Archive for the ‘Business & Industry’ Category

Prisoner of the DFW Brookstone

Posted on February 8th, 2007 in Business & Industry, General | 1 Comment »

* Regular readers of Degen.Net know that this is a site dedicated to technology and opinion pieces. But once in a while I like to post a column that’s just silly, this is one of those stories *

 

 Brookestone @ DFW

 

As some of you know I spend a good deal of time in airports. Traveling to and fro, I’ve made a few observations that remain consistent wherever I find myself. Confidently I can say that our nation’s hubs of commerce are plentiful, busy and filled with travelers hurriedly trying to get from one place to another. These attributes are common to all airports today.

 

Yet for all their similarities there are some stand-out differences between them. Some are small and quaint, while others are large and expansive. In a few you might be lucky to find a hot sandwich, yet others boast complete Day Spa services.

 

This week was not exceptional in my typical pattern of work – it was off to Phoenix for a customer consultation. So up to the sprawling Dallas Fort Worth Airport (DFW) I headed. For those of you not acquainted with DFW, it is a massive 200+ gate complex divided into five separate terminals linked by a snappy new monorail. Depending on your Airline and destination it’s like shooting dice, you never know which of these five terminals you will be going in or out of till a few hours before your flight. Needless to say, checking your gate assignment before you leave the office is more than just a good idea.

 

For this flight I was departing from the new international terminal. Terminal D was completed last year and it’s a grand place as far as airport terminals go. Plenty of dinning options, sharp airline lounges, and shopping.. Lots of Shopping. In fact there are probably more shopping options in terminal D than in many malls around the country.

 

Ok, so maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but like most malls, terminal D features store directories, multiple floors of vendors, a food court, heck its even got a few of those artsy display areas with water features and strange colored glass panels to look at – not sure why there are there, but they look pretty cool!

 

But a mall is not complete without “that” store. You know the one, it’s got all those cool gadgets you just gotta have? Kind of like a SkyMall catalog on the ground, I’m describing, of course, Brookstone. Terminal D has not one, but two Brookstones. 

Now maybe it’s just me, but I love that store. And even though there are many wiles to entreat your senses at Brookstone, there is one particular display that gets me every time – the massages chair. Ah, heavenly joy packaged in black leather – it beckons me on, “come to me, sit!” I can not resist it.

 

And this was no ordinary model, it has you covered form the neck down; it’s all good. So kicking off my shoes I sit back in this monstrosity of comfort. It even requires you to put your arms in special massaging arm rests. Hitting the “shiatsu” mode I reclined and all my cares slipped away….

 

There is only one problem with such a splendid device, sooner or later you need to end the cycle, get up and leave. Now this should not be so difficult right? Let’s just say after a few minutes of complete muscular bliss, it’s easier said then done. Looking down at my watch – Holy Cow – it’s time to catch my plane.

 

Up till now I have avoided the sales lackey who’s job it is to come by and guilt you into buying one of these hugely expensive contraptions or, if unsuccessful with that, move you along quickly. My luck has just run out.

 

Steve is that sales guy, he is about 25 and he’s really zealous in his duties at the Brookstone.  Steve does not seam to understand that my flight is 20 gates away and leaves in 10 minutes – He’s focused, he wants me to experience all the functions of the Massage Master 9000.  Only vaguely acknowledging his sales pitch, I express with all the non-verbal cues I can, that I’m running short on time, but to no avail, his presentation has hit full stride now.

 

Struggling to wrangle my feet free from the form fitting foot attachment, Steve is now reviewing financing plans on the Jumbotron massager that I’ve been sitting in – can’t he see I’m trying to get out of here?  My shoes are on now and I’m adjusting the recline button back to a upright position, almost free. Steve sensing that I was never really interested in the chair wants to demo iPods and Zunes for me now….

 

Moments later I settle into my exit row aisle seat. It’s not nearly as plush or soothing as the Brookstone one, but as the flight attendant latches the door closed and we taxi to the runway, I vow to steer clear of that vile tempter Brookstone, at least till the next trip!

Go Long!

Posted on February 4th, 2007 in Business & Industry, News & Updates | No Comments »

Superbowl XLI

It’s time for Superbowl XLI! Oh I just like saying that “XLI”, sounds like a really hot Graphics card. You know like NVIDIA 9900 XLI…Oh well I digress.

