May 2011
5 posts
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Someone Should kick Michael Arrington's Arrogant...
A month ago, April, 27, 2011, Michael Arrington posted “An Update To My Investment Policy”, which not surprisingly generated negative reaction from established journalists. I wanted to respond right away, but I’ve been too busy at Betanews, where new editorial responsibilities add to writing.
The issue is a long-standing one of debate regarding TechCrunch’s founder—that...
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“An investor putting $100,000 into both stocks 10 years ago would now have about...”
– Bill Rigby, Reuters story “IBM passes Microsoft’s market cap after 15 years”
I just didn’t know what to do with this great quote. I at first thought to write my own story at Betanews and credit Reuters. But Yahoo Finance actually shows Microsoft capitalization higher than...
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Is the Fujifilm FinePix X100 for you?
Few digital cameras have caused as much stir as the retro-styled compact now available in the United States on a limited basis. The Fujifilm FinePix X100 joins the Leica X1, Sigma DP1x and DP2x, Sony Alpha NEX-3 and NEX-5 and micro four-thirds cameras like the Olympus PEN E-PL2 and E-P2 or Panasonic DMC-GF2 in a newer class of mirrorless digicams. I have owned the DP1, DP2s, E-P1, E-P2, GF1 and...
April 2011
4 posts
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This is How Misreporting Happens
Have you ever played the game where someone whispers in the ear of another person and the information goes down a line of people? What often starts out from the source is different than what comes out at the end.
This little game is good example why bloggers and journalists should do original reporting/sourcing instead of relying on someone else. The problem isn’t just the veracity of the...
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I'm baaack!
In October 2010, I put Oddly Together on ice. I’m back blogging at Tumblr, and forwarding joewilcox.com to this site (or will be doing so in a few days). This week, posts from that site will show up in my Tumblr stream with the original post dates from “5 Minutes with Joe”.
Quickly stated reasons:
I miss the Tumblr community
I really only have time for shorter-form blogging
...
December 2010
1 post
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Freely Available doesn't mean Free
I’m used to my stuff being stolen, not that I like it—ideas, analyses, blog posts and news stories. Probably my Flickr photos frequently get lifted, too. I’m no great shakes photographer, so it pains but a little. The writing hurts more. But for good photographers like Thomas Hawk, Flickr theft is a bigger deal. Some people see Creative Commons, even All Rights Reserved, as license...
November 2010
6 posts
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What iTunes Really Means to The Beatles
This morning I tweeted: “I put Beatles albums in my daughter’s iTunes library years ago. Suddenly, now that Beatles are top iTunes downloads, she’s listening.” That succinctly explains what The Beatles get from the exclusive distribution deal with Apple. There are millions of Millennials who aren’t acquainted with Beatles music, and they might never be with their...
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You Can't Trust Most Polls or Surveys
Internet polls are fun but rubbish. Formal surveys conducted by so-called experts aren’t much better. If you disagree, consider this: A poll I conducted for Betanews asking “How would you identify yourself as a computer user?” puts more than 25 percent of respondents as Linux PC users and less than 61 percent as Windows PC users. Do you believe that? I don’t. But I do...
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Banks Play the Foreclosure Blame Game
Big business plays the kind of blame game that makes four year-olds crying “He made me do it!” seemingly mature. So, I’m not surprised that yesterday before the US Senate Committee on Banking, House & Urban Affairs, Bank of America’s Barbara Desoer blamed investors for the financial institution’s inability to modify more mortgages. It’s not her fault!—she...
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Toilet Training
If you’re one of those offensive people who talk on the cell phone in bathrooms—particularly public loos—your behavior stinks more than your poop. There may not be more appropriate place to assert that you’re on my shit list, bud. Bathroom phone calling is bad etiquette by just about any measure.
I cringe when walking by a public toilet stall and hearing someone talking into their...
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Was MSNBC right to Suspend Keith Olbermann?
On Nov. 5, 2010, Keith Olbermann essentially got the boot from MSNBC for making three undisclosed political contributions—or that’s how I interpret suspended without pay. The donations violated MSNBC policies designed to prevent any apparent (or even actual) conflict of interest. For someone who does cover politics (Hey, wasn’t that Keith headlining election-night coverage?),...
