I am starting to see a repeat of what happened with Windows 8 with Windows 9. Everyone is anxious for a new version and are so full of well wishes they are overlooking the obvious flaws. I say this based on the Windows 10 preview that was made available this week. If you are a bit confused, Windows 10 is what Microsoft is calling Windows 9. But it's still Windows 9 in the sense that it's the version following Windows 8.
Maybe we are getting a little tired of everyone running Windows 7 and would like something new but I seriously doubt it's what MS is delivering in Windows 9. All they really did is add the start menu back but that's not enough by a long shot. They still seem determined to write an OS that runs on everything from phones to tablets to devices to TV's to desktops. This is a feature that nobody has asked for. A lot of people are using Windows, Android and IOS interchangeably without much difficulty. People complain about unnecessarily complicated, ugly or cumbersome features of an OS but seem to be able to cope perfectly fine with different (well designed) OS's. So why is one unified OS so important to Microsoft? Not because people are demanding it.
Let's face it, they might never get any serious traction with their phones or tablets. They've already fired half of the Noika people they got from the merger and have taken billions in losses from their tablet after burning all their partners. But on the servers and desktops, MS still rules. So why mess up a perfectly good desktop with all the baggage from their failing mobile business?
Okay, in a nutshell this is the problem: with Windows 8 they broke compatibility. The last time they did this was with Windows Vista and that was a disaster. But it's important to note that with Windows Vista, they broke compatibility only on the device driver level. That is to say with the software that talks to things you attach to your computer. Things like graphic cards (for gaming), printers, scanners and the like. So when Vista came out, everyone was annoyed that they either had to wait for new drivers in order to use their existing equipment or to replace their existing equipment with something that had Vista support.
With Windows 8, they broke compatibility at the application level. Applications written from Windows 8/9 won't run on any other version of Windows. Windows 8 applications can't be installed, they are only available at the Windows Store and, up until Windows 9, can only run in full screen mode. That's the other big fix they added to Windows 9. So we've waited two years to get the start menu back and to be able to run applications in a window. I think that's pretty weak.
The big problem with W9 (Windows 9) though is that it's still confused between Windows 8 tablet applications and all the legacy applications. Even the new start menu reflects this confusing mix. Has anyone really asked to run their tablet applications on their desktop? So how is this an improvement over Windows 7? It only adds a layer of confusion.
Let's pretend we are a software developer and we have an idea for a desktop application. Would I write it in the traditional manner so everyone with any version of Windows can run it or would I tie it to only Windows 8? The dismal sales of Windows 8 hasn't helped. Then there's the problem with the Windows Store--it demands 20% or 30% of all your receipts in exchange for... what? It's a license to steal for Microsoft. So there's not much incentive for developers to write for Windows 8/9.
I don't see any way out of the corner they've painted themselves in. They should split their OS's into a mobile and a desktop version like Apple has done but that train has left the station. Perhaps it would help to make the Windows Store optional. Microsoft has gotten to the point where is starting to be dysfunctional and if they are going to recover it's going to take a long time. Maybe they'll get it all straightened in another couple of years when the next Windows 10 comes out but if I held any stock in Microsoft, I'd sell it soon.
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Man Cave in a Pocket
Yeah, I'm a nerd. Everybody knows what a nerd looks like now but only true nerds (of a certain age) know what nerds looked like forty years ago, before computers were everywhere. Instead of computers, they were into electronics. Often belonged to ham radio clubs. Knew morse code and how to replace the tubes in your radio or tv. And they were aspiring audiophiles. It was a widely accepted fact that the most lavish stereos on campus weren't owned by the party crowd but the electrical engineering students.
Audiophiles would listen to music a lot and were very particular, especially about the equipment. The goal was the "ideal listening experience." This would usually consist of very expensive speakers and a receiver of at least 100 watts (rms!) placed in a rectangular sound-proofed room. The speakers would be placed at one end of the room, the listener at the other end, facing the speakers. I took this seriously and in my youth I dreamt of having enough money set aside to someday have a room like that to listen to music as much as I wanted. These setups nowadays are called man caves.
The sound proofed man cave never happened and I recently realized that such a setup is no longer necessary due to technological advances. Pictured above is an ideal listening experience, within reach of most people which you can carry in your pocket. It's actually a system which consists of three particular parts:
The sound proofed room with a pair of speakers at the other end is replaced by just the headphones. Perfect stereo separation since each ear has its own feed and there's no reflections from walls to worry about. And talk about decorating the room. I can create beautiful outdoor landscapes or blue skies just by going somewhere, laying down and putting in the earphones.
