.

The use of dial-up Internet connections is waning. It is nearly impossible – well, maybe just unbearable – to try browsing the Internet with anything other than a high-speed connection. And with more and more people interested in seeing what a broadband connection has to offer, today’s technologies are being tested. As more people leave behind the painfully slow download speeds of a dial-up connection, some may be disappointed in the crowded realm of other broadband technologies.

Coax cable is reaching the upper limits of its data capacity. And telephone companies are doing everything possible to squeeze as much bandwidth as possible from their existing copper-based networks, much of which is at or near end of life.

And while those networks are being tested, many rural and remote communities have been left behind by the broadband train altogether. In order to get broadband access, many have been limited to satellite Internet technology, which is spotty at best. Pressed by community and business leaders many municipalities have taken control of their destiny and have followed the lead of cities like Bristol, Virginia, the first municipal utility to offer voice, video and data over a fiber-to-the-home network. Taking on the cost of bringing high speed data access to your town is not cheap, so most are looking toward the most forward-looking option available: Fiber. Today the number of municipalities currently fielding or planning FTTh networks is in the hundreds.

Over the last 24-months Alpha Technologies has been working on a full complement of telecommunications-grade primary and standby power solutions for home and business, as well as headend power solutions like AC Uninterruptible Power Supplies, inverters, rectifiers, batteries and large generator sets.

It’s units like these that help make bringing fiber to the home a reality. After all, high-speed on the information superhighway is no good if there’s no exit ramp to your house.

What's Up With All the Nuclear?

2007-01-16T21:50:00.000-08:00

There are two things that really freak me out. Well, technically three if you include computer-animated talking babies. But the two that really get me are garbage disposals and nuclear explosions. The first is just something I'm learning to deal with, but with the latter, I'm sure I'm not alone. So, what's with all the nuclear explosion action in the entertainment world? Is it really that entertaining?

This season's TV schedule is laden with the nuclear topic: Jericho, Heroes, 24... These are major network shows, so I can only assume there is a sizable audience. And I get it that people like to watch things that freak them out a little. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive. I don't like horror movies either. In general I don't like being scared. Happy, sad, stressed... those are emotions I can deal with. Scared is just something I don't need in my life. And Nuclear explosions scare me. Now that I think of it, maybe seeing The Day After at the ripe age of 11 had a negative effect.

I dig the Jack Ryan movies/books: Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games and such. But the Sum of All Fears just didn't do it for me. I know, you might saying: "But Fej, is that not just because of your natural aversion to Ben Affleck?"

I see what your saying and it is a possibility. But near as I can tell, the Affleck/Freeman saga, which involved a pretty serious nuclear explosion, is the stinkiest one of the Jack Ryan series. That is in terms of revenue at the box office and afterward. And I don't see plans for another Affleck/Clancy collaboration.

Seeing a spaceship take out the White House is one thing. It's a space ship, and it was a fun computer effect. Seeing a nuclear explosion take out Washington D.C. is pretty discomforting. Granted, it is still a crazy computer effect, but it is just a visual I don't want. I don't need to be desensitized to that. I can turn the channel to MSNBC to see about the latest plans of some crazy extremist somewhere trying to figure out how to make it happen for real.

Anyway, to all of you Hollywood producers: if you want a quick way to make me not watch your show or movie, involve a nuclear explosion. About the computer-animated babies: they will make me look the other way, but not necessarily change the channel.

What do you do?

2007-01-14T17:27:00.000-08:00

Remember last September, I told you I changed companies? Well, that’s true. I’m the marketing manager for Alpha Technologies, a company that makes back-up battery systems.

Now that I just typed that sentence, I’ve reread it and decided it is the absolute worst way to describe what I do. There are about 12 people on the planet who would be at all interested, and most of those either work for my company or a competitor.

I’ve read in a few places that when someone asks you what you do, actually tell them what you do. Don’t just give them your title. So how about this:

Do you remember that huge blackout back east in 2003? From Manhattan to Detroit, in Canada and the United States, millions of people were without power: totally without power. No traffic lights. No air conditioning. No gas pumps. No refrigerators. It was practically the middle ages. Accept for the telephone system in Ontario. The telephone lines in and around Ontario stayed active. Grandmothers could call families. Injured people could call for help. People with laptops could still “dial-up” to the internet and get some news.

My company makes those systems. I promote my company in the press, in the market and in the community. I’m the marketing manager for a company that makes battery back-up systems.

What do you do?

Internet/Inspiration

2006-12-24T14:26:00.000-08:00

We already know how much I think the Jetta ad campaign bites. Sadly, they have another round running. And the worst is that I think the commercials are great right up to the impact. This ad campaign literally played a role in me not buying a new Jetta. Which is quite a feat, I think, because I have a ’97 Jetta Trek that I love.

Anyway, now I’m compelled to write about one more ad campaign. Actually, I guess it’s just a commercial. Fortunately, I won’t be subject to this one much longer, because it’s for the Christmas season.

Let me give a little background. There was a lot of hype this last summer about the affect the Internet was having on entertainment and other mass media. I only mention the anti-hype from Snakes on a Plane for one. The world didn’t collapse because a movie had more attention before its release than after. Let's not assume if the SOAP producers had successfully renamed the movie Pacific Flight whatever, it would have had any more or less success. I'm thinking even though the movie didn't perform as some in the press thought it might, it did better overall than it would have without the Internet attention. And in hindsight, I’m kind of amused by the mass media hype that was generated by the Internet Hype. There’s some irony in there I think.

