Saturday Snow Storm: Music to Shovel…. or a Snowstorm Playlist :)

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A few selections from the music my ipod shuffled to while shoveling earlier today (Madison received about 8″ of snow).

Ironically, I received an email this morning from Tony Novak-Clifford, host of Manao Radio’s Sunday Mornings “Sunday Solstice” program as well as Monday & Tuesday morning’s “Academy of Errors”. Tony’s email mentioned a rainy Maui Saturday morning.

UPDATE:
Dave sends a link from Boston, which will soon have quite a bit of snow. More Madison Photos: Gala & James Gardner catch snowplow stuck in a snowbank. Ann Althouse posts two early morning photos. More later…

Sony admits their attempt to lock us in a box failed: DRM

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Sony’s non mp3 support in it’s portable audio devices was a mistake, they now admit. Yuri Kageyama:

Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, said he and other Sony employees had been frustrated for years with management’s reluctance to introduce products like Apple’s iPod, mainly because the Sony had music and movie units that were worried about content rights.

But Sony’s divisions were finally beginning to work together and share a common agenda, Mr Kutaragi said at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo.

Well, duh. Most of these DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) schemes will fail. Slashdot discussion.

DRM is not binary

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Tristan Louis takes a useful look at DRM (digital rights/restrictions management):

What I am trying to highlight is that while proponents and opponents of DRM solutions both see the world in black and white, they may want to start a dialogue and realize that there’s a lot of gray areas out there.

Via Doc Searls.

Sales Skills 101

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Surviving a meeting today, I recalled the essential skill that makes a great salesperson: the ability to listen, sometimes for extensive periods of time. I’m always amazed when a person selling something can’t be bothered to actually listen to what the buyer has to say (another way one might put this, when the cluetrain made a stop, they failed to board).
It can be difficult, for sure. I remember one meeting, where there was 3 or 4 minutes of silence. Anyone involved in sales and marketing should become familiar with the term markets are conversations. Learn more at the cluetrain.

What Makes a Good Opportunity?

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Jay Ebbens:

So what makes a good opportunity? A colleague of mine at the University of St. Thomas, Dr. Alec Johnson, has come up with what I think is a simple yet effective framework for analyzing opportunities. It is based on what he terms the “Three M’s”: Me, Market, and Money. All three are related, and if any of them are missing, it’s likely the concept is not worth developing.

Coaching in Wisconsin – Worth it?

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Coaching in Wisconsin – Worth it?

Pearly Kiley – wishoops.net [PDF Version 103K]

“With all this talent, why aren?t we winning more games?”
“My kid averaged 20 points in summer league, why isn?t he playing more?”
“Why are we walking the ball up the floor all the time?”
“I wish we had the old coach back.”
These unfounded sentiments were also a major reason why over 80 coaches
chose to resign, were relieved of duty or retired since last season.
There are coaches who point to AAU basketball and all its dramatically improving impact. Some blame school administrators for showing more allegiance to parents than them in disputes over individual roles and playing time. Still others say it takes too much time ? and impossible patience ? to deal with the increasingly overzealous parent.
?At the high school level, the rewards aren?t tangible,? said former Waupaca coach Tim Locum, who resigned after last season and is currently an assistant coach at UW-Oshkosh.

(more…)

Speaking of Clean Elections: Washington’s Governors Race

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Seattle blogger Stefan Sharkansky on voting irregularities their Governor’s race:

Christine Gregoire has said that our recent election was “a model to the rest of the nation and the world.” If what she meant is that the King County Elections Office is her model of how she plans to run the state of Washington, then we should all be worried.
Is it really “good enough for government work” to count 3,500 or 2,000 more ballots than there were voters? The airlines figured out years ago how to match the number of boarding passes with the number of people sitting in the airplane. Why can’t our elections officials match the number of ballots cast with the number of voters who supposedly cast them?
I think most Washingtonians agree that it isn’t good enough for government work to decide an election by a box load of funny votes. It is not the American way for a tainted victory of 129 votes, marred by thousands of illegitimate votes, including double voters, felon voters, cemetery voters and unidentified voters, to take the place of a legitimate decision of the electorate.

Charter Cable’s CEO resigns

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Local Cable Monopoly Charter Communication’s CEO Carl Vogel resigned yesterday amid a decline in subscribers and an accounting probe. Charter’s stock closed yesterday at $1.92/share, a 52 week low.
I think the cable folks have pushed the envelope with respect to pricing and “product”. I can’t imagine much growth is left in that business. The action is certainly shifting to the internet. Former Microsoft exec Paul Allen is Chairman of Charter. Allen went on a cable acquisition spree years ago, which loaded up charter with $19billion in debt (quite a bit, even for a billionaire).