Work in Progress

Apple lovers: Today is the DAY!!!

Excitement has building around the world about the announcement from Steve Jobs today on the newest device to come from the folks who have given us the iPod, the Mac & the iPhone. Speculation about what wondrous features this new tablet gadget will offer has been off the hook, as the kids say. There are rumours about e-book reader capability, touch computing, Wii-like game apps, even television remote control features. Only time will tell.

Speaking of time, Canadians are not left behind today: While we will not have direct access to the new Apple tablet right off the bat (expected release date here is sometime in the 2020s, once CSA determines it is safe for use without a hockey helmet) we will get a wondrous new innovation: applesauce!

Yes! Made from apples but it's sauce! Delicious & nutritious! What will they think of next!

Best of all, it will be something we can still eat by the time we get the iTablet here, in the land that time forgot.

Are people basically good?

Stephen Dubner, writing on the Freakonomics blog for the NY Times, posts a letter he receives from a Dallas-area traffic cop who postulates that in his experience, people are generally bad.

How is a car like the Internet?

A reader named William Mack writes in with an interesting observation and question. It echoes a conversation I recently had with a friend who had been on the receiving end of some road rage — in a New York City parking garage, of all places. The driver behind her simply couldn’t wait for her to pull in, so he rammed her.

William’s note also brought to mind an observation that Levitt has made in the past: the same person who might flip you off while ensconced in his or her car would almost certainly never do the same while passing you on a sidewalk. A parallel observation: I’ve often found that people who can be exceedingly nasty via e-mail or blog are often fairly civil once you get together face-to-face.

Anyway, here’s what William has to say. I’m sure he’d love to know your thoughts.

I am a police officer in a relatively small city in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. I have been a cop for almost 12 years and spent 4 of them in the Traffic Division. Due to the weather, our Traffic Division officers ride motorcycles on a year-round basis. My job as a traffic officer was, obviously, enforcement of traffic law and “working” traffic accidents. The geographical location of my city, nestled right between Dallas and Fort Worth, right above Arlington, provides for tremendous traffic flow. The main highway, State Highway 183, connects the two major cities and, in my city, sees approximately 1 million cars a day. As you can imagine, there is no shortage of traffic violators and traffic collisions.

Over the years as a traffic officer and police officer, I have developed several theories on humanity. I have no statistical data to base this on, for this is just one man’s opinion. People, in general, are selfish. I think that, more often than not, people act based on how they are affected. I know that is very generalized and probably a little mean, but I think that people act based upon how they are directly affected. If they are, they care, sometimes too much. If not, they don’t [care], sometimes not at all. For example, during one particularly hot day in July in the early morning hours, an elderly female wandered onto the freeway and was struck by a vehicle traveling over 60 miles per hour.

As you can imagine, she was killed instantly. The freeway was quickly shut down (at 6 a.m.) and the accident reconstruction began (which is procedural and not my nor my supervisor’s decision). This usually takes between two and four hours. You would not believe the number of people, who, because they were forced to exit the freeway after hours in gridlock, felt it prudent and necessary to yell obscenities at the lowly police officer. As if it was my fault. All this while he is standing next to a blood-soaked white sheet. Those particular individuals had absolutely no remorse for the person lying dead on the freeway, nor for any of the other people stuck in traffic, nor for the poor cops who were out there in 110-degree weather!

What the hell is that?! And that’s not saying anything about those jerks, you know those guys, the ones who ride the shoulder of the freeway past the lines of cars waiting just because they don’t want to [wait]. The aggressive drivers, the super-aggressive drivers, the tailgaters, the speed demons, the road-ragers. I guess the point is to give you some of my insight and to ask: what is it with people and driving that makes them show their true nature? Or is it a behavior relegated to their drive? Why is it that when people are late for work, they drive 100 miles-per-hour? Does this really get them there faster? (When taking into account that they still have to negotiate side streets with traffic signals and all that stuff.) Why is it that driving, especially to and from work, brings out the worst in people? Or is it a select few? Maybe I’ll never get the answers, but I figured I’d share.

While I understand how a traffic control police officer is accustomed to seeing people at far less than their best, I disagree with Officer Mack. I think people are generally good. Even in Texas. I am at a bit of a loss as to why drivers tend to act more aggressively than other segments of the population, or why electronic discourse tends be less civil than face to face but I refuse to believe that humans are fundamentally bad. Fundamentally flawed? Absolutely. But not evil. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.

Calling on Rogers: slay the dinosaur

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) - Blockbuster Inc. shares were battered Thursday evening after the DVD-rental chain turned in a quarterly adjusted loss that was wider than Wall Street's projection. Meanwhile, King Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares advanced after federal regulators approved the company's pain-relief treatment.