Will Payton Air it out all over “Da Bears?” Or can the boys from Soldier Field beat down the Colts with their ground game? Anything is possible but I know I will be watching for the commercials. Can’t wait to see Kevin and Alex from Digg.com in the Go Daddy spot, or will they be passed out doing a bit for Jugermeister? Regardless it’s always fun to see who spent two million for 30 seconds!  

Happy Vista Day!

Posted on January 29th, 2007 in Business & Industry, Windows | No Comments »

Unless you have been living under large topiary for the past couple of years, you know that January 30th, 2007 marks the wide scale consumer release of Microsoft Windows Version 6.0.6, or the product you might know better as Vista. 

So in case you’re not one of the many Corporate IT departments already wrestling with the thought of Vista deployment, or a member of the press with an advance copy, or a developer (or even a wanna be developer) with MSDN, or you attended any MS event in the last few months, or you “purchased” one of the CTP (Community Technology Previews), or you Bittorrented a cracked copy – wow come to think about it, who doesn’t have a copy of Vista yet?

Well, for the eight of you who spent the night in a CompUSA parking lot so you can get your hands on the golden code (I use that term loosely) this Blog’s for you.

Actually, I shouldn’t “dis” those of you who are not as jaded, as I do recall the excitement of ripping open the shrink wrap of a new Microsoft OS to frantically jam its 5 1/4“ floppies into my system. For me the day was a cool Tuesday Morning, May 22nd, 1990. If that’s a little misty in your memory it was the launch day for Window 3.0.

Much has changed as far as launch days go. There where no Rock Stars, world wide simultaneous telecasts, and no “Start” buttons. There was no line wrapping around the door at the Egghead Software, ah Egghead – good times in that place. No the real excitement was not in the glitz of the launch itself, but rather in the technology, the software, the anticipation of totally new and improved product.

The expectation that this version of Widows would redefine the way users interact with their data. The promise that this Windows experience would so far exceed those of previous versions that I would instantly ask myself how I ever functioned before. Yes, there was a lot of anticipation as an early adopter back then.   Funny, the more I think about all that has changed, the more clear what has remained the same becomes. We’ve all been filled with hope of a better Windows for a long time.

A “hope” that this version of Windows will actually deliver on the dreams we’ve had for Windows 3.11, NT, 95, 2000, and even XP, the hope of a stable, secure and productive OS.

So Happy Vista Day – I hope the wait truly ends.

Intel Acknowledges AMD was Right all along

Posted on January 22nd, 2007 in Business & Industry | No Comments »

So with everyone hyped out of their minds about what the new Apple phone will or will not do / when will it be available / oh Steve Job’s is such a mastermind… Enough already! There are other subjects to blog about, such as this major acknowledgement from Intel.

Intel concedes the mega-hertz war with rival chip makers was not the solution to wining the microprocessor wars after all.

What was that? You did not see the press release? Funny, I missed it too, but let me see if I can put the pieces together for you.

Remember over a year ago when Intel re-branded all its desktop processors to Pentium D 805/820/915 and so on. Then came the rather meaningless distinction “ViiV”, and alas this year we have the endless parade of Core 2 Duo TXXXX, EXXXX with the new Quad cores hitting the streets now with, you guessed it, equally confusing nomenclature.  Now don’t get me wrong, Intel’s new Core architecture is stunning and impressive, but aren’t they accomplishing this with lower power, wider buses, better caching and Slower Chip Speeds. Hum, sounds a lot like AMD’s direction for the past several years.

This year, Intel’s booth at CES served to reinforced this stance. It was heavy on glitz and light on any substance. Now this could be due to their show floor proximity to Microsoft – right next door. All the cheap shots aside, it was a shame that the focus of the Intel subcontract show staff was, ”it’s all about the multi-cores!” (Of the three I spoke to at length, none of them actually worked for Intel – rent a marketer.)

Intel Booth at CES 2007

As you can see from the photo, just about every kiosk and display within the booth centered on gaming. Hey gaming is cool, but as an industry guy, why not tell me how fast the chip is running, how many cores it has, and how big the L2 cache is – this would be more helpful then trying to figure out which chip is faster T2050, E6600 or X5160?

One thing is certain, the ball is now back in AMD’s court. Can they answer back to not only the performance, but marketing edge that Intel has garnered with the Core platform? I think it’s possible, but please AMD, for the love of all things holy, don’t convolute your product names like Intel.