Filthy lucre.

"It's showtime folks!"

Introduction.

Commerce is definitely becoming part of the Web. Maybe someday it will become a part of me, but don't hold your breath. This page is intended mostly as bulletin board. Helpful hints, reports of bad experiences with various commercial interests, links to recommended sites, open queries about how to do various stuff on the Web, miscellaneous tidbits and information on some ventures of which I am aware.

Ventures:

• I have been connected with some very smart computer programmers who have developed an extremely powerful Windows application that can be used to plan cuts for carpets or other floor coverings in order to minimize waste and maximize profits. The program outperforms others of its kind. Currently, we are looking for other markets that have similar applications to which the program could be adapted. As the computer whizzes reading this know, the problem of cutting carpet is a variant on the very famous "knapsack" problem to which good solutions are hard to find and for which any solution can be very useful. If you know of an application for this sort of software, just e-mail me at steve_kemp@unc.edu and we will see what we can do.
  
  
• Coming soon! FreeWare utilities for the Macintosh! I have written some utilities for the Macintosh. One changes smart quotes to dumb quotes, which is very handy in translating WordProcessing files into html or email. A second text flows raw text by getting rid of all those nasty extra carriage returns, very handy for copying out stuff from email into your word processor. The third converts Unix text files to Macintosh text files. The last one is a general purpose find-and-change system with lots of capabilities your word processor or file editor does not have. These will all be available for download on a coming update. If you are interested in copies sooner or in a DOS or Windows version, just email me. (I have plands for DOS versions of some of these utilities, but they are not high on the priority list.)
  
  
• My brother, Sid, is an independent computer consultant, for whom I have occasionally worked. His company is Quality Technology and, at the risk of seeming biased in his favor, I recommend it highly. In addition, Sid and I do some work together. University regulations prohibit my discussing this here, but if you just happened to click on this link you might find out about such things.

Queries:

DAK is back!: I wanted to thank all of the folks who kept an eye (and a mouse) out for the DAK products catalogue and for its publisher, Drew Alan Kaplan. DAK is back and I have posted the information below under Helpful Hints.

Help with Mama Bear's Cold Care: Celestial Seasonings has discontinued their Mama Bear's Cold Care. This is very tough on me, because I found it to be miraculously effective not only when I had a cold, but also when I had a sore throat. Unfortunately, I threw out the old box before I discovered that they had discontinued the product. The Celestial Seasonings WebSite does not include the ingredients for their discontinued products, so I have no way of figuring out which other herbal teas have similar ingredients. Does anyone out there have any idea what sort of herbs went into Celestial Seasonings' Mama Bear's Cold Care?

Just-in-time Inventory: I was wondering out there if anyone was doing research on the negative impact of just-in-time inventories on the consumer? I'm old enough to remember being able to go to the supermarket and buy most of what was on my grocery list most of the time. Now grocery store shelves are decimated except from Friday night through Saturday and maybe briefly on Wednesday.

Are just-in-time inventories based on the absolute levels of amounts of items on the shelves? Do any of those theories take into account the variance in those levels? Nowadays, when I find an item I have been searching for for weeks, I buy all that they have. In short, I bet that just-in-time inventories encourage splurge buying and increase the variability that those same theories neglect. The consumer is losing out and anyone who gets into the business of keeping stuff in stock is going to be able to pick up a lot of consumer good will at a bargain price.

Helpful Hints:

Good news! As of 11/29/99, Wanda Anglin reports the following results from her search for DAK Breadmaker parts. She found someplace called the Gillikin WebSite, which included the following email.

Dear Sir,

I noticed you have some really great recipes on the web. I'm pleased to know you have one of our DAK bread machines. Recently I took over the company and would like to let you know that we have all models available along with a complele parts department if your machine should ever need a little T.L.C. Our new DAK web site is presently under construction. In the meantime DAK can be accessed through our E-mail address: DakGourmet@cs.com or our telephone number is: 800-600-3500.

Happy Holidays and Happy Bread Making!

Best Wishes,

Jerry Shulman,

President DAK Gourmet Products

A B. Lambert passed along a link to the Owner's Manual for the DAK IV Breadmaker.

Even more good news! Two other helpful folk, Jack Tonkin and Henry Throop, report the existence of DAK WebPages. The URLs are listed below under Links.

