People who aren't sociopaths, that's who!

I recommend that everyone read How To Be Rich by J. Paul Getty. He was the richest person in the world in his day, and yet he had some enlightened things to say. For instance, he advocated cooperating with labor unions (when have you ever heard a billionaire do that?). From this book, I received the best management advice ever - praise in public, punish in private. He also thought that spectator sports were a waste of time. But what Getty was most passionate about was art. He amassed an amazing collection, and then made it available to the public for free. If you're ever in Los Angeles, if at all possible, set aside a day or two to visit The Getty - it will make you smarter. And I encourage you to visit museums whenever and wherever you travel - you'll see some amazing things.

So now I see that the alert has also been issued in Oregon. Nevermind.

I got the alert on 8/7 @ ~5PM, and my phone was at home, where AT&T sends my bills, over 1100 miles from Boulevard, CA!

Let's see if Verizon & T-Mobile screw it up this badly.

Since people riding Segways look ridiculous, I'd say it's worth the extra effort to learn to ride the Solowheel.

It's not accounting software, but it's what holds everything together at my bar: PMWiki (http://www.pmwiki.org/). There are other wiki systems out there; PMWiki happens to be the one I picked 7 years ago, and I'm still happy with it, FWIW.

The wiki is the collective memory for my business (and believe me, any business is too complex for one person to remember everything). It's got:

* Staff contact list.
* Staff schedule.
* Current shift changes (employee maintained!).
* Job descriptions.
* Employee disciplinary history, password protected.
* The employee manual.
* A "how to" manual for common tasks.
* Official recipe book for the kitchen.
* Current beer & liquor orders.
* Trouble & repair history for every piece of equipment.
* List of DJs, contact & payout info.
* Current passwords for social networking sites.
* Local media contacts.
* Much, much more.

I can't imagine operating a business without a wiki. Installing it was the best business decision I ever made!

I fell in love with pinball when I was 9, in the summer of '72. There was a machine at the corner drug store. Back then, before Pong, it was a lot easier to play pinball, because it was much more widespread. Where's a kid going to fall in love with pinball these days? Certainly not at the corner store. Arcades, when you can find them, rarely have pinball machines. The most common setting for them these days is in bars, which are off limits to kids.

As a result, fewer kids develop a love of pinball, which translates into fewer adults playing pinball. Fewer kids and adults means a smaller customer base and fewer machines sold.

The pinball manufacturers spent 30 years combating video games. First they moved to cpu control, then increased complexity, added DMD displays, and finally, Williams tried adding a CRT with their Pinball 2000 machines. After producing two different P2k designs, they dropped pinball for video poker. For me, that's a pretty sad ending for my favorite manufacturer.

One thing they were never able to do was make pinball machines appreciably more reliable. I have a 1973 Gottlieb that's more reliable than most newer pins, probably because it has fewer playfield parts. For an operator's perspective, that's a fatal flaw. Pinball machines require constant service. Video games require the occasional retightening of a button or joystick or the resoldering of a switch. Replace the marquee lamp every year or two. By the time the monitor needs re-capping, the game has probably been replaced with a new one. This is what encouraged operators to switch from mechanical games (not just pinball) to video games, as much as the popularity of games such as Pong, Asteroids, and Space Invaders.

I co-own Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade in Portland, OR, and AFAIK, we operate the most pinball machines west of the Pinball Museum in Vegas. I'm discouraged that I don't see more kids playing pinball. But I do see a lot of people in their early 20s playing. Many of them say pinball is a recently acquired taste. So I'm hopeful that the decline in the number of players has stopped. I don't foresee a resurgence like Gary Stern does, but I'd be glad to be wrong.

I hope Stern can survive, because without them, pinball is doomed.