Since everyone else is putting in their 2 cents worth so will I.
It is a fact that the basis for going to war was Wrong. There is no arguing that Iraq did not have the weapons of mass destruction as we were led to believe. Was this done on purpose? I don't know and neither do you. It is all water under the bridge and not worth arguing about until the war is over and everyone home.
Should we pull out? No. Once we invaded the country we have an obligation to finish the job and install a stable regime that can defend itself and it's citizens. Until this is done we stay and suffer the costs and deaths associated with being there.
My real question about the war has to do with technology and all those lovely tricks that I have seen in war movies over the past few years and read in various books. We know that the insurgents are planting road side bombs on the most traveled routes. Why don't we have satellites in orbit over Iraq constantly monitoring the ground and identifying patterns where someone is planting a bomb? With computer technology they should be able to pick up all the moving pieces on a road and around it. Then they can watch for aberrations such as an unexpected stop in a lonely area and then continued movement. Supposedly a computer could do this with ease and notify the military that X spot is likely a bomb. Experience could lead to a refined process so there aren't many false alarms or perhaps that is when a human sitting in the Pentagon steps in and reviews the tape to actually see if someone stopped and put a bomb down. If a bomb is planted then the person doing so can be tracked to their current location and/or back to where they came from. Same goes for car bombs. Ok, we can't really pick them out of the crowd but once one goes off you could backtrack through the surveillance tapes and find it's source. Then blow the hell out of the source. You do enough of this tracking you could bounce from the car bomb to it's garage source then follow all the folks that went in and out of the garage and you find some safe houses, etc, etc.
Insurgents crossing the borders with Syria? Now you have proof and can track them and eliminate them. Imagine the Syrian ambassador when you pop in the tape of folks crossing the border. Heck, air that tape on Al-Jazeera and then shut down all movement into and out of Syria - period - until they play ball. We are dieing here folks.
I have heard the folks paranoid about big brother, I don't think they have anything to fear if we can't use our current technology to track these bastards in Iraq. Personally, all the new bombers and boats and bombs should be put on hold until the system I have in mind is up and running.
The 3 Bs won't save lives in the short term and a surveillance system will and could be used repeatedly for similar problems. Drug dealers in the jungles - tracked. Illegal immigrants at the border - tracked. Terrorists the world over - tracked. Historical sites being pillaged by tomb robbers - tracked.
Why isn’t' the media all over this? Because they don't want to actually help solve a problem, they need problems to stay in business.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Cable Companies
When I hooked up the VCR/DVD combo I carefully considered the order that my machines needed to go in. I have the VCR/DVD box, the Cable Box and the TV. After contemplating this I decided that the cable should