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Day 244 - Jan 22 - Raleigh Show

The blog posts and days and shows have been all out of whack lately, I may have even lost a day or two in the confusion. I guess my attempt to catch up and blogoperate in a real time mode combined with switching to morning posting and recovering from pretty colored drinks has thrown a wrench at my illusions of clarity. Rather than attempt to fix the past, I will just add in an 'adaptor' post to line me up with the future.

To start with, lets pick up a few straggling lonely photos from the last day off, first, when I was getting all artsy fartsy with the reflection photo, I took a few others as well and the odd colors came from messing with the 'white balance' on the camera. Here is an un retouched photo where I used the pool water as the 'white' to set the cameras white balance

And the same settings with a pic of my arm

and the same arm after saturated color and a crop and rotation done in Macromedia Fireworks

and on the opposite side of the artsy fence, how about a raw production shot of the Cincinnati gig that looks almost like every other arena we do with a bit on an oversized scoreboard

When work needs to be done, it is common for roadies to take on various tasks of importance. With the arrival of our newly embraced Tiki theme, also has arrived a variety of essential delegated duties. My duty of course is blowing the palm tree up each day,

How about another meandering ponder?

**** Meandering and Boring Ponder Rant ****

Harley Davidson vs Apple Computers.

Both are corporations so I understand that ultimately they have profit motives as a purpose of existence and I am confident that the humans creating both companies were inspired by a dream of creating something unique and amazing. There are various reasons why either one may be arguably "better" business-wise than the other or whatever, but I don't care about all that. What is on my mind is the dynamics of the underlying sub currents on which these companies have chosen to base the way they sell their particular products. They both are recognizable "Made in America" brands that are culturally and passionately embraced by segments of the world population. Both brands are unique products that stand at the top of the quality heap in their particular sector. With Harley we have the 'shiny cool tough guy durable motorcycle' and with Apple, the 'peoples easy to use and attractive i-products.' Both make 'sexy' machines, both are status symbols in their realm. All of that, is all good and I enjoy the craftsmanship and quality angles that both companies incorporate but alas, there is a fundamental difference in the way these two entities financially retain the customers that embrace their products. The 'Harley Way' is to create a unique and desirable product that welcomes customization, alteration and invites the customer to embrace a plethora of aftermarket manufacturers that compete with accessories that Harley makes, should they chose to do so. A true open market, free will philosophy that empowers the buyer with unlimited freedom and possibilities limited only by the imagination of whomever wishes to contribute. The 'Apple Way' is to sell you a product that has been optimized to work seamlessly with other Apple products but also has bee cobbled in someway in order to minimize compatibility with non-Apple manufacturers. They have spent extra engineering hours designing ways to create these booby trap like incompatibilities and then pass the added costs on to the consumers. Once you buy in to the Apple Way, they do all in their power to hi-jack as much of your spending money as possible. In my eyes, Apple's business strategy represents an angle that strives to limit choices while Harley reinforces offering freedom of choice. Harley's success depends on offering quality products and accessories that are superior or more desirable than the multitude of welcomed competitors. Apple perpetuates by initially making a desirable product and then designing in incompatibilities and/or denying information that would allow competitors to make compatible accessories, whenever possible.

In my opinion the practice of designed in incompatibilities is just like SIM card locking where companies inject software that makes cell handsets unable to operate on competitive networks. Also the inkjet printer scam where they sell you a printer for $75 and the ink costs $50 for a replacement cartridge that is booby-trapped with a micro chip to block people from refilling it. Annoying, almost like giant versions of petty drug dealers giving away a samples to keep you coming back. Oh wait, did I say petty? Actually I meant international corporate conglomerate drug companies that give doctors free samples and keep huge masses of people dependant on various pharmaceuticals whenever possible. Predatory business baiting and corralling their human critters just as us humans do to sheep for their wool or cows for their milk. The company who can secure the most dependant humans wins. I accept that the predatory nature is an aspect of life and every snake needs to feed, mosquito and tigers do as well and I actually enjoy the dynamics and complexity of all of the interconnecting pieces that make up the balance of life and also I avoid unprotected exposure to hungry tigers, snakes and mosquito's whenever possible. Except perhaps if I am going fishing, hiking or many other adventures, in which case I make concessions, of course. :)

So all this rant was sparked when I read about Apple's new iPhone. Flashes of their incompatibility injections ran through my mind and reading further there was an interesting side angle. Turns out that there is some dispute over who owns the "iPhone" name and Cisco systems, a networking company focused on connecting computers together has an iPhone as well. It also turns out that Cisco Systems and Apple were in discussions over the iPhone name when Apple just vanished and released the product. Finally and my favorite part is that from what I have read it appears that Cisco's primary demand is that Apple make the iPhone interoperable with Cisco products, something that is very much against the grain of the "Apple Way" and that made me smile.

