Month: February 2013

Reclining airplane seats are a terrible idea and should be banned

Reclining airplane seats are a terrible idea and should be banned:

Like Kois, and like Merlin, I’ll almost never recline my seat, except on long overnight flights where everyone is expected to be asleep.

It’s a tiny, insigificant form of protest, but it’s a small contribution toward reducing the world’s total annoyance. I think of it like social environmentalism.

[In this case I’d take it one further. I don’t fly unless I have no other choice. The entire experience is awful with one general exception… speed. There’s no faster way to get some places. Even before the TSA existed I stopped flying to Montreal. For a while I ran a dev team there. Every few weeks it was time to check in more personally. I started out flying. Took 5 or so hours with all the usual stresses and costs for a flight time of about an hour. When winter weather was poor it took much longer. Driving always took about 5 and half hours, wasn’t as affected by the weather and gave me the peace of listening to a decent car stereo, controlling my schedule, and reducing cost. Everyone thought I was a heretic. So don’t just not recline, avoid flying if at all possible. What should be banned is the airline/airport experience as it is today.]

Source: Marco.org

Good for Dell (maybe)

Good for Dell (maybe):

For Dell’s part, cutting corners has been their modus operandi for at least a decade, and the race to the bottom—especially in the consumer PC business—has taken them here. If nothing else, it may be easier for them to get out of the hole they’ve dug themselves into without a bevy of analysts screaming that the only solution is to dig faster.

[Agreed.]

Source: Coyote Tracks

CBS Bans SodaStream Ad. Where’s The Outrage?

CBS Bans SodaStream Ad. Where’s The Outrage?:

Now, CBS has essentially opened the door for its biggest advertisers to forever complain about those “annoying little competitors” that are trying to steal share. “Take them off the air. Make them stop!” is what they will scream. “You did it for Coke and Pepsi.”

And it won’t only be CBS. All media will have to bear the burden of this biased, un-capitalistic, anti-progress, move. But, guess what? This isn’t the first time in recent months CBS has overplayed its hand.

Add the fact CBS banned the Dish Network “Hopper” and now we’ve got ourselves a trend.

You heard about this, I’m sure. CBS forced the staff at CNET to change the winner of “Best In Show” at CES this year because, presumably, the technology which had already won the honor, if successful, would mean less money for CBS. It was Dish Network’s “Hopper” technology which allows viewers to skip entire advertising pods with one click. Forbes Contributor, Erik Kain, wrote a great expose on this scandal recently, “CBS Forced CNET To Drop Its ‘Best Of CES 2013′ Winner, The Dish Hopper.”

[Can’t complain about not being a little part of this anymore. Curious to know what they’re thinking over at CBS.]