Anyway, the offender I'm choosing to complain about today is a huge beer company (HBC) that I will not mention, mainly because they don’t need it, but also because they don’t deserve it for this particular action (think: great taste, less filling…). For a commercial this Christmas, this HBC grabbed an idea for a commercial directly from a web video of last year: this insane shot of Christmas lights set to music, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, I believe. This web video came out sometime around Thanksgiving 2005, which makes me think it was actually filmed the year before. It got featured on RocketBoom, and various other Vlogs.

So, this year there are lots of copies on YouTube. Some are decent and they're done by self-funded web monkeys, but one copy is well-funded and professionally shot and choreographed. Come on HBC!! How much did you pay an ad company to copy this web video? And here’s the big question: was it worth it since the original is so much better than your expensive rip-off? I can only guess someone went on vacation, because the man-law commercials are great...

Frankly, this is the worst of modern advertising. If you’re looking for a reason that the Internet is going to ultimately kill TV advertising and entertainment, this is it. To survive, traditional forms of media need to be more creative. Not less. If you really want to show how cool you are by attaching your brand to a web meme, play the actual video from the web.

Buy Yourself a DVR

2006-09-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

That's a Digital Video Recorder. If you don’t have one and you watch more than an hour of television a week, get one.

Right now.

I’m serious. Go to Dish Network or Direct TV or Comcast or Cox and buy one.

Today.

Great. Now that we have that out of the way, you can share in one of the very few frustrations I have with them.

Back in the day, I think it was TBS that started everything 5 minutes late. Bewitched reruns were on at 1:35. The Jefferson’s were on at 5:05. This is like 20 years ago, and somewhere along the line TBS stopped this inane practice. I don’t know the reasoning for it then, but all of the sudden, TV networks are doing it again. But now they are doing it irregularly.

Nip/Tuck is starting at 8:10. Rescue Me is running 5 minutes long. So, if I’ve gone through the time to set my DVR to record the season of Rescue Me during its first-run time slot, and FX decides to run it 5 minutes long, my DVR will miss the last five minutes.

Sadly, I’ve spent some time trying to figure out the possible reasons for the networks to do this. I’ve some up with two.

1. Networks are tired of people like me who were enjoying their
good programming but skipping their program-supporting
sponsors’ commercials. So, they just want to mess with me
and cut off the shows climax/cliffhanger.
2. Networks wanted to milk another few minutes of advertising
from the first run of their expensive original shows.

Possible-reason number one is a bit of a stretch, I agree. But I think I’m on to something with number two. Because if I watch an encore presentation (i.e. Rerun) of that same Rescue Me episode the next night, it amazingly fits into the standard one-hour time slot. Partially because of chumps like me who skip all those great commercials anyway, I’m thinking traditional ad revenues aren’t worth as much as they once were at the same time as the shows themselves are costing more and more. So, why not try to score some more ad dollars by inserting more ad minutes in the middle of your most popular shows?

And check this out. My Mom, who has digital cable, called me the other night because she noticed she wasn’t able to skip the commercials on the DVR-recorded TNT show Saved. I’ve not experienced this yet, but it seems threats might be coming to fruition. They are going to force us to watch the commercials.

Just when I come up with a way to watch more TV in less time, they pull me back in. This is not what I wanted!

From Allsop to Alpha

2006-09-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

So, I’ve changed jobs.

From Allsop, a consumer product company selling computer accessories, to Alpha Technologies, a business-to-business company selling all sorts of industrial power products.

I’ve not had many different jobs in my life. In nineteen working years I’ve only worked at five places. I’ve managed to climb up the ladder from job to job at these places, but I didn’t have to learn a new system every time I got a cooler office. So, I’m really shaking things up by starting someplace new. And adding to the fact that I’m making the switch from Consumer to B-to-B, this is quite the departure for me. Granted in my opinion, B-to-B marketing can learn a lot from consumer goods marketing, there is a pretty established mindset as to the best solutions.

So, anyway, you’re now reading the words of the new marketing manager for Alpha Technologies.

Do you want to know what products we make at Alpha? Hmm. Me, too. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed right now. But, give me a couple of days to figure it out and I’ll let you know.

Tri, Baby, Tri

2006-08-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

Tri Without Borders

Finished in 2 hours and 35 Minutes. Ten minutes faster than my previous personal best.

Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems

2006-08-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

I’ve never really heard this song from Notorious B.I.G. But I believe in it. Organic foods are hugely popular, but we are running out of supply. Apple is kicking some megabyte butt, but the iPod glow is losing some luster. MySpace, while growing, isn’t that cool anymore. And apparently Green Day sucks.

I see a kind of zero-sum game going on with supply and demand. For example, organic foods are selling like crazy. From food-coops, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and other upscale grocery stores. The demand is so great suppliers are having trouble keeping up. But with a national population in the US of 300 million and a world population of more than 6.5 billion, I would guess there is a point at which it is impossible for everyone to buy organic foods. This of course unless we lower the standards of what is considered organic. There are only so many farms and dairies and they are close to only so many metropolises. At some point growth hormones and insecticides and other “impurities” are going to need to be introduced to make sure there is enough affordable, and hopefully healthy, food for all income levels.

