The Next Big Music Genre

I just finished listening to A State of Trance hosted by Armin Van Buuren on XM Radio’s The System station. Maybe I’m a little late to the dance party but this stuff rocks. I’m talking about Trance. It’s not exactly new but it’s still only heard in dance clubs in big cities for the most part. But, the Internet and sites like myspace.com are going to change all that. The digital nature of it all encourages swapping and remixes. It’s portable and customizable. Check out Jennifer Rene’s MySpace page and listen to her song Louder. Take a look at the faces; they’re young, trendy, and smart. Think about the technology that is being used to make this music. Think about how new genres of popular music have been introduced since the advent of radio. They’ve all been technology driven. Presently, in my city of Pittsburgh there are no major radio stations playing this genre of music. Someday I believe there will be. If you don’t have a Trance station yet, be on the look out, they are coming. That is unless something else like pervasive, ubiquitous, wireless Internet replaces radio. Then you will be able to get your Trance on-demand.

Technorati Tags: trance+music, armin+van+buuren, jennifer+rene, asot

A Different American Auto Industry

Change is finally coming to the American auto industry, but not in a way that Americans would have hoped for. I fear that General Motors may be the only one left standing when it is all over. Ford may survive as a brand but not as a company. The legend of Henry Ford will be hard to erase from the auto landscape. This is all speculation, of course, a short scenario if you will. My inspiration was this article at Edmunds’ website. My recent probing into the future of the American auto industry stems from a conversation I had with my neighbor yesterday. He was saying that his next car purchase might be a foreign model, a Toyota Tacoma. I haven’t known him for long, but he struck me as the type that would be loyal to domestic cars. When I told him that I was surprised that he would buy foreign his response was that he does want to be loyal but American cars have problems, they don’t last as long as Japanese cars. He has a Ford pickup from the 70’s that he keeps running just for the love of it. He said that Japanese engines last far longer than American engines. Among other things, American cars have real quality issues (at least in the mind of the consumer where the battlefield really resides). My neighbor also mentioned somebody he knows who works for GM. He said that this person he knows is so frustrated because the management that is above him is not willing to do anything to change the situation. It reminds me of what happened to the steel industry. Take a look at what the steel industry used to be and look at what it is today. That is what you are going to see happen to the auto industry. Cars will still be made here but on a much smaller scale and much differently.

Today, the President of the United States is going to meet with leaders of the Big Three. The agenda will focus on developing solutions for using alternative fuels. This seems misguided, they should be talking about other things. The Big Three are in no position to help. They can’t even help themselves. If the present situation persists they won't be making cars and will have no influence on alternative fuel use.

Technorati Tags: iraq, cars, ford, general+motors, chrysler, alternative+energy, auto+industry

House Approves Deadline in Iraq

I thought this was an interesting quote from the NPR story, House Approves August 2008 Deadline in Iraq.

"In these snippets of the debate, there is much more than the lauding of the troops; there is also a struggle — just below the surface — for the public's perception of what happened in Congress Friday."

It makes me think of the Trout and Ries book title, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. If politics is anything, it’s just that. The ultimate outcome is what we believe happened, not necessarily what did happen. For those who think that Orwell’s 1984 can’t or won’t happen, guess again. History is changing everyday based on what the spin doctors get you to believe. Nothing demonstrates this better than a good ol’ American political campaign.

By the way, if you want the short version of Positioning, read this.

Technorati Tags: iraq, spin+doctors, orwell, trout+ries, jack+trout, al+ries, positioning

Skywalk Cognitive Dissonance

Is the Grand Canyon Skywalk compatible with the concept of what the Grand Canyon represents? I suppose it is if enough money, or at least the hope of money, is involved. I am troubled by the words of Miss Teen Hualapai in this NPR story:

“Before, when I [first] heard of it, I thought that it wasn't gonna be a good idea, because it's disrupting the land," Bravo said. "But I started to think its probably gonna help the tribe raise more money, so whatever they're willing to do, then they can do it."

