King of ALL Media?

King of ALL Media?

I really don’t know why I am writing so much lately about Howard Stern, I really do like him. I have been listening since 1992. I have driven to work for the past 18 years and every job I have had usually requires a 30 to 40 minute drive to and fro. Howard provides me the ability to ‘turn off’ my brain and unwind, laugh and not take myself too seriously. He also boils things down to its simplest form and applies common sense which is very refreshing. Now, I don’t always like his antics or topics but for the most part I enjoy him.

Lately, however, I have been thinking about him and his iconic stature as he is probably getting ready to be off the air in the next two years. Recently I was thinking about his ‘title’ as “King of ALL Media”. See, I am in the technology business and today’s new media is the social networking medium. I bring it up because Howard brought up the fact that he tried to get on Facebook and he found it too complex and tiresome to manage while Benjy Bronk, a member of his staff is all over Facebook and Howard was giving him a hard time. On top of that Howard does not have a blog and recently stated ‘what the hell is a blog’? If you look at the Alexa ratings for his website www.howardstern.com and compare them to WSJ.com you can see even his website, which is a form of the new media, isn’t rated number one. Also, a number of people do buy into his TV show but it isn’t rated higher than American Idol, a show he is enamored with, for example.

When I speak with new media experts they talk about the half life of news papers being 50 years and now the half life of blogs being 10 years and the new technology, twitter and the half life is about 5 years what is next? Where will Howard be with the new social media?

Perhaps we should call Howard ‘King of OLD Media’ or ‘King of; Radio, Book, Movie’ media - I don't know but he definately has some work to do to really be the 'King of ALL Media'.

Sirius XM

Sirius XM

So, I have been thinking about this whole Sirius XM bankruptcy thing and had a really cool idea. What if Sirius were to offer to "users" a platform to provide radio content. For example, Blogger provides a platform for people to blog, why doesn't Sirius provide a platform who have radio or recorded content to 'broadcast' from their satellites. They could sell advertising and split these revenues, because that is what they are good at, and these new channels could could add value to Sirius and its customers and help drive more revenue. There you go Sirius, your back in business.

H.R.1, The Bailout, Sirius XM and Howard Stern

H.R. 1, The Bailout, Sirius XM and Howard Stern

So, I have been thinking about this. Sirius XM files for bankruptcy, or as Howard would put it "...is doing a restructuring." Now, I get it. I have been in the business world for a long time and I know there are a number of reasons and outcomes that can happen from a bankruptcy. What I am entertained by is the 'spin' that is put on this by Howard Stern. First, I am a HUGE fan, I have probably called into the show 20 times and never made it on. Some may say that it would be the icing on the cake of life to be heard on his show, but I don't get to excited about it. I admire Howard for his honesty and his 'stand up for what is right' attitude but in this case I have to say he is putting a bit too much spin on this story. I should back up. I have heard on many a Stern show, Howard beating up on all those banking executives that took huge payouts for "driving the company into ground". Now Silicon Alley Insider reports that this bankruptcy or "restructuring" gives Sirius an opportunity to renegotiate their expensive contracts. The funny thing is, Howard got on the air yesterday saying that Mel Karmazin told him "...that he would honor his agreement with Howard." I find it odd that Howard, if he is a 'stand up for the little guy' kind of person wouldn't take one for the team and help out the company and renegotiate his contract as well to help the overall company be successful. It was origionally posted that Howard would get $500M for going to Sirius. I am not so sure that that wasn't a combo salary, bonus and stock deal and I am sure he probably wont get all of that as he claims on the radio but its still going to be multi-millions. How much does he need. If what he says is true, he can take pleanty of money to live on, get a stock deal that can pay him as he retires, still make the huge ego claim as King of all Media (which I happen to agree with - well except for this social networking thing which is the new media) and have a fantastic life.

See the banking CEO's that drove the companies into the ground are only partially to blame. The rules at which they operated at, led by the federal govenrment allowed them to do so. If one guy stood up to say he/she was going to be more ethical than the next, then they could have faced going out of business in the very competitive banking world and then have hurt their stock holders earlier rather than later so it is a toss up at the blame. But here it is clear. It cost millions to put satelites in space and it costs millions to have Howard on the radio - Sirius can't be as successful with one and not the other so both contracts should be reconsidered. Thoughts?

Windows Internet Explorer 8.0 Beta

Windows Internet Explorer 8.0 Beta

Two and a half hours of my life I will NEVER get back!

