June 18, 2004
Remembering Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan should be pictured on Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds,
in recognition of his contribution to the national debt.
April 03, 2004
price vs warranty
When buying online, consumers should check both the reseller's return policy and
the manufacturer's warranty. Refurbished products often have shorter warranties
than new products. HPshopping.com, for example, which sells both new and
refurbished Hewlett-Packard merchandise, provides a 90-day warranty on
refurbished desktop PC's, compared with one year for new products. KitchenAid
backs its refurbished small appliances for six months, versus a year for new
ones.
Shorter warranties help keep the price down.
"We believe that our typical refurbished customer is less sensitive to the length of
the warranty and more sensitive to price," offered Elaine Gasser, a marketing
manager at Hewlett-Packard.
Sheldo Fingerman, 56, a computer consultant from Aspen, Colo., says he can
accept a shorter warranty if the savings are substantial. The refurbished
Panasonic digital voice recorder he bought online two years ago is still going
strong, he said, despite the abuse it takes riding around in his pocket. The only
indication that it has been refurbished is a small "2" engraved on its case, he
added.
"I always weigh the warranty that they are giving for the refurbished unit against
the price," he said. "If I can buy something that retails for $100 for $50, and it
has a 90-day warranty instead of a one-year warranty, my feeling is that it's a
pretty good gamble."
A browse through secondary-market Web sites turns up two popular claims: that
refurbished products are often better than new ones because they undergo more
rigorous inspection and testing, and that the defect rate of refurbished products is
far lower than that of items sold as new. Several of the sites contacted could not
provide statistics to back up those claims.
But Mr. Gomer said that the lower rates made sense, "because they test
everything before it is sent out; defects are all weeded out on
manufacturer-refurbished products."
(NYT)
March 01, 2004
Commuter elasticty: London Congestion Charge
Price: up from 0 to £5.
Quantity consumed: down 30%
In most cases, the introduction of the daily £5 charge on cars
entering central London has been a great success. Traffic volume into
inner London has fallen by more than expected, and the use of public
transport has risen. There are few, if any, signs of the "rat runs"
at the edges of the zone promised by the more apocalyptic critics.
Even the perennially disgruntled London cab drivers seem to approve of
the 30% improvement in congestion since the £5 charge began.
The congestion charge's very success has seen it raise less money than
expected to fund public transport: £68m in the first year, compared
with Mr Livingstone's original projections of £140m -- although even a
£72m shortfall is relatively small beer in a total London transport
budget of £4bn. Businesses inside the zone continue to complain that
it has hurt their profits, although the evidence is mixed. And the
165,000 penalty notices sent to drivers each month for failing to pay
on time suggests administration needs to be improved.
[I'm not sure exactly what '30% improvement in congestion' means.
30 % fewer cars ? 30 % shorted delays ? 30 % shorter travel time ?
In any case, it must mean less traffic. ]
See previously: Commuter elasticity: Golden Gate Bridge Toll hikes raise revenue.
February 01, 2004
Selling drugs, psychopharma
For mental illnes, how to treat becomes a what to buy decision.
The industry drives education right now. Across the board,
there has been a shifting of education toward psychopharma.
Dr. Peter J. Weiden, professor of psychiatry at the State University of
New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, said in an interview last
month that he believes the new drugs have benefits over the older ones.
But he continues to worry, he said, that the industry controls too much
of what doctors learn in psychiatry. For example, Dr. Weiden said,
industry-sponsored educational events focus on medications, while
subjects like how to talk to patients to motivate them to get better
fall through the cracks.
January 16, 2004
NYC Co-op: qualifying a buyer
The NYT draws examples from various demographic strata, commonly
upmarket. The NYT wants its advertizers to believe such content is relevant
to its readers. Also, FSP is pleased to see MOTOKO RICH on firmer ground
after her ill-fated detour into cultural criticism.
Let's say there's some 38-year-old guy on Wall Street who makes $1.2 million a
year in salary, has three kids and wants to buy a $5 million condo," Ms. Brainerd
said. To qualify for a co-op, she said, the buyer would probably have to show that
he had $10 million to $15 million in liquid assets. "He hasn't had enough time to
sock away $10 million or $15 million in cash," she said. "But if you're buying a
condo, you just need enough money for a down payment and to be able to pay
your monthly mortgage. The higher the prices get, the higher the stakes are with
the co-op boards.
