Moving Day

Hey! I've moved!

This page should automatically redirect in a couple of seconds. But if it doesn't, you could just click over to lechtanski.net yourself.

Thanks Blogger!

Siriusly... I knew it!

Yeah, I called it. Now I know it's not that special, but now I'm thinking about buying into satellite radio... maybe.

Variety is reporting that XM and Sirius have agreed to merge. This makes total sense for the reasons I pointed out early last Summer.

>> But the thing holding up satellite radio is the “format” battle.
>> Do you want XM or Sirius. Sirius has Howard Stern and
>> Martha Stewart. XM has Opie & Anthony and Oprah. It
>> may sound like deciding between satellite-TV providers,
>> but it’s not. The difference is Dish Network, DirecTV and
>> Cable all show the same channels (Food Network, Bravo,
>> FX, local affiliates…); subscribers are paying for the content
>> delivery. Satellite radio is both different content and delivery.
>> At some point XM and Sirius are going to get together. One’s
>> going to buy the other, or there’ll be some crazy merger or
>> synergistic alliance where subscribers to either can listen to
>> content from both. Then it’ll work just like the cable TV and
>> we won’t think about it.
-- Why Radio will never go away from Fej July 28, 2006.

Now all they have to do is figure out how to get local stations incorporated and we're cruisin'.

Fiber-to-the-Future

How much data do you need to move? Or more accurately, how fast do you want to get at your digital stuff? Whether it’s music, video or PowerPoint presentations, the trend is to access your digital files from anywhere, and to be able to download anything at the drop of a hat. The trend is fiber optic cable.

But this new technology requires a new physical network. And not just of fiber optics spread across the globe, but fiber stretched to every individual house, a.k.a. “Fiber-To-The-Home”. Construction of these networks will likely to represent the largest communications infrastructure upgrade in decades and Alpha Technologies is set to play a significant role.

But how much difference can a fiber network make? Consider that downloading a 5-megabyte MP3 with dial-up access - the original Internet technology - can take 10 minutes. DSL may take 30 seconds. Cable is pretty fast at 10 seconds. But, fiber? One second. That’s it. Snap your fingers.

And it’s not just for data. Opting for fiber service means you’ll not only get access to incredibly high-speed Internet access, but recently announced TV and telephone service. All of it… now…

An optical fiber network can reach millions of homes and everyone one of those home requires a power conversion and back-up system. That’s where Alpha comes in. Unlike cable networks, you only need power solutions at the front and the end, not the middle. And because of these power solution needs, customers include telephone companies and cable providers, and municipalities, property developers and even homeowners impatient for someone else to bring the technology around.

The use of dial-up Internet connections is waning. It is nearly impossible – well, maybe just unbearable – to try browsing the Internet with anything other than a high-speed connection. And with more and more people interested in seeing what a broadband connection has to offer, today’s technologies are being tested. As more people leave behind the painfully slow download speeds of a dial-up connection, some may be disappointed in the crowded realm of other broadband technologies.

Coax cable is reaching the upper limits of its data capacity. And telephone companies are doing everything possible to squeeze as much bandwidth as possible from their existing copper-based networks, much of which is at or near end of life.

And while those networks are being tested, many rural and remote communities have been left behind by the broadband train altogether. In order to get broadband access, many have been limited to satellite Internet technology, which is spotty at best. Pressed by community and business leaders many municipalities have taken control of their destiny and have followed the lead of cities like Bristol, Virginia, the first municipal utility to offer voice, video and data over a fiber-to-the-home network. Taking on the cost of bringing high speed data access to your town is not cheap, so most are looking toward the most forward-looking option available: Fiber. Today the number of municipalities currently fielding or planning FTTh networks is in the hundreds.

Over the last 24-months Alpha Technologies has been working on a full complement of telecommunications-grade primary and standby power solutions for home and business, as well as headend power solutions like AC Uninterruptible Power Supplies, inverters, rectifiers, batteries and large generator sets.

It’s units like these that help make bringing fiber to the home a reality. After all, high-speed on the information superhighway is no good if there’s no exit ramp to your house.