So it goes: Apple has gone mainstream. Rather, Apple has made it to mainstream with the iPod and now the Apple-haters are coming out. The worst are the former Mac-heads who no longer like Apple because it isn’t rebellious enough… it’s not their little secret anymore… it’s not the source of their quasi-intellectual status from which they get to look down on the rest of the population as lemmings and suckers and surrenderers to the hegemonic downfall of our Orwellian society.

Apple is known for being more expensive than the other guys. Sometimes double or triple. And with that comes the expectation of double or triple the quality and performance. And with the iBook, the iPod, the MacBook and the growing demand from the growing base of Mac-heads, Apple moved production to Asia. Like just about any other company with the business-skills to know they can lower labor costs. With this kind of production move, there are going to be problems. And a typical Mac-head is more technologically skilled than your average citizen. So if they have a problem, they are more likely to have an outlet to share their disgruntled ravings. The Internet forum/blosphere/media echo chamber starts and you hear about it a lot more. But for the 60 Million iPods that have been sold (frankly, most of them being Nanos) there are startlingly few problems.

But change is painful. With growth and popularity, Apple needed to extend their operations in order to meet demand. The bigger issue now is how Apple deals with product problems. The secretive nature with which they develop and release products (which I LOVE by the way) may not be the best to deal wth customer service issues, but at least it limits official Apple communications to the truth. Every organization makes occasional missteps, but Apple works to resolve negative issues. Sometimes it is done quietly and sometimes it’s done with a new product release.

So don’t condemn Apple or Steve Jobs because they are mainstream. Apple still makes great products, has fun stores and provides a computer experience to satisfy the technically skilled and the technophobe alike.

They didn’t go mainstream. Mainstream came to them.

Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. Since Green Day makes really good music, has sold millions of records and consistently sells out any arena, coliseum or stadium, they officially suck.

Netflix Weighs In

2006-08-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

Our view is that the current format war is unwinnable by either Sony or Microsoft in the next several years. They are both powerful enough to maintain the stalemate. Hopefully, early next year the single format studios will join Warner and Paramount in becoming format agnostic. The press will declare the format war over and the consumer adoption cycle for High Definition DVDs will begin in earnest."

-- CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings (via HDBeat).

Trade Show Sponge

2006-07-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

What’s happening with trade shows? Well, at least the trade shows I go to. There are tons of trade shows I’ve never heard of. In fact, I never fail to be amazed at the number of trade shows that exist. My favorite is the Consumer Electronics Association trade show for exhibiting at the Consumer Electronics Show. A Trade Show trade show. Funny.

I’ve always thought there were two routes to go with exhibiting at trade shows. Go to the big ones, like CES, the Housewares show or the Hardware Show. Or go to the smaller ones like all of the Gift shows, Retail Vision, or furniture shows. If you go to the big ones, you get as big of a space you can afford, and you do it once or twice a year. Hopefully, all of the customers stop by your booth. If you go the small show route, you do 30 little shows all over the country with a smaller, but strong and consistent message. It’s exhausting, but it’s regional.

It turns out there is a third way, and I see it becoming more of a trend. And here’s where I go into a little side bar.

Attending trade shows, especially the big ones, is not cheap. First of all, there is the cost of the floor space, which runs from between $10-$50 per square foot. This is just to buy your space on the trade show floor. Then there’s the booth structure itself, shipping, travel, lodging, time out of the office, someone to plan the whole thing. And there’s drayage. This is the cost you incur for the union labor guys to bring your booth structure crates from the shipping dock to your space, to store your empty crates and to take your crates back to the shipping dock after the show. This is a big cost, typically more than the cost of shipping your booth across the country. Trade shows are big business, and there are a lot of high costs associated with participating in the official events.

Here’s where I get to the up-and-coming third way to participate in trade shows. I’ll call it the “Sponge”. You sponge off of the trade show. You take advantage of the trade shows efforts to get your customers, vendor and competitors all in one town at the same time in the same building. You, on the other hand, book a hotel suite (sweet) and set-up your own traveling showroom. Your customers are already going to be there. You have their telephone number. Give them a call. Buy them dinner, or lunch, or breakfast, or drinks. Take advantage of their off-show hours.

There are lots of advantages to this:
* No extra trade show costs associated with the show organizers, unions and over-priced concessions
* No costs to build a booth, you need only bring product, displays and sales material
* Fewer employees are needed at the event
* You get the undivided attention of your customers during meetings
* $50 a square foot can get a pretty frickin’ nice hotel suite (sweet)

But there are down sides:
* You are only going to get meetings with people you already know
* The accidental discovery that you see on the trade show floor won’t happen
* There is an energy to the trade show that might not carry over to your mini-show
* When you don’t exhibit at a big trade show, you lose your priority points, which could come back and bite you if you decide to go back to the show

But, if you’re thinking of going to a new show, the Sponge option might be a good way to do it. As long as you can get into contact with the right potential customers (that’s what regional sales reps or for) and you pick a hotel and transportation close to entertainment and the convention center. You don’t want to be shuttling customers an hour out the city, or get them stuck in traffic during rush hour.

But whichever route you choose: Make Sure the Whole Thing Represents Your Brand!

The Future is Now

2006-07-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

So, news this week has brought us two reports of convenience trouncing quality. Following the MP3 over SACD consumer choice, we’ve got movie downloads being introduced at the same time that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray technologies are struggling to stay in the news/consumer’s mind. As I have said, never mind the Coke vs. Pepsi style blue ray technology battle trying to form in the media. Blue ray technology is too expensive, and it will remain that way for a couple more years. It will take off when it breaks $100 and is seamlessly coupled with current DVD technology. But even then, Blue Ray recorders will be used to save downloaded movies from places like CinemaNow and MovieLink, not to rebuild movie archives in prerecorded HD-DVDs.

