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Random Stuff: Pepsi Logo, Cat Piano, Nazi Bankers

March 4th, 2009

Nora the Piano Playing Cat

Just watch it.

Ugly Bat Boy

Rather scary, largely hairless cat that lives in a vet’s office. He has a nice demeanor.

Bizkit the Sleep Walking Dog

Dog is dreaming about something exciting. In this one, poor doggie runs into the wall.

Nazi Bankers

Was just a matter of time, but this series is pretty good – scenes from Downfall with subtitles reflecting the financial crisis.

Pepsi Logo Reminds Me Of Don Draper

There’s a strange confluence of personal interests in this Pepsi branding document. It’s worth a read, if only to see the absolute, utter garbage that can pass for insight – pretty up just about anything with clean images, charts, graphs, sprinkle some lofty ideas, and you, too, could charge a lot of money for a whole lot of nothing. The hard part is convincing a client that you’re not totally full of it. No coincidence that Don Draper used to be a car salesman.

Elitist Wife Swap Contestant Is Now The Worst Husband In The World

I haven’t seen too many episodes of this Wife Swap show but the general gist is two families in the US switch spouses for a week. There’s the usual amount of “I can’t believe you raise your kids this way,” but this Steven Fowler guy, shamefully, from San Francisco, pushed things too far. His behavior, even in these short clips, is pretty lame.

The thing that I don’t understand about these reality shows: why on earth sign up to be on one if you’re going to flaunt all the rules and be totally miserable? This guy is supposedly some venture capitalist; surely it wasn’t for the money.

Maybe this guy thought he was the best father in the world, and was out to prove to everyone his awesomeness. Well, that’s the elitist, pompous part, and from there, it’s a short road to being an asshole.

Mountain Dew Addiction Is Rotting Central Appalachins’ Teeth

Almost thought this was an Onion joke, but I guess it’s real. Unlike Steven Fowler I wouldn’t blame this on a lack of education, but instead the evil corporate American complex that pushes for cheap high fructose corn syrup and makes it cheaper than a healthier alternative. I hope that doesn’t make me an elitist asshole.

Wondering What’s On Netflix watch Instantly?

Visit instantwatcher.com. Clean interface and a search box.

Steve Jobs Rumor: He’s Writing An Autobiography

If true, guaranteed I’ll read it as soon as it comes out. It’s worth recalling there’s some precedent for this – Steve Wozniak came out with his autobiography iWoz a few years ago.

Tivo Loses 125,000 Subscribers In January 09

I don’t have a Tivo, so I don’t know why the product seems to be dying. Is it because cable companies are offering PVRs? The recession? Or is Tivo becoming more useless what with Internet video? Someone fill me in.

What Happens To The Stuff Left In A Foreclosed House?

This video really annoyed me. I can’t believe people would be so disrespectful to trash the house they once lived in and leave it for someone else to clean up (the bank). One particularly trashed house had a supposed $100,000 worth of damage. What a total waste of money.

Trekkie.

History of Avocados

Growing up in Hawaii, I remember eating avocados cut in half with a spoon (like a papaya) with sugar sprinkled on top, and occasionally shoyu.

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  • jcieplinski
    TiVo is dying because it has always been a failing niche product. Yes, the widespread availability of content on Hulu, iTunes, and other places, combined with cable companies offering their own DVRs is accelerating the decline, but even at its peak, TiVo was losing money. Kind of proves all those people who insisted that Apple should buy TiVo or add DVR capabilities to the AppleTV wrong, doesn't it?

    Watching TV for the average person is sort of like using Internet Explorer. Sure, the experience sucks, but it came pre-installed, so why bother adding something new, which involves a learning curve or maybe costs more money, even if it is way better?

    Most people never learned how to program the clocks on their VCRs back in the 80s, either. They weren't about to learn how to use the TiVo.

    It's hard enough getting people to CHANGE CHANNELS every now and then. They couldn't care less about watching commercials. They complain about it all day long, but when it comes time to DO something about it, nothing.

    These are the same people who still type out URLS in their browsers for sites they go to every day, because they don't bother learning how to create bookmarks. Why are we surprised that the majority of people don't know what an RSS feed is?

    It's an odd but common form of laziness. People are so reluctant to invest a little bit of effort into learning something new, even if that new thing would make their lives significantly easier in a short while.

    So the TiVo, while a brilliant concept, was doomed to fail from the get go.
  • While I find your assessment of the average TV watcher's motivation to
    learn something new depressing, personal observation tends to agree
    with you. Most of the folks I know who swear by TiVO are on the nerdy
    side, and all my "aged relatives" can't be bothered to even set it up.
  • Personally I don't blame the consumer for this. If there's an easier option that's less expensive and keeps their life simpler (e.g. one consolidated statement) the onus is partially on the service providers to offer a more compelling alternative to the cable company's bundled service (regardless of our disdain for these providers).
  • I think bundled integrated services can be tough to beat. I work with 2 guys who both have/had Tivo and both say Tivo had a superior interface/ease of use compared to the Comcast DVRs that they are now using. BUT...apparently the Comcast DVR is integrated with the Comcast Digital menu system and you get the bundled pricing so that's why they went with it.

