Watching Netflix Commit Suicide

Netflix is dying a slow, painful death. 

A few years ago, Netflix was a great source for little-known, quirky movies, and had an extensive inventory of both new and old major films. Today? I search for this one and that one, and come up blank. Gran Torino? No got -- and that's strange, because I watched Gran Torino originally on a Netflix DVD. Or maybe it was streamed. Either way, Netflix had it.

'Please Listen Carefully, Since Our Menu Options Have Changed'

Really? I last called you an hour ago. Have they changed since then? How about I hang up, wait 10 minutes, and call you again. Same message! Wow. I'm starting to think a lot of companies have people who do nothing, all day long, but change phone messages. Why don't they have those people answer the phone, instead? Now ask yourself: when people call you or your company, do you treat them as poorly as the companies whose phone-mazes you hate most? If so, you need to figure out how to make it pleasant, rather than irritating, for clients to call you.

Beyond the Occupy Movement, There Will be Violence

Right now we have the Occupy pseudo-hippies, full of idealism and nonviolence and doing those stupid "mic checks," which is a bunch of crap. If you ask me, if you want to be in the Rainbow Family (which is like an older, hipper, less commercial, more open and more fun version of Burning Man, and has lots of small, regional weekend-type gatherings in addition to big ones) you should go to a Rainbow gathering and get naked and find someone who wants to make love with you or get stoned or both. You want to truly change America, you need to be way more hard core than that.

Journalism is Nothing but Storytelling

Sex and storytelling are the oldest and still most popular forms of human recreation. The storytelling format may have changed over the millenia, but even with our video cameras and websites we're still sitting in the marketplace, talking about how the demon is creeping up on the hero from behind and.... and.... and my assistant will pass among you with a hat so that I can buy a little something to lubricate my dusty throat before I continue. 

Robin Miller Appointed to Red Hat Software Bored of Directors

CNN (Crazy News Nutwork)  -- Whazzup, Florida -- Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst, a graduate of Rice University who owns his own Delta Airlines flight attendant uniform. has appointed Robin 'Roblimo' Miller to the Red Hat Bored of Directors, replacing Greg DeKoenigsberg, who, it turns out, was not on the Bored despite a spurious news item in Bidness Weak that said he was. 


When she heard the news of her master's new job, Terri the Terrorist Terrier tweeted, "W00F!"      

Tariffs are an American Tradition

Remember George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams? They all favored tariffs and made sure the U.S. had stiff ones. Now, in the spirit of honoring our nation's founding daddies, let's look at today's situation. Just as back then our industry wasn't directly competitive with Europe, today we're not competitive with China.

How to Spot an SEO Snake Oil Salesman

"Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn't a secret recipe for making magic Internet money. Top search results cannot be bought, they must be earned.

"Charlatans and sharks online will gladly take your money for doing absolutely nothing while spewing jargon your way. Some of these folks are wily and cunning, making them more difficult to spot. Here are some warning signs to look for."

Excellent article at The CMO Site by Michelle Greenlee says things I've said to friends and colleagues for years. You should read it.

The Dawn of Haiku OS

How a volunteer crew brought a crack operating system back

Read it @ IEEE Spectrum. Great story!

Unexceptionalism: A Primer

By E. L. DOCTOROW

TO achieve unexceptionalism, the political ideal that would render the United States indistinguishable from the impoverished, traditionally undemocratic, brutal or catatonic countries of the world, do the following:

PHASE ONE

If you’re a justice of the Supreme Court, ignore the first sacrament of a democracy and suspend the counting of ballots in a presidential election. Appoint the candidate of your choice as  president....

Read the rest @ NYT.com

Why the Richies and Their Republican Stooges Love Recessions

I saw a thing on TV last night about a company that's buying up foreclosed homes dirt-cheap, fixing them up, and renting them out. Basically, they're making a bunch of money capitalizing on working Americans' misfortunes at both ends: first by buying homes Americans have lost to foreclosure, second by renting them to Americans who can no longer buy homes because of poor credit, often caused by losing good jobs -- and the foreclosures that resulted from those job losses. In other words, the richies are doing well during the recession, and will do even better when it ends. You may be hurt by this entire economic roller-coaster thing, but don't think for a second that the 1% dislikes it. In many ways, boom-bust cycles are good, not bad, for the people at the top of the world's economic pyramid.