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MacBook Air is Netbook Enough for Me
Last week, at the suggestion of Betanews founder Nate Mook, I asked question: “Is MacBook Air a netbook killer?” I first posed it to Betanews readers who responded by email to an earlier post and then to some analysts. The majority of folks emphatically said, “No”. I was surprised because my answer would be something like: As a pair iPad and 11.6-inch MacBook Air are...
October 2010
4 posts
4 tags
Foreclosure Fallout will Last 9 Years
Wall Street Journal’s number of the week is startling. “107: How many months it would take to sell banks’ current and shadow inventory of foreclosed homes.” If Journal reporter Mark Whitehouse is right, banks will need 9 years to clear their foreclosure inventory. But I wonder. Could it be longer?
The problem is this: Foreclosed homes typically sell for much less than their...
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Should Barack Obama Bail Out Americans?
My answer is yes. Artificially created debt is cholesterol clogging the arteries of consumer spending. The economy that created the debt is gone. Only by surgically removing debt can Americans freely spend, thus pumping fresh blood to the heart of the U.S. economy. But, hey, I’m no economist, although in 2005 I rightly predicted the housing bubble’s collapse and much of the...
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Oddly Together is On Hiatus
This Tumblr blog is going on vacation while I launch “5 Minutes with Joe” and consider what’s next for Oddly Together. Most of the content from Oddly Together has moved to the new blog at joewilcox.com.
As explained in the introductory post to 5 Minutes with Joe, I will continue blogging about technology at Betanews, eventually return to storytelling at Oddly Together and focus...
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Non-Top-10 List for Journalists
I’ve come to loathe top-10 lists, and I have stopped writing them. They are a sucker’s play for pageviews, although I have always used top-10s mainly for their presentation value. Now that they’re everywhere and displacing original content, I’ve got something of a personal boycott going (hence, why there have been none from me recently at Betanews). It’s with that...
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'The Social Network' ignores the Network
On Friday, I wrote a review of “The Social Network”. Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig did one better for The New Republic: “Sorkin vs. Zuckerberg—‘The Social Network’ is wonderful entertainment, but its message is actually kind of evil”. Lawrence is insightful as always, although he expects too much of the film’s writer and director. Nevertheless, he makes...
September 2010
6 posts
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What the Hell is Sarah Lacy Thinking?
There’s a proposition on the California November ballot to legalize marijuana. Sarah Lacy must be smoking some already. Her TechCrunch post “Now that the Recession Officially Ended….Whatever Happened to that Other Shoe?” is so out of touch with reality—what else could it be? That:
Sarah is so much the rich bitch living inside the Silicon Valley bubble she is clueless about...
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“It was sickening enough when British oil giant BP set new standards for...”
– Matt Taibbi, “BP’s Shockwaves,” Rolling Stone issue 1114.
There’s nothing quite like a good story lead, and Matt Taibbi is a craftsman when it comes to wit, sarcasm and the catchy phrase. He works vulgar and sarcasm the way other artists shape clay.
Do you have news media...
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Oh My Goodness
Earlier today, Michael Gartenberg, my boss from when we both worked at JupiterResearch, retweeted Pete Bernard’s “development goodness,” which linked to Sam Jarawan post “Why I love Windows Phone 7 Development.” Somebody has got to save the world from all this goodness.
On Oct. 24, 2006, I posted to the defunct Microsoft Monitor blog (JupiterResearch is gone,...
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AP Should Not Credit Bloggers
I don’t share some bloggers’ enthusiasm for Associated Press’ new policy crediting them. On September 1st, the wire service issued advisory: “AP announces guidelines for credit and attribution,” which includes bloggers. AP shouldn’t credit bloggers because it opens way for lazy reporting and undermines the news organization’s reputation and credibility...
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Mama Knows Where to Get the Goods
What a simply smart idea—set up outside the grocery store and collect food donations for the needy. September 5, 2010, I spotted Mama’s Pantry in front of Ralph’s supermarket in San Diego, Calif.’s Hillcrest neighborhood. on. The concept of fundraising food shoppers is so mind-boggling sensible, it’s stunning more charities don’t go to the food source—the local...
