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Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Can you imagine a Declaration of Independence for IT? 
He's okay, but this explains why he didn't blog for three weeks
| | My father never owned a motorcycle because the guy he was going to buy one from was neutered in an accident with it. My wife associates motorcycles with the human arm she once saw on the pavement while approaching the scene of an accident involving one. |
| | At the emergency room I joined the body surfer who's face and nose got slammed into the beach, the girl who was hit by a car while riding her bicycle and the young couple with their 4-month old child who they swore swallowed her wedding ring. |
You're unwelcome
| | A few weeks ago our Panasonic VCR stopped providing audio through one of its channels. Since our latest DVD player (in a surprisingly long series, considering that we hardly ever watch DVDs) also crapped out, I decided to reduce the count of boxes and remote controls in the family room by replacing both bad units with a DVD/VCR both-in-one deck. |
| | Alas, it didn't have working audio. So we exchanged it for another one. |
| | On this second unit, the DVD side worked, but the VCR side wasn't there at all. The screen only showed a default DVD Video image. After going to Panasonic's support site, clicking on the Consumer Electronics link and landing on a page that says "The requested Panasonic web service is currently unavailable," I called customer support. After listening to music on hold for half an hour on a headset while I worked around the house on other stuff, a service person came on and helped me shoot trouble with the machine. After much button pushing, cable checking and inserting and removing of videotapes, the service person declared the matter "a service issue" and told me to return the thing. She also told me that this was a unit made specially for Costco, that she had one too, and that it really isn't very trouble-prone. |
| | As it turned out, Costco's only other DVD/VCR with the same rough set of functions was a GoVideo for just $89 or so. But among all the DVD players I've had, none has lasted less time, or had more problems (it wouldn't play DVDs recorded on computers, for example), than a GoVideo. So I went for another Panasonic like the first two. Again, this one gave me the default "DVD Video" image when a tape was in the VCR bay, but at least I could fast forward, rewind and play the tape, and hear the sound. There was just no video. |
| | So I tried disconnecting the S-Video cable, and.... Voila! The fugger worked. But... why was that? |
| | I checked the manual. It appears, although it's hard to tell from the opaque text, that the S-Video cable should only be used when playing DVDs, because S-Video is exclusively used for "enjoying higher picture quality." In other words, using an S-Video cable disables the VCR deck. |
| | But... why? Even if your VCR deck doesn't produce S-Video out, why not convert standard yellow-plug output to S-Video for the TVs that support it, and explain in the manual that full S-Video quality only happens with DVDs? |
| | I suppose this is what one gets for cheaping out, but I'd gladly pay more for avoiding the hassle. But can one even do that? In my experience with this kind of stuff, required service doesn't vary with price. But hell, maybe I'm wrong. |
| | For the nothing it's worth, I just checked the Consumer Electronics service link at Panasonic's support site, and it's still unavailable. In fact, if you try to find anything on Panasonic's site, that's still the message you get. The usual subtext is... |
| | We should be back on-line in a few minutes. Please check back again. |
| | We apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience. |
Priorities
| | Some of you may wonder why we generally don't bother talking about investment stuff. Isn't it news, after all? |
| | Making a big deal about VC investments is unnecessary, it seems to me. One of the biggest reasons for the dot-com crash was an imbalance of attention: far too much on investments, and far too little on building real businesses with those investments. |
| | A few years ago, when the dot-com bubble was still gassing up, I ran into an acquaintance who was on his Nth startup, talking trash. I wrote about the encounter here. The relevant excerpt: |
| | ``What does your company do, exactly?'' I asked. |
| | ``We're an arms merchant to the portals industry'', he replied. |
| | When I pressed him for more details (How are portals an industry? What kind of arms are you selling?), I got more buzzwords back. Finally, I asked a rude question. ``How are sales?'' |
| | ``They're great. We just closed our second round of financing.'' |
| | Thus I was delivered an epiphany: every company has two markets--one for its goods and services, and one for itself--and the latter had overcome the former. We actually thought selling companies to investors was a real business model. |
| | I'm on Dave's advisory board for Technorati, and I support his decision not to sound the trumpets over VC investments, gratifying though they may be. (Or sounding trumpets over anything, when there's so much left to be done, just to get things working right). Investments matter less than the returns on them, which are still years away. |
| | I always thought bragging about bagging VC money was kinda strange in any case. If you were starting a new business in a non-tech sector, would you send out a press release bragging about your banker, and how much he loaned you to get going? I know it's different in tech, but does it have to be that much different? |
| | Technorati's performance is far from ideal; but it is improving. Please keep banging on it and let us know how we're doing and what we can do better. That's the kind of investment that helps the most. |
| | Have you tried it lately? After a spell of glitchy performance, I think it's doing much better. |
There goes the Sun
| | Sunday was even more perfect than the usual Santa Barbara day. All four of the nearest Channel Islands were clear in the distance, and the sky was cirrus white painted on blue. |
| | So I decided it was a good time to take the kid for a ride to some vantage where we might catch a perfect sunset. We headed west on 101 and took Refugio Road (pronounced "Refoofio") up to West Camino Cielo. Along the way we spotted a couple sundogs (explanation here) while the Sun was still a hand or two above the horizon. At West Camino Cielo we headed East toward the 4300-foot summit, which bristles with communication towers. The road at that point got a bit too rough for the old Subaru, and there wasn' t much point in pushing on, since the Sun was setting right then. |
| | I took a bunch of shots, and would have edited the selection down to three or four; but the kid (age 7) insisted we keep and post nearly the whole set, including this one, in which San Miguel Island is barely visible in the dusk below the horizon. |
| | Most of these pictures were taken right beside the old Reagan Ranch property. No wonder he loved it so much. The place is a Western paradise. |
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