Scrabble Scribble

I was setting up to play Scrabble (you remember Scrabble, right?) the other day when something struck me. I noticed that when selecting the initial 7 letters the other players and I picked them from all around the container. This is only interesting when you consider that the letter squares have, supposedly, been well mixed and are randomly distributed across the box. We were trying to randomize our selection of already randomly arranged squares! Of course, if the squares are truly randomly distributed and it should not matter from where in the box you draw the letters. I should be able to pick 7 squares all adjacent to each other and get 7 random letters. Yet my brain tells met that I have to pick from all box to achieve the best selection of letters. There's a psychological term for this type of behavior but I can't recall it at the moment.

Am I the only one who thinks its intriguing how our brains work to influence our behavior?

I had this very experience last year from Dilbert's perspective - a meaningless chart crammed with colored shapes because the client was too stupid and lazy to read a report. This is why I refuse to work in corporations of any significant size.

You're a MOTOR company, right?

This is something of follow-up to my recent posts on gasoline prices and automobile manufacturing. Several major car companies, including Nissan, Toyota, and GM, have announced plans for new all-electric or hybrid products to be introduced over the next 4-odd years. After some additional pondering on the matter, I have an important questions:

You guys are MOTOR companies, right? The word MOTOR is there in your name - General MOTORS, Toyota MOTORS, etc...

So why can't you just build me an electric motor to replace the internal combustion one in my current car? I really like my current car. It's extremely reliable and gets almost 30 mpg on the highway (and it was built in the early '90s). I'm confident there are engineers out there who would love the challenge of retrofitting a shiny new electric motor into my car and replace the gas tank with some sort of battery/power cell. Maybe I need to go into the retrofit motor business and become the next Henry Ford.

Milestone or Inflection Point?

I suspect that today is the last day I will ever pay less than $4 for a gallon of gasoline. I saved the receipt from the first time I paid more than $3 a gallon - it was just after Hurricane Katrina hit when there was wide concern that gasoline deliveries would be interrupted. Here is my prediction: the internal combustion engine is doomed. It's tombstone has already been carved and is just waiting for the DoD to be added by an alternative. My bet is electric or hybrid electric originating from nuclear plants. Corn ethanol is a complete folly. Actually, any agriculturally-based fuel input, be it switch grass or sugar or otherwise, is a bad idea as it will invariably compete for farm land with food products. The world wants to eat more than it wants to drive and the backlash will only continue if we don't wise up to basic realities.

However, for the time being, the oil companies are providing a safe harbor for investors weary of the fall-out from the housing/financial market crunch. Oh, yes, some decry the profits of ExxonMobil, et al. But their arguments mostly neglect the facts that Big Oil is losing money on refining operations, their overall margins are a mere 8%, and the largest shareholders of the energy companies are mutual funds and pension plans. So, retirees, teachers, policemen, and all sorts of individuals with retirement accounts are personally gaining from the profits. Probably no comfort to you, but remember that when politicians and other "activists" yap about "windfall profits" and new taxes, it will really mean less money in the pockets of senior citizens and public-sector employees.

Back to alternative fuels... the company that can provide a fuel with the energy equivalent of a gallon of gas at $1 per unit is going to make a lot of money. A lot. I call that opportunity.

Constructive Criticism

The astute are aware that I link to the blog of my buddy, Ballista. Now I want to proffer some advice to my friend. Lay off the third-person references. I know you are a secretive sort, but use some pronouns every now and then. You are going past the silly Norm MacDonald/Bob Dole thing and entering into freaky territory. I'm just saying.

And when did you turn into the all-Russia, all-Red alert, all-the-time blog? We get the point (hehehe). I miss the cutting sarcasm of old.

That's life

"Nowhere or in a circle."

Me, out walking with a friend, explaining where the two forks in the path lead. Could this be a metaphor for something?



Photo by Daniel Séguin.

My New Favorite Brit

Jeremy Clarkson is my new favorite Brit. He just breaks me up with his snarky wit. He's funny in that English condescending way yet slightly goofy. Almost like John Cleese but less spastic and more intellectual. For those of you unfamiliar, Clarkson is longtime co-host of the popular BBC show, Top Gear, a more entertaining version of Car & Driver featuring more exotic cars, celebrities on a test track, and cool car-centered challenges. I could go on and on about Top Gear, but I'll suffice to say go find out more yourself - this post is dedicated to Mr. Clarkson.

In addition to discussing "motors", Clarkson is a thinker. He writes frequently on culture, politics, and "nitwits" in his Top Gear blog and in the Times of London. His bio from the Times describes him thus:

Jeremy Clarkson's career as car reviewer and BBC Top Gear presenter has made motoring into show business, but he has earned himself the description of an "equal opportunities loudmouth" for his opinionated commentary on all aspects of life.

