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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Radio Radio

Learn how to put a song on itunes at ReverbNation.com

Kyle York: This Wheel No Longer Squeaks

His story never seemed to jive; in my mind, at lease. He was supposedly a veteran of the NYC ad agency game, but he really didn't act like a creative type. So maybe he had a job in that industry where he needn't be. Then there he was living in one of those super-expensive condos downtown, yet his local employment in Saratoga included stints as a DPW laborer and a cab driver.  A man of mystery, for sure.

But gee whiz: this guy sure was an opinionated son of a gun, wasn't he? He wasn't really interested in your (or my) take on the local hot button issue of the week, but he'd gladly go on (and on and on) about his. You'd walk away from him and he'd still be talking.  For me, it would often turn into a situation where the two of us would start out on the same page (I'd think), but his need to pontificate and ramble would have me end up disagreeing with him just for the sake of disagreeing with him. Maybe it's because we were really both cut from the same cloth.

He seemed obsessive on the single matter of that dilapidated old home on Franklin Square -- a firetrap in his back yard that he felt needed to be razed, and done so today. On other topics he would veer all over the map but he was correct on some of the important ones like NXIVM, the long-running rift of the city Democratic party, media matters and the downtown last-call hours. But man oh man, was it ever so hard to indulge him when he got rolling on those (or any) subjects.

Then, yesterday we heard the news that Mr Kyle York of Saratoga Springs fell to his death from his pricey condo on Railroad Place.  The police report states that he was attending to a window when he apparently slipped and plunged four floors down, the hard way.  Maybe he was applying some Windex for a better view of that crumbling shack mentioned above? We'll never know.

But we do know that all of a sudden this city feels a little less special today, knowing that its public (and private) discourse on civic matters has just lost one of its lightning rods. This was a guy not willing to accept the Happy Face whitewash of the Spa City Cheerleading Squads in their positions of power and influence.  A squeaky wheel is gone-- and we really can't afford that kind of thing 'round here. N'uh-uh.

We're sure as hell going to miss this buffalo. Who'd a thunk?


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How can you host a free poker tournament but have real prize money?

 

It's magic, that's how!

What the heck; we might as well go play here to practice for when the town turns into Turning Stone in a few months. If ya can't beat 'em, you join 'em?  

Besides; what else you gonna do on a Sunday: sit in Sports Bar Hell with your Giants jersey on and scream at a TV while burping up cheap chicken wings? Come on, now.

At least this one supports a local business downtown.

Info and Registration HERE

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Meet a Real Life Farmer!

... and catch a movie, too!

Info and tickets here

It's Riggiween!

Holy Mother of Bejeezus!

She's Back. Michelle Riggi

It's Back: Her annual Fellini-esque "Cinderella Hosts Halloween and Tosses $100 Bills to the Local Peasants" happening at her North Broadway Jersey style banquet house

They Comply: As predicted in our last post, the Saratogian bites; hook, line and sinker.

Prediction: The other local outlets will no doubt be "live and on-scene" as well.

Suggestion: Nanoburgh suggests showing up and asking: "I was told there'd be brewskis and hired women at this shindig! Now what's with the crazy lady and the 50 dogs?"