Maroon Ventures Blog

adolphus_dallas.jpg

Originally uploaded by Suffering the Benz

The Rooms with a View group that I started on Flickr is starting to get some traction, at times looking like an interactive media all star team. Bill Blevins, Howard Owens, Ron Feinbaum and Eric Luchauer all have contributed as has David Gans, who runs the Dead Hour radio show.

This is my latest contribution. It’s from my fifth floor room at the Adolphus hotel in Dallas. Overall, it’s a great, older hotel. I was glad I didn’t get stuck at the Magnolia this time, which is next to the Adolphus.

Last time I was at the Magnolia, I couldn’t open the door with my room key. Or the new one they made for me. Or the one they brought up to try to let me in. They ended up having to call someone in from home to open my room. I didn’t get in till 2 a.m. and had an 8 a.m. meeting the next day.

To their credit, they refunded that night’s fee, but I still avoid the place. It has bad travel karma for me …

What are you waiting for. Join the Rooms with a View group and submit those photos …

I detailed problems I’ve been having with my Macbook Pro wireless here. Now, the latest installment in my efforts to master the wireless life in every corner of my domain …

denver_hyatt_night.jpg

Originally uploaded by Suffering the Benz

I’ve spent entirely too much of my life staring listlessly out of hotel windows, too tired to enjoy the city that lies beneath me and knowing full well that I really should anyway.

This shot is of the Denver skyline as seen from the Convention Center Hyatt.

For reasons that even I don’t fully understand, I’ve taken to snapping photos like this from the windows of the hotels I stay in. And for even more obtuse reasons, I’ve decided to start a Flickr set to encourage Road Warriors, Recreational Travelers and anyone who finds him or herself in a hotel to contribute their hotel art. Details about the hotel would be nice but not required.

Here’s a link to the photoset. I’ve already seeded it with a few photos and will be adding more as my travels permit. Enjoy …

Today the acquisition of Ars Technica by Condé Nast (publisher of Wired magazine - among others) hit the blogsphere. The acquisition was rumored to be in the $25 million range. Ars Technica is officially a technology blog but in reality a bit more. I would put it more into the tech blog/community world as it does contain quite a bit more than the usual tech blog. However, couple of points: 1) there is no corresponding print product, 2) there is no anccllary ecommerce play (e.g. cnet) and 3) there is no corresponding broadcast product. Ars Technica is just that - a destination technology site on the internet. Some key stats:

• Purchase Price $25,000,000
• Monthly Unique Visitors: 1,500,000
• Monthly Pageviews: 4,000,000

Okay, let’s have some fun. Let’s assume that this acquisition helps set the market price for the internet blog pure play. What it this acquisition telling us?

• Value of the Monthly Unique User: $16.65/unique
• Value of the Monthly Pageview: $6.25/pageview

Pretty interesting metrics there for any publisher working to build an online audience around a blog. Now, let’s take a look at it from an eCPM basis. Let’s assume that Ars Technica has zero negative or positive growth in traffic for the next 3 years. I know, bad assumption but based on the rise and fall of tech blogs - it might not be too far off. This acquisition tips the scales at an effective CPM of $173.61 per 1000 page views. That is to say, all things frozen traffic wise, you will need to average an eCPM of $173.61 over the next 36 months to break even - just from a revenue standpoint. 

NOTE: TechCrunch is reporting that the uniques are more on the order of 4.5 million rather than the 1.5 million that Comscore says. But its not as fun to use that number.

N.B. - I still don’t own an iPhone.

I found myself a captive audience on an elliptical at the Seattle Westin yesterday, and my TV choices were slim. After some sweaty channel surfing, I settled on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money on CNBC. He’s always good for a few yuks.

Yesterday’s show featured oenophile Gary Vaynerchuk. He and Cramer went back and forth about stocks that might be of interest to wine drinkers. Most of the stocks they favored are companies that have large interests in hard liquor. The spirits industry is very brand driven, but wines don’t work as well in that arena. People like to try a lot of different wines. But a Maker’s Mark drinker tends to stick to Maker’s Mark with an occasional foray over into Woodford Reserve when feeling flush.

Overall, Vaynerchuck was unimpressed with the companies’ online efforts.

“None of them have shown me any skill in social media, in Web 2.0,” he said. ” … None of these companies are saying to me it’s 2008, we’re embracing social media. Nobody is using Twitter. Nobody is leveraging Facebook properly. This is such a fundamental way to build brand in America, and I don’t see any of these monsters doing it.”

Interesting point, both for the liquor products and wine. Look at the rise of Red Bull. It was very much a word-of-mouth, social phenomenon and study in brand building. It seems a smart, calculated approach to building brand via social media could be really effective, especially for liquor distilleries and vintners. Why would a wine maker not strive to create an online community where people talk about the product, share it with friends and enjoy discounts and inside news about coming vintages. It wouldn’t be that hard to think in these terms for boutique retailers and other niche products that are heavily driven by cultlike consumers. And it’s cheap and easy. I’ve always been a little leery of some of the social media stuff because it doesn’t have an instant money button. But this is an interesting way to bundle Web 2.0 functionality with packages that can drive traffic to the retailer.

