Posted by Bill McGonigle
Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:26:00 GMT
Once upon a time there were three little groups of pigs. No, not those pigs, this is a slightly different world.
In this world, most pigs lived in straw houses. A few pigs had started to figure out that twig houses were an improvement but they were relatively few.
Most of the straw-house pigs were quite happy. Their houses kept them dry most of the time and rarely did the gentle winds in this valley do enough damage to the straw houses to be much of a concern. Of course, it did happen on occasion, but most of those pigs chalked it up to bad luck and re-built their straw houses, though a few did see the wisdom of the twig houses and became Twig Pigs.
The Twig Pigs could not understand how the Straw Pigs could accept their straw houses. The Twig Pigs did what they could to try to tell the straw pigs what kind of trouble could be in store for them. Some did so gently, some were more obnoxious about it. Some even tried to huff and puff on the straw houses to make their point. But alas, pigs cannot blow down houses, that's a different story.
The Twig Pigs became more strident, warning of an impending storm that would take down all of the straw houses, yet the Straw Pigs didn't listen and went back to their food and their games. This only frustrated the Twig Pigs, and many of the Twig Pigs eventually gave up trying.
Then one day came a strong and frightful storm. Thunder and lightning, gales and hurricane-force winds whipped the valley. Straw house after straw house was destroyed. And so were the twig houses. The Straw Pigs were too disinterested and the Twig Pigs were too busy trying to convince the Straw Pigs that they failed to notice that a few of the Twig Pigs thought long and hard about their situation and decided to build brick houses. The Brick Pigs were well-protected from the storm, and invited in all of the Straw Pigs and Twig Pigs who could make it to the brick houses.
Once the storm cleared, the valley had no more Straw Pigs and no more Twig Pigs, for they were all now Brick Pigs. The first Brick Pigs had accomplished what the Twig Pigs could not, and then some.
Posted by Bill McGonigle
Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:40:00 GMT
If I were going to start a car dealership here in the wilds of New Hampshire it would be called "The 4-Wheel Warehouse". OK, so I'd actually spend some time thinking up a less terrible name, but I'd just sell four-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive vehicles. I won't buy anything else living here, so why would I sell anything else?
Well, with the current model, that means I'd pretty much have to be a Subaru dealer because nobody else makes a full line of AWD vehicles. Subaru's are great, don't get me wrong, but not everybody wants a Subaru.
The only way this would make sense to me would be for me to carry an Impreza, an Outback, and a Forester. I don't imagine many WRX's sell up here, and nobody likes the Tribecca. But Mercedes also makes some good 4Matic vehicles, and Lexus makes an AWD sedan now, as well as their SUV. Honda still makes a Minivan, and Toyota has the Matrix. Honda also has the Element, which is also cheap and quirky. Maybe I don't care for the RAV-4 or the CRV or the 4-Runner. But I definitely want to carry the Tundra, but the Ridgeline I don't think has great market appeal.
What am I doing here? I'm thinking like any normal retail business owner, choosing to sell the products that make sense in my market. Creating a place of commerce where customers can find, review, and compare the products they're interested in. What do I have to do now if I'm interested in getting an all-wheel vehicle? Drive all over creation and spend days test driving, talking to salesmen who know even less about the competition than I do walking in, and perhaps their own products. There's no value-add there, and my dream car dealership would create great value in a largely undifferentiated market. Every salesguy would know alot about car traction and be able to help people pick the right car for them. I think I could even command a market premium for the service.
Pick just about any other store that's not "an X dealer" and that's how they work. I can walk to the tool aisle of Home Depot and compare a DeWalt to a Milwaukee to a Bosch, and yes, even a Rigid. It's true Home Depot doesn't handle tool repair, but every corner garage manages to repair all kinds of cars, so it doesn't seem plausible that a dedicated dealer would have any trouble at all, unless the manufacturers purposely impede.
But the current model makes selling cars the way my market would prefer impossible, or next to it. Maybe there are too many car dealers out there, but perhaps our countryside is just littered with inefficient, irrelevant car dealerships that are relics of a time gone by. Instead of bemoaning the loss in quantity, perhaps it's time to start addressing quality.
Posted by Bill McGonigle
Fri, 22 May 2009 22:11:00 GMT
A comment I left on Bob Cringely's WAAS Up article:
Whenever I’ve been interviewed for a newspaper, words and facts have been twisted and/or just gotten wrong. Whenever I read a popular press article in an area where I have in-depth knowledge, it’s wrong, at least in the details.