Convenience is going to win, as it usually does. How do I know? I’m lazy, too.

But what of iTunes, I might ask. What with the current Video iPod and the forthcoming, “true” video iPod expected now in the first quarter 2007. Will iTunes do for movie downloads what it dod for music and music video downloads? It is going to let us rent movies over iTunes. But, I’m beginning to have my doubts.

Here’s why: the primary use of movie downloads will not be viewing on a 2-inch, 3.5-inch or 5-inch screen. Listening to music is generally something people do alone. Movies, on the other hand, are usually watched in a group. The video iPod is great for people to watch old episodes of Rocketboom or last nights Daily Show during their daily commute, but a 120-minute movie is a little too long, unless you’re on an airplane. And most won’t crowd around something the size of your palm. The primary viewing locations are going to range from 42-inch plasmas to 12-inch in-car DVD systems.

Even still, movie downloads are going to take off when the link from the computer to the TV is just as rote as connecting the DVD player. So satellite companies and digital cable companies already have a big headstart, since their machines are already plugged into the TV. Where Apple or another computer hardware company might make this happen is with a wireless connection, ala Wifi. See: Airport Express. I fully expect Apple next generation Airport Express to include a video output, letting my plug into the S-Video or HDMI port of my 37-inch LCD.

Keep in mind, sometimes the secret to the general population excepting a technology advance is by bringing a new piece of hardware into the house. It seems counter-intuitive that you can do great new things like buy movies over the Internet, with the same old stuff you've always had. So make it a new piece of hardware that's affordable, aspirational, technical and easy (Refer to the iPod in 2001).

Fej on Snakes on a Plane

2006-07-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

I guess, just as marketers spend a lot of time coming up with ideas, products and technologies that will make you buy more stuff than you need, writers, too, spend a lot of time pondering and writing about potential doomsday scenarios. (As a writer and a marketer I'm guilty on both fronts).

Take the recent furor around Snakes on a Plane. Some would have you think this is the end of the world. Esquire and Salon just for starters.

This Samuel L. Jackson-starring movie caught fire this last winter, partially because one of the rewrite-script scribes is also an avid blogger. A few other things made this really take off in the blogosphere world.
* The 70s-era disaster-film feeling of the title was perfect
* Samuel L. Is a quality actor, who appeared to be attached to a hokey film
* Snakes on a Plane just sounds quirky

It has been widely reported that after the Internet brouhaha grew to an audible crescendo, the cast was called back for five more days of shooting. My assumption for this is the producers realized they might have something here, but with a few nagging question marks in the back of their minds.

My first assumption: the script had been through several writers, and the movie was potentially on the verge of having the directing credit heaped on good ol' Alan Smithee.

My second assumption: the last script writer missed the obvious opportunity to have Samuel L. say "There's mother f**kin snakes on this mother f**kin plane." A line of this sort can be attributed to Samuel L. in just about every movie he has been in - except for maybe Star Wars (though I thought I heard him mutter something about the "mother f**kin Siths" in Attack of the Clones)

My third assumption: the producers decided they wanted to try and make the movie better, befitting of an Internet craze. Keep in mind though, five more days of re-shoots is not the route to perfection. I'm sure they were planning on shining up the turd a bit.

Not delving into the origin of the title (I imagine a perfectly befitting and descriptive working title), Snakes on a Plane is not a test of the blogospheres movie making ability. It is not a sign of Hollywood's demise. It is a cheesy disaster/horror film that will give you exactly what you expect.

For me, I love what Samuel L. said about the simple title: "What are you doing here? It's not Gone with the Wind. It's not On the Waterfront. It's Snakes on a Plane!"

The title tells you exactly what you're going to get. There won't be anything to make you go home and contemplate the moral consequences surrounding incarceration and false rehabilitation, but you will get snakes on a plane.

Protecting Your Baby

2006-07-17T09:02:00.000-07:00

With 50 million sold and counting, Apple's iPod is the aspirin of MP3 players. Whether its iPod/iTunes one-two punch will maintain its market dominance in digital music playback and sales is unsure. But don't bet against them yet.

Apple has made a habit of introducing an iPod update about once a year, just in time for the holiday shopping season. And while all of your music is safe, new iPods have brought you more capacity, color screens, digital image viewing, video capability and lower prices. Supposedly some kind of cell phone or wireless connectivity is on the horizon, but let's not talk about that until September.

But with all of the advancements, there are occasionally new problems. As with the latest 5th generation iPod and the iPod Nano's well reported propensity to scratch. Simply putting it in your pocket with say a wallet or mobile phone can result in a series of frustrating and blurring scratches on the front screen and the gleaming silver back. So just as it is important to protect your iPod from serious falls, it is important to protect it from minor bumps and bruises, because these are gadgets aren't free.

Check out Allsop's Slick Skins as a way to protect the body of your iPod. These work like a cross between a sticker and a vinyl window cling. It wraps around the player protecting the screen, the face and the backside. And whether you want to use a clear Slick Skin to show off your good taste, Allsop offers a series of images to let you personalize your player. Simply put: you can make your iPod look a little different than the other 49,999,999 other iPods out there.