See also New York Wiki and NYT.
September 18, 2003
Adam Smith on transportation
The Adam Smith Institute on transportation issues [Linked]. Extensive coverage of
road pricing and rail road organization.
And a well presented blog covering many other issues too.
September 07, 2003
Harvard man Larry Summers
Over time, I came to see that mutual interest was often a more important
catalyst to agreement than compelling logic.
-- Larry Summers, President, Harvard University.
April 08, 2003
Why blog ?
Blogging provides a public post-it note about something. An observation,
a quotation, a picture, an idea.
Posting a link is a vote in support of the linked-to resource, whose rank
will be increased by google, blogdex, etc.
Many a blog entry serves also as a public vote to support a particular
noted improvement. For instance, if I write, Office atria should sport
three-way mirrors --watching them, watching you, watching them.,
random people googling for atria will encounter my idea.
Most of the posts here are on the topics of
- economics, especially pricing mechanisms;
- information architecture, user centereed design, and usability; or
- urbanity and transportation and physical architecture.
Q.Is it unusual to mix economics and urbanism ?
A.No, see for example Emanuel Tobier of the Wagner Graduate School of
Public Service of New York University or Jane Jacobs (neither of whom has
a blog (heh)).
Blogging furthers the revolution of do-it-yourself media criticism. Another
advantage to the Internet is that stories with a local bent in news magazines like
Newsweek and Time can be fact-checked against the version offered by
bloggers and by local newspapers, which are usually available online, and which
also usually have a more nuanced approach to the story.
And like Matt Welch said, the
was built on a foundation of exposing boring conventional newspapers
for sucking up to power, lulling readers to sleep, and missing the truth.
I am also testing the notion that I can write great works by writing only
fifteen minutes per day. I have a few ideas for books
on information architecture, urban design and transit,
and applied economics, and want to see if
* I have sufficient illustrated examples and anecdotes to
support such a longer work; and
* If my inclination to write will be improved and my direction
in writing will be better focussed by starting with a review
and reflecting on the accumulated base of blog entries.
April 06, 2003
Social capital
Dora Costa has some interesting work on social capital:
Understanding the Decline in Social Capital, 1952-1988 (with Matthew Kahn); and
Civic Engagement and Community Heterogeneity: An Economist's Perspective.[PDF]
March 22, 2003
Taxing clean cars
Trade in your SUV for a clean car ? Pay more tax in the USA.
Something for Clean Air For Life to think about. Why are there no tax
breaks for LEMs and ULEVs, even as the California Vehicle License
Fee (VLF) triples. ?
Background: LEV, ULEV, SULEM explained; Californian incentives.
The Mercedes-Benz E500 gets no tax break for meeting the ULEV (ultra low
emissions vehicle) standard. This roomy sedan cannot plead the light truck
exemption, so it pays a fuel economy surtax of $1,000. -- NYT.
If you like cars, the E-series is a great car.
If you like driving, the BMW 5er is still better.
Update: 2004 Jan 30
The Assembly on Thursday defeated a proposal that would have taken
away business tax breaks for big vehicles such as Hummers and some
sport-utility vehicles.
The measure would have given Californians tax incentives to buy
reduced-emission vehicles instead. [MotoristNews, BATN].
Update 2004 May 08:
Should CA to buy back polluting clunkers with gas tax funds ? yes, maybe.
February 18, 2003
FasTrak Bridge Tolls
Submitted to info@mtc.ca.gov
care of the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA).
It's rare that I agree with more than half of an MTC report, but the
Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) System Strategic Plan [.PDF]
is right on the money.
More lanes available and dedicated to FasTrak, and discounts to
promote FasTrak use are all good.
I'd like BATA to go further and adopt value pricing.
FasTrak should be used to advance the policy of value pricing for
bridges, with lower prices for non-peak times, and competitive prices
for peak travel hours.
I'd like to see car pools charged regular tolls and using the FasTrak
lanes as they do in NYC.
