Disqus - Latest Comments for Bob Caswell

Re: Digging a hole in the WSJ pay wall

Bob Caswell — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:51:47 -0000

Here’s a review with screenshots.
The most interesting thing is the window that pops up after you’ve submitted. It shows one column of the recently popular stories from the WSJ.com on Digg and another column of upcoming WSJ stories on Digg.

Re: Digg’s town hall addresses many questions - or the same ones over and over again

Bob Caswell — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:24:37 -0000

I found it interesting that they did admit to having a blacklist of sites that is matched with the upcoming queue in an automated process. But then, don't worry, there's no "auto-bury." Well, I guess it's how you define auto-bury. To me, that sounds an awful lot like what I would consider to be "auto-bury."

But then, all they had to say is "fighting spam" and all is well. The crowd is appeased even if plenty of legitimate sites are auto-buried / blacklisted in the process.

Plus there was a quick nod to the "our hands are tied" excuse toward the end in reference to the fact that sometimes the digg crowd gets together and decides it hates certain sites/blogs. Too bad for those sites; they're not welcome by however many of the tens of millions of uniques it takes for the sites to be blacklisted/auto-buried (I'm guessing probably somewhere around .00001% of the community can decide what is permanently not wanted by everyone).

To recap, legitimate sites can be (and have been, just not Engadget or Ars Technica, of course) blacklisted / banned / auto-buried (pick your term) because they're a) mistaken as spam or b) rejected a couple times by an extremely small percentage of the community.

Re: Why Are Companies So Horrible At Pre-sales Customer Service?

Bob Caswell — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 06:43:50 -0000

Wow, Danielle, I wonder how many pre-sales centers are run in a similar fashion... That's crazy.

Re: Radiohead’s Social Experiment: Choose Your Own Price for Our Music

Bob Caswell — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 22:59:30 -0000

Kevin, some good points... And if the download is available totally free, well, I suspect plenty of people will jump for it at that "price."

A major catch-22 with their otherwise clever idea is that it's difficult to pick a price for something before you know your opinion of it. A convoluted solution would be to give away DRM-ed versions of the songs only later to offer DRM-free versions for a made-up price.

Of course, I hate DRM and that suggestion is only given to provide context for others to think of better ideas!

I suppose we don't get to listen to entire albums before buying as it is right now, but the difference is that here picking the price is the point.

I have to admit that I'd be inclined to pick a higher price if it was after I had a listen (of course, that runs the risk of the price getting lower if the album sucks for me).

Re: Radiohead Responds to Download Stats: Says They’re False

Bob Caswell — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 20:51:40 -0000

"Uh….ever considered that maybe you’re NOT supposed to speculate on the fate of the music industry???"

@Ewen: Wow, sorry to disappoint, but I was being sarcastic. Even so, unauthorized speculation seems to be a pretty serious deal, in your mind. I'll make sure to get your permission next time.

Re: Help Me Decide: HD DVD or Blu-ray?

Bob Caswell — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 12:51:34 -0000

Tom, any of those $99 HD-DVD players still left?

Re: HD DVD Still Winning Price War vs. Blu-ray: Player & 10 Movies $219

Bob Caswell — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:46:57 -0000

Interesting, Logan. I certainly can understand your hesitance, but I wonder if you could provide more specifics on your intel that puts Blu-ray as slightly better technology.

Here's what I know: Both formats use pretty much the same codec, which is the number one determinant of picture quality. Blu-ray players usually come standard as 1080p whereas HD-DVD has the cheaper and "less quality" option of 1080i. But that could be argued as positive for HD-DVD, giving consumers more control (after all, there are plenty of HDTV buyers whose TVs don't support 1080p, so why pay for it if you won't use it?).

Another area where Blu-ray is arguably "better" is that its discs can hold 50gigs whereas HD-DVD discs can hold only 30gigs. But the way movies work, those maxes aren't even close to being hit.

And one area where HD DVD actually is "better" technology than Blu-ray:

All HD DVD players are required to come with network connectivity, which allows for more advanced features (which I mentioned in an earlier article) and easier updates. Blu-ray players, on the other hand, may or may not come with network connectivity. And so far, they've needed more updates, which would be a huge pain if not automatic through online connectivity.

Also, remember that HD DVDs work anywhere in the world whereas Blu-ray are region specific.

