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RT @MargauxVega I knew FRS (client) was awesome! New study shows... - Kind of sounds like she made up her mind a head of time, no?

This is the second post I've written about the antioxidant quercetin, and the FRS line of energy products. In the first post titled "Lance Armstrong, LIVESTRONG, and FRS" I argued that it was inappropriate to use LIVESTRONG, a brand associated with the Lance Armstrong Foundation, a respected cancer charity, to promote FRS, a line of energy supplements (canned drinks, liquid concentrate, drink mix, and soft chews).

FRS makes various claims about the health benefits of their product, including "extending your body's natural energy" and "supporting your health over the long haul". The key ingredient in FRS, and according to the company the product's "secret weapon", is a special variety of quercetin, an antioxidant which is found naturally in a variety fruits and vegetables, (e.g. apples, onions, broccoli, blueberries, red grapes). The problem with that association is that there is a widely held, but unsubstantiated, belief that antioxidants help to prevent cancer. (This is due in large part to the unsubstantiated claims of makers of supplements.) This supposed relationship has simply not been proven.

In my opinion, it is morally suspect for a figure like Armstrong, who is seen as a respected member of the cancer community, and someone with links to cancer research through his association with The Lance Armstrong Foundation, to don a LIVESTRONG jersey and promote FRS for the purposes of making money for himself.

This second post is in response to the following tweet published by Twitter user @MargauxVega:

I knew FRS (client) was awesome! New study shows FRS's key ingredient, quercetin increases endurance & VO2max http://tinyurl.com/n42r95

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It's just a feeling, but I can imagine a time in the not distant future when Michael Vick is embraced by the general public and his detractors are characterized as no more than zealots, who are more concerned about welfare of animals than people. (This is of course a very popular way to minimize the concerns of animal rights activists.) What prompts me to say this now?

Two things:

1. Vick is out of prison and a free Michael Vick is probably a good (enough) investment.

He will serve the remaining two months of his sentence in home confinement, and then his prison term will end on July 20. Once he is more or less free from his legal obligations, there are enough people interested Vick, either as athlete or celebrity, to help him clean up his image. Of course this group includes people associated with professional sports and the NFL (e.g. agents, NFL teams). Let's not forget the league itself. There is a lot of interest in Michael Vick. Handled in the wrong way, Vick is a PR disaster waiting to happen. However, handled properly, all of that interest might be parlayed into a windfall for the sport. If we're being honest, the NFL is full of criminals. As long as the league is seen as being tough with them, history tells us that that fans are willing to not only tolerate them, but celebrate them.

None of this is to suggest that Vick's appeal is limited to his value to the National Football League.

First there are the media outlets and advertisers. Whether you love him or hate him, it's pretty safe to say that you are interested. (It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to see this post quickly become the most popular on the site.) As unfortunate as it may be, it doesn't matter why we why read, or watch, or listen, to stories involving Vick. Success is measured quantitatively. It's about the numbers.

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A few photos taken from outside the Boylston St. Apple Store in Boston, MA on launch day (1:15p, Friday, June 19, 2009)

Today is the day of the iPhone 3GS launch and the view looks calm. The scene includes empty barricades, no evidence that these barriers stretched around the corner as the have in previous years, and no obvious signs that people at the store for the device are being held up outside the store. (Read more for a link to a photo gallery.)

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AT&T is offering iPhone 3GS 'best pricing' for early adopters. But 1. it's not everyone & 2. if you don't qualify but still upgrade, don't forget the magic words.

Hopefully, this will be my last post about the subject of iPhone 3GS pricing. Honestly, I hadn't planned on writing this one. Having said that, AT&T seems to be doing it's best to create a confusing situation and I want to make sure that anyone reading this blog understands the options.

As I said in my last post, iPhone upgrade pricing part 2: Is the upgrade price reasonable? there has been a lot of discussion about upgrade pricing for the iPhone 3GS. However, I also said that the pricing itself was pretty straightforward. That's less true now than it was at the start of the day yesterday.

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Just yesterday a post titled 'Up Up and Away' appeared on the Twitter blog announcing increased capacity and today I've seen a number of over capacity messages. I can't be the only one.

Just yesterday a post titled 'Up, Up, and Away' appeared on the Twitter blog reading in part:

Twitter is back and our network capacity is now significantly increased.

Today, I've seen the over capacity page 3 times. I can't be the only one.

Not to sound harsh, but I'm beginning to suspect that the capacity problem we keep bumping into exists between the ears of the decision makers at Twitter, or is fundamental to the platform.

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Is the upgrade cost of the new iPhone 3GS fair? Maybe it depends on your definition of fair (and other factors) - p2.

It's been a little over a week since the 2009 edition of Apple's Annual Worldwide Developers Conference, or more accurately, a week since the 2009 WWDC keynote at which Phil Schiller et al officially introduced the new iPhone 3GS (among several other notable announcements I hope to write about on this blog). Considering that most if not all of the changes related to the device itself had been leaked prior to the event, perhaps the two biggest revelations to the iPhone itself were the release date and pricing. We now know that the iPhone 3GS will be first available to consumers this Friday, June 19, 2009. Though I haven't seen much discussion about it, I assume this will be the same backward/inefficient affair it was last year with Apple and its partner AT&T insisting on handling the lengthy, error-prone activation process in stores. This despite the fact that they demonstrated two years ago that this process runs much more smoothly when purchasing is decoupled from the activation process with the latter handled through Apple's own iTunes app.