I'd like to see a focus groups and ongoing dialog with motorcyclists.
The challenge of stopping on an oily slick, removing gloves, and
getting out a wallet out of a zippered pocket to pay a cash toll is
a much greater nuissance for motorcyclists than for auto drivers.
Additionaly, motorcyclists also face unique security issues as they
park their bikes with prepaid FasTrak responders velcroed to their
bikes.
As tolls are adjusted to improve revenue, I'd like a better accounting
of how the revenue is used or held in trust to benefit bridge users.
For example, I'd like to see revenue from the San Mateo and Dumon
bridges used to bring early completion of the Dumon Rail project.
February 17, 2003
Caltrain Fares 2
Caltrain is considering a fare change, as just noted.
See also San Mateo Independent.
Caltrain has the pricing all wrong.
Fare should be something like
Fare = terminal_fee + A*sqrt (distance_travelled)
where the terminal_fee covers use of boarding station, transfer station,
and alighting station, dispatching, rail yards, ticket vending or other ticket service fees.
The terminal_fee could be approximately $2.00.
Distance factor A should be on the order of 0.3, so a
9 mile trip would cost $2.90 (= $2.00 + 0.3 * 3)
16 mile trip would cost $3.20 (= $2.00 + 0.3 * 4)
49 mile trip would cost $4.10 (= $2.00 + 0.3 * 7)
The cost to provide Caltrain service is not proportional to the distance
travelled. Costs to build and operate stations and handle tickets are
just as great for a three mile trip as for a fifty mile trip.
This $2.00 fixed fare is the same amount as is charged by a typical taxi service:
Short trips are well served by local buses. Caltrain is unique in that
it offers regional service through three counties. The fare system
should not penalize riders who use it as a regional system, and
already wait through many stops before getting to their destination.
Short distance riders have alternatives: county busses from VTA, SamTrans
and Muni, or local busses. What's more, if a commuter is dissatisfied with
their local bus service, they can appeal to their local agency for improvements.
If I want to go from central Sunnyvale to north Sunnyvale, I can choose
between Caltrain, VTA light rail, and local busses. Many local cities
fill in gaps in County bus systems with their own busses, such as
Santa Clara city's BEE bus.
But for a commuter going from Milbrae to Santa Clara, there is no choice
but Caltrain. Caltrain must not penalize or discourage this captive market.
The proposed zone consolidation pricing plan is wrong by penalizing
loyal long distance riders.
Moreover, the fares need to offer discounts for off peak time usage
and reverse commute usage. There should be discounts for using
less crowded trains. Caltrain's proposed fares fail on all accounts.
Other proposed ticket changes have some merit.
One-way tickets valid for three hours is fine, but the expiry clock should
start ticking when the tickets are validated, not when they're bought.
I'd love to be able to mail out Caltrain tickets with invitations
for next month's s, or carry a few spare tickets for when
I'm running late or the ticket queue is long. ACERail and
have managed successful advance ticket sales for years.
Also, parking coupons (tickets for valid use of parking, not citations
for wrong parking) should also be sold by Caltrain ticket machines.
Adding (and paying for) parking to my train ticket should be as easy
as adding fries to my hamburger.
Existing parking vending machines are a failure: they are hard to find,
don't make change, and don't accept credit cards. Take this opportunity
to remedy this situation.
Phasing out on-board ticket sales might work, but I'd like to see a
full year of successfully functioning ticket vending machines before
on-board ticket sales are abandoned. Perhaps raise the on-board
service charge to $5 from $3 and reconsider abandoning on-board
ticket sales in January 2005.
Replacing the round-trip ticket with a Day Pass is excellent.
Submitted to:
fares@caltrain.com
and by sending postal mail to
Caltrain Board Secretary,
1250 San Carlos Ave.,
San Carlos, CA, 94070
February 04, 2003
Taxing California
ABX1 4 is a four billion dollar tax increase per year,
which increases car registration/licence taxes by approx 200 %
e.g., from $400 per year to $1200 per year.
If the California state government really needs to increase
the car tax, it should make do with a $100 per car increase,
or add a 10 cents per pound levy.
