Business: October 2003 Archive Page

The feature is particularly troubling to reference-book authors who think they may lose a sale if a user can find "the best place to hike in Chaco Canyon" or "where to find the best airfare to Cuba" by using Amazon's search feature instead. --Monica Soto Ouchi --Amazon's inside look irks authors: Search function previews any page  (Seattle Times)

I think Mike Arnzen said it best -- "As a scholar, I love it. As an author, I hate it."

How Amazon can make money from books you already own.

We tend to think of search requests as generally taking the form of "find me something I've never seen before." But real-life search is often different: You're looking for something you have seen before, but you've somehow mislaid or only half-remembered. You search for your glasses or your car keys. Or, in the case of books, you search for that paragraph about the Russian revolution's impact on literacy rates that you read somewhere a few years ago. You know it's in a book somewhere on your shelf, you just can't remember which one. | "Search inside" could be the perfect solution to this common problem. --Steven Johnson --The Best Search Idea Since Google (Slate)

Amazon's "Search Inside" is starting to feel more and more like Vannevar Bush's memex.

Recent years have seen an explosion in electronic media marketed directly at the very youngest children in our society, yet very little is known about how these changes have played out in young people's lives. In order to help understand the implications, the Foundation conducted a national study of more than 1,000 parents of children ages six months through six years. The findings are published in the report Zero to Six: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers. --Children and Electronic Media (Kaiser Family Foundation)

I imagine that, if today is a slow news day, you will probably see this make its way into TV news shortly. At the moment, there are only a handful of news stories in Google News.

"Diamond retailers contend a little bling is just the thing to declare your independence this fall,'' wrote Houston Chronicle reporter Liz Embry a few weeks ago. Her story was illustrated with a photo of Ms. Sarah Jess flashing the hottest new trend in the jewelry industry: the right-hand ring. | The rings have recently been spotted on the famous right hands of Madonna and Beyonce Knowles. A national advertising campaign popped up in the September issues of Vogue, Vanity Fair and People, declaring, ``Your left hand rocks the cradle. Your right hand rules the world.'' --Celebrate Singlehood with the Gift of a Right-Hand-Ring (Tampa Tribune)

I first heard of the right-hand-ring from a post on memepool. An illuminating 1982 article from the Atlantic ("Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond") exposed the techniques the diamond industry (really a single family-owned dynasty) used to create the "tradition" of the obscenely expensive diamond engagement ring, and ways that Hollywood stars were used to associate diamonds with eternal romance. (I wonder how much "Sex and the City" was paid to put a "right hand ring" into its storyline...)

That strategy also discouraged people from selling used diamonds (since, of course, "a diamond is forever"). Since diamonds don't wear out, and since every year more diamonds are mined and put on the market, the diamond industry has to keep demand for their product high, or else supply will outpace demand and the price of rocks will drop.

In the wake of a lot of new coverage about how singlehood seems to be outpacing marriages in American life, we see the diamond industry creating a new tradition -- women purchasing diamonds for themselves, as a sign of independence. Obviously the diamond industry would prefer that women purchase a singlehood ring for themselves first and then add an engagement ring at a later date. I do find it interesting to think that they will be able to associate the same rock with two very different concepts, just by changing its location on the body. It really exposes just how artificial the "traditional" meaning of diamonds was.

And by the way, yes, I did buy a diamond engagement ring when I dropped to my knee and proposed... I made sure it was more expensive than the last computer I had bought, but at the time I had a decent job and lived like a student (in the days before student culture demanded portable phones and cable TV), so I had few real expenses.

Update: This will cheer up my wife: "Motherhood not only makes females smarter, it makes them calmer under pressure and more courageous, a U.S. researcher said on Tuesday." Of course, the test was on rats, but the researcher tells the reporter the findings probably apply to humans, too.

He never imagined just how unenthusiastic his research sponsors -- and others with a financial stake in atrazine -- would be about his discovery. | Six frustrating years later, Mr. Hayes and his defenders say they know only too well the lengths to which those companies will go to undermine his findings that atrazine may be harmful. --Goldie Blumenstyk --The Price of Research (Chronicle)

The author of this article is careful to check with scientists who say they were unable to repeat Hayes's findings. It would be an irresponsible exaggeration to claim that all corporate research is biased, or that research funded by non-profits or governments is free from similar pressure. In my "Practice of Journalism" class, we are learning to be skeptical of the statistics quoted in agenda-driven press releases, but this article shows the opportunities for the misuse of science are much broader.

