Robert Paterson's Weblog

Low cost Airfare, Open Source Software - the Renualt Logan

Bloat is what has added cost to may things in the world today.

Those that strip out the features have done well. One of my favorite cars of all time was the Citroen 2 CV, This was the French Volkswagen - a people's car.

One of my best memories was driving up to Annabels and have the parking guy park it. You could carry sheep or your girl friend in it. 70 miles an hour with the wind behind you. It had a starting handle and windows that folded and a gear shift that pulled in and out of the dash. About 60 miles to the gallon and you could take all the seats out. It went on forever and I wish I still had mine.

Now Renault have made the new People's car the Logan. Renault's latest car comes without power steering, antilock brakes or electric windows. There's no air conditioning either, and if you want music while you drive you'll probably have to sing it yourself.

But with prices starting at $6,100, the French car maker hopes its new "Logan," unveiled Wednesday, will take pole position in emerging markets where the car sector is growing fastest.

Southwest Airlines - the Logan. A trend I think for value and the end of bloat.

Now I have heard everything - outsource your own job and keep the difference

Thanks to Jason Kottke

Here is an article from the Times of India.

Snip -

Outsource your job to get a new one! This is the new mantra doing the rounds in the US IT sector.

Programmers are outsourcing their software modules to cheap and efficient labour in India. This way they get the best of both worlds- more money and more time. They earn doubly - one from the outsourced job, other from the new job they undertake.

According to this concept the techie is able to give himself a promotion outsourcing the specific modules to one or more Indian techies . While he takes the charge as a overall project manager.

You can utilise the time in updating yourself to new technologies as well as learning a different domain thereby enhancing your market value considerably .

Says a programmer on Slashdot.org who outsourced his job: "About a year ago I hired a developer in India to do my job. I pay him $12,000 out of the $67,000 I get. He's happy to have the work. I'm happy that I have to work only 90 minutes a day just supervising the code. My employer thinks I'm telecommuting. Now I'm considering getting a second job and doing the same thing."

Even more on why our education system will not prepare our kids for the Flat World

From David Weinberger via elearningpost - Just as we need more critical thinking and collaboration - we go the opposite way

I've let my Marxism studies lapse ever since the breakup of the USSR killed all the good job opportunities for career communists, but somewhere someone talks about the dangerous period when the old guard becomes even more old-guard-ish as the forces of reform become well nigh undeniable. And that's where we are in various fronts of the digital revolution.

You can see the same basic movement in three areas: corporate Net use, the media and education.

It's easiest to see in education, especially if you have kids in school. The connectedness of the Net has clearly changed the way our kids learn. The default for many of them is to do their homework with whoever else is on their buddy list. Collaborating on assignments just seems natural. What doesn't feel natural to them is memorizing stuff. Committing to memory the state capitals or the order of the presidents makes as much sense to them as memorizing your address book does to you.

This isn't simply a change in the list of Things to Memorize. It actually is part of a larger change away from the "container" view of knowledge that says that just as we judge a book by the richness of its content, so too we should judge people as knowers by how much knowledge they contain. In the age of connectedness, though, Web pages are judged by how many other good pages they point to, and children who can retain lots of content ought to be lauded for their memories but ought not be confused with ideal learners.

Yet, how does our educational system react? Our governments--national and state--impose more and stricter standardized exams that test our children's retention of standardized content. Weeks of class time are given over to this testing, and, worse, the entire educational system is bent to a very old idea of what constitutes intelligence. We are teaching our children an idea of learning and knowledge that not only grinds their curiosity into the floorboards as if it were a cockroach, but that also ill prepares them for the work world they'll be entering.

In short: As connectedness transforms knowledge, our education system is swinging--running--in the other direction.

More on why simply getting an undergrad degree is no passport to a job and high earnings

In Neal Stephenson's world of Snow Crash, the US has had to give up all all value in the economy - all the drive and value has been taken up in what was the developing world.

Imagine millions of well educated Indians and Chinese will graduate every year. They come from cultures where working hard, and being well educated are important. If we think that bumbling along will save us - we are stupid.