[State Assemblyman Don] Perata and other Democrats said
they can approve the hike on a simple majority vote because they
would be clarifying current law. Tax-related bills normally need
two-thirds support in both houses, requiring that a handful of
Republicans join Democrats for them to pass.
[Oakland Tribune, 2003 Jan 28]
Legislators who voted for this bill may claim that
they did not vote for a tax increase, but merely voted for a
"clarification of existing law to allow your Director of the
Department of Finance to triple the car tax." Ordinary Californians
will not believe such nonsense. They will know that Legislators who
voted for this bill voted for a tax increase. Likewise, if you sign
this bill, we will know that you are equally culpable.
Thanks Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association for putting
up the good fight.
December 30, 2002
Pricing Beauty, Aesthetics
In Pricing Beauty: Reflections on Aesthetics and Value
An Interview with Virginia Postrel in GAIN 2.0
People in creative fields tend to talk about business as if it were one giant
monolith. They fail to distinguish the subtleties of the client's environment. This is
ironic because an appreciation of the environmental subtleties is, in many cases,
exactly what they are trying to get across. The details matter tremendously.
December 19, 2002
Commuting elasticity
The Golden Gate Bridge toll increased from three to five dollars on
2002 September 01 .
In the three ensuing months, 82,000 fewer cars have paid the toll,
but revenue shot up 45 percent, meaning the district collected seven-
million dollars more compared to the same three-month period in 2001.
--Bob Melrose, KCBS News.
Compare to:
The data on actual sales can be used to estimate how demand
responds to price changes. The authors find that a 1 percent price
increase at Amazon reduces sales there by about 0.5 percent, but
a 1 percent price increase at Barnes & Noble means a 4 percent
sales decline — eight times as large.
The difference in price responsiveness is striking. It appears
that Amazon's investment in building customer loyalty has paid off.
Of course, all that investment in customer loyalty is expensive,
and loyalty doesn't necessarily translate directly into profit.
-- Hal Varian, NYT
October 02, 2002
Laos trading web
One thing that the new solar-powered network will allow villagers
to do is decide whether it is worth going to market. Phon Hong,
the local market town, is 30km away, so it is worth knowing the
price of rice before you set off to sell some there. Links farther
afield may allow decisions about growing crops for foreign markets
to be taken more sensibly—and help with bargaining when these
are sold. And there is also the pleasure of using Internet telephony
to talk to relatives who have gone to the capital, Vientiane, or
even abroad. in The Economist.
September 15, 2002
Prices could vary with location
The Contra Contra Times reports that an emission trading program
that allows industries to earn credits for reducing emissions has increased
local pollution level in Contra Costa County.
If Contra Costa County is overly burdened, the trading program
could either:
1) cap the number of credits per year allowed to be be use in
Contra Costa Co.
2) decrease the relative value of permits in Contra Costa Co,
eg a permit that generally permits 1 tonne of emissions
would if used in Contra Costa Co. allow only 0.5 tonnes of
emissions.
At one time, the Bay Area air district adjusted how many
credits a company needed based on where the credits came
from. If a Contra Costa company wanted to expand its power
plant or refinery, it would need more credits if they came
from San Jose, and fewer credits if they came from a
neighboring industry.
Mike Taugher covers the environment and energy. Reach him at
925-943-8257 or mtaugher@cctimes.com
September 08, 2002
Walk now
Surface Transportation Policy Project danger index misrepresents actual danger.
The incident rate is defined as the number of injuries and deaths
among pedestrians divided by the area's population and multiplied by
100,000, giving a standard measure of risk.
Incidence rates that are "different for different ages, genders and
races, which is the case with pedestrian incidents, need to be
adjusted for these factors so that valid comparisons between
populations with different mixes of age, race and gender can be made,"
Kirby D. Cooper, a statistician at the Travis Air Force Base campus of
Chapman University, wrote in his rebuttal. "This was not done in the report, so the
basic measure of risk for pedestrian incidents is flawed."
July 07, 2002
Golden Gate
The original increase from $2 to $3 was supposed to
be temporary. Now we find that temporary means
'until we have to increase it again'.
