A couple of days ago eBay announced some "bold changes" to its fee structure, seller standards and feedback mechanism.
Now I participate a bit in the eBay community as "nopressureman". 100% positive feedback have I. Most recently I sold my Nikon D70s and a Nikkor 28-105mm lens when I upgraded to the D80.
For the most part I agree with eBay's announced changes. Lowering insertion fees and charging more when something sells is a better performance based pricing model in my mind. Free gallery photos a good thing for both buyers and sellers. The changing seller standards is a yawn to me, I am a good guy.
Then today I read an article by Amanda Fehd entitled "EBay's Tweaks to Feedback Worry Sellers" that gave me a little heartache. Seller's will not be able to leave negative feedback for buyers. eBay's rationale; it drives buyers away from the site. Note to eBay, the only reason why good seller's give negative feedback to buyers is if they don't pay. And if they don't pay they are not buyers to begin with, they are freeloaders that enable eBay to earn double commission when I have to list the product again.
Case in point, kolobob, who won the action for the above mentioned lens has yet to pay me for the auction he won last Saturday. If I don't get payment by Saturday I am going to have to relist. Or perhaps I will just use Craigslist.
After reading Paul Stamatiou's meme post I thought I would play along. Like Paul I travel light, perhaps even lighter.
The most important item in the bag is my trusty 12" PowerBook G4. It goes everywhere and I prefer to use it to take notes. For those moments when tapping keys is not appropriate I have a composition book and Mont Blanc notepad to drop into a suit coat when I am dressed up and networking. To jot I have a Mont Blanc platinum rollerball. A yellow highlighter and red marker round out the writing devices.
Also in the bag are three sets of business cards, my iPhone with buds, a screen cleaning cloth, reading glasses, and a thumb drive courtesy of Hitachi whom I have some dealings with while consulting. All this is packaged up in a not pictured Tumi deluxe computer portfolio brief that was gifted to me by Delta when I became a million miler back in 2001.
It's recession. And this article by Henry Blodget sent me over the top. It begins:
"Morgan Stanley economist (and perennial bear) Stephen Roach says the current US recession..."
Like anyone that has ever successfully prevented themselves from completely glassing over during macroeconomics I can tell you that a recession is defined as a decline in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) for two or more successive quarters of a year. BTW, GDP is simply the value of all the goods and services produced by a country.
In Q3 of 2007 GDP grew at a very robust 4.9%.
I am no economist but I can tell you that is a huge number. While the
Q4 figures will not be released until January 30, the estimates that I
have seen are in the 1.5% range. While we may be heading toward one, currently we are not in a
recession. It's not technically possible.
When doing a little research for this article I came across a story by Brian Wesbury in today's Journal. According to Brian, "models based on recent monetary and tax policy suggest real GDP will
grow at a 3% to 3.5% rate in 2008, while the probability of recession
this year is 10%."
Is there a housing crisis? Yes, but deep rate cuts should fix that. Are we in a bear market? Darn close. Are we in a recession? No.
And until we are people need to be a little more responsible when they are tossing that word around.
"Does Facebook really connect people? Doesn't it rather disconnect us, since instead of doing something enjoyable such as talking and eating and dancing and drinking with my friends, I am merely sending them little ungrammatical notes and amusing photos in cyberspace, while chained to my desk? A friend of mine recently told me that he had spent a Saturday night at home alone on Facebook, drinking at his desk. What a gloomy image. Far from connecting us, Facebook actually isolates us at our workstations."
While I was staying up late last night contemplating if the MacBook Air was worthy, I was also watching/listening the Steve Job's keynote address. If you don't have the 90 minutes to spare this clip by Veronica Belmont hits all the highlights in about a minute.
I purchased my PowerBook G4 1.0 12" back in 2004 after it was discontinued in April of that year. It's about the size of an 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper and easily weighs less then five pounds. It was packed with everything I wanted in a laptop. Two USB ports, a FireWire port, a modem port, Ethernet port, WiFI, and Bluetooth. At the time the 40GB hard drive seemed huge for an ultra-portable. It was a deal at about $1,200. Somewhere along the line I maxed out the DRAM at 1.25GB. Great machine. It is my seventh laptop and the best one I have ever owned. It literally is my notebook. I carry it almost everyhere.
