Author: DOuG pRATt

Christmas Eve 1906

fessenden

It was exactly 100 years ago, Christmas Eve 1906, that Reginald Fessenden first transmitted audio, rather than just telegraph sounds, over radio. There is controversy surrounding some of the details of the event, but nevertheless it was a monumental achievement. The transmission was made from Massachusetts, as told in this radio report.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/fessenden.mp3]

Picking up the story from there, American Radio Works has a 1-hour radio documentary on the history of music on radio, that you can get to by clicking here. If you have trouble listening to it let me know, and I’ll post it here.

Wii Wiish You a Merry Christmas

Wii

If you’re reading this it means our son Eric has been given the bad news. Wii have failed as parents. His Christmas wiish has not been fulfilled. There will be no Nintendo Wii under the tree.

We tried! Oh, how we tried. Carol stood in front of a Target at 4:15 AM, only to learn she was #28 in line, waiting for 15 units. Curiously, the store manager also had 15 Sony PS3’s, but all except a couple of those went begging!

Early one morning, one of the few truly cold ones we’ve had so far this winter, I was #8 in line for eight Wii’s — until a strange Russian man cut in line behind a strange Russian lady who was #5 in the queue. He insisted he had been there earlier, and she insisted she was holding his place for him. Each of them was buying a Wii. But the all-American nerd who had been in front of the store since 11 PM in his sleeping bag said he hadn’t seen the man before that moment. Not wanting to get into an argument, and hearing from Carol that her car had a flat tire, I chose the path of least resistance and left.

Eric will get a Wii, of course, but not for a while, unfortunately. Four years ago I walked into a Toys R Us and bought a Nintendo Gamecube for Eric. No problem. This year we are not happy with Nintendo. Carol wrote to the company, and somewhat to my surprise she got a reply. Here it is. Apparently, they were planning on lukewarm market acceptance.

Hi!

I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been unable to acquire a Wii console. While we have succeeded in making this the most plentiful hardware launch in our history, the Wii has been far more popular than we could have predicted. I want to assure you that production and distribution were at full capacity long before, during, and after the launch, with every available resource used to its fullest extent. We ship directly to the major retailer’s main warehouses, their corporate offices determine how the product is allocated and when they will be shipped to stores.

If it were possible for us to produce more consoles in time for the holidays, we would have taken every reasonable step to do so. Despite what some will say, there is no benefit to not having enough stock to meet demand. On behalf of Nintendo, I empathize with and appreciate your frustration. Once the initial demand has passed you will find it much easier to walk into a store and buy one. When that time comes, it is our hope that you will choose Wii.

Nintendo of America Inc.
Anna Bates

RFD goes RFID

barcode rfid

It’s the time of year when retail is king, so let’s take a look at where retail technology is heading. Recently, inside of a new DVD I found a loose barcode sticker. I peeled off the backing material and saw a Radio Frequency Identification Device.

Besides being a security and stock control device for brick-and-mortar stores, RFID can be used by online retailers to more easily track products packages, containers, etc. There are also potential applications in healthcare. I still see packages from Amazon that have incorrect or totally missing tracking information, so there’s plenty of room for improvement.

If you haven’t already seen one of these things, or if you have and didn’t know what it was, you can painlessly learn about RFID by watching this Flash presentation from IBM. Be patient with the download.

Seinfeld Irony

I’ve never seen even a single episode of Seinfeld. And — HA! — I have no plans to ever change that. Why? Not because I have anything against Seinfeld or the show. Exactly the opposite. If I started watching it I would undoubtedly keep watching it. It’s like smoking. If you don’t start, you don’t have to quit.

As proof that I have nothing against Jerry Seinfeld, here’s a trailer that I love, for a movie I’ve never seen. This thing has been blogged a buh-zillion times, but I’m going to do it again.

Change Stay the Course

As soon as I heard the buzzword “surge” introduced in the news, I knew there would be no change of policy in Iraq, other than escalation. Here’s a brief audio clip taken from Bush’s press conference on Wednesday.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/Bushism.mp3]

Do you hear any indication that Bush intends to do anything differently? I don’t. He keeps repeating the same things over and over, in some self-deluded wish that somehow they’re true. A net increase of 20,000 – 30,000 “boots on the ground” will have the net effect of nothing, other than adding to American casualties.

Stephen and Steven

 

Previously I posted a link to an Even Stephven video on YouTube that is now gone. But now Comedy Central has posted the best part of it, Carell and Colbert discussing Halloween.

Who cares if Halloween was two months ago? Don’t miss this before it’s pulled. Both Carell and Colbert are smart and talented actors, but despite the fact that Carell is from my town I have to give the nod to Colbert.