Wayne Hartman

Death of the Dedicated Device

Wayne Hartman — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:34:08 GMT

Today Google announced free navigation for the new version of its mobile software, Android 2.0. Seems like a pretty innocuous announcement until you consider who the players are in the market. TomTom and Garmin are two of the biggest players in the hand held consumer GPS market, so it came as no surprise that their business model might take a hit. Consider today's stock graph following the accouncement:

Ouch! It doesn't take a stock analyst to point out that anyone in the handheld GPS market is going to have an interesting time staying relevant in a marketplace where a once valued (and pricey) product is being given away for free. TomTom and Garmin are feeling the pinch, but they're not the only ones. The writing on the wall here is that the days of dedicated hand held devices are numbered. Even Apple themselves are seeing it amongst their own product lines. The iPod Classic and even the Nano are seeing shrinking sales all because people have discovered that having an iPod Touch or iPhone, which in addition to being able to play music or making a phone call, offer users a vast array of useful applications that fulfill any number of functions.

Who's next? I target eBook readers. The Kindle, Nook, and Sony's dedicated reading devices are the obvious choice for extinction. Though the iPod and iPhone do not necessarily make a comfortable book reading device, one could only imagine what the rumored Apple tablet will bring. If Apple were to combine the power and extensibility of their current iPod Touch/iPhone application experience and marry it with a slick interface for reading electronic books, then it would certainly obviate the need to carry an eBook reader on your person.

Look forward to the future, kids. The power and knowledge of the world is at your fingertips and it is only going to get better.

UPDATE: Right after I post this, I read an article highlighting a Twitter dedicated device. Wow. I am astounded. So what do people do when they have this device and people embed a link to a web page? While I agree that Twitter or Twitter-like communication is the wave of the future (heck, it's already here!), why would I carry such a clunky, one-trick-pony device in my pocket? 1996 just called, they want their glorified pager back!

Obama's Peace Prize Wasn't A Good Idea

Wayne Hartman — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:47:30 GMT

I woke up this morning surprised, like every other American, that Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I can't say that I'm really happy for him, nor I am I angry that he received it. When I had mentioned this to some coworkers who hadn't heard the news, the first question they asked was, "For what?" Considering that nominations had to be proposed by early February, Obama would have only been in office a few weeks before someone put his name in for consideration. The media were abuzz about this same question and apologists were quick to respond how much better the U.S. is perceived around the world for Obama simply being elected.

Now, I'm not against him receiving this honor just because he's not Bush. I'm not against it because he's black. I'm not against it because his aspirations tend to lean towards peaceful resolve (even though after his acceptance remarks he was whisked off to a war planning meeting for Afghanistan). No, I'm against it because now there is a certain obligation for Obama to behave in a certain manner. In a way, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is exerting a certain influence on U.S. foreign policy. If I were the President and had just received the Nobel Peace Prize barely 9 months into my first term, I would feel a lot of undue pressure to live up to the expectations yoked upon me by this foreign organization. Think about it: if the platform of your presidency rested on restoring faith in your country in the eyes of the world, how much confidence would it instill if you received the Nobel Peace Prize and continued to wage war?

So Obama is now faced with a dilemma: Live up to the Peace Prize's standard of being a 'peace maker' at all costs, or risk violating the spirit of the Prize but continuing the path our nation is currently on. The former has implications for domestic sovereignty and security, whiles the latter risks the nation's perceptions with the rest of the world.

I think the world would have been a better place if they had waited for Obama to deliver on some promises and aspirations and then award it based on performance, instead of meddling with situations that are already quite precarious as they are.

Windows 7 Party Pack Arrives

Wayne Hartman — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:07:55 GMT

And it is every bit as cheesy as it sounds.

Among other things I get a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, a puzzle, a deck of cards and napkins (napkins?!). I'm not sure that I particularly care for the 'Signature Edition' containing Monkey Boy's John Hancock, but I'm raffling it off anyway. I've assembled the tote bags (last pic below) that include coupons for discounted software from Norton, Kaspersky, Corel, etc. Check out the unboxing:

The New Business Model Of Music

Wayne Hartman — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:22:37 GMT

The music industry has an uphill battle to fight. On one hand they want to continue to enjoy the insane amount of revenue that music sales bring them and on the other hand you have the Digital Age sweeping in and casting that idea to the wind. Once a product goes digital, its value in and of itself is nothing.

The Old Days

See, when people bought phonographs, they weren't buying music, they were purchasing a piece of vinyl that happened to have music on it. They owned something. It was physical, tangible, cuddleable. It was yours. You could lend it to a friend, swap it for another, but in all you owned a piece of property, one very difficult to reproduce yourself. Cassettes were the start of trouble for the recording industry because now people could create copies, pass them around, make mix tapes etc. Using cassettes still meant that you had to buy new media if you wanted to make copies, but in all it was fairly convenient. Same with CDs. For longer than a decade now, you have a collection of 1s and 0s. You can share it instantaneously with thousands of other people or duplicate it a million fold at the click of a button.