-- David Kamm of Mill Valley, on the toll increase
from $3 to $5 on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Lament: no consideration of congestion pricing in this latest toll debate.
June 23, 2002
Networking
In Linked: The New Science of Networks, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
argues that what makes a node a hub isn't the fact that
is has a lot of connectors but rather the fact that when
new nodes are added to the network, these new nodes
preferentially attach to hubs, rather than to a random node.
June 22, 2002
land econ
Joe Gyourko and Ed Glaeser (two economists) have even come
up with a method of calculating the cost of zoning controls.
They compare sales prices for lots with and without houses on
them, then factor out construction costs. What's left is,
implicitly, the value of "the right to build" - that is, what
people are willing to pay to not have to go through the
land-use and permit process.
How much is that? For Philadelphia, Gyourko and Glaeser
say it averages about $2.43 per square foot - or nearly
four times the value of land alone.
That's a rough regional calculation; the numbers in the
posher Main Line townships or neighborhoods such as
Chestnut Hill could run closer to Los Angeles or New York,
where zoning adds more than $30 per square foot to
land costs.
Insurance scam
The IIHS is funded by us, via our insurance premiums. The charter for the
IIHS is dictated to it by insurance companies, who, as Matt stated, are in
it for the money. They want our premium dollars and loathe having to
fulfill their contracts by paying claims. Thus, they want vehicles that
will minimize their claims payouts (passive safety, pring occupant
injuries in a collision). At the same time, they want to maximize their
income from premiums, thus the emphasis on aggressive speed limit
enforcement, since licence points translate to premium surcharges.
-- James A. Crider on autox.team.net .
June 20, 2002
like an economist
| You hear about Academy Award winners who keep Oscars in their bathrooms. Where do you keep your Nobel medal?
The actual medal is gold -- I keep it in a safety deposit box. We have a replica. I don't know where it is right now, but I'll find it. -- Joseph E. Stiglitz |
 | |
On Globalization: The IMF has a fixation on financial markets. Historically, people with that kind of focus worry more about inflation than they do about unemployment [because inflation does more immediate damage to their investments]. They worry less about poverty than they do about what will happen to the capital markets. In my view, a lot of that has been shortsighted. It is a mistake to ignore the social and political consequences of policies. Even if you don't worry yourself about poverty, it is bad economics. When the IMF cut out the subsidies for the food and fuel to the poorest people in Indonesia, it led to riots. Those riots led capital to flee and that exacerbated the economic downturn, the depression, in the country. So ignoring the social consequences is bad economics. ... I think that globalization -- which is nothing more than the closer integration of the countries of the world, as a result of lowering transportation costs, communication costs, the elimination of artificial barriers -- is something that's going to be with us. As this integration occurs, as we become more interdependent, we need to have rules and regulations. So if anything, today we need international institutions more than ever. The problem is that confidence in these institutions is lower than ever. Full interview [salon.com]. |
June 08, 2002
Agile XP
We saw a culture clash developing. While developers prefer to
use agile methodologies, managers prefer to use heavy
methodologies on IT projects and need to be strongly
convinced to use agile ones. We hypothesized that agile
methods do not give some managers the degree of control
or the insight into project progress that they need to feel
comfortable.
Assuming that agile proponents don't knock themselves out
by overhyping, overselling, or dumbing down to please people
in order to get accepted, during the course of the next decade,
heavy methodology proponents will find themselves like
King Canute, trying to command the agile waves to stand still,
with about as much luck. -- Cutter Consortium.
June 01, 2002
software economics
What's the value of fixing a software bug ?
What was the value in testing to find such a bug in the first place ?
These questions are difficult to answer with real data.
"..the reluctance to publish such data is the ongoing and escalating
fear of litigation by class action lawyers and/or harassment by militantly
activist lawyers and muck-raking members of the trade and general press.
If one accepts the above unfortunate realities of the software industries,
it is clear that a call for detailed statistical data of a proprietary nature,
is unlikely to be successful, is out of place, and more aimed at discrediting
than at informing." -- Boris Beizer, software quality consultant.