In actuality, the sound proofed room with speakers, if it was really implemented, would require a huge rack of CD's or vinyl or whatever for you to listen to. Thanks to computers, I can carry around "millions of songs" with me in my pocket. All my dreams have come true. Did I vote for Pedro?
Audiophiles would listen to music a lot and were very particular, especially about the equipment. The goal was the "ideal listening experience." This would usually consist of very expensive speakers and a receiver of at least 100 watts (rms!) placed in a rectangular sound-proofed room. The speakers would be placed at one end of the room, the listener at the other end, facing the speakers. I took this seriously and in my youth I dreamt of having enough money set aside to someday have a room like that to listen to music as much as I wanted. These setups nowadays are called man caves.
- Klipsch S4 in-ear headphones. These headphones are so delicious that on their website, there's a logo warning you of counterfeits. I know that some of this is personal preference, some people simply do not like headphones that feel like earplugs. But the big advantage is that they block out other sounds so you only hear the music you want to hear. No need to sound proof your room. However, this particular model feels great and sounds great. They run about $75. Now you can get pretty darn good earphones for much less but they all have the same weakness particular to all cheap speakers: bass response. If you look at computer speakers, the minimum setup is two small "tweeters" and a gigantic, power sucking bass boom box that sits on the floor. I am happy to report that the bass response on the Klisch S4 is fine. They're a delight to listen to.
- iPod. This is the little device that revolutionized computing. The iPhone was built on it. The main problem is that it's $300. But it's a great music player. You can buy them with different memory configurations and the interface is great. The only reason I plunked down $300 is because it was about the only music player on the market with over 4GB of memory. The best thing about it though is that besides being a great music player, it does a ton of other stuff like internet, email and apps. So you tend to keep it charged and in your pocket.
- Rhapsody music service. The wonderful thing about Rhapsody is that you don't have to buy anything, just pay your subscription and you can download anything. Fill your memory with as many artists as you want and carry it around with you. They boast they have "millions" of songs. I suspect they lost count but they really do.
The sound proofed room with a pair of speakers at the other end is replaced by just the headphones. Perfect stereo separation since each ear has its own feed and there's no reflections from walls to worry about. And talk about decorating the room. I can create beautiful outdoor landscapes or blue skies just by going somewhere, laying down and putting in the earphones.
In actuality, the sound proofed room with speakers, if it was really implemented, would require a huge rack of CD's or vinyl or whatever for you to listen to. Thanks to computers, I can carry around "millions of songs" with me in my pocket. All my dreams have come true. Did I vote for Pedro?
Sunday, February 9, 2014
The Brief Elaboration of a Tube
Take a look at this video and you can see my hero Leonard Cohen singing one of his news songs off of Old Ideas. Listen to (or read) the lyrics and see if you can figure out what the heck he's talking about. A word of warning, he's a serious poet and his meaning is at times difficult to divine. But I'll tell you.
In the song Going Home, he is singing about... I guess you might call it his creative process. Where his ideas come from or where his inspiration comes. There has been a lot of speculation so in my defense, I offer the following quote from the author:
Frankly my mind sort of boggles at this perspective. I always thought of myself, at least in part, in terms of what I like to do and my accomplishments. But if your talents are just something that are given to you and you have no say in what they are or how much you get, all I am is either a dutiful or neglectful manager of them.
In his song, Leonard Cohen points out that proper use of his gift is casting aside his own desire and being faithful only to it--to keep it pure. To not interject any of himself into it. I would think for a poet and a writer that the opposite would be true?
In the song Going Home, he is singing about... I guess you might call it his creative process. Where his ideas come from or where his inspiration comes. There has been a lot of speculation so in my defense, I offer the following quote from the author:
Look...you know the songs are inspired. I don't pretend to be a guide. I do pretend to be an instrument for certain kinds of information at certain moments. Not all moments, and it has nothing to do with me as a guy. I may be a perfect scoundrel...as a matter of fact, I am...just like the guy on the scene. But there are moments when I am the instrument for certain kinds of information.So I've been thinking about this a lot lately, what he's saying. He sees his talents, his gift so to speak as something outside of himself and he's...almost a spectator. Maybe a caretaker and it's a duty for him to either neglect or attend to. It's a very humble point of view. Amazingly humble.
