Sweet Land * * * * A Midwestern Masterpiece

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Movies like Sweet Land are rare for the same reason they are precious. This is film at it’s best because this is a film that talks about the joys, sorrows, illusion and magic of being … human. Sweet Land also offers wonderful cinematography, performances, and historical insight. I may have a special affection here because I’m so familiar with the the stoic yet emotionally charged Minnesotan heritage. I think this is one of the best films to capture the mystique that is … Midwestern America.

This movie is quiet and subtle with understated but brilliant performances so don’t expect anything like a blockbuster – just look for a quiet and uniquely Midwestern American film experience.

The rumors of PodTech’s death may not be greatly exaggerated?

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Update:   As far as I know PodTech is doing fine as of December 2007, and the rumors back in July were bogus or exaggerated.   Just heard from John Furrier that PodTech will again host a “bloghaus” at CES, one of the neatest “social tech” ideas last year in my opinion.    I’m a big fan of all that Robert Scoble has done to evangelize quality corporate blogging and really wish PodTech the best.

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Mike Arrington is reporting that PodTech is in trouble. I think this is consistent with the idea that content is no longer king – it’s a pawn in the big game to leverage the flood of free content and social networking activity, a game where the winners will NOT be the product of doing the “right thing”, rather winners will be the survivors of the evolutionary process that drives our rapidly changing digital ecosystem. Biological evolution works *away from failure* rather than towards success, and it seems clear to me this is also how internet company evolution works.

Mike suggests that PodTech might survive in modified form by scaling back and lowering their “burn rate” and focusing almost exclusively as a production and advertising house focusing on their own clients. I wrote over there:

Good insight as usual Dr. Mike.

“… get their burn rate very low” ummmm – can you cite any examples of a companies that did this in time to survive?

I enjoy Robert’s perspectives and consider him a real blogging leader and a digital inspiratation to the rest of us, but I don’t have the time to invest in his videos or PodTech’s other rich content. (just the facts please!)

Producing quality content is now playing with pawns rather than kings, and for some time it will be the companies that leverage the flood of free content or help people process the maelstrom of content that will win. e.g Facebook, Google, and your personal favorite winner, TechCrunch!

The painful thing if PodTech dies is that they did so many thing exactly “right”. They saw video and blogging as sweeping new online paradigms, they hired Robert Scoble who is nothing short of a digital inspiration to bloggers and video folks – he’s one of the elite onliners who puts his blog, money, reputation where his mouth is and actually engages non-elites regularly and with gusto and stays about as Web 2.0 connected as you can without exploding. Also, PodTech sponsored what looked to me like CES’s best new idea – the Bloghaus.

But planning and quality don’t necessarily breed success in biology or business, and PodTech may be just one more example of the harsh new evolutionary realities facing any digital animal.

As Paul K infectiously notes business plans are overrated. Twitter’s lack of a business plan may be the flip side of the evolutionary challenges – disorganization won’t hurt them and might even be part of the reasons it’s looking like Twitter will be …. hugely successful.

Waiting for OnRebate ‘s “no wait” rebate?

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Update:  OnRebate replied to this post, and I think that is nice of them.

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My son just assembled a new and very fast PC from parts we bought at TigerDirect, but suffering through the rebate submission process is sure diminishing the educational value of this for me. Even though he’s doing much of the paperwork himself I just spent close to an hour figuring out the silly details and going offline, online, and printing the various forms required.

I suppose it’s teaching him something, though so far it is mostly “why is dad cursing at the rebate people?”.

Onrebate.com is processing 2 of the 5 rebates we are due. From a technical point of view the system seemed to work OK but the “no wait” rebate option that offers what they say is an “almost instantaneous” rebate is a lesson is how OnRebate is using deceptive doublespeak marketing BS. This “instantaneous” rebate will come to me after they process all the paperwork rather than after they simply match my input to the existing sales records (that would be neat, and it’s clearly what they implied they were going to do).

