that Don doesn't have a monopoly on the jazz video thing...

:-)

Enjoy.



I just wish the sound quality were better on this version...

The ongoing train wreck that is the launch of the Sony Playstation 3 has been covered ad nauseum in the tech press, but this account of it's Australian debut is just *brutal*.

The PS/3 will be used as an example of what not to do for years to come.

The articles on Starbucks I mentioned below made me realize this just now:

You can be global, or cool, but not both.

...the main thing.

Brand Autopsy is (rightfully) tearing into Starbucks and their marketing. The purpose of Starbucks isn't to promote a lifestyle or sell music or save the planet : It's to sell great-tasting coffee. Somewhere along the line, they've forgotten that.

My first exposure to Starbucks coffee was literally 10 minutes after I returned home after living a year in Costa Rica, so my experience with them didn't get off to a great start, I'll admit. But after I saw how they obliterated almost every local coffee shop in town, they are definitely NOT on my list of favourite companies. I much prefer The Coffee Rush or Wildflower Bread Company or some other local chain to the homogenized dreck that Starbucks serves up.

Wanna see the future?




More info here.

Given this, wanna bet it's only a matter of time before Apple buys them out?

Is Apple about to add hardware-based video encoding to all their computers?

Seems logical. When AppleTV was announced, a bunch of people (myself included) were wondering why it had no built-in DVR. By adding video encoding/decoding to their computers, Apple will make playback to the AppleTV much smoother, and allow any Mac in the house to be a DVR.

Smart.

Adobe, Canon and Reuters are working on methods to track how digital photographs are manipulated.

'Bout time.

Fascinating stuff from Jeff Jarvis:

"Indeed, when grouped together, on-demand viewing is not marginal at all -- it's the wave of the future, he said. With the exception of perhaps 10 major TV events, such as the Super Bowl and the finale of a show like 'American Idol,' the new generation of TV viewers will be watching shows on-demand, with a remote or keyboard in hand."

Now that we have a DVR in our house, my channel-surfing days are over, much to the joy of my wife. I no longer flick from station to station in the vain hope that something will attract my attention: I just go to the online programming guide, scan up and down my favorite channels and schedule recordings for anything that catches my eye. It's a whole new word of empowerment for the viewer, and one that will doubtlessly spill over into other media soon.

"... I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery."

(What, you're not into Hamlet? Pity...)

A Microsoft promotional site for Vista shows up as a phising attack in Microsoft's new anti-spyware software.

Maybe that's why they placed dead last in anti-virus protection.

Don's on to something beyond just trying to sell workshops and DVD's. With free/cheap stock photography websites like The Stock Exchange and iStockphoto, the perceived value of a photographer's work to their clients is dropping fast, and it's up to professional photographers to show to our clients that there is a difference in the consistent quality of our work versus that of some schmoe with a camera who manages to crank off a lucky shot. Our stock in trade as a photographer is more than our work, it's our knowledge and experience, and Don's figured out how to turn that into another revenue stream. Sure, rates are dropping and the competition's tight. But good photographers find a way to prosper, no matter the circumstances.

This article in the New York Times makes a point I've been saying for a while: Customers know where the free WiFi spots are, and will flock to them over pay-for-use locations. Morover, they'll resent companies that try to squeeze a few extra bucks out of their patrons by charging them for service.

And yes, blogging's been light, and it will be so for a while more.