I really don’t like the Yankees, mostly because of their team salary is 227% of the league mean which I think gives them an outrageous advantage over other teams. So I’m pulling hard for the Phillies in the Series. And Monday morning, I posted the following Tweet: “Go Phillies. #CheeringForTheYankeesIsLike hoping investment bankers get really huge bonuses – at least 8 figures.” Kinda proud of my clever hashtag, I then posted this: “…Hoping someone w/ more Twitter clout than I can help popularize #CheeringForTheYankeesIsLike”…which was RT’ed by college buddy Lizzie O’Leary, who called to task some heavy hitters, and off it went.
Over the next day or so, lots and lots of people posted their own tribute to Yankee ludicrousness, including John Berman, Dave Winer, Jake Tapper, Jake Tapper, and Jake Tapper. Not quite a full-fledged meme worthy of being a trending topic. But humor me a mini-meme, yes?
It indeed feels very much like trying to start the wave at the ballpark
…except instead of jumping up and down after a few beers and yelling repeatedly……you’re looking for the guy (or gal) who knows the guy (or gal) [repeat] with the keys to the Jumbotron (or really, who is the Jumbotron)
Very soon after it takes off, nobody knows (or cares?) you started it
I amassed all of 2 new followers. Probably a random occurrence
Even my friend who sits next to me didn’t believe I started it 3 hours after the first Tweet
On a fairly regular basis, feedback at futureme dot org gets silly requests that make me chuckle. Or cry. Or both. Here are some of the recent more memorable ones:
Mar. 3, 2010: Send my letters explaining S&P 500 movement to an earlier date
These two emails are by far the most important and valuable emails I have ever sent in my life to anyone including myself. the public email starts: “Please reveal to me the S&P500′s sequential order of movement and activity for the week of 2010/1/18. I thank you. I love you. I am eternally grateful. Amen.”
Oct. 6, 2009: We hate people with cancer, apparently (FM requires 30 day sending date minimum…) Jay says: “you’ll never beat cancer with an attitude like that”
Saw this on the Today Show this morning and decided to write myself a letter to see how I was doing next week and got a response that said you’re not a reminder service jaand it must be a month away. Well, you know what, when you have cancer, a month may not come for you. What a crappy service. You should be ashamed.
Sep. 18, 2009: He’s afraid about getting fired b/c he forgot his meds:
I was not taking my anti-depressants and think I sent a future me e-mail to my boss by mistake.
Please help me.
If he receives it I will lose my job.
Please help.
Aug. 28, 2009: Sent her Facebook password to the future (and huh?)
well i contacted you because i’m an avid futureme.org fan. recently i was just about to go on a “facebook” fasting and made random passwords and sent it to myself in the future. problem was, i wasn’t even logged in at that time. now as far as i can remember it should have been sent to me a week ago. help please you know how IMPORTANT of a caprice facebook is. i really have to get my password. my user name in my futureme.org account is [******] and i wasn’t logged on to it. i actually sent my random password to **********@yahoo.com, my official email. it’s just that i used my other email, [*********]@yahoo.com and i cant even remember the random info i entered while making this 2nd email. PLEASE DO HELP ME OUT HEEEEEEREEEEEEEEEEEEE
Apr. 4, 2009: He girlfriend’s FutureMe letters wants:
You are my last hope. We have lived with my girlfriend about one year in peace, but serious problems have more recently begun. It is very guilty to me and tries to disappear from my life not to hurt. We are very love each other, but I do not understand as myself to conduct.
More recently she has written 2 letters on your site. (her e-mail **********@mail.ru). the Second should be delivered on June, 30th.
If is though any possibility – send me please text of this letters on *********@gmail.com. Becouse of i wanted to know what i should do to keep peace beetween us and wish to know not to lose she. Help to rescue love.
back in college, I had a mini-moment of fame (nytimes & NPR mentions…) when I wrote a little shockwave MP3 player to accompany the dancing baby (before you could get smacked-down by RIAA for doing that kind of thing.) Here’s a press release that is so old school I had to scan it as a PDF.
I guess this is the proverbial life imitating art… (make sure you catch the end where she starts singing…)
I’m too cheap to buy a real deal Kindle, but I did grab the (free!) iPhone app as soon as it came out, and have to say – I’m impressed. I’ve read Dan Ariely’s “Predictably Irrational” (a fantastic read worth a post in and of itself…) and am currently reading “Dreams of My Father” by some dude with a funny name.
I gotta say – it’s a perfectly serviceable reading experience: fonts are crisp, bookmarking is easy, and as someone w/ a short-attention span, I appreciate being able to “turn the page” every few seconds.
Obviously, there are savings in the marginal costs of producing each book, since there is no need for paper, printing, binding, shipping, etc. So I’d expect these cost savings to be reflected in the price.
But I’m also bothered by the lack of lendability in the current Kindle model, and think this restriction should be reflected in a deeper discount. I very much enjoy sharing books with friends and then discussing them. Always have. I am also a big believer in the concept of a public library. Both of these “scenarios” are challenged by the current Kindle model in which an ebook is tied to a single device. I can’t even lend a book to my wife. Lame. When we can’t read books that we get on loan (i.e. for free), we pay an implicit premium over a physical (lendable) book, as we need to buy everything we want to read on the Kindle.
