Monthly Archive for October, 2007

Private libraries

Published on October 28, 2007 in Books and Useful Stuff. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I recently discovered LibraryThing, a site allowing you to catalog your personal library for, more practically, digital record keeping and for sharing with friends. It’s easy to use, entering ISBNs to pull up the correct book in your collection, and allows you to tag your books with identifiers that make sense to you.  The first 200 books can be listed free of charge, thereafter an annual membership costs $10, while a lifetime membership is just $25.

Why take the time to catalog all the books you own? Arguably, you likely own the books you do because you like them (unless you’ve bought them to line your shelves and make you look smart). The site offers recommendations based on users with similar interests to you, hopefully springing suggestions on you that you wouldn’t have thought of yourself or discovered elsewhere.   Also in the event a biblio-voleur takes all your books, you have a record of what needs to be replaced — I know, like anyone is stealing books these days.

At this point I have most of the books I’ve already read, that are housed in my apartment, listed (more than 250 at the moment, and I just have one more shelf to log.)  There are probably at least another 40 or 50 books on the to-be-read list that will crossover upon completion. And of course, there’s the remaining box of books sitting in my parents’ house waiting to be shipped to me). I do need to go back and update the editions that I’ve listed in certain places, but it’s otherwise correct.

Do you know what’s sitting on your shelves?

Easy come, easy go

Published on October 28, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Does anyone else find it disturbing that relationships & marriage are treated as disposable, like last season’s shoes? Norah Zelevanksy covers the popularity of mass e-mails to announce divorces and divorce parties (complete with gift registries) to celebrate break ups in Salon article “May We Congratulate You on Your Divorce.”

In some ways, I can understand so many marriages ending in divorce.  100 years ago people weren’t living 80+ years.  When you promised til death do us part, death was like 20 or 30 so years down the road, not 60+.  Anyone can wear out their welcome spending 60+ years in a relationship.

But on the otherhand, shouldn’t folks be more selective in being SURE that one is with the right person before shelling out $15,000 for a wedding that looks like every wedding that has come before?  Why spend the time and money getting hitched if it isn’t at least a 15-20 year investment? I just don’t get it.

The Patricia Cornwell Effect

Published on October 28, 2007 in Books. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Four or five novels ago, (Black Notice is the last novel of hers sitting on my shelf, so it must be The Last Precinct that ended her reign), Patricia Cornwell lost her ability to tell a great tale. Her plots became formulaic, and her endings had lost the dramatic final showdown with the bad guy. I haven’t enjoyed a Kay Scarpetta mystery since.Karin Slaughter is another author focusing thrillers with a legal and medical focus. Her most recent book is Beyond Reach, and I fear Slaughter has fallen victim to the Patricia Cornwell Effect. I’ve read all of her previous novels cover to cover within hours of reading them, but her latest, I just couldn’t finish. I couldn’t get into the plot; the story felt too splintered. Next year, when her next novel comes out, I’m not sure I’m going to be in as much of a rush to buy it. Slaughter may have peaked, but I hope she’s just stumbled.

Fortunately, Lee Child is still cranking out well-paced thrillers that are compulsively readable. 8 books into the series, I think Child continues to weave a great story, focusing on a compelling former military man of mystery, Jack Reacher.

Not your Buffy fembot

Published on October 24, 2007 in Business and Gen Y. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

I’d really like to smack the producers of the Today Show for featuring a piece on “fembots”, which by their definition are career driven women, who are delaying families and relationships to achieve their workplace successes.

Joanna Cole, editor of Marie Claire magazine on fembots: she

doesn’t want to be held to the stereotypes of women as nurturers and carers…someone who wants to get on in life…putting off getting married…putting off having children…that changes the way she interacts with other people.

Times they are a changin’ according to Cole who says nowadays

women can admit we don’t care. . .she’s the one who isn’t interested when a colleague brings in a new baby. . .she doesn’t want a cupcake with her friends to celebrate her birthday. . .she wants to get on with her life

Psychiatrist Janet Taylor noted the danger of this new, selfish approach to living. She commented that women need to

stay emotionally connect to ourselves, our families, our coworkers because as humans that’s what separates us from animals…our ability to connect

I found the entire piece misogynistic. Basically, women are increasingly delaying marriage and children, as well taking on the role of primary breadwinner (Per Cole, of women who marry under 40, 40% will earn more than their spouse). By focusing on ambition and personal goals, rather than keeping house and relationships moving forward, women are losing touch with themselves. For women to strive for the same things men have sought for eons, that’s just plain selfish. I don’t see too many psychologist discussing the need for men to focus more on their relationships at the expense of their careers and independence.