One of the benefits of the iPod is its portability, and your ability to take it on the road, to the lake or white water rafting for that matter. This desire to take your player on your adventures makes sense. That way you can actually listen to Eye of the Tiger while you’re running up the steps of your local library, instead of just humming the tune to yourself.

But if you're going to take your iPod or digital camera or cell phone out into the wild, protect it. Allsop's Splash Pack gives you an airtight place to keep out water, sand, grease or Jell-o. But if you're going to take it swimming, you'll need to get some waterproof headphones.

The Splash Pack will let you listen to your favorite music in any atmosphere, while giving you complete access to the clickwheel so you can adjust the volume, browse around your playlists or showoff your iPhoto collection. You can even take pictures with your digital camera while it's in the Splash Pack.

Where Are Your Digital Photos?

2006-07-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

The advent of digital photography has led to more pictures being taken, fewer pictures being developed and picture archives measured by the gigabyte. But digital pictures are vulnerable. Now that your memories can be reduced to binary code as nothing more than a bunch of 1s and 0s, how are we taking care of them? How should we be taking care of them?

There are four main formats of digital photo storage.

Your computer hard drive - convenient, but not very safe, just in case you have a meltdown.
CD-R - Cheap, reliable, but slightly fragile
Flash Memory - Small, getting cheaper, but proprietary usually to the brand of camera you have right now.
Somewhere on the Internet - There are lot’s of places to store and print your photos. From Wal-Mart and Target to Snapfish and Kodak. And who can ignor Flickr? Easy to share with others, but feels a little like sleeping on your brother-in-law’s couch. Your stuff’s just out there, somewhere.

Don’t trust your computer hard drive. Please. There are just too many things that can go wrong. And since, on average, we as technology users are only printing about 15% of the photos we take with digital cameras, there are a lot memories locked up on your vulnerable hard drive.

Since CD-Rs are the single most popular format for archiving digital photos, Allsop has a few options to make things easier. The Photo CD Gift Envelope let’s you safely send a disc in the mail, but in the form of a greeting card complete with places to write personal message and display your favorite photo. The Photo Disc Album, let’s you keep 20 CD-Rs in one place. It is small and will keep your photos close at hand. Our other photo disc storage products are for archiving. These are great when you’re ready to stick your photo library somewhere for safe keeping.

For flash memory there are memory sticks, SM cards, USB flash drives. If you are using one of these: good for you. They are great for sharing and moving files around, but I’m not sold on them for long term archiving. It’ll require a whole new system of organizing and storage.

As much memory as you might be taking up with digital pictures, just wait until you start taking up even more space with digital home videos. Get in the habit of archiving and backing your system up. It can save a ton of headache in the future.

Women Are Driving Today’s Technology Trends

2006-07-13T16:11:00.000-07:00

The digital camera got past being a high-tech toy the moment its sales surpassed film cameras in 2003. Now they are a staple and many households are already moving onto digital camera number two or three. Women are the traditional keepers of the family photo album, so it’s no surprise that women are taking over the digital camera, the home computer and making technology fit in the home, instead of the other way around.

And everybody has been talking about this in the consumer electronics association. Allsop even jumped on the trend with our Bridging Technology and Décor efforts.

In the media most recently, there’s CNET reporting on “Girl Gadgeteers” and Rent-To-Own Online is letting us know about the shrinking difference in Mother’s Day versus Father’s Day Consumer Electronics Sales. These are last week, but reports have been going for a few years now. Just as I think the story is getting old, it crops back up again.

The Consumer Electronics Association is really one group that has really been trying to follow the trend. For three years now, the Consumer Electronics Show has had a “Technology is a Girl’s Best Friend” product showcase. The problem? Practically all of the products in the showcase were geared toward the kitchen. And the lifestyle photos associated with the showcase were retro photos of June Cleaver-like women. This is really the wrong idea. Let’s not get stuck in the outdated women=kitchen stereotype. I know plenty of women who avoid the kitchen and have more hi-tech toys than I do.

I think my wife might have been slightly more excited about the 37-inch LCD purchase we made last Thanksgiving (only slightly, though). And she’s the one who always remembers the camera, and the iPod. And she’ll log more hours on our Powerbook.

A general marketing mantra applies here: lifestyle will outperform strategy every time. When a product or a category hits on a lifestyle trend or creates a lifestyle trend it will take off regardless of the strategy behind it. Technology is letting you save money on photo processing, save even more memories, de-clutter your living area, reclaim your home office, carry your entire music collection with you and call home from anywhere in the world. Technology has hit the point that it can be inculcated into the everyday lifestyle without being strapped to a desk and without lugging around 45 pounds of electronics. And it’s with digital cameras, MP3 players, flat-panel TVs, mobile phones and laptop computers.

Consumers Win By Network Forfeit

2006-07-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

Consumer demand will overwhelm corporate protests.

In a Media Daily News story:

Today, to be sure, networks still haven't exactly thrown the DVR threat out
the window. But they appear to at least be coming to terms with the increased
penetration of the devices and the jarring predictions about how many homes
could eventually have them. And they appear to be developing ways to work
around, or even with, them.

And here's a smart, smart solution to getting ads seen without product placement. I call it TiVo-proof advertising. A new take on an old classic.

Adieu, Audiocassette.

2006-07-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

Someone is actually saying that cassettes are on the way out. Yesterday. Not 10 years ago. In 2006. Really. I think we have all seen this coming for a long while, yet oh, the memories. My first cassette was Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1984. My last cassette was Duran Duran 2 (The Wedding Album) in 1993. Not quite 10 years, but the formative years of my independent developing music tastes. Bon Jovi, Keith Sweat, De La Soul, Anthrax, King's X, Seal, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Stanley Jordan, Fugazi, the Chili Peppers…

Oh, the memories and the eaten tapes: The dull, warbled sound and magnetized heads.