You might guess that my affinity for Mr. Clarkson is based on more than his reviews of Aston Martins, and you are correct. I also like his voice. No, no, there's more. On many topics, I agree with his point of view. He's unapologetically British, as I'm unapologetically American, and that pretty much boils down to both of us wanting everyone else to bugger off and leave us alone to enjoy life as we see fit. He also has no compunctions about calling Communists, well, Communists, e.g., the Chinese, union laborers, and quite a few politicians. Perhaps not too surprisingly, some in Britain (and maybe some in America) would like to see Mr. Clarkson elected Prime Minister. I say, "BULLY!" To preview a potential PM Clarkson's policies, you can read about how he would rule the world, here.

I'll leave you with a teaser for Jeremy and Top Gear. Here he is, all 6 foot 5 inches of him, in the world's smallest car.





My former favorite Brit, you ask? This guy:

Dude, you're getting a Ford

Why can't I purchase and customize an automobile in the same manner as a laptop?

No, seriously. Stop snickering at me.

I can go online to Dell.com or half a dozen other computer companies and build a laptop to my preference. I get 4 different types of processors, 4 different sizes of RAM, 5 varieties of hard drive, not to mention pre-loaded software. My computer arrives several weeks, if not days later.

So why can't I build a car online? Not like the current attempts by Saturn and other makers. I'm thinking about the details, not the major components like the chassis and suspension; real wretch heads can continue to buy and install after-market parts for those. But parts like the head- and taillights, sound system, interior styling, gauges, side view mirror styles, should all be easily customizable before delivery to the buyer. Before delivery to the dealer, even. In fact, if mass customization could be implemented to the auto industry, dealers wouldn't have to stock so much inventory. That means less upfront costs to the dealer - and lower overall costs because of no, or less interest payments on loans to buy inventory. And valuable cars would not be sitting out in vast parking lots open to damaging weather, theft, arson, and other events that add to insurance and carrying costs. This system also has the potential to do away, once and for all, with those insipid "close out sale" advertisements that your local dealer runs every other month on radio and television. (Do you have to be a special kind of jerk to produce those ads?)

Okay, I'm rambling on the financial aspects. Back to the heart of the matter. Let's take the Honda Civic as an example. Instead of my local dealer trying to find a Civic somewhere in the US with the exact options I want, I go online to select my options. Instead of just choosing the color of the interior, I should be able to select the seat style. I want 4 types of sound system, not just basic CD or 6-disc surround sound. I want a variety of spoiler and grill options.

Perhaps another question I should be asking is whether Americans will wait 2 weeks upon ordering a customized Honda before it arrives in their driveway, fresh from the plant. Unfortunately for my mix-and-match desires, I think not. People like and are excited by the convenience and thrill of driving off the lot with their new baby, I suspect.

New line of thought... is there room in the marketplace for a middleman who purchases those Hondas wholesale (plain vanilla probably), then customizes to the wishes of customers via online ordering?

I will probably devote far too much time and far too many brain cells to pondering this alternative auto shopping experience. Yet, I just can't get past thinking that that the only reason we as consumers do not see radical changes in auto manufacturing and delivery (a la other manufacturing industries) is that we as Americans attach too much sentimental value to the this industry. I, for one, reason that when Detroit represents your status quo, it's time for a change.

Pity Party?

Have you heard about this credit crisis thing? Yeah, been kinda popular in the press lately. Lots of stories of problems, write-downs, foreclosures, layoffs, fraud, defaults, and failures in the real estate and financial markets. Given that, which groups of workers do you think have been crying themselves to sleep every night?

So, imagine my grin when a friend forwarded me this flyer for a business networking event in Philadelphia.

Unless the drink special is Jonestown Kool-Aid, I don't think this will be a particulary "Happy" hour for those young professionals. My advice to them, save your money and spend your time looking for a refrigerator box. You'll need it after the bank you once did business with repossesses your BMW and your shiny new condo. But don't feel too bad, when the bank takes the condo back, it will only be worth 1/3 as much as your mortgage, so the bank is really doing you a favor. And the labor market is not all bad... I hear that demand for crop pickers is sky high. Cheers!

Three for Thinking

InnoCentive. "Win cash awards of up to $1,000,000 for your creative solutions to Challenges"

Flypaper. "The easiest way to create, edit and share interactive content that can be used for live presentations or over the Web"

Technology Review. "The authority on the future of technology." Published by MIT.