Computers are supposed to make us more productive right? Wrong! When IE 7.0beta came out, I tried it. It had some issues but the tabbed browsing was a great idea and I liked it. So, when I started my computer today and opened up IE, it went right to the Micorsoft page (I have no idea how or why it does that) and asked me if I wanted to try IE 8.0beta. I figured, sure, why not. That was the beginning of my 2 hours of hell! I should have figured that software quality coming from MS is getting WAY WORSE than better - just look at Vista! Yeah its fancy, but it is slow, takes up more memory, more disk space and really adds no value. I figured, how tough could it be to upgrade a silly browser.

First it told me for my version of XP I needed to update my SP2 with some other files. Okay, there is the first re-boot. Next I updated IE. It seemed to go okay until EVERY TIME I opened a window the information bar come on saying I was running with Add-ons 'disabled'. But when I went to the menue to figure out how to enable them, there was no specific button to do this. Then when I looked at all of the "ad-ons" they were all enabled. I looked from every angle for a way to turn it on and even used help - there was no way to do this. So, I figured I would live with it. Then every time I opened an IE window, or refreshed, I would get the sound and the "warning bar". It was unbelievably aggravating. The kicker was, I really wanted to watch the innaugration so I said I'll just live with it for now and get on cnn.com. I did this and the browser told me that I had to download Adobe Flash - which that add-on screen said I had and that it was enabled. When I got to the download screen it wouldn't let me download it and there was no error except for the "add-on" being disabled informaton bar, when it clearly wasn't dis-abled. So now, in order to watch cnn.com, I needed to go back to IE 7.0. This was another hour. I couldn't just overwirte 8.0 with 7.0 - Why MS wont let you do this is beyond me so I had to install Firefox (which I will be using from now on). Next, uninstall IE 8, then download IE 7.0 and then install. By the time the process was complete, I was so late getting on to CNN.com and there were so many others logged in, I didn't get a chance to experience that moment in history. So much for computers making our lives easire and better.

Bottom Line: DONT UPGRADE UNTIL WINDOWS 7.0 IS OUT - YOUR PAST VISTA AND YOU JUST HAVE TO GET IE 8.0 BECAUSE IT IS A PART OF SOME OS. Thanks for nothing, again, MS.

Bank of America - Private Banking

Private Banking - Obviouly NOT What it Used to Be

You really need to follow the link for the image to the left and see where Bank of America talks about it's commitment to service.

In a day and age when service is king! these guys really let me down. Okay, so I am a bit anal but all I really wanted to do was consolidate all of my banking for 2009. I have a bank that does my mortgage and my HELOC, I have a bank that I deal with to pay bills (who I like) and I have a bank I use as a private bank (which I love but they are out of state). I wanted to get my home loan, HELOC, boat loan and all my bill pay stuff under one roof and get some really good service such that then next time I go to buy anything where I need a loan, I'll get great service and good great rates. So, I started shopping around - I went to Boston Private Bank - these guys were GREAT but couldn't do my boat loan - which has been the issue with most all banks. If I couldn't consolidate then I wasn't going to move all my dough around. I checked a couple of other places and again, since they couldn't do the boat loan, I bagged it. Then I talke to a nice guy, (quite salesy though) named Brendan at Bank of America in Newton Center (I tell you this because if you go there, well, buyer be aware) - He told me that "without a doubt" they could help me and give me all the services I was looking for. He told me I would be a part of their "Private Banking" system which offers great personal service. I spent 30 min there giving him all of my information about my existing mortgage, my HELOC, the boat info and I told him that when I get a call back, please have the whole package ready. (I was trying to avoid him calling me and push a mortgage on me, that wasn't what I was looking for.) He promised me he would not do that and he told me he use to work on the Private Banking side of the house and he could "hand pick" anyone to help me and he was going to select the best of the best - a guy named - get this Adam West (for you Batman fans out there - how cool is that). Adam, whos card I am looking at now is aVP of Premier Client Management - Premier Banking and Investment. Brenden promised me he would at least call me by the end of the day. Well the end of the day came and no call. I figured, that is okay because I knew securing the boat was going to be the issue, so I was patient. Next day, no call. Third day, I call him, because I have Adam's card. He says "Oh, I was just getting ready to call you, now can you 're-tell' me what you told Brendan so I can get all of your information?" So I am a bit aggravated, but I say okay and spend another 30 min on the phone providing him my information. Then he tells me "I promise I will give you a call by the end of the day". Guess what, yup, no call. No call the next day or the next. I figure, they just don't care. 9 days later I get a call. Saying that he was sorry, it took a while to find out about the boat loan, which they can't do, but he wanted my business anyway.

Now I ask you - would you want to work with a private banker like that????

I use UBOC in CA - they pick up the phone every time I call and help me instantly. (I couldn't consolidat there as they can't to mortgages for homes out side of CA). My wife uses Boston Private for her business, they too are awesome, they go out of their way to help, pick up the phone on every call, even meet her at her office if she needs. That is private banking.

