Brian Feener

Found this through my RSS feeds: at Meaning of Dope.

Raekwon of the Wu Tang Clan gets it. Why is so hard for our financial leaders and elected officials to do the same?

My comment to customer support was something to the effect of “Nice site…   bu you need to get it for the VZW Storm!”

Hey- it’s obvious when you cutandpaste.  If they want a user, Slacker is all set.  I’m not going to not use their service because of a bad email.  If they want a loyal customer, they might want to tone down the ad-copy in their emails.

(Yes, this post is specific but it applies to everyone.)

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Support <support@slacker.com>
Date: Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Subject: RE: Feedback
To: Brian <brian@brianfeener.com>

Thank you for contacting Slacker Customer Support.

We are thrilled about the positive response we’ve received for Slacker.
Keep listening as we constantly add new music and new features.  Any
time you have an idea for a new feature, or just want to let us know
we’re doing a good job, be sure to give us feedback again.  It is your
ideas that make us better every day.

If you haven’t already tried it, be sure to check out the “create
station” feature to make your perfect station, featuring your favorite
artists.  You can even share your custom creation with your friends or
that special someone, and again, it’s completely free!

You can also learn about Slacker Radio Plus, which give you all the best
of Slacker plus even more, including unlimited skipping of songs, no
audio or visual ads, and unlimited song requesting through the station
creator!

http://www.slacker.com/products/radio/premium/

Check out our new online store where you can find Slacker Apparel, as
well as the brand-new Slacker G2 Portable Player, the player Maximum
PCawarded its  ”Kick Ass!” award, and PC Magazine saying “In my
experience, a handful of well-crafted channels on the G2 are much more
satisfying than an iPod filled with thousands of tracks” with its
ability to take your favorite Slacker stations with you where ever you
go!

http://www.slacker.com/products/portables/

Finally, if you would like to meet and interact with more of your fellow
Slacker listeners, share your stations and find brand new stations, meet
the DJs who play the music you listen to, or to check out new tips and
tricks of what you can do with both Slacker Radio and the Slacker
Portable Player, check out our brand new forums!

http://forums.slacker.com/

Again, we thank you for your interest and support of Slacker, and we
hope you continue to enjoy your musical experience with Slacker.

Best regards,

Frank S.
Slacker Support
http://www.slacker.com

Unless there’s a content-sharing, or link-sharing agreement, I don’t see the point behind the Blogroll.

I do understand that it’s important for your site to be linked from other sites, but I’d rather see my content on a single blog post rather than on the site’s blogroll.

Why?

Because it means that I’ve done something signficant enough that I deserve commentary.  It means that I’ve gotten enough steam behind an idea to keep other people thinking about it.

When I’m on your blogroll under a site that gets 10mm hits a year, I’m literally buried underneath the weight of traffic going to that site and not mine. It does not say anything about why you should go to my site instead.  In fact, if I weren’t me, I wouldn’t go to my site either if it came down to me or Seth Godin’s page.

And what’s it mean to you to be in my blogroll if I’m not getting paid to put you there?  Are Larry and Sergey going to thank me for putting Google in my brianfeener.com blogroll? Probably not (though they seem like pretty grateful individuals).

I’d rather be successful for the fact that I do a good job than be successful on the basis of association.  Those are the movies that tout the “writers of hit comedy X” and the rap albums that have all the “Featuring Lil’ ____” after the song titles.  Maybe it’s a way to build a business, but it’s not a way to build a career.

I’m all for forgiveness.

I’m all for giving people a second chance.

And I’m in favor of giving Rick Neuheisel another chance to prove himself an ethical coach.

If Rick does succeed at UCLA and become a great coach there, it will be because he made fundamental changes to the underpinnings of the ways he conducted himself at his job.  It will not be because he changed the image of the things he’s always done.  That’s what we’ll call: “changing the paint.”

In business, “changing the paint” can come in a lot of different forms, some of them more subtle than others:

• Your field marketing campaign is given a new booth to drive interest;
• Your affiliate marketing’s agreements are re-worked and so that you can re-coup some of the losses that your direct marketing is suffering;
• Your e-newsletter isn’t getting any clicks and you purchase a list;
• Your artwork doesn’t get the prices you think it deserves, so you start making less to create scarcity.

At its heart, “changing the paint” means that you’ve misidentified the problem and are trying to solve it through means that don’t solve the problem.

For the comments, what are some of your favorite instances where people have tried to change the paint?

Video to the introduction at the Olympics is floating out there.

And I’m here to say, “Relax, China.”

Everyone will still watch the intro, everyone will still be impressed.  The video out there is probably grainy, shot from a weird angle, and jumpy.  I haven’t seen it, but I’m willing to be that the portions that the camera phone caught will be at least 100% better on TV and 1000% better in-person.

From an artist-standpoint, I can see why the director would be furious over the leak.  I wouldn’t want someone to see my unfinished product.

From a marketing standpoint, I think that a grainy 2 minutes of a 50 minute performance is a good way to generate buzz about the performance.

So long as the final product cannot be duplicated or substituted, samples are great for business.

So to the director of the Olympic performance: Relax.  It’ll be ok.

For the comments, am I justified in my opinion about samples?

The Blackberry Bold got pushed back (video) to September ‘08 and I have the reason why!!

I think that with the popularity of the iPhone in the US and RIM’s CEO Mike Lazaridis being what we in hip hop call a hater, Blackberry is trying to hedge it’s bets.

I believe that you will see the BB Thunder/Storm released in the same breath as the Bold.

RIM will try to flood the market with multiple phones to give users the option to 1) switch from their current phone to a “safe, buttoned” experience; or 2) an alternative to the locked-down iPhone.

Personally, I want Thunder to be released yesterday.  I’m not willing to give up my $100 new-every-two credit to go to AT&T and their weak singal in my apartment.  And while the iPhone is really cool, I don’t like the idea of having everything locked-down like Pelican Bay.

Objectively, I dislike the marketing strategy.  If RIM is looking at the *buzz* that Apple got with their phone’s release and is looking to duplicate the feat, it’s not going to happen.  Part of BB’s strength is that the phone is really utilitarian and appeals to a very functional purpose - to feed Crackberry addicts.  While the company may earn the front page (or egad! the biz section) of the comic book known as USA Today, I can’t see this device generating the same 2hr lines that the iPhone did.  (After all, most BB users have jobs!  ZING!!!  ..heh - I’m getting a little punchy today!).

For the comments, why do you think the Bold got pushed back?  Was it a technical reason?  Was it a marketing reason?  Was it something else?  Conspiracy theorists, unite!!

It’s pretty well documented that Amy Winehouse has some chemical dependency issues. But as an American, I’m having a problem really calibrating how much of an issue because her speech is so …well… British.

I know that there is a Cockney accent, and a South London accent, and a Welsh accent, and a I’m-The-Queen-in-a-Movie Accent and they are all (essentially) British accents. How does Larry the Cable guy sound to the British ear?

When I hear Winehouse, I know that she has some issues and she doesn’t sound like I sound, but if her “Cockney/Whatever Region” accent is 90% of the reason for me thinking that she’s high, is there every going to be an opportunity for her to turn the corner in terms of image?

Sometimes, there are fundamental/structural problems to your audience perceiving you in a positive light. You can either embrace it or change it now.