- Genius mixtape concept
Suck UK will be selling this. You now know what I’ll be sending out for the year-end mix.
(via Boy Genius)
- I will not be voting for Rudy
If you know me, you probably could have guessed that I will definitely not be voting for Rudy. If there’s a single quote that I could direct your attention to, it would be the following zinger:
“Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.”
(via Boing Boing)
UPDATE: Apparently Rudy referred back to his copy of 1984 for an answer to the immigration issue as well.
- We’ve lost another good one - R.I.P. Tony Wilson
A week after dad passed away, I learned that Tony Wilson had kidney cancer. He died of a heart attack yesterday. I didn’t know Tony personally, though I did see him a few times at conferences over the years. And of course, I loved a lot of the music he was responsible for. He was the man who gave the Sex Pistols their television debut in ‘76, he had an incredible ear for talent and was one of the biggest and earliest advocates for the digital distribution of music. And then there was the whole Factory Records thing. Anyone who enjoyed Joy Division, Happy Mondays or New Order owes a debt of gratitude to Wilson. Manchester was put on the map because of him.
I wrote him an email a few days after I learned of his illness. Here was his response:
From: Anthony Wilson
To: Brad Barrish
Subject: Re: The C Word
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 11:58:36 -0000thanks bro, appreciated
xx
nothing will stop us…
etc…Anthony Wilson
The Loft, 10A, Little Peter Street,
Manchester, England M15 4PS
07850-053333www.inthecity.co.uk
www.f4records.co.ukTony, you’ll be missed by many. May your legacy live on forever.
- Apple treats their customers right
If you look around online, there’s no shortage of horror stories about people having problems with their Macs and other Apple products. The bad stuff always outweighs the good stuff around companies like this. If for no other reason, most people don’t post on message boards and blogs about their good experiences. If I’m satisfied with a product, I generally don’t write anything about it. Having said that, I just had a pretty incredible experience with Apple that I wanted to share.
At some point earlier this year I sent my MacBook back to Apple because the finish was flaking off around the edge of the bottom and top housing. It took some pushing for them to agree to even look at it, but when I sent it back, they promptly replaced the bottom housing and sent it back. I didn’t want to be without it anymore, so I put off sending it back to them again for the top housing.
Flash forward several months. My original Apple warranty was about to expire, so it was time to buy AppleCare for the machine. I then called Apple support again to arrange to have the computer sent back in to take care of the top housing they didn’t take care of the last time. The issue was immediately elevated to a product specialist who apologized that it wasn’t done right the first time. They sent me a box in which to return the computer for repairs. I checked the status online through the Apple site and there was a hold on the machine and it said that I needed to call Apple for further information. As it turned out, there was a mistake and everything was fine. A few hours later I received a call from a product specialist that wanted to go over my repair. I was pleasantly surprised by the call. In all the years that I’ve owned Apple products and sent them in to be repaired, I’ve never had someone follow up with me. He told me that while I had sent it in for the finish peeling off from the machine, they wanted to make sure the computer was in working order. They noticed that the computer was running a little hot, so they replaced the logic board and heat sink. While they were running the final tests, they noticed that my hard drive was damaged. The problem is that I replaced the hard drive with a larger drive and in order for them to cover it, the original drive has to be in the machine. I explained that I just needed a bigger drive and to not worry about it. I had backed the machine up, so I wasn’t concerned about losing anything. I asked the product specialist to send me an email documenting their findings, so I could return the drive and get it replaced. He said that wouldn’t be a problem. He thanked me for my patience and said the machine would be back to me on Monday.