The following is a very, very, back of the envelope look at relative per unit costs & revenues of physical and (unlendable) digital books, that I think supports the case that Kindle content should be cheaper. Or lendable.
This embedded spreadsheet contains a quick collection of sample data comparing “real” books to Kindle versions on Amazon:
Let’s first talk about the paperbacks:
a) Average price is $10.25 for “real”, $9.57 for Kindle…
b) BUT, marginal costs of physical production are 12.5% less for Kindle books, based on NYTimes article referenced above)and this is self-reported in that article…I frankly imagine it to be more.
c) AND, assume that 25% of the books that I read I get as loaners from friends, wives, enemies, co-workers, libraries, etc. With the Kindle, I need to buy every book that I want to read. So I buy more books. (this 25% number comes from 1 data point here = me…did I mention back of the envelope?)
Based on these assumptions, spreadsheeted out below, we see there is ~50% more profit per Kindle sale than from “real” sales, at least with paperbacks.
And all this, not to mention that the same NY Times article states that Amazon is actually paying more than $9.99 back to the publishers – as much as $13 per book to ease their concerns about the business model. (I do not know how this compares to Amazon’s physical book subsidy, or not. Amazon’s payments to publishers is an interesting topic, but a bit beyond the scope of this little post…)
(Disclaimer #1: Yes, I know there are additional costs, royalties, marketing, etc, that go into a bottom line profit calc, but these are essentially equal between two forms, hence “relative baseline” qualifier)
(Disclaimer #2: I’m not really addressing the relative merits (“willingness to pay”) for Kindle vs. non-Kindle content. It’s all very debatable. My feeling is that there are pros and cons for each form, but ultimately, I am paying for the content more than the form…and that if anything, the physical form would command more of a premium than the Kindle form. Think: bookshelf-show-off-effect). But the goal here is to show that Kindle model is plenty profitable and prices could/should be lower. So this question, while interesting, is a bit tangential.
(Disclaimer #3: Would I really buy all the books that I am getting via loan from friends, etc? Perhaps not…And of course I can still get physical loaners…for now…but even if I would only otherwise buy 2 out 3 books that I get on loan, the numbers work out in the Kindle’s favor)
Hard covers are a murkier picture, as the prices vary more widely, in both Kindle and “real” forms. I’m not totally clear why (though it does seem clear that Dean Koontz is a greedy bastard). But following the same approach, Kindle dollars still come out on top.
So: I say let’s lower the prices…or figure out a reasonable way to lend content…part 2 of this post will include a proposal for the later…
It’s been two weeks since I stopped doing the daily cross-state commute and we moved to Jamaica Plain. I’ve been exploring the best bike route from our new home in Jamaica Plain to work in Kendall Square.
The ride is very bimodal in its enjoyment level. Green = pleasant morning spin – 75%. Red = sucky roads with drivers trying to squish innocent bikers – 25%.
If some wiser veteran biker out there has suggestions, I’ve made the map editable…I’m refining this as I figure out the best ways to get between the two bike paths, and then to get from the end of the riverway bike path to the river.(Making the map editable was apparently a misplace of trust in the “crowd”, as the original route was deleted and I had to remake it. So much for collaboration with the unwashed masses.)
Note the difference in the way back to get around the Kenmore Square death trap. And a slight difference in getting back across Rt. 9 after getting off the riverway as well.
This route is taking me 25 minutes door to desk…45 minutes less than my old commute. 90 minutes a day back. Y to the E to the S. Also – on the few days where I’ve driven, it’s about 23 minutes door to desk. Ride your bikes, people. Good for the climate, good for the city, good for you. And a lot easier than you think.
Update #1:I’ve tweaked the way there to get to the river rather than dealing w/ Kenmore – go up Park Rd to Commonwealth, right on Commonwealth, and left (careful!) across Silber, straight to the ramp across Storrow.
Update #2:According the REI “Bike Your Drive” iPhone app, I save 11.4 lbs of CO2/day by not driving, which is worth $.10 according to (low) EU carbon prices. Willing to sell credits to qualified offset buyers.
I am the VP Product at BetterLesson in Cambridge. This here "blog" is where I share stuff that feels like it matters. And when it needs to be longer than 140 characters. Which is to say not often. When I do write, it's mostly related to technology and/or business. If you're curious (or forgot college art history) here is the inspiration for the subtitle
RT @juliamae: received an email I sent to myself 7 years ago via http://t.co/J8A24wUP. I doubted that gmail would still be around (but n ... 2012/05/16
RT @EinsteinBOT: Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. 2012/05/14
.@adsense - why no support for SSL? @googleanalytics does! my (unanswerd) quora question: http://t.co/y2QgA0Rk 2012/05/14
I really don’t like the Yankees, mostly because of their team salary is 227% of the league mean which I think gives them an outrageous advantage over other teams. So I’m pulling hard for the Phillies in the Series. And Monday morning, I posted the following Tweet: “Go Phillies. #CheeringForTheYankeesIsLike hoping investment bankers get really huge bonuses – at least 8 figures.” Kinda proud of my clever hashtag, I then posted this: “…Hoping someone w/ more Twitter clout than I can help popularize #CheeringForTheYankeesIsLike”…which was RT’ed by college buddy Lizzie O’Leary, who called to task some heavy hitters, and off it went.