Tea from the Celestial Teapot

I’m here to tell you today that I for one am no longer going to fall into this trap. If the licensing labels offer their content to Yahoo! put more barriers in front of the users, I’m not interested. Do what you feel you need to do for your business, I’ll be polite, say thank you, and decline to sign. I won’t let Yahoo! invest any more money in consumer inconvenience. I will tell Yahoo! to give the money they were going to give me to build awesome media applications to Yahoo! Mail or Answers or some other deserving endeavor. I personally don’t have any more time to give and can’t bear to see any more money spent on pathetic attempts for control instead of building consumer value. Life’s too short. I want to delight consumers, not bum them out.

–Ian Rodgers, Vice President and General Manager, Yahoo Music

The music business has had its hand forced by Apple. Unfortunately, it’s still likely to be a long time before this spreads to the other content industries who are unlikely to make the same mistake in handing the keys to their business to a third party.

My grandmother was driving this motor home around 3:30am on Saturday, October 6, 2007 when they ran into a utility pole placed foolishly in their path. 3100 residents of Lafayette, CA were without power after this incident. Her comment was “I’m a damn good driver.”

The motor home itself had a bent frame, a partially shattered windshield, and the broken bumper which is clearly visible at least. Not easily seen is the car which the motor home was towing, as it’s currently underneath the tree. It experienced a pretty seriously caved in roof and hood. Both vehicles were still drivable.

Photo Credit: Bob Johnson