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=============================================================== The Kleinman Report A Quality Online Information Provider =============================================================== IN THIS MONTH'S REPORT ======================= 1) Kleinman Report Update - We're Still Here! 2) Napster or Not, MP3 Has 'Rocked' The Music World 3) Learning From Others Mistakes - HotWire 4) No More Excuses - SHOP ONLINE! 5) Even Hollywood Isn't Perfect 6) The Dictionary For The Rest of Us 7) What's On My Nightstand - Music for Torching - by A.M. Holmes 8) About Me - What's Going on This Side of The Wire 9) URL's In This Issue =============================================================== 1) Kleinman Report Update =============================================================== It's been forever since we last published The Kleinman Report, but I want you all to know... we're still here. Lately it's been very depressing to see so many good Internet companies go out of business. In the past few months we were sad to say goodbye to: Roughcut.com, Etoys.com, Infoseek.com/GO.com, CheckOut.com, Eve.com, Makeoverstudio.com, How2.com, PlanetRX.com, Garden.com, and Icebox.com, just to name a few. I started The Kleinman Report to fill a need out there on the Internet - introduce new Internet users to helpful Internet resources. Now it seems like it's time to come back, to help shine a light on companies who will survive this dot com turbulence, sites that are worth paying attention to, and help combat the image that the Internet is in 'serious trouble'. I have no idea how frequent these reports will be, all I can promise is that it won't even be remotely as long as the time since the last issue :) =============================================================== 2) Napster or Not, MP3 Has 'Rocked' The Music World =============================================================== Whether or not Napster is shut down, the proverbial bell for digital music has rung, and although it's a truism - 'you can't unring a bell!' The music studios simply missed the point - sure, you call kill the messenger (Napster) but the message is - music has changed. Gone are the days where people see songs only as a part of an album. Now there are millions of people armed with CD-R burners who are willing and able to create their own collections of music. The delivery system of music on the Internet is sure to change, and it's unfortunate that one of the real pioneers may not weather the storm, but don't think for a minute that the fate of online music is tied with Napster. Already there are a number of alternate music exchange systems poping up to fill the potential void. Combine these 'grassroots' efforts (like Gnutella) with corporate-backed programs (Scour) and the future for digital music looks a lot brighter than many people may think. Gnutella - http://www.gnutelliums.com/ Napigator - http://www.napigator.com/ Scour - http://www.scour.com =============================================================== 3) Learning From Others Mistakes - HotWire =============================================================== Priceline sounded like a good idea - name your own price for airline tickets, and if your bid gets accepted, you could be on your way to a steal of a deal trip. The problem with Priceline is that their idea, although a good one, was never fully backed by the airlines, so rather than working with the airlines to create great deals for consumers and move unsold seats, Priceline ended up digging into its own pockets to subsidize many of those great deals. Learning from their mistakes, HotWire comes to the forefront with strong support from several major airlines and a new approach to discount airfares. With Priceline your bid was final, if you got the tickets at the price you asked, they were yours, period. Hotwire takes a much more reasonable approach to the process: you get to see the lowest price for your trip (NO MORE GUESSING!) and then you've got 30 mins to pick up the tickets. In the next year look for more companies to take the hard lessons learned by other companies and use them to build a better mouse trap! HotWire - http://www.hotwire.com =============================================================== 4) No More Excuses - SHOP ONLINE! =============================================================== It seems like forever that I've been hearing people state that they'd shop online if it were 'safe'. Having had my credit card number stolen at a local restaurant, I've always helped educate people that one of the benefits of credit cards is protection. A short phone call and a brief form and the charges from my stolen card were taken care of. I do understand the apprehension, especially with something where the interworkings aren't as visible as giving some person your physical card. I'm happy to see that some of the major credit cards have taken the next step to enable even 'safer' shopping online. Both American Express and Discover Card offer services where you can create a one time use card number to shop with. Use the number for one purchase and then discard the number. Since the number is a single transaction number, even if it's stolen it won't be useable! American Express Private Payments - http://www26.americanexpress.com/pr...s/info_page.jsp Discover DeskShop - https://discoverdeskshop.card2.novu...ver/choices.htm =============================================================== 5) Even Hollywood Isn't Perfect =============================================================== Ever watch a movie and get the sense that something just isn't right? This weekend I had that experience. I was watching Hannibal, where Clarise Starling gets a letter from the infamous Hannibal Lector. As she reads, we see the letter and hear the voiceover from Hannibal. One problem, the letter and the voiceover don't exactly match! As hard as