jasonr_

“To anyone who wants to photocopy, bind, and give a copy of the book to their loved one — more power to them,” he said. “He/She will likely be disappointed that you’re so cheap, though.”

Here’s a really good one for you. Last week EMI sales reps started making calls to many if not all of their small accounts, mostly independent mom & pop stores, to tell them that they would no longer sell them product!!! Were these accounts bad payers? Nope. Would they not stock catalog or new artists? Nope. Then why in God’s name, you may ask, would they simply cut loose paying customers? The answer given by sales reps — cost cutting.

So let me get this straight. EMI intends to save money by not selling their CD’s to independent retailers. Instead they want these retailers to go to one stops for their product. These retailers are the only ones who buy catalog anymore. You sure can’t find it at Walmart and Best Buy. These are small businesses who have been loyal customers of EMI for 20, 30, 40 or more years. Like in the movie High Fidelity, these guys know every catalog number ever released. Every disk ever cut out of the catalog. They live and die by making personal recommendations to their customers–turning them on to new music. These shops are where music lovers go to discover and buy music. Several I have spoken with are so upset that they vow never to buy any EMI catalog again–or any new artist releases either. Only the certifiable hit product that they know will sell. They will no longer take chances on new EMI artists.

So I guess it just isn’t worth it to EMI to take these orders over the phone anymore. Too labor intensive. And after all, they’re doing so well that they really don’t need the business. Small potatoes. Let ‘em eat cake.

INTERESTING UPDATE: In making this policy change, EMI took the unusual step of notifying these retailers by phone instead of the standard letter. Could it be that they didn’t want anything in black & white?

Also, don’t forget that by being forced to buy from a one stop, not only does a mom & pop retailer pay more for his product (cutting into the already slim margins and pricing pressure from the likes of WalMart, etc.), but the one stops don’t carry nearly the depth of catalog that these guys need in order to make a living. And is this really a good strategy for EMI to introduce their new artists? Another gripe they have is that now they won’t even get new and/or important releases (does EMI have important releases? Maybe the upcoming umpteenth release of remastered Beatles catalog) on Tuesdays, the new release day. It just makes it all the more difficult for them to compete and stay in business, even if it we were experiencing better economic times.

• 16:55 Dude I don't want to buy that stolen surround sound system off the back of your truck. Stop hassle'n me!! #

music
BBC Magazine convinced 13-year-old Scott Campbell to trade in his iPod for a Walkman for a week and see what he thought. Scott thinks the iPod wins when it comes to sound quality, color, weight, and shuffle feature. The Walkman however offers two headphone sockets making it much easier to listen to music with a friend. My favorite part of the review is, "It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equalizer, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette."

• 17:50 Waiting for a specific HD to try to recover data.... Seller shipped wrong one. }%^++><#uck #

• 20:56 Momma Don't take my Kodachrome.. Momma Don't take my Kodachrome..Momma Don't take my Kodachrome awaaaay.. #
• 20:57 @ElysiaWargo Great. We are down to one PC, and now I'll have to surrender it for DAYS while she tries to regain the crown. #IHateFacebook. #

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Kodachrome, the film brand touted as the stuff of memories, is about to become a memory itself as Eastman Kodak stops production due to overwhelming competition from digital cameras.

• 06:13 Jailbreaking iPhone 3G OS 3.0 with redsn0w... apprehensive. #
• 06:18 The deed is done! Jailbroken. Thanks @iphone_dev. #
• 07:19 @Darnell86 Cydia's existance on your iPhone shows you are jailbroken.. From there you can install apps via cydia, SSH into your phone, etc. #
• 07:47 @thebilly I believe so, but I have never needed unlocking.. So I can't say with any amount of certainty. #
• 08:18 iPhone jailbroken - twitpic.com/7w7ks #
• 12:00 @Darnell86 That is an installer. If you want to install ICY, use Cydia and add the repo: apt.ripdev.com #
• 12:05 Laughing at my wife trying to beat someones score on a silly facebook game.. Carly, it's your fault. #
• 19:51 primary Hard disk on Windows machine failed.. backups several months old. F@#$%^&*! #

• 19:11 @djwhelan I feal your pain, I put Half and Half in my ice coffee this AM instead of 2% #
• 19:27 @zachward Hey Zack how's it go'n? It's Jason R from CSZ CH back in the day! #

• 06:13 iphone OS 3.0 feature breakdown/tutorial - 4my.cc/axwpE #
• 07:39 Top down in the rain. No red light, no red light, no red light.... Stop! #

• 07:45 Some moods go better with rain twitpic.com/7jbq9 #
• 18:23 Punked my dad with this txt message: <<MMS error SonPlayingInTheRain.jpg OS 3.0 required>> #
• 21:50 Testing tweetdeck on iPhone OS 3.0 #

• 10:25 #discgolf got out driven by a 5yo. Embarasing. twitpic.com/7dmba #

• 23:00 Briliant - RT @cybersherpa: The #twitpocalypse is real! Twitterific is dead, and I'm heading for the underground bunker to wait it out. #
• 09:50 #discgolf Aidens tee shot. Made the bird!!! twitpic.com/7a5w3 #

• 20:53 @hughashton Twitpocalypse is apon us! (The tweet numbers have gone too high for twitterific) #
• 21:01 @hughashton just bought twitterfon seems to be working see if I like it better. #
• 21:18 Post from twitterfon since twitterific got snagged in the twitpocalypse. I like it so far. #
• 21:37 RT @Twitterrific: Twitterrific 2.0.1 for the iPhone is indeed experiencing problems with the Twitpocalypse. #

• 11:15 Aiden bounces off the top of the basket from 40 feet. Wow! #

With the help of an employee, Fred Young, Goldman devised a prototype shopping cart, based on the folding chair: wheels at the bottom of the chair legs and two metal baskets on top of each other in place of the chair seat. After a few months, the cart was ready.

On June 4, 1937 Goldman placed an advertisement in the Oklahoma City papers, showing a woman exhausted by the weight of her shopping basket. “It’s new – It’s sensational. No more baskets to carry,” the ad said, referring to the new shopping cart.

But the launch turned out to be a flop: Customers didn’t want to use the new invention. Young men thought they would appear weak using the carts; women thought they were unfashionable and too suggestive of a baby carriage.

But Goldman was smart. Instead of giving up, he hired models of both sexes and different ages to push things around in his store, pretending to be shopping. It worked. Soon the carts in Goldman’s stores were a success. By 1940, the shopping cart’s popularity had grown so much that buyers faced a seven-year waiting list.

• 19:30 good bye mom. #

• 08:22 I don't do Sadness.. Not even a little bit... #