But that 40GB drive and 1.25 RAM are starting to get a little long in the tooth. So I have been waiting. And waiting. Waiting until today, when Apple would introduce its new product lineup. Let me tell you, I have been jonesing for a new laptop since last summer. Have the money set aside to buy it. I was hoping, really really hoping that Steveo would introduce the worthy replacement to my little friendly G4.
And I when I first laid eyes on the Air I thought that he did. It is a stunning, stunning piece of technology. Deserves a spot in MOMA. It is beautiful. Fake Steve would be proud.
But is it functional?
Some folks have claimed that it's a little expensive, but the price point does not bother me.
Some folks have claimed that it is underpowered, but the specs do not bother me (I have a 2.4GHz 4GB memory iMac for video/photo editing and game on a console).
What bothers me is that to make the Air beautiful they removed all the holes and seams. It needs holes and seams. No Ethernet port? One USB port(which is claimed by the Ethernet adopter they sell for $29)(and a big BTW, I have never understood the whole Apple dongle thing, Steve must only like certain types of holes)? And battery that cannot be replaced by the user.
Yes, the Air comes with a battery that cannot be replaced by the user. Perhaps another Apple first. The cost of the battery is not that important. I am on my third battery on the G4. They routinely last about a year. No big deal. Go online order a new one when it gets a little weak. Have a spare. Take it on a trip. But to have to take the machine into Apple and get it replaced. Don't know the details yet, but it sounds like I am without a laptop for a few days. Not acceptable.
So here I sit. With money to buy a new machine. A little disappointed. Not knowing what to do. The Air is a lacking in very important features. The Pro is a larger form factor than a prefer.
So that begs the question Air or Pro? What would you do?
According to Forbes that honor goes to Atlanta for the second year in a row. See here.
Money quote: "A bustling community of Internet-related start-ups."
Yeah Forbes, the home page for the world's business leaders, called the Atlanta Internet startup scene "bustling". I think we are starting to change some perceptions.
How did Atlanta end up #1. Forbes looked at broadband penetration, the range of ISPs within a city, and the availability of Wi-Fi hot spots. Atlanta was ranked 1, 1, and 4 in these categories. The city has a whopping 97% broadband penetration rate.
Here's the list:
1. Atlanta 2. Seattle 3. Raleigh 4. San Francisco 5. Baltimore (tie) 5. Orlando (tie) 7. Charlotte 8. Chicago 9. New York 10. Portland
"The scariest thing about Stanley Kubrick's vision wasn't that computers started to act like people but that people had started to act like computers. We're beginning to process information as if we're nodes; it's all about the speed of locating and reading data. We're transferring our intelligence into the machine, and the machine is transferring its way of thinking into us."
I am sitting with 80 people at the TAG/ATDC Entrepreneurs Society listening to Sandeep Agate of REACH Call talk about his business and how winning the 2006 GRA/TAG Business Launch Competition helped propel his company forward. Gregg Warren CEO of ATDC member company IVOX, the 2007 winner, is up next. This is a kickoff for the 2008 contest.
As the name suggests the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) and the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) joined forces to support the creation and growth of new startups in Georgia via a competition. The contest winner will receive a $100,000 cash award courtesy of the GRA and a diverse array of services valued at an additional $200,000. This comprehensive $300,000+ prize is one of the largest in the country. In 2008, the competition is focused on Internet technologies, which includes companies
that are developing products, online services, or backend technologies that are using or extending the reach, flexibility, and ease of the Internet.
To support entrepreneurs that have an interest in applying to the competition, ATDC is hosting a luncheon and workshop on Thursday January 24th from 11:45 am to 1:00 pm. As the resident ATDC Internet expert I am going to be leading this workshop. At the workshop you will learn the logistics of the competition, get some coaching on how to best fill out the preliminary application materials (which are evaluated by ATDC staff), hear from a judge on why they picked past finalists, and enjoy lunch with other Internet entrepreneurs.
ATDC is providing boxed lunches to all registrants. If you want to register you need to do so by January 21. Please only register if you intend to attend. Food is a precious resource.
The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone (with the exception of comments by others of course). They do not represent the opinion or position of any other person on entity. All postings adhere to my personal values.
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