Frankly my mind sort of boggles at this perspective. I always thought of myself, at least in part, in terms of what I like to do and my accomplishments. But if your talents are just something that are given to you and you have no say in what they are or how much you get, all I am is either a dutiful or neglectful manager of them.
In his song, Leonard Cohen points out that proper use of his gift is casting aside his own desire and being faithful only to it--to keep it pure. To not interject any of himself into it. I would think for a poet and a writer that the opposite would be true?
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Little Sisters of the Poor - Enemies of the State
The Little Sisters of the Poor is a charitable and spiritual organization of Catholic Sisters who have dedicated themselves to humble service, companionship and service to the elderly poor. They are bound to their service with a vow of chastity, poverty and obedience to the Lord. According to their public statements, they offer their personal talents and gifts, possessions and will—all that we are and have—for His glory and the salvation of souls.
They have recently made the news because of a (Supreme) court ruling in their favor and against provisions in Obamacare that they be required to be offered birth control. Now when you see people in court who are in there for murder, organized crime, conspiracy or other heinous crimes, you don't feel sorry for them and are usually glad that they were caught and are now receiving justice. But what does it mean when the people you are facing in court are nearly Holy Saints who have bound themselves with an oath to lifetime of good works? Shouldn't it be a signal to you that something in your own life has gone terribly wrong?
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Windows 8 - A Farewell to Windows Desktop
Earlier, sometime before the release of W8 (Windows 8), I posted a cautionary blog about the failure it would be. Since then it was released and has instantly become Microsoft's most widely hated release, even surpassing Vista in terms of its ability to incite user anger. It's widespread criticism is accompanied by record breaking low adoption rates, a much more objective measure. By every measure it's an astounding failure.
Microsoft had a lot invested in W8, it was supposed to bring Windows to tablets and cell phones. CEO Steve Ballmer said they would "bet the company" on Windows 8. Silly Ballmer, if you are going to bet the company, don't bet it on such a weak hand. Technically, the execution of W8 went well, they did manage a tablet/phone OS that at least works. They added a few nice features to the desktop as they do every release. For developers, they released an API (Application Programming Interface) for writing apps for the new OS.
But strategically they made a number of horrific errors. First and foremost was the idea that this new OS had to look and work the same across all three classes of devices: phone, tablet and desktop. This lead to the ill fated decision to make the desktop look like a tablet where everything has to run full screen and removing the Start menu. Software you could buy and install was replaced by the "Windows Store" which badly alienated Steam and everyone else who was already running a store. Lately, Steam has been working hard on a Linux based console and offering a selection of Linux based games in response.
When it comes to developer support, in their quest to go after the cell phone and tablet market, they introduced confusion over what tools they will support in the future and anger over old tools that were discontinued. The only clear path forward MS offered was a way to write Metro style applications for Windows 8 but since they're not backwards compatible with any other OS, it's understandable that response was tepid.
Microsoft should have seen it coming, they certainly had been warned enough. And everyone else could see it coming. When they undercut all their former hardware partners (e.g. Acer, Dell and Asus) and started manufacturing their own tablet (the Surface), it was inevitable that they would soon be the only ones doing so. MS charges $30 for each tablet OS license in a business with very thin margins. That plus the poor reputation of Windows 8, high prices and a general lack of availability of decent software continues to discourage partners like Acer, Dell and Asus from offering much in the way of Windows tablets. Or phones.
Most frustrating was MS's refusal to acknowledge any problems with Windows 8 and a stubborn determination to "stay the course" regardless of how reckless or wrong it was. This story could have ended very badly except for the MS board of directors. Once it was announced that they would take a $1 billion markdown on all the Surface tablets that nobody wanted, they demanded CEO Steve Ballmer's resignation. They had already sent Steve Sinofsky, the architect of W8 packing about a month ago. This bold action was followed by a purge of many top level managers associated with the grand failure. MS is now in the middle of a new CEO search but they're not finding too many takers. This is probably the best news I've heard for a long time, people had been calling for Ballmer's head for a long time. And all the failures were management failures.
Rumors of MS's new directions seem encouraging. I expect by Windows 9, they'll have recovered from their worst missteps. There are rumors that they'll restore the beloved Windows 7 desktop and allow their wretched Metro applications to run from the desktop. They still need to fix and unify their developer tools. I hope they make it.
