Battle Of The Consoles

As E3 goes on, there has been a lot of speculation about which console will ultimately win the battle for market share. Most are saying the contest is too close to call, but a look at the complaints about the systems will tell you more than some of the numbers will.

Each system has one major complaint about it, which isn't bad. The severity of that complaint varies though. The complaint about the XBox 360 is it dies. Microsoft have fought the "blue screen of death" in Windows and now adds the "red ring of death" to the XBox. What causes the red ring of death? Officially, nobody knows, even Microsoft hasn't figured it out. What is known is that the only cure for the red ring is to return the machine and get a new one. As complaints go, this is the worst of the bunch.

The main complaint against the Playstation 3 is that it's too expensive. This complaint may be mitigated by the recent price cut by Sony. However, since its well known that systems get cheaper as they get older, the Playstation problem may just mean a longer time until it reaches the saturation of its market.

The complaint about the Wii is that people can't find it. There were minor complaints about people breaking things by throwing the controller, but those subsided quickly, leaving the problem that it keeps selling out.

Which of these complaints seems most likely to torpedo a console? Now let's look at the sales. The XBox has sold almost 12 million units in 18 months. The Wii has sold approximately six million in 8 months. Playstation 3 is behind the Wii, but it's sales have already started to respond to the price cut.

In the end, the Wii is selling three times as fast as the XBox and its biggest complaint is that customers want them. Playstation 3 may climb out of its slump to battle the XBox for second, but the Wii will win this one hands down.

As The Wireless World Turns

Are we seeing the start of a coup in the world of cell phones? Since their debut the U.S. market for cell phone has been dominated by the carriers. The top three (currently named AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint Nextel)have held an iron grip. Handset manufacturers had to bend to their will. Customers were trapped by draconian contract requirements. But their seems to be a shift in the air.

It started with the iPhone. AT&T agreed to give up its control to land this phone. Apple took phone activation out of AT&T's hands. AT&T had no control over the features, and was not allowed to subsidize the phone. It was the first time a handset maker gave up control. Hopefully, it won't be the last.

Meanwhile, Sprint Nextel, which has been suffering a mass exodus of customers due to their poor network and worse customer service, sent out letters to 1200 subscribers cutting off their service. The reason for this? The customers called customer service too many times about problems. Rather than fix the problems, Sprint decided to get rid of the customers.

Enter the New York State Consumer Protection Board. If the customers had decided to terminate their service, they would be charged $200 per phone for breaking the contract. Therefore, the consumer agency is insisting that Sprint Nextel pay each of the consumers the $200 since they broke the contract. It remains to be seen whether or not the company will comply with the demand.

With new wireless spectrum set to be auctioned off by the FCC, it seems there may be some changes coming. 40 years ago the Lily Tomlin played Ernestine the telephone operator and spoke the line "We Don't Care. We're the Phone Company. We Don't Have To." Now, it looks like the wireless companies may learn that's not true.

The Right To Be Naive

Everyone is familiar with the three inalienable rights of Americans: the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It seems that lately the right to be naive has been added to this list, and more people are showing their naivete, if not outright ignorance in public. The latest is Cindy Sheehan.

Cindy Sheehan became the face of the anti-war movement after publicly disgracing her son, a soldier, by disparaging everything he had done prior to his death. Now she's at it again, threatening to run against Nancy Pelosi unless she brings impeachment proceedings against President Bush. So let's count the ways in which Sheehan is showing that she doesn't have a clue how things work.

1) Despite the unpopularity of George W. Bush, he hasn't done anything impeachable, at least at the time of this writing. Even assuming he lied to the American people about the reasons for going to war, that isn't a "high crime or misdemeanor," which is the standard that impeachment has to meet. Bill Clinton wasn't impeached because he lied about Monica Lewinsky to the public. He was impeached because he lied about it under oath, which is perjury. He committed a crime, although it was a pretty stupid crime that he should have been man enough to avoid. Even if every negative thing written about President Bush is true, none of it qualifies as impeachable.

2) Sheehan thinks that Congress can just pull our troops out of Iraq. Congress doesn't have that ability, only the president does. Congress can influence the president, and they can make things difficult for him, but they can't make the decision. Pelosi has done what it is her power, to expect more is naive.

3) Sheehan thinks she could be a congresswoman. To even consider that she's qualified to run for Congress is ridiculous. You need to be more than a one trick pony to be a politician. Ask Ned Lamont, who thought he could be a Senator on just the anti-war movement. He got enough ignorant people to turn out to get him past the primary, but in a general he never stood a chance.

4) Even if she did win, she thinks she would have Pelosi's power. Winning the seat doesn't transfer the power. She would still be a freshman with everybody else in front of her. On top of that, she would be an independent with no one to caucus with, limiting her even more.

Sheehan has the right to her opinion. She has the right to speak out against the government. She also has the right to make a complete ass of herself if she wants.

Live Earth Concert Kills Environment

Did anyone walk through the parking lots of the Live Earth concerts this weekend? Did anyone calculate the sheer amount of gas that was used to get musicians, their equipment, and the fans to each venue?

The energy used to create this event could have powered a small country. Despite the hype that clean energy would be used, where did this energy come from. The organizers of the Tokyo show freely admit that they got power from an already existing solar power station. They also admit that by using this power, the homes and businesses that usually get their power from the station had to use dirtier forms of energy.

The claim is that the organizers are raising awareness. Awareness was already as high as it would ever get. To try to raise more awareness, organizers sacrificed the environment they were trying to raise awareness of.