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.

I'm not making this up: Michael Jackson MMO in the works

The only thing I can think to say to this damn idea is "let the man rest in piece already!" But no, someone won't, and this monstrosity comes out of that:

[Planet Michael Website]

My brain hurts thinking about this. I can only imagine the activities this thing will have inside:

• Bribe the parents to keep quiet
• How to tell time (the big hand goes over the little hand)
• Baby catcher (failed in beta, Michael never dropped the kid)
• Military Fashion Designer
• Guess the Surgery
• Monkey Pet Rescue

I could keep going on with the jokes but it would be besides the point. This, honestly, is a money grab on the dead man's fame. This is just as bad, if not worse, than anything that happened to Elvis since his own death.

One Week Later, Father Update

So I'm sitting here, at my desk, a week after finding out my father was headed off to the hospital. I've learned a lot more about the particulars of what was going on the two weeks prior to this. Seems the last doctor/podiatrist visit for dad he had know things were not looking good. A few days later the right foot toe started becoming white (think dead skin for a visual). Again the problem of my father's "wait until it gets better" attitude my or may not have played a part in him waiting those 2 weeks to seek help.

So, anyways, he's in a nursing home now (one he visited in 2003 for a cellulitus infection in his right leg) for antibiotic treatment for 14 days. He'll be going in some time next week to have an angiogram done on his foot so see if a stint or such can be placed in his leg to increase circulation.

Other than that, my dad is himself: Opinionated, grouchy, but calm and chipper at the same time. Call it an oxymoronic mix, I call it old-fogey syndrome ^_^

Small update on my father

Doctor took a look today and said he believes they got it all. Just one toe (right 'ring' toe) Dad is being monitored for a few more days to make sure. White blood cell count has gone down but is not below a marker that indicates infection.  They're continuing with the IV antibiotics in the mean time in hopes they will not have to take more of the foot. He will probably go into skilled care barring anything further wrong.

Still on a path (Father Update)

So, contrary to someone's thoughts (which, mind you, gave me a needed laugh there Brooklyn) my father did go back to work after my last update. He'd kinda pushed himself back into it I guess in an attempt to have something to do. I guess in not having much more to day I'd neglected to keep and updated post on him. Sorry there ^_^.

He's gone through various modes of healing: Compression socks (which ended up being too tight and giving him more sores) to get circulation in his legs back, more antibiotics, and daily cleanings (done by my sister since he doesn't have the mobility to do them himself). One bothering thing was a sore he has had on his right toe. It wasn't getting any better, but not getting worse either. Doctor recently said it might take a year or so to heal, with anecdotal story of a 3 year long healing process from one patient.

If you know my father by now, you know he diabetes and lack of circulation in his legs causes issues. So this past Wednesday my sister Shawna, the one whom lives with my parents, calls me to let me know that things are not look as good again. He'd taken a night off of work with a fever a few nights before. Now his toe was starting to have it's wound seep. Infection returned it seemed.

Last night I got the most oddest of calls. My father let me know that his doctor made a decision to amputate said toe and needed a driver for this evening. I said yes, and quietly sulked at the thought.

This morning I got even worse news: Shawna calls me at 9 to let me know she's been awoken. The doctor has upped the time table as he feels there might be more at risk than just the toe. Given the time of this post he's probably being processed at the hospital, with some tests to determine exactly how far 'up' they'll need to cut.

I'm not in a greatest of moods now, sadly. :(

A Sucker Born Every Minute: The Vivitar 35mm Camera

Ok, I've officially seen everything. I half expect Vince or the resurrected spirit of Billy Mays to be hawking this product. You need to go to their site and watch the video. My father, for the love of him, is a Luddite. HE CAN EVEN USE A GODDAMN DIGITAL CAMERA.


But enough of that, the add has all the hallmarks of 'As Seen On TV' marketing.

It has the initial pitch

Then, a show stopper!

Oh how I love seeing those words. They are a mark of (lack of)

quality to any ad I see.

In the end, the deal was better than expected:

Now THAT looks like... crap. If you read the fine print, you pay an extra $7 "shipping and handling" fee for the first camera. Then another $7 for "processing and handling" for the second one. $24 is still cheap, but then you factor in buying more film and film processing charges and yeah this is a cheap alternative to downloading them to your computer. For Gaia's sake this is ridiculous. The features of "Built-in flash" and "Motorized Automatic Advance" reek of "We have extra stock of these. Jimmy, make an ad campaign to get rid of them now!"

