fanboygeeks

Only?!?!?

My wife and I mortgaged the house the other week so we could afford to go to the local Vue cinema.  I can't believe that anyone in the film industry thinks that a customer being gouged more than a tenner to see a film isn't going to feel resentful and motivated just to buy a camcorded DVD off a bloke on the high street or just download movies from a Bit-Torrent site.  Seriously, every time I go to the cinema I feel like I've been mugged.

To add insult to injury, though, I'm then expected to queue for 10 minutes at the food counter because there's only two bored and un-motivated McWorkers serving, and they want to charge me "ONLY £8.08" for two bottles of water and a large popcorn.  ONLY?!  ONLY!?  Some water (that you get out a tap for free) and a handful of corn kernels that have been popped.

First of all, this is absolutely the biggest rip-off in the history of food retailing.  There must be a crime being committed here.

Secondly, how on earth did they come up with the bizarre price of £8.08?  Is it because the numbers are bisymmetrical?  Not that £7.99 would be more of a bargain, but it at least would have had the illusion of being about seven pounds and thus cheaper!

Stu ;-)

ps  We didn't buy the "Sharer Combo".  We bring our own water...

Why I can't share "The Dip"

Marketing guru Seth Godin published his book "The Dip" last year.  The New York Times best-seller turns the "winners don't quit" maxim on its head by pointing out that when your company hits "The Dip" then it *is* time to quit.

Ever innovative, Seth asks his blog readers today to help double the readership of his book - not by buying more copies, but by loaning it to friends.

"Loaning"? How can one make money out of that?  Well, personal recommendation is the ultimate form of advertising, and Seth will sell copies of his other books by the barrowload as a result.  It's not rocket science.

Here's the problem.  I bought The Dip as a download for my Amazon Kindle.  Because of the DRM I am unable to share the file with anyone.  In fact, by putting DRM on the Kindle files Amazon are saying that *loaning* is at best a no-no, and at worse illegal. 

Looks like my friends won't be buying Seth Godin books from Amazon on my recommendation then...

Stu ;-)

ps  Of course, I don't own a Kindle, and I'm being facetious.  But hopefully you get the point...

ITV's "Pushing Daisies" idiocy

I've really been enjoying the utterly charming and delightfully quirky "Pushing Daisies", a US series that was described to me as "Amelie" if directed by Tim Burton.

It seems to have been a surprise hit for UK's ITV1 channel with a respectable 5.7 million viewers for its first episode, aided by lots of on-air advertising and press promotion of its British star Anna Friel.  ITV1 is Britain's most watched commercial channel and "Daisies" was a curious purchase considering its usual schedule of mainstream soaps and quizzes and cozy dramas such as Heartbeat and Wycliffe.

However, with the Euro 2008 football season starting in eight weeks, ITV has just realised that the nine part series won't fit into its schedule.

So, what are ITV going to do?  Say "Doh" and realise they should have started it a week early? Schedule one episode at a different day or time? Run an episode on one of its other three channels? Or, run a special finalé double bill?  No, in their infinite wisdom ITV are just going to... miss out an episode!  Episode 2 as it happens, because it was the only episode "we could drop without spoiling the storyline" said an ITV spokesman, who seems to believe he knows more about story structure than the episode's director, multi award winning director Barry Sonnenfeld and series creator Emmy Award winner Bryan Fuller.

I truly struggle to find the words to express my fury and frustration at the philistinism of the cretinous network hacks who made this decision, showing no imagination, creativity or love of the medium they're working in.  Seriously folks, don't bother showing the programme at all or give it to a channel that has some integrity.

How about this idea (because its just as sensible): show the last episode of "Pushing Daisies" in place of the first half of the football match (in a tournament that England aren't even participating in, by the way).  Why? - well because it won't "spoil the storyline" of the match.

I don't watch scheduled television at all any more.  Now I remember why.

Stu