The Week in Fails: Two Days Later

Saturday, I posted this blog about a few unfortunate stories from the past week. With recent developments, I thought I should do a follow-up showcasing the huge clout of RJ5K. Never has so much been done with so few clicks. Look at these results:

Fail #1: Netflix

Netflix announced on its blog today that Qwikster is no more. The short national nightmare is over. Let the business school case studies begin. Can you ever justify a business decision, other than a price increase, that costs you customers?

The Qwikster fiasco shows us again how democratic business has become in the internet-age. How long would New Coke have lasted up against Twitter?

Fail #2: Major League Baseball

After Saturday night's double rain delay of the Tigers-Rangers ALCS game that went until almost 1:30am, amid continuing rainstorms on Sunday MLB moved that night's game to Monday afternoon. And it's on network station, FOX transmitted in beautiful (and free) HD. Daytime playoff baseball is glorious.

Fail #3: Steve Jobs' Pancreas

Two out of three ain't bad.

Still too soon.

The Week in Fails

Fail #1: Netflix

Actually, Netflix' real fail was a couple weeks ago when Reed Hastings sent out his infamous email to Netflix subscribers. If you haven't heard, the email apologized for the handling of an earlier price-boost and then went on to announce the partitioning of Netflix' streaming and DVD-by-mail service.  The separation of the two businesses isn't a bad idea nor is it unexpected given that it is no secret that Amazon has been courting Netflix' streaming service wishing to make a bigger play in the content delivery market.  It's just that the handling of the whole thing was completely "ham-handed" to steal somebody else's perfect adjective.

Cool name... if it were 2002.

But Netflix' fail for this week came on Wednesday night.  As I logged in trying to update my DVD queue with a few horror selections for my annual Shocktoberfest movie marathon, I was greeted with a shortened queue of about 30 movies all with the play-now option next to them.  This all seemed pretty peculiar given that the last time I checked, I had about 250 movies in my queue and besides that, I had dropped my streaming service back when Netflix announced the price-hike.  Confused, I tried to access my account info but was met with an error-page.  I then jumped over to qwikster.com thinking maybe the transition had already happened but no, it still wasn't up.

Meanwhile, back on the main Netflix site, I managed to get this screen-grab of my suggestions page:

Hi, Tom.

If you're too lazy to click the picture for the larger view, let me just tell you... all of the suggested movies have an "Unavailable" button underneath the selection where it would usually say "Add to Queue" or "Play Now". So it appears I somehow caught Netflix with its pants down running some sort of transitional test for the upcoming Qwikster/Netflix divorce. Whatever the case, I wasn't too happy to not have access to my DVD queue for the night and it is clear that the streaming business is going to be seriously lacking in selections, as if we didn't know that already.

Fail #2: Major League Baseball

MLB just had its most exciting divisional series round ever.  All four series were decided by one-run games, three of the four series went to the deciding fifth game with one going into extra innings and another featuring a marquis pitching match-up in a 1-0 game.  Problem is, nobody saw the games.  OK, not nobody but not that many either; especially if you live in the EST without cable or a dish.  The games were on pay-station, TBS and each of the eight nights had one game starting after 8pm.  I personally saw only two innings of the entire Tigers-Yankees series which had six of its five start times in "prime-time".

wah-wah

Obvioulsy, MLB is going to put their games where and when it makes the most financial sense and if that's on TBS, well alright.  But playoff games generally take a lot longer with more commercials and more pitching changes which means that an 8:37pm first pitch probably won' be over until well after 11pm at which time most working stiffs will have thrown in the towel.  It would be interesting to see how many are tuned in at the start vs. the end of these late games.  Why not start the games at 7pm Eastern?  Even Albert Pujols was complaining about the start times and the Yankee-centric scheduling.  Although his complaints were more about being relegated to late-afternoon games with unfavorable sunlight and shadows.  But still, how about a little love for those of us who have to wake up early to make a few bucks that we then want to hold on to instead of handing over to the dish/cable oligopoly.  Just sayin.

 

Fail #3: Steve Jobs' Pancreas

Too soon?  Yeah, too soon.  But I would like to give my personal Tip-of-the-Cap/ Wag-of-the-Finger to Mr. Jobs.  He was a true visionary and a pretty good businessman to boot.  You don't need me to tell you how Jobs' and Apple's products have routinely altered the arc of technology.  They do make cool stuff.  However, Apple would also have its customers believe that there was no such thing as cool stuff before Apple came around (at least since Jobs second tenure with the company).  And that corporate attitude seems to echo if not result from Jobs' demeanor within the company.  Apple treats its customers like idiots in the inflexibility and proprietary nature of their products.  That arrogance is one of the reasons I have always resisted their products; certainly not the higher price tags.  I suppose I prefer a more democratic product that might take an extra minute to figure out. But still, Steve Jobs, no denying you're the man.

