Game of Streaming (11 Apr 15 by gins)

Like me, you're probably a GOT fan.  Problem is, I don't have cable HBO , and though I now credit them with their $15/month over-the-top plan, it doesn't go far enough.  At the house, we have Netflix, Amazon Prime streaming, and more recently, Sling, and would gladly pay for the series one-off.  Note that this is the case for many others via iTunes and Amazon.   But $180/year for effectively 10 episodes. or $18/hour, however juicy, just doesn't make sense.   This is probably 5x what is reasonable, say, $3.60/hour, or equivalent to what you'd pay in the cinema.  I understand the economics that HBO must play into with the cable operators and bundling, and the fact that GOT probably helps fund other productions, but moving the needle even further to the right could help avoid some of the piracy they can expect beginning in just over 24 hours.  Just a thought.

(Stop) Fanning the Flames... Religion and Social Media (15 Feb 15 by gins)

We read that today's cartoonists and communists state that religion is free game... that the Pope and Muhammad are open to the same level of satire as Obama and Putin. I can't agree, and just to level-set, I'm Jewish by birth, my wife is Catholic, and our family is what most would consider are non-religious... no bonds to any church or synagogue.  

Religion transcends politics and economics. It is with us at birth, through marriage, and at death.  It is unique, intertwined with the earliest of civilizations.  It cuts across the rich and the poor, the left and the right.  

So this is my litmus test... If a visual or commentary is offensive to those who believe, why pursue it?  I'm not by any means saying that those who take offensive should go on a rampage, but with all the hurt in the world, why go down a path that is guaranteed to create grief and inflame emotions?  And we've seen that social media, Twitter, Facebook, and whatnot, only amplifies this effect.  

Think! 

Look to the West - Thoughts for 2015 (22 dec 14 by gins)

Over 13 years ago my wife and I selected a Shakira song, 'Wherever Whenever,' as the first dance at our wedding. Shakira  wasn't too well known outside of the Latino community at the time, but with my Miami roots, I guess I was closer to her scene.  How times have changed with Pitbull (born in Miami) MC'ing the American Music Awards and Shakira now 2 for 2 with her incredibly popular 2010 and 2014 World Cup videos.  

Having spent 12 years in Europe I felt a real affinity for the 'old country,' but the ties just aren't there any longer. Admittedly, I'm probably behind the times on this.  Socially and economically, we need to embrace our hemisphere for what it is and chart our own destiny.   Its not isolationism, but when people ask if my daughters will study French (my original option, and we in fact went through 3 years of French au-pairs) or Chinese (that would be an even bigger joke, given lack of any family connections whatsoever), the logical conclusion is Spanish. 

Sure, as with any nation or continent, we experience boom and bust.  But with less dependence on foreign energy and its baggage, less dependence on trade where the trade-off with some countries seems to be the willingness to take part in an unending cycle of intellectual theft cat-and-mouse, and home-grown ingenuity that manifests itself in places like Amazon's latest 'factories' - I don't know what else to call them - our future in the new year looks bright.  I've just got to bone up on my language skills, something I've never been that great at. 

Snapchat and my Daughters (14 Oct 14 by gins)

By now you've heard of the latest security breach - the Snapsaved (now shut down) Snapchat client hacked and hundreds of thousands of potentially damaging photos posted to 4chan.  Now, although Snapchat itself was not the target, many, my daughters included, post to it, and to be honest, i don't know if they've been using the Snapsaved client (or some other client, yet to be hacked).   My bad!  But we do limit in-app purchases. The problem is that many of these casual applications are no-charge.  And i'm sure that they don't read the small-print when downloading said applications, as to what is saved and what is not.  Where to draw the line?

In a world where Instagram is the new clique, replacing clothes and what kind of house you live in, I can't really cut them off.  But i can give my daughters, ages 10 and 11, guidance, beyond the standard school Internet good citizen briefing on content and bullying.  Guidance that reflects more of the real world, like what happened to that unfortunate girl in Saratoga, just five miles from our house.  And guidance that can be understood by a very distracted ten year-old.

1.  Never post a picture or opinion that you'd not want to have viewed or read by a future employer, by college admission, or even by your close friends.   I know we've heard all of this before.  A scary statistic by the CTIA - 46% of adolescents, ages 11 to 17, have received a message or picture their parents would disapprove of due to sexual content.

2.  The same applies for pictures or opinions of friends (or non-friends).  What goes around comes around.

3.  Never (ever) be put in a position where someone has the opportunity take a picture that you'd not want to see posted.  Something to be said about a buddy system at parties, especially once they hit high school.

4.  Never share private information.  Once again, nothing new.

Over the last year, the CTIA has published some great infographics on www.growingwireless.com.   Worth taking a look.  And within the site, the resources page has a wealth of information spanning smartphone OSs and cellular providers.

Time to have that conversation!

Dystopia (25 Aug 2014 by gins)

I was thinking back on some of the recent movies i've seen.... Divergent, Lucy, The Giver... and I was thinking.  Is it just me, or is there some trend?  Best way to check is wiki.   Since many movies are derived from novels, here are those tagged as 'dystopian' by decade, knowing that it is inexact since the more recent ones will have a higher probability of mention.  But close.   

decade   number      per year    commentary
1900s      6                .6
1910s      4                .4
1920s      5                .5
1930s      17              1.7              depression?  impending war?
1940s      14              1.4              war
1950s      16              1.6              de-humanizing technology?
1960s      22              2.2              war, environment
1970s      17              1.7
1980s      12              1.2              bit of a lull
1990s      13              1.3              same
2000s      52              5.2              better reporting, or our angst is growing
2010s      36              9.0              over only 4 years.   what, me worry?

I can't draw any conclusions, but i'm thinking of moving to a small island in the South Pacific, though i worry about flies, polar bears, and those kids from Shiroiwa. 

Quaint: The Red Envelope (27 Jul 14 by gins)

My last two postings on retail - Big Data and Big Retail, and Big Data and Big Retail Redux - had me thinking about another well-known company and its 'factories.'  A decade from now, when you're trying to explain the original Netflix business model to your son or daughter...

See, they take movies that start out as just 'electronic' bits, and stamp them onto plastic disks.  So the bits are now 'physical.'   In large factories scattered across the country they then stuff these disks into paper envelopes, and send them on their way via planes and trucks, all using gasoline, until they arrive at the subscriber.   She takes the plastic disk, puts it in a DVD player, and those physical bits are now converted back into electronic bits and displayed.   When finished, she puts the disk back in the envelope, sending it back to the factory.

Yeah dad.... quit the BS.... people couldn't be <that> stupid.....

Physical Bits on DVD

From Netflix

From Netflix

Big Data and Big Retail Redux: The Last Mile Revolution and the Third Wave (15 Jul 14 by gins)

Link to original posting at insights.wired.com