The Idea Blog

“What this study is showing is that the long-vaunted convergence of the TV and the computer is happening faster than anybody thought it was happening,” says Tom Zito, Integrated Media’s company’s CEO.

That’s the bottom line in a very good, very thorough article about the emergence of TV-type video on the web … in the Weekend Journal.

Here’s a bit more:

“Consumers’ sympathy for the cable operators is in short supply after years of rate increases. Between 1995 and this year, cable and satellite prices have increased by 79%, almost double the level of inflation during that period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Total U.S. cable-industry revenue from television subscriptions hit roughly $53 billion in 2007, plus an additional $23 billion when Internet access and telephone fees are included, according to Bernstein Research.

“And while cable operators say that the industry has provided far more value over the years, with everything from more channels to video-on-demand, most consumers actually use only a small portion of the cable-television offerings they pay for. Last year, the average home received 118.6 cable channels but only tuned into about 16 of them, or 13% of the total available to them, according to the Nielsen Co.”

We use the services of our DVR (digital video recorder) to take our favorite programs off the cable so we can watch when we want and skip through the advertising (as much as 23 minutes per hour). But as with the advent of the $.99 song vs. buying the entire cd, I often go to Hulu.com or some YouTube to find a clip from a show when the clip is all I’m looking for … like Saturday Night Live or Nightly News or Meet the Press.

The Weekend Journal article by Nick Wingfield says a lot of us are discontinuing cable for more video from the ‘net. It’s too early for me to cut the cord, but it’s clear there’s a convergence shift. Let’s see where it goes, shall we?

I love decision trees, which is what I call the mapping flow charts like the one below. This one from adennak.com, and sent to me by Jack Burris.

“I’ve always believed that America’s government was a unique political system — one designed by geniuses so that it could be run by idiots. I was wrong. No system can be smart enough to survive this level of incompetence and recklessness by the people charged to run it.” - Thomas L. Friedman, in his 10/1/08 column in the New York Times.

This time interviewed by “Katie Couric.” Maybe the debate Thursday night will be more entertaining, but the laugh track will be about the same.

Note: Previous appearance here.

Who knows where some of the forwarded, forwarded, forwarded jokes that are emailed to us - who knows where some of them come from. And most aren’t worth keeping alive.

This one, however, I just had to keep. I didn’t forward it, but I’ve pasted it below (after some slight edits).

Enjoy.

Every year, English teachers from across the country submit their collections of actual similes and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published for the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year’s winners:

1. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and “Jeopardy” comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

2. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that comes only from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E.Coli … and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a thigh Master.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leapt from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.

18. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical “lame duck,” either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

It’s no secret that I have long advocated that better brands extend the experience they have with their customers as far as they can. Heck, if you could put a customer service operation in their garages, that would be ideal.

Part of this is my quest to dig into retail, whether by creating a store-within-a-store or going whole hog and taking the freestanding, brand-owned and -operated option.

I saw this assessment of Apple’s retail operation in MacWorld, and I thought the succinctly reported, “keys to success” worth repeating … and remembering.

1. “Apple knows how to pick its spots.” The locations are key. They began in slam dunk markets and have expanded - but not too quickly. My earliest experience with the furniture industry was that a brand often began in its worst markets, where it wasn’t getting the business it thought it should. That’s fine - and, perhaps, obvious - but it probably won’t lead to immediate results.

2. “Apple’s got some big brains leading its retail efforts.” Can’t emphasize this enough. Retail is all about branding, but you need more than big branding brains. How to retail” experts are even more important in the execution.

3. “Apple takes the long view.” The demands for instant store profitability aren’t there. Apple sees it as much as a delivery mechanism for the brand experience. Why else load up on “geniuses.” Again, for the furniture industry, this is a good example. If you’re extending your brand to retail, you probably didn’t have very strong distribution to begin with. Have a clear goal going in, one that matters to the business, not just the retail silo.

From Thomas Friedman’s column in today’s NY Times.

“Yes, this bailout is necessary. This is a credit crisis, and credit crises involve a breakdown in confidence that leads to no one lending to anyone. You don’t fool around with a credit crisis. You have to overwhelm it with capital. Unfortunately, some people who don’t deserve it will be rescued. But, more importantly, those who had nothing to do with it will be spared devastation. You have to save the system.

“But that is not the point of this column. The point is, we don’t just need a bailout. We need a buildup. We need to get back to making stuff, based on real engineering not just financial engineering. We need to get back to a world where people are able to realize the American Dream — a house with a yard — because they have built something with their hands, not because they got a ‘liar loan’ from an underregulated bank with no money down and nothing to pay for two years. The American Dream is an aspiration, not an entitlement.”

Wish we could hang with him and have a few beers. RIP.

Here’s the NY Times obit.

And here’s a nice tribute:

That’s High Point University on ABC’s program, “Good Morning, America.”

The work we’ve done tries to capture the magic that’s happening on the campus of HPU, and so does this story and video segment that appeared on the morning program last week.

We thought our experience would serve us well in a recent RFP (what! another acronym? “Request for Proposal”) from the College of Charleston, but we didn’t come out a winner this time. (Crap. Winner was Jennings from Chapel Hill.)