• Leave it to my father

    He says I’m a perfect square today. It took me a while, and I have the benefit of knowing what today is.

    I’m six squared today.
    (Dad’s an engineer, and we grew up with a lot of math in the house.)

    My dad is always good for a “huh?”

    … followed by a nice chuckle.

  • News Corp ready for ‘prickly’ chat with Apple – Macworld UK

    Like I need another reason not to like News Corp. Now the awful Aussie and his minions want to get nasty with my favorite computer maker. According to an article in Macworld, News Corp is counting on a rough re-negotiation with Apple over selling their TV shows on iTunes.

    Peter Chernin, President of News Corp, courtesy of Macworld UK:

    “But let me say this, we’re the ones who should determine what the fair price for our product is, not Apple.”

    No offense, but Apple does have a little experience determining what price people will pay for certain things. You might have heard a few of them… the iPod, the iPhone, the Mac. How much retail sales experience does News Corp have?

    Maybe I’m being too picky. They’re obviously good at what they do (no matter how despicable I find their news operations). But do those successes offer any lessons for selling content directly to consumers? They make movies… but don’t theaters have discretion to set prices for tickets? (Actually, I don’t really know the answer to that one. I just assumed they did, since they seem to be different in different places.) They sell newspapers, but aren’t they largely supported by advertising (rather than price per unit)? They have a news channel, but they give that baby away on basic cable (supported by fees from cable companies and ad revenue).

    Listen to me… the guy with no business experience whatsoever.

  • Overheard this evening, in a home near me

    “Come on Beth. This should be easy.”

    “Maybe for you it is. You graduated from college. This is homework at my grade level.”

    Sometimes kids can be infuriating and hilarious, all in the same sentence. You may find this exchange neither infuriating nor hilarious… in which case I can only trot out the “you had to be there” line.