Go Green! Go Black. Go... Gold?

 My initial reaction to Nike's Pro Combat uni designs for MSU was disbelief.  Not outrage per se but just, really?  Gold helmets? Somebody with the university signed off on that? (Turns out the players actually asked for a new design and then gave them a final thumbs up.)

The Fighting Spartans?

However, I wanted to wait a couple days before taking a side on this very bold design.  And my side is against. Sorry, they're ugly. The black on green is awful.  Throw in the alien looking gold and it's a mess.  I find the gloves perplexing too given that a player could easily be penalized for making that gesture in a game.  I do like the helmet but more as a novelty.  It looks like something you would give to a coach or booster to put on their mantle.

Looks like dogshit. And not the good kind.

But there is more beyond the radical design, that kind of pisses me off on this subject. A year or so ago, Nike and the University quietly unveiled a new design for the Spartan helmet logo.  The backlash was pretty quick and pretty fierce and as a result the new design quietly went away.  Then before the season, the uniform design that the football team wore last year (and still wears mostly unchanged) was unveiled featuring mostly innocuous changes to the pant and helmet stripes and logo/ number font.  But sneakily a new bronze accent color was added (really it was brown).  It was largely shrugged off though because it wasn't very visible nor did it have that big an effect on the overall appearance.  But now, the accent color that nobody asked for has been transformed into metallic gold and thrust upon the team and its fans as if it were always a part of the school's tradition. And with the ever present (and frankly, lazy) black no less.  Nike has effectively pulled an end around in its quest to Nikify MSU.

Why couldn't Nike create something like this? 

This.

I found this design while doing a little research for this post. I absolutely love it. It pains me a little that they were designed by a UM guy (aka TheZuba.com). But you have to give him credit for a great design and for repping Michigan, as in "the state of".  Heck, I'll even admit that his designs for the wolverine helmet look pretty cool.

Note the wolverine head watermark on the right helmet.

For a little more commentary on ALL of the Nike Pro Combat designs, check out Uni Watch blog's take on ESPN.com.

All the pics of the new Michigan State unis

So I couldn't find a good source that showed all the views of the new Michigan State "Nike Pro Combat" uniforms that will be worn during the game against Michigan so I decided to compile them all here. A special shout goes out to the internet for making it possible. I may comment later but for now here they are...

Save the Post Office?

Yahoo! News and The Daily Ticker are reporting that the U.S. Post Office faces an $11 billion (with a B) shortfall this year and may be forced to close up the shop without more cash or drastic restructuring.

Won't happen. But that is a heck of a way to get our collective attention. I support the post office as much as I can. I still mail a fair amount of my bills out of sheer stubbornness. When I have an item to ship for Swap.com, eBay or Amazon, I choose the P.O. over UPS or FedEx. Come to think of it, I just canceled my Netflix streaming service in favor of their by-mail only service.

But after hearing the news about how much cash the USPS is losing, I ask myself whether my choice is a good one or not. Am I right to place value in patriotically supporting this service despite the shortcomings of its long-term operations? Or am I merely helping to prop up their sales and string them along just a little bit longer? Don't get me wrong, if UPS or FedEx were measurably cheaper or more convenient, I'd take my business to them but they're not so I still enjoy my occasional runs to the P.O.

With the bailout word getting thrown around one thing seems obvious to me: That if this isn't quashed it could get turned into an election issue. Whether some sort of bailout happens or if the USPS fails (again, it won't), all fingers will point at the current presidential administration despite the fact that strictly-speaking the USPS isn't even a governmental agency nor do its problems have anything to do with any recent presidential or legislative action.

Tailgate Facebook Invites Greatest Hits Edition

After the mind-blowingly staggering response to my last couple posts I thought I'd follow up with another college football related post.  (Oh, if you hadn't heard, RJ5K helped to generate a 25% increase in Google Maps reviews for Spartan Stadium. Who's kidding who?!)

In case you don't know, I help to maintain a Facebook group for a bunch of Michigan State tailgaters.  If it sounds like a big deal, it's because it is.  OK not really, but administering the group does make me feel less guilty when I don't bring cheese dip or I steal somebody else's canned refreshments.  And by "administering", I mean I send out an invite to the tailgate as if it wouldn't happen unless it got mentioned on Facebook.

Well, if you've read this far you must be a lot like me and that is: you find the things I write and say edge-of-your-seat interesting.  So without any further self-important blusterity here is the greatest hits from two years of tailgate invites...