Microsoft panicked and acted foolishly but the threats to their livelihood are real. How long they can continue to charge for Windows is coming into question because they are being seriously challenged by Google's Android. It already runs most phones and tablets and is not only free but open source so anyone (i.e. Samsung) can modify it for better consumer appeal. Google does this because it makes its money from its search engine. Android is just incidental to its business of putting the internet everywhere and you needing Google to search it. Well, it might have undermining MS as one of its goals too, I dunno.
For a long time, the Linux desktop and server has been predicted to take over the space that Windows once occupied. On the server that has largely happened and many web site servers are powered by Linux. At first people were wary of Linux because of a lack of stability in the versions available. But gradually companies formed to provide support to specific distributions. One of the more conspicuous examples is Intel's adoption of Red Hat which is now a major Linux distribution in the US.
So Microsoft has formidable competition on the server, still rules the desktop but is barely noticeable for tablets and phones. The botched rollout of Windows 8 hurt the desktop and drove consumers to alternative solutions, which is to say, Apple or Android phones and tablets. And everybody is waiting for Google to release a free desktop version of Android. They're very close with their Chromebooks which are selling well. I don't know what is keeping Apple back from releasing OS X for non-Apple desktops. That would be a blow to MS but the point is that one day, Windows may well become a much smaller market. MS will still have Office and the Cloud and a bevy of other products. Plus they still have the capability of creating so much more if they can only first conceive it. That's what the new CEO needs to bring. Steve Ballmer's solution was to adopt the Apple model, to make money off of running the Windows Store (where a hefty 30% commission is required of each publisher) and selling hardware. But I think they need a new vision.
Microsoft had a lot invested in W8, it was supposed to bring Windows to tablets and cell phones. CEO Steve Ballmer said they would "bet the company" on Windows 8. Silly Ballmer, if you are going to bet the company, don't bet it on such a weak hand. Technically, the execution of W8 went well, they did manage a tablet/phone OS that at least works. They added a few nice features to the desktop as they do every release. For developers, they released an API (Application Programming Interface) for writing apps for the new OS.
But strategically they made a number of horrific errors. First and foremost was the idea that this new OS had to look and work the same across all three classes of devices: phone, tablet and desktop. This lead to the ill fated decision to make the desktop look like a tablet where everything has to run full screen and removing the Start menu. Software you could buy and install was replaced by the "Windows Store" which badly alienated Steam and everyone else who was already running a store. Lately, Steam has been working hard on a Linux based console and offering a selection of Linux based games in response.
When it comes to developer support, in their quest to go after the cell phone and tablet market, they introduced confusion over what tools they will support in the future and anger over old tools that were discontinued. The only clear path forward MS offered was a way to write Metro style applications for Windows 8 but since they're not backwards compatible with any other OS, it's understandable that response was tepid.
Microsoft should have seen it coming, they certainly had been warned enough. And everyone else could see it coming. When they undercut all their former hardware partners (e.g. Acer, Dell and Asus) and started manufacturing their own tablet (the Surface), it was inevitable that they would soon be the only ones doing so. MS charges $30 for each tablet OS license in a business with very thin margins. That plus the poor reputation of Windows 8, high prices and a general lack of availability of decent software continues to discourage partners like Acer, Dell and Asus from offering much in the way of Windows tablets. Or phones.
Most frustrating was MS's refusal to acknowledge any problems with Windows 8 and a stubborn determination to "stay the course" regardless of how reckless or wrong it was. This story could have ended very badly except for the MS board of directors. Once it was announced that they would take a $1 billion markdown on all the Surface tablets that nobody wanted, they demanded CEO Steve Ballmer's resignation. They had already sent Steve Sinofsky, the architect of W8 packing about a month ago. This bold action was followed by a purge of many top level managers associated with the grand failure. MS is now in the middle of a new CEO search but they're not finding too many takers. This is probably the best news I've heard for a long time, people had been calling for Ballmer's head for a long time. And all the failures were management failures.
Rumors of MS's new directions seem encouraging. I expect by Windows 9, they'll have recovered from their worst missteps. There are rumors that they'll restore the beloved Windows 7 desktop and allow their wretched Metro applications to run from the desktop. They still need to fix and unify their developer tools. I hope they make it.
