Ideapad

Blogging since 1998. By David Wertheimer

Page 19 of 128

Trends versus perspective

November 15, 2011 /

November 2: Syms and Filene’s Basement file for bankruptcy.

Company CEO Marcy Syms said in statement the two discount chains were burdened by increasing competition from department stores offering the same brands at similar discounts and by a rising number of private label discounters. She also said there was less overstock for her company to buy as businesses continue to manage their inventory carefully during the tough economy.

September 22: Century 21 opens a 60,000 square foot store on the Upper West Side.

“The expansion is giving another area of the city a chance for everyone to look good all the time,” said Director of Organizational Effectiveness Boyd Howell. … “Brand-driven guests can come in and find their brand instead of having to dig through hoping they’ll find something.”

Mazel tov

November 8, 2011 /

I missed the big day last week, but Ideapad turned 13 on November 1.
It isn’t often a blog becomes a bar mitzvah, so let us briefly celebrate the occasion. (I suppose I should really post this on a Saturday.)
For comparison’s sake, this site is thee years older than the original iPod.

Another good guy (you didn’t notice?)

November 4, 2011 /

The news was released with little fanfare on a Monday evening: the Yankees came to terms on a contract extension with ace CC Sabathia, averting a crisis and a major free agency story.
The basic news wasn’t all that noteworthy, as Sabathia is a) handsomely paid, b) happy as a Yankee, and c) receiving another twenty-five million dollars to weigh 290 pounds and throw around a baseball. Sabathia, after all, will be receiving $122 million over the next five years–not too shabby.
But subtly, the signing reveals that Sabatha is one of baseball’s good guys, the players that do what’s best for them personally and professionally, and not just financially.
He didn’t force the hand. Sabathia had an opt-out clause in his contract that would have allowed him to seek unmentioned riches on the free-agent market rather than honor the four years remaining in his existing deal. He used this as leverage to get the extension he sought. What he did not do, though, was actually opt out of his contract: he remained with the Yankees, didn’t play competing offers off one another, didn’t push his employer to the brink. He and his agent and the Yankees’ general manager instead said, “Okay, what’s the equitable way to address the situation?” Fine-tuning the existing deal turned out to be the best answer.
He didn’t seek excess. As a free agent, Sabathia could have hunted for longer deals or more money than he ultimately received. Of course, he’s extremely well paid, by the wealthiest team in baseball; but that doesn’t preclude one of the other wealthy or big-spending or splashy teams in the sport giving him even more money to land a prized asset and stick it to the Yanks. But Sabathia didn’t play that hand at all. The value of the additional year on his deal is in line with the ones already in place, and it pays him handsomely, without the free-agency dancing that could have landed him a few million dollars more.
He kept it quiet. The public heard next to nothing about Sabathia’s contract, not from him, at least: lots of media speculation, near-certainty that he’d opt out, then, at deadline, an announcement that a deal was done. Credit goes to the Yankees on this one as well (unlike their handling of the Jeter affair last year) for playing it cool. Ultimately, though, Sabathia looked at his situation, figured it couldn’t get much better, and made a deal that was rational for both sides, and to fans.
This also speaks kindly about agent Brian Peters, who certainly did right by his client, securing him another $25 million while maintaining a positive relationship with the ball club.
Sabathia’s extra year is still great money, and it’s not quite Jered Weaver spurning free agency (and his very powerful agent) to re-sign with the home team below market value. But in some ways it’s not far off. Kudos to Sabathia for admitting his comfort and sticking around.

What I learned today, September 20

September 20, 2011 /

McDonald’s currently commands 49.5 percent of the fast-food burger market in the U.S. Burger King and Wendy’s combined grab 26%. The burger wars of a generation ago have largely been won, Shake Shack notwithstanding.
This evolution, by the way, is not unlike what has happened in the cola market, where Coca-Cola possesses nearly twice the market share of Pepsi-Cola, 17% to 9.5%. Pepsi has actually dropped to third place, behind Diet Coke at 9.9%.
Addendum, October 5: the same thing is happening with beer, where #1 seller Bud Light outsells #2 Budweiser by better than a 2-to-1 margin, 19.1% to 8.7%.

Hidden envy

September 15, 2011 /

Loved this observation from Felix Salmon regarding New York’s new bike sharing program and the reaction from Sean Sweeny of Soho Alliance:

“DOT and Janette Sadik-Khan’s problem is they say,
‘Here’s what we’re doing, take it or leave it,'” said Sean Sweeney of
the Soho Alliance, a frequent DOT critic. “Instead, it should be,
‘Here’s 20 racks, where would you like them?'” He expressed concern
about whether the stations would be located on too-narrow sidewalks or
in valuable parking spaces or other inopportune locations.

Still, he said it would be nice if done right. “I walk a lot, I’ll
walk from 59th Street downtown,” Mr. Sweeney said. “Let’s say I don’t
want to walk or take the subway, then a bike sounds nice. But it’s still
a matter of giving over public space to a private company, so we have
to be careful.” He added that no stations should be place in Soho.

I love the way that Sweeney starts by implying that he would be happy
to place 20 racks around Soho, underscores that by saying that the
scheme “sounds nice” — and then, at the end, drops the bomb that he’s
already decided that the optimal number of racks in Soho is precisely
zero.

When I was a kid in New Jersey my brother once got a toy (long since forgotten) that enraged me to the point of public complaint. I made a sign and posted it for all the family to see. It read, more or less:

I HATE that [new toy]!
I HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT
I don’t EVER WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN!

P.S. You’d better let me use it!

Felix posits that Sweeney isn’t open to the idea. Quite the contrary: he’s actually jealous, to the point of distraction, and he can’t bring himself to admit it.

