I hate the tv » business

List of Largest Oil Spills

glen — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 01:58:44 +0000

From the amount of publicity it’s gotten, the Exxon Valdez could easily be thought to be the largest oil spill in history. Actually, it’s only the 53rd largest according to this page. Coming in at 11 million gallons, it seems puny compared to the largest spill, 240 million gallons spilt off the coast of Kuwait in 1991. Also of note is the second largest, 140 MG spilled on the gulf coast of Mexico June 3rd, 1979.

Thinking about it, this could be the source of the black tar spots (like the one shown above) that I knew to be common along the South and Central Florida coast that I knew growing up. At the beach access bridges, where we’d walk over the sand dunes, there were always little stations with kerosein which were to be used to get the tar off the bottom of your feet. It seemed so natural…

A Case Against Patents – Don Lancaster

glen — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 17:48:03 +0000

As a cynic, I’ve developed a certain disdain for the patent system. Mainly because of companies like the new SCO, which is a company that bought the SCO unix rights and makes a business out of trying to enforce patent infringement claims. Sure, if your stuff gets ripped off, and you defend yourself thats ok. But I find it repulsive when people who don’t do the creating, who’ve just bought the rights, start throwing their weight around saying “That’s our idea and you have to pay for it”. I doubt very much that the code monkeys who wrote the products the new SCO now is protecting feel good about accusing the whole linux community of mass patent infringement.

Similarly disgusting is the music industry, with the example standing out of Michael Jackson outbidding Paul McCartney for the rights to most of the Beatles music.

As an American, especially as an engineer, you get fed this story that you can make it big by inventing something, patenting it and selling it to everyone over the television late at night. In a simplistic view, the patent system seems great and would be the “ticket outa here” of many aspiring home inventors. Practically, though, the situation is much less rosy as Don Lancaster eloquently explains in his article “A Case Against Patents”.

Snip:
“Finally, be realistic. You don�t create things to get filthy
rich. You create things because you like to create things
and have some compelling desire or need to do so. As long
as there are enough nickels to keep going, that is all that
should really matter.”

Lenovo Viral Marketing campaign

glen — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 03:00:21 +0000

Speaking of Chinese super-companies taking over our country and Walmart helping…..This viral advertising campaign is a little bit of light-hearted fun. Pretty creative, nice looking.

The Whois gives this info…someone in Hong Kong, I assume:

Registrant Contact:

	Private Registration
c/o Wyith Ltd - DomainAvenue.com (hostmast@wyith.net)
P.O. Box 54806 North Point Post Office -
North Point, -, HK -
P: +852.25121808	 F: +852.25120378

You can buy a stinkin’ gallon of pickles for $2.97!

glen — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 02:49:04 +0000

That last post learnt me of FastCompany the magazine, and I ran into this great piece: The Walmart You Don’t Know bashing some more…

Snip snip:

Wal-Mart priced it at $2.97–a year’s supply of pickles for less than $3! “They were using it as a ’statement’ item,” says Pat Hunn, who calls himself the “mad scientist” of Vlasic’s gallon jar. “Wal-Mart was putting it before consumers, saying, This represents what Wal-Mart’s about. You can buy a stinkin’ gallon of pickles for $2.97. And it’s the nation’s number-one brand.”

What really got me going on this topic is the theme of the Snapper post…It hurts companies to sell out their brand names to walmart for whatever the sales numbers are.

I’ve bought one of those enormous things of pickles for $2.97 from walmart last year, they sucked. They were much worse than some others I bought from the regular grocery store. The best part is that they were probably fine before the rediculous Walmart all-night-stocking system got ahold of them (and they were, for example, left outside on a pallette for a week or something).

Jim Wier, “The Man who Said No to Walmart”

glen — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 02:33:33 +0000

I have seen Snapper mowers in walmart and figured they were just another has-been ex-American uber-company now relegated to a badge on a chinese product. Well Slashdot’s got a great piece on Jim Wier, CEO of Simplicity, which bought Snapper, on how he came to the decision to not sell his products at Walmart:

Every year, thousands of executives venture to Bentonville, Arkansas, hoping to get their products onto the shelves of the world’s biggest retailer. But Jim Wier wanted Wal-Mart to stop selling his Snapper mowers.What struck Jim Wier first, as he entered the Wal-Mart vice president’s office, was the seating area for visitors. “It was just some lawn chairs that some other peddler had left behind as samples.” The vice president’s office was furnished with a folding lawn chair and a chaise lounge.

And so Wier, the CEO of lawn-equipment maker Simplicity, dressed in a suit, took a seat on the chaise lounge. “I sat forward, of course, with my legs off to the side. If you’ve ever sat in a lawn chair, well, they are lower than regular chairs. And I was on the chaise. It was a bit intimidating. It was uncomfortable, and it was going to be an uncomfortable meeting.”

….

Selling Snapper lawn mowers at Wal-Mart wasn’t just incompatible with Snapper’s future — Wier thought it was hazardous to Snapper’s health. Snapper is known in the outdoor-equipment business not for huge volume but for quality, reliability, durability. A well-maintained Snapper lawn mower will last decades; many customers buy the mowers as adults because their fathers used them when they were kids. But Snapper lawn mowers are not cheap, any more than a Viking range is cheap. The value isn’t in the price, it’s in the performance and the longevity.

On a related note, NPR had a very good piece on China buying our brands names a few months back.