SharkJumping

I acquired a Squeezebox this month, which is a new Digital Media Adapter which allows a user to access digital music services without going through a PC client, as the older Rhapsody-Ready devices required.  The end result is that you get a pretty cool Music Unlimited experience without too much hassle, and without setting up a PC next to the stereo, which rarely passes the wife/partner test.

Logitech recently acquired Slim Devices, which produced the Squeezebox - this was a great purchase for Logitech, and I was surprised that one of the larger networking providers like Linksys didn't step up first for this team.  The resulting product reflects both the amazing technical chops of the dev team, as well as some of the continuing consumer flaws in the product and service of a smaller technical company.  It's a $299 small/attractive device which has Ethernet, Digital and Wi-Fi connections, as well as the usual audio plugs.

The absolute key feature here is that you can access Rhapsody and other music services like Pandora, Live 365, etc, without having the PC turned on anywhere in the house - it's a key move in the inevitable trend towards reducing the role of an actual PC download client in the music consumption process.  You need to set up an account at Squeezebox, which is irritating, but after that, it's really straight forward to set up and deploy music accounts.  There is no longer any connection to the PC, which solves a lot of the big issues involving the PC being turned off somewhere in the house when you want to listen to Rhapsody - in fact, you could just bring the device to any wi-fi connected area, and then access all of your music, which is pretty cool.

The other great feature is that Squeeze has integrated with a whole new set of Rhapsody API's, which go beyond typical MyLibrary functionality to allow user access to new editorial areas such as Search, Recently Added, Staff Picks, etc.  It's gone far beyond the usual playlist functionality to start to give much more access to the set top box vs just a small subset of the PC content.

On the other hand, this great new functionality is still stuck within a small LCD screen on top of the TV which most people can't see from more than a few feet away.  Unlike the much more expensive Sonos system, you still have to move forward to find and play your music, although Squeezebox still does a decent job of providing a basic interface.  The other big issue is a more systematic one - the Rhapsody system just cuts out too much once you average it over many hours - it's not a big issue for a couple of hours but when you really want the system to simply "always be on", it doesn't seem to work that way, although I may just have a lousy data ISP.

In general, the Squeezebox is a great mix of price, power, and functionality.  It's a full generation above the previous dumber, less functional, and harder to use boxes, and the non-PC functionality part is a HUGE step forward.  But at the end of the day, I'd recommend holding off another year before the Sonos or other more expressive functionality comes down to a lower price point since the current Squeezebox functionality is still a little too limited for a mainstream crowd.

I reviewed the place-shifting device/service a year ago (here and here), and concluded that it was a cool idea, but not quite ready for prime time.   That having been said, I took the box (now called "classic") out of the closet 2 weeks ago since we were heading to the mountains with no cable TV service, and I wanted to watch some NFL games over the Holiday week, as I am going to do today as well.  I downloaded the significantly revised software and attached it to my much simpler TV set-up on our 2nd floor, avoiding the Comcast DVR and more complex sound system downstairs.

The results were really good.  It's a much better experience than I first encountered (even with the same hardware), and I can now really recommend it for occasions where you emphasize access and mobility over quality.  It's like the rise of MP3's in digital music - enthusiasts argue that the sound quality is lower than either albums or CD's, and that the lack of the album diminishes the overall experience, but the other 99% of the population is willing to make that trade-off.  The Sling access opportunity totally trumps the quality issue now that quality in my set-up has reached a high enough level.

I have a good Comcast network at home in SF, and a decent wireless one in Tahoe, and overall result when I ran the laptop through the TV was pretty good, especially from 10 feet away, and that's a much tougher test than just seeing it on the laptop.  It occasionally cut out, and the channel switching is still painful, but I ran the box for hours each day and my entire extended family thought it was a big win over having to go down to the local bar to watch the games.  Definitely go get a SlingBox if you want more access to the content you already pay for. 

Of course, if Senators Feinstein and Graham get their way with their wonderfully titled PERFORM Act, then it's likely that Sling's service will be in jeopardy once they get around to including broadcast...

UPDATE:  Nardelli is fired today (1/3/07), but is given $210M as an exit package - see post here.

(this was originally published in May 2006) I rarely comment on anything non-tech related, and I'm generally a big fan of capitalism, but as a shareholder of Home Depot (), I am sitting here in utter amazement over how CEO Bob Nardelli conducted the annual meeting this week.  As a recap, Nardelli has been paid $245M by shareholders (including options) in 5 years as Home Depot's stock has gone down 12%, while its primary competitor, Lowes, has gone up 173%.  BTW - this excessive pay is for a CEO who risked nothing by coming to Home Depot - it's not as if he started it out of his garage.

The meeting apparently played out like you used to see in Japan - a 30 minute long meeting, utter contempt for shareholders, physical intimidation of attendees, and no room for any debate on any issue, outside of Nardelli uttering the words "The Board Recommends You Reject This Proposal" over and over again.  Amazingly, the Board didn't even bother to show up to the meeting, thus confirming their contempt for shareholders as well - simply outrageous and embarrassing.

NYT columnist Joe Nocera was actually at the shareholder meeting and has a devastating critique of it in today's paper (unfortunately behind subscription wall here, but currently available in full here), but you now appreciate the intelligence of GE's board in not selecting Nardelli as CEO.  A key leadership attribute is how does a CEO handle adversity?  Nardelli has an obsession with military-like terms, so we'll use a similar analogy - Cowards cut and run, while true leaders face their accusers and defend their actions.  Guess which type we saw this week? 

What will now happen is that the Board will terminate him over the next year or so, but will probably pay him hundreds of millions of dollars more in severance to do so, all of which is coming out of shareholder pockets.  It would appear that there is no limit to the stupidity of Boards and to the greed of executives, which is especially timely coming the same week as the Enron verdict.  The Home Depot BoD should be ashamed of their complicity in this entire process since at the end of the day, it's the Board's role to manage the CEO and they have totally failed.

As was predicted here last year (see post) after the disastrous shareholder meeting, highly overpaid Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli was fired today by the Board of Directors.  As a parting gift, the Board paid him an amazing $210M in severance (not to be confused with the tens of millions of dollars he has been paid so far), which would seem to be a little generous for a CEO who presided over a 9% drop in the stock price during his 6 year tenure while the overall market and Lowe's both significantly increased in value.  Even funnier is that Nardelli can receive yet another $18M in "entitlements" over the next 4 years if he doesn't violate his non-compete - given his performance over the last 6 years, wouldn't you actually encourage him to go to a competitor?

Now it's time for the entire Board of Directors to resign, although I'm sure it will never happen since they would have to admit to effectively giving away huge sums of shareholder money.  To reiterate, CEO's are like my children - they always want dessert and junk food, and it's up to the parents (in this case, the Board of Home Depot) to actually act like adults and not give in to CEO demands for these remarkably huge and risk-free pay packages for CEO's who create zero value.