Dear Amazon: Way to Go, Morons

Amazon has decided to recall two electronic books.  The irony, as noted in the article, is the choice of the particular books that were recalled; one simply cannot imagine a more perfect storm of derision and mockery than what Amazon has just done to the Kindle.

Look guys, here’s a tip – you want to know why, even now, ebooks aren’t really taking off?  Yeah, there are technology issues.  But it’s really stuff like this that kills it.  You have some pretty good technology.  Explain it to your publishers.  There’s money to be had here.  A lot of money.  The first one to the table with good technology and a NOT COMPLETELY BONEHEADED relationship with their customers is going to win.  Every time you do this you are hitting your business model and your customers with a tire iron.  Stop.  Just stop.  And better yet, apologize.  Profusely.

Yamaha C3 – One Year Numbers

Lets do math!  I’ve owned my Yamaha C3 for just over a year now.  I’ve put 4800 miles on it in that time.  Assumptions:

1. My car gets 30 mpg – I’ve been verifying this over the last few weeks.
2. The scooter gets 110 mpg – my mileage is slightly worse now that I have a shorter commute.
3. We’ll put the price of gas at $2.50 a gallon.  It was higher, it was lower, $2.50 is what it is now, seems like a good median.

The cost of gas for the scooter was 43.6 gallons * $2.50/gallon = $109.  The cost of driving the car would have been 160 gallons * $2.50 = $400, for a total savings of $291.  Not bad.  How about carbon dioxide?  If you accept the government’s numbers, then each gallon of gas burned releases 20 pounds of CO2 into the air, along with lots of other nasty stuff, so I’ve avoided releasing 2,328 pounds of CO2 – just over a ton.  Seems good, especially including the other pollutants that come from burning gas.

Interestingly, if you put in $4.00 as the cost of gas, the savings rises to $465 – almost one sixth of my total scooter cost.  If I had kept up my mileage rates up with the commute to Apex, lets say doing 10,000 miles instead of 4800 at $4/gallon, the savings would have been $970 – almost half the cost of the scooter itself, and 1/3rd my total costs (which were, as you may remember, about $2800).  It’s clear that the price of gas and how much you drive has a huge impact on the cost of operating both a scooter and a car, and it’s easy to see why scooters are much more popular in Europe, where gas is $5-6 a gallon.

But … I’m not saving that money – gas is no longer that expensive, and my commute is shorter with fewer highway miles.  Still, one of the best things about the scooter is that I know it will be easier to fuel and run it even if I lose my job and I’m just scraping by.  There’s no payments to make, the repair bills are low, and the bike has proven itself to be highly reliable and dependable.

Learning to Drive

I’ve been starting to teach my son to drive, even though he doesn’t have the grades to get a license just yet.  He’s at my in-laws this summer, working and adventuring … and driving, if only the utility vehicle around my in-laws property.  I’m proud of him.

driving "Ketchup" the Kubota

Catastrophically Stupid

What I’m really interested in is the thought process that lead to this decision.  Is this what success and growth have done to you, Blizzard?  Are you EA now, out to screw your customers because you want to attack people who don’t buy your games?  Are you really that blind, that foolish, that arrogant?

I’ve lost track of how many copies of Starcraft and Brood Wars I’ve bought, specifically so I could play on a LAN with my friends.  I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on WoW, and I have been anticipating Starcraft 2 since before it was announced.  I have provided you with years of revenue, and a lot of that was because you have almost always put your customers first.  What you just did was lose a sale.  I’m thinking right now that you don’t care.  If that’s true, then you’ve lost more than a sale, you’ve lost a customer.  See ya.

Hat … Meet Ring.

This is my hat.

Hat

I’ve had it for several years.  I believe I bought it at the San Diego Zoo, but my memory is somewhat hazy.  It is one of the few impulse buys that I’ve made in my life that I am completely happy with.  I sunburn easily, and this hat has protected my head faithfully through many travels.  As you can see, it’s a bit … well used.  The word “crumpled” would not be misused in this context.

Things are about to get a lot worse for my hat, but I think it is up to it.  I’ve decided to run for the non-partisan Ward 2 City Council seat in Durham, North Carolina in the municipal election this year.