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'Can Ping Be Saved?' is the Wrong Question
Apple’s social music discovery service isn’t even a week old and Fortune blogger Philip Elmer-DeWitt is asking: “Can Ping be saved?” Oh yeah? One million signups in 48 hours is such a failure. There are thousands of CEOs or product line managers who would say: “Gimme that problem. I’ll suffer through the failure of gaining 1 million customers in just two...
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Ping's Alternate Reality
Ping, Apple’s “social music discovery” service, has changed the selection of “Music I Like” to half Snow Patrol songs, one of which I’ve never played. LOL.
I’ve finally figured out what’s going on. Apple technology is so good, so innovative, so remarkable that Ping pulls music choices from an alternate universe. The music is what another Joe...
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August 2010
17 posts
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How Different Animals Spent Their Summers →
Increasingly, I prefer subscribing to blogs run by people rather than big-media or commercial operations. Some days the pay-off is a great laugh—like Jeff Wysaski’s post of charts showing how different animals spent their summers (click link in title to go there).
There are six more charts, and all will make you laugh, which is the purpose of Jeff’s Pleated Jeans.
Do you have a...
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The Imperfectly-Priced Perfect Butt Boyfriend...
Have you ever heard of a “test” store? I hadn’t until yesterday (Aug. 25, 2010). Abercrombie & Fitch supposedly has one in downtown San Diego. Shopping there meant spending 20 percent more on a pair of sweatpants for my daughter than at another store a few miles away.
The story starts mid afternoon, when Morripopp found the perfect sweats at Abercrombie & Fitch Fashion...
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The Case for Curating Comments
Five days ago, I quietly turned on commenting two months after turning it off. Comments are temporarily back at Oddly Together. Perhaps this second stage of experimentation will lead to my making comments a permanent fixture or instead giving John Gruber the apology I promised should the commenting feature be permanently removed. I’m still wondering if John’s approach might be right.
...
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Darwin Was Wrong
Somebody at the BBC sure knows how to write a story lead: “Charles Darwin may have been wrong when he argued that competition was the major driving force of evolution.” Say what? I always believed Darwin was wrong—not that I’ll here pitch for Creationism. Darwin being wrong doesn’t make his major opponents right.
I saw the Beeb’s story, “Space is the final...
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My Pitch for a Truly Gruesome Vampire Story
This week I got PR email about new “True Blood” comics, and I received Rolling Stone issue 1112 with cast members from the HBO series on the cover. Suddenly, an idea came to me for a different, modern vampire drama. Here is the plotline of the story I’d tell:
Stefan has a problem. After years of being undead, he is, ah, dying. The vampire has contracted a virulent form of HIV...
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“In an interview published today in the Wall Street Journal, Google CEO Eric...”
– Nicholas Carr, “Brave New Google” blog post.
Do you have a human-vs-the-machine story that you’d like told? Please email Joe Wilcox: oddlytogether at gmail dot com.
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'The China Question' Revisited
In March 2009, I asked “The China Question,” highlighting shocking parallels between the 1920s and `00s (the “Naughties”). Both decades similarly started off and ended, with boom and bust. Other parallels show how quickly an empire collapses—the Brits during early last century and quite possibly the yanks during this decade.
I resurface the post in context of incessant...
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Old Media Should Pay Up If It Wants to Tumblr
There goes the neighborhood. Big media is invading Tumblr.
For weeks I had been meaning to blog about how old media might ruin Tumblr. I shouldn’t have waited. Monday’s New York Times story “Media Companies Try Getting Social With Tumblr” raises the topic without rightly razing it. How could Jenna Wortham’s story have been any different, since The Times is among the...
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Things That Go Oddly Together #3: Books and Wall
Discarded Phone Books. Nearly a month has passed since the yearly phone book drop at my residence. Only two of the nine apartments claimed their Yellow Pages. It’s the sign of the times, eh? The Web offers faster and more relevant information. Phone books are relics, and printing them isn’t eco-friendly. These seven will be recycled later today.
Do you have story about waste that...
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July 2010
34 posts
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