Anyway, let me know if you know something I'm missing... But I think it's hard to say one is better (even slightly) at this point. But if I were to pick which is "better" technology, you probably could guess my opinion based on the above info...

Re: HD DVD Still Winning Price War vs. Blu-ray: Player & 10 Movies $219

Bob Caswell — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:58:08 -0000

And I should mention that HD DVD also allows for combo discs where the movie can work on HD DVD or DVD players (many of the HD DVD movies come in this dual format). Blu-ray movies don't have that option; they will only work on Blu-ray players.

Re: Email Signatures with Famous Quotes: Amusing or Annoying?

Bob Caswell — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:47:54 -0000

Wow. How come I've never heard of "Have meaningful conversations through email signature quotes" or "You smell"?

Those should be instant classics!

Re: Apple TV 2.0 vs. Netflix Unlimited: This Will Be Interesting

Bob Caswell — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:18:55 -0000

So basically, masterblaster, your thoughts are similar to mine:

Apple having bonus "cool" features doesn't compare to one less box you have to setup on your TV. If Netflix gets into gaming (literally)... sounds like we're both sold.

Re: eBay: No Matter How Hard You Try, You’re Still No Amazon

Bob Caswell — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:18:10 -0000

Yeah, Arse, but again, that's kind of the point:

If eBay only works for "specialty, oddball, collector stuff" and is for "smart and careful" people only... Well then, that means eBay is screwing a lot of people by default due to its sheer size and the majority of what it offers.

I like retailers were the default position isn't getting screwed. And Amazon fits that description better than any other online retailer I know.

Re: Amazon Drops Price of HD DVD Player to $99, Upconvert DVD w/ Free Movies?

Bob Caswell — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:44:03 -0000

like picture." But then again, your use of "totally" as part of "totally false" was about as inaccurate. After all, it's not "totally false" that DVD players are competition for Blu-ray... Careful when you make a semantic argument; it can come back on you.

Re: 2007/04/20/myspace-porn/

Bob Caswell — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 09:56:41 -0000

One of the sources for this story has moved, hereâ€™s the updated location:

http://www.techconsumer.com/2007/04/20/social-n...

Re: 2008/01/23/yahoo-music-mp3/

Bob Caswell — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:37:47 -0000

This news is more interesting when combined with what Yahoo Musicâ€™s VP of Product Development Ian Rogers hinted at a couple weeks ago:

http://www.techconsumer.com/2008/01/23/yahoo-wo...

Re: 2008/01/27/amazon-mp3-going-international-in-08/

Bob Caswell — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 07:28:27 -0000

If anyone's curious, it's likely the first countries to get this will be Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, France, China, and Japan. See here for details:

http://www.techconsumer.com/2008/01/27/amazon-m...

Re: 2008/02/09/yahoo-to-rebuff-microsoft-offer/

Bob Caswell — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:42:26 -0000

If you look at the reasoning, you can tell Yahoo is grasping at straws with contradicting logic:

http://www.techconsumer.com/2008/02/09/yahoo-bo...

Re: 2008/02/25/digg-townhall-liveblog/

Bob Caswell — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:55:50 -0000

Re: Awesome Tools to Improve Your Website | Moongrabber

Bob Caswell — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:23:45 -0000

Good compilations and reviews. Personally, I've been using Wordtracker for years, and give it a hearty thumbs up.

tech consumers last blog post..Microsoft Finally Lands One

Re: The brand promise of Apple

Bob Caswell — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 23:27:39 -0000

It will be interesting to see what happens if/when Macs hit that critical mass. While it's not the best comparison (for other reasons), a few years back Dell was the talk of the town, that is, until it got too popular. Now it's on its way back up but only after learning from some serious mistakes.

But Apple inevitably knows its weaknesses and will likely address them eventually (hopefully sooner rather than later). Scoble is only the beginning of Apple hell stories, provided the company continues into the more mainstream with its computers (that's what we all want, right? Or maybe not...).

Re: Microsoft might have last laugh on HD-DVD

Bob Caswell — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:32:16 -0000

Also, at least HD DVD eased the pain for its buyers/users:

http://www.techconsumer.com/2008/01/08/irony-al...