Isn’t it great that women are no longer forced to decided between insta-marriage, nursing, or teaching as their life paths? Shouldn’t we encourage women to empower themselves via the financial freedom that a solid career provides, a career that carries on long after a romantic relationship ends?

Sinner or Saint

Published on October 23, 2007 in Entertainment, Gen Y and Useful Stuff. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

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I met Stephany Alexander, the founder of WomanSavers this afternoon. She launched the website several years ago after she found herself in yet another dead end relationship with an abusive guy. She thought surely there must be a be a way to screen men before you date them. So WomanSavers was born. Women can anonymously review past boyfriends on categories such as “infidelity, trust, abuse, commitment and general character.” All postings must be true, or the poster runs the risk of a libel lawsuit if the guy in question catches on. If he’s a cad, you can detail him a such, as long as you have the evidence and relationship to back it up. It’s a great database to check up on current beaus and rate your past ones for their futures dates to check out.

Alexander also recommends background checks on new boyfriends, just to make sure they’re on the level. There’s nothing like dating a guy for a couple of months only to find out he’s married with children or single with 4 maxed out credit cards. She recommends KnowX.com, which runs just $25 per background check.

Taylor Mali is a poet to be heard

Published on October 21, 2007 in Education and Entertainment. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

I completely credit Craig Rubens over at NewTeeVee for my discover of slam poet and educator advocate Taylor Mali. On Friday, Craig posted a YouTube clip of Mali performing, and I was hooked. So I dug up 2 more videos on YouTube. In the event I didn’t e-mail them to you directly, all 3 are posted below.

What Do Teachers Really Make

The The Impotence of Proofreading (typos intended)

Totally, Like Whatever

Egging on the starfish

Published on October 21, 2007 in Books, Business, Entertainment, Gen Y and Useful Stuff. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

starfish

Business books tend to fall towards the bottom of the “to read list because they’re typically dry and common sensical to the point I ask why, oh why, did I buy this book? However, I just finished reading The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom this afternoon, and want to recommend it to everyone I know in the entertainment, telecommunications, and Internet arenas. It’s compulsively readable, and at 208 pages of text, easy to knock out in one afternoon.

Brafman and Beckstrom provide a great overview of the history of digital piracy and how it works into this model. Studios and networks function like spiders, while pirates and hackers come together and collectively act like starfish. Corporate entities tend to have a relatively rigid structure with layers of approval and multi-step processes to usher new products through R&D before the public gets to see them. Leadership is top down featuring upper management who keeps the worker bees in line. The piracy community, on the otherhand, doesn’t have an outspoken leader to target. Members of the web community (frequently anonymously) work together to launch better and better programs to keep P2P networks going despite the full on war against piracy by the studios and networks. Every time one site gets shut down two more spring up like mushrooms after the rain…or like a starfish that was cut in half. (If you’re not a big piracy nut, the authors also cover Al-Qaeda, Ebay, and manufacturing examples that are equally demonstrative of the principles and rules that they discuss.)

Their generalizations about starfish clearly apply to the very collaborative web community:

  • When attacked, a decentralized organization tends to become even more open and decentralized (p. 21)
  • An open system doesn’t have central intelligence, their intelligence is spread throughout the system (p.39-40)
  • Open systems can easily mutate (p. 40)
  • The decentralized organization sneaks up on you (p.41)
  • As industries become decentralized, overall profits decrease (p. 45)

Doesn’t piracy make for a delicious example of decentralized organizations? The music industry was the first in entertainment to face off against the amorphous starfish colony that commandeered digital distribution via sites like Napster and Kazaa. CD sales plumetted and even iTunes won’t save the record system from crumbling because artists are increasingly turning self-promotion and alternative partnerships to maximize their own cut of profits (For example, Radiohead is letting fans price their new release for themselves, and are finding fans are voluntarily paying typical retail prices. And Madonna signed a $120 Million, 10 year deal with LiveNation that covers album releases, merchandising, her tours, kicking longterm label Warner Music to the curb). Unsigned bands are able to make it into top 10 singles lists by generating a huge online following and taking advantage of services like DiscRevolt that don’t require much money up front from the artist. The recording companies just can’t compete with the way the Internet has opened distribution to all for low costs.

waves

Despite the writing on the wall, film and TV leadership didn’t take a proactive role in shaping internet distribution early on. They now fight the tidal wave of churning internet offerings that make it easy to produce and distribute, or pirate instead of pay for content. Sites like Metacafe and revver are paying content producers for videos that go viral to encourage the quality filmmaker to return again and again. Great videos like When Shift Happens 2.0 are going viral because they resonate with viewers who forward and forward the link on.

