Why the Boxee Box Will Lose

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From: Team Boxee
To: "joemccraw@yahoo.com"
Sent: Wed, September 15, 2010 2:32:31 AM
Subject: Pre-Order the Boxee Box Now, Get It Before It Hits the Stores
/ / / PRE-ORDER NOW / / /
D-Link has signed up Amazon http://amzn.to/theboxeeboxbydlink (in the US) and Best Buy http://www.bestbuy.ca/boxee / Future Shop http://www.futureshop.ca/boxee (in Canada) as exclusive pre-order partners for the Boxee Box. As of this morning these sites are accepting pre-orders. People who pre-order through Amazon in the US will receive their Boxee Box before it goes on sale anywhere else.

If you’re still deciding between running Boxee on your computer and getting a Boxee Box, here’s a few things to consider:

* it will have access to more HD content than its PC cousin
* no need for keyboard/mouse in the living room or running a 10ft cable to connect your laptop
* it’s beautiful, though a bit pointy in parts : )


/ / / BOXEE BOX GOING INTERNATIONAL / / /
We have some good news for people who live in _______ (see list below)! D-Link has decided to go for an International launch rather than just release in the US.

Come this November the Boxee Box will be available in the following countries: the US, Canada, Australia and in Europe – Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

As soon as we have news regarding other countries we will let you know.

Best,
Avner & Team Boxee

Here was my response:

I feel like a little feedback to this promotional email is required. I took the time to read it, please take the time to read my response.
Boxee is a great product, and if it's going to be a legitimate competitor to Apple and Google for set-top presence, you are going to need to work on your mass e-mails.  This marketing your are sending out looks about as legitimate as most 419 scams I get in my spam folder.
For instance this e-mail contains:
a lack of a link to the original boxee webpage
shortened/malformed urls(which inevitably direct somewhere else which may or may not be legitimate)
characters which don't render properly via e-mail
an e-mail from a .tv address which are often poached by scammers to impersonate popular brands
the arbitrary use of  / / /'s(for design reasons?)
not knowing which country I'm likely in(.com vs. .co.uk addresses)
the smiley face,
a claim that "People who pre-order through Amazon in the US will receive their Boxee Box before it goes on sale anywhere else."(which sounds suspect, as there are many conditional factors which could make such a claim false)
a lack of a full name for any sort of way to confirm that this was from someone at Boxee(not, I heard it from Avner).

This e-mail campaign just looks highly unprofessional overall, and frankly, lazy. 

-Joe
PS And please include an unsubscribe link at the end of your e-mails in the future.
PPS If you are a 419 scammer from Nigeria, I bet your next campaign will be far more successful if you heed my advice.

I fucking hate Ice Cream Trucks

Why is it that we don't pelt these ice cream trucks with rocks when they come into our neighborhoods?
These noise polluting, High-Fructose vending, traffic causing, blights on the community have no place in civilized society.  What possible positive benefit can you see from having ice-cream trucks in your neighborhood?
Fatty doesn't even have to walk down to the corner store anymore to get a dose of sugar.  You bring it to him in a fossil-fuel burning, annoyance machine that we all have to put up with.
If you run an Ice Cream Truck, You are an asshole.
Watch out for nails that may suddenly appear in your tires.

Carnitas Bliss

The Ontological Argument for the Non-Existence of God

In doing research for my upcoming book (The Authority of Faith), I've encountered innumerable lines of argumentation that attempt to rectify revelation with that of the world of reason.  These claims of revelation, at every point to which they can be tested are demonstrably false.  Some are so blatantly contradictory that they implode in their own incongruities.
One such argument, which I always have found to be particularly dubious was the line of argumentation used by St. Anselm in defending claims of god's existence.  The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God, as it is known is a response to Anslem's inability to grasp with the incomprehensibility of how the wrold came to be.  Through his astonishment of the spectacle of the natural world Anselm posits his claim about the nature of god.

1. If I am thinking of the Greatest Being Thinkable, then I can think of no being greater

1a. If it is false that I can think of no being greater, it is false I am thinking of the Greatest Being Thinkable

2. Being is greater than not being

3. If the being I am thinking of does not exist, then it is false that I can think of no being greater.

4. If the being I am thinking of does not exist, then it is false that I am thinking of the Greatest Being Thinkable

Conclusion: If I am thinking of the Greatest Being Thinkable, then I am thinking of a being that exists

Wikipedia

This line of reasoning is flawed for a number of reasons, although I think that his line of argumentation we can find a necessary conclusion which is contrary to the claimed intent of the argument.
#2   Existence is greater than non-existence.
This premise will be worth our focus. I would contend that this greatest being, with the powers, of omnipotence, universe creation, omniscience and omni-benevolence  I think it would be an even greater miracle, an even more amazing force which is omnipotent, and can be the cause of the existence of the universe, and has the quality of non-existence.  A god who possesses the quality of non-existence, yet had the power to create this universe, would be a more powerful god
A god who could create our universe, but didn't event require the quality of existence for this task is an even more marvelous, even more astounding feat to accomplish. 
Regardless of the numerous ways in which the ontological argument fails, we can see the absurdity in every aspect of examination we choose to employ.
Edit:  There is a reference to this line of reasoning made by Douglas Gasking in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.  I'm not the first to come up with this...

ATT 3G Service Blows

San Francisco's AT&T service is deplorable. Any time I call another iPhone, there is a greater than 50% chance the call will fail before the end of it. I lost a dozen calls on saturday morning trying to get ready for the Urban Iditarod.

Moving back to the Bay

It's happening! Sweet!

My iPhone is Dyslexic-High of 79, Currently 97

I was in Cambria, CA on Saturday, on a freakishly hot day.
Almost 20 degrees above the predicted High!