Microsoft panicked and acted foolishly but the threats to their livelihood are real. How long they can continue to charge for Windows is coming into question because they are being seriously challenged by Google's Android. It already runs most phones and tablets and is not only free but open source so anyone (i.e. Samsung) can modify it for better consumer appeal. Google does this because it makes its money from its search engine. Android is just incidental to its business of putting the internet everywhere and you needing Google to search it. Well, it might have undermining MS as one of its goals too, I dunno.
For a long time, the Linux desktop and server has been predicted to take over the space that Windows once occupied. On the server that has largely happened and many web site servers are powered by Linux. At first people were wary of Linux because of a lack of stability in the versions available. But gradually companies formed to provide support to specific distributions. One of the more conspicuous examples is Intel's adoption of Red Hat which is now a major Linux distribution in the US.
So Microsoft has formidable competition on the server, still rules the desktop but is barely noticeable for tablets and phones. The botched rollout of Windows 8 hurt the desktop and drove consumers to alternative solutions, which is to say, Apple or Android phones and tablets. And everybody is waiting for Google to release a free desktop version of Android. They're very close with their Chromebooks which are selling well. I don't know what is keeping Apple back from releasing OS X for non-Apple desktops. That would be a blow to MS but the point is that one day, Windows may well become a much smaller market. MS will still have Office and the Cloud and a bevy of other products. Plus they still have the capability of creating so much more if they can only first conceive it. That's what the new CEO needs to bring. Steve Ballmer's solution was to adopt the Apple model, to make money off of running the Windows Store (where a hefty 30% commission is required of each publisher) and selling hardware. But I think they need a new vision.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
The Sacred Store
In the song American Pie, Don McLean sings
I went down to the sacred store where I'd heard the music years before, but...
The man there said the music wouldn't play
Supposedly this is a reference to the olden days when you could go down to the local record store and listen to songs before buying them. I have to admit that's a little before my time but I do remember that almost every local plaza and strip mall would have a record store. They would sell you either 45's, a single song from the current music chart for anywhere from 66 cents to $1. An LP would be more, anywhere from $3 to $4. You would pay, take them home and play them on your phonograph and dream away along with catchy tunes and poignant lyrics of all your favourite singers and songwriters.
It was a great system for a long time and brought music to everyone. As technologies improved, CD's slowly replaced LP's and eventually the MP3 replaced the 45 single but something else happened--all the music stores disappeared. At least Don McLean had a store he could complain about, nowadays, there's almost nowhere to buy a CD. I know, it's all been taken over by the internet. Amazon is responsible. I guess in order to love music now, you must own a computer. Yes, I fear that's what it has come to.
I guess that's okay, there were some unresolvable problems with the old system. Even though the product was essentially the same from store to store, the price varied wildly. It seemed that the more local the store, the more the music cost. If you really wanted to go on a music buying spree, you'd go to a major retail area where they do a lot of business because they had buying power and were a lot cheaper. On the other hand, a lot of the specialization is lost. There used to be a shop in Toronto, Rounder Records, that specialized in music by the Grateful Dead. I was never that much of a fan but they had every Dead title and prominently displayed their album covers throughout the store. I'm sure the staff would have been full of stories of concerts they'd attended. So that's all gone.
And that's still not the end of the story. After all the record stores disappeared, so did all the bookstores. Admittedly, there are still a few scattered bookstores but I fear the writing is on the wall for them, they're just about entirely gone with only a few brave faces still messing with retail. It didn't used to be that way. Amazon again, I'm sure.
So where is this trend leading to? Yesterday I got gobsmacked upside the head with the answer. I went down to the local Quince Orchard plaza to pick up an auto part for the wife's Honda from Advanced Auto Parts. The Quince Orchard plaza is the local plaza closest to us. One night, after my wife got mad at me for letting our oldest son ride in the car while sitting in the back window, she stormed out and walked all the way home, so yes, it's fairly close. We used to go down there to visit the comic book store, the drug store, the grocery store and the pet store. For kids, the local pet store is like the local zoo but even better--if you ask you might even be able to take some of the animals home. But all those stores are gone. Not just gone but gone and boarded up, there's nothing to replace them. The book store that was there had closed years ago. Admittedly it had always been a bit of a down scale strip mall, but it had its place, it doesn't deserve the awful fate of having half of it stores boarded up. Bummer, bummer and bummer.