Institutional Self-defense:

This section will be reserved mostly for bad news, I'm afraid. I hope that an important aspect of democratization that can be provided by the Web is to keep people informed about when big institutions don't act in a responsible fashion. We've all had these experiences and if we knew that others had had them, we might be able to avoid having similar troubles. Everyone talks about how individuals on the Web can have WebSites competitive with large institutions. Already this allows guys in their garages to parody the CIA or Mobil oil with impunity. I think that this business of responsibility cuts both ways. On other pages, I may give surly opinions on all sorts of folks, but here on this page, I will restrict myself to reporting things that have actually happened to me personally. After all, the CIA hasn't given me any trouble (that I know of).

Tidbits:

Mediocrity Triumphant. I am no economist, but my father, who is, has always taught me that everything falls on a bell curve. In watching the success of Microsoft and Intel and the collapse of Macintosh, I was reminded of an older gent, who, years ago, told me that Kaiser-Fraser manufactured the finest automobile ever made in America. At the time, I doubted this man. Why would the best company, or at least the company that manufactured the best product, go under?

Now, I am not so sure. If everything falls on a bell curve, then the ability to discriminate between a good product and a great product or between a mediocre product and a good product should also vary. If you make a great product, only a small proportion of the buying public will be able to tell your product from the mediocre competition. It goes a long way towards explaining the success of Microsoft and Intel.

Links:

Any commercial venture with a link in this section is one with which I have had only good experiences. Not a recommendation per se, but I have used the service myself and haven't been disappointed thus far. If your experiences differ, drop me a line.

• DAK is back. Drew Alan Kaplan on the Web. Long overdue, but kind of frightening as well. Here are two sites to check out: the DAK 2000 WebSite and the Drew Kaplan presents WebSite.
  
  
• For computer programmers who still love SNOBOL, you can still find it. Mark Emmer of Catspaw, Inc. sells wonderful compilers for DOS, OS/2, Unix, and the Macintosh. Terrific compilers, magnificent documentation, unbelievable customer support from the compiler author himself. Why put up with clumsy modern languages like C++ or Visual Basic? Why get stuck with ancient monsters like C or FORTAN? If you miss SNOBOL and didn't know it had been ported (and ported beautifully) to the world of microcomputers, just visit Mark at the Catspaw WebSite and rediscover the wonderful world of SNOBOL and Spitbol.
  
  
• For booklovers, this WebSite is one of the most useful I have found. Just stack up a list of all the out-of-print books you want and leave them on The Advanced Book Exchange Home Page. Every 24 hours, your want list is checked against the inventories of used bookstores all over the world. (And that's only for books you don't hit on your first shot out, which is very likely.)
  
  
• There are other places to find used books as well. Bibliofind, is not as well-designed as ABEbooks (above), but all my experiences thus far have been positive.
  
  
• While they are nothing more than a hassle when it comes to out-of-print books, the extremely well-publicized Amazon books has been a reliable provider of in print books, including those hard to get at offline bookstores. Do a bit of shopping though, your local bookstore may have better prices on certain items.
  
  
• If you need information on a particular model of Macintosh computer, whether to buy sell, or whatever, Dave's "Mac Line" has proved invaluable for me. Most lists of Macintosh links are too comprehensive and list a zillion links of various quality. This link is very nice. There are also on-line auctions for used computers, including Macintoshes. They are a good way to find out how much an old Mac is worth, but I haven't actually purchased or sold anything at auction as of yet, so I won't list them here. IMPORTANT WARNING: As of the summer of 2000, with the decline of the Mac, a surprisingly large number of the good Mac sites are no more. I can't find Dave's "Mac Line" among others. If you can, please email me.
  
  
• When the rice pot inside my Presto® brand Rice Cooker gave up the ghost, I managed to locate the Presto folk and they very kindly sold me a replacement. The Presto WebSite is a quick way to get ahold of these folk if you need replacement parts or whatever. (By the way, I really should put this into handy hints, but mixing in a lot of stuff to cook with the rice in your rice cooker is not the cleverest of ideas. Tomatoes and other acidic additions can do a number on the aluminum.)
  
  
• a neat WebSite with lots of connections, the Berkeley Public Library's Bookmarks