At that moment a song meant nothing, it is expected to be attainable for free. This of course runs contrary to what the music industry wants you to do, but the opportunity is there and you are not likely to get caught. So how can you compete for free? There have been attempts at giving away advertisement laced tracks. But why would someone savor what is perceived as an inferior product when one without advertisements can be obtained as easily? The RIAA has tried scaring people into submission with threat of lawsuit, but that doesn't seem to have worked. If not that, what?

Enter The New Business Model

Music means the most to people when it is associated with an experience. Listening to a song on an iPod is not necessarily an experience. A song on a radio while sitting in traffic is not exactly a highlight experience of music listening. So how do you create an experience, and more importantly, how do you monetize it?

Since music is now considered a commodity, you have to now start bundling it with value add items. For the cynics who think that's marketing-speak for 'giving away doohickeys', they're on the right track. Apple is trying out a new LP Format to lure fans back into purchasing whole albums, but even that format has limited appeal. Why? Because once again, you're not creating an experience. Music needs to get back to brand. To image. To something tangible.

I think one of the more innovative approaches to word-of-mouth product advertising is HouseParty.com. Companies can setup an avenue for people to invite friends over and try out products. In the case of the music industry, why not get your fans to sell crap for you? I'm talking about T-Shirts, buttons, stickers, posters, and other music group paraphernalia. Imagine teenagers across America having a place to facilitate getting friends together at their home to listen to a new album FOR FREE and have them sell orders for T-Shirts and other junk. Fans eat that crap up! In those moments you are now creating an experience that people can relate to and remember. They remember the posters that the host had up, the music blaring, parents shaking their heads but glad that they know where their kids are and what they are doing.

That's just one idea.

How about another: Why not create kits with a CD, SD card, or other digital format of the latest Celine Dion album in a box set of chocolate, lotions, and aphrodisiacs? It's kinky and silly and you're laughing right now, but at the same time you are making an experience out of the music these artists are creating. You can make money off of that!

The point is this: the music itself has no value. It's too easy to duplicate and get for free. That can of worms is open and can never be closed. The music industry needs to come to grips with that and invent other ways to add value to something that now has no worth. It may end up that the margins are not as lucrative as they once were, but as mentioned before, they weren't really selling music anyway, only the media upon which it was inscribed.

Good luck artists, you're going to need it.

Obama To Students: Be Mindless Zombies, Feed On Republican Brains

Wayne Hartman — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:51:40 GMT

First and foremost, I am not an Obama shill, quite far from it. So on that note, why all the controversy of Obama addressing the students of this nation to encourage them to do better? I think Obama understands, as do I, the complete utter lack of accountability that people my age and younger have about their future. We live in an age where our dreams rest upon the fantasies of getting something for nothing. We care not for hard work and determination, where everything in life is granted by handouts and even our failings are assuaged by purple check marks. So it is with a sense of relief that someone in a position of power is standing up to these false hopes and telling it how it is--even if it is Obama.

My favorite part, which appears early in his prepared remarks, is this:

"...at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed."

What's there to argue with that? I've seen rumor-mongering to the effect that Obama is out to brainwash us all into pro-government Democrat robots, to be dispatched to squash any dissent and feed on the brains of those who do. Get real.

Hyperbole aside, if ever there were a time in the history of our country to be awakened to a sense of our own personal responsibility, it is now. We have sown the seeds of our own undoing, the fruit of which we are beginning to reap, because we have surrendered control and responsibility of our destinies to chance and happenstance. We rely on frivolous lawsuits, social programs, and handouts, hoping that someone will come along and solve all our problems for us. And when the Law of the Harvest reaps us all the things we didn't want, we blame it on others or circumstance, looking further for freebies to save us from our woe. Further, I quote, "I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things." Spot on.

I think it's great that Obama has seized this opportunity to speak on this subject and a shame that those of a different political persuasion are letting politics get in the way of our President delivering a message that we all need to hear--regardless if we are in grade school or not. I would hope that school administrators, teachers, and parents who have decided to withhold this opportunity from their students, would use this time to teach those same principles.

Personal responsibility and accountability, indoctrination indeed. But don't take my word for it, read it yourself and draw your own conclusions.

OCD #36: Those Who Type 'http://'

Wayne Hartman — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:46:29 GMT

I have a sister whose educational background is in psychology (she's currently getting a masters degree) who claims that we all have (on some level or another) obsessive compulsive disorders. One thing that absolutely drives me nuts are people that take the time to type http:// when typing in a web address. Or they use their mouse to select a URL sans the http:// and delete it, believing that they have to have the protocol there in order for the Internet Gods to direct them to the correct website.

