Thoughts Cubed™

NBC displayed a brown peacock logo in honor of President Barack Obama Inauguration 1/20/2009. The normally multi color peacock NBC logo was displayed prominently on the front of the desk ,that was part of the NBC Today Show inauguration set, in a blue foreground and brown tail feathers. It made for an interesting set as the brown was worked into the entire set color scheme. The color scheme was not as upbeat as one would have liked, the set looked muted.

This is not the first time NBC changed the color of their peacock logo. Back in 2007 and 2008 the peacock was colored green in honor of Earth day, and Saint Patrick’s Day.

On the Vudu website is this quote:

“Unlike other services that rely on large server farms to deliver content, as more VUDU Boxes are installed, the network will become even more efficient and require less of each box.”

So what does the mean? It means your Vudu set top box serves up content and uses your internet connection to deliver the content. Did you get that! That means you are providing the electricity, the hard drive space, and the network bandwidth so other Vudu owners can watch content.

Wow… did you know you were providing a service to other Vudu owners when you bought your Vudu set top box? This is call a peer-to-peer network. Other software out there, call BitTorrent, is used by hobbyist to share and download very large files. Peer-to-peer networking is also known as a bandwidth hogs. I would not want several Vudu users on the same provider in my network neighborhood.

Other services like Hulu, Sling and Netflix, use large distributed server farms to send out content. They pay for the hosting services to house the server farms not you. They pay for the badwidth to connect there server to the internet, not you.

So the Vudu service sound great upfront but is the price, Vudu using your resources, too high? Or will the dumb American consumer just march forward and not care?

I think “Wrap Rage” started with the dam cellophane wrapped CD jewel case from 1982. I could never get the plastic zip strip to work. They would always break off before they did anything. Leaving you frustrated as you tried desperately to get the cellophane plastic wrap off the jewel case and your new CD out.

Today we have even more “Wrap Rage”. Have you ever tried to get a product out of a clamshell plastic package, or a Childs toy that has been wire tied into a box with 10 or 20 metal wire ties?

The manufactures clams the packaging it for our benefit. The wire ties secure the product in the package but still allow you, the consumer, to see, touch and try the product all without removing the product from the package or box. This kind of packaging is also be used to promote the “try me” feature. This feature is where you can try part of the toy or product while it remains in the package.

The plastic clamshell packaging ensures that all the pieces remain in the package, and cannot be touch but are clearly visible. The clamshell packaging also protects the product form being tampered with. But what protects my finger from being cut on the sharp stiff plastic as I remove the product from the packaging?

There are even several special tools to help you with you WRAP RAGE. Here is another wrap rage tool for freeing your purchase form it’s plastic safe. And yet another one, but this one is a single task wrap rage tool. There is a tool for everything. You just need to know where to get it. Sasme thing if there is a problem, ingenuity comes to the rescue and the capitalist entrepreneur will get the product to market.

Some of this is kind of understandable when products are put on display at a retail store. But if you are buying the product through an online source, mail order or catalog do you need all this fancy packaging. Why not just a simple box, plastic bag or pouch. Plus simpler and less packaging is environment responsible. One company who is leading the charge in this area is Amazon.com. so relief is on the way.

In the Los Angeles area you need to get up early to go anywhere on the freeways. But in December when it is cold and still dark, at 5AM, hundreds of guys got up to see the Double D’s in December beauty pageant. For the last two December KROQ radio early morning KEVIN & BEAN SHOW host a pageant outside the Slidebar in Fullerton. This show airs from 5AM to 9AM for the morning commute.

So there is a mass sea of guys all drinking and watching nine girls prance around, on the outdoor stage, in their short skirts and bikinis (lots of goose bumps here). In the competition were Cassandra( 25) from Chino Hills, Roxanne(24) from Huntington Beach, Stacy(24) also from Huntington Beach( 23) from Costa Mesa , Janelle(22) of La Verne, Danielle,(21) from Covina, Camry(22) of Norco, Nicolette(23) of Covina, and Crystal(23) from Anaheim.

Cassandra was voted the winner. There were no judges and the voting was done on-line over the internet. Now this is an early morning radio show, that is position for the morning commute time slot.

So how does the voting work. You’re in your car! For one you cannot see the girls, as this is a radio program. So how do you know who to vote for? And two if you are voting on you handheld mobile device you’re breaking California law, as it is now against the law, in California, to use your mobile phone while driving.

Alright, your right, the whole pageant was webcasted live on the KROQ website. So if you had web access you could see the ladies. But that means…. you were late for work or…. Your messing around on the internet at work.

When I was watching the “Speed Racer Movie” they had these very cleaver devices that formed around the driver and filled with foam when the driver was in imminent danger. This would happen when the driver was involved in a crash. So the race drivers bounce to safety encased in giant foam filed orbs that put Detroit’s airbags to shame. I understand that these device are not real and it was just a movie but the concept does have some merit.

Detroit keeps adding more airbags too our cars. First we started with the airbag in the steering wheel. The front seat passenger airbag then side airbags, and now auto makers are putting airbags everywhere. They are even testing external airbags. Look at the photo below. This test vehicle must have ten or more airbags. Wow that is a lot of safety. In a crash it must feel like a bomb going off when the all deploy.

So why not do something like the foam filled escape orbs of the Speed Racer movie. Enclose the driver and passengers inside of some kind of personal air bag instead of putting and airbag in every nook and cranny of the vehicle. An additional benefit of the personal airbags is the airbag would continue to protect the occupant even if they are thrown from the car.