Shanghai Street Vendor 706
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
We did not see all that many fruit vendors but in Shanghai near the Bund, Shanghai’s most popular area, we saw several selling oranges and some other stuff. Mostly the vendors sold toys, unfolding a blanket or small box and working a heavy traffic area.
Ground Zero from Fast Company’s offices in NYC
Originally uploaded by Robert Scoble
Robert Scoble has a very intriguing and tragic picture from Fast Company’s NY offices looking at Ground Zero.
The attack on the World Trade Centers that killed almost 3000 innocent Americans will be viewed as one of history’s most significant events both as an unprecedented attack on America but also as the catalyst that set the stage for the most expensive security and military buildup in history. Did all this spending prevent more attacks? I think probably yes. Was the return on this spending as great as alternatives such as improved infrastructure? Almost certainly not.
Bullfrog Stew 158
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
Bullfrog Stew was one of the more interesting dishes we sampled in Beijing. It was tasty – spicy stew with the bullfrog meat very soft and tender. The tiny bones, however, made it kind of hard to really savor.
Pictured is Kevin Wu, my friend and Medford Oregon Dentist.
This incomprehensibly strange analysis of the potential for the Kindle strains the technological imagination. The idea that this device doesn’t suck is foolish enough, but more importantly it can’t possibly have half the sales of the wildly popular iPOD, which debuted to considerably more positive press than the Kindle.
I think the problem is the notion that average folks might buy a Kindle. They *might* buy a smartphone someday and probably will buy a computer, but they won’t be buying many Kindles.
Is there evidence that people really are buying Kindles? Actually, very little. Amazon has very conspicuously decided not to share sales stats, so only rumors have fueled speculation that Kindles are flying off Amazon’s warehouse shelves in numbers approaching the 55,000 used in the above mentioned crazy analysis.
Yes, it is possible that Amazon is making a killing with the Kindle and that they have chosen to remain very quiet about this, but it’s pretty darn unlikely. I’d guess these things really are happening: 1) They are stockpiling in the hopes this will be a 2008 Christmas hit (it will not) and 2) they are promoting the heck out of this at Amazon.com trying to build a market (this will fail) and 3) they are engaging in somewhat deceptive practices to maintain the pretense these are selling lots of Kindles and will sell a lot of them in the futurel (this may not even be legal as SEC rules don’t look favorably on things that could be seen as mechanisms of stock price manipulation).
Sure I’m guilty of having some bad websites but I can’t resist smacking down ping-pong.com, a textbook case of how NOT to make a sales website. After many frustrating attempts to find and order things I have been consistently thwarted by a bizarre combination of poor navigation and illogical structure. The key problem with this site is that the company is often out of supplies, but has failed to integrate their inventory very effectively into the navigation. Thus you need to click the tiny “inventory” link to find that … they pretty much don’t have what you are probably looking for – the things they’ve been listing elsewhere at the site as if they do have them. I need some Table Tennis shoes, which are light and grippy and will hopefully will help me beat my good pals Charley and Kevin, both of whom already have table tennis shoes. Here’s the inventory I found after clicking around for some time:
| DS40-35 | 3.5 (USA/Canada) | Available | |
| DS40-36 | 4.5 (USA/Canada) | Out of Stock – do not order this product at this time |
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| DS40-37 | 5 (USA/Canada) | Out of Stock – do not order this product at this time |
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| DS40-38 | 6 (USA/Canada) | Out of Stock – do not order this product at this time |
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| DS40-39 | 7 (USA/Canada) | Out of Stock – do not order this product at this time |
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| DS40-40 | 7.5 (USA/Canada) | Out of Stock – do not order this product at this time |
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| DS40-41 | 8.5 (USA/Canada) | Out of Stock – do not order this product at this time |
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| DS40-42 | 9 (USA/Canada) | Out of Stock – do not order this product at this time |
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| DS40-43 | 10 (USA/Canada) | Out of Stock – do not order this product at this time |
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| DS40-44 | 10.5 (USA/Canada) | Out of Stock – do not order this product at this time |
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| DS40-45 | 11.5 (USA/Canada) | Out of Stock – do not order this product at this time |
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| DS40-46 | 12 (USA/Canada) | Out of Stock – do not order this product at this time |
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So, unless you are under 8 years old and surfing the site for this shoe you are out of luck. Why not integrate the inventory such that people don’t have this extra step? The one time I did buy from Ping-pong.com it took about 6 back and forth emails to finally find out they were OUT of what I wanted because in that case the inventory listings made it look like they did have it. Thus they are wasting their time and mine as well as dropping orders and customers. Easy to fix? Of course it should be – they only feature a few thousand total products and therefore should be able to list inventory *on the same screens* as those that feature the products, saving the step and misunderstanding.
So, NO SHOES FOR JOE, and thus I’ll have to struggle to beat Charley and Kevin.
The Cyclone in Myanmar and tragic earthquake in China will take over 100,000 lives. I don’t really have much to say but it seemed cold not to mention these events here at the blog, especially with all my jolly posts about the recent trip to China. Here’s hoping the Burmese Government opens up to international aid. Their reluctance to do so is having the opposite of their intended effect – people will now realize how poorly that Government looks after their own people.
More from China is here at the Shanghaiist Blog
I’m not sure if I enjoyed this documentary so much because it was great or just because I’m very familiar with the internet bubble, startup themes, and the complications of getting up and going with a large internet project.
I found Startup.com fascinating, touching, and tragic. The true life documentary, condensed brilliantly from some 400 hours of footage, follows childhood pals Tom and Khalial as they conceptualize and build a site for government business interactions called GovWorks.com, raise 60 million dollars in Venture Capital, and then preside over the collapse of the company, friendly relationships, and more.
A little more research reveals why this is so good. It’s by Jhane Noujaim, one of the world’s most brilliant documentary filmmakers. She made “Control Room” about spin before and as the Iraq War began, and she’s the winner of the prestigious TED Prize in 2006.
What? You are not Tweeting like a twittering maniac? Daya at WebGuild has a nice feature – a guide to Twitter and how to set up and use the messaging and “microblogging” service that has taken the tech world by storm. In fact Twitter is now as important to many tech folks as blogging because I think it has connected people in a fast, fun, and informal way as well as allow links to blog posts which have more substance. Although I still prefer blogs because I think they offer more thoughtful, detailed information, Twitter is a far better people connector, allowing people to keep in touch with friends, allowing thousands to “eavesdrop” on conversations, and allowing everybody to participate actively with tech movers and shakers.
Olympic Stadium from Pangu Plaza
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
The Beijing 2008 Olympic Stadium “Birds Nest” is in the background with the Aquatics Center to the left. This photo was taken in April from Pangu Plaza, the massive building shaped like a dragon that is the cornerstone of development in this area of Beijing China.
Photo Credit: Charley Aebersold
Beijing off Wufangjing Street 641
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
Food on sticks was very common all over Beijing. Lamb, Chicken, Scorpions, and more…
Joe Duck 