Monday, August 25, 2003

Grocery Shopping..... At first I was somewhat opposed to internet shopping. People would become even more vegetable-like by not getting out of the house and interacting with other humans. On the other hand living in a city like Los Angeles, I also feel the less people contributing to traffic the better. I give LA maybe 5 years before it is completely gridlocked. Where is the nearest Segway dealer? - Eric • 8/25/03; 8:49:12 AM Well, Eric here is one solution - don't leave the house: Los Angeles Organic Vegetable Express - yes, that spells L O V E....or Organic Man, or if you live in Vancouver you can order from: Vancouver organic produce delivery 2:05:01 PM    comment []; Cor-Ten Steel I love the roof of my studio. It is is one of my favorite building materials. Cor-Ten is a steel alloy that actually gets stronger after aquiring a layer of rust. Also called Weathering Steel. 11:22:30 AM    comment []; Paris 1991 11:09:50 AM    comment []; Noise 13 11:08:37 AM    comment []; Do U like math? It's novel idea Ottmar, Go for it + I am sure sales will improve, the reason is internet selling is the future of shoping. Only problem I can see about it is regaring overseas fans like me. It would cost me around 50AU$ to buy a CD including shiping which I would go for happily though not sure how the average OZ fan gonna take it. - Dominic [apple] 8/25/03; 8:08:11 AM 50AUS is about US$33. We are selling CDs for 16 bucks + 12 bucks shipping = US$28 which is only about 42AUS. Since shipping one or two or three CDs costs the same amount if you buy three CDs you are looking at 16+16+16+12=60, 60:3=US$20 or 30AUS per CD. You would have two great Christmas presents and keep one for yourself.... And since CDs cost between AUS25 and AUS35 in Oz plus local salestax I think we are very competitive. Especially since we can drop the price another 2 bucks to US$14 for Nouveaumatic and future releases. Dig? 11:04:47 AM    comment []; Toyota's self-parking car One of the advantages to living in Manhattan is not needing to own a car, but if we ever have to break down and buy a one, we're getting this: Toyota's new self-parking car that's a modified Prius with a rear-mounted camera and a special computer program for parallel parking. Officially debuts next month in Japan, but there's no word on when or if these might become available here in the States. [Gizmodo] I would love a car that can turn all wheels perpendicular to the chassis so that it can fit into a parking spot only a couple of inches longer than the car. Another thought is this: if only a US driver's license would be a little harder to get and people would have to take more driving lessons...then people could not make this typical excuse: I had to buy a Hummer because all the drivers out there are so bad and dangerous... 10:11:59 AM    comment []; New York Times has an interesting... The New York Times has an interesting article on real-world business uses of WiFi. [The Connected PDA] Excellent article. It's not your parents' pub anymore... 10:04:50 AM    comment []; Questions? Answers! By the way- I am working at Panera Bread, a cafe' and we play music thru the system... constant feed- Some of your stuff is on there- and I was wondering how you get a cut from Panera for the use of your music? You do, don't you? Also- lastly, in your online store- will you sell t' shirts? Here is how that works: Stores have a choice between playing radio, subscribing to Muzak, or playing their own selections (CDs, MP3s or whatever). If they play radio, the licensing fees are taken care of by the radio stations who report their music selections to ASCAP and BMI and pay around 5 cents per songs per performance. ASCAP and BMI keep track of that and pay the author of the song. This is free, but you have to listen to radio ads.....so it is not really free! If a store decides to use a service such as Muzak the subscription fee will contain a portion that will be paid to ASCAP/BMI who will pay the author. If the store plays CDs, mp3s, or those antique devices called Cassettes, one of two things will happen: 1. Hm, actually nothing will happen in this case. 2. An agent (I am not kidding) of ASCAP or BMI might walk into the store/cafe/restaurant and ask to speak to the manager. Then s/he will give the manager the choice of either buying a license to publicly perform CDs or turning of the stereo. And yes, they have the right to enforce this. The cost of a license varies with the size and type of establishment and starts at around $500 per year, I believe. Less than two bucks a day is pretty reasonable I think, considering how much the right music selection can add to the atmosphere of a store. Now, let's look at this a little more: the store owner/manager might feel that he is in fact giving the musician a chance to be heard - that he is in fact advertising the music. I can agree with that but only if the people working in the store are willing to answer interested customer's questions, maybe even show them the cover of the CD being played etc... If the store is not willing to do that in exchange for using the music - there really is no trade-off. I mean, it is in no way advertising if nobody knows what it is they are hearing, is it? ASCAP/BMI agents usually wear trenchcoats or dark suits with skinny ties - just like FBI agents do in the movies..... : ) And yes, we will sell merchandise such as T-shirts, Tour Jackets, Posters etc. 9:18:59 AM    comment []; Housegymnastics You don't have enough space to do yoga? Consider House Gymnastics!! 8:21:56 AM    comment []; Stealthy Stereo Microphone Ugly web site....but check out those tiny mikes you can attach to glasses.... 7:41:05 AM    comment [];

© Copyright 2003 Ottmar Liebert. Last update: 9/1/03; 10:38:28 AM.