On Apple and Beats

Steven Jobs always had the digital music "buy it" vs "stream it" debate/prediction wrong. Sure, in the short term it made him zillions, but the chess match  or longer play game is now showing that streaming is the ultimate champ.

Which is no doubt the reason that Apple is picking up Beats Electronics for a cool $3.2Billion. I mean, come on now: do you really think they are enamored with those shitty $350 headphones?  Which, by the way, are reported to cost just $17 wholesale when unloaded off a Chinese container ship in LA harbor.

Nope, this seems to be an example of a the late-to-the-party Apple playing catch up, with the Beats streaming service being the real target of this love letter.

But gee whiz: doesn't Apple have the brainpower to have built (quickly) their own streaming mousetrap and embedded it into their iTunes platform by now?

How Much Is It Worth? Well, That Depends

A Value Pricing exercise: A guy was in a panic, with a notebook that somehow lost its pointer on startup at the worst possible time. Help, he cried. To the rescue I ran. A simple Safe Boot followed by a System Restore had it solved in less than 10 minutes.

So how should I charge him? $50 based on my time? Or do we take into consideration the fact that it allowed him to make his self-described "biggest sales pitch of my life" on time? All of which has me thinking of that "pricing" grad course at Duke, way back when...

Manning vs Brady: Kinda Funny (kinda)

Net Neutrality: Explained

Q: How would you react if told that the delivery trucks of WalMart, Exxon, UPS, McDonalds and a few others would be allowed exclusive access to the speed lane on the NYS Thruway and an 85mph speed limit? All in return for their writing an annual check of $1m to the road's owner/operator (NYS).

Furthermore -- to make the logistics and safety stats all jive -- all others would be knocked down to 45mph.

A: Most likely=not too kindly. We like 'Highway Neutrality.' We should also like 'Net Neutrality'

(Just trying to help)





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