RodEdwards.ca — A Manitoban

If the Canada Pension Plan buys Yahoo, I’ll Stop Paying Taxes

by Rod Edwards on October 20, 2011

Yahoo is a sinking ship without effective management, an attractive product shelf, or much of a heartbeat left after years of getting jerked around by Yang & Bartz. To think that somehow legacy-titan Microsoft and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will be able to squeeze value out of it is ludicrous.

Private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners is working with one of its investors, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Microsoft Corp. to put together a proposal to buy Yahoo Inc., people familiar with the matter said. [WSJ]

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Shame on the WRHA (Winnipeg Regional Health Authority) – “The dead don’t have any rights.”

by Rod Edwards on October 19, 2011

I volunteered in the Emergency Room where a Winnipeg man diedin 2008 after waiting 34 hours for treatment. I wasn’t there when it happened, but I am at least superficially familiar with the unique challenges of managing an inner city emergency room environment.

There are the indigent, the chronic, the intoxicated, and the damaged, who for better or for worse, however they got there, depend on the compassion of those around them. And the staff of the Health Sciences Centre Emergency Room are among the most hardworking, diligent, and compassionate people I’ve met. But – they aren’t perfect, and the system isn’t perfect, and someone was missed and died. I’ve seen the changes that followed in the emergency room – new policies, procedures, and staff, right down to changes to the layout of the ER so that people cannot physically be in the waiting room without having checked in, brighter lights to discourage sleeping, and so on.

All of which is why the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s (WHRA’s) new move to have the case against the hospital dismissed – on the grounds that the dead don’t have charter rights – is shameful. It might be an example of budgetary prudence or toothless legal posturing, but its a slap in the face to the family of the deceased, to the people at hospital who are working hard to deliver care to those who need it, and to every Manitoban who has compassion in their soul.

Finally, its an embarassment to the WRHA itself, and all of the kind, decent people who undoubtedly work there. The WRHA has not endeared itself of late to the people it is supposed to serve: it has been roundly criticized for being a bloated bureaucracy, and for not dealing effectively with many of the health care challenges in the city. The WHRA had an opportunity with the Brian Sinclair story to show some humility.

Regardless of whether you think the family deserves a payout or not, and however just or unjust the family’s claims, the WHRA is doing no-one a service with their current defence, least of all themselves.

To quote some commenters from the Free Press:

“Mr. Sinclair was probably a lot of things, but unworthy of medical treatment, I think not.” Citizen 204

“Remind me to sue the WHRA for wrongful death BEFORE I die.” Rural Reader

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Un-arrington’d

by Rod Edwards on September 25, 2011

Of course Michael Arrington can’t recreate TechCrunch at Uncrunched (which surprises some) – he must be wrapped up tight in a non-compete from AOL.

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How-To: Save RIM

by Rod Edwards on July 13, 2011

Buckle in for barely informed punditry! Yesterday’s RIM AGM did little to inspire confidence in me, or apparently, investors in general [disclosure: I hold a small amount of RIM]. Balsillie and Lazaridis are still singing the same song (great things coming!) when RIM needs to be engaged in wholesale change. I’m not going to get into “why” RIM needs to change (which should be abundantly obvious), but “what” – so here it is:

1. Product Lineup: Go down to two phones. RIM has 6 BlackBerry phones in its lineup today, and announced yesterday that there would be 7 new handsets before the end of the year. Can you tell me the difference between a Curve and a Bold? Or the recently canned Tour? Or why the Storm 2 still exists after the release of the Torch? Have you even heard of or ever seen a “BlackBerry Style?”

You know what RIM’s product strategy is? A knock off of General Motor’s pre-bankruptcy badge-engineering schemes. You could buy the same crappy minivan as a Saturn Relay, a Pontiac Montana, a Chevy Uplander, or a Buick Terraza. Why? Who knows! Post-bankruptcy GM got a clue and so should RIM: products need value & differentiation.

So, how about this: Have two phones – one business oriented, once consumer oriented, and execute really, really well on both. Right now RIM’s design, engineering, and marketing efforts are spread too thin across too many products. Why do you think Apple executes so well on design and messaging? Because they’ve got one product and can put resources behind it.

2. Developer Ecosystem: Stop proliferating OS’s and models. To develop on iPhone, you need one development kit and one version of your app to reach a huge base of users. The BlackBerry equivalent is a nightmare: Multiple OS’s, multiple OS versions, multiple hardware setups with different screen sizes and formats – to get any kind of coverage, your BlackBerry development effort is going to be 5x the cost of the iPhone equivalent. And that’s without getting into the new models and OS’s in the pipeline.

RIM needs a single platform, a single hardware spec, and a concerted developer outreach program. Apps & developers create the virtuous cycle the drives adoption, customer retention, and ongoing app store purchases. Going down to two phones from 6 or 7 would help. The big challenge though is getting all of the current, old, weird (the “style”) handsets out of circulation. RIM needs to do some strategic accounting and figure out to a giant incentive program to drive upgrades can be capitalized & amortized as a product cost.

