Sales guy

John Gruber over at Daring Fireball has some thoughts on an Economist article that discusses the recent aquisition of Macromedia by Adobe. There is a bit of historical background on Adobe turning into a company run by a "Sales Guy".

Yahoo!'s most popular photos/news articles was hit with the complicate stick. (Why is the top "story" listed twice??)

The Obscurestore has a "new and improved" look. Which I take to mean they switched back ends. Please bring back the old look.

M

David Pajo has a blog.

I found David's spot o' space while browsing some musician sites, a bit of browsing research for a proposed project. As I wandered I discovered "The Futurist is also referred to as the "Friends Of Shellac" record". Being originally from the undisputed center of the universe, I have had the pleasure of meetings, aquaint'ces, drinks with and friendships with a few on this prestigous list.

This leads me to read the list and then track down someone who I could have (schedule willing) met up with while on my two-week x-country trip last year. An email now will have to do. Jay Ryan is also on the list and had just visited his site earlier in the day - bizarre. Am glad to see that the Watery, Domestic poster is SOLD OUT.

Realist

Added a link to The Cunning Realist, a blog by a Buckley conservative.

Economy

Something I have never had the age to experience finally happened to me; a credit card company has raised my rates.

Years ago, when I worked at Petsmart.com, I wised up to how amazingly high my credit card rates were and began to do something about it. I don't have record breaking rates now, but I've done ok sending balances back and forth, taking advantage of special offers, and getting rid of higher cards when lower ones have come my way. Think of it kind of like gardening.

Well my lowest card just sent me a notice that the party is over and a few more points have been added. When I called to nuke this card the rep on the other end was ready for me, pointed out that I don't carry a balance and that 10-15 years ago, people rarely had APR's like they do anyway. His message: the ride is over. I decided against killing the card (no fee, ain't paid interest on a balance in a while) but the convo sent a chill; could we be looking at a bit of gloom?

April 20th

Breagh.

A few items

GM death watch: part III in a series over at The Truth about Cars.

Dan Neil's article on problems at GM and some new Pontiac in particular. Apparently The General threw a hissy-fit and withdrew its advertisments from the Times (more from T.A.Cars). Indicative of how deep the problems go.

I can imagine what a soul-sucking place it must be to have to spend a life within, even worse to feel like you need to count on it for sustinance.

"GM is a morass of a business case, but one thing seems clear enough, and Lutz's mistake was to state the obvious and then recant: The company's multiplicity of divisions and models is turning into a circular firing squad. How can four nearly identical minivans — one each for Pontiac, Buick, Chevrolet and Saturn — be anything but a waste of resources? Ditto the Four Horsemen of Suburbia, the Buick Rainier, Chevrolet TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy and Saab 9-7X. How does the Pontiac Montana minivan square with Pontiac as the "Excitement" division? Why, exactly, is GMC on this Earth?" - Dan Neil

"GMAC Finance is the only solidly profitable part of the entire multi-billion dollar corporation; everything else is either limping along, a dead loss or a loss leader. Dump the car and truck making side of the equation and GM becomes instantly profitable. What’s more, under independent ownership, each division would be leaner, meaner and quicker on its feet. Think about the breakup of AT&T, and the highly competitive, hugely profitable baby Bells it spawned" - Truth About Cars

I couldn't give a rat's about the products that GM makes, but I have taken an interest in how companies are run and how people create things. I'll admit to being curious as to how this will all play out, mostly as a result of Farago's thoughts on all of GM's divisions being pushed under the banner GM, rather than as individual units.

That time of the year

Visiting Australian, messy desk, a trip to a few galleries and a museum. More books bought and the pile grows. Tomorrow: taxes are paid. More from Jason Kottke, my go-to for time wasting goodness while at the work-a-day:

jkottke: In the book, you say "a slight tweak [in incentives] can produce drastic and unforseen results". If you were the omnipotent leader of the US for a short time, what little tweak might you make to our political, cultural, or economic frameworks to make America better (if you can forgive the subjectivity of that word)?

Levitt: I would start by increasing the IRS budget ten-fold and doing a lot more tax audits. If everyone paid their taxes, tax rates could be much lower and otherwise honest people wouldn't be tempted to cheat. For some reason, everyone hates the idea. But we can't all be cheating more than average on our taxes. I think it would be for the better. And after I got done with that, I'd legalize sports betting, and I would also do away with most of the nonsense and hassle that currently goes into airport security.

Gibernau

pwned.

Links

Where to buy fake DVDs in Shanghai? Try a fake restaurant. (via kottke, the new and improved full-time version, who btw, has been kicking out so much webness since the moving of his chains from a job to himself, that I can barely, if at all, keep up. Damn!)