**** End Meandering and Boring Ponder Rant ****

Ok, shut up and do sound,

Dave Rat

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Phil Cicco on :

Dave, It was great to meet you at the Raleigh show and watch / hear you guys own the sound :) Hope you enjoy my band's CD. Best of luck on the rest of the tour man!!! Phil pivot@pivotband.com Pivot www.pivotband.com

Monique on :

I fought off the apple way until this past november when I broke and bought an iPod Video. I'm still not an apple fan by any means but, for now, it suits my needs (ie: being able to watch my "Live at Slane Castle" and "Coachella" DVDs as well as download vintage Woody the Woodpecker video podcasts all while I'm 'at work') :P

Alan on :

Video equipment and road crew - $1 million dollars Sound equipment and road crew - $2 million dollars Not using a portable inflator for the Tiki themed inflatables - PRICELESS! Cheers, Dave! Best of luck!

Evangeline on :

Hey! I'm going to the show in DC tomorrow night and let me tell you, I am incredibly excited. DC is happy to have you guys in town! I expect to see a wonderful show!

Ben on :

Hey Dave! Love reading your blog! Unfortunatly, i did not find it until yesterday (1-23) I was at the raleigh show, and when i looked at FOH, i was wondering what was up with the palm trees! haha, i now know! Looks like you guys were having a bangin party in there durring the show! Plenty of girls in there with you from what i could see! Anyway, i got a really crappy picture on my phone of you guys set up with your tiki stuff, so i thought id pass it along! here it is: http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o4/bigben43231/01_22_07_1918.jpg it might be crappy, but you can deffinitly see the tiki theme goin on! Thats it from me, have an awesome rest of the tour, and keep up the awesome blog! ~Ben Packard

Kristy Detsis on :

I've been reading this blog for quite some time now, but I have yet to post a comment. So here it is, my first post. I'm in town for the D.C. show tonight, and I am very excited to hear me some rock and roll. Maybe I'll see you in the Tiki hut. Aloha, Kristy Detsis

Chris on :

From the outside I'm sure it would seem that Apple might be playing that game, exclusivity....and with cell phones the situation sure looks like a game of tug-a-war. But, and I quote "Cisco has not published the source code for some components of the WIP300 iPhone in accordance with its open-source licensing agreement, said Armijn Hemel, a consultant with Loohuis Consulting and half of the team running the GPL Violations Project, an organization that identifies and publicizes misuse of GPL (GNU General Public License) licenses and takes some violators to court." It is indeed a fine line at times...choosing between openness /accessibility and the desire to protect one's intellectual property. I personally do not like the whole idea of locked phones. Lets look at a few examples specifically of how Apple has conducted itself. Apple has long set out to be accessible to developers and has based itself around more of a philosophy of open source than it's chief competitor, Microsoft, ever has. To be truly useful in the world of technology these days it has to be a (hopefully) elegant marrige of open source and proprietary solutions. The underpinnings of OS X are open source. Darwin, a fully open source operating system, is the foundation of Mac OS X, the world’s most advanced operating system. Third party developers are welcome to explore it. Quicktime, has a track record of adopting and abiding by industry standards while Windows media has chosen an approach of trying to force others to play by their rules. It’s Microsoft versus the world. They have had some success with that approach but it sure smacks of what you accuse Apple of to a greater extent.

Dave Rat on :

Interesting and I agree that Microsoft has done all it can to seal it's products and not share and force people to only use products they make whenever possible, as do many other companies like you mention. I have two Apple computers and 4 PC's in the pile of operating items that are part of my life and the reason I chose Apple rather than Microsoft as the example is that there is a difference in how their policies affect me as a consumer. As both are software and hardware makers, there are similarities and perhaps Apple is more open in the software realm but when I buy Apple OS software I have no option but to buy Apple hardware on which to run it. Plus, with Apple hardware there is a sure bet that Apple has incorporated some sort of software or hardware interface that strives to force me to buy other Apple bits. As an example, was there not some sort of issue where Apple's iDVD was made available only to purchasers of their over priced Superdrive? So, with Apple it is the marriage between their hardware and software offerings that gives them an upper hand in milking me, the consumer. My experience has been that when I purchase a computer that came with Windows, I can add on a plethora of accessories and software and I wont be limited in anyway and I never give another dime to Microsoft (I am not a big fan of Microsoft). My personal experience has been this is not the same with Apple and that purchasing an Apple computer and having the desire to add on accessories and software will inevitably lead me to having little or no choice other than purchase certain items from Apple.

Steve on :

Hi Dave, I've been following your blog world-tour since the beginning and will try to get to FOH to meet you at the Tampa show. This might interest you with regards to Apple Computers: They are continuously ranked near to, and now at the very bottom of, the list as far as green manufacturing and recycling processes. There manufacturing processes use the most toxic chemicals and produce the most damaging byproducts. Here is but one source: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/electronics-companies-race-061206 Take care on the road, Steve

jim on :

Dave Rat, Tell Scott the Lampi that Jim McDonald says hello. Now that I have those pictures of him in a speedo in Cleveland I will expect him to be in that for the next corporate gig. Been many years since I have seen him. Tell him Carlo turned him in with the Halloween photos. Let mem know when you guys are in Philly my hometown see ya jim

Mikey Brown on :

Thanks for the link to Gungis' site. I have 2 people close to me, now dealing with treatment. I hope everybody will get involved with his raffle and Benefits. It's great to hear that his treatments are going well. I hope to see him out there soon. Thanks for the Blog Dave. So much info and good spirit. Travel well MB

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