Re: Sign of the times: political TechMeme headline

Bob Caswell — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:21:16 -0000

I don't know, I think McCain has an outside chance, but it would seem this year Obama has it in the bag (unless something drastic happens). I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Re: Digg Traffic Has Questionable Value For Most Niche Publishers

Bob Caswell — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:56:47 -0000

Hmm... Interesting even if a tad on the anecdotal side. I'm no Digg fanboy (we'll see if they join the conversation) but Digg has been trying to address this issue for sometime. And you pointing out your site and the WSJ as reason enough to believe Digg has not broken out of its original niche... I'd like to see more data one way or the other before I jump on a bandwagon and agree.

Re: Digg Traffic Has Questionable Value For Most Niche Publishers

Bob Caswell — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:58:19 -0000

Don,

I just can't help but point out the irony of what you say here juxtaposed with the Microsoft Facebook valuation... You probably had little to do with that (or maybe you did? I have no idea).

But it's interesting for me to see a $300M Digg valuation being considered so far fetched after a $15 billion Facebook valuation (which to me is even more far fetched, and it's the reality one!).

Re: Digg Traffic Has Questionable Value For Most Niche Publishers

Bob Caswell — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:51:38 -0000

I know the "relative worth" ideology is a trap even if part of the puzzle for any VC type. Plenty of other more important factors exist in any valuation, to be sure. But many of these are behind the scenes factors which the outside world is left to speculate on. Hence, relative worth comparisons tend to get more attention than they deserve. And the difference between acquisition and equity investment is a valid point but isn't necessarily a conversation ender to my point.

In other words, you cleverly sidestepped even addressing Facebook in your context of what makes Digg a touch sell. That is, "an audience that has no money to spend, wants everything for free, and has an attention span of a few seconds." That's not too far off from describing Facebook to a certain degree.

The investment type may be different (equity vs. acquisition) but interestingly enough, Facebook is in the same boat, in that it's a social site relying on advertising. And while I think the attention span of Facebook users is probably much higher than that of Digg users, the "money to spend" and "want everything for free" factors are likely not that different across the two sites.

But let's assume for a second that I'm way off the mark and that the equity vs. acquisition point of yours makes all of what I said above irrelevant... I'd be curious, in this scenario, if you were to analyze Digg from an equity viewpoint, if the $300M would be more palatable? Let's say, for example, a $30M investment for 10%?

Putting it in this framework, what makes Facebook 50x more valuable than Digg (or many more times more valuable, really, since the $15 billion Facebook valuation is real and the $300M Digg valuation is apparently high)? Because using your advertising criteria (which seems most relevant), I'm not seeing why Facebook is so much better (it is better, but not to the degree that these numbers show, in my opinion).

Re: The Only 14 Companies Now Worth More Than Google

Bob Caswell — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 23:13:31 -0000

The link in comment #3 needs to be updated:

http://www.techconsumer.com/2006/11/22/the-goog...

Re: Mozy.com’s Backup Software is Shit

Bob Caswell — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:36:48 -0000

Justin,

A couple things... First off, I haven't experienced this problem first hand (as a Mozy user) but have a friend who has seen this issue with his account. He said it was annoying but that a simple reboot would clear the temp files.

That brings me to my next point... Did you use the "home" version of the software for your server? That's what it sounds like. They have a separate enterprise edition that is better designed for servers.

And two other things... Not to rub it in too much, but installing backup software on a live server that you never want offline or rebooted? I would NEVER do that. Unless, of course, it's the only server I have (which is a problem in and off itself... anyone who runs "always on" websites + everything else on their network via one server is asking for it).

But assuming you have more than one server and don't have a single point of failure waiting to explode, I'd install the backup software somewhere else and backup your web server via the network. Also, what kind of computer do you have that you don't have 20 gigs free on your C drive only to have only 20 gigs free on your next alternative location? Hard drive space is cheaper than it's ever been. I'm surprised you wouldn't be worried already if 20 gigs is the best you had in terms of free space...

Bottom line: Mozy should fix this issue. But your handling of the situation was a perfect storm of sorts than magnified the problem substantially. And Mozy's not to blame for that.

Re: Mozy.com’s Backup Software is Shit

Bob Caswell — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 10:09:42 -0000

Your points are well taken. One minor quibble: I wasn't actually suggesting that you back up your files off line... Just that you run Mozy on another computer (not on a live web server) that backs up whatever network drives you pick. It would still be an online backup of your files.

Re: Amazon.com To Go International With Its MP3 Music Store; Sometime and Somewhere

Bob Caswell — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:53:10 -0000