Indonesia’s Slice of the Long Tail

It’ll be interesting to see how this kind of thing pans out: An Indonesian publishing company run by an expat American has launched a catalogue of Indonesian pop music on iTunes (declaration of interest: the guy, Mark Hanusz, is a friend of mine). Could this kind of thing change the way this kind of music is … Read more

Are Blogs Replacing Press Releases?

Well noted by Steve Rubel on tide turning against press releases in favor of blogging. He cites a recent post by Google’s associate general counsel Nicole Wong on Google’s blog: Google has come out swinging, defending their stance in the DOJ search data matter. However, they did not issue a press release. Rather they went … Read more

From Cubicle Slave to Mobile Slave

I kinda liked the irony in this, but at the same time realised it illustrates the sad fact that many of us are slaves to the office even when we’re not there. Reuters’ website reports that the UK’s Trades Union Congress has launched www.workyourproperhoursday.com “where workers can take a quiz to diagnose themselves as a … Read more

Another Business Model

My friend and fellow technology columnist Charles Wright is exploring a new business model to support his work: Support us, and get a nice reward The beginnings of a business plan are beginning to emerge, here in the Bleeding Edge cave. We’ve decided that we’re not going to get much in the way of income, … Read more

Hotel Complaints, Blackmail and Bribery

Why is it that big chains in the service industry assume that when you write to them complaining about something that you’re just out for a freebie? The thinking seems to go: this person is trying to blackmail us. So bribe them. Case in point: Just got back from a weekend at five-star hotel in … Read more