So, I just assume that’s true all the time and go to specialists for real news reporting. I haven’t checked, but I’d assume a place like Jane’s would have a good article on this GPS thing.
How about this business model: be a journalist who’s a bona-fide expert on GPS. Write completely accurate, insightful, and helpful news articles on GPS happenings. Charge alot for them.
The last part is the trick of course. But how many GPS journalists does the world need? No more than a handful. With the Internet it should be possible to greatly reduce the number of generalist journalists and start making ‘newspapers’ much better with experts. There’s probably too much inertia at established papers but a disruptive model seems possible.
It’s not ‘mere blog aggregation’ because most bloggers aren’t writing in the form or quality required, but some scheme with writers, aggregators, and integrators could get it done. I don’t see the value in local newspapers doing anything but inserting their local stories into layout and selling ads these days - find an integrator that matches your editorial values and outsource it.
II. Any person who drives, operates, or attempts to operate an OHRV, drives or attempts to drive a vehicle upon the ways of this state, or operates or attempts to operate a boat on the public waters of this state shall be deemed to have given consent to chemical, infrared molecular absorption, or gas chromatograph test or tests of his or her blood or urine for the presence of any schedule I controlled substance, as defined in RSA 318-B:1-b, or its metabolites.
Read that again if it didn't sink in. If you're going for a gallon of milk, you've implicitly given your consent to have to pee in a cup or be stuck for a blood draw just by pulling out of your driveway. No commission of a crime is required, no reasonable suspicion need be raised. You've implicitly consented, just by driving, or riding your ATV or snowmobile, or piloting your boat. If you're out fishing on the lake, you cannot refuse a random blood draw. Well, you can, but you'll be found guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to arrest. I'm sure you'll be eventually vindicated on fourth amendment grounds, if you can afford to fight it, but any way you cut it this is outrageous and demeaning.
This bill is sponsored by Reps. J. Flanders and Welch, of Rockingham District 8. The committee members contact info can be found here and you can find contact information for your legislators here.
A hearing is scheduled at the Legislative Office Building in Concord on 02/05/2009 at 11:00 AM, Room 204. Everybody needs to be there.
Posted by Bill McGonigle
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:05:00 GMT
I stopped by Newbury Comics today to buy Will a birthday present (he's two today). I got him a Monster Book of Monsters stuffed toy he absolute went bananas for last time we were in there.
On my TODO index card in my pocket I also had 'wrapping paper' and 'padded envelopes'. Newbury Comics is in the same shopping plaza as K-Mart and since I was shopping on work time I decided to just go there rather than drive down to Wal*Mart and save a couple bucks on products.
I got what I needed, but during checkout I was asked, in order:
for my e-mail address so I could 'get coupons'. Three times, each worded differently.
for my ZIP code
if I wanted to apply for a Sears credit card
for $7.73 for the goods
if I would please go online and fill out a survey
to 'please come back and visit us again'
They're out of their minds. Next time I'm going to drive to Wal*Mart, and it's not for the $2, it's for the check out process:
give us this much money (incidentally, less than K-Mart)
Posted by Bill McGonigle
Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:59:00 GMT
So the other night I was at a dinner and sat next to a nice fellow who asked me, "what do you think of this Sarah Palin?"
"She's interesting," I began, "what do you think of her?"
"Oh, she's terrible!" came the reply. So, I asked, intending to learn something and continue the conversation, "which of her positions positions do you dislike?"
"All of them!" was the what-don't-you-get reply. "Oh," I said with some fascination, "which one do you think is the worst?" At this point I was suspecting this could be fun.
"Just all of them," was the only answer I received, and the conversation turned.
So, the rhetorical question of the day is how many of Sarah Palin's positions do you think this hater actually knew anything about? It amazes me how people can take strong political positions without knowing anything about the subject. I get this over and over on nuclear energy especially. I think I err on the other side too much, only weighing in on a topic after I've researched it extensively. Well, at least feeling embarrassed in retrospect when I do otherwise.
Posted by Bill McGonigle
Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:09:00 GMT
I’ve frequently heard about how great the trains are on the other side of the pond, so when I had lunch with a fellow from outside Manchester, UK recently, I asked him how many people take the train to London as a commute.
“Oh, plenty, but not me,” was his answer. Probing further, I found the reason was he couldn’t afford it.
The trains are apparently so popular and the roads so congested, that simple supply and demand have driven the fares sky-high. He told me that commuting to London, a bit less than a 2 hour trip, would run about a thousand dollars a week. Some big firms cover these costs for their day-trippers.
