Line Your Walls with Books for a Better World

I think books are pretty.  Well, many books are pretty, and many are ugly.  What I’m saying is that of all the millions of books ever published, it’s pretty easy to find some pretty ones.
Plus, from what I can tell, you can actually learn a lot from books.  No, seriously!
But, it turns out walls of [...]

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My Green Mobile Phone

I’m pretty thrilled with my switch from Sprint to T-Mobile, for many reasons so far.  I’m paying less money, I understand my monthly bill, and the people in the stores and the CSRs on the phone are super nice.
And finally, because they will be planting a tree for me.  And yes, I might hug it.

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Support Record Store Day!

Tomorrow, Saturday the 19th of April, is Record Store Day.  Get off your butt, log off of iTunes, get out of the house, and go buy a record!  (Album, CD, whatever floats your boat.)  I hope the link is working by the time you click on it.  At the time I posted it wasn’t working worth a darn.
Here [...]

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When Competition = Opportunity

I recently posted about Amazon’s 10-K listing publishers (and just about everyone else) as potential competitors.  A colleague whose opinion I admire greatly commented on that post elsewhere, and those comments gave me a second wind of thought.
See, Amazon is right on in looking at even their own vendors and partners as competitors.  (I just [...]

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Let’s Be Honest

“Some of the things they’ll be in favor of, I’ll agree with.  Some of the things they’ll be in favor of, I won’t.  But at least we’ll have an adult in office who can lead and accomplish something.”
-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, talking about the next U.S. President.

Mr. Bloomberg, I’m buying what you’re selling.

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Book Publishers are Competitors to Amazon?

Barely a footnote at the end of a Publishers Weekly column about market share for online retailers versus bricks-and-mortar booksellers was this:
“With Amazon’s growing power in book sales, it’s understandable that publishers may be a bit anxious on learning that in Amazon’s 10-k filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company lists among its [...]

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What Next for Circuit City, Blockbuster, Linens -N- Things?

You’re not buying enough bedding, kitchen utensils, or other household knickknacks, apparently, because Linens -N- Things is about to declare bankruptcy.  A restructuring firm has been hired already.  Go here to if you want to read a dull article full of lots of numbers and not enough straightforward talk about why this might be happening.
And Blockbuster [...]

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Cool/NotCool: Chapter One

(As decided my me, quickly and perhaps irrationally, without a second guess.)
COOL: Someecards.com.  Way too hilarious to be my/your own little secret anymore. Best ecard site of all time.  No surprise that it was founded by a former Onion writer.  They’ve been around about a year and are about to cash in on outside funding.

NotCool: [...]

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Wal-Mart’s Linux Test Explained

There was much tech media hullabaloo when Wal-Mart decided to discontinue its test of the Everex Linux-based PC.  And every report I read was wrong. 
Again I’d like to commend the buyers at Wal-Mart for Check Out Blog.  How many other retailers are trying to be transparent?  In this case, Computer Buyer Ryan Halford posted straight [...]

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That Didn’t Take Long: iTunes Now #1

On February 26th iTunes moved into 2nd amongst music retailers.  And I said this:
“(Behind Wal-Mart.  Which sucks, because I’m ready for iTunes to be #1.  Wal-Mart carries a crappy, streamlined, force-fed selection of music appropriate only for fans of top 40, pop, and country-western music. No, no, and no.)  iTunes will pass Wal-Mart eventually.”
Welp, now [...]

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