Monthly Archives: July 2005

Jeff Jarvis on cash cows

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Having a cash cow distracts companies from the future. It makes them complacent: ‘Look at all the money (still) rolling in.’ It makes them think that if they just tweak this and that — if they can still get away with raising their rates even as their audience and value are shrinking — they will continue to keep milking cash from that old cow. It makes them overly cautious: ‘Nobody hurt Bessie!’

And politically, the guys in charge of the cow don’t want anybody inside the company competing with them: no new products, no new power centers, no one else to set strategy, no one else to use resources. They win because, of course, they’re the ones bringing in the cash. Nevermind that they’re the ones stopping the company from building for the future. They’ll tell you that’s not their job. They’re there to protect the cow.

From a Jeff Jarvis post on Big Media

Banned for life

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Before finally moving smays.com to Typepad, I signed up for hosting with a compnay called AQ Host. Good, affordable service, but not right for me. I’d signed up for 90 days, I think. I emailed them and explained that I wouldn’t be using them after all and asked if I could get a credit for the unused portion of my first 90 days. I made it clear that if this wasn’t an option, I understood. They emailed back and said they would refund my money and –according to their terms of service– I can never use their service again. Ever. Wouldn’t this have been a better reply:

Thanks for taking a look at AQ Host. Sorry it doesn’t meet your current needs. Due to the costs associated with setting up your account, we are unable to refund your money but have cancelled your account with us. Should you need hosting services in the future, we hope you’ll consider AQ Host.

For librarians and historians only

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While reading Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, I was afraid to turn the page because I knew a vampire might be on the next one. A really scary vampire. I just slogged through 600+ pages of The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova and Dracula didn’t show up until about page 550. If you’re not into the history of the Balkans, you can skip this one.

Movie bartenders

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If I were making a list of the best movie bartenders, Brian Dennehy would be near the top for his wonderfully understated Donald in the 1979 Dudley Moore film, 10. Someone must have compiled such a list already, but I can’t find it. And I’m having a hard time coming up with names and movies. I think you’d have to include Sascha, the bartender in Casablanca (played by Leonid Kinskey). I would not include Tom Cruise (Cocktail, 1988) or any of the girls in Coyote Ugly. So help me out here. Who would you put on the list?

PS: I found Leonid Kinskey in the Find A Grave database. They claim 25,000 people a day search their 8 million grave records.

Update: Thanks to Terry McVey for Nick (Sheldon Leonard) in It’s a Wonderful Life and Lloyd (Joe Turkel) from The Shining.

Family

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I spent a few days with my brother and his family last week. They’re home for a six month furlough and it’s been more than two years since I saw them. We assembled a basketball goal and caught up on (too many) missed birthdays. Basketball (my eyes tell the story) has become a traditional part of each visit and I fear the next time we play, Blane (47) and I (57) will no longer prevail over Ryan (15) and Spencer (13). More to come on the visit.

Blog make-over

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Welcome to the new and improved smays.com. Okay, it’s new. I’m pooped and I didn’t do a damned thing. Many thanks to The Amazing Andy for getting all hot and sweaty under the blog hood. Which is where most of the “improved” stuff shows up.

We’re pretty sure everything (1,300+ posts) made the move but there’s sure to be a few busted links and such. When you find one, please let me know (steve mays at hotmail.com) and be sure to tell me where to find the link (url or date or something). Now some of you are saying to yourself, “Well, yeah!” And some of you are saying, “That’s a good idea.” I’m sure I’ll find and fix ’em all in time.

If you have ever linked to one of my posts, well, it’s probably toast. Sorry about that. Once I figure out how, I’ll add a Google search and you can probably find the post again if you really think it’s worth the effort.

The masthead image is something I first saw on Dave Winer’s blog and loved immediately. I’ll change it from time to time and use only shot’s I’ve taken and mean something to me.

The Office Cam will be dark for a while until I figure out how to post the images here. What else? Oh, Comments. I haven’t turned them on yet and I’m not sure I will. Let me think about it. For now, just email me if you have something to say. I might post it and I might not.

“Blind hatred instilled by militant Islam”

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“The killers always allege particular gripes — Australian troops in Iraq, Christian proselytizing, Hindu intolerance, occupation of the West Bank, theft of Arab petroleum, the Jews, attacks on the Taliban, the 15th-century reconquest of Spain, and, of course, the Crusades. But in most cases — from Mohamed Atta, who crashed into the World Trade Center, to Ahmed Sheik, the former London School of Economics student who planned the beheading of Daniel Pearl, to Magdy Mahmoud Mustafa el-Nashar, the suspected American-educated bomb-maker in London — the common bond is not poverty, a lack of education or legitimate grievance. Instead it is blind hatred instilled by militant Islam.”

— Historian Victor Davis Hanson, writing in the Washington Times

Hugh MacLeod on being creative

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Mr. MacLeaod offers thirty tips on how to be creative. My two favorites are:

3. Put the hours in. Doing anything worthwhile takes forever. 90% of what separates successful people and failed people is time, effort and stamina.

10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props. Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece on the back of a deli menu would not surprise me. Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece with a silver Cartier fountain pen on an antique writing table in an airy SoHo loft would SERIOUSLY surprise me.

Nikol Lohr on pregnancy

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“I don’t want kids. Sometimes I like kids okay, sometimes they’re funny or smart, but I don’t want one growing inside me like a tape worm. They grow in there and press down all your organs and give you incessant heartburn and make you have to pee all the time and make your ankles swell so the only shoes you can wear are flip-flops. And then when they’re finished leeching off you, they slide out like greasy little piglets all mucousy and pink.”

“Then afterwards, you have twenty years of no life of your own. If you do it right, anyway. And then a whole lifetime of worry. Like having a dog that outlives you and runs away all the time and chews up all your furniture and pees everywhere and hates you at least for a while no matter what. A dog that no matter how good you try to be is slightly embarrassed of you and will definitely lie and deceive you. A dog that won’t let you pet it and that talks back.”