Web users upload copyrighted content to all sorts of websites that host video, so that all users can easily access what is believed to be a public good whether it’s a conventionally available TV program or movie or a hard to find classic that has yet to make it to DVD or has never been released in this country. The amorphous web community is tearing apart the standard model in order to bring products and services (that consumers are tired of waiting for in a format they want) to the people. And the networks and studios are freaking out because the writing is on the wall, they are set to experience the same innard wrenching the music industry is struggling with. Shutting down a site like Tv-Links.co.uk just sends users to more far flung sites to find the content they want. The film and television industries are destined for the same misery because like the music industry, they want to fight the change and solidly tether, rather than harness the energy reshaping distribution to build a better business model.

My suggestion: Rather than try to prosecute all the leaders of this tumultuous change, labels; studios and networks should be hiring them to take the charge and bring consumers the content how and when they want it (because they get consumers better than the people enmeshed in a dying entertainment business model who can’t see the trees for the forest). Hire strong digital leadership and trust them to develop and turn out a platform or partnerships without lots of meddling by senior brass.

Stepping off my soapbox now.

Staying connected in-flight

Published on October 21, 2007 in Business. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

According to a recent CNET post, flights within the European Union may soon be able to provide mobile phone access, limited only during take off and landing. Calls made would be charged at roaming rates, with profits split between the airline and the mobile base (which could be instead on all planes) operator.

The biggest limitation to this service: service blackouts when flying over airspace not regulated for in-flight mobile calls.

Here’s the thing, just because we can think up a product or service, doesn’t necessarily mean we need to go ahead and implement it.

Hailing from the East Coast, I can tell you about countless train trips from Philadelphia to NJ while in college. Most memorable is the trip in which a businessman spent the whole 90+ minutes of my leg of the trip on the phone as if he was the only person in the train car. My guess is that his boss would likely not have been thrilled that this man was announcing details of business arrangements and proposals to anyone within earshot, but that’s just me.

On planes we already have to contend with excessive delays, screaming babies, kids kicking our chairs from behind, the person in front of you that decides to recline right into your lap for the full flight, and flight attendants who violate travelers’ first amendment rights by making travelers change their shirts when the text offends the sensibilities of that flight attendant.

I don’t know that I can handle anyone on the phone for the duration of a cross country or international flight. I shouldn’t be privy to confidential business deals or the details of invasive medical procedures I’m too young to even want to begin thinking about or someone’s itinerary upon reaching their destination.

Surely exceptions should be made for those traveling to reach a medical emergency, but what else is that important while in flight that can’t wait a few hours?

Can't resist a piece of chocolate?

Published on October 17, 2007 in Health. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

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According to a new study, you might not be able to help those chocolate cravings. People who enjoy a daily chocolate fix host different types of bacteria throughout their digestive systems than those who don’t. So you can blame the bacteria’s chocolate addiction for your need to enjoy those M&Ms or Almond Joys.

Scientists hope to further this study and figure out how to manipulate people’s cravings by adjusting the types of bacteria setting up shop in your digestive track.

I think we should make chocoholics of everyone!

Toilet Paper gets political

Published on October 16, 2007 in Business, Entertainment and Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

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Saturday night I camped out at a friend’s place to watch Jon Bon Jovi hosting SNL. Let’s not get started on how awful the show was — seriously, were those the best skits the writers could come up with? Maybe it should be 1st Saturday of the Month Live, so they can do 1 good show a month.

Anywho, Charmin toilet paper was advertised during one of the commercial breaks. (For those of you who haven’t seen the ad, you can click here and go to videos (on the far right of the menu) to spend your free time watching toilet paper-loving bears frolic on the beach near port-a-potties. You know you want to!)

I found it interesting that their new lines of toilet paper were branded in red and blue. One red and one blue bear are running down the beach, the blue bear slightly in the lead before heading to the loo. The red bear props his “ultra strong” Charmin on his right bicep, while the blue bear snuggles his “ultra soft” Charmin stroking it.

The voice over artist announces, “now you can go strong or you can go soft…new Charmin ultra strong in the red and new Charmin ultra soft in the blue. Rediscover Charmin, choose the one that’s best for you.

I find it interesting that during election season, a company would choose new branding in red and blue. Is there some sort of subliminal messaging that Republicans are “strong” and Demcrats are “soft”? And in regards to what issue(s) is this comparison being made?

Am I reading too much into a toilet paper ad. . . .what do you think?