In general 30% of the retail space in malls is going unused, a recent trend. It's not just the internet, I believe it's also a general consolidation to places like Walmart and the collapsing economy. Depending on who you ask, America owes somewhere between $16 and 165 trillion dollars we'll never repay and that does take it toll. There's no question in my mind that America's prosperity is in decline, I'm living through it and I can remember better times.
So, what stores survive in the internet age of a declining economy? Well, the Quince Orchard plaza still has a barber store and nail salon. If you can figure out how to deliver those over the internet, you've got a real business opportunity. There's a couple of restaurants, including an all-you-can eat Cici's pizza. Popular with the younger crowd. There's also a laser tag place which is sort of like an older kid's Chuckie Cheese, a favourite place for the preteen birthday party. Advanced Auto Parts and Staples are sort of specialty stores. Staples used to be about office supplies but half the store is focused on computers now so in a way it's an internet enabler, and the only gateway to all the outlets that took over for all the stores that closed and you don't see any more. Also, there's a used bookstore that sells you books from the library when the library doesn't want them any more. That seemed to have the most foot traffic.
I guess I'm happy that we're transitioning to a more efficient economy. But still, I mourn for the Quince Orchard plaza. I spent many pleasant Saturday afternoons there buying crickets for our pet Praying Mantis, treats from the grocery store, dreams from the comic book store and sharing sodas with the kids from the Grog Gourmet.
I went down to the sacred store where I'd heard the music years before, but...
The man there said the music wouldn't play
Supposedly this is a reference to the olden days when you could go down to the local record store and listen to songs before buying them. I have to admit that's a little before my time but I do remember that almost every local plaza and strip mall would have a record store. They would sell you either 45's, a single song from the current music chart for anywhere from 66 cents to $1. An LP would be more, anywhere from $3 to $4. You would pay, take them home and play them on your phonograph and dream away along with catchy tunes and poignant lyrics of all your favourite singers and songwriters.
It was a great system for a long time and brought music to everyone. As technologies improved, CD's slowly replaced LP's and eventually the MP3 replaced the 45 single but something else happened--all the music stores disappeared. At least Don McLean had a store he could complain about, nowadays, there's almost nowhere to buy a CD. I know, it's all been taken over by the internet. Amazon is responsible. I guess in order to love music now, you must own a computer. Yes, I fear that's what it has come to.
I guess that's okay, there were some unresolvable problems with the old system. Even though the product was essentially the same from store to store, the price varied wildly. It seemed that the more local the store, the more the music cost. If you really wanted to go on a music buying spree, you'd go to a major retail area where they do a lot of business because they had buying power and were a lot cheaper. On the other hand, a lot of the specialization is lost. There used to be a shop in Toronto, Rounder Records, that specialized in music by the Grateful Dead. I was never that much of a fan but they had every Dead title and prominently displayed their album covers throughout the store. I'm sure the staff would have been full of stories of concerts they'd attended. So that's all gone.
And that's still not the end of the story. After all the record stores disappeared, so did all the bookstores. Admittedly, there are still a few scattered bookstores but I fear the writing is on the wall for them, they're just about entirely gone with only a few brave faces still messing with retail. It didn't used to be that way. Amazon again, I'm sure.
So where is this trend leading to? Yesterday I got gobsmacked upside the head with the answer. I went down to the local Quince Orchard plaza to pick up an auto part for the wife's Honda from Advanced Auto Parts. The Quince Orchard plaza is the local plaza closest to us. One night, after my wife got mad at me for letting our oldest son ride in the car while sitting in the back window, she stormed out and walked all the way home, so yes, it's fairly close. We used to go down there to visit the comic book store, the drug store, the grocery store and the pet store. For kids, the local pet store is like the local zoo but even better--if you ask you might even be able to take some of the animals home. But all those stores are gone. Not just gone but gone and boarded up, there's nothing to replace them. The book store that was there had closed years ago. Admittedly it had always been a bit of a down scale strip mall, but it had its place, it doesn't deserve the awful fate of having half of it stores boarded up. Bummer, bummer and bummer.
In general 30% of the retail space in malls is going unused, a recent trend. It's not just the internet, I believe it's also a general consolidation to places like Walmart and the collapsing economy. Depending on who you ask, America owes somewhere between $16 and 165 trillion dollars we'll never repay and that does take it toll. There's no question in my mind that America's prosperity is in decline, I'm living through it and I can remember better times.