3. Product Development Cycle: Speed it up. The Bold first came out in 2008. It looks and works more or less the same today, three years later. The most recent tweak it to make it “touchscreen” – which will take the same dated form factor and mediocre functionality deep into 2012. That’s a 4+ year run: that’s sounds more like a car than a phone. Handset churn is 50% per year – and people always want something new. That’s why HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and Apple have a launch or significant upgrade (roughly) every six months. RIM has freshened up the curtains periodically, but their product line is pretty stagnant.

——

RIM has the resources and customers get back on top; all they need is some bold leadership that’s willing to put forward a real vision and get behind it.

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Re-Introducing the Natural Law Party of Canada – Better government through Yogic Flying

by Rod Edwards on March 10, 2011

One of my most prized possessions is a Natural Law Party newspaper that I received as a high school student during the 1993 election. For those who may have missed the Natural Law Party, they are/were a federal party that back in 1993 fielded 231 candidates on a platform that included hiring thousands of yogic flyers to generate positive energy in Ottawa.

Since then, they seem to have fizzled out – the Wikipedia link above suggests that they threw in the towel after getting .13% of the popular vote in 2000. Further evidence of the party’s dissolution is that their website now appears to be about scuba diving.

Anyway, say what you will about their policy positions, when the invitation from our high school was put out to all of the parties to have a debate with the students, the Conservatives, Liberals, and Natural Law Party showed up – instantly giving the NLP more credibility than the NDP in my eyes (a position I hold to this day).

I say Canadian politics is a less colourful place without the NLP (the Green Party is a pale substitute), and indeed is a harsher, meaner place than it was in 1993 (attack ads and all). So in the spirit of livening up the coming election, I’m going to post excerpts from that 1993 newspaper for your enjoyment. Pictures and transcript follow below, beginning today with the NLP’s plan to change the doors that MP’s enter and exit Parliament through to encourage more harmonious discussions. Note that apparently Parliament was as venal and bickering-ful (?) a place back in 1993 as it is today.

“The Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, with their improper orientation and southern main entrance, do not give due consideration to the laws of nature, and therefore will not favorably support the harmony and success of the government.

‘It is no surprise that the Members of Parliament are constantly quarreling,’ says Dr. Neil Paterson. ‘The mistakes in the design of the House of Commons are clearly reflected in the tense and disharmonious atmosphere in the House.’ [True - very true - r]

In order for the government to be fully effective, it is very important to close the south entrances to Parliament (see diagram). The Natural Law Party also suggest that all Canadians, both for their own good fortune and for that of the whole country, should refrain from using south entrances to their homes and offices. ‘Unless we reconstruct our country in accord with Natural Law, we will not enjoy the full support of the evolutionary power of Natural Law in all of our activities, and problems and misfortunes will continue in our government and in our nation,’ said Dr. Paterson.”

There it is. Do yourself and the country a favour and skip those disharmonious south-facing doors, everyone.

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Here’s 4 reasons why iPhone 5 is coming sooner than you think

by Rod Edwards on March 9, 2011

Apple has a track record of doing a mid-cycle refresh to their phones: the iPhone 3G, example, was bumped to become the 3GS with the addition of faster hardware. Something tells me the next iPhone refresh, however, may be more comprehensive than usual. Here’s why:

The Antenna: That exposed antenna cost Apple some brand credibility, which isn’t something that Apple cedes lightly, and the free bumper program and PR effort cost them millions. Finally, the antenna doesn’t seem to deliver any functional improvements – iPhone 4 reception on average doesn’t appear to be any better or worse than any of its internally-antenna’d competitors. Note that Mark Papermaster fell on his sword and left Apple in the wake of antennagate – that’s pretty telling for a company that values long-tenured executives. I expect Apple would be happy to have the antenna back inside the case sooner rather than later.

The Glass Back: The iPhone 4 has a glass back that is prone to shattering. With the antenna on the outside, it doesn’t offers any functional improvement over a metal back, and arguably doesn’t offer any more visual appeal than aluminum or plastic alternatives. Rumours are heavy that iPhone 5 will be back to metal. I would argue that it won’t be aluminum as many articles suggest, but rather the product of one of Apple’s more mysterious acquisitions, LiquidMetal. Remember them? They make weird alloys that allow for very sophisticated designs.

The Processor: The iPhone 4 features an Apple A8 single-core processor. With Apple’s ongoing push into gaming, that chip doesn’t buy the iPhone a lot of head room for future developments. I think the iPad 2 points the way here – rumours abound already that iPhone 5 is going to get the dual-core chip – the A5. Apple’s on a roll with gaming, and I think they’ll act to maintain that momentum. Apple must also be feeling some competitive pressure from Android phones that offer dual core performance and multitasking today – an area that Apple has consistently fallen down in.

