Shabbir's Diary

Profit margin on the iPod Shuffle is huge baby, HUGE!

By Shabbir | February 25, 2005

My friend and writing touchstone (and reporter extraordinaire) Aaron Pressman caught this tidbit for me on the iPod Shuffle: Analysts at IDC recently found that Apple makes a healthy 35 percent to 40 percent profit on each iPod shuffle sold, and will make even more from expected drops in flash memory pricing. “The iPod shuffle’s…

How to refill a Chef’n pepper grinder

By Shabbir | February 14, 2005 |

Our friend Eric blew through town and thankfully stayed at our house. Eric’s arrival is always a good excuse to cook, and Sarah shamed me by making a delicious duck breast with a broccoli and cauliflower bacon stuffing while Eric and I dug into a couple bottles of wine. “No, none for you girl, you’re pregnant.” (We’re having a baby boy, if you hadn’t yet heard.)

Cream of garlic soup

By Shabbir | February 9, 2005

Many years ago I visited Bayona, the high end restaurant run by legendary New Orleans chef Susan Spicer. The first course was a soup I’ve never had at any other restaurant, and I suspect most chefs don’t have the balls to serve: Cream of Garlic soup.

Netflix account queues

By Shabbir | February 3, 2005

[This article was featured at a new website for tech tips called Lifehacks. -Shabbir]

Netflix has implemented a new feature called "Queues". It lets you take your existing Netflix account and divide it up into sub-accounts for different family members. I believe this feature falls into what Clayton Christensen, guru of all things related to product innovation, would call a feature that overserves the market. In other words, a feature that customers don't need, and won't make a product decision on.

However that doesn't mean it's not a great feature. Nor does it mean that you, as a wise and technology-savvy consumer ahead of the pack, won't find it amazingly cool.

January 2005 poker results

By Shabbir | February 1, 2005

As the new year begins, I’m continuing my project of tracking my poker results that I started in 2004. I’m taking my poker hobby seriously, and am taking many measures to improve my play. More about the hands I’ve seen this month, and my various changes in record-keeping below.