Comments on: WAAS Up?

By: Shakita Cooper

Shakita Cooper — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:36:14 +0000

Kudos from one braniac to another.

By: Phone blocker

Phone blocker — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:43:34 +0000

Interesting blog as for me. It would be great to read something more concerning this theme.

By: WAAS vs DGPS - gCaptain Forum

WAAS vs DGPS - gCaptain Forum — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:50:11 +0000

[...] been curious myself since this comment showed up on the blog linking to Cringely’s article on WAAS. I don’t think there are many issues in using it close to shore as I know a number of DP systems [...]

By: John

John — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:20:16 +0000

What are your thoughts on eLoran providing additional redundancy and eliminating some of the GPS line of sight issues? Is the eLoran debate similar to this?

By: Richardhg

Richardhg — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:37:46 +0000

Thanks you. Concise, very factual, and yet another example of the new standards of American reporting. Yours: excellent and checkable. The rest: abysmal, and the reason America has little credibility in the world today.

Thanks again.

By: Bog

Bog — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:51:54 +0000

Bob this almost makes up for your Bowling for Dollars article. Almost.

By: My site.

My site. — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:36:21 +0000

Look at this….

Sweet site dude, check out mine when you get a min……

By: aribabak

aribabak — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:32:10 +0000

Bob, that is the sole reason why many people read your rants. They are both informative and provocative.

By: paul e coyote

paul e coyote — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:01:28 +0000

Interestingly, GPS coordinates are being gathered by the census bureau – to help deliver the mail or something I guess.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5590541

By: John

John — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:42:42 +0000

The first step in fixing a problem is to recognize one has a problem. I would characterize the comments here less as griping, and more of agreement and acceptance a problem exists.

The next step in fixing a problem is to understand the core of the problem, what is not working. It is easy to blame the Internet or Television for the demise of print journalism. In my real opinion these are a part of change, but not the real problem. The real problem in my opinion is print journalism has lost its connection to the market, its readers.

We still have a newspaper subscription. When the paper arrives we use two sections — sports and the weekend advertising. There is no real local news coverage. One of our major local highways is closed for construction. It would be nice if there was a regular report on its status. There is NOTHING. There are events all over our region. You’ll never find out about them in our newspapers.

When I was a kid and teenager I used to read a few magazines on a regular basis. My kids don’t read magazines, do not have any subscriptions, do not even care about magazines. Why? To start, magazines are now too expensive. There has to be a REALLY good issue for me to personally shell out $5+. At that price magazines are completely out of a kids budget.

The core of the problem starts with a basic product problem. Too many firms are not producing publications with content people need or want. The key in fixing the problems in the print media is for them to reconnect with their customers, their subscribers.

Whether I read an article or issue in print or on the internet is irrelevant. If good content is provided, people will read it.

The next challenge is for publications to learn how to make money with the Internet. It IS possible and there are a few examples of good and successful websites. As an example, consider: http://www.news-leader.com/ Look at the amount of advertising on this paper’s site! Does your town’s paper have this much advertising? Look at the local nature of the advertising. If I lived in Springfield (and I don’t) I could actually use this website to help me with my local shopping. Look at the smooth connection between this website and other sites. I can find a movie, read a review, find a theater and showtime, and even buy a ticket. If you tried this with my local newspaper, you’d give up and total frustration. My community is a good 25x bigger than Springfield.

Most of a newspaper’s customers are LOCAL. Most of their customers spend most of their money LOCALLY. Show me a newspaper with little or no local advertisements and I’ll show you an idiot. Companies exist to do business. This applies to print media too. A newspaper is in a unique position to connect local consumers to local business. If the newspaper will recognize this and facilitate it, the advertising money will be there.

One of the many capabilities of the Internet is the ability to do survey’s, solicit feedback, to do market research. Once a newspaper or magazine starts reconnecting to its customers, start listening to them! They will be an incredible source of ideas, of input, of value.

John