Monthly Archives: December 2022

Iceworld

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When I first started my website way back in 1996, I had this image as the centerpiece of the page. Back then, there was no WordPress or SubStack or such so if you were a “blogger”, you just edited a bunch of HTML. (WordPress showed up in 2003). Back then, I still owned the k2.com domain and used it for my consulting side-hustle and a blog. But that’s another story – this one is about the image

The name of the image is Iceworld, created by the artist Ron Cobb (also here on Wikipedia and on Lambiek). It is an example of pixel art, a piece of artwork painstakingly created a pixel at a time. According to this subreddit, the image was originally called ICEWORLD.GIF and was created around 1990 so the tools to do this would have been quite limited. One of the comments suggests that it might have been done with PixelPaint, which came out around the right time for Cobb to do this piece.

In later years, after I had moved my blog over to WordPress, I extracted the iceman from the image and used it for the blog header. You can also see on the left how I sort of crafted my own, very weak version of the ice man to go along with the domain name and when I sold k2.com, I redid the upper left logo with the jeffreykay.com.

Probably the most disappointing thing in this story is that I never credited Ron Cobb for the image. I’m pretty sure at the time I had no idea who created it and the tools for discovery on the Internet were not nearly as good as they are today. I have no idea where I even found the image. And given the wild West that was the Internet, no one cared about copyright infringement, fair use, and things like that (if you look at the archives of this blog, you’ll see all sorts of things posted about this, mostly in the context of music sharing). So at long last, now that the Iceworld image has been retired and replaced with one of my own (the image of the Hoover dam is one of my own photos), here’s my thanks to Ron Cobb for an inspirational piece of artwork.

Service Charges or Commissions?

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As a colleague and I finished sipping our whiskey (mine was an Islay Scotch and hers was an Irish), we ended up discussing the service charge that was added to the bill and what to do with the “additional tip”. I have long had a policy of not adding additional tip when a service charge is already added; my general take is that if the establishment is going to distribute the service charge to the servers and other staff, they’ve removed my obligation to tip based on the quality of service.

Honestly, I think servers (and their restaurant overlords) don’t really understand that replacing a gratuity with a service charge is the equivalent of putting the servers on commission, just like sales people. Since the service charge is a percentage of the bill of sale, servers should work hard at upselling their customers to increase the amount of money they earn. Instead of just asking if the table wants drinks, the server should be pitching the best cocktails on the menu and the restaurants ought to collaborate by offering on-the-spot incentives like discounts (perhaps a discounted appetizer if drinks are ordered?). In suggesting dining selections, the servers ought to lean towards the pricier items on the menu. And, of course, dessert, after-dinner drinks, etc. could further pad the total.

This all probably sounds unappetizing but I have no doubt that some smart servers and restaurants are going to figure this out soon. In some ways, this is a positive move. While servers are no longer being directly rewarded for the quality of service, they now become partners with the restaurant in driving revenue.

If you want to learn more about services charges (at least in Washington state), the Washington Hospitality Association has a page discussing them.