Monday comes and the computer is waiting for me at the office when I get in. I open the box and inspect the machine and immediately notice that the lid isn’t sitting evenly with the bottom of the machine. I turn the machine around and in the back it looks as though someone had pried the bottom and top housing off with a screw driver, damaging the plastic in the process. I’ve done this before on other plastic gadgets, so I know what it looks like. As if that weren’t a big enough deal, when I opened the lid, there were disgusting finger prints all over the LCD. My blood was boiling at this point and I called to leave a calm, but very strong voicemail for the product specialist that was handling my case. I wasn’t going to wait for him to call me back, so I called the main Apple support number and once again, my case was immediately escalated and they apologized profusely and asked that I give them another chance to repair the computer. I certainly wasn’t excited about being without my MacBook for another couple of days, but wasn’t about to keep it in this condition. They overnighted a box to me to send it in again. That was on Monday. Tuesday, on my way in to work the product specialist called me back and was very concerned about the shape in which my computer was sent back to me. He assured me that he would watch the progress and make sure that a senior technician worked on my machine. As an added bonus, he also said they would put in a new 80GB hard drive and send me back the old one as well. He knew I was just going to get the drive replaced, but I could use it for an extra drive. He thanked me for my patience and said he would follow up with me. I got to the office, packed the computer up and sent it back to Apple again.
When I got to the office this morning, my computer was waiting for me. I was pretty excited to have it back. Having to work on a desktop machine is kind of a pain in the ass when you’re used to the mobility. I opened the box and pulled my computer out. It looked brand new and then I turned it around and realized it was still damaged. While they had replaced the bottom housing (again), the lid had pretty significant damage and was not replaced. I called the product specialist back to let him know that the repair had not been done properly. Within an hour he returned my call. Again, he apologized up and down, told me how embarrassed he was about the repair center’s quality and said it just wasn’t how Apple likes to do things. He then explained that they would like to send me a brand new computer as a way to not only do right by me, but to show how much they appreciated my patience throughout this ordeal. He explained they would send me a 2.16 GHz MacBook with 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, 8X SuperDrive, Airport Extreme and Bluetooth. He asked if that would be ok. I asked if I could pay the difference to upgrade the machine’s RAM to 2GB and he said while this was normally something they would charge me for, he would waive the fee and make sure it had 2GB when it arrived. He took down my shipping info and explained that as soon as I shipped the old machine back to Apple, that would generate the release and they would overnight the new machine to me.
Needless to say, I couldn’t be more satisfied with my experience (in the end). There are many reasons that I use Apple products and swear by them and this experience just reinforces my affinity for all things Apple. I don’t know of another company that does things like Apple does. It’s rare to find a company that owns up to their mistakes and tries to make things good with their customers. I appreciate that as a consumer and can’t wait for my new machine to arrive.
- kanYe and Zach and Will
The funniest video I’ve seen in a while.
Related: Zach is interviewed in The FADER about the video.
- Lead
Over the last week I’ve received a lot of advice on leadership and it’s something to which I give a lot of thought. If there’s been a common thread in the words and thoughts, it’s that we need people around us that don’t agree with everything we say. When we surround ourselves with people that have the same viewpoint, we get arrogant and arrogance is not a good quality. We must stay open to new ideas and encourage others to think different than we do. We also have to listen. Instead of thinking about how were going to respond to someone in order to defend our own ideas, we should hear what the other person has to say. I’ll take it one step further and say that in order to lead, you have to be able to put differences aside in order to unite with others to accomplish common goals. One of the biggest reasons our country is in such bad shape is that we don’t have leaders that unite, and if they do, they’re bringing together people with the same ideas that they have. Do you see what I’m getting at? I’m so concerned about our country and my hope is that I’m able to be the change that I wish to see in the world, as Mahatma Gandhi so eloquently suggested. Another quote that comes to mind from Gandhi is “An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind.” Quite appropriate for these times, no?
- Today
It’s old news now, but the day of the steam pipe explosion in NYC was a traumatic and scary one for a couple of my co-workers at Control Room NYC HQ. Susan sent an email out to people that evening and with her permission I’m reposting it for you to read. Thank you, Susan.