Thomas Friedman warns us of this in his new book The World is Flat

John Robb links to this -

The Knowledge Worker Gap

Fortune has an interesting article on the competition between the US and China. This, in particular, caught my attention:
China will produce about 3.3 million college graduates this year, India 3.1 million (all of them English-speaking), the U.S. just 1.3 million.
Which leads them to conclude that a large percentage of the 76% of US service jobs can be outsourced. This is followed by a citation of a new McKinsey study:
A massive new study from the McKinsey Global Institute predicts that some industries could be changed beyond recognition. In packaged software worldwide, 49% of jobs could in theory be outsourced to low-wage countries; in infotech services, 44%. In other industries the potential job shifts are smaller but still so large they’d create major dislocations: Some 25% of worldwide banking jobs could be sent offshore, 19% of insurance jobs, 13% of pharmaceutical jobs. Looking at occupations rather than industries, some fields will never be the same. McKinsey figures that 52% of engineering jobs are amenable to offshoring, as are 31% of accounting jobs. Adding up all the numbers, McKinsey calculates that some 9.6 million U.S. service jobs could theoretically be sent offshore today.

They imply that even if a small number of this potential moves offshore, its effects will ripple through the economy in the form of lower wages/salaries. Some even expect that US salaries will remain at zero growth for some time to come.

The New Media - CommandN - A Future for TV - a Plug for Queen Steet Commons

CommndN is a personal TV Channel that comments on technology trends.

Amber Mac and Mike Lazazzera host the show with Jeff MacArthur (Halifax, NS) as a guest segment producer. Brian McKechnie is the cameraman, post-production editor, and all-around chief rendering champ. It is so low tech and yet so appealing. My bet is that in 2 years the low tech will have gone away and it will have a technical quality of mainstream TV.

(By the way they give a nice plug for Queen Street Commons)

I think that this is part of the Media Future - the infinite universe is emerging right now.

I think of the problem that this means for advertisers - who will be watching conventional broadcast TV, listen to conventional scheduled radio, read a print newspaper in 5 years - many people will but not those that you want to reach. They will all be inside the interactive, anytime, anywhere universe that is produced by millions of people and aggregated by some means as Bloglines or itunes do now for blogs and podcasts.

This shift is here now - but these are surely the first baby steps. Think of the speed and the ubiquity of high speed in 5 years time. My Aliant installer tells me that we can expect a 15 time improvement next year alone. Think of storage. My regular iMac has 160 gig and I have a 400 gig back up. What will a terabyte cost in 5 years? We will see an iMovie for sure where we will have all are favorite shows. There will be no technical barrier to the online anytime interactive world.

It's not just the technology. It is culture that is shifting and the new tools serve this culture. There is a Maslowian shift in how many feel about their needs. Marketing began with Sunlight Soap offering the buyer for the first time a predictable utility. The early cars were all about a predictable utility that we could afford. By the 1940's utility has had its day - as many had what they needed for life. Now convenience came into play. This was the era of the washing machine and the cleaner. Then when all had convenience, we had ego - if I have one of these I will be deemed to be cool, sexy, sophisticated etc. Then when all could buy a brand we have been left with only price. Now if it is not cheap we don't want it. The Wal*Mart syndrome?

BUT I note a new desire - the desire to have meaning not for my ego per se - but to have meaning in my relationships. Starbucks makes me feel that I am pampering myself. My son James has a friend, Jen who makes bespoke handbags. You can buy an expensive brand name hand bag anywhere but if you want to give the woman in your life a sign that you really care - you may consider a one of a kind handmade bag by Jen. You may reward yourself with one of Tom's suits or buy one for your man. You may think all banks suck but your sister has breast cancer and you join hundreds of thousands of Canadians and Run for the Cure as sponsored by CIBC. This changes your perspective about CBC and sets it apart. It has meaning for you.

A service or a product in a world where all things are available for a low price must now have a meaning for your relationships with yourself, those that you care about or for the issues that you care about.

The mainstream in this world are not important - they adopt later what the pioneers and early adopters want. You reach the mainstream via the early adopters. It is this group that demand meaning. No meaning = no market.

