Comments for Permanent Press

Comment on To the ladies who lunch by Red

Red — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 22:04:01 +0000

Doesn’t it tickle how people think that their judgements somehow say more about you than they do about themselves. Nuh! Bless them.

Comment on Metadata: No excuse for not doing it right by Kirsten

Kirsten — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 15:13:03 +0000

I’ll talk to my people.

Comment on Metadata: No excuse for not doing it right by mokindo

mokindo — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 14:26:57 +0000

I can buy a baboon?

Comment on The end of the desk by Luce Beaulieu

Luce Beaulieu — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 21:38:57 +0000

Let the kiddies have it!

Comment on When ISPs and retailers are in cahoots by Jim Royal

Jim Royal — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:11:50 +0000

Vendors indeed do put pressure on retailers to make their own products exclusive. Coke and Pepsi require retailers to sign contracts that mandate minimum shelf space (i.e. 50%) for their products, thus squeezing out independent bottlers. Microsoft used to require that retailers pay a Windows licence fee for every PC they sold, regardless whether the PCs had Windows or not, thus cutting into their margin for selling non-Windows OSs. The latter tactic was deemed illegal.

It strikes me that it would also be illegal for Bell and Rogers to say to a retailer: “If you want to sell our boxes, you can’t sell anyone else’s.” The question is whether the telcos can apply the same kind of economic leverage to Future Shop that Coke and Pepsi apply to grocery stores. I don’t see a mechanism to allow for that legally. And since telcos are federally regulated, illegal arm-twisting wouldn’t last long. The OEMs (giants like Cisco) wouldn’t stand for it.

Future Shop and Best Buy sell DSL modems on their web sites. If you can come up with a mechanism that would force non-Bell/Rogers boxes off the in-store shelves legally, I’ll consider your suspicion plausible.

Comment on When ISPs and retailers are in cahoots by Kirsten

Kirsten — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:35:04 +0000

Jim, are you going to make me do investigative journalism to prove you wrong?

Comment on When ISPs and retailers are in cahoots by Jim Royal

Jim Royal — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:22:07 +0000

I doubt that there’s any conspiracy between Future Shop and the big ISPs. The fact is that Bell and Rogers have about 95% of the market for Internet users in Canada, and they sell modems. Smaller ISP such as TekSavvy sell modems too. So the number of people walking into Future Shop wanting to buy a DSL modem is vanishingly small.

As a comparison, try finding an external hard disk with FireWire at Future Shop.

Comment on Part One: Coffee and Cigarettes by So what is productivity in 2011? | Permanent Press

So what is productivity in 2011? | Permanent Press — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 23:37:15 +0000

[...] Permanent Press Lady K's cabinet of curiosities. Skip to content HomeAbout Kirsten (and Permanent Press) ← Part One: Coffee and Cigarettes [...]

Comment on Work better. Think better. Take a nap. by Joan Douglas

Joan Douglas — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 01:09:48 +0000

A recent trip to Spain confirmed that we in North America just do not “get it”.
Centuries of “nooners” in this and other similarly evolved countries confirms that a couple of hours of rest and relaxation in the middle of the day enables one to party all night and still function somewhat productively the next day.

Comment on What if we never moved again? by Kirsten

Kirsten — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:48:04 +0000

Hey, it happens. People just stop moving.