The Gold Coast

2010-08-23

I’m digging this tour guide gig. In fact, I’m about to do some more research.

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indefensible:

I might love this city too hard but I swear living here is like winning the lottery.

Cool story, Bro. Living in San Francisco is like finding out you won the lottery while getting a hummer. Trufax.

Source: indefensible

2010-08-22

Life was robbed.

The TV show, Life, was canceled after only two seasons. It deserved much better.

The same can be said for the shoe Jeremiah (2002) for similar reasons.

2010-08-11

I drove my first solo tours today.

These are the four cars I drive. Today I did my first two tours in the red one (a replica 1929 Model A), and the final tour in the blue one (a replica 1918 Packard).

I think I did okay. My first group broke into spontaneous applause toward the end of the tour (only partially deserved, but I’ll take it), and the last group tipped me well even though most of them didn’t speak English.

It’s harder than you might think to drive people safely around the city in a slightly janky old-timey car/bus thing while also keeping up an entertaining litany of historical facts and anecdotes for 90 minutes three times a day. But it can also be surprisingly fun.

2010-08-06

Fine body I’ll just get up. Sleeping wasn’t a priority of mine today anyway.

(via cleapow)

You too, huh? i blame the solar flares — it’s like the sun is throwing invisible Morning Xtreme energy at us or something.

Source: cleapow

2010-07-29

Bezos on the Kindle

Q: What accounts for [the Kindle’s] growth?

A: I think it’s a combination of the electronic ink display, which makes reading for long periods very comfortable. There’s the 3G wireless we built into Kindle so that you have that convenience of (being able to download) books in 60 seconds. And we have 600,000 titles in the Kindle bookstore, not counting the 1.8 million pre-1923, out-of-copyright titles that you can get for Kindle for free.

This is an excellent Q&A with Jeff Bezos about the Kindle. When I first came across an excerpt (like the one above, but different), I thought it was from Amazon’s Kindle FAQ — and I was extremely impressed by the answer. I mentally gave kudos to the entire team in charge of updating the FAQ and writing the answers.

Apparently, though, these are the result of a live interview (or “discussion”) with Bezos, “edited for space and clarity.” I’m left wondering how edited, and how well Bezos and his team of senior marketers were able to prepare the answers ahead of the interview.

The answer above is particularly well-considered. It hits the key positioning points Amazon wants to stress, while subtly side-stepping the real key factors of the Kindle’s success—which also happen to apply to the iPad and most of the Kindle’s competitors, namely instant gratification (this isn’t just “convenience,” it’s nearly frictionless commerce—it’s almost easier to buy a book you’re on the fence about than to not), and portability (not just a lighter carry-on when you fly, but fewer heavy boxes to deal with when you move).

But I’m still impressed, and I’ve actually changed my view of the Kindle from “made obsolete by the iPad” to “I kind of want one.”