May 22, 2002
SUVs
Exhaust Legislation May Hit a Red Light
SACRAMENTO -- Legislation to make California the first state to
regulate tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases, a suspected cause of
global warming, is foundering in the Assembly amid a lobbying and
advertising blitz by automakers, car dealers, oil companies and
organized labor.
The measure by Assemblywoman Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) has already
cleared both houses by rail-thin margins and needs only final
approval of the Assembly to reach the desk of Gov. Gray Davis. But to
the dismay of the environmental groups behind the legislation,
support is eroding, and the bill may now be defeated.
"All the Suburbans they don't sell here they will sell in Texas, and
there will be just as much emissions of CO2; only Californians will
have less choice and more expensive cars," said Peter Welch of the
California Motor Car Dealers Assn.
April 30, 2002
School Days
The best school that turned you down is a better predictor of your
future income than the school you actually attended. It's the person,
not the place, that matters: students who apply to schools for the
ambitious are ambitious enough to do well just about anywhere.
April 22, 2002
Short, shameful
I was in Home Depot today.
By the entrance, there's a poster listing some wares
and prices. I took a gander and thought I saw
some fine deals.
Alas, that poster was not the sale, but was the errata:
all prices were too good to be true.
April 19, 2002
CFO in the know
Not all chief financial officers fit the bill when it comes to playing
the corporate conscience. "There's two types of C.F.O.'s that
are out there: those C.F.O.'s that are focused on making the
business better, and those C.F.O.'s that are trained to make
the business look as good as it can look,"
-- Robert M. Calderoni, a former chief financial officer,
later president and chief executive of Ariba.
March 30, 2002
play money
In January of last year, Sony Online Entertainment, which runs
EverQuest, prevailed on eBay and Yahoo to cancel all auctions
of EverQuest items, asserting that the transactions were a
violation of the game's end-user licensing agreement, which
states that Verant Interactive, a Sony subsidiary, "shall retain
ownership of all intellectual property rights."
"From the player's standpoint, I can understand that there's
an eminent domain issue, which is basically, `I produced the
goods, so I can do what I want,' " said Edward Castronova,
an associate professor of economics at California State University
at Fullerton who has written a paper on EverQuest called
"Virtual Worlds: A Firsthand Account of Market and Society
on the Cyberian Frontier." "But the game runners have a
public-goods argument. They need to create an atmosphere
of play for the collective good, and if they allow the buying
and selling of items, that collective good could be ruined."
February 22, 2002
crimewatch
Last year, Britain's violent crime rates actually increased by 4.3
percent, even though the cameras continued to proliferate. But CCTV
cameras have a mysterious knack for justifying themselves regardless
of what happens to crime. When crime goes up the cameras get the
credit for detecting it, and when crime goes down, they get the credit
for pring it.
February 21, 2002
SAS
SAS Institute has developed software that it says can sift through
e-mails and other electronic text to discern falsehoods.
"The patterns in people's language change when they are uncertain or lying,"
says Peter Dorrington, business solutions manager at SAS. "We can compare
basic patterns in words and grammatical structures versus benchmarks to detect
likely lies." For instance, over-use of the word "or" and too many adjectives can
be giveaways, according to Aldert Vrij's book, "Detecting Lies and
Deceit."
SAS says its software can also be used to detect inaccuracies in resumes and
job applications.
[Financial Times, 2002 Jan 20; NewsScan Daily, 2002 Jan 21].
February 12, 2002
Bad hair day
|
In the end, it was Andy Houston's experience -- When he started looking for a new ride after his McDonald's |  |
|
| Tony Liberati, the Excedrin team's crew chief, evaluated the drivers as they took a car around the track; then Kristen Helsel looked on as the drivers stood in front of a camera and answered a host of mock media-interview questions. ''We needed to make sure we didn't have somebody who was just absolutely brain dead in front of the camera,'' Liberati says. The results weren't particularly satisfactory. One driver shuffled his feet and looked at the ground; Series next season, Liberati and Helsel asked There was no need, they decided, for Houston to do a The audition went smoothly, and Helsel and Liberati |
February 11, 2002
Markets for ideas, NYC life
Market power
Using markets to predict and measure expectations and tastes [NYT].