Sure the stakes here are low with $40 and $20 rebates but I resent how companies like this effectively prey on the inexperience of their customers and the complexity of the rebate process to lower the response rates as well as tag on extra charges. Good rebate systems (Staples comes to mind – Kudos to them) are still an inconvenience but I respect the fact that fraud is a big issue now. Bad rebate sytems are usually immoral attempts at marketing ripoff schemes or reduce response rates (a multi-billion dollar scam that is perfectly legal). I’m not putting OnRebate in this category yet but they are sure on my list for potentially seeking to reduce response rates. Incredibly they also wanted to charge a sneaky $4 “no wait” fee for the rebate that would still require weeks of waiting, just not their normal wait time of several months.

Summary: Beware rebates in general and beware sneaky marketing doublespeak from OnRebate.

Update: Here’s an interesting thread about OnRebate problems. Note that the helpful OnRebate rep no longer works there though it looks like she was great in dealing with complaints. http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/149/ripoff0149417.htm#217843

OMG! are you my REAL friend or my Facebook Fair Weather Friend or?

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As Facebook continues to rock the digital personality and social networking landscape I’m starting to build up my Facebook friends list and planning to develop some travel based communities using Facebook at the social networking platform.

However I’m somewhat frustrated with what appear to be dramatically different definitions of the word “friend”. Facebook emails to “add friends” make it seem like you should have a real “relationship” with the person before you add them even though this approach seems to be breaking down quickly as Facebook use, abuse, and social networking explodes.

Robert Scoble to the rescue with a great definition of “friend” over at his blog – here was our exchange over there:

  1. Robert what’s the appropriate way to define “friend”. I have been confused about adding people to facebook thinking Facebook seems to want me to really “know them” to add them though I already have some folks on there I have not met. I’d say the more the merrier, but that will get out of hand quickly.

    What is your rule for adding friends?
    Comment by JoeDuck — July 25, 2007 @ 10:22 am

  2. Joe: in social networks a “friend” is someone you want in your network. No more, no less.

    If you try to limit it to “real friends” you’ll be missing a lot of the power of these things.

    I wish they’d stop calling these things “friends,” by the way. Twitter has done just that. People in Twitter are “followers” for people who watch you and “following” for people you are watching. Much better name for these things.

Thanks Robert – excellent!

I think Robert’s definition has several advantages, most notably it encourages people to have *more* people who they call friend.  I see this as practical, fun, and a small step towards the elusive goal of more global friendship.

Hey – did you just read this?   We’re friends so feel free to send me an add request to Facebook.    Do you blog travel or your local region?    PLEASE help build a network of regional blogging travel enthusiasts to rule the travel world!

Chinook’s Perfect Checkers Game

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The best checkers player in the world is now a computer program, which will never again lose a game.   Chinook was designed just to play checkers but wound up solving the game with a database of every possible move combination.

Many would suggest that checkers and chess programs (which now are the best chess players in the world) are not a reasonable metaphor for human intellect but I disagree.   This type of program, *factually speaking*, is a vastly superior form of intellect in these limited game realms.

Our human abilities have evolved over millions of years to branch out in far more than a single direction and that is impressive.  It’s also fairly clear that these chess and checker programs are not “conscious” despite the fact that they are better than we are at the games.   However I don’t think it’s reasonable at all to assume that there is something “extra” that makes human intellect and consciousness unattainable for a mechanism.  On the contrary we are *defective* thinkers compared to machines doing comparable things.   Even a simple Wal Mart calculator can “outthink” the best mathematician in the world in most forms of mathematical problem solving.

As we start blending the power of our organic computing devices (aka brains) with mechanical computing devices I expect a more rational, resource optimized world where economic and environmental balances are met.  A world filled with happy, glowing faces and prosperity for all.   Yes, really I do!

Talent, Oregon = Home!

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As much as I enjoy travel, the more places I go the more happy I am living here in Talent, Oregon.    The pace back east is too fast and I think folks get so wrapped up in traffic and the hectic routines of daily city life that they have less time to enjoy just living, and perhaps even less time to do the innovative philosophical waxing that makes the west coast the capital of global innovation (trumpet fanfare here).    But maybe that’s a stretch.

