Yesterday was the Super Bowl, known as well for its commercials as the football contest between NFC and AFC champs. I was thinking that a particular corporation could use the worldwide audience to deliver an important message. Namely, Toyota, which is in the midst of a rollicking, unpredictable series of callbacks and complaints about its brakes. A brief message from the CEO could have given some clarity to the issues: Here’s what we know; here’s what we did wrong; here’s how we’re going to make it right. Instead, another day went by with more questions raised about the automaker’s ability to provide its cars with brakes. The next we hear from a Toyota exec will likely be at the Congressional hearings.

The company needed to take the initiative and let the country know it’s on top of things. It might even have used humor to make the point. Although, with multiple deaths caused by the ‘sudden acceleration’ and unresponsive brakes, a sober moment of humility would have worked well. If Toyota continues to fall over a cliff of its own making, Super Sunday may be looked back as the day that it shut its eyes and put on cruise control.

Toyota

Microsoft’s Zune Music service seems to be a good deal by letting you Download for Keeps ten songs per month while subscribed to its $15 monthly buffet of music. But there are 2 major drawbacks:

1.  The buffet is not as big as you would expect. It disappoints, sometimes big time! Most of Led Zeppelin’s catalog must be purchased. And many popular albums are only partially downloadable without buying. But if you like Savage Garden, you’re in luck…

2.  The Zune service is accessible via the web and on your PC, but the only mobile device on which you can download is the Zune Player.

* revision: the Zune desktop software only wants to connect with a Zune device. But, you can use other means to get the .wma files onto your non-Zune device. Windows Explorer is tricky / tedious because you have to click through the path to each album. But, if you have Real or Rhapsody software you can import all of the .wmas into your library at once.

Uh-oh, I just discovered that Rhapsody uses the same catalog. Even though the songs will play on my nifty little $45 Sansa, I can’t get the Led out! What gives?

Rhapsody, Sansa, Zune

Gmail’s use of the “Conversation” causes confusion with its Filters system. If you are reading a message, aka “part of a conversation thread” then you can use the drop down menu “More Actions” => which shows a link “Filter Messages Like These.”  It’s a good feature to have—if it worked properly. But the filter page that appears after you click this option does not pertain to the specific message (example, “sender”) but rather, to the FIRST message in the thread. And often times the first message is by YOU (the user).

Here’s how it plays out; I compose a message to ten people asking if they want to join a new fake band. I get a few positive responses. I read the response from “Jerry.” I decide to Filter all messages from him so that I can Label as “fake band.” I click “Filter Messages Like These.” Instead of populating the “From” address with Jerry’s, the filter populates it with my email address.

This is all the more problematic because for some reason, Gmail does not allow you to create filters based on Contact Groups, neither from the Contact Group edit panel nor from within Filters New panel. The situation is completely ridiculous because in most other places, Google is VERY on-top of granting access to your Contact List. I’ve written about this before, specifically the consequence of having to edit a filter per email address (which changes sometimes) rather than with a Person / Contact (or Group).

Oh Google! I have grown convinced that you alone are the most high Internet company, and will always do right. And yet I occasionally confront silly user interface glitches that seemingly contradict this vision of you as Ultra Righteous. Please please see if you can find someone who can take a break from counting money and insert some pragmatism into your designs.

gmail, Google

By Tom Greenhill
Guest Columnist

The Japanese automakers are eating America’s lunch, offering well-designed cars that are light years ahead of Detroit’s offerings in terms of ergonomics and reliability. Having owned both domestic and Asian cars, I wouldn’t even consider buying from the Big Three again. By far the most dependable car I’ve ever had was my 2003 Toyota Camry. I had it for five years and it was never in the shop aside from routine maintenance. It was always in perfect running condition which is why I had such peace of mind letting the wife use it for the occasional errand. I’d have to say that my Camry was the automotive equivalent of a best friend—right up until the moment it accidentally accelerated with my wife behind the wheel, killing her, our 3-year old daughter, two bystanders, and all of my hope for a fulfilling, happy life.

I know I know: I’m not giving Ford and Chevy enough credit; each has made strides to reduce the quality gap with Japan. Years of investment in machinery and research in labor processes are paying off. In the most recent J.D. Power Rating of Initial Customer Satisfaction, three of the top ten were American. But that’s just for the first year of ownership. As we all know, within a couple years, little problems come up. And by the fourth year, little problems become big problems. The domestics just don’t have the staying power to keep you absolutely content for half a decade and then self-destruct in a bizarre and intense fireball borne of its inherent but well-concealed inability to brake when approaching a major intersection on a Thursday afternoon.

Not so with the “rice burners.” My Camry, or “Cami” as the deceased wife called it, was a workhorse day in and day out. I knew that as long as I put gas in her, she would run. I may have had more trouble with my Swiss watch than with the Toyota, or “toy toy” as my baby girl who will never again walk the earth used to so cutely call it.

There is no quick-fix that would bring the Big Three to parity with Toyota. The answer is not to have GM and Ford and Chrysler simply roll-out new cars that haven’t brakes. No, then you would expect the cars to be unable to stop, and thus wouldn’t be horrifically snapped out of suburban complacency by a frantic cellphone call from the one and only love of your life as she begs you to tell her how to stop the damn thing and your mind races through your entire experience and knowledge of automobiles, the chore made harder by the terrible cries of your unseen daughter, and you start towards the computer to Google “no brakes” but your progress is abruptly interrupted by a magnificent scream and a collision and the phone goes dead which you are suddenly certain is the fate also of your small family and you are left wondering if your beloved heard you say “I love you” and you wonder still if her “I’m sorry” was directed to you or to the unfortunate pedestrians who crossed the street, unaware of their date with the awful, full realization of intelligent design?

No, this will require a long-term commitment. The American automakers have to develop bedrock trust among its customers and a sterling reputation with the market as a whole if they can ever hope to “Jap” us with a surprise failure of a basic, core component that’s integral to any moving vehicle.

And we can’t lose sight of our priorities. Much has been said — and spent!– on developing “green” cars. That’s great as far as it goes. But will these hybrids and electric cars provide also a false sense of security? It’s not enough to reduce our carbon footprint. Our cars must also be dependable and have in them a latent ability to be the direct causal factor in the deaths of scores of innocents. But with all the politics and infighting, it’s unlikely. I’ll sooner walk my girl down the aisle than see an American-made car that marries the latest leaps in quality with the old-fashioned “unsafe at any speed” GM output that made Ralph Nader famous.

As things stand now, I just don’t see America recovering that lost ingenuity. If I can ever leave my bed, put this devastation behind me, and rejoin society, I’ll get a Prius.

brakes, recall, Toyota

John Travolta flew his own Boeing 707 to Haiti, bringing relief supplies, and a team of Scientologists.

As a result, thousands of Haitians have been standing in line to have their stress tested. The results: very high.

Haiti