P.S. Goldie Blumenstyk? Really?

Once again, Halloween season is upon us, and with it, the wonderful anticipation of dressing up and trick-or-treating for delicious Brach's candy. With that in mind, it's important to remember all the ways that you can make your Halloween safer and more fun. It won't put a damper on anyone's holiday spirits to wear high-visibility costumes when going from house to house, to have kids trick-or-treat with an adult, and to inspect all candy for tampering. Perhaps most importantly, keep in mind that eating just a single kernel of candy corn manufactured by a company other than Brach's Confections will give you a deadly case of full-blown AIDS. --"Patrick Carlin CEO, Brach's Confections" --Generic Candy Corn will Give You AIDS (Onion)

Another great example of The Onion's mastery of social satire.

The problem of spam or unwanted commercial e-mail is usually attributed to outlaws and hucksters -- peddlers of pornography, get-rich-quick schemes and pills of dubious merit -- who use hackers to send their fraudulent messages in ways that cannot be traced. | But the torrent of spam that is flowing into people's electronic mailboxes comes not only from the sewers but also from the office towers of the biggest and most well-known corporations. --Saul Hansell

--Big Companies Add to Spam (NY Times)

It begins to creep in, almost unnoticed. The levels are further apart. You begin to notice that newly acquired skills are carbon copies of the old ones, with a different coloured icon and a two percent damage increase.... You try out all the little distractions the developers have put in the game to make things 'deep', only to find they're broken, bugged or plain pointless. But you're a trooper. You stiffen that upper lip and press on, certain that if you can only hang in there the good times will arrive and the game will be FUN again. | It is at precisely this point, that me and others like me will part ways with our more determined MMORPG brethren. I, you see, am a quitter. --The Trouble with MMORPGs (Ferrago)

I was approved to be part of the "There.com" beta-test, but when the actual invitation came, I was too busy to follow through. Oh, well.

[B]ooks at especially high risk include those that sell to the student (particularly college student) market as secondary reading. A student could easily grab the relevant chapter or two out of a book without paying for it. Students certainly have the time and most likely the inclination to do so, and, with the help of some willing colleagues, could print out the entire texts of books in the program. --Authors GuildAuthor's Guild Question Amazon's Full-text Search FeatureThe Imprtance Of)

I found the above via Slashdot, on The Importance Of's overview of the Amazon search controversy.

She singled out a campaign by Disney - "Remember the magic" - which, she claimed, was used to invoke real or imaginary childhood memories in consumers. | She reported an experiment in which people were shown an advert suggesting that children who visited Disneyland had the opportunity to shake hands with Bugs Bunny. Later, many of those who had seen the advert "remembered" meeting Bugs on childhood visits to the theme park, a feat that would have been impossible, given that the cartoon is a Warner Brothers character. Loftus said: "This brings forth ethical considerations. Is it OK for marketers to knowingly manipulate consumers' pasts?" --David Benady --Selling You a New Past (Independent)

Books take time to transport. Their text vanishes and their pages yellow in a rash of foxing. Most important, it's still shockingly difficult to find information buried in books. Even as the Internet has revived hope of a universal library and Google seems to promise an answer to every query, books have remained a dark region in the universe of information. We want books to be as accessible and searchable as the Web. On the other hand, we still want them to be books. --Gary Wolf --The Great Library of Amazonia  (Wired)

Brewster Kahle wants the world to know that old software is an important part of our cultural history and -- like books, films and other media -- should be preserved. --Daniel Terdiman --Fighting to Preserve Old Programs

Problem? The DMCA prohibits the archiving of software, on the grounds that doing so violates intellectual property rights.

