Crastinate

News reports were seen around the web claiming that Qtrax, a new internet startup that allows users to download an unlimited amount of advertisement-laced music for free, had signed deals with 4 major studios (EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music and Warner Music). This would be a historic deal and should have been front page news…if it were true. What really happened is that Qtrax announced that they had these deals but they were actually just in discussions with these studios. Corrections were made when the information was found out to be false.

What I find so interesting about this course of events is that large reputable news agencies were ready to jump on the bandwagon and publish front page articles about the significance of this deal without getting confirmation from the studios themselves. This, I believe, is how most journalism operates nowadays. They get a tip or hear a scoop and announce it to the world without getting full confirmation of the facts. It’s better to be wrong once in a while then let your competition get the jump on a story.

So what does that do for us, the consumers? The “reputable” journalists that we expect to do their job and confirm facts before reporting are filling our need for news like Mcdonalds fills our need for food…fast, dirty and cheap. This is fine with me. I absorb news from multiple outlets and don’t trust any specific source entirely. Therefore, I’m always skeptical, and may never know the actual truth, but I am aware of the majority perceived truth, and assume that I’m close to correct. It’s like trusting Wikipedia. It should be true considering so many people agree on it, but there is no guarantee that it is.

Back to the original question – are reporters necessary? I would say yes, but not good ones. Really good reporters won’t get the credit they deserve in this overwhelming media world. They’ll get lost in the crowd. If you’re a good reporter, and want to rise above the trash, write a book. Writers are still credible…for now.

Uncategorized joseph shmulewitz, Qtrax

The MBA program that I am pursuing full time has had its winter break the past few weeks and today is the first day back to class. It’s amazing how location can have a huge effect on productivity. I find that I can get double the work done when I am outside of my home then when I am at home (and yes, the TV is off). If anyone is finding that their productivity is not up to par with what they would expect from themselves, I highly recommend changing your environment. Change things up a bit. It may be the factor that is slowing you down.

Uncategorized joseph shmulewitz

My cable provider, Cablevision, owns Clearview Cinemas and offers their premium customers two free tickets to any movie at a Clearview movie theater every Tuesday. Free Movie Tuesday is a wonderful day of the week where my wife and I often see a free flick after work. An odd thing happened last week when we went to see “There Will Be Blood.” We were with a friend who also had his benefit but his wife couldn’t make it. So we had 4 tickets but only 3 people. We figured we’d find someone on line for the same movie and give away the ticket. The odd thing was that we couldn’t give it away. Every person we approached and asked is they were seeing the same movie gave us that look you might give someone who doesn’t stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance. That look that what I was doing was just plain wrong. They obviously thought I was trying to sell an extra ticket. After explaining myself I was greeted with slightly nicer faces, but I didn’t enjoy the quick judgment of scalping. At some point I just started announcing a free ticket and I still couldn’t get a bite. I ended up keeping the ticket in my pocket during the movie. Can’t someone try to do something nice without asking for anything in return?

Uncategorized Cablevision, joseph shmulewitz

I just finished the book “Bringing Down the House” which chronicles the infamous MIT Blackjack team. For all who have never heard of this team, they were a group of MIT students who used a method of counting the high and low cards that are dealt at the blackjack table to give themselves a statistical advantage over the house (about 2%). They raked in a few million dollars over the course of a few years before many of them were caught. This was just one person’s story and these teams had been around for a long time and supposedly are still around. The book was an enjoyable read and I recommend it. The part of the book that I found most interesting was the discussion of the psychology of the game in the player’s mind. Let me explain.

The casinos have a statistical advantage in Blackjack. It doesn’t make a difference if you play every hand perfectly. Over time, you will lose. If you count cards (which isn’t illegal but the casinos can kick you out for doing it), and you increase your bet at the right moments, then you can gain a slight statistical advantage. Casinos want to kick card counters out. I would too. But casinos have gained tremendously from the card counters. Now everyone thinks the game can be beaten. Sure, you have to be extremely good with numbers and spend hours of practicing, and even then you might not get it right. But if people think they can beat the system, then they’ll play more. So while the casinos should kick these guys out, they should also recognize the advantages they receive from the card-counting culture.

This reminded me of the current state of the music industry. It’s all about an us vs. them mentality. The people who make the music vs. the people who download it illegally. What the music industry fails to realize is that without the pirates, you wouldn’t have millions of people walking around with 30 GB of music in their pocket. Who could afford that much music? Word-of-mouth marketing is so important in the music industry. I download an album for free. I tell a friend who tells a friend who tells a friend. Eventually, someone who isn’t so familiar with torrents will download that album from iTunes or AmazonMP3. This is a person who never would have bought this album otherwise. This has been happening for years now and that’s how people have so much music. Mostly downloaded for free, a few paid for. The music industry can keep on trying to go after pirates, but they need pirates. Possibly, if this was somehow acknowledged by the music industry, they might find a business model that works for everyone.

Uncategorized joseph shmulewitz, music

Yesterday, Steve Jobs gave his highly anticipated keynote speech at Macworld. At last year’s Macworld, Jobs announced the revolutionary iPhone. So the crowd was expecting another revolutionary product or product enhancement. And what did they get…not that. Let’s take a look at the 4 “big” announcements:

iPhone

Jobs announced a few new applications (nothing special really) for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This means nothing to a large portion of iPhone users who have hacked their iPhone galore and have dozens of applications that already perform the tasks that these new applications perform. What we really want to hear is about the upcoming SDK. How open will the iPhone be? Will it be what we hope? An iPhone that allows any third party to create an application for it? I highly doubt it. Apple has always been about keeping others out of their party. They make great products, and so they thrive even when against the trend of openness. Don’t expect them to change their stripes. I’ll give them credit for the SDK when I see it in action. Right now, this is just a bland update.

Movie Rentals

Apple has teamed up with almost all of the major studios to deliver movie rentals to your iTunes or Apple TV. Am I the only one tired of being told how many ways I can pay for renting movies? It is nice that Apple offers us the option, but I would like to see a Netflix payment model for renting movies. That would be a nice announcement.

Apple TV – Take 2

This was a load of crap. Jobs admits that they screwed up with Apple TV. It hasn’t been successful. So what does he do? He gives a software update that allows you to rent movies on your Apple TV without needing the connection to a computer. Who cares? The problem with Apple TV is that its use doesn’t justify its cost. It’s still just an easy way to get files from your computer to your TV. The same can be done with a wire. What should I pay for this feature? I don’t know, $50? Nope, it’s still really expensive. $229. That is WAY too much for this simple functionality. It wouldn’t take much to make this a killer product. All you need to do is add a much bigger hard drive (or the ability to add one yourself) and add DVR functionality (there are some great free Linux DVR operating systems). Oh, and an SDK for that would be nice as well but not required. Many people are paying $10 a month for sub-par DVR functionality. Just add DVR to this baby and everyone would buy one.

Macbook Air

Apple launched a new laptop called Macbook Air. The Macbook Air is an EXTREMELY thin and an EXTREMELY expensive laptop. Check out this comparison from Gizmodo. Very cool but very expensive. My question for Apple on this one is who are they targeting? If people are going to shell out 2 grand for a laptop, would they be able to settle for a device with such low specs. Maybe. I’m not expecting this to be a huge hit though. Nice to see some innovation here, but it’s nothing that will change the industry at all.

I know I’m pretty critical of Apple in this post. Apple has had a $20 price per share drop in their stock over the past 2 days so I guess I’m not alone.

Uncategorized Apple, joseph shmulewitz