"Manhattanites arrive [in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Boorklyn] every weekend like tourists in Tijuana. They're easy to spot because they look like they're ready for adventure and they get really drunk."
--Jon Weiss [NYT].
February 01, 2002
show me the money
Corporate spin aside, executives do not always prosper most by making
their companies great. They can often profit more from creating
unrealistic expectations than from delivering consistently impressive results.
"You're providing C.E.O.'s with a perverse incentive," said Nell Minow,
the editor of the Corporate Library, a research firm in Washington.
"You're rewarding them for a goal that is not in the interest of
long-term shareholders."
When an economic system richly rewards certain behavior, no one
should be surprised when that behavior becomes the norm. If you
want to change it, you have to change the incentives. The Enron
mess has the potential to focus people's attention on the
complicated task of doing precisely that.
DAVID LEONHARDT, writing in the NYT.
January 28, 2002
Show me the money.
 | Put your name on an MIT Medialab room | |
Remaining labs are available for naming for $5 million each. Other naming opportunities within the new complex include:
|
December 09, 2001
MSFT theology
Microsoft always figured that it's better to let the hardware catch up
with the software rather than spending time writing code for old computers
owned by people who aren't buying much software any more.
-- Joel Spolsky.
November 27, 2001
Bust a move
 |
Decades of marketing have attuned us to watch advertising for signs of any shift in what is and isn’t. -- Kalle Lasn |  |
November 21, 2001
Salesman's serendipity
The registry business has been driven by the wedding and baby market so far, Mr. Nandkeolyar said, but he is optimistic that consumers who try those registries will migrate to the general wish list.
"There are two types of gift givers: those who buy the things they'd like to receive themselves and those who buy what the other person wants," he said. It
is people who buy what other people want, Mr. Nandkeolyar predicts, who will
drive demand for all- registries.
Compelling registrants to spread the word takes some creativity, according to Hans Xu, marketing manager for Felicite.com, a London company whose
activities include helping Web sites set up registries and wish lists. Mr. Xu
said his company provided an online R.S.V.P. and photo- album service
that appeared to be unrelated to the registry business, but was actually a
Trojan horse, of sorts.
When someone goes to the site to respond to an invitation for a party, reception or show, or to view photos from an , the Web page includes a link for the
host's registry. That way, the person hoping to receive the gifts does not have to
notify people of the registry more directly, "which etiquette people are all
against," Mr. Xu said.
"This helps satisfy a whole aspect of managing social obligations that's not really met right now," Mr. Xu said. "And that's really what gift- giving is about: fulfilling
social obligations."
...
The wish lists serve two functions, Ms. David said. "The first is as a true wish list, where you either mail it out to someone, or have a parent do it," she said.
"Second, it gives you a place to park something you want to come back and buy
later."
-- BOB TEDESCHI
2001 November 19, 2001 E-COMMERCE REPORT (NYT): Retailers Stick With Web Gift Lists
ticketmaster for the air
Fees (if not prices) attached to airline tickets keep going up, even
though the costs of data handling keep going down.
November 18, 2001
Show me the money
Matt Marshall at the San Jose Mercury knows knows who is funding whom,
from Silicon Valley VC survey.
November 12, 2001
six sisters
the six blue-chip technology companies
that had successfully made the transition to the Internet
era -- Apple, Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), Dell Computer
(Nasdaq: DELL), Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Microsoft, and Oracle
(Nasdaq: ORCL) -- are still run by their original
entrepreneurs. In essence, I believe that it takes the same
aptitude for risk to point a large corporation in an
entirely new direction as it does to start a company.
Anthony B. Perkins in Red Herring
November 11, 2001
shills everywhere
Stephen Greyser, a longtime marketing professor at Harvard Business School, said many marketers face a pressing need to find independent voices to validate their claims. "The public won't accept exploitation in either substance or style," he said.
Many marketers also raced to issue educational "white papers" on technology or social problems, get their chief executives treated as experts by the media or, best of all, secure invitations to testify before a Congressional committee — all as an indirect way to attract recognition. "You don't get many opportunities for your ship to come in," Professor Greyser said.
November 11, 2001 Marketing Bonanzas, and Pitfalls, in a Disaster
By BARNABY J. FEDER