Nov 28 2005

Wal-Mart + Cheap Laptops = Complete Chaos

people are stupid
As you could have guessed, people freaked over the Wal-Mart $400 laptops that went on sale last Friday:

One man told reporters that the laptops were being thrown into the air and people rushed toward them, collapsing on each other. Another man described the scene as crazy.

This is why I shop at Target. It may be more expensive, but you don’t have to know Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to get past the check-out either.

Nov 27 2005

Something to be thankful for

Be thankful that you haven’t won millions of dollars in the lottery. According to one study:

Study 1 compared a sample of 22 major lottery winners with 22 controls and also with a group of 29 paralyzed accident victims who had been interviewed previously

As predicted, lottery winners were not happier than controls and took significantly less pleasure from a series of mundane events. Study 2 indicated that these effects were not due to preexisting differences between people who buy or do not buy lottery tickets or between interviews that made or did not make the lottery salient.

Just look at Virginia and Wayne Metcalf, who won $65 million five years ago.

Nov 21 2005

Commercial Kryptonite

Have you seen this excellent commercial going around lately?

It opens, young handsome man on the subway. Queen’s (& Bowie’s) “Under Pressure” deftly unscoring the images of our hero walking around town, catching glympes of newspapers, billboards and clouds which “Ask Her.” Clearly he is comtemplating the biggest decision of his life.

More slow motion shots of him walking, wind blowing his hair. “Under Pressure” hits a great moment where Bowie slices through the driving bassline. “Pressure… pushing down on me… pressing down on you…”

wait for it…

He walks to a door. He knocks. A beautiful woman answers. He looks scared. She looks curious.

wait for it…

The camera pans down to a jewerly box. There’s a diamond inside!

wait for it…

The box says “Zales.”

record scratches

Ha? Wha? Funny how it fades to black right there. That’s so you couldn’t see the chick slamming the door in his face.

I’m not knocking Zales, I’m sure they have fine stuff. It’s just that some things can’t get any cooler than they really are, no matter how slick the packaging.

Saturn cars. Creative’s MP3 players. Al Gore.

They’re all commercial kryptonite.

Nov 19 2005

Our Google Overlords

I like Google as much as the next guy. I’m actually quite dependent on Google for searching the web and usenet.

That said, I’m officially jumping off the Google bandwagon.

It’s not because they released a web analytics competitor to Blogbeat. It’s not because they let security flaws linger in their email apps.

It’s because they are breaking the golden rule: Don’t be evil.

Jamie said it best, “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It would appear that Google plans to own the internet much the same way Wal-Mart owns retail. (Read Robert Cringely for more on this.)

Do we really need another Wal-Mart? Especially on a platform such as the internet, where we’ve seen unprecedented individualism and creativity, and small business thrive so easily?

Update: Excellent post by Paul Graham on how Google is “Web 2.0″.

Nov 17 2005

Ballad of a Thin Man

You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked
And you say, “Who is that man?”
You try so hard
But you don’t understand
Just what you’ll say
When you get home

Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

(more…)