Bank of America may be big, but they sure don't care about the little guy.

HGTV - My First Place / Property Virgins

HGTV

My First Place

Property Virgins

Have we not learned ANYTHING with the fall of the economy here in 2008? Did the housing crisis not teach us anything? I mean come on! I can't tell you how many times I watched on the news as somone, who couldn't afford the house they were somehow allowed to buy 2 and 3 years ago, is not crying, upset that they are going to be kicked out of thier home, and begging for John Q. Taxpayer (and the US Government) to bail them out.

What happened to the days, like my daddy taught me, when you put 20% of your own money down on a home and only after that did you calculte the mortgage and see if it was something you could afford. And by afford, your payment should be about 20% of your monltly pay, this way you can still pay your taxes, have a car to get to and from your job and put food on the table for the family.

I am really really upset at HGTV promotes the fact that these mortgage companies STILL have these "products" that enable people to put next to nothing down and have large loan payments. What do they think this will accomplish? Another housing bust??? It is very unfortunate, that at a time when the only thing most people can afford to do is watch TV that they would continue to promote poor behavior. I mean, it's good for HGTV, they can sell you a crapy house, when you then have to have fixed up and spend more money at Home Depot; money you don't have so you put your purcase on a credit card, that you can only afford to pay the minimum payment (interest) because your mortage is too big. When does it end!

Buyer Beware - ESPECIALLY at Filene's Basement!

Buyer Beware!

In 1997 my wife left the first major company she had worked (very hard) for and decided that she would buy herself a gift for her years of service. She had wondered into Filene's Basement in Washington Square (a place she loves to frequent). At this location their is a jewelery section and she happed to find a beautiful Tag Heuer ladies watch. It was priced at $1000. Figuring she was getting a "good deal" and not getting ripped off, she bought the watch.

Life was grand and she wore the watch with pride. Time moves forward and she had stopped wearing the watch (it also helped I got her a new watch for Christmas last year). This year we had decided to give the Tag to my sister as a gift. She got a new battery put in the watch and had it polished. It looked like new again. She wrapped it and got a beautiful card and wrote some very nice words to my sister and gave it to her for Christmas.

The watch was a bit small and my sister needed to add some links to it so it would fit properly. I have a great jeweler I often go to in Milford, MA (which happens to be near my sister) called Marshal's Jewelers. I told my sister to go there and she would be taken care of. Richard, who runs Marshall's, got the watch and informed my sister he had to send the watch to Tag as they don't provide links, you have to send them the whole watch and they would add them.

Richard called my sister to say that Tag had sent the watch back stating that it was a FAKE!

WOW - can you believe that? It really upset my wife. First she was upset and a bit embarrassed to have given my sister a fake watch, she was also upset because the watch she had so proudly spent a great deal of money on wasn't real. Not only that what can you do? I mean, I can write a blog about it and warn people you probably shouldn't buy a watch at Filene's Basement, but its not like you can go back there and ask for your money back can you? Perhaps we should call the news and have it show up on nightly TV.

Anyway, buyer beware - and always remember that invaluable lesson my grandfather taught me at an early age. He said, "If it seems to good to be true, it probably is." He also said, "You get what you pay for in life." He said a lot of other stuff too, but I'll just end it here!

The First Video Blogger

That is Right - Andy Rooney!

This year I have made more of a commitment to me. I am working out, dieting, focusing more on work and my interests and blogging. I also want to get into video blogging. This morning I was on the elliptical machine in the gym listening to my iPod. As you may know, I much prefer the spoken word over music so I have a lot of podcasts on my iPod. A few weeks ago I loaded up the free 60 minutes podcast. As I was nearing the end of my 45 minute workout, my 60 Minutes too was ending (aren't having no commercials GREAT!). And as with every 60 Minutes episode, it was time for Andy Rooney. Now, I have been listening to Andy Rooney since I was 10. Today however I looked at Andy in a new way. A trail blazer. I realized today that Andy was the first video blogger. I mean, by definition, giving some witty or pithy testimony about a topic to make you think is pretty close to the "definition" of blogging. (I know it can be much more, but hell, that is how I use the blogging platform.) That said, add video and you have video blogging. Think about what Andy does and "boom", there you have it, video blogging.

Way to go Andy! You are ahead of your time!

The Speed of Innovation - How Fast is Too Fast?

To Blog, Podcast or Vblog - That is the question...

Last night I went to bed thinking about a question I saw in Linked In the other day. "What do you feel about video resumes?" I started to think what my video resume would look like. I also thought about the video resume Reece Witherspoon sent in for her Harvard Law application.

I started to think about actually scripting my "video resume". Where I would shoot the scenes, what I would say, how long it should be, what things would the employer be looking for, creativity, directness, multiple talents, who knows really.

