The TSA Is Planning On Holding Us All Hostage

The big “sequestration” is happening this week.

Horribly misnamed, it refers to a bunch of automatic spending cuts.

I’ve always said, you can chop 10%-20% out of ANY organization and not feel any performance degradation.

That’s because there’s reasonably 10%-20% of inefficiency — fat — in any organization and any process.

Go figure, the TSA has been making noise this week about spending cuts…

… well, not so much noise as BLATANT THREATS that security service will degrade and cause huge delays, backups, etc.

Trying to hold us hostage, in other words.

Bull shit.

This was confirmed by a flight attendant I got into a conversation with this week during take-off.  He — a professional in the field that obviously logs a bunch of miles — commented that it’s his observation that 40% of TSA staff do nothing but sit around and do nothing.

Investing in people to do jobs that don’t contribute to real productivity or gains is a waste of investment… far better to invest that money into things that really will yield real gains.

But suppose this airline professional is wrong… and the TSA is right?

Easy — do what all successful businesses do when a budget is cut:  Focus on just the priority items and change the process.

For example, do we all need to all keep taking off our shoes?  One crazy guy with some wet gun powder and a boner plan has wreaked havoc in airline travel for years.  Has to be the absolute biggest terrorist gain for the least amount of effort.

How about those “Fly By” lanes, how do they work?  And why can’t those be applied to more people?

And so on.

But none of that has been discussed.  Just threats.

Nice to be held hostage by the very people that are supposed to protect us.

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So Now I Get Apple’s Next Revenue Driver… It Will Be Amazing

I haven’t had my socks knocked off in a while.

But, I just read a piece from Nat Brown, the founder of the original xBox project at Microsoft… discussing what could torpedo all the game platforms.

Apple TV can.

Huh?

Like everyone else, I thought of Apple TV as being the coolest looking TV ever… something that would have mind-blowing sound… something that would play iTunes movies and music really well… something that could take a reasonable-sized chunk of the TV sales away traditional vendors like Sony and Panasonic.

I think that’s what everybody else has been thinking, too.  At least, that’s the way all the reports read up to this point.

But — DUH — that’s NOT what Apple TV will be about… it will really be an app platform.

And that changes everything.

The iPhone wasn’t just another cell phone… it was a platform for a zillion developers to turn the cell phone into a brand new experience that disrupted the entire global cell phone industry.

The iPad wasn’t just another tablet computer… it was a platform for another zillion developers (including iPhone developers) to turn the tablet computer into a brand new experience that disrupted the entire global computer industry.

Which means Apple TV (iTV?) won’t be just another cool-looking TV…

… it will be a platform for yet another zillion developers (including iPhone and iPad developers) to turn the proverbial “boob tube” into a brand new experience that will completely and utterly disrupt global TV manufacturers, broadcast media conglomerates, advertising, gaming console, and cable companies alike.  (Did I leave anyone out?  I probably did.)

Wow.  Now that’s a cool thing.

What do I mean by brand new experience?  Who knows, that’s the point!  Who would have ever thunk the clumsy little clam shell cell phone and clunky tablet computer would be doing what they are today?

Bottomline:  Will Apple disrupt yet another massive market?  Yep, there’s going to be an app for that, too.

Sounds Like A Good Role Model

I’m happy to say that Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls sounds like a good role model.  Nice!