What's Up With All the Nuclear?

There are two things that really freak me out. Well, technically three if you include computer-animated talking babies. But the two that really get me are garbage disposals and nuclear explosions. The first is just something I'm learning to deal with, but with the latter, I'm sure I'm not alone. So, what's with all the nuclear explosion action in the entertainment world? Is it really that entertaining?

This season's TV schedule is laden with the nuclear topic: Jericho, Heroes, 24... These are major network shows, so I can only assume there is a sizable audience. And I get it that people like to watch things that freak them out a little. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive. I don't like horror movies either. In general I don't like being scared. Happy, sad, stressed... those are emotions I can deal with. Scared is just something I don't need in my life. And Nuclear explosions scare me. Now that I think of it, maybe seeing The Day After at the ripe age of 11 had a negative effect.

I dig the Jack Ryan movies/books: Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games and such. But the Sum of All Fears just didn't do it for me. I know, you might saying: "But Fej, is that not just because of your natural aversion to Ben Affleck?"

I see what your saying and it is a possibility. But near as I can tell, the Affleck/Freeman saga, which involved a pretty serious nuclear explosion, is the stinkiest one of the Jack Ryan series. That is in terms of revenue at the box office and afterward. And I don't see plans for another Affleck/Clancy collaboration.

Seeing a spaceship take out the White House is one thing. It's a space ship, and it was a fun computer effect. Seeing a nuclear explosion take out Washington D.C. is pretty discomforting. Granted, it is still a crazy computer effect, but it is just a visual I don't want. I don't need to be desensitized to that. I can turn the channel to MSNBC to see about the latest plans of some crazy extremist somewhere trying to figure out how to make it happen for real.

Anyway, to all of you Hollywood producers: if you want a quick way to make me not watch your show or movie, involve a nuclear explosion. About the computer-animated babies: they will make me look the other way, but not necessarily change the channel.

What do you do?

Remember last September, I told you I changed companies? Well, that’s true. I’m the marketing manager for Alpha Technologies, a company that makes back-up battery systems.

Now that I just typed that sentence, I’ve reread it and decided it is the absolute worst way to describe what I do. There are about 12 people on the planet who would be at all interested, and most of those either work for my company or a competitor.

I’ve read in a few places that when someone asks you what you do, actually tell them what you do. Don’t just give them your title. So how about this:

Do you remember that huge blackout back east in 2003? From Manhattan to Detroit, in Canada and the United States, millions of people were without power: totally without power. No traffic lights. No air conditioning. No gas pumps. No refrigerators. It was practically the middle ages. Accept for the telephone system in Ontario. The telephone lines in and around Ontario stayed active. Grandmothers could call families. Injured people could call for help. People with laptops could still “dial-up” to the internet and get some news.

My company makes those systems. I promote my company in the press, in the market and in the community. I’m the marketing manager for a company that makes battery back-up systems.

What do you do?

Internet/Inspiration

We already know how much I think the Jetta ad campaign bites. Sadly, they have another round running. And the worst is that I think the commercials are great right up to the impact. This ad campaign literally played a role in me not buying a new Jetta. Which is quite a feat, I think, because I have a ’97 Jetta Trek that I love.

Anyway, now I’m compelled to write about one more ad campaign. Actually, I guess it’s just a commercial. Fortunately, I won’t be subject to this one much longer, because it’s for the Christmas season.

Let me give a little background. There was a lot of hype this last summer about the affect the Internet was having on entertainment and other mass media. I only mention the anti-hype from Snakes on a Plane for one. The world didn’t collapse because a movie had more attention before its release than after. Let's not assume if the SOAP producers had successfully renamed the movie Pacific Flight whatever, it would have had any more or less success. I'm thinking even though the movie didn't perform as some in the press thought it might, it did better overall than it would have without the Internet attention. And in hindsight, I’m kind of amused by the mass media hype that was generated by the Internet Hype. There’s some irony in there I think.

