Apple v Sony

broderic on December 16, 2008


If you talk about overpriced, highly stylized personal electronic equipment, the companies that jump to the fore are Apple and Sony. They are the two companies that take pride in making consumer electronics that you want to touch and own, to display and fondle, and to have. They make things sexy. Except Apple beats the pants off of Sony when it comes to the unsexy part of the equipment.

Look at the design choices that Apple has made into their plugs and chargers. They still reek of elegance. Look at the design choices that Sony made for their plug and charger. Rather, look at the lack of a design choice. That PSP may look cool, but I just want to plug that thing in a hole in the ground so that I don’t have to look at that ugly.

When will we finally get other consumer electronics makers thinking about the whole experience of owning the junk we buy. Thank kami-sama for Apple. They force others into thinking about design. Let’s just hope the others decide to think all of it through.

Link of the Day [11.23.08]

broderic on November 23, 2008

This should also be quote of the day, but since I’ve already got a quote of the in the queue, I’ll just let it introduce the link of the day as it does in the link of the day.

In the narrative that has governed American commercial life for the last quarter-century, saving companies from their own mistakes was not supposed to be part of the government’s job description. Economic policymakers in the United States took swaggering pride in the cutthroat but lucrative form of capitalism that was supposedly indigenous to their frontier nation.

Through this uniquely American lens, saving businesses from collapse was the sort of thing that happened on other shores, where sentimental commitments to social welfare trumped sharp-edged competition.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/20/business/20fail.php

Link of the Day [11.14.08]

broderic on November 14, 2008

Greed kills.

This article is pretty much a damnation of the wizards on Wall Street. They don’t know what they’re selling. We don’t know what we’re buying. We’re all dead in the long run.

I remember my one and only business class during my grad school studies. It was a class about ethics in business and it was filled with nothing but finance folks. They took the view that the bottom line was the first thing that mattered for a business. They didn’t out right ignore the need for ethical entrepeneurship, but they didn’t think that it was worthwhile. I took this class at the end of 2007. I wonder what happened to their world view.

http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/
The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom?page=0

Quote of the Day [10.24.08]

broderic on October 24, 2008

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms.”

Alan Greenspan, Former Chief of the Federal Reserve

This is not my beautiful house

broderic on October 10, 2008

This is a good article on the problems with living in Owings Mills. It starts with the mall and with its steep decline into shopping irrelevancy so does the place as a place to live. The author gives a good detailed discussion about the metro problems and its disjointed place in this place.

They are starting to build the bridge next to me, and the field across the street has been laid bare. I wonder how things are going to look around here in a year or two. And can I ride my bike anymore?

“My boss is pretty strict, so I can’t get any of you free food, except for Bill.”

broderic on September 21, 2008

Reading about the big bailout of the financial industry, I am fucking mad. If the pussy Democrats in Congress allow it to pass, then John McCain deserves to be president, because the nation can go to hell.

To give that much power and control to the Fed is just something else. They want to buy the bad assets with our money. We should be buying the companies themselves for the amount we are paying. And we should be making every wage slave of the financial industry our own personal butlers and maids. The should come to my house and clean it.

Here’s some links of note to the whole fucking boondoggle.

They’re still making billions

Why you should hate it

The failure of capitalism

We have seen the fall of communism supposedly brought down by our Republican friends. Now we see the fall of capitalism brought down by our Republican friends. Like I said before, they should never ever be entrusted with the government.

Quote of the Day [9.18.08]

broderic on September 18, 2008

There’s nothing wrong with Capitalism
There’s nothing wrong with free enterprise
Don’t try to make me feel guilty
I’m so tired of hearing you cry
There’s nothing wrong with making some profit
If you ask me I’ll say it’s just fine
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to live nice
I’m so tired of hearing you whine

Oingo Boingo, “Capitalism”