So, what stores survive in the internet age of a declining economy? Well, the Quince Orchard plaza still has a barber store and nail salon. If you can figure out how to deliver those over the internet, you've got a real business opportunity. There's a couple of restaurants, including an all-you-can eat Cici's pizza. Popular with the younger crowd. There's also a laser tag place which is sort of like an older kid's Chuckie Cheese, a favourite place for the preteen birthday party. Advanced Auto Parts and Staples are sort of specialty stores. Staples used to be about office supplies but half the store is focused on computers now so in a way it's an internet enabler, and the only gateway to all the outlets that took over for all the stores that closed and you don't see any more. Also, there's a used bookstore that sells you books from the library when the library doesn't want them any more. That seemed to have the most foot traffic.
I guess I'm happy that we're transitioning to a more efficient economy. But still, I mourn for the Quince Orchard plaza. I spent many pleasant Saturday afternoons there buying crickets for our pet Praying Mantis, treats from the grocery store, dreams from the comic book store and sharing sodas with the kids from the Grog Gourmet.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Lance Armstrong, EPO Enthusiast
There's no question that Lance Armstrong is a great athlete and I was very disappointed to see him stripped of his Tour de France titles. In his defense, Lance always offers up the fact that he always passed all of his drugs test during his racing career. And this is true. Even though the Tour de France officials were very determined to catch him, they never did and he raced for years. How could this be? This is a letter of the law versus spirit of the law sort of issue going on.
Every athlete wants to do their best and they have a diet and training regime that they maintain. At the level Lance Armstrong competed at, there's usually a staff of medical personnel too, keeping their bodies tuned as the mechanics keep their bicycles tuned. And doctors have a lot of powerful tools to eek out that peek performance, some of them pharmaceutical. So what guidelines do the physicians follow to make sure they don't take their pharmaceutical solutions too far? The ones set by the racing commission. And to that degree, Lance did admirably.
In 2006 Floyd Landis lost his Tour de France victory when a blood test revealed unusually high testosterone. And the blood test was accurate enough to tell the difference between natural testosterone and the man-made version and there was a lot of the man-made kind in his blood. This is where it gets tricky. There's a naturally occurring level of testosterone in all men and if it's too low, there's always HRT, hormone replacement therapy. Likewise for women and estrogen. So if it's available, and a racer could benefit from HRT, how far should they go? That's why there are acceptable thresholds published by the racing commission.
Lance Armstrong always passed his blood tests. He met the requirements of the racing commission. A common practice of many aerobic sports is to train at high altitudes and have their bodies adjust to the thinner air. When they then attend Olympic events at a lower elevation, their blood is oxygen enriched. Floyd Landis used to sleep every night in a hyperbaric chamber for that reason.Is that an unfair advantage? No, not defined by the standards that were set. Likewise, Lance never cheated because he always met the standard. It's not an easy question, trying to decide between the spirit of the law, the letter of the law and winning the race. You can only pick two of them.
Every athlete wants to do their best and they have a diet and training regime that they maintain. At the level Lance Armstrong competed at, there's usually a staff of medical personnel too, keeping their bodies tuned as the mechanics keep their bicycles tuned. And doctors have a lot of powerful tools to eek out that peek performance, some of them pharmaceutical. So what guidelines do the physicians follow to make sure they don't take their pharmaceutical solutions too far? The ones set by the racing commission. And to that degree, Lance did admirably.
In 2006 Floyd Landis lost his Tour de France victory when a blood test revealed unusually high testosterone. And the blood test was accurate enough to tell the difference between natural testosterone and the man-made version and there was a lot of the man-made kind in his blood. This is where it gets tricky. There's a naturally occurring level of testosterone in all men and if it's too low, there's always HRT, hormone replacement therapy. Likewise for women and estrogen. So if it's available, and a racer could benefit from HRT, how far should they go? That's why there are acceptable thresholds published by the racing commission.
Lance Armstrong always passed his blood tests. He met the requirements of the racing commission. A common practice of many aerobic sports is to train at high altitudes and have their bodies adjust to the thinner air. When they then attend Olympic events at a lower elevation, their blood is oxygen enriched. Floyd Landis used to sleep every night in a hyperbaric chamber for that reason.Is that an unfair advantage? No, not defined by the standards that were set. Likewise, Lance never cheated because he always met the standard. It's not an easy question, trying to decide between the spirit of the law, the letter of the law and winning the race. You can only pick two of them.
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