Steve’s Kill Your Cable Adventure

by

In late 2011/early 2012 Steve decided to see if he and his household could go without cable, and documented his experiences.  The roundup is below!

Kill Your Cable and Habit – The post that started it all, as Steve speculates if he really needs cable.

  1. The Device Experience And Discussion – Steve’s initial plans to try Killing Your Cable lead him to think over the technology and issues of the post-cable world.
  2. In-Depth Psychology and Stuff – Steve looks at the psychology of planning to – and trying to – Kill Your Cable.
  3. Oh, Wait – Steve finds Killing Your Cable requires you to rethink and evaluate a few things.
  4. Into The Abyss – With his roommate out, Steve tries going without cable and shares his findings.
  5. Finding The Off Switch – Steve and his roommate make the decision to kill their cable, and he reviews his findings.
  6. Not With A Bang, But A Spare $90 – Steve finally cuts the cord and finds there’s no revolution to be had.

– Steven Savage

More Cuts At AOL

by

You can get the skinny here.  It’s 100 employees being laid off.

What’s most interesting are the cuts to super-popular AIM, which an insider says is basically support staff.  Surely that will be fixed, but my guess is AOL sees AIM as a cash cow and doesn’t plan to do anything new with it.

A good deal of AOL’s activities seems to be seeking to maximize the numbers in profit, so I don’t see any actual plan so much as calculations.  Not sure where this is going to end up.

TAKEAWAYS:

  • AOL is probably going to go for some radical rebranding soon.  OK further radical rebranding – they really aren’t “anything.”
  • AIM will probably survive, but it’ll be just a service that doesn’t really grow.
  • I wouldn’t send a resume to AOL.
  • Bonnie and I?  WAY wrong on AOL in the past.  Just apologizing.

– Steven Savage

The Letter Heard Round The World

by

If you haven’t seen this bouncing around the internet, here you go: a very public letter of resignation from Goldman-Sachs from Greg Smith, one of their executive directors.  You can guess by the fact this is very public he wasn’t happy, and essentially sites a declining culture focused on quick profits over relationships and dehumanizing to clients.

So my guess is that you don’t feel you have to read it because you’re nodding vigorously.  Still, take the time to go through it.

I’ve followed some pushback, but most of it is assuming he was disgruntled – but few disgruntled people tell off a company that large (and to an extent an entire industry) over a low bonus or a lack of promotion.  If that was the case, we’d see a lot more of it.

Curious where Mr. Smith goes next and if this letter will produce any actions or penetrate further into public conciousness.  Certainly there’s concern over financial regulation – and I’m wondering just how badly he’s screwed Goldman-Sachs.

– Steven Savage