There is a lot of discussion about upgrade pricing this year. For the most part the price structure, including upgrades, is relatively straightforward. Cost itself isn't the issue. Instead the debate revolves around a question of fairness. Simply put, is the upgrade pricing for the new iPhone 3GS fair to Apple/AT&T customers? Before I tackle that question I want to make two points.

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Looking at Fever (http://feedafever.com), a standalone server based feed reader. 1st impressions, polished but gimmicky. Lot's of theory about what will improve the experience of using a feed reader but little if any research or other supporting evidence that it works.

To make the most of the Hot list, Fever asks you to make a simple distinction between essential and supplemental feeds. Essential, must-read feeds are Kindling. Supplemental, low signal-to-noise feeds are Sparks. Sparks ignite Kindling raising the temperature of items and links that should not be missed.

If you say so.

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Hey @lancearmstrong I think it's great that you won the TdF 7x and all, but please stop whoring LIVESTRONG for silly tonic.

I'd say I'm a fan of Lance Armstrong. I've watched every one of his Tour de France victories, bought one of his books, and follow him on Twitter. I understand that doesn't make me a superfan, but that's beside the point. In fact, when I say I'm a fan I should probably qualify that by saying I'm a fan of his story and his accomplishments.

The well known story is this: In 1996, Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer that spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain. It is widely reported that doctors admitted he had no better than a 50% chance of surviving the cancer and related surgeries. That was just the beginning. After the immediate medical crisis Armstrong had to essentially remake himself as an athlete at the age of 25. Of course he would famously go on to win the Tour De France 7 times. No other participant has won as many, and only 8 riders (including Armstrong) have won as many as 3 times in the 105 year history of the race. Make no mistake, this is a grueling challenge. Riding a bike approx 2,200 miles over 23 days with stages that take the riders over the Alps and the Pyrenees (the 2009 race includes 20 mountain passes) is a monumental feat. Winning is an extraordinary accomplishment. In my opinion the Grand Tours in cycling are the most difficult challenge in professional sports.

It's safe to say that I would probably not consider myself a fan of Lance Armstrong the person. He seems like kind of an egotistical prick. I suppose that I should expect some amount of arrogance given his success and the fame and wealth that have come with it, but over the years he's exceeded the acceptable rich and famous douche bag quotient I've worked out for myself. Of course there's also the fact that a teammate and good friend, someone who was with Armstrong during visits with doctors early in his cancer ordeal, Frankie Andreu and his wife testified under oath that Lance admitted to using EPO, steroids and testosterone. (Don't take my word for it, read it for yourself!). Anyway, that's not what I want to discuss.

What I do want to talk about is what I consider to be maybe the worst case of shameless and blatantly inappropriate endorsement and promotion of a product that I've ever seen. I'm referring to the association between Armstrong and FRS, an energy tonic.

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Is the upgrade cost of the new iPhone 3GS fair? Probably not, but it is business as usual (p1).

This is not a post about the iPhone 3GS or a comparison between the newest version of the device and the iPhone 3G (the previous gen iPhone, which is also the 3nd generation iPhone and the currently shipping model). Whatever comparisons I do make here are likely incomplete and intended only to support my arguments about pricing, and more specifically upgrade pricing. I plan on writing a separate post discussing the new device and everything iPhone. (Check back for that if you're interested.)

There has been a lot of discussion about upgrade pricing for the new iPhone 3GS. Not surprisingly it's typical of the usual sort of debate uproar that happens whenever:

1. Apple does something significant,
2. there is an announcement of a change related to a particularly popular or well known tech product or service (especially when the change involves pricing)

Of course, the introduction of the iPhone 3GS is both.

What do I mean when I say 'the typical sort of uproar'?

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Please read the book 'How We Decide'. I share this world with you and I'm tired of your bad decisions. (Yes I'm talking to you.)

I read a lot. Because I've been involved with IT for well over a decade now, and given that I am genuinely interested in the topic, most of what I read are books about IT, computing, and programming. This isn't to say that I only see value in books about computing and technology related topics. On the contrary, I am continually looking for worthwhile general interest books. I will admit that generally speaking I prefer non-fiction. I prefer my make believe in AV form (e.g. television and the movies). Honestly, I just don't think that it's worth spending the time and mental energy required of a book on yet another arbitrary, artificial story. There is also the problem that fiction is incredibly difficult. Writing a good book is difficult enough. I would argue that writing a good book while inventing a universe of people and places to inhabit the story is so exceedingly difficult as to qualify as something of a superhuman achievement. In other words, I don't read fiction because I'm uninterested and because the vast majority of fiction sucks. (Don't even get me started discussing the problems I have with the movies and TV shows I do watch.)

I'll get to the point. I've recently started reading the book "How We Decide" by Jonah Lehrer. I'm thoroughly impressed with the book and highly recommend it to everyone seeing this post. In fact, I'm going to go as far as to insist everyone whom I know socially read it. Honestly, as soon as I'm done with this I'm sending an email to my list of friends and family with the same links to the book I'll include at the end of this post. (If you consider yourself a friend of mine and you don't get the email, you're not off the hook. This applies to you as well. Pick up a copy and start reading.) I'll answer the two questions that probably occur to you at this point.

1. What's so great about the book?
2. Why I do feel entitled to demand that everyone I know read the book? (What kind of ass am I?)

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