Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

So I’m sitting here watching the in-flight movie, “Hair Spray”, and there’s nothing to say except that I simply don’t understand what John Travolta was thinking.

Shibboleth

I stumbled upon a "tear in the fabric" while eating lunch with some American friends the other day. The topic was “the American Dream”. In fairness, I’m the foreigner, but I think I discovered a dividing line between the forces of good and evil. Now, I don’t mean evil in the absolute sense, but in the “trans-fat, feels so good right now, but will give you a coronary at age 45” kind of evil. A surprisingly large number of my Yankee pals defined the American Dream in terms of realizing material aspirations – owning a large house; having a two car garage, filled with two cars, or finally getting that 50-inch plasma TV imported from a factory in China. Equally strangely, a large number of the immigrant Americans at the table defined the American Dream in terms of ideals. For them, the American Dream was about a meritocracy, about freedom of speech, about the right to worship the god of their choice or no god at all. But perhaps, that’s what my native-born American friends were telling me. Perhaps the “born and bred” were telling me that they were exercising their freedom of Religion. They had discovered Mammon.

What on earth has happened to Sony? Given its historic successes with products like the Walkman, you might have expected Sony to have created the iPod. And given Sony’s former dominance of the consumer TV market with its Trinitron technology you might think that Sony would be a leading manufacturer of flat-screen TVs. But it isn’t. In fact, Sony has become such a technological has-been that if it weren’t for its Playstation division (which is increasingly under attack by Nintendo and Microsoft), Sony arguably would be an afterthought in the world of consumer electronics.

So, I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Sony has, once again, managed to exhibit an incredible level of arrogance and insensitivity. At the same time as Apple CEO Steve Jobs and record companies like EMI are talking about completely removing copy-protection from online music purchases, Sony has managed to swim upstream against common sense. It’s bad enough that Sony managed to garner widespread scorn and embarrassment via its 2005 release of music CDs which contained copy protection software that installed a hackable root kit on user’s PCs (translation: Sony CDs secretly installed software on customers’ PCs which made them vulnerable to hackers. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal). Would Sony learn from the resulting public humiliation? Apparently not. As confirmed via my personal call to the Sony Customer Service hotline, the company is now shipping DVDs with copy-protection that makes them unviewable on a certain DVD players. Interestingly, because this only impacts a small number of DVD players (mostly higher-end devices from manufacturers such as Harmon Kardon), the story hasn’t gained much traction in the popular press, although a few bloggers are writing about the situation (see, for example: http://sonystrikesagain.wordpress.com/ ).

So, as we speak, Sony is selling DVDs and Rogers Video is renting DVDs that won’t play on certain DVD players. And here’s the catch – Sony won’t give me a refund on the unplayable DVD’s I’ve purchased. And Rogers won’t give me a refund on DVD’s that I’ve rented but am unable to watch due to this new copy protection scheme. Tough luck.

People tell me that Casino Royale is a good movie. I’ll have to take their word on that.

Brain Tumor Tuesday

So I got the results of the CT Scan back today and it turns out I don't have a brain tumor after all.

"I've been waiting for this moment all my life..."

"...but it's not quite right." I like the fact that I can enter this phrase into the Google search box and in less than one second, discover it is a line from a song by the Silversun Pickups (aka, sspu, www.silverspunpickups.com ). As a kid I remember dreaming about that kind of computing genius.

But, it's not quite right. I keep hearing quiet murmerings about those environmentally friendly, feel-good folks at Google. Do a search on "Google" and "Evil Empire" and see how many hits you get. People who have had direct dealings at the 'plex suggest that Microsoft at its imperialistic worst was not this bad. They say that Microsoft in its awkward nerdy way was always pretty clear about its intentions of plodding world domination. And really rather benign, given its wealth and market power. Plus Microsoft didn't adopt the self-righteous corporate motto, "do no evil." As the old guy who used to live next door was fond of saying, "The more he spoke of his honesty, the faster I counted my change."

In the Shadow of the Baby Boom

RT writes about being born 10 years too late, after the end of the Baby Boom.

He says: "“Being in our generation means constantly having the experience of being the last person into a grocery store when there is a run on food. All that’s left on the shelves are stale Cheetos and non-alcoholic beer. And even those are snatched up by other desperate and disillusioned post-Boomers before you can race down the aisle.

Out in the parking lot, Baby Boomers are clenching T-bone steaks and fine wine under their arms. Hey, once again, they were there first. And, to make matters worse, when you approach them asking for a little bit of food for your family, they laugh arrogantly and offer to sell you pack of wieners for a thousand bucks."

Chav Beer

Stella Artois has done a great job in marketing its beer to create an image of exclusivty and refinement in Vancouver. They even have gone so far as to insist that local bars serve their draft beer in the special stemmed 'Stella' glasses.

Try ordering Stella in the UK. You'll suddenly get the sense that it doesn't enjoy the same elite reputation as it does in Canada. In fact, you'll discover that Stella is considered a low-end beer, popular with Chavs (Are you a Chav? Find out here: http://www.boredandlazy.co.uk/quiz.php?q=chav)

But that's the genius of marketing. Don't focus on the product; focus on the brand. Create the right image and needy Vancouver residents will pay a premium to bask in your glow.

Chav Footnote: learn about Chavs here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav and discover why my use of the term is tasteless and perpetuates classism and snobbery.

P.S. Still in doubt about Stella? Check out Yahoo Answers where it is called "wife beater" beer and one individual says: "derr! it's alcohol thats wot its job is". http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061223102924AAqmQ1k&show=7