I don't know why people keep thinking Facebook is going to charge people for any kind of access. They because successful because they're free, and they continue to make metric assloads of money by staying free. If they were to start charging it would become a ghost-town overnight when people immigrate to a new, free service. They make their money from ads on the pages; the more people they can encourage to come on the site the better. It's like radio. You 'give away' the content, but the people listening hear ads as well as what they're there for. Snopes post about itIt would be a terrible business decision for Facebook to charge for access, and they're smart enough not to do it. It would be like Google charging for searches.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Robots really are replacing people...
I saw an interview with a roboticist who writes fiction about how to survive a robot uprising. Maybe it's just the early morning quiet, but one of the things he said stuck with me. <blockquote>“My robots do not throw people across rooms, then slowly stalk toward them. If by some odd quirk a humanoid robot has to kill a person (and a more specialized cousin is not available for the task), then this robot will grab the person by the face and close its fist. End of story.”</blockquote>
There's a name for a slow stalking. Persistence hunting. Who are the original persistence hunters? Us.
We're not faster than most animals, we're not stronger, but we have excellent endurance. We don't leap out and kill quickly like a cheetah or wolf, we wear down the prey.Maybe I'm over thinking it, but it's funny how the things we make resemble us; even if we don't mean for them to.
There's a name for a slow stalking. Persistence hunting. Who are the original persistence hunters? Us.
We're not faster than most animals, we're not stronger, but we have excellent endurance. We don't leap out and kill quickly like a cheetah or wolf, we wear down the prey.Maybe I'm over thinking it, but it's funny how the things we make resemble us; even if we don't mean for them to.
Robots really are replacing people...
I saw an interview with a roboticist who writes fiction about how to survive a robot uprising. Maybe it's just the early morning quiet, but one of the things he said stuck with me. <blockquote>“My robots do not throw people across rooms, then slowly stalk toward them. If by some odd quirk a humanoid robot has to kill a person (and a more specialized cousin is not available for the task), then this robot will grab the person by the face and close its fist. End of story.”</blockquote>
There's a name for a slow stalking. Persistence hunting. Who are the original persistence hunters? Us.
We're not faster than most animals, we're not stronger, but we have excellent endurance. We don't leap out and kill quickly like a cheetah or wolf, we wear down the prey.Maybe I'm over thinking it, but it's funny how the things we make resemble us; even if we don't mean for them to.
There's a name for a slow stalking. Persistence hunting. Who are the original persistence hunters? Us.
We're not faster than most animals, we're not stronger, but we have excellent endurance. We don't leap out and kill quickly like a cheetah or wolf, we wear down the prey.Maybe I'm over thinking it, but it's funny how the things we make resemble us; even if we don't mean for them to.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Bad decision on my part: working in the print industry
The company I work for regularly attends webinars put on by PODi, which is a sort of market research company for digital printers. They often have good stuff, but the last two presentations they put on unintentionally confirmed my belief that the print industry is headed for an even bigger shrink than most people expect.
We're already seeing the first wave as the high volume printing disappears. This is stuff like newspapers, catalogues, and phone books. The only reasons I get a phone book is because I haven't asked them to stop. I can honestly say the only time I picked one up in recent memory is when I tried to see if I could tear it in half (not yet).
Second wave will be medium run, mostly books and magazines. Although I'm not convinced the iPad will be a huge success, mobile devices more powerful than a phone, but more usable than notebooks are definitely feasible. The main barriers are screen size and battery life (magazines don't run out of power). There will probably still be a market here. People will want first editions, and books tend to have more permanence than the high volume stuff. Who wants yesterdays newspaper? (except historians) Books tend to stay on your shelf a little longer.
Finally the marketing/advertising print is already on its way out. It's becoming cheaper to buy a big screen and put your poster sized ads on there than to print them. Unaddressed ad mail has had pitiful response rates, and mass marketing is giving way to direct marketing which is better accomplished through other channels.
Print will still eke out an existence with packaging on the one end of the quality spectrum and first edition books on the other, but aside from the difficulty in making copies, and the uneditability of a printed piece, print really doesn't have much to offer that a digital device can't deliver.
We're already seeing the first wave as the high volume printing disappears. This is stuff like newspapers, catalogues, and phone books. The only reasons I get a phone book is because I haven't asked them to stop. I can honestly say the only time I picked one up in recent memory is when I tried to see if I could tear it in half (not yet).
Second wave will be medium run, mostly books and magazines. Although I'm not convinced the iPad will be a huge success, mobile devices more powerful than a phone, but more usable than notebooks are definitely feasible. The main barriers are screen size and battery life (magazines don't run out of power). There will probably still be a market here. People will want first editions, and books tend to have more permanence than the high volume stuff. Who wants yesterdays newspaper? (except historians) Books tend to stay on your shelf a little longer.
Finally the marketing/advertising print is already on its way out. It's becoming cheaper to buy a big screen and put your poster sized ads on there than to print them. Unaddressed ad mail has had pitiful response rates, and mass marketing is giving way to direct marketing which is better accomplished through other channels.
Print will still eke out an existence with packaging on the one end of the quality spectrum and first edition books on the other, but aside from the difficulty in making copies, and the uneditability of a printed piece, print really doesn't have much to offer that a digital device can't deliver.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Extreme Tourist: Afghanistan
My favourite line: "He gets treated for stress by a scorpion doctor". I think it'll do great things for improving people's view of the country. Let's face it, most people don't watch documentaries, and if they do they aren't memorable. Right now most of what people think about Afghanistan is terrorists or women in burqhas. Why? The most emotional stuff they've seen about the country has one of those elements. A goofy show will get an emotional reaction, and make the people on the show seem more like us.
Reading an article about it, it does sound he pissed off a few people. He got shot at a couple times, and rollerskated in spandex through Kandahar.
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