I had a very scary and unique experience today. It was approaching 6pm at work. I was wrapping up a few things and leaving soon for an evening out. I heard what sounded like thunder, which would have been predictable since we’d had horrendous rain and thunderstorms earlier in the day. But the sound rumbled on longer than thunder would. My friend and co-worker, Pari, and I looked at each other with a concerned look that grew more intense as the seconds went by. At one point I even said to Pari, “I have that bad feeling in the pit of my stomach”. She concurred. After a few “what the f’s” and approximately 20 seconds, a few other people in our offices popped out, also concerned. We went to a window and saw people running, full-on racing, down the street. Simultaneously, everyone had the same thought - “let’s get out of here, NOW!”. Leaving computers on, pens clicked on where they lay, folders askew, we grabbed only our personal bags and headed towards the lobby of the 16th floor. Crazy, but instinctively and without discussing it, everyone knew to take the stairs. So down we started. There was already a thin stream of people descending. Not much talking. A few “what happened?” and a few panickers talking out loud or on their cell phones. Pari heard a guy basically saying goodbye to whoever was on the other end of the phone. Pari, in her comfortable ballet flats, raced ahead of me. Every man for him or herself I suppose. (Smiling) I, on the other hand, had worn my 4″ platforms today. So I navigated about 3 or 4 flights with them on, everyone passing me by, until I decided to whip them off and rapidly descend the remaining floors barefoot. Amazing the thoughts that go through one’s head during something like this. The most humorous was probably the realization that it’s really difficult to descend that amount of stories. That my legs were getting a great workout and that maybe I could skip the gym tomorrow morning. The more grave turned to, “so this is what the people felt like at the WTC”, or “I know it wasn’t our building that exploded, but what if we’re next”, or “jesus, they said we were going to be attacked again soon, and here it is”. Anyway, the central point was to go as fast as I possibly could.
I reached the lobby, finally, and Pari was waiting for me. It was mayhem. We ran out to the street and it was worse. We still had no idea what had happened. People were saying it was a building explosion. Maybe Met Life Building. Maybe Grand Central Station. All within two blocks. Someone else said a building was crumbling. We headed south because we both live in that direction, but also it was away from whatever was happening. People everywhere. Fire and police vehicles everywhere. LOUD. Everyone trying to use their cell phone but once again, no service. I felt lost for a minute, looking everywhere, and Pari grabbed my hand. She started running and pulling me. We ran and ran, hand in hand the whole time, passing other people running, people standing around looking lost, little kids crying, Pari saw a woman crying, covered in dirt. I didn’t see her. After about five blocks I realized I was still holding my shoes and was barefoot. Ew, gross. But running in platforms was simply not an option. At one corner we stopped and looked at the sky behind us. It was a cloudy day so we could barely make out a thick cloud of something billowing about a block past our offices. Shaking with fear and rubbery legs, and without speaking about it, we both had the same thought and continued bolting. Remember the news footage? Yeah, get away from that as quickly as possible.
Finally, at approximately 15 blocks from the area, we stopped at a mani/pedi place so that I could buy some flip-flops. At that point my feet could not possibly get dirtier, but I didn¹t’ want to step on something and cut them. And anyway, ew, gross. We reached Madison Square Park where seemingly the people there had no clue what was happening 15 blocks north. Kids were playing on the swingsets, people were leisurely walking their dogs. We sat on a bench to catch our breath and try to reach some family. This is when we started getting glimpses of reports that there was a steampipe explosion. Christ, all this for that? We continued walking south and stopped at a bistro for a drink and a bite to eat and talked about how lucky we were today. But also about the fact that this is now the reality of our lives and the world we live in. It was our instinct to leave the building immediately, to take the stairs, to run far away. To reach out to family and let them know we were okay.
I just wanted to share this with you to remind everyone that we really do need to live for every day.
- I’m not so good at math
I’m not known for my strong math skills, but I can do simple addition.
Bush’s new executive order + Bush’s plan to eliminate the $420 million federal subsidy for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting + “new” Bin Laden footage trying to scare people + regenerated al-Qaeda + Bush invoking executive privilege to block testimony from former White House aids + Cheney thinking he is not part of the executive branch = some really fucked up shit.