Blockbuster (BBI 0.72, -0.14, -16.28%) tumbled 20 cents, or 23%, to 66 cents. The company posted an adjusted loss of 19 cents a share for the second quarter, missing the loss estimate of 12 cents a share by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue fell to $1.02 billion from $1.3 billion last year. Analysts expected $1.11 billion in revenue. Blockbuster's net loss narrowed to $39.7 million, or 21 cents a share, from $44.7 million, or 23 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

You may be wondering why I chose to highlight this apparently innocuous (unless you're a shareholder) bit of news. After all, that a company missed its earnings target and saw its shares beaten down by investors is not particularly noteworthy. Well, here is the reason:

I hate Blockbuster.

Hate it. With a capital Haich, as they say in my hometown.

Blockbuster is an anachronism: a business born in the 1980s that should never have survived this long. There should not be Blockbuster stores to rent DVDs and Blu Ray discs anymore, we should be downloading these from our cable companies or whoever provides our TV services. Why are we driving to the store to pick up a movie when it could flow, with zero carbon footprint from Rogers to our house? And then a few days later, we have to go back, like dopes, and return the damn thing? Makes no sense. Might as well be renting video discs of the final episode of MASH while we're at it. 

By the way, why anyone would choose to invest in a company that hasn't offered a cutting edge service since Reagan was in office is beyond me. Hey Blockbuster investors, as long as you're lining up with 1980s kitsch, how about reviving Consumers Distributing while you're at it?

Rogers already offers movies on demand but the selection is pitiful. There shouldn't be 20 movies available, for goodness' sake, it's 2009! EVERY movie should be available by now. So come on Rogers, get on with it and put the dinosaur out of its misery!

Paging Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan was born 50 years too soon. Clay Shirky may be his heir. This is fascinating.

The 10 Commandments, if God had used a cell phone rather than stone tablets

1. no1 b4 me. srsly.

2. dnt wrshp pix/idols

3. no omg's

4. no wrk on w/end (sat 4 now; sun l8r)

5. pos ok - ur m&d r cool

6. dnt kill ppl

7. :-X only w/ m8

8. dnt steal

9. dnt lie re: bf

10. dnt ogle ur bf's m8. or ox. or dnkey. myob.

M, pls rite on tabs & giv 2 ppl.

ttyl, JHWH.

ps. wwjd?

This list appeared on McSweeney's site, got posted to the Fast Company blog and my friend Mike tweeted the link an hour ago from South Africa where he is attending a conference. I read it on my Blackberry while serving pizza at Emily's school. What a crazy time to be alive.

New from Sony!

The folks at The Onion nail it.

(Warning: the language on this gets pretty salty. As in, like me after the Habs lose four in a row salty. Consider yourselves forewarned.)

What's better than 411? Read on

I got an email from a buddy in Winnipeg the other day, tried it today and frankly, it may be the coolest thing I've ever seen. 

This comes from the good people at Google and if you follow the simple instructions below, you will save yourself 75 cents every time you need to dial 411 on your cell phone for the rest of your life.        

(800) GOOG-411 (or 800-466-4411)

An awesome free service from Google - great when you are on the road. Don't waste your money on information calls and don't waste your time manually dialing the number.

I am driving along in my car and I need to call the golf course but I don't know the number. (Read my example below and watch the short video before you try this.)
I hit the speed dial that I programmed on my cell phone (800-GOOG-411) for information.
The voice at the other end says: "City & State."
I say: " Calgary, Alberta"
He says: "Business, Name or Type of Service."
I say: "Firewheel Golf Course."
He says: "Connecting" and Firewheel answers the phone.

How great is that?  This service is nationwide international and Google provides the service absolutely free! No "Information" charge and no long distance charge.

Click on the link below and watch the short clip for a quick demonstration.

http://www.google.com/goog411/

Folks, this is crazy insane and when I tested it this afternoon, it worked two out of three times. I can't believe how quickly things can change. From my earliest childhood, I knew that dialing 411 was a way to get a number you needed (and a beating when the bill arrived). Suddenly, in a moment, Google transforms the experience from good (getting the number for a small price) to GREAT!!! (getting the number, additional information and connecting me to the number!)

The irony of this moment is that I am on page 130 of Purple Cow, Seth Godin's incredible book on creating businesses that stand out from the crowd. I'm literally minutes from finishing the thing when I get slapped in the face by a Google Game-Changer Purple Cow. 

Is this a life-altering achievement? Of course not.  Is it life-improving? Absolutely and, from now on, every cell phone in my house will have the G speed dial key set to Google. Test me if you dare.

Twitterer in Chief

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams discussed his company's popularity explosion over the past year.

BTW, if you're interested, you can follow me @ragouri.