I realize that the people of the Hualapai are impoverished but this comment makes their struggle to live on the reservation for all these years sound as if it was in vain.

Technorati Tags: grand+canyon+skywalk, cognitive+dissonance, money, hualapai

3D Printer For Everyone

Fab@Home will soon become the next big thing in home computing. This will be to the mechanically inclined what personal computers were to the electronics buff. This will bring the physical world and the information world together. Imagine, it’s like having your own CNC machine! This will be the ultimate in personalized items. For example, instead of buying a skin for your cellphone you can just make your own. Here’s where it will get interesting, companies will sell you "a document" that you can print yourself (with personalized modifications, of course) instead of manufacturing a physical product.

Technorati Tags: 3d+printer

iReader by Syntactica

A couple of days ago a friend alerted me to Cringely’s review of iReader. Once installed iReader allows you to hover your mouse over a link and a balloon will pop up with a summary of the page’s contents. I don’t know why Cringely is so hot on this thing. Both my friend and I attempted to use it with disappointing results. To its credit the software was easy to install and easy to use. But, the information it returned was no more helpful than visiting the link itself and, even worse, it locked up my browser a couple of times forcing me to use Task Manager to end the process and lose all my browser sessions. I just removed iReader from my system. Sorry, Syntactica.

Technorati Tags: ireader, syntactica, cringely

Progress In Fuel Efficient Cars

It’s time for some real innovation in the auto industry. It’s time to give up our traditional internal combustion engine in favor of new technology. StarRotor Corporation has a solution that will put America on the right track to becoming less dependent on foreign oil. The engine will not require the average driver to do anything different. It is still a combustion engine that uses gasoline, but the engine is 3 times more efficient than the engines we currently use. Today’s electronically controlled engines already require a high level of training for a mechanic to work on them effectively. Why not train them to work on this new engine type? Take a look at this engine and I think you’ll agree that we are ready for this.

Technorati Tags: cars, starrotor, oil

Unleashing The Intellectual Property Virus

I have been listening to Unleashing the Ideavirus by Seth Godin on tape. I picked it up at a discount bookstore. It was a great bargain. An even better bargain is the free download of the book. At the beginning of the book Seth points out that 200 years ago having a farm was a good way to make money, 100 years ago you could make a lot of money cranking out steel widgets with a factory, but today Ideas are all that we have left to profit from in America. Something he doesn’t talk about, but it is something that I believe is a result of this, is the emphasis on creating Intellectual Property (IP) in companies. Additionally, the building up of IP portfolios has spawned the emergence of a nasty business model. The companies that follow this model are known as Patent Trolls. Patent Trolls make nothing and own nothing except patents then they try to find people who are violating their patents so they can sue them for money. The building up of legal protection by legitimate business’s and trolls, alike, almost certainly guarantees that the future of technological development in America will languish in the courtrooms. This does not bode well for innovation and growth in America. While other countries are moving ahead and growing their economies we will be arguing amongst ourselves and bankrupting each other. My recommendation, if you are a person with a technology background it might be a good career move for you to study law so that you can profit from the next economic wave – the litigation economy.

Technorati Tags: seth+godin, ideavirus, intellectual+property, patent+trolls

Herd

Yesterday I was trying to find what I think will be the next big success in business books. I thought I would try a new way of searching for books at amazon.com. I started by just looking at the listings in the Marketing & Sales category. Then, I sorted them by publication date. I found that there are a lot of books with future publication dates. Some of them are pretty far into the future. When I got to page 13 in the list I found a book called Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature by Mark Earls. It’s not going to be released until March 13, 2007 but I am anticipating its arrival. At first I thought that this was just going to copy the teaching of The Wisdom of Crowds. But after I looked at the contents and read the excerpts I have different opinion. I think this will be on my bookshelf soon. If you want to know more about Mark Earls check out his blog at http://herd.typepad.com/.

Technorati Tags: herd, mark+earls, crowd+wisdom, books