they may try, goofs and gafs are not uncommon in movies, and now there's a site that follows all these movies flubs. So the next time you see a movie and something just isn't right, you can check it out and see if other people caught it, too. Movie Mistakes - http://www.movie-mistakes.com/ =============================================================== 6) The Dictionary For The Rest of Us =============================================================== I've always been a fan of language, and I love when word combinations come to mean something entirely different from their traditional definitions. It's so arbitrary what's considered an 'official' word; if you look up the word 'postal' in Websters, you'll find "of or relating to a post office or mail service", but the truth is the word postal has become to mean "a very disturbed state of mind". Now all these 'other' words, slang, webspeak and colloquialisms are collected together in a fantastic online dictionary called Pseudo Dictionary. True to form, Pseudo Dictionary is comprised of words submitted by the people who use it, and the result is a super resource and a lot of fun. So the next time someone says something and you're not quite sure what they meant, give Pseudo Dictionary a try. Pseudo Dictionary - http://www.pseudodictionary.com/ =============================================================== 7) What's On My Nightstand - Music for Torching - by A.M. Holmes =============================================================== I discovered A.M. Homes through a book of short stories she wrote called The Safety of Objects. I was so impressed with her writing and unique style, I decided to pick up Music for Torching (which is actually based on the characters from one of the short stories in The Safety of Objects). Music for Torching tells the story of a middle aged couple who are stuck in their lives, they both strive for some sort of change, but neither is sure what they really want. An ill conceived idea leads to them burning down one of the rooms in their house and as they put the pieces of their home back together, they try to put the pieces of their lives back together. Music for Torching is an exquisitely written book with characters who jump off the pages; A.M. Homes is one of the finer contemporary writers I've read and her ability to expose the inner being of here characters is amazing. Music for Torching isn't a book for everyone and it does explore several mature themes, but in the end it's a fascinating trip through the lives of two people trying to get unstuck. The Safety of Objects - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...8170838/dvdtalk Music for Torching - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...817762X/dvdtalk (also a few cheap copies at - http://www.bookcloseouts.com/bc/dis...11X&rid=dvdtalk ) Interview w/ A.M. Homes - http://www.powells.com/authors/homes.html =============================================================== 8) About Me - What's Going on This Side of The Wire =============================================================== I know some of you follow what's going on in my life and what I've been up to, so I thought I'd provide you with a brief update here at the end of The Kleinman Report. As many of you know I left a job at Intel in 1999 to run my site DVDTalk.com. Things are going well and we're working hard to ride the Internet turbulence. Like some of the sites I've covered, we're trying to learn the lessons from other sites that aren't making it. My daughter Hannah is now 2 and tons of fun. I find that the challenge of working out of my home to be absolutely worth it, and the time I get to spend with her and my wife Heather is priceless. I do find myself burning the midnight oil quite a bit and work is always a room away. In the past few months I was lucky enough to appear on ABC News to talk about Internet Dynamic Pricing, had a great chat at the Washington Post, and continue to informally advise a number of Internet businesses on how to get the biggest bang for their buck. This year I finally did something I have always wanted to do - attended the Sundance Film Festival. It was a blast, and in true form I wrote a coverage report of the event: http://www.dvdtalk.com/sundance2001.html =============================================================== 9) URL's In This Issue =============================================================== URLS in This Issue: Gnutella - http://www.gnutelliums.com/ Napigator - http://www.napigator.com/ Scour - http://www.scour.com HotWire - http://www.hotwire.com American Express Private Payments - http://www26.americanexpress.com/pr...s/info_page.jsp Discover DeskShop - https://discoverdeskshop.card2.novu...ver/choices.htm Movie Mistakes - http://www.movie-mistakes.com/ Pseudo Dictionary - http://www.pseudodictionary.com/ The Safety of Objects - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...8170838/dvdtalk Music for Torching - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...817762X/dvdtalk (also a few cheap copies at - http://www.bookcloseouts.com/bc/dis...11X&rid=dvdtalk ) Interview w/ AM Homes - http://www.powells.com/authors/homes.html Sundance 2001 Report - http://www.dvdtalk.com/sundance2001.html Best Regards, Geoffrey Kleinman =============================================================== Copyright 2001 Geoffrey Kleinman & Kleinman.com Inc. All Rights Reserved. Editor: Geoffrey Kleinman mailto:geoff@kleinman.com Library of Congress ISSN # 1521-8880 The information contained in this report is delivered "as-is" without any form of warranty expressed or implied. Any use of the information contained within is solely at your own risk. All opinions in this report are personally those of the author and do not represent the views of any other person or company. ===============================================================
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