I keep hearing about all of this Web 2.0 mumbo jumbo too. Sites like, Facebook, Galery, Flicker, Blogger, YouTupe, Linked In, MySpace, Mynt, the list goes on. How much time do I really have to devote to these sites and investigate which one is better. How many of you get the latest Wired magazine and start bookmarking pages that reference web sites we can't live without? I know I do. At then when I finally have time to look at them, I have forgotten why I couldn't live without them.

Its funny, in the mid 90's people said that the internet would build social barriers for people where we would never meet, just talk to each other behind a computer screen. Then I see Bill Gates in an interview saying how the web has opened up our world of friends and who we can stay in touch with. I know my facebook page has 55 friends and Linked In I have over 500 connections, but what does it all mean?

At some point I think we all need to focus on "the person" and ask ourselves what do we really want / need? What do you want out of life. I ask myself this question. I now only stick with one "on line community", I use Linked In for work related activity, I love my iPod so I down load a lot of pod casts from Slash dot and the Discovery channel and that is about it. The rest of the time I think I need to work on being good at my job and time for my well being, like talking with people, getting some exercise and reading something other than this flat glowing screen.

Anyway, that is just my opinion. I don't see innovation slowing it's pace and at some point I am going have to be up on "all this new technology" because I am sure my kids will be and I don't want to have the FBI at my door telling me my kid just re-routed the space shuttle from his home computer (Dennis Miller reference). So, I will continue to read Wired to see where I may need to be looking next.

Please feel free to comment.

The Longest Sunday - New Years Day

The Longest Sunday - New Years Day

My wife and I were sitting on the couch yesterday, recovering and watching movies. I love to spend a day on the couch every once and a while. As the day drew closer to a close I started thinking about the fact that it was a New Year - 2008 and what was I going to do different. In a matter of about 13 seconds I figured I would probably end up doing nothing different and that seems like kind of a bummer.

I looked over at my wife and said, you know, New Years Day is like a Long Sunday. She said "What do you mean?" I proceeded to tell her, "you know, when your sitting at home after a nice weekend and you realize that it is time to go back to work tomorrow and it's Monday. Well, New Years Day is the "Sunday" before the Monday (workday) when you go to work and realize that you start all over again. New quotas, new goals etc...

As I sat down to write this, I started to think that it is too bad that I think this way. It should be more exciting. Clean slate, loose the weight, be healthy, attack work, be a better person all of these things. I turn 40 this year, I have everything else in my life in order to go ahead and make these things happen.

Sometimes I think its too bad I approach life like this. You know, Sunday being the day that is before you have to go back to work. I mean, Sunday is still a day off right? Take advantage of it. Maybe this year I will.

Las Vegas - Disney World for Adults

City of Sin?

I have to say, when I was a kid I went to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I remember 3 things; it was my first trip out of state on a vacation, EPCOT (which was fantastic), and the fact that the customer service there was beyond impeccable. They went out of their way to ensure that every man, woman and child there had a fantastic time.

It looks like Vegas has stolen a play out of Disney's play book. And I don't mean you get what you pay for here. The hostess were super nice and very attentive and appreciative of tips, we saw a show and our tickets were upgraded as we walked through the door (granted the show was not sold out, but they didn't have to do that), we had the absolute best service from a dude named Joe at the Brazilian restaurant and it was apparent that all of the talent performing, cared about their service to the customer and was into their show. I have to say, I haven't been this impressed about customer service since Disney World.

And as for the City of Sin - you really need to look for the Sin. You and a your family can have a fantastic time in Vegas without having to worry about the "Sin" factor.

I would highly recommend a get away to Vegas.

Which Nobel Prize is the Best?

The Nobel Prize Goes To...

Here is one for you... My wife and I are in the car the other day and I hear on the radio that the Nobel Prize for Literature for 2007 went to Doris Lessing. It started me thinking... Why do they give a Nobel prize for literature? Also, I was curious what they give the Nobel Prize for, I mean what are the categories. So I looked them up on www.nobelpize.org. They give out prizes for:

• Medicine
• Chemistry
  
• Physics
• Economics
• Peace
• Literature

I started thinking, well, why would there be so many and why only in certain categories and is one more important than the other? I mean how do you compare the Nobel prize for Literature to the Nobel prize for Medicine? One is trying to save lives and one is... Well that is what made me start to think. Literature enriches peoples lives right? And literature is for all the world to see and share right? And while the value of literature may be small to some while the value of medicine may be greater to more, literature is no less important.

I have to say it was an interesting conversation, in my head, and it opened me up to researching the Nobel Prize and will make me more aware. I will also do some more research on the Nobel prize and stay up on how I may even be able to participate and most of all, I will stop my judging of things based on what is important to me and realize the greater value.