At one prestigious university, a sophomore imported 30 biology books from England this fall and sold them outside his classroom for less than the campus-bookstore price, netting a $1,200 profit. Next semester, if all goes well, he plans to expand the operation. | "The only difference is that they say `international edition' in little print on the cover," said the student, who added that he was not certain whether his project raised any legal issues, and therefore asked that neither he nor his college be identified. --Tamar Lewin --Students Find $100 Textbooks Cost $50, Purchased Overseas (NY Times (Reg; expires))

Via KairosNews.

Parents have been advised to consider making their own babyfood after the discovery of a toxin linked to cancer in jars of manufactured food sold all over the world.... The European agency said that the toxin was getting into food through the plastic gaskets used to seal glass jars with metal twist-off lids, although experts could not say how much. --Valerie Elliott --Mothers told: 'Make your own babyfood' in cancer alert (Times Online)

Note that the experts quoted in this story are much more cautious than the headline suggests.

On average, internet users spend three and a half hours a day on the internet compared with 2.8 hours a day watching television. | The research, which is the first to suggest the internet has overtaken the television as the most popular medium among people who have both, will provide further grist to the mill of those who argue the web will eventually spell the end of linear television. --Owen Gibson --Surfers switch off TV for PCs  (Guardian)

Here's a suggestion that has worked for me: After leaving an employer, send your former boss and some co-workers very polite and thankful e-mails. Mention how much you enjoyed being there, knowing them, how much you learned and so forth. | Most of the time, you will get a reply. Bingo! There's your letter of reference, header and all, indicating where it came from. | Print it and place it into your portfolio. --K.K., writing in to Joyce Lain Kennedy's career advice column --Use E-Mail Notes as References[?] (Job Center, Dallas Morning News)

K.K. is right about the value of not burning one's bridges, and Kennedy is right to offer her "sunny thanks" for an optimistic and upbeat suggestion. But I wouldn't recommend re-using a personal e-mail from a former employer as if it were a formal letter of reference.

Most people who use e-mail professionally do understand that e-mail is anything but private, but asking permission before reusing somebody else's words in another context is at the very least a matter of common courtesy. (In fact, some companies, including my own university, require employees to append to every message legalese that explicitly prohibits the forwarding or sharing of e-mail upon which K.K.'s suggestion depends.)

Were I to learn -- from a potential employer, perhaps -- that a student had not even offered me the opportunity to revise a personal note for a more formal audience, I would wonder why the student felt it necessary to trick me into writing a letter of reference. My doubts would affect the enthusiasm I would be able to muster when called out of the blue to assess the skills and attributes of a student I might not have seen in years.

On the other hand, I would be pleased and flattered if the student who receives an informal e-mail of praise from me were to foward my own words back to me, with an enthusiastic note saying something like, "Thank you so much for these kind words. I know you are very busy, and probably get requests for letters of recommendation all the time... but would you mind if I used this e-mail as a letter of reference?"

Such a request -- particularly if it were accompanied by a subtle bulleted list reminding me of the student's accomplishments and updating me on his or her activities since our last contact -- would probably motivate me to block out a bit of extra time and reach for the official letterhead.

The student who demonstrates professionalism and a mastery of communication skills -- especially when making polite, subtle requests for recommendations -- will get a much better letter from me.

At the height of the Internet boom, e-books were hailed as the shining new tomorrow for publishers and paper books were heading for the scrap heap. | But the bubble has burst and electronic books are still the poor relation to the printed word with consumers preferring to turn the pages themselves when they curl up by the fire with a good book. --Paul Majendie --Bubble bursts for electronic books (SignOnSanDiego)

In a Few Hours, My TV Will Care Less About MeLiteracy Weblog)

In a few hours, my TV will care less about me. A show might attract relatively few viewers, and be panned by the critics, but if enough people in the magic age group of 18-34, it can pull in a lot of advertising dollars. In a few hours I will turn 35. Our VCR gets a workout -- we have Sesame Street and Teletubbies videos for the baby, and our kindergartner has lately gotten interested in my wife's old Dr. Who and Battlestar Galactica videos. A few years ago, The Onion ran a story about a guy without a TV set who annoys all his friends by talking incessantly about the TV he doesn't watch. So I'll shut up now.