2009 Tailgate pt. II - Spartans vs. Central Michigan Chippewas

September 12, 2009

Join us again for the last home tailgate until October. It's sure to be a rowdy time with lots of Chips joining the party and several Spartans returning from holiday for their first tailgate of 2009. Highlights from last week include Rock & Roll Matt's omelet station/ turntable, kids getting hit in the head with footballs, RJ falling down (twice) and puppies, lots and lots of puppies. What will happen this week and more importantly, will you remember it?

The Great State Tailgate - Spartans vs. UM Wolverines

October 3, 2009

If you only come to one tailgate all year, make it to this one. We are going to tailgate the crap out of this tailgate. In addition to the usual assortment of beers, sausages, chips, dips, chains and whips, there will also be a round table discussion on how awesome it is to be a Spartan as well as a beer shot-gunning workshop. Bring it. UM fans will also be tolerated provided they either 1) Attended UM's Ann Arbor campus for more than one semester or 2) Have the last name "Schembechler".

Tailgate Under the Stars - Spartans vs. Iowa Hawkeyes

October 24, 2009

Alright peeps. Last week kinda sucked. That's OK. I get it. You were saving up your tailgate energies. Because THIS is the big one. Yeah, it's a big game for the team. This will decide which way the season goes. Seven and one in The Big Ten and a trip to Pasadena or four and four and Motor City Bowl, here we come. It's also a big game for us, the tailgaters. It's a night game, FFS. We only get one of these every couple years. This is the day we don't have to wake up at five bleeding o'clock to get out there by seven am to drink Keystone Light in the dark. Let's do it right.

Yep. We're Doing This - Spartans vs. Western Michigan Broncos

November 7, 2009

Ouch. What a couple weeks for the team. Luckily however, the Broncos are coming into town to get us one step closer to bowl eligibility. As in, Little Caesar's Bowl or bust (who called it?). But who knows? Anything can happen... and that is why we tailgate, for the randomness (kinda like this description). So come on out, have a donut, drink some cider, drop your cell phone in the port-o-let or maybe even give a Bronco a noogie. It'll make you feel better. Promise.

Season Finale - Spartans vs. Penn State Nittany Lions

November 21, 2009

Yo, yo, yo, Spartans! Get fired up because this one is going to be huge. HUUUUGE! It's the last tailgate, we can rock it til 3:30 and the game is against our hated and despised rivals, Penn State (if you believe everything the B10 conference tells you; and I do). And oh yeah, we're bowl eligible so we're trying to build on that too. And that ain't Nittany lyin' that's Nittany tellin' the truth. Rumors are circulating that there will be some sort of chili cook-off but it's BYOB (Bring Your Own Beano). Clever right? Whatever... COME TO PENN STATE!

2010 Season Opener- Spartans vs. Western Michigan Broncos

September 4, 2010

This year's tailgate season picks up where last year's left off. We Spartans hosting our equine buddies from the west, the WMU Bronco's. We'll be at our usual location so come on out and see us. If we don't see you, we'll just assume you moved, died, own a lake house or had a kid (in any case, thanks for calling jerk!). Anyways.... As always, hopes are high, expectations are low and BACs will be somewhere in between. Go Schtayte!!

Way Late Tailgate- Spartans v. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

September 18, 2010

Bring a change of clothes and a toothbrush because this one is going way late. Festivities kick off at 1pm at the usual spot, game starts at eight at the stadium. On the agenda are beers, tacos and bad decisions. See you when I see you.

Best Tailgate This Week - Spartans v. Northern Somethin-or-Another

September 25, 2010

Spartans are trying to build on one of the greatest games in school history. Will this be a let down game or another classic? Only this tailgate will decide it. You best come correct. PS- get well soon, coach.

Super Huge Tailgate - Spartans v. Wisconsin Badgers

October 2, 2010

Thanks to those that kept the home-fires burning last week. Tailgate is coming back in a big way this week. Spartans are ranked, so is Wisconsin. Spartans are undefeated, Wisconsin dido. And it all goes down at 3:30. All of those factors were statistically significant in a regression analysis conducted on tailgating awesomeness. So bring your A-game. We don't need no stinking Badgers.

Oh Yeah! There's a tailgate - Spartans v. Illinois Fightin' Illini

October 16, 2010

It's gonna be hard to top last weekend for most Sparties but we'll at least give it a go this Saturday when the Illini (Illinis?) visit colorful and picturesque East Lansing. No let-downs. Go, fight win. And stuff

Tailgate Finale - Spartans v. Purdue Boilermakers

October 20, 2010

So I typed out a long (and hilarious) thing about this week's tailgate and FB F'd it up. So... there's a game. The Spartans are awesome. Yada. See you bright and squirrely.

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