Tom McMahon

Nick Bradbury, Author of FeedDemon, Shoots Himself in the Foot

He needs paying customers now:

Then just over a year ago, I was let go from NewsGator. For the record, it was the right decision, and there are absolutely no bad feelings between myself and NewsGator. They treated me very well while I was there, and I'm still friends with my co-workers.

But that left me in a tight spot: I had to pay the bills with whatever money FeedDemon generated, and as popular as FeedDemon is, it's not popular enough to bring in enough cash through ads alone. And very few people were paying just to get rid of the ads (can you blame them?).

For a year I kept FeedDemon free, and I started work on FeedDemon 4.0 in the hopes I could find a way to keep it free yet still pay the bills. But eventually it was clear that the only way to keep FeedDemon (and myself) going was to start charging for it again, and I figured the best way to do that was to come out with a free ad-supported Lite version with fewer features, along with a for-pay Pro version that had all the features and no ads. That way there would still be a free version, which I knew had to exist, while at the same time there would be a way I could charge for a more feature-rich version.

Then, in his very next post, he lists My Top 20 Minor Annoyances: (emphasis mine)

So, in no particular order, here they are:

1. People who blow their nose in restaurants
2. Lights that are controlled by more than one switch
3. Wearing wet socks
4. Dr. Phil
5. "New" music which rips off classic rock
6. Fitness fanatics who worry about eating too much at Thanksgiving and Christmas
7. Fake eyebrows
8. People who think you can't see them picking their nose because they're in their car
9. Athletes who all-too-obviously thank god when they win a game
10. Doorbells that play music
11. Anyone who tries to cure your hiccups

12. Sarah Palin

13. TV commercials that are twice as loud as the show you're watching
14. Walking down stairs and thinking there's another step when there isn't one
15. Being woken up by the sound of your own snoring
16. Food with an unreadable expiration date
17. Slow elevators
18. Waiting for a long time at a red light when there's no other traffic in sight
19. People in an audience who loudly say "Shhhhh!" when everyone is supposed to be quiet
20. Clogging up the toilet in someone else's house

 

In one line, he antagonizes 50 percent of his potential customers, for no real reason.

Sorry, Nick, but I won't be sending you money anytime soon.

Aren't The American Media Swell?

From Bill O'Reilly:

With the possible exceptions of Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, no modern era politician has been more derided by the media than Sarah Palin. And the attacks do not stop with her. They include nasty rumors about her family and even the mocking of her children.

Palin has responded to some of the vitriol in her new book, Going Rogue, hoping to give readers her side on controversies like the expensive clothes, the interview gaffes and Alaska's "Troopergate" case.

How have the media received the former Alaska governor's side of the story? Not well. She is being called a whiner and an ingrate, among other things.

Uber-liberal Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says: "There is absolutely nothing in Sarah Palin's past that suggested she was ever going to let the past go. She's always been petty. She's always been vindictive."

Let's get this straight: Media people like Tucker can hammer Palin all day long, but if she defends herself, she's petty and vindictive.

Aren't the American media swell?

For The Enemies She Has Made

From Jonah Goldberg:

Indeed, some of us will always be sympathetic to Mrs. Palin if for nothing else than her enemies. The bile she extracts from her critics is almost like a dye marker, illuminating deep pockets of asininity that heretofore were either unnoticed or underappreciated. ...

I'm happy about the books she's selling thanks to the controversy over her, but that doesn't mean I think these controversies are justified. Palin holds no public office and, as of yet, is not running for one. But the Associated Press assigned 11 reporters to "fact-check" her book, while doing nothing like that to fact-check then-candidate Obama's or current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's no doubt riveting book.

Who Sends A Tingle Up Your Leg?

Who Sends A Tingle Up Your Leg?