Soapbox

When I first heard Microsoft chose “Vista” as the official name for the much-delayed Longhorn release of Windows, I immediately thought of this (Quicktime, 657KB). Does this mean I am a bad person?

France is the most generous donor in the G-8, contributing 0.42 percent of national income, followed by Britain at 0.34 percent, Germany at 0.28 percent and Canada at 0.26 percent. France has said it will meet the 0.7 percent goal by 2012 and the U.K. by 2013.
Oxfam quoted by Bloomberg

The unfolding Indian Ocean tsunami disaster is a great opportunity to set this right. You can donate to Doctors without Borders as I have, or to one of the many other relief agencies working to bring aid to the displaced survivors and stave off the spread of disease. When I was younger and shopping around for English dictionaries, my litmus test for a good dictionary was whether it included the word “tsunami”. Now I wish it had not reached this sudden notoriety…

King Gillette is famous for his invention of the disposable-blade razor, and the associated business model, “give away the razor, sell the blades”. This strategy was widely imitated, but it seems marketers have struck an even better one: why give away the razor when you can make the chumps pay for it?

There are a number of products, some high-tech and some not where you actually pay handsomely for a device that is a doorstop without proprietary refills or service. Some examples:

• In the US, most cell phones are either hard-wired to a specific service provider (CDMA) or SIM-locked (GSM). A consumers’ group is fighting in court to ban or at least limit in time the practice, which is either outlawed or strictly regulated in most other countries.

  Sure, the carrier is subsidizing the handset, but that is offset by extra profit margins in the contract. Once the contract’s minimum term is over, there is no justification whatsoever for maintaining the SIM lock. AT&T was one of the most egregious offenders, it is not clear if their policy will change after their takeover by Cingular.

  I suspect one of the big reasons for SIM lock is so carriers can charge extortionate international roaming charges, since without SIM lock, it would be cheaper to just pop in a prepaid SIM card in the country you are visiting. Actually, roaming charges are so overpriced that it is cheaper to just buy a new phone for the prepaid card and toss it away afterwards.

  There are real externality costs to society due to distortions in consumer behavior from carrier policies. Many people throw away their old cell phones when they change service or renew a contract, as the subsidy is only applicable towards a new phone purchase, never granted as a rebate to people opting to keep their older but perfectly serviceable phone. In California alone, 44,650 cell phones are discarded each day, usually ending up in landfill, at tremendous cost to the environment.

• MP3.com founder Michael Robertson is suing Vonage for trying to extend the same despicable lock-in model to VoIP, with what he claims is deceptive advertising. Most commentators have rushed to Vonage’s defense — apparently, for many geeks the company can do no wrong, like Google. I have no such compunctions, as I have in the past received completely unsolicited spam from them, and thus as far as I am concerned, they fit in the “scum” category.

• In a great illustration of the power of cognitive dissonance, TiVo is another company with rabid and uncritical fans. Originally, TiVo PVRs would remain somewhat functional even without the TiVo service. Sure, you would have to program shows manually, but that is no worse than most VCRs. Over successive software updates, TiVo have reduced their PVRs’ autonomy until they are now effectively useless without the service.

• Inkjet printer manufacturers use all sorts of tricks to protect their racket, including putting in microchips designed to foil refilling or the use of third-party cartridges. Lexmark even tried to abuse the DMCA to prevent a competitor from selling reverse-engineered cartridge chips. All this so inkjet ink can remain the most expensive liquid, at significantly higher cost per milliliter than Chanel No. 5 or vintage Dom Perignon.

As in most cases the utility of the machine without the overpriced refills or service is nil, the fair market price for it should be zero. The Vonage/Linksys situation is a special case as the wireless router remains partially usable, albeit without VoIP features if you switch providers. But marketers will keep trying to have it both ways until consumers push back by implementing a zero-tolerance policy, akin to the “broken-window” theory of policing. Do not accept to pay for a cell phone from a carrier that refuses to unlock it after a reasonable amount of time. Refuse to purchase digital devices that require service from a specific vendor to function.

As is his wont, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer put his foot in his mouth when he accused iPod owners of being thieves. Actually, the journalists’ reports are not entirely accurate – while he used the iPod as an example, what he was really implying is that any music format that is not encumbered with mandatory digital rights management (DRM) restrictions induces “theft”.

Copyright infringement is certainly illegal, and should remain so, but merely repeating the mantra that copyright infringement is tantamount to theft does not make it so. This is beyond the point. Many stores have to deal with shoplifting, which is indeed theft. What if a store you were in accused you of shoplifting and performed a strip search? You would feel humiliated and enraged, certainly stop patronizing them and almost certainly sue them for false imprisonment. DRM is no different.

There is no acceptable form of digital rights management, period. And yes, that includes the iTunes Music Store’s AAC/Fairplay.

Gubernator Arnold Schwarzenegger signed on Wednesday a bill to ban the production and sale of foie gras in California in 2012. The bill was pushed by his outgoing horse-trading partner, Democratic state senator John Burton. The highly dubious rationale is that the force-feeding of ducks or geese to produce foie gras is “cruel”. I can think of many culinary preparations that would qualify, such as lobsters or crabs boiled alive. Then again, many more people eat crustaceans than foie gras, thus they are not as safe a target for a grandstanding politician who has no compunctions about trying to stuff his unwanted offspring down San Francisco voters’ throats.

I think the last thing San Francisco’s stricken economy needs is another coup de grâce to its’ restaurants, one of the few local industries that can (just barely) survive its business-hostile climate (our restaurateur mayor Gavin Newsom seems to agree). In the meantime, better to make your reservations at the French Laundry while you still can. In seven years’ time, the only place you will be able to get your fix will be from shady characters in the dark alleys of the Tenderloin, if its gentrification is not complete by then. If you think foie gras is expensive today…