Anyway, the offender I'm choosing to complain about today is a huge beer company (HBC) that I will not mention, mainly because they don’t need it, but also because they don’t deserve it for this particular action (think: great taste, less filling…). For a commercial this Christmas, this HBC grabbed an idea for a commercial directly from a web video of last year: this insane shot of Christmas lights set to music, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, I believe. This web video came out sometime around Thanksgiving 2005, which makes me think it was actually filmed the year before. It got featured on RocketBoom, and various other Vlogs.

So, this year there are lots of copies on YouTube. Some are decent and they're done by self-funded web monkeys, but one copy is well-funded and professionally shot and choreographed. Come on HBC!! How much did you pay an ad company to copy this web video? And here’s the big question: was it worth it since the original is so much better than your expensive rip-off? I can only guess someone went on vacation, because the man-law commercials are great...

Frankly, this is the worst of modern advertising. If you’re looking for a reason that the Internet is going to ultimately kill TV advertising and entertainment, this is it. To survive, traditional forms of media need to be more creative. Not less. If you really want to show how cool you are by attaching your brand to a web meme, play the actual video from the web.

Buy Yourself a DVR

That's a Digital Video Recorder. If you don’t have one and you watch more than an hour of television a week, get one.

Right now.

I’m serious. Go to Dish Network or Direct TV or Comcast or Cox and buy one.

Today.

Great. Now that we have that out of the way, you can share in one of the very few frustrations I have with them.

Back in the day, I think it was TBS that started everything 5 minutes late. Bewitched reruns were on at 1:35. The Jefferson’s were on at 5:05. This is like 20 years ago, and somewhere along the line TBS stopped this inane practice. I don’t know the reasoning for it then, but all of the sudden, TV networks are doing it again. But now they are doing it irregularly.

Nip/Tuck is starting at 8:10. Rescue Me is running 5 minutes long. So, if I’ve gone through the time to set my DVR to record the season of Rescue Me during its first-run time slot, and FX decides to run it 5 minutes long, my DVR will miss the last five minutes.

Sadly, I’ve spent some time trying to figure out the possible reasons for the networks to do this. I’ve some up with two.

1. Networks are tired of people like me who were enjoying their
good programming but skipping their program-supporting
sponsors’ commercials. So, they just want to mess with me
and cut off the shows climax/cliffhanger.
2. Networks wanted to milk another few minutes of advertising
from the first run of their expensive original shows.

Possible-reason number one is a bit of a stretch, I agree. But I think I’m on to something with number two. Because if I watch an encore presentation (i.e. Rerun) of that same Rescue Me episode the next night, it amazingly fits into the standard one-hour time slot. Partially because of chumps like me who skip all those great commercials anyway, I’m thinking traditional ad revenues aren’t worth as much as they once were at the same time as the shows themselves are costing more and more. So, why not try to score some more ad dollars by inserting more ad minutes in the middle of your most popular shows?

And check this out. My Mom, who has digital cable, called me the other night because she noticed she wasn’t able to skip the commercials on the DVR-recorded TNT show Saved. I’ve not experienced this yet, but it seems threats might be coming to fruition. They are going to force us to watch the commercials.

Just when I come up with a way to watch more TV in less time, they pull me back in. This is not what I wanted!

From Allsop to Alpha

So, I’ve changed jobs.

From Allsop, a consumer product company selling computer accessories, to Alpha Technologies, a business-to-business company selling all sorts of industrial power products.

I’ve not had many different jobs in my life. In nineteen working years I’ve only worked at five places. I’ve managed to climb up the ladder from job to job at these places, but I didn’t have to learn a new system every time I got a cooler office. So, I’m really shaking things up by starting someplace new. And adding to the fact that I’m making the switch from Consumer to B-to-B, this is quite the departure for me. Granted in my opinion, B-to-B marketing can learn a lot from consumer goods marketing, there is a pretty established mindset as to the best solutions.

So, anyway, you’re now reading the words of the new marketing manager for Alpha Technologies.

Do you want to know what products we make at Alpha? Hmm. Me, too. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed right now. But, give me a couple of days to figure it out and I’ll let you know.