Greg Ferro - Work to Live

When a company like BP predicts peak oil in the near (-ish) future, you know that its real. I liked the balanced views in the this piece that point out the transition will take some time:

BP's latest Energy Outlook sees peak oil on the horizon for the first time -- driven by the rise of shared and autonomous electric vehicles.

Under the Evolving Transition (ET) scenario, which assumes that policies and technology continue to evolve at a speed similar to that seen in recent past, oil demand slows and eventually plateaus in the late 2030s.

BP Forecast: Shared, Autonomous EVs Will Help Drive to Peak Oil Before 2040 | Greentech Media : https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/bp-forecast-autonomous-electric-vehicles-peak-oil

Owning a car, driving around in a car, being in a car is data that can be sold to advertisers.

The other set of data is generated by the people in the car; a massive amount of information flowing in and out about where they're going and what they're doing. Last year in the U.S. market alone Chevrolet collected 4,220 terabytes of data from customer's cars. McKinsey forecasts that this could grow into a $450 to 750 billion market by 2030. Retailers, advertisers, marketers, product planners, financial analysts, government agencies, and so many others will eagerly pay to get access to that information. And it's a gift that keeps on giving. You can sell the same data again, again and again to a variety of different customers

A $500B market is an enormous capitalist force to get at that data. You can call it a “drive to innovate” or a “commit any act to get at the cash” but the result is the same.

The race for autonomous cars is over. Silicon Valley lost. - Autoblog : http://www.autoblog.com/2017/02/21/race-for-autonomous-cars-is-over-mcelroy-autoline-opinion/

Or why the Australian continent is roughly the same size as continental USA

www.youtube.com/watch

This article is absolutely correct, modern dictionaries don’t inspire you when looking for new ideas for sentences and structure.

Installed this dictionary from 1913 and started using when looking for the right word.

As the blog post James Somers points out:

Recall that the New Oxford, for the word “fustian,” gives “pompous or pretentious speech or writing.” I said earlier that wasn’t even really correct. Here, then, is Webster’s definition: “An inflated style of writing; a kind of writing in which high-sounding words are used, above the dignity of the thoughts or subject; bombast.” Do you see the difference? What makes fustian fustian is not just that the language is pompous — it’s that this pomposity is above the dignity of the thoughts or subject. It’s using fancy language where fancy language isn’t called for.

via You’re probably using the wrong dictionary « the jsomers.net blog.

Recommneded.

The article was neat skewering of the silly things that happened in the Prometheus movie probably in the trade off to make the story visual and build the characters with very little dialog. It’s a good article.

Prometheus: An Archaeological Perspective (sort of). - Digital Digging.

But I really liked this at the bottom:

Clever. Funny. Identifiable.

Maybe I should do that ?

No question that video mashups are far more advanced than simply splicing 10 seconds from each video. This is a quite good.

DJ Earworm Mashup - United State of Pop 2012 (Shine Brighter) - YouTube.

Quote unbelieveable until you’ve seen this. A bush fire in Outback Australia develops into a tornado like burn. Simply great to watch.

Outback fire tornadoes-Australia from chris tangey on Vimeo.

I am over new social media. And quitting most of the ones I already have. In the last two weeks I’ve literally cancelled dozens of useless social services (and finding out that most simply do not exist anymore). 

At first I was worried that I was missing out, or that this service would be better, or do something new. Simple fact is that I dont need anymore “stuff” - I need less interruptions and more focus. I bookmark at Pinboard, I don’t need Pinterest. I have my own blog, I don’t need Facebook. I have Twitter to get questions answered, I don’t need Quora.

I need to focus on my core competencies. Participation isn’t a core competency. Discipline, focus, rigour and research. That’s what matter. s

I’m not afraid of missing out, I’m opting out of having any more. 

^{Image Credit}

Had some discussions recently and realised that, broadly, “Marketing Professionals” and “Big Company Executives” do not listen to podcasts at all.

In fact, consumption of social media by such groups is very low. I’d say they prefer to have small numbers of one on one, or small meetings as ‘conversations’ and strongly influence small numbers of people in the face to face format. Probably because that’s all they know, or all they think they can do. Also, it possible to control their risk and exposure.

I find this quaint and rather old fashioned.

www.youtube.com/watch

In the first twelve minutes of this video, Theo Schlossnagle talks about key aspects of personal perspective on career development for Infrastructure Engineers. The whole talk is great, but watch the first twelve minutes if you are interested in career development.

A Career is:

• a pursuit
• a willingness to mature
• patience to become exceptional

Be Excellent

• some people are overpaid to under deliver
• your career is about being better not about being more
• opportunities flow from being excellent

true Excellence * one must treat it as a craft * one must become a craftsman * through experience learn discipline * through practice achieve excellence

Step 1 - Educate Yourself

• lots of online forums for this.

Step 2 - Be Disciplined

• stay focussed on core skills.
• use what works
• know what works
• consider a hobby that requires discipline

Step 3 - Learn From and Share with Your Peers

Step 4 - Be Patient - Experience takes Time (and Mistakes)

Music's lost decade: Sales cut in half in 2000s - Feb. 2, 2010: "Total revenue from U.S. music sales and licensing plunged to $6.3 billion in 2009, according to Forrester Research. In 1999, that revenue figure topped $14.6 billion."

But for the same year, Business Wire reports that US Music purchases actually increased 2.1% by units sales, but sold 8.5% less albums. In other words, gross revenue is shrinking.

So Apple said that iTunes has 200 million registered users globally with their credit card on file.

Lets say that 30% of those users sign up for the iTunes match at USD$25 per year.

That 60 million * $25 = $1.5 billion

Lets say Apple takes their standard 30% which includes their costs.

That’s USD$1.1 billion dollars, or about 20% of the gross income of the record industry.

Any industry which can report a 20% increase in profit at almost no cost, would be chewing their arm of.

And remember, 30% of users is probably conservative. And Apple may have already paid an advance to the record industry as inducement.

The record labels will get this money as a split from their copyright agencies.

That’s why iTunes match works for the Music Industry.