Tim Oren's Due Diligence

Samsung Fail

It seems I may have been premature in my kudos for my new Samsung plasma TV. Last night, while I was watching a DVD, the picture crumpled into the center of the screen over a period of seconds, went black, and the audio went to a steady buzz. No amount of cajoling or cursing would bring it back. Five weeks from delivery to dead. Reports of customer satisfaction were premature, it seems.

Now I get to deal with Samsung's warranty network. The first experience was half and half: The support phone was picked up immediately and the call handled courteously. But it's a "1-2 day wait" just to hear from the local contract servicer.

More reports as events warrant, just in time for your Xmas buying season.

Kudos To Samsung

I toss enough brickbats at incompetent companies that being 'fair and balanced' (heh) seems to require some appreciation when things go notably right. So...

I'm a laggard when it comes to video technology. Our viewing of 'regular TV' is usually limited to Discovery, Food Network, and some sports. But the proportion of Blu-ray offerings on Netflix finally got to the point of motivating a switch to HD. So the venerable Magnavox rear projection tube was put on the decommissioning list, and it was shopping time.

Given our low duty cycle requirements, I picked a Samsung 50-inch plasma screen, since reviews say that it does a good job at up-converting SD library material (and Amazon dropped the price just when I was doing comparisons). I paired this with a BD-P1600 Blu-ray player from the same manufacturer. This was touted as having built-in interfaces to NetFlix, Youtube and other net media services, so I could replace my improvised net video set up with something more permanent.

Given the potential for Murphy's Law to come into play when doing anything involving consumer electronics and networking at the same time, I approached the install with some trepidation. The plasma screen was first successfully inserted as a 'drop-in' replacement for the old TV. (Rule 1: Always keep a working system.) Then the Bluray player was added: HDMI to screen, Ether to nearby Apple Airport Express and optical to the surround amp.

Power on. Insert SD DVD as a test. Comes up immediately, scaled correctly to the plasma screen. Network test. Works first time. Cross fingers and try Netflix menu item. Get activation code, walk over to laptop and enter at Netflix. Wait one minute, it's activated. Select the top of instant viewing queue, wait a few seconds, and I've got 'Das Boot' streaming onto the big screen.

Elapsed time: Ten minutes after getting things hooked up. No, I didn't read the manual. Needless to say, I'm impressed by the 'out of box experience' particularly given some knowledge of just how deep the rathole can be if anything goes awry. So, a well done to Samsung.

It's worth noting that this worked out so well because Samsung, Apple and even Comcast all did the Right Thing when it came to the IP network stack and general use of public standards. Given the repeated market failure of networked CE devices in the past, the superior of open standards over manufacturer's attempts at proprietary specs is evident. There's still plenty of room to innovate around user experience and quality. (Are you listening, Sony?)

The Roving Eye: Missing Billy Mays, When Customers Attack, 802.11RV meltdown

A surprise to my younger self. I'd never have guessed I'd be so saddened by the death of an aging TV huckster. But a couple months ago I caught an episode of the Discovery Channel's 'Pitchmen' show - simply because it followed our household favorite, MythBusters. Since my measure of television 'reality' portrayals of entrepreneurship had been set by the execrable, mean-spirited Donald Trump offerings, my expectations were pretty low. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find Billy Mays and his co-star/partner Anthony 'Sully' Sullivan obviously respecting and honoring the would-be inventors and entrepreneurs who came their way, even when their proposals didn't come close to matching their criteria. I never became a regular viewer, but I did take in several more Pitchmen shows thereafter. For clarity about their needs, criteria and process, direct and honest feedback to proposers, and real respect for the entrepreneur, the venture capital world could do far worse than emulate Billy and Sully. I'll miss ya.

Sony brand down. Jeff "Buzzmachine" Jarvis has long talked about harnessing the creativity of customers and fans to help design ads and marketing campaigns. But what happens when they turn on you? Something like this:

Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark! (Hat tip to Cobb.)

Those backhaul blues. Four years ago, I was writing up observations from another camping vacation, regarding the spread of 802.11 'WiFi' to the RVing market and those who serve it. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that trend has pretty much reached completion, with now only the lowest tier or most distant destination campgrounds not having WiFi on offer, usually free. What's gotten worse in the last year, and rapidly so, is the actual usefulness of these systems. Most offer decent throughput only during very late or early hours, or sometimes in the mid-afternoon when most campers are out on excursions. It's the old backhaul provisioning problem, come back to bite campground proprietors who didn't know they were in the ISP business. It bears a lot of resemblance to the trend I saw overtake network planning at CompuServe and other old online services back in the mid-90s. Not only are many if not most RVers showing up with laptops - even the retiree crowd has it figured out - but expectations of continuous bandwidth and duty cycle have once again shifted with the explosion of YouTube and other online video sources as a means of news gathering and entertainment. A campground that's provisioned with a single T-1, or a business DSL or cable modem, is finding its router and resources overwhelmed.

(I also note that many RVing WiFi users haven't thought things through. At a large campground in Salt Lake City, I fired up my laptop and was soon able to see the shared, toplevel directories of an even dozen users who probably didn't realize they were bridged to every other user on the WLAN. No I didn't peek, I'm not that kind of guy, but it's close to an attractive nuisance for wannabe crackers.)

The Roving Eye: Mike Rowe is a Smart Guy, The Real AIG Scandal, Wired Still Funny, An Old Fart Moment

The fever's gone, so today is the day to stop the drugs and see what happens when the overlapping antihistamines, cough remedies and the like wash out of the system. So far a marginal headache and a few sniffles, but the brain cells are mostly firing again.

Also a dirty guy. Spend 20 minutes on this TED talk instead of another Discovery Channel rerun. It's well worth it.

Can you say moral hazard? Most of the AIG bailout money went right out again, to counter-parties to AIG's failed credit default swap trades. All made whole, and the bills passed on to the taxpayers and their future generations. Shouldn't these big banks be taught some lessons about counter-party risk? Instead the ones learning that lesson are the $1 / year guys. The country's in the very best of hands.

Another good source for bank information. This site pulls together TARP as well as conventional bank rating metrics.

Analysis No, Snark Yes.

The passing of the computer lab. One of those things that make you feel old. Who needs a computer lab when everyone already has one? I got into the racket when the 'computer lab' was a building, not a room; there was only one computer. The chokepoint was access to key punches, which is why I learned to fix the most common failures of IBM 026 and 029 punches: He who revived the machine got first use and didn't stand on line. Over time the prestige went from a big card deck, to a mag tape, and then just a listing, because you'd gotten 'interactive' privileges. Then you got to stand on line for a ASR 33 or 'glass TTY'. 'Home computing' meant you'd scored a gig that would give you an old terminal and an acoustic coupler so you could do more work. I like sitting here with a supercomputer on my lap a lot better, but occasionally the boggle factor kicks in.