As for which wines to “invest” in from a purchase and lay away perspective, Vaynerchuck was recommending the 2004 and 2005 Bordeaux vintages. While the market has moved already on the 2005 vintage, which he calls “one of the greatest vintages of all time,” he still thinks it’s worth buying and holding cases of it. And because the 2005 vintange changed the price structure, he believes great deals can be had by buying 2004. He’s also big on Portuguese wines, though not so much from an investment perspective

I’m going to pick up a copy of his 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight and Bring Thunder to Your World. Sounds like a good read … I could use a break from the box wines I’ve been dancing with.

Why are Mac converts so damn annoying? Have you noticed that? I was once a happy PC user content to never know of or much less use a Mac. However, I had all these Mac friends who would pester me about just how superior their machine was. It was annoying.  One day, due to a slight logistical problem (left the PC on the couch at the start of a 7 day road trip) I decided to go out and try a Mac. Hell, if after 7 days I hated the thing i’d either sell it or just take it back. Six months later, I am one of the most annoying Mac converts you’ll ever met. I freely admit that. I started thinking about this behavior and what I concluded is what we have here is a classic case of Plato’s Cave Allegory. (more…)

Sadly, the folks at Avis got a taste of Bad Bob this week. Twice. During my travels, I rented cars in both Denver and San Diego. Upon leaving, the guard at the Avis shack asked if I wanted the fuel option.

“No,” I said.

“Sign here.”

So I signed and went on my way.

Apparently, both times the guard told me to sign a form saying I wanted the gas option even though I’d just said I didn’t want it. I foolishly signed without paying close attention, thinking it was something accepting the car.

When I returned the car in Denver, the Avis person noticed I’d already filled it up.

“You had gas option,” he said. No, I insisted. I told the guard I didn’t want it. So after a bit of debating, the charge was taken off.

When it happened again in San Diego, I grew suspicious, especially when the woman checking in the car refused to remove the charge and said I had to go inside if I wanted it taken off.

So I went inside, fuming. The woman behind the desk stood her ground. I growled a bit, trying to remember that she was just doing her job. When I mentioned this would be my last Avis rental and that I was switching to Hertz, she finally went back and got her supervisor.

To his credit, he dealt with the issue swiftly, removing not only the fuel option charge but also the GPS charge (I’d asked for a GPS, but the car they rented me already had one, making it unnecessary. Seemed to me they should have noticed the car had the GPS and not rented it … I didn’t notice the redundancy until I was already on the road).

In the end, I was left wondering if this was a scam on Avis’ part to get people to pay the fuel option. The guard asks if you want it. You say no. They tell you to sign and bang, you get it anyway. But the manager at the San Diego office insisted that the guards don’t even work for Avis. I found that hard to believe, but given that he’d already refunded that and the GPS fee, I was done arguing for the day. From now on, I won’t be signing anything at the Avis guard shack without stopping to read it closely …

In keeping with my end of the world rant, let’s turn our paranoia to GPS manufacturers - Garmin and Magellan.

Premise: Google and Apple have it out for you. The only thing that is standing between you and the utter erosion of your handheld and portable business is the fact that the iPhone doesn’t have GPS capability. That is about to change. It is all but absolutely, positively confirmed that the upcoming 3G version of the iPhone will have GPS. Couple this with an open 3G SDK (which we can safely assume will lag the release date by some months) and you have the makings of a handheld GPS unit with a superior user interface- oh ya, it can also browse the web, play videos,  play music, email and make phone calls. Consumers: If your iPhone can take the place of your handheld or portable GPS unit, why buy both?

I can think of a couple of reasons but they’re all niche: ruggedization and waterproofing.

Think for a second. Wrist GPS units are everywhere. You see them on walkers, bikers and runners. What else do you see? Yep, an iPod. Nary a health nut goes by without wires hanging from their ears. Again, I ask, why would you buy both when you already have it in your iPod? (more…)

The long awaited PWNAGE application for the iPhone has been delayed. For those of  you who aren’t familiar with the PWNAGE app, it allows you to flash unsigned firmware to your iPhone and iPod touch. Yep, that’s right, your chance to take control of your device and install whatever applications you choose. With the release of the iPod and iPhone SDK earlier this month, PWNAGE makes all things possible including the fall of the wireless cell phone companies, destruction of GPS manufacturers and cats and dogs living together. Unsigned applications do not need Apple’s review and approval.

 Now, back to the delay. It doesn’t sound too serious… will be released later this week. A couple of other caveats, 1) you need a Mac to use this application. Sorry PC guys - you know who you are. 2) PWNAGE is being released before Apple releases their version 2.0 firmware for the devices. This is a concern as Apple might “fix” PWNAGE in the 2.0 release. So, buyer beware but this is the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it… more or less.  

cwt