    I can see that mainstream America, which largely may not be aware of Tivo, would just go straight to using the DVRs + OnDemand + Hulu + Netflix + iTunes. Wow...when you talk about it that way it's a crowded space with a lot of compelling alternatives. I guess that's part of what must be hurting Tivo.

    Also -- Tivo uses a subscription model as well and I think you have to buy the DVR to boot. AND if you want HD programming you need a more $$$ box from Tivo. So if you're the consumer what do you do? Do you pay a few hundred for a Tivo box plus your $13 monthly subscription or do you just say screw it, it's only $5 more per month for my cable provider's DVR and it's all one consolidated bill? I don't think consumers are making a bad choice here...
  • I think another problem with TIVO is it makes the most sense if you
    have cable, because it needs a lot of content to put on it. And with that being the
    case, the cable companies (which practically every TiVO customer was already a customer of) just needed to offer their own boxes and the
    product was toast.

    Meanwhile another interesting development is this whole cable alternative
    movement - people watching TV shows on Hulu, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon, etc. I think this angle has obvious appeal, because paying for only the shows you like "ala carte" can be ultimately much cheaper than the cable angle of subscribing to a bunch of bundled channels you rarely watch (obviously, this depends on how much of a television junkie you are). But there were recently a few articles saying cable companies plan to put a stop
    to this by including free content on their own websites, to current cable
    subscribers.

    http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/20/cable-compan...

    It will be interesting to see how this plays out. And I'm obviously
    rooting for the camp against the cable companies.
  • I hear you re: cable. I'm certainly not rooting for them but I think they still have the strongest hand at this point in time. I asked another friend a few minutes ago why he went with Comcast DVR even though he said Tivo was superior (and had used it in the past). He said the $5 extra for Comcast DVR is a "no brainer" (and this is from a tech savvy guy).

    I'm still a big fan of Hulu despite any misteps they've had recently with removed content.

    I do think that it's interesting to see the ongoing tussles between Hulu and CBS/Tv.com. We sometimes romanticize the online players but there's as much brewing territoriality going on there as there is in the more traditional media playgrounds (such as Hulu disabling embedded content on CBS/Tv.com properties).

    As consumers we just kind sit there and try to scurry whatever the best, easiest, cheapest will be whatever our needs. At least that's how I operate. I think the iTunes a la carte approach is fantastic. But at the same time, if I can watch the show on Hulu, there's just no way I'll be buying an episode. But that's just me. Obviously other consumers have a valid need/use to buy one-off episodes.
  • I definitely agree that consumers will ultimately try to figure out the best
    and cheapest option - but now I am recalling this recent NYTimes article
    pointing out the slow upward creep of cable prices - something like $60 a
    month and most people only watch fraction of the shows / channels available
    to them.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/technology/24...

    Then take all the free options online, Hulu, too, and you could even pay for
    a few shows here and there (that you say you wouldn't do) and you'd still
    come out ahead.

    Right now we're doing no cable, and instead, Netflix ($15 a month) plus the
    occasional Apple TV rental and TV show purchase - if I'm generous, that's
    about $20 a month. $35 a month total, and I don't feel like I'm missing
    anything TV wise. Apple has lots of free news podcasts. If I really wanted
    to, I could just watch everything on Hulu or whip out the Bit Torrent and
    save that $20 a month.

    Obviously the cable companies knows a lot of content is available online for
    free, which is why they're providing their own options.

    I think the best arguments for cable's continued dominance is what we've
    already gone over above - inertia of existing users, the bundled packages,
    and the ease of use. It's just easier for people to just add more services
    onto their existing bill, and most people already have cable all set up - so
    all the cable companies need to do is offer something. I do think people are
    pay extra for cable, and most people consider that money worth it since
    cable is considered a necessity in so many households.

    But I think if you really believe customers will graviate toward what's
    cheapest, that might be a better argument for eschewing cable. The real
    challenge is for the tech companies to make their products so brain-dead
    simpe to use that the average TV watcher can handle it.

    And that kind of brings us back to JC's point above... it hasn't happened
    yet.
  • It's worth noting that the average American household watches over 150 hours a month of Tv (according to a recent Nielsen report). So if you want to talk pricing that's 40 cents per hour of programming (based on the $60 bill you suggest)...maybe that's cheap to some?

    And no...I'm not even gonna comment on the sociological implications of watching 5 hours of TV a day on average (holy crap is all I can say to that).
  • e_chendo
    we love, love, love our tivo but are trying to cut back on expenses and since the kiddo isn't s'posed to watch tv until age 2, we are experimenting by cutting the cable cord this month. no cable, no need for tivo. (if we can't handle it after a year, i figure we can try fios out w/ an intro special.) but outside of Lost, i never have time to watch any tv anyway...
  • Cool... yeah as mentioned above, there are a lot of TV options online, and
    Netflix for good old fashioned DVDs. I think Lost streams for free on
    ABC.com proper - that'd be worth checking out. Oh and I suppose it's still
    on good old fashioned broadcast via the rabbit ears? Funny how I totally
    forget about that option at times.
  • It happens again and again: each time Pepsi has had its logo revamped, everybody thinks it’s still worse than the one it’s replacing. I think it’s like a ‘Pepsi logo karma’. But I’m sure it’ll grow on us until the next logo facelift will make us feel that this one wasn’t that bad.
  • this video is really awesome.
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