The cold top down mass-market ad is no longer going to reach the market that most need - the people that influence the mass. The channel that you relied will be ignored by the influencers. The TV, Radio and Print world that stands like a colossus and all the marketing world that is attached to this edifice is terminally ill.

What an opportunity - the forest is burning and all this new growth will have room to emerge. The asteroid of technology has hit the dinosaur world of marketing and the little furry mammals will have their day.

The value of a college degree - vs your passion

Kathy nails it for me

Hotel Chelsea Room 822

Here are two views of room 822

This shot looks away from the sleeping alcove to the window.

This is the other half of the room. To the right is a small kitchen. The bathroom is off on the right by the bed alcove.

Room 822 is where Madonna and Isabella Rosselini used to stay

I can't keep up - Nerd TV

I can't keep up even online with the changes that are pouring out every day (Via Chris)

Here is the latest Nerd TV a PBS new show of downloadable TV

Beginning Sept. 6, PBS will make available - exclusively over the Internet - broadcast television's first entirely downloadable series, featuring PBS technology columnist and industry insider Robert X. Cringely's interviews with personalities from the ever-changing world of technology. NerdTV will be available for download from www.pbs.org/nerdtv .

Said Cringely, "NerdTV will have an uninterrupted hour with the smartest, funniest and sometimes nerdiest people in high tech. These are people who have changed our lives whether we know it or not. Through NerdTV a broad audience of enthusiasts and students will gain a much greater understanding of these techies and the context of their lives and work." Cringely is the author of the best-selling book Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date.

Cindy Johanson, Senior Vice President, PBS Interactive Learning, said, "Over the past ten years, PBS and its member stations have led the way with some of the most innovative, meaningful multimedia experiences available. Bob Cringely's NerdTV illustrates our unwavering commitment to bring audiences clever, on-demand, participatory programming." She added, "This ground-breaking series will be distributed under a Creative Commons license, so if viewers like what they see, they can redistribute the shows or even edit their own non-commercial version. Further, NerdTV offers a cost-effective production model that may transform how programming is made in the future."

Viewers will be able to choose which content or format they download to their computer: MP4 video of the whole program, MP4 video of the "juicy" excerpt (for a more general audience wanting just a nugget) and MP4 video of the "nerdy" excerpt (for a more technical audience wanting just a nugget). In addition, a variety of audio-only formats will be available, including AAC, MP3 and ogg vorbis.

Cringely noted, "With more than half of American homes with Internet access now using broadband, computer video - especially downloaded computer video - has become a viable but still little-used option for TV distribution. The strength of this new medium can be found in how it serves niche audiences. This is where Internet distribution shines."

The Ultimate Chelsea Hotel Tribute - Arthur Miller

Here is a link to Arthur Miller's paen to the Chelsea Hotel - a stunning piece that is on the Chelsea Blog - Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog

Snip - The Chelsea in the Sixties seemed to combine two atmospheres: a scary and optimistic chaos which predicted the hip future, and at the same time the feel of a massive, old-fashioned, sheltering family. That at least was the myth one nursed in one's mind, but like all myths it did not altogether stand inspection. The idea of family had limits. Unless one was drugged out, or spending one's days putting paint on canvas, words on paper, chisels on stone, or singing operatic arias at the piano, one found it difficult to hold Stanley's attention. In fact, I cannot recall a single real businessman-guest, although some of that type may have frequented the regular all-night card games, like the one which caused a bit of a rumble when two hold-up men stationed themselves outside the room and robbed the happy winners as they emerged into the hallway. But such mishaps were rare and would be denied by the management even though it gave the place a certain panache, or relief from real life's ordinary constraints.

It was not, one thought, that Stanley cultivated weird people, potheaded layabouts and some extraordinary as well as morbidly futile artistic types, but simply that he seemed to think these dreamers were normal; it was the regular people who made him uneasy. In any case, it was a general rule that when something weird happened, nobody—not Stanley, not the desk man or the phone operator or Mendel—would ever really know quite what it was all about, and so a kind of fog of exhausted enquiry suffused the place.

More on the Hotel Chelsea - It has a Blog

There is a great blog on the Chelsea

Not only does it journal daily life but is encyclopedic on its history