Long before I worked at Allsop, I owned several of our audio headcleaners. I only used them when it was too late, for example: after my Subaru stereo ate my Queen Night at the Opera tape. But I used them. And you should, too. I’m sure like me, you have a library of old cassettes. Mine is some 300 tapes strong. They are in these great wall-hanging wood shelves, stuck together, wrapped I duct tape and stuffed in the back of a closet. But they cover a very important time in my musical development. Keep your tapes. And keep a cassette deck cleaner with them. Because when treated correctly, your tapes will always sound just as dull and warbled, but they won’t get eaten by your wretched cassette player.

My Wireless Heaven

2006-07-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

I have an iPod. It’s a 3rd generation 10 gig and I absolutely love it. I haven’t upgraded because I haven’t yet been so impressed with new features that I just couldn’t resist. And I see Microsoft is enviously making a move to mimic Apple’s vertical market dominance.

I used to want a cell phone that could play music (yawn). Then I thought I wanted a computer in my car that would connect to my home Wifi network when parked in the garage (still sounds cool, but a little much). With that onboard computer, I could even connect to the Internet when traveling via my cell phone. But there’s the key: my cell phone.

So then I thought I’ve been thinking about the cell phone the wrong way. Here’s what I want my cell phone, or my iPod, to do. I want it to play my 3,000 song music collection, but do it wirelessly. Forget about loading it up with 80 gig of memory to store my songs and photos. Let me buy music from my mobile phone, but download the music to my home network. I want it to connect to my home network, and broadcast from there. Play the music from my Wifi network in my car, or on my headphones or through the desktop speakers in my office. I want access to my photos, my songs, my videos and my email. I want my cell phone to act as my code key for XM or Sirius and broadcast, too. If I have my cell phone with me, I want to broadcast the satellite radio signal through whatever receiving audio system is within range and under my control. Make my mobile phone part of my home network, wherever I am.

I want my cell phone, or my iPod, to become my Mobile Wireless Router. Now that would be cool.

Why Radio will never go away

2006-06-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

I saw a commercial last night from Sirius. It's a great campaign all about discovering new music. Something dawned on me. I’d always thought radio would sort of whither away. I’d don’t listen to much radio. My work commute is only 15 or 20 minutes, and then I’m listening to NPR. If I’m in the car any longer, I have my iPod plugged in and I’m listening to my own 2,000 song radio station. I call it: K F E J.

Now, I love music. No. You don’t understand. I really, really love music. My blood pressure rises with the volume. My heartbeat follows the tempo. It’s a lifelong thing. So, whether or not radio will whither, here is the reason it shouldn’t: Accidental Discovery.

I feel the same way about Electronic encyclopedias and Google Maps and the Internet in general. Online search has gotten so good; you find what you want so quickly and easily that you can miss the things you didn’t know you wanted to know. I have found most of my new music from friends and the occasional sleepless night watching MTV. Yes. Music Television does still play music videos in the middle of the night.

Sure there is an argument to be made over the myspace music section or for any of the dozens of independent music sites where you can find tons of free independent music. But, frankly, there’s a lot crap to wad through there. I want someone to do some the weeding out for me. I found Maxwell one day while I was napping through the old Rosie O’Donnell Show. With Muse, it was one evening while I was reading and had my Dish Network TV box tuned to the Modern Alternative Rock channel. I found My Chemical Romance one night on MTV that my spring allergies wouldn’t let me sleep.

The randomness of radio done right can let you stumble on to new and old favorites. Music you forgot about, or never know existed. But AM-FM radio has been in trouble. Most areas across the country only have a dozen or so options, with fewer than that coming in without static. And these frustrations have given birth to the satellite radio phenomenon.

But the thing holding up satellite radio is the “format” battle. Do you want XM or Sirius. Sirius has Howard Stern and Martha Stewart. XM has Opie & Anthony and Oprah. It may sound like deciding between satellite-TV providers, but it’s not. The difference is Dish Network, DirecTV and Cable all show the same channels (Food Network, Bravo, FX, local affiliates…); subscribers are paying for the content delivery. Satellite radio is both different content and delivery.

At some point XM and Sirius are going to get together. One’s going to buy the other, or there’ll be some crazy merger or synergistic alliance where subscribers to either can listen to content from both. Then it’ll work just like the cable TV and we won’t think about it.

And it’s not all roses for satellites. First of all there aren’t local stations available on satellite radio. And I’m not sure the masses are ready to pay for music during their commute. Sirius signed up Howard Stern for $100 Million a year, and then signed up more than a million new subscribers. Yet even with those results Stern has fretted repeatedly about his audience's not following him to Sirius.

But terrestrial radio has hope. Think about the recent surge of the nearly talk-free Jack-FM. And then there’s HD Radio. Think HDTV: but only audio and in your car or on your deck. While only about 7% of the nation's radio stations offer HD a broadcast, the tipping point for HD radio is going to be cars. And at some point radios are just going to switch. When you buy a new radio, it’ll have HD capability whether you want it or not. You won’t have to think about it or pay extra for the service.

The “important” thing here is that any one of these offerings creates a new revenue stream for retailers and manufacturers in the form of new hardware. So stores and factories will hedge their bets to make sure they don’t pick the wrong horse.

