Free

Shamelessly following this Anderson, Gladwell, Godin debate, I think Mitch Ratcliffe actually got it right, taken from booksahead:

"In a constantly churning market, “Free” is just a way to destroy your competitor, but it doesn’t make a business sustainable."

and so does Mark Cuban, taken from Blog Maverick:

"We give you something free, you give us something that costs you nothing.

The music is often free, but it is NEVER freely distributed.

The TV and Movie business are realizing this is the case. Hence TV Anywhere. They will give you access to content for free if you are already a customer of their distributors. And before you IT ALL HAS TO BE FREE BIGOTS EXPLODE, even google requires you have internet access of some kind, which costs you in subscription fees , taxes or coffee.

Newspapers are catching flack for saying there should be copyrights on their news reports and the summaries. They are right. Their work, their ability to control it. They should have the right to control where it appears. If, as Chris Anderson and others suggest, there will be plenty of content creators and the quality of the work is sufficient for consumers of that content, then there will be plenty of open source content and it shouldnt matter what the newspapers request for protection. The market will decide.

Newspapers are also catching flack for saying they dont want their content openly distributed. On this point, they are correct again. They should have complete control over where it is distributed. They should have the ability to choose where it is offered for free.

Not only should they have this control, taking back this control is the exact right business move. Im not saying it will save newspapers or magazines, it wont. But it will make their website offerings stronger in the long run. If Im them, I take the risk that the “printed” content business follows the path of the music industry.

In other words, you take on the role of identifying the best in breed for your business and use your resources to help those talented people figure out how to make money for themselves and for you. You provide your resources and knowledge to make them smarter and then you go and compete against the masses.

In the long run, printed content producers should have a brand, and use their institutional knowledge, their core competencies and ability to procure, improve and market to maximize the value of their brands and the perceived value of their content. Whether its on a central website, a co produced website, in print or on a hologram in the evening sky, I should go to the NY Times because they have demonstrated to me that they have the very best articles on the subjects I am looking for. That they are the best source for breaking news about the topics I care about. THEY NEED TO MAKE SURE I DONT HAVE THE CHOICE OF GETTING IT ANYWHERE ELSE BUT WHERE THEY DICTATE. If they cant make their content stand out from the open source masses and convince enough people to transact with them in a way that makes them money they dont deserve to exist.

They should distribute their content for Free where they believe it maximizes return, but should do everything possible to keep it from being distributed Freely."

advice

Kind of incredible advice, really:

When I started high school my mother told me "Use your best judgment, and remember, nobody likes a prude."

Never leave your house without enough money to get back by yourself. (advice given when I started dating. I view it as a call to independence to this day.)

positive language

Positive Language Yes But And

before your ovaries fall out

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fluent helpers

Fluent C Sharp Language Extension Helpers - Part 1

So, I found myself doing a lot of for( int i = 0; i < n; i++ ){} stuff lately. So, I've decided to try something new. I've started a small collection of "Fluent Helpers" that alleviate a lot of the verbosity in C#.

About 28 characters (including spaces) for a simple for loop to do some constant iteration.

for( int i = 0; i < n, i++){

About 18 characters to do this (no pun intended):

Do.This( 5, () =>{

Here's an example:


Do.This( 5,() =>
{
Console.Write( "Hello " );
Console.WriteLine( "World!" );
}
);


Prints:

Hello World!
Hello World!
Hello World!
Hello World!
Hello World!

Now that feels much better on my hands, and looks much cleaner too, IMHO. Here's the simple implementation for Do.This:


public static class Do {

public static void This(int times, Action what)
{
for( int i = 0; i < times; i++ )
what();
}
}


I've already started a little library of these small syntax helpers I've collected. If you have any suggestions, please share! cool0003.gif

-Brian Chavez

recession blog comments

from Decorno

"I think most of the foreclosures from people biting off more than they could chew are gone. Now it's a second wave people who actually bought houses they could afford but lost jobs." :(

inspired by Eva: 3 or so things I'm grateful for today:

1. Partly walking with my neighbor to work today.

Today is one of the first days in over a week that I haven't left early to bike to Cafe Rustica to sit and have some morning coffee (black!) and read. I was annoyed at myself for wasting what would've otherwise been ~40mins to relax at the cafe, and instead mindlessly surfed the internet, which would also probably result in getting to work late. But when she remarked to me how it was a little cooler than expected, to which I wholly agreed being also fooled by the delicious rays of sun pouring into my room and presuming their warmth, I actually felt kind of lucky to be exactly where I was in that moment, sharing this deceptive summer morning together. We continued walking together and she said her son begged her to use the car to drive to school this morning and she was on her way to the bank, but since it was this cold, that she decided only to the bank, and then straight home. As we walked she saw someone drive past and waved him down, who I assumed to be her son as she ran over to the car. She abruptly stopped by the door and turned, waved at me and said, you, too, you want a ride? It was actually a friend she knew and not her son, although I changed my mind after seeing him up close anyways. So we, all three of us, drove to Porter Square together. He dropped us off at the intersection across from the T. I asked her if that was her son, and she said, no, just a friend, "from her country."

I asked her what country, but she was already walking toward the bank in the other direction. I think she was the woman who's kids I asked directions for how to get to the park a few blocks from my house, and myself already running late that day, all proceeded to ask me about a million questions about where I was going and what I was doing, so I stopped and talked with her kids, since I was already late, and the woman sitting on the porch smiled at my dilemma, even though I was pretty happy to bask in my kingdom of their wonder. I swear maybe she was that woman outside watching them. I really hope I see her again.

2. Bekah ordering 7 quarts of ice cream, hot fudge, caramel, and tons of toppings at work today, including chocolate covered espresso beans, in celebration of Memorial Day weekend.

3. Today being my first free night in over three weeks. I'm euphoric at the idea of really having time to myself.

okay, one more...

4. The afterglow. It gives me this intoxicating restless adrenaline and this feeling of connectedness. I swing my hips a little more. I look people in the eye. I wonder. It makes me tireless of the smallest and simplest things and connected to the beauty in them and around me.

umm, and another!

5. T-station musicians.