And Jimmy did, and will reel in many poor saps.

Whoa, a 'The Next Generation' cast listing shows what could have been.

I pulled the below picture off of Gamma Squad's post on the subject: This is an internal memo about the possible casting for all major characters in the hit TV show of years gone by:

Click to see full size

All I can say is holy hell. I can't see anyone other than Stewart having played Picard. Denise Crosby might have made an interesting Troi, but Sirtis had bigger assets (two, in fact. On her chest ^_^ ). Sirtis was notably absent from the list, as is Brent Spiner whom played Data. I can't peg Reggie Jackson for Geordi, or Wesley Snipes for that matter. Speaking of Wesley... JD Roth? He was 19 at the time playing a pre-pubescent ubernerd/mary sue hybrid. Weaton was a solid choice, even though even he hated the character in the end:

Things that make me laugh at my job

Conversation that occurred today at work between coworker and I:

Coworker: It's just I hate when they call in with stupid questions.
Me: There are no stupid questions. Just sarcastic answers to simple questions *smile*
C: "Ahhhhhh How do I start my VPN?"
Me: (sarcastic "Birds and Bees" voice) Well when an Icon and a cursor love each other very much they go *click click* and 9 ms later a window is born.
C: What if it is two icons?
Me: (blank stare for a second)
(hysterical laughter from both of us)
C: It'd produce some kind of error, maybe a General Protection Fault?
Me: IRQL not less or equal to
(more hysterical laughter)
Me: Paging in a non-paged area?
C: Something like that.

#Blogin5 Challenge: Multidimensions and Gravitation Lenses

First off, if you read my post about chaos you know I have a rather odd look at physics of the universe, theoretical or otherwise.

I picked up on these two videos about 6 months go and I'm going to link them here before I go forward:




Ok this is going to be quick but at the same time your eyes will gloss over: If we take the idea that you can use the gravity of massively heavy objects to distort light, called a gravitational lens, does that mean gravity is a function of the 3th dimension? Or is it possible, given that light could be a function of the 4th dimension (given we can't exceed it or time). The reason why I ponder this is that you are effectively traveling through the same amount of space but at a given slower time. Time, being a function closer to length, has only one dimension. Does this mean that gravity bends it? Meaning it would be a 5th or 6th dimensional property? And maybe that's the reason why we've been unable to locate the particle that controls gravity, like we've located for the other 3 forces.

What Country Do I Live In? (Ground Zero Mosque Rant)

I'm going to open up my rant here with two videos. But before I do, I will make this clear: I am in favor of this 'mosque' (see Olbermann's video) being built.

Frist, Obama's words a week or so ago:


Second up is Olbermann's special comment on the subject:


With those show, and using the date from both, I have to ask exactly what country did I wake up to today? I'm pretty damn sure that freedom of religion is protected under the Bill of Rights. Yep, it's right there under the first amendment in the free exercise clause. What's better in the wharrlgarble over this is the fact that it's not even a mosque. Yes there is going to be prayer, but so too would you find this at a YMCA. In fact, it just sounds like a YMIA-like building. To be honest, this sounds like a great place.

But no, religious intolerance has to come into play doesn't it? Listen, we're going to go through a rather hard concept to follow, or at least hard for closed minded people to follow. Freedom is a dual-edged blade. While I don't like the Westboro Baptist Church and their protests (though I did like the geek response to their Comic-Con one) my freedom in not likely thing and being able to express this dislike allows them to exist as well. There is no "because I'm right you can't be allowed to be wrong" in freedom. And I don't like having, as a pagan, Christians get in my face trying to save me. But their right to practice and spread their religion is what make our countries great. Want to be a different religion in a Muslim world? Well, you might be a Shiite or a Sunni in Iraq, but try to be a Jew or anything other than a Muslim you're in deep shit. Like dead deep shit. So we live in a 'free' world, but we don't want to tolerate other ideas/religions? Yeah that makes perfect sense.

In parting, I'll leave you with the words of Henry Rollins (from 2004 but still relevant):