Surprising No One, Blockbuster Files for Chapter 11

This one picture tells the tale of a company that failed to adapt to a changing market. I actually have fond memories of Blockbuster as a child. Not many, but reting old NES games while SNES/Genesis were major players in the console market.

However, for all those memories, I also remember on very important thing about businesses, or just life in general: Adapt or Die. This is true in both a social context (Health Care Reform, DADT repeal, Racial Desegregation) as it is in business.

The above picture is a clear illustration of how NOT to do it. The moment Netfix or even RedBox came into being Blockbuster should have shit their collective pants. The RIAA certainly did when Napster came knocking at their doorsteps (and for what it's worth their reaction paved the way for much of the Bittorrent world of today).

But, back to Blockbuster now. This is a classic example of what happens when you fail to either anticipate or adapt to a change in the market. Netfix started in '99, plenty of time for Blockbuster to have changed their business to adapt. But in this case it wasn't aggressive enough, as they took a full 5 years to realize (2004) to bring a similar product, Blockbuster Online, to bear.

5 years, in this day in age, is an eternity. During that time Redbox came into being, meaning ol' Blocky had not a game of one-upmanship but a full fledged war (Two's company, three's competition). We've already seen the fall of Hollywood Video years ago. Slowly but surely the further fall of big name brick-and-motor video stores will follow. If there are any left.

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There's a nice writeup at WSJ about the Blockbuster filing. Shows just how bad the company has gotten in the past few years.

Things left in the dust of the election: Brandon Crip

So, as the US Presidential Election wore on other news happened. Sadly, because of my own fixation about Obama's then impending victory I kind of neglected to write about some of the other news events that caught my eye. So with my world winding down for the holidays I troweled through my notes for stories.  So with that said, here we go.

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Interesting and sad story is the one of Brandon Crisp. On the night of October 13 and argument between his parents over playing COD4: Modern Warfare in excess prompted the young 15-year-old to pack a backpack and take to the road on his bike. The next day the parents filed a police report when their son did not return overnight. While the police picked up their search, the media picked up the story. Anyone want to guess the cause the media pegged onto the reason Brandon ran away? Video games.

Sadly I wish there was an interview/counseling for Brandon to find out what his real reasons were, big or small. His body was found, lifeless, on November 5th by a pair of hunters, in an area that was just outside the original search area. From the autopsy it was determined he'd fallen out of a tree. 

Now, for its worth I'm going to fork my argument here. After the fact the family decided to make a charitable foundation in his name, funneling its funds into Canadian Tire's Jump Start, which provides funds for poor children to take up sports. Sports? Well.. hmmm... bravo then. I get it. It honest would have been a better activity than the video games. And for that, I give heartfelt condolences for your loss... to a point.

See, I'm reading something else here, and it stinks. Contrary to what the media really wants the parents of today to think, video games are not an addicting substance. No more addicting than a father pushing his son, living vicariously through his actions that the father himself could not accomplish. In the end, it is a symptom of something else going on. And this case, we may fully never know. Did he having something else going on his life? To put it bluntly, yes. Yes he did and it saddens me that no one digged a little deeper to find it.

And for the media itself during all of this? You could hear the cries of "wont someone think of the children" from fucking orbit.  It has become the catchall for the problems of societies youth. Is our children playing to much? Honestly? No, they aren't. What they do have is a system of support that labels each and every thing a potential problem, shoves pills down their throat if they are a small bit out of line with the norm, and has little to nothing in the understanding department of what we are exactly putting today's youth through.

Orenthal James Simpson...

... is about to be renamed 'Bubba's Girlfriend'. Karma's a bitch, ain't it ^_^ 

We now own AIG

You... me... any American that pays taxes (there are some of you freaks out there that think you shouldn't. You guys need to lay off the ganja). WE NOW OWN THE MAJORITY OF THE COMPANY

We're bailing out things left and right. Soon, we won't have the money to do so. Actually, I'm pretty sure 'revolving credit' means we don't.

You know what this reminds me of? The beginning of the Great Depression, when the banks started trying to stem off a sell out buy buying (loudly, I might add) shares of companies at higher than the asking rate. They did it to instill trust in stockholders, under the 'If we think everything is good then it must be' doctrine. 

I heard McCain last night saying that the fundamentals of the us economy were sound. Herbert Hoover anyone? Head in sand anyone else?

Train crash avoidance

So I'm getting my hair cut at the barbers yesterday and discussion turned to the recent tragedy of a LA commuter train ramming into a freight. Right now the investigation is focusing on the MetroLink conductor that may or may not have been texting on his phone at the time.

But I'm not really concerning myself with this. Something else tickled my brain. As I and the barbers started talking the question of how the two trains didn't realize the others location came up. "There must be some GPS in there, right?" "I think so, don't you?" "Yeah, I'd thinks so." That was the gist of the talk.

Come to find out, rooting around, that there actually is one on the table, already tested in a few locations, that could be rolled out in 5 years. Moreover, the system in question would also have a last ditch kill switch which would have stopped the tragedy now faced.

I'm not for more rules. I know they're talking about banning cell phones from train operators. That I can live with. But why on fucking earth will you sit on your hands and not get something like a simple GPS installed in the trains? Cost? Please tell me the Fight Club's little adage of "A times B times C equals X" applies all the way to the point you have your head in the sand AND up your ass.

Topics

So this post will remain until I use at least one of the 'labels' *cough*tags*cough* below, mostly as these will be the main tags I use (all others will be secondary)

Guess I could fill this post up with what they mean:

• Technology: things that make the IT world go around
  
• Games: I play way too many, and have opinions on them
  
• Music: Releases, controversies, karaoke
  
• Politics: Decline To State liberal and how I see htings
  
• Life: Things happening to me, where I'll be, things I'll do, shit like that.
  
• News: General news items, or things that don't fit the next catagory (or the above ones)
  
• Oddball: Oddball his hosted by our good friend Sum Ting Wong. Things in the news, tech, life et. al. that are not quite what you would think they would be.
  
• Parting Shots: Kinda my 'followup' tag... I mean label. Used when I do a post, well, following up on a topic I've previously posted about.