In a statement, SunnComm Technologies Inc. said it would sue Alex Halderman over the paper, which said SunnComm's MediaMax CD-3 software could be blocked by holding down the "Shift" key on a computer keyboard as a CD using the software was inserted into a disc drive. --Ben Berkiwitz --Princeton Student Sued Over Paper on CD Copying (WashPost/Reuters)

Whoops -- I just saw an update: SunnComm backed down.

Once the system is in place, patrons will be asked to stand in front of a camera to have their picture taken and will then swipe their drivers' licence, or possibly show some other form of identification, that will automatically give the establishment the patron's name and age and show if he or she has caused trouble at any other bar on the network. --Lori Cuthbert and Amy O'Brian --High-tech targets bad bar customers (Canada.com/Vancouver Sun)

Does anyone remember when SCMODS was a joke?

Defendants will distribute the Net Settlement Fund by providing a discount at the cash registers of all KB Toys, KB Toy Works, KB Toy Outlet, Toy Liquidator and KB Toys Express stores nationwide, including Guam and Puerto Rico, equal to 30% off all qualifying purchases of $30 or more during October 8-14, 2003. This distribution (the "In-store Distribution") will be done without requiring a request of any store customer and will be separate and apart from, and in addition to, any previously planned promotional events for 2003. --Class Action Suit Settlment: 30% off Everything at KB Toys? (KB Toys)

I'm not affiliated with KB Toys, but found this interesting link on Fark. Apparently the suit comes from the store's practice of printing in black text what appears to be the ordinary price for an item, and then simulating in red print a handwritten slash through the price, with another, lower price written next to it. The suit says that the black price was inflated, and that the simulated handwriting tricks customers into thinking an item is on sale.

Listeners who have come to hate the labels believe their favorite artists no longer need the labels. If only that were true. Maybe Prince can afford to cast his label aside and go directly to the fans. But he did so only after becoming a household name. The vast majority of musicians will never find an audience large enough to let them quit their day jobs without a staff of marketing and promotions people who know how to book a tour, make a video and get their CDs into stores... --Jeff Howe --Listen, It Isn't the Labels, It's the Law (WashPost)

The link will be dead soon, of course, as is the case with all WashPost articles.

Google is engaged in a battle royale with rivals Overture -acquired by Yahoo - and Sprinks for the lucrative classified text ad business. Initially welcomed as the potential savior of small websites, including blogs, Adwords payments have trickled away in recent weeks, webloggers note. --Andrew Orlowski --Google shafts blogger, adds gagging clause to Adsense (Register)

Is Google turning evil? Has Orlowski found a new target?

Web pages soon plunged in Inktomi's search rankings and disappeared from key sites like MSN, where Inktomi feeds its listings. After he demanded to know what happened, Spooner learned from Inktomi that his site contained editorial flaws that hurt his ranking. And he would have to become a paid-inclusion customer to learn what these flaws were. All this, while his pages remained well ranked on Google. "I lost a quarter of my traffic," says Spooner. --Ben Elgin --Web Searches: The Fix Is In  (Business Week)

It is not surprising that the feminization of the television industry would give female characters more prominence, but it is a little disconcerting to see how men have waned in the process. Suddenly, sensitive shows are dealing with men as an oppressed minority group. Television writers who once focused on women's dilemmas are now exploring the emotional difficulty of being a man in today's world. --Alessandra Stanley --On TV, Men Are the New Women (NY Times)

"We now have a greater understanding of why biscuits develop cracks shortly after being baked." -- PhD student Qasim Saleem, quoted in an article by Christine McGourty --Broken Biscuit Breakthrough (BBC)

A biscuit in the UK is what Americans refer to as a "cracker". Thanks for the suggestion, Rosemary.

[M]ore than 1,000 fans [were] turned away from turnstiles for up to 1-1/2 hours over a bizarre ticket snafu.|The fans - many of them season ticket holders - were forced to wait on line until as late as the fourth inning to get replacement tickets after accidentally tearing their ducats out of ticket books without the stubs. --Stuck at the Gate  (NY Daily News)

Blame the user -- a typical management ploy. I haven't seen a picture of the tickets in question, but if 1,000 people all made the same mistake, the ticket books were poorly designed. Period. Usability testing could have caught that long before it angered so many people.