War on Terrorism

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John Seery (at The Huffington Post) thinks George Bush has lost the war on terrorism:

“Let’s face it: Osama bin Laden, holed up in his cave somewhere, must be laughing at us. He’s calling the shots, and he really doesn’t have to lift a finger. Why? George Bush is doing his bidding. His administration has suspended many civil liberties and deftly defied the U.S. Constitution. Junked the Geneva Convention. Tortured prisoners. Oversaw criminal acts at Abu Ghraib. Ignored due process at Guantanamo. Engaged in domestic spying without court supervision. Flushed billions down the toilet in Iraq. Weakened our military readiness. Set much of the world against us. The Middle East is now ablaze in terrorism. At home, we live constantly in “elevated fear” levels (whether color coded or not). Our internal politics have become poisonously divided, not united. Osama bin Laden is playing George Bush like a cheap fiddle.”

For some reason, Seery’s post reminded me of George Orwell’s 1984 (Amazon notes):

“Oceania is eternally at war with one of two other vast entities, Eurasia and Eastasia. At any moment, depending upon current alignments, all existing records show either that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia and allied with Eastasia, or that it has always been at war with Eastasia and allied with Eurasia. Winston Smith knows this, because his work at the Ministry of Truth involves the constant “correction” of such records. “‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'”

Update: Ashcroft Finds Private-Sector Niche – “Former U.S. attorney general John D. Ashcroft, whose tenure saw the creation of a burgeoning homeland security industry, has emerged as the highest-ranking former Bush administration official to lobby for and invest in companies in that field.” [MSNBC]

Is your “stuff” good enough to pay for?

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“Alltel Wireless customers will be able to access XM Satellite Radio programming via their cell phones for $7.99 per month. The deal links the fifth-largest mobile service provider in the United States with the world’s largest satellite radio company. Like its competitors, Alltel is facing the imminent prospect of market saturation, so the company is seeking high-value content to gain additional revenue from its customer base.”

Seems to me you’d have to be a big fan of XM to pay an extra eight bucks a month to listen on your cell phone. And wouldn’t that be hell on the battery? But the more interesting question (for me) is: Do you have the kind of content that someone would be willing to pay for?

As businesses figure out that they can –if they’re clever enough– take their message directly to their customers, they’ll stop paying to have their messages jammed down people’s throats. We are approaching a time when the only reason people will listen to an (unwanted) commercial message is because they can’t figure out a way to avoid doing so. If you want to talk to your customers, you better start listening to them.

If you don’t know how to do that, you’re in trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for pool.

Niche audiences

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“While Rocketboom reaches a mass audience, Baron sees his next opportunity in niches. As an example, he suggests a program to target “high-end tennis players.” It would be natural for Wilson Sporting Goods to advertise tennis racquets and “Viewers might actually be interested in the commercials,” Baron said. He believes that while only 10,000 people might watch, it’s so cheap to do Internet video that such programming is economically feasible.”

— Rocketboom’s Andrew Baron on possible sponsorship opportunities

Skype: “The whole world can talk for free”

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phoneFinally got around to trying out Skype. Amazing. I waited so long because I couldn’t imagine that it wouldn’t be a bitch to set up and use. Wrong. Took 5 min to install and set up. Typed in David’s Skype name and we’re jabbering way. Sounded like he was in the room with me. I know this is no longer new technology but I had a little 21st century flash of: “Watson, come here! I need you!”

Of course, I remember when it was cool to be able to put a phone caller on the radio. But Skype is cool. A little latency and –once in a while– some of the digital sound, but sooo much better than a regular phone line.

As soon as I figure out how to record a call I’ll post a sample. And you can have up to 5 people on at once. Made for podcasting.

So who’s using Skype? If you’re willing to chat with me as I figure this out, drop me a line at stevemays at gmail.com.

The radio ads I want to hear

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Tod Maffin is looking forward to the day his satellite radio delivers ads he wants to hear:

“So, let’s take this to its natural next step in, say three years. You call up XM or Sirius and activate your radio. Besides asking for your billing address, they also seek out some basic demographic information. How old are you? What are your interests? Suddenly, your radio begins playing ads that are aimed at you and people like you. With my demographic profile in hand, the satellite service could have screened those (crappy spam-like ads) out and sent me ads specific to my interests.”

I sort of dread going through some long “check the products and services you’re interested in” procedure, but you’d only have to do it once and then keep it updated. Then, maybe once a month, they send me a link to a web page where I see a list of all the advertisers that hit my reciever in the past 30 days. I remove any that I don’t like. Sort like signing up for Netflix. Or, maybe they just have a bot crawl this blog and figure out what I care about.

Weinerschnitzel adjustment

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“Now sometimes a pair of briefs – for reasons I cannot understand – have the most annoying characteristic you could ever imagine: In the course of normal walking and sitting, the wearer’s weinershnitzel ends up poking halfway through the flap hole like a turtle coming out of its shell. And before long, the most sensitive part of your body is wedged between your briefs and the harsh denim material of your pants. As I walked toward the departure gate, I was choking Private Johnson and giving him a noogie at the same time.”

— Scott Adams

Average U.S. household credit card debt: $8,000

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Seth Godin observes there are more than 3 million millionaires in the U.S. (8 million if you count real estate). In the same post, he says the average household has $8,000 in credit card debt.

I clearly remember when there was no such thing as a consumer credit card. You paid for the things you purchased with cash or a personal check. Perhaps that’s why I have never failed to pay my credit card bill. As soon as the bill came in, I paid it off. Period. And that was true when I was living on small town DJ money back in the early 70’s.

I consider myself fortunate that I come from a time and place where you paid your bills and you paid them promptly. (And if you feel the need to email to tell me I’m an insensitive prick, please attach a scan of our credit card bill. We’ll go over it together.)

I’m just saying… the way we view debt has changed. For good reasons or bad.