koolthing

This really is some wild speculation and dreaming on my part. I can
only hope that Apple, Sony and Chiat Day have some brilliant Super Bowl advertisement waiting for us this year introducing the Apple Home Solution, the digital lifestyle hub the world has been waiting for...
I hope I don't get in trouble for wishing. Hey... Can I get in trouble for
wishing... I am a Mac genie...

I have been thinking about the MacMini quite a bit... You know, because I have to position it in my mind to help sell things... I missed CES this year, which is not only tragic to my soul, but has also left a gaping hole in my ability to put all the pieces of this puzzle together. That said, I keep thinking back to all the work I did (hush, hush) in the Netherlands with MSTV, UPC, and Motorola's set top box... The long, late night discussions about how if cable operators could get subscribers to purchase their own set top box there wouldn't have to be all of these shortcomings in the STB to save money on a device that was a massive investment for the COs. We looked at Sony's Playstation, and MS X-Box... I am convinced to this day each of which is a STB in disguise and one day soon we will see an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) show up on them... and voila! A high powered STB with an installed base and broadband connection... MS and Sony are very
smart companies, but I think Apple has made some brilliant moves while the
giants were napping and the mini is one of them. Let's say... I just made a
massive investment in an HDTV. I want to watch movies on it, but the
selection is very slim. NO DVD's, because an HD movie is too big! I can
afford an HDTV, so I have broadband, and an additional investment in a
device to enhance my experience seems a small price to pay. Enter Apple. The
MacMini plugs into the DVI connection of my Sony HDTV... Attach broadband
connection, use my wireless keyboard to navigate to the iTunes Movie Store,
Download or stream AVC H.264 encoded HD movies for 9.99 to my MacMini...
Apple DRM solution keeps the movie studios happy like the music studios are
content with the DRM included with iTunes music... The MacMini is sold
through the brick & mortar retail distribution outlets Apple has developed
with the iPod... Target, BestBuy, Robinson's May... iTunes is known and
trusted for safe, secure digital delivery of content...

Well... I could go on and on but I think that I am already too far out
there.


On other fronts...

I met with the engraver today, we are moving ahead with Brides merchandise
and an iPod shuffle case Rick will manufacture in Taiwan. We had numerous
fun and productive meetings today to that end. I will put sketches up as
soon as I can... You know... Other people are involved here.

I have worked through a whole lot of the online training offered. I am
ranked #33 companywide on the sales training thing, which I achieved in two
evenings and late nights of rigorous work. I missed a few questions that I
don't agree with and failed to answer a few, because I was falling asleep,
but the average score is above 93% and I achieved the highest level possible
for this period, so I am going to take my time with the rest ::faint
laughing:: and just finish the 100 or so courses this month so that I will
not obsess that I could be missing some critical information.
I really hate that...
Even when I was a child, we had all the books available to us on a shelf at
the back of the room, so I had to do all of them as quickly as possible, and
then just be bored, because there was nothing left for me to conquer.

I just received a great email from my friend Mando with 5 rules to
happiness. So I am going to sign off (it's late) and leave them for you.

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

-



NAMM today. I did some preparation, and stopped in at Vic Firth, Tama, ESP,
Gibson, Basson. Apple, Sony, saw a few friends from Motorola and Digidesign.
I wandered the show floor a bit... It is a small show compared to CES or the
Western Cable show, e3, IBC, you know all of that technology stuff... this
show is really strange. there are two completely polarized groups at NAMM,
people in suits and people in tshirts nothing between the two. There are
also more non-industry people at NAMM than any show I have ever been to with
the exception of the porn convention in Vegas
;-)

The floor was packed take five steps...oh, hi *kiss,kiss* so... next. I was
surprised how many people I knew.
I saw Matt and we spoke for a second, the drummer from AMEN kind of waved in
my general direction, but refused to stop you know with his police escort
and all. totally bizarre behavior We saw the whole crew at a drive in on
the way home, and more of the same. I called Joe to see WTF is up but he
said he would have to explain today for some reason. Yeah cant wait to
hear the post rationalization of this one

Other than that we had an amazing day. Everyone was super cool, and I left
feeling like we had a great day.

Thomas, DG and I went out on the town later.
Burgundy room, beauty bar, that place down the alley with no name... A spot
in Silverlake and Toi for a little late night snack.

I went home happy.

Things are going well with AOL, I now have Apple business cards (makes me
feel official in some strange way), and I am working diligently at resolving
my ID theft issues... I guess I am getting a lot done here in 2005...
-
I am becoming very interested in this litle toy.
I am trying to find things to do with it that I just haven't had the opportuity to do... check out some of the text messaging services and that type of thing. I canmessage a robot on AOL and it will post a blog entery for me, I would love to make a little script on my home nachine... hey, that's it... a little bot I can email from the ogo that will post to multiple blogs... I am going to have to build that this weekend.
I still haven't figured out a way to "parse" an rss feed to post to multiple places, and each blog service has some proprietary "coding" to deal with. I wish $ could authour once publish everywhere...
::laughing::
it' the problems of DTP all over again a decade later... keeps coming up, though. iTV systems, video systems...everyone is looking for the "smart" publishing system.

the BOD webmaster and I were kicking around a few ideas over the phone, none novell in any way, but in combination could prove to be a powerful way of breaking down some of the barriers to communication flow. I guess there is a lot to be said for synchronicity and synchronization...


it is tracii's birthday, go send him some love...
http://journals.aol.com/traciiblog/TRACIIGUNS/entries/796/