I wish I could remember what the toy was. I wonder if I wound up using it at all.

Ten years

September 10, 2011 /

A confession: I’ve spent the past week two weeks willfully avoiding most September 11 commemorations. I certainly know why, although I have had a hard time putting it into words. Am I not ready to recollect? Do I find it too sad, too ugly? Does it feel too obvious to me?
Perhaps all of the above, or something else, subconscious and intangible, that drives me away from the past. Different things evoke different responses. I blithely skipped past The Economist’s coverage of the anniversary, but I can’t even bring myself to crack open the New York magazine special, and I have been noticeably averting my gaze whenever I spy the billowing smoke on its cover. A decade on, I am not at all inured to the visuals of the event–if anything, I have a more visceral reaction now, in remembrance, than when it actually happened and we all couldn’t stop looking.
My wife pointed out, rightly, that we as a society need to remember, to reflect, to refresh our memories, to celebrate the heroes and respect the innocent and the fallen. I had friends who experienced a far more dramatic 9/11 than I did, and friends who lost their lives.
Perhaps that’s where I am: I haven’t reflected because I haven’t forgotten. I can tell, in vivid detail, the story of that day and the entire week around it: where I was, what I did, how I felt, what I smelled. It was my reality and remains my experience. To that end, America’s insistent media saturation leading up to Sunday’s commemorations are invaluable: no one is being allowed to forget, just as I, and many others, already cannot.
Tomorrow is a somber and important day for all of us, however explicit our reflections may be. My thoughts are with those whose memories are far more painful than mine.
—
On and after September 11, the Internet was both a lifeline and an outlet for me. My blog posts from 9/11 through the 23rd are available in a single-read archive, and I invite my readers to explore them. For historical accuracy, the girlfriend cited in the posts is now my wife; we have long since moved out of Union Square to the Upper West Side, where we will be spending a quiet 9/11/11 at home.
In 2001 I also published my friend Adam Oestreich’s first-hand account of the attacks, which remains a compelling read. At this time of year it is always the most popular page on this website. (Adam, it can be noted, now works in midtown.)

List of Apple devices I have owned, used and loved since 1981

August 25, 2011 /

Aw, what the heck. Today is a nostalgic one thanks to Steve Jobs. Everyone I read keeps posting about how they’ve used so many Apple devices over the years. So I took stock.

Apple ][e (loved)–I didn’t have my own, I just used Mike Han’s a lot. Circa 1983.

Apple //c (owned)–the ][e was off the market by the time my parents bought me my own computer.

Apple Macintosh (loved)–again, I didn’t have my own, I was forced to go over to Felix Sheng’s and Howard Slatkin’s houses and be jealous of theirs. Howard’s dad had the original Talking Moose app, which I fondly recall to this day.

Apple Personal Modem 300/1200 (owned)–this is the gadget that really changed how I view the world. I fell in love with online communication back in late 1987.

Macintosh LC (owned)–my first Mac. Kind of a piece of crap, particularly after I installed AutoDoubler to find hard drive space and my processor slowed to a crawl.

Macintosh SE/30 (loved)–I inherited this when I took over my college newspaper. It’s probably my all-time favorite computer, even though it was three years old when I used it. I had on it Eudora, Microsoft Word 5.1a, and a Klondike solitaire app, and it was just about perfect.

Macintosh Performa 636CD (owned)–the Mac I got after I wiped the LC hard drive and sold the machine. It was fine.

Power Macintosh (used and owned)–I had Power Macs at two different jobs in the 1990s and early 2000s, and purchased one for myself in 1998 after I moved to New York and needed a decent machine at home for freelancing. I forget the model number, but I was very happy with my personal Power Mac, which I upgraded several times over the years. I used Power Macs in vintage (pre-PowerPC) mode as well as with G3 and G4 chips. Soldiering on through Apple’s darkest years, loyally, hopefully.

PowerBook G3 (loved)–my close second on the favorites list. Gorgeous, powerful, transportable, rugged. The Economist got me one for my international travels and it went around the world with me with aplomb. To this day part of me wishes they’d bring back an evolved version of this laptop design, with its soft-touch matte black exterior.

iMac (loved)–I was still plugging away on my hotrodded Power Mac when the iMac blew onto the scene. I didn’t buy one, but everyone else did, including my my mom. Bondi Blue everywhere. (Mom is on her third iMac now.)

iBook (used)–when I met my wife, she had the Bondi Blue Tangerine Orange Mac laptop. Cute and durable.

iPod (owned)–the original model, 2001. My parents thought I was nuts buying a $399 gadget that no one had ever heard of. (I still have it, and it still works, although the battery is shot.)

iPod mini, 3G, nano, Classic, Shuffle (owned)–I believe my household has had 10 iPods through the years. Five of them are currently in use in one way or another. We never did get an iPod Touch, though.

PowerBook G4 (owned)–purchased when the iBook and PowerBook G3 both fell apart. Served us well for years.

iPhone (owned)–bought the original model the first weekend. Rock star.

MacBook (owned)–our current machine is another gem. Fast, useful, attractive, everything an Apple product always is. I have a nearly identical MacBook Pro at work.

iPhone 3G (used)–Amy got this one, I didn’t.

iPhone 3GS (owned)–and now we both have this guy, awaiting the 5, whenever it comes out.

iPad (owned)–we didn’t buy one, then Amy got one, then we didn’t use it for awhile. We have since discovered that it is our three-year-old son’s favorite toy. (I still don’t use it for much. Maybe the iPad 2 will change that.)

The only company in my life with a similar longevity is Nike, whose shoes I’ve been wearing since first grade. Quite a run for a technology company. Godspeed, Apple.

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