News flash: YOU DON'T HAVE TO TYPE THE HTTP PART! All modern browsers assume that you are using the HTTP protocol when typing in a URL in the address bar! That's seven characters you don't have to type! STOP THE INSANITY! Just type the address and because your browser loves you so much, it will automagically add the http:// for you. Now, when you're going to an FTP site, yes, you have to have the ftp:// part. When watching an MMS stream, you have to explicitly type mms://--that's perfectly normal because you're telling the browser that the address you want uses a different protocol. But please, do your fingers a favor and save those seven keystrokes for something more productive.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.

Why Writing (With Pen and Paper) Is Still Important

Wayne Hartman — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:19:48 GMT

Though penmanship has certainly taken a back seat to knowing how to type, I have come to this realization: it is important to be seen writing by your children so that they learn that typing or texting is not the only means of recording or communicating the written word. Even now I am writing this blog post in the sight of my oldest son who is just starting pre-school, who, little by little, will be trained to take that awkward hand and make scratches with a writing implement.

I'm sure at some point he may ask himself why on earth he would care to write with his hand when he can much easily clack a button in rapid succession and record a message. True, some time in the future everything may be in electronic form, but until the written signature or jotted down note or hand written drawing is completely replaced, knowing how to write with your hand is still requisite in society.

I must admit however, that writing this small post has cramped my hand; I do not write enough to keep those muscles accustomed to enduring such an arduous task. I too ask, why write when I can type? Perhaps, then, an appeal can be made to the Luddite in everyone: just because that's how it has always been and it works just fine.

UPDATE 28 AUG 2009: And this story the day after: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/emghandwriting/

URL Shorteners Are Evil, And Why I Have One

Wayne Hartman — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 04:01:15 GMT

Url shortening has been around for quite a long time, but it has exploded due to the popularity of Twitter. Money tends to follow the popular so dozens of URL shortening services sprang, seemingly overnight, to fill the gap. The first to go down for the count, tr.im, decided to throw in the towel due to mounting costs that are associated with running what is essentially a redirecting service. I'm not sure what the business model is for these sites, except that they have a goldmine of information to what people are linking and sharing with others. Apparently, tr.im couldn't figure it out, either.

Failed business models aside, this brings up an interesting topic of discussion concerning link rot. The old age problem with Internet is that everything depends on linkage to sites or pages that no longer exist. This problem mushrooms when people become dependent on these URL shortening services that go belly up. Instead of link rot existing as a natural phenomena that occurs over time, we can now have link cancer when these services go away. When the service dies, the links go with them.

The logical conclusion, then, is this: why not have sites publish through their own internal URL shortening services? I did just the same with my own site, waynehartman.com, and purchased a short domain name for publishing my own short URLs. I figure that if my site or online persona goes belly up, it doesn't matter much if my short URLs go with me.

The problem I ran into was that I could not just get any short domain name. They have all been snapped up. I had to settle on misf.me. I came up with the acronym Make It Short For.Me. I would have preferred to get a two or three letter domain name, but it appears that most (if not all) have been gobbled up by a domain squatter.

At any rate, my $10 domain name is now purchased and the site for creating my short URLs is forthcoming. Goodbye, Bit.ly.

A Mis Queridos De Una Vida Pasada

Wayne Hartman — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 02:30:14 GMT

Unos pensamientos que tuve hoy:

De vez en cuando, uno se le olviden las experiencias que se le han pasado. Estoy culpable de eso hoy, de mis queridos del pais de Guatemala. Es facil estar atropellado por todo que pasa aun durante un solo dia, pero tambien es una lastima que usamos eso como una excusa de no vivir nuestras memorias. Al decir la verdad, me gustaria transportarme por los vortices de tiempo para vivir partes de mi vida una vez mas. Yo no cambiaria ninguna parte de ellas, solo me gustaria vivirlas, mirarlas por los ojos de una persona que ojala sea mas sabia e inteligente.

Durante mi mision, yo era diligente de escribir diariamente sobre todos los eventos de mi vida. Yo escribi sobre muchos asuntos, sin embargo, por todo lo que escribi, espero que yo hubiera escrito aun mas. La mente sola tiene una capacidad finita, y por tanto, por todas las cosas que ella recuerda, es requesito que hayan cosas que se le olvidan tambien.

Aun hoy recibi una invitacion de Facebook de un Pablo Antonio Soto Maldonado. Quien es el?, me pregunte, no conozco ningun Pablo. Sin embergo, fui al sitio para verle, y si, yo habia conocido este Elder Soto. Yo deberia haber recordado su nombre, pero no paso asi, sencillamente por las faultas de la memoria. Solo tengo unos veintiocho años, y ya estoy perdiendo la mente como si fuera un viejo!

Al fin, solo quisiera decirles, a mis guatemaltecos queridos, y a tambien a mis compeñeros de la mision, si, les recuerdo, les quiero, y espero que nunca vez se me olviden--aun cuando yo sea un viejito.

A New Super Hero Amongst Us

Wayne Hartman — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:42:55 GMT

The Forces Of Evil™ better be quaking in their boots.