For satellite you need to cough up the dough for both the hardware and the service. For HD Radio, you need only cough up the dough for the radio; the content is free. But even then, if you still want to hear un-FCC-encumbered entertainment and your favorite stars, you’re going to have to go satellite; but it’s gonna cost you. You’ll need to help pay for things like Sirius’ great new ad campaign.

Future of TV at Home

2006-06-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

Just as movies are facing changes to their consumption model, so too is television. What was once three stations offering advertiser sponsored variety shows, game shows and soap operas is now burdened with Digital Video Recorders, satellites, cable, DVDs, cyberspace and, to confuse things more, the end of the analog spectrum in Feb 2009.

As much as TV has changed, it has stayed quite the same. Sitcoms are still sitcoms, except that we don’t have a Seinfeld, Roseanne, Cheers or Friends going on right now. Dramas, like Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy and 24 are taking on more and more cinematic qualities, and in many cases, employ much better writing than most movies.

The 500 channels promised by broadband are consolidating due to less-than-expected ad revenue and lack of audiences. Yet there are still a lot more channels available than there were 10 or 20 years ago. With so many channels, and so many of those channels producing original content, syndication seems to be in trouble. No longer does a show that has survived five seasons have a chance to live on forever in reruns.

So here’s the big question: who is going to pay for television programming?

The advertisers?
I have a DVR from Dish Network. I record my shows and skip the commercials altogether. In fact, in the last six months I’ve watched more TV commercials on YouTube than I have on my TV. And I’m not alone. The only thing I voluntarily watch live is sports, so I see ad rates for football, basketball and other to jump. The rates of others, I’m not so sure. Why pay big bucks to hock your wares during the first run of a Lost episode, when that same episode is available for people to download the next day?

Of course, there is always product placement, which if done well is the solution to this whole deal. But don’t get me started about product placement.

And TiVo has been warning about adding some sort of unskippable commercial breaks added to TV programming. But would this revenue go to TiVo or the production companies?

The watchers?
Essentially, this is the HBO or Showtime model. But even these shows start to run into trouble when stars become huge and demand huge salaries (ie. James “Tony Soprano” Gandolfini).

Sure, people already pay for “regular” TV in the form on Cox, Comcast, DirecTV, Dish Network and others, but this is paying for the vehicle that delivers the signal to your house when you tire of the rabbit-ear quality. The content is mostly still supported by advertising.

But now for network shows you can now buy episodes or subscribe to some shows on iTunes and others. You can also buy most popular TV series on DVD. And not only the latest shows, like 24 and Gilmore Girls, but extensive backlogs like Battlestar Galactica and MASH. So far this has been a little extra butter on the production company’s’ muffin because a vintage show’s costs were paid years ago. But with future TV shows, I’m thinking it’s going to turn into a way to pay the bills.

To those cynics out there, it’s even being said that the movie and TV production industries are up for hyping the new blue laser technology is because they are running out of products to repackage. They are running out of stuff to convince you to buy. So they want to repackage old shows and movies again, and convince you to purchase them… again… to support their salaries and produce new shows.

Just like for movies, keep your eye on cyberspace as the end winner of this game. It’s too easy, convenient and pervasive to ignore.

They must read my blog.

2006-06-26T10:54:00.000-07:00

The Independent UK thinks the future of movies at home is going to go the way of cyberspace, not blue lasers. It sounds familiar. They must read my blog.

From The Independent:
Despite the claims being made for the new players, some industry watchers
believe the future of home movies and recorded TV shows lies not in physical
players and discs but in cyberspace.

In the next few years, the arrival of internet video will allow people to instantly
order and view films by broadband on their television sets; they won't need a
shelf of videos, DVDs or HD DVDs.

Adam Vaughan, online editor at Stuff, said the magazine viewed the battle
of the formats as "a red herring".

"It's being talked about as a format war but we think we will just skip to
internet video in the next few years," he said.

"It's a bit like SACD (Super Audio DC) and DVD-A (DVD Audio). We were
promised that they would be the future of how to listen to music because
they offered much better sound quality.

"But in fact everyone went for MP3, which is lower in sound quality, but
more versatile. I think ordering movies over the internet will be more
convenient."

Check out the whole article.

Style is Not Important. It’s Essential.

2006-06-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

In the early stages of any products life, function is what gets our attention. In consumer electronics: better picture, clearer sound, more organization, greater convenience. These are the things that sell the early adopters.

But the life of innovative function is short lived. We all know you can get a DVD player for $30. While manufacturers and retailers can continue to offer products that cost less and less, one alternative we see again and again is choosing to make them look better.

I recently ran into a friend, one of the most techie people I know, and he proudly pulled a brand-new one mega-pixel camera out of his pocket. It was tiny and could hang around his neck. Obviously, he did not buy this camera for the high-quality single mega-pixel pictures. He bought it because it was small, and it looked neat.

When function is the only thing that matters, a product can look like a giant orange turtle and still sell. But when there are lots of giant orange turtles, it won’t be long before someone decides to make theirs smaller or more attractive. Consumers will not forfeit function, but if a manufacturer is not willing to add an aesthetic value, their competitor will.

A Consumer Electronics Association survey showed us women account for 58 percent of electronics purchases.

That same study showed 46 percent of women say they have the most influence on home purchases and 42 percent reported having equal say.

