Commerce is about pricing, and pricing is about scarcity. Scarcity, of course, demands no easy substitutes.

Some news websites are foolishly putting up paywalls, requiring readers to pay by the day or the year to see what's there. This is foolish because substitutes are so easy to find. If I can't get to the Times of London or Time magazine, no problem, I'll find the same news (or almost the same news) somewhere else.

This is the mistake that book publishers are making on the Kindle. I was mildly interested in the new biography of Henry Luce. But it's $19 on the Kindle. That's outrageous in a world where there are plenty (more than I can ever read) of great biographies for less than $10 on this very same device. (In fact, I can buy the biography of his forgotten partner, the actual founder of Time, for $4 in paperback or $10 on the kindle.) Is a biography about someone else a perfect substitute? Not if you're writing your dissertation about Luce, no, it's not. But the publishers seek a broader audience than that, don't they?

The internet has dramatically widened the number of available substitutes. You don't have to like it, but it's true. That means you have to work far harder to create work that can't easily be replaced.

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2010/07/19/wedding-gown-bridesmaids-dresses-by-c...

As I type this, one of my good friends is on a flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake City. She’s currently at 38,000 feet in the air. How do I know this?

She just tweeted it.

Her tweet read “Hello from 38,000 feet! Thanks @gogoinflight and @delta! So cool.”

Wireless access in the skies is relatively new but what’s even more recent are the applications that can be accessed in the air. Just yesterday, Foursquare enabled the new Mile High badge, which you receive when you check in on a Gogo Inflight Wifi enabled flight, such as the one my friend is currently on.

To get Gogo, connection prices range from $4.95 for flights up to 1.5 hours and an unlimited account is currently on sale for $34.95 (with a discounted first month) for $19.95.

Now there really is no excuse for not getting work done on a flight. Just remember not to take out your stress on the passengers sitting next to you…

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• http://blog.collinsonmedia.com/?p=64 (sent via shareaholic) ---- As I type this, one of my good friends is on a flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake City. She’s currently at 38,000 feet in the air. How do I know this? She just tweeted it. Her tweet read “Hello from 38,000 feet! Thanks @gogoinflight and @delta! So cool.” Wireless access in the skies is " title="Email this via Gmail" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> 
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• http://blog.collinsonmedia.com/?p=64 (sent via shareaholic) ---- As I type this, one of my good friends is on a flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake City. She’s currently at 38,000 feet in the air. How do I know this? She just tweeted it. Her tweet read “Hello from 38,000 feet! Thanks @gogoinflight and @delta! So cool.” Wireless access in the skies is " title="Email this via Hotmail" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> 
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• http://blog.collinsonmedia.com/?p=64 As I type this, one of my good friends is on a flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake City. She’s currently at 38,000 feet in the air. How do I know this? She just tweeted it. Her tweet read “Hello from 38,000 feet! Thanks @gogoinflight and @delta! So cool.” Wireless access in the skies is " title="Suggest this article to ToMuse" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> 
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• http://blog.collinsonmedia.com/?p=64 (sent via shareaholic) ---- As I type this, one of my good friends is on a flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake City. She’s currently at 38,000 feet in the air. How do I know this? She just tweeted it. Her tweet read “Hello from 38,000 feet! Thanks @gogoinflight and @delta! So cool.” Wireless access in the skies is " title="Email this via Yahoo! Mail" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> 
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