4G Networks and Verizon LTE: Apple’s Jobs apparently likes the cut of Verizon’s LTE jib. For those who don’t know, LTE is a “4G” or next-generation high-speed network technology. Since the launch of the iPhone 4 on Verizon, Verizon’s download speeds have been shown to be consistently slower than those of AT&T – a fact that would have been know to Apple prior to the launch. That’s not a great experience for Apple’s Verizon customers today. But – Verizon’s the LTE champ in North America, and there’s already lots of speculation that Apple is planning for an LTE iPhone. Or, Apple may welcome Sprint into the iPhone fold with a 4G iPhone 5 (4G is a high-speed alternative to LTE) as well as make AT&T’s 4G network available to iPhone owners. The bottom line is that there’s a lot going on with high-speed wireless technology, all of which is bypassing Apple’s current phones and customers.

So – sum it all up and you’ve got a tarnished brand (the antenna), a somewhat dubious design feature (the glass back), a processor that’s going to run out of steam (A8), and new drool worthy networks that Apple can’t touch (LTE and 4G). The processor and networks are going to quickly become tablestakes in my view, and the antenna and backing changes would return Apple to their excellent user-focused design tradition. So – I call iPhone 5 for this fall.

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Gold And Silver As Currency? [idiocracy]

by Rod Edwards on March 8, 2011

The Utah House of Representatives has approved a bill that allowing gold and silver coins to be used as currency… Rep. Brad Galvez (R) explained: “This is a step in preparedness, a step in security that allows us to be able to help hold up our economy as the dollar continues to shrink.”

via Utah House Approves Gold And Silver As Legal Tender | TPMDC.

I love it. Start stockpiling canned food, gold, and guns, and keep your fingers crossed for the red neck apocalypse! Do Republican policy makers seriously think that gold is a viable alternative to a functional currency, or that there would be anything left to buy if it was? Who are they afraid of – the Chinese Han army? Or those crafty Japanese leaders who have been fooling the world?

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Rising Sun: Japan’s 20-year economic conspiracy, unmasked! [idiocracy]

by Rod Edwards on March 6, 2011

Yes, all talk about “stagnation” and “malaise” to the contrary, Japan’s surplus is up more than five-fold since 1990. And, yes, far from falling against the dollar, the Japanese yen has actually boasted the strongest rise of any major currency in the last two decades… I find it hard to avoid the conclusion that the story of Japan’s stagnation is a media myth. Certainly anyone who visits Japan these days is struck by the obvious affluence even among average citizens. The cars on the roads, for instance, are generally much larger and better equipped than in the 1980s (indeed state of the art navigation devices, for instance, are more or less standard on many models)

via The Myth of Japan’s ‘Lost Decades’ – James Fallows – International – The Atlantic.

A few weeks ago I linked to an article about China’s Han majority and their potential for resurgent, ethnic jingoistic policy. The gist of my thinking then was that there is a weird niche market for ethnic/economic scaremongering literature, wherein journalists pick an economically ascendant ethnic group to get everyone freaked out about. In the eighties it was Japan, today its China, tomorrow it will be Russia or India. But never fear, people of Japan – your economic boogeyman status is safe and secure, thanks in part to the folks at the Atlantic. They assert that Japan’s leadership has been engaged in a grand conspiracy for 20 years to carefully manage the perception of Japan’s economic malaise – cooking their national books to make them look terrible – to create a sympathetic market for their exports. Um, wow. Really?

Forget about Afghanistan or healthcare or employment – the Japanese drive bigger cars than us and have nav systems.

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Drive a Mazda? Don’t mind the SPIDERS. Or the recall. [nanny state]

by Rod Edwards on March 3, 2011

First Nanny State post in a while, but a funny one.

The Japanese automaker has issued a recall for 52,000 Mazda6 sedans due to potential obstruction in the vehicles evaporative systems. Apparently, the evaporative canister vent line of certain 2009 and 2010 Mazda6 models is the perfect home for a species of spider. If the web clogs the line, excessive negative pressure may build up in the vehicles fuel tank, which is likely to eventually cause a crack in the tank itself.

via Autoblog — We Obsessively Cover The Auto Industry.

Wow – really? Some of these recalls seem to be downright ridiculous. I remember a Ford recall from a few years ago wherein a leaky gasket could drip power steering fluid onto another gasket, which if it then leaked in turn could drip oil onto a manifold, which if sufficiently leaked upon, could accumulate enough sludge to contact an electrical bit, which if improperly sealed could cause a fire. OK, fires are bad, but is the onus really on manufacturers to conceive of every possible rube goldberg happenstance or chain of events that might befall car and driver? Same thought applies to Toyota’s floor mat issues.

Anyway, if you drive a Mazda, watch out for the creepy crawlies under your hood that are plotting to make your gas tank explode.

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Direct from Egypt: Death in the streets [video - warning]

by Rod Edwards on February 3, 2011

From a thread on reddit, here’s another horrific video of people being run down in the streets. Each conflict in recent years seems to be characterized by its own signature horror – in Iran it was secret police kidnapping and torturing people, in Sudan rape squads, in Egypt it seems to be police and officials using their vehicles as weapons. Be warned – this video shows (from a distance) a lot of people getting run over at 30 seconds – appalling.