In other words: "Ninety percent of the time women will make the buying decision because it becomes a function of home décor,” said Michael Steinberg, the former CEO of Macy's West, in a recent interview.

Let me repeat that: “…it becomes a function of home décor.” Translated: it has to look good; it has to fit in the home.

If you watch MTV, maybe you’ve seen the show Cribs. In this show, we get to tour famous people’s homes and without fail, right above the fireplace is a giant Plasma TV. This is not because it performs better. It is because it takes less space, it looks cool and it no longer forces the television to be the central focus of the room. One could walk into the room and not notice that you have a giant TV on the wall. Sure the picture is good; it is a huge screen and all that. But it could just as easily be all of those things and still take up half of the living room.

The point is it does not take up half of the living because people do not want it to. There are other things worth showing off in the home. Décor is important. Style is important.

Of course, “back stage” products like cables, batteries and cleaners do not need to look good, they need to be invisible. If it is not going to add to the décor, just make sure it will not detract. Given the opportunity, and comparable function, ugly accessories will get replaced by stylish accessories.

But back stage products aside, there are other appliances fighting for space in the family room. For example, computer workstations may not be in their own room any more. They could be in the corner of the living room, the kitchen, or in the “media room.” And no one can deny that computer manufacturers are making their products more attractive. I am not sure of the last time I saw a boring beige CPU in my local office store, but it has been a while. Now it seems the standard is ABB (anything but beige): black, silver, white.

Going beyond the elegant white shell of the iMac, Apple is heavily promoting the computer’s wireless capability. Using Bluetooth, the keyboard and mouse can connect wirelessly. No wires on the desktop. This makes it incredibly clean and attractive.

This seems counterintuitive to the Consumer Electronics study, which showed that a majority of women said using "female" colors on technology equipment is a bad idea and would not impact purchasing decisions. But in the market, out on the retail shelf, why does that very marketing strategy work?

In early 2004, Apple introduced the iPod Mini: the smaller, more colorful version of the industry-leading iPod. Sales of the iPod Mini exploded. But here’s the catch: a colorful four-gigabyte iPod Mini cost $250, while a plain white 20-gigabyte iPod costs $300. That’s 20% more price for 400% more memory. And the Mini sold! In fact, it was often out of stock. Could it be because the iPod Mini is pink, blue or silver?

When people say they are concerned with home décor, they mean they want good looking products. Form may follow function, but sometimes, function is not enough.

It is becoming widely recognized that women are playing a larger role in the electronics that are coming into the home. That fact, coupled with the traditional woman’s role as keeper of the home means we all have a new boss. Forget about working for the man. We’re working for the woman.

A new car. Do I have to?

2006-06-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

My 1985 Subaru Brat, a car/truck hybrid, is navy blue with a snow-white cap covering the super-cool rear-facing jump seats in the bed. The “Roo” is a small two-seater that is so skinny it takes up barely half of a lane on the expressway and fits comfortably into the most compact of compact parking spots.

The Roo has given me more than 175,000 virtually trouble-free miles. And I am not a person deserving of such giving.

I bought the Roo in the fall of 1991 from a couple of soon-to-be parents in Ann Arbor, Mich. They were making the move to a mini-van. With the purchase came a file folder containing every repair and maintenance receipt for the car dating back to the original purchase.

"Yeah, that’s great," I said, as I threw the folder in the passenger seat while testing the radio. "Do these seats recline any more?"

When I plunked down the $2,000 to buy the four-year-old import, I just thought it was a great way to lug my music equipment around. It was also much cooler than the rusted-out 1974 Ford pickup I was driving at the time.

There was a time - during one of the Roo’s oil-leak phases - when I used the oil pressure gauge like the gas gauge. If the oil pressure was low, I needed to put in a quart. If I waited long enough and the engine started ticking, I needed to add two quarts. Since I was putting in new oil to replace the oil now decorating the street, that was just as good as an oil change. The mechanic who fixed the leak - something to do with a head and a casket - corrected my naive theory.

Later I developed a schedule. The Roo got an oil change once a year, whether it needed it or not. An annual car wash was also in order; navy blue hides dirt remarkably well. Tires needed replacing when one blew out, hopefully close to home.

After a couple years in Ann Arbor and Detroit, I saw gold and platinum in the fabled grunge scene of Seattle. My band mates and I made the trek across the country in a four-car caravan and the Roo made the 2300-mile trip with ease.

After I settled in Seattle, the Roo became very loud and needed some exhaust work. I looked through the folder of receipts to see if any exhaust work had been done before. As I flipped through, the first few were from Dunning Subaru in Ann Arbor, mainly for oil changes and a burned out blinker bulb. Further back in time, the dealership changed to Renton Subaru. That being in Renton, Washington.

The Roo had come home. In January of 1985, those car-selling parents-to-be were newlyweds living in West Seattle. They bought the Roo and drove it to Ann Arbor sometime in 1988, only to have me drive it back five years later.

Fifteen of my 18 years of driving have been in the Roo. A lot has happened in those years. There’s a tear in the front-seat upholstery that has been growing for about 10 years. What at the time sounded like a gunshot was actually a rock from a gravel truck I was following. It started a crack in the windshield that now stretches from one side to the other. Two small patches of rust, one on the hood and the other on the tailgate, are the only imperfections on the body.

I’ve gotten married, bought a house and a new Jetta for my wife. Occasionally my wife will ask me when we are getting another car to replace the Roo. “Next summer,” I say. That has been the standard answer for seven years running.