I sure enjoyed the history at Philadelphia and Gettysburg and will be writing more on that as I process the many photos I took on the trip.   Pennsylvania Dutch Amish culture was fascinating and we had some neat drives through the back roads of Lancaster County, past verdant hillsides and historic farms with Amish folks driving around in horse drawn buggies and working the fields with horse teams.   Atlantic City and the Jersey Shores were the “low point” of the trip but I think part of that was the crazy NJ road system which seems to intentionally misdirect you at critical places.   I missed taking a picture of one intersection along the tollway where there were about 8 “stop” and “do not enter” signs, all within twenty feet of each in a tangle of instructions that could only have been approved by a transportation planner on LSD.

Pennsylvania Penses

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Several questions have come up on this PA trip.  What better way to remember the questions and (as I find them) the answers than to … blog them:

How do Evening Primroses work?

What puts the fire in a firefly / lightening bug?

What is a Township?

What is a Pike?

Why is the bizarre Trojan War art exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art considered a significant contribution to contemporary art rather than just “silly”.

Amish Country, Pennsylvania

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We are winding up our trip to Pennsyvania and the New Jersey Shore here in Lancaster, the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Sunday is kind of a “slow” day here because the tourism is very much geared to Amish themes and real Amish folks go to church and take a day of rest, doing only essential chores on Sunday. We did pass a lot of buggies today on their way to and from Churches in the area.

Tomorrow we’ll drive to Intercourse and Paradise and there will be folks tilling their fields with horse drawn plows, vegetable stands tended by kids in bonnets and hats, and hopefully some time to chat with folks for whom time has largely stood still, in a technological sense, for over a century.

[where: lancaster, PA]

Gettysburg, PA Dobbin House

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Dobbin House

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck.
Gettysburg PA.

Now this town really knows how to do tourism. Sure there are a lot of silly tours and silly shops (Battleground Fries?) but the town is clean, pretty, historically fascinating.

We had a great lunch at Dobbin House Tavern. Built in 1776. Underground Railroad slave hideaway in 1800’s. Candlelit tavern feel with waiters in period dress. Good Sandwiches and a great little history primer menu – I love those! Prices about the same as Dennys.

Our spotless $49 per night (coupon book rate) Days Inn with hot waffles for breakfast remains a trip highlight. One more night in New Jersey and I think the kids would have run away for good.

The National Historic Park has an excellent self guided auto tour (free) and had a superb introduction to the battleground and strategies of the 3 day Battle of Gettysburg on a very large map with little lights that you sit around in a small square amphitheatre. Well worth the $4 and one of the few things I remember from my last trip here about 32 years ago. They are getting rid of it to install new media and touchscreens in a fancy new visitor center next year. I almost felt guilty being a touchscreen guy because this was cheap, effective, educational, great technology.

[where: 17325]

Travel Tip: Roomsaver Travel Coupons Rock

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Here we are in Gettysburg, PA.    The Days Inn here in Gettysburg is simply excellent with well appointed, extremely clean rooms and comfort.   Grounds are spotless and pretty.  The pool is large, warm, clean.  Desk staff has been *outstanding* and professional.   Rack rate at the Days Inn website was $141 but the Roomsaver Coupon made the rate $49.00.

Roomsaver and other major discount coupon havepage after page of advertising and a few bad maps.   But don’t underestimate these coupons.  The books generally require that this “walk in, only when rooms are available” rate be the lowest the property offers to the public, and in my experience this has been the case.   More importantly the availability of these is very good on most days.    Even in tourism hot spots like here in Gettysburg hotels generally have vacancies Sunday-Thursday nights.    Do NOT expect to use the coupons on Friday or Saturday nights or during special events or high crowd times, but always ask about availability of discounts and always keep coupon books in your car.  You’ll find them at many McDonalds and gas stations, especially those along the interstates.

Summary:

For mid-week travel try coupon book rates which are often 60% or more off the regular rates.