Half-disbelieving, I figured I’d run the numbers myself. I searched for that trip, on a weekday, commuting hours, and asked for the cheapest fare, steerage class. Turns out the cheapest round-trip fare is £230. Google says that’s about $455.
While granting that there is probably a frequent-traveler discount, I can take a 2-hour commuter bus round-trip from here to Boston for $40 as the posted rate. $32 is the ‘monthly’ rate.
So, I’ll assume my lunch partner’s numbers were a bit old, or at least his exchange rate. Taking the train in the UK like this is in all likelihood $1600 per week affair, or about 10 times the cost of commuting in the US.
Consider this the next time you hear we ought to have commuter trains like they do in Europe.
Posted by Bill McGonigle
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:29:00 GMT
Who owns your property (real estate)? You do, right? Or maybe your bank does if you have a mortgage.
Nope, the State does. It’s held in a feudal-style system where the State may tax your property or take it at will. You’ve paid for a title to it, that is an exclusive use of the land, but that title is granted by the State.
This is why the State may tax your land, and if it so pleases them, take it for other uses. We have a guarantee of restitution for such takings, by the Constitution, but not a guarantee against such takings.
So, be careful to say, “I hold title to this property”, not “I own this land”.
There is another option, that’s called Allodial title. Allodial is from “without a Lord”, a reference to the feudal system where the Lord owned all the land, and merely leased it out to those who would work it. With an Allodial title, you own the land. It’s yours. Nobody can take it away with force. Nobody can tax it, it’s yours. Certainly the State may attempt to ply the land from you with an offer of cash sufficient to convince you to leave, but they can’t serve you papers and cut a check of their choosing.
Many NH Citizens equate a property tax with increased freedom, but in this light, it’s really a drain on Liberty. Now converting all NH properties to allodial title overnight wouldn’t work at all, there’s still some area that’s undefined. It’s argued that an allodial title can’t be mortgaged and it can’t be subdivided, yet I’ve seen no justification for this (do try to explain it to me). There’s also the issue of replacing the property tax with a just, fair tax. So far the best option I’ve seen is a head-tax, where each citizen is assessed an equal fee to support the services of the government. Setting this use-fee at a rate that every citizen can afford (how’s $500/yr?) would ensure a government that is as lean as it can be, and largess by the Legislature would be felt directly in the next yearly bill, which ought to encourage proper behavior by a legislators who wish to retain their seats. The current system of ‘sticking it to the other guy’ that the politicians play is ultimately destructive, as some day you’re going to be the other guy (only they’ll only pander to other people about that one).
Posted by Bill McGonigle
Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:40:00 GMT
Emma and I went to see Indy 4 last night.
I got Phantom Menace‘d again. Drat. I’m not surprised anymore that Lucas would do this, but I am surprised Spielberg let him. It’s not just a Star Wars thing anymore then, Lucas is off my list.
There are some interesting scenes, and as a collection of vignettes the movie has some moments. But the plot is absurd on all kinds of levels. Now, this is Indiana Jones - of course it’s absurd, but the absurdity is in its internal inconsistency. You’re not asked to suspend your disbelief, you’re asked to stop thinking and ignore what just happened for the sake of… what? So they wouldn’t have to write a sensible plot? Twenty-ish years was too short a time to come up with clever plot elements?
The SciFi channel’s special on the crystal skulls was frankly more interesting, and that was as good as you’d expect it to be.
Thankfully this was a double-feature at the Fairlee Drive-In, and Iron Man was up next. Emma and I first saw it on opening night on a huge digital screen in CT with our friends Andy and Robin and two things can be said about seeing it a second time: 1) It stands up well to repeated viewings, improves even and 2) Big digital theatres are really the way to see this kind of movie. Oh, and 3) this time I stayed for the Nick Fury scene. The corn dogs were great, but visuals like Iron Man’s are more enthralling when they’re bright, crisp, and big. And loud (our window speaker was the last on the cable run and rather low).
If I were going to buy a BluRay player for a movie it would be Iron Man. That’ll have to wait for the projector.
Also of note is the cost of gas as a factor in going to the Drive-In. It takes about four gallons round-trip. Last night’s bill: $8 for admission, $12 for two corn dogs, fries, and drinks. $16 for gas. $36 for Indy 4 just isn’t a good deal, I could have bought the DVD for half of that. $36 for an evening out with Emma is of course well worth it.
