why business needs fear the internet

On December 30, 2006 By Rick McIn economics, internetLeave a comment

How can I run an on-line encyclopedia business when Wikipedia is free? And ad free?

Perhaps everything on the internet will be “no charge” one day. It’s possible.

Companies will not be able to demand money for information if someone is willing to give them the same thing for nothing.

A kooky “information wants to be free” pipe dream?

Imagine a guy that gets hundred of millions of page views and has no interest in monetizing. Imagine a guy that could sell his website for two billion dollars and is “just not interested”.

That guy doesn’t exist?

Meet Jim Buckmaster (yes, that’s his real name), CEO of Craigslist:

Information Architects Japan » iA Notebook » Democracy or profit? Ask Buckmaster

Here’s the top 10 websites on the internet by page view. Check #7.

Who wants to start a company to compete against craigslist?

gift cards a great idea – but a rip-off

On December 18, 2006 By Rick McIn economics, product complaintsLeave a comment

Obviously, my credit card should be charged only after someone cashes in the gift card I gave them.

Under the current system, companies should sell gift cards at a discount, knowing that some people will lose or forget to use them.

Last winter, Best Buy Co. reported a $43 million gain in fiscal 2006 from cards that hadn’t been used in two or more years.

Retailers profit from unused gift cards – Yahoo! News

what causes war?

On December 18, 2006 By Rick McIn bad news, economics, government, IslamLeave a comment

I did the 4 minute Wikipedia research.

Factors leading to war:

* Historical theories
* Psychological theories
* Anthropological theories
* Sociological theories
* Demographic theories
* Evolutionary psychology theories
* Rationalist theories
* Economic theories
* Marxist theories
* Political science theories

Causes of war:

* Extortionate
* Aggressive
* Colonial
* National liberation
* Religious
* Dynastic
* Trade
* Revolutionary
* Guerrilla

Religious differences are significant, but not one of the major causes of warfare.

Significant exceptions were the massacres of Indian Independence (1947, Hindu vs. Muslim) which I’ve studied. Sheer stupidity. Hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved if the British handled the withdrawal better. (Are you listening USA?)

Wars, Massacres and Exterminations Due to Religious Intolerance – rateitall.com

Al Jazeera meets The Daily Show

On December 17, 2006 By Rick McIn economics, humour, IslamLeave a comment

I liked it almost as much as Huffington.

What an inspired, genius move on the part of the underexposed and under-carried Al Jazeera English network: Offer yourself up with abandon to “The Daily Show” for a long, meaty, hilarious, humanizing clip. Outstanding.

Last night, crack correspondent Samantha Bee (and most senior correspondent, I might add) did a long segment on the new network which culminated in Bee’s hilarious attempt to re-make the network in a manner appealing to Americans (Bee: “Whoa. News hour?”).

The segment drove home the point that Al Jazeera is actually serious about serious news, with a pared-down no-nonsense style heavy on actual news content while at the same time humanizing the network by highlighting its employees, and the mission, which has not been overly popular, to say the least (and, in fairness, Al Jazeera is sort of associated with videos from terrorists who take credit for atrocities and shout about the glories of holy slaughter of American infidels, which sort of works against domestic viewer goodwill).

Anchors Dave Marash and Ghida Fakhry are particularly excellent sports. It’s a brilliant, hilarious segment, and is probably the best commercial Al Jazeera could have in this country. An amazing PR coup.

Eat The Press | Al Jazeera’s Brilliant PR Move: Submitting To The Will Of “The Daily Show” | The Huffington Post – video

“religion is the cause of most wars”

On December 16, 2006 By Rick McIn economics, government, IslamLeave a comment

I heard that again last night.

Wrong again, in my opinion.

Religion is often used as an excuse for war. The instigators are invariably after money and power.

Religion is just one of many factors that sets “us” against the “other”.

It helps “demonize”.

Look at recent history. The Germans under Hitler were evil. Now Germany is our friend. Then the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour. They too were the great enemy (along with sad sack Italy). Now we drive Japanese cars and dream of vacations in Tuscany.

Then came the cold war with Russia. (We’re still a little suspicious of them.)

Now the enemy of the West is radical Islam. We fear Arabs in particular. (How soon would that go away if there were no oil in those countries?)

Next North Korea. Then, almost inevitably, China.

Who after that?

All of these conflicts were not caused by religion. Anyone who thinks Hitler, Saddam Hussein, or Kim Jong-il motivated by religion are wrong.

George Bush now?

Well there are a few world leaders that may actually be guided by religion. But they are the exception to the rule.

Can religion be blamed for war? – Mike Wooldridge, BBC

a skeptical environmentalist – that’s me

On December 8, 2006 By Rick McIn books, economics, Islam, miscellaneousLeave a comment

I had a feeling I was doing some good NOT owning a motor vehicle. That was before I found out my airline flights do far more damage.

Just watched a Penn and Teller Bullsh*t video debunking environmental hysteria. It’s not nearly as good as the others I’ve seen so I didn’t link to it here.

But Penn did have some very good points.

Some environmentalists are embarrassingly naive and uninformed. It was not difficult for Penn to film them. And cry BS.

(Turns out he was one of the protesters in the 1970s.)

The vague fear people have in 2006 regarding global warming, ozone depletion, species extinction — reminds me of the uneasy, ill-informed fear of Islam that the right wing is so quick to foster.

I’d better get schooled. I could read Al Gore.

But instead I’ll start with this book: The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World

Americans driving less for the first time in 25yrs

On December 7, 2006 By Rick McIn economics, good news, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Americans have been driving further — 40% more than 25 years ago — and using more gasoline in bigger, more powerful cars and other light duty vehicles.

But higher gasoline prices have had a significant impact. The rate of growth in gasoline demand slowed sharply from its 1.6% per year pace (1990-2004) to 0.3% in 2005, and continued to grow slowly in 2006, at 1.0%.

And for the first time in 25 years, motorists’ average mileage went down. Overall, though, according to the CERA report, improved automotive efficiencies and one of the lowest fuel tax rates among Western countries have kept gasoline and oil’s share of average U.S. household budgets at 3.8% in 2006, slightly above the 1960s’ 3.4% to 3.6% level despite rising world oil prices.

Gasoline and the American People: A CERA Special Report

Higher gas prices have helped motivate. Maybe we should raise fuel tax (to pay for my bicycle trails). All in favour?

DRM (digital rights management) is doomed

On December 4, 2006 By Rick McIn economics, humourLeave a comment

The most influential pundit on the internet is Michael Arrington.

He is all about the money.

And when Michael Arrington says that DRM is dying, companies had better start looking for the next strategy of protecting their market share. Frustrating customers is the best way of losing them to some product without DRM.

“… the age of DRM is coming to an end. Startups that embrace the DRM world are going to have a very hard time finding success.”

Michael Arrington

I’ll go further.

I’m just about to switch from watching video on iTunes (free, proprietary software from Apple) to Democracy (free, non-proprietary, open source software). Apple’s huge lead in video distribution technology has already been surpassed by people who worked on Democracy for fun, part-time.

Long term I can’t see how commercial proprietary software can compete with open source. The inefficiencies inherent in any company stifle progress enough not to be able to stay ahead of an open source competitor which is available for FREE.

For another example, Microsoft Internet Explorer will continue to lose market share to open source Firefox in the browser market.

Even Google, who got big by copying principles of the open source movement, is doomed long-term.

Looking forward to see if I’m right.

do you have a passport?

On December 1, 2006 By Rick McIn economics, government, travelLeave a comment

Passport Rules Changing – Gadling

Making my way to Canada this year to spend a week in the gloriously beautiful Canadian province of Newfoundland, I discovered a nasty little surprise. My wife and I got to the airport and discovered that Newfoundland requires Americans traveling there to bring a passport or birth certificate to enter by air from the United States. I had no idea.

For years living in Seattle I came and went to Canada and needed only to show my drivers’ license. I was pretty damn upset because no one told us that the rules had changed, and so we had to go back and get our passports and needless to say, we missed our plane.

Well my hardies, the rules HAVE changed, although they have not taken effect Canada-wide quite yet, and when they do take effect, they will cover Mexico as well. Yes, visitors to the NAFTA states North and South will soon have to bring along passports to cross the country’s borders…well, the key is really getting back in. The rules take effect December 31 for air travelers to and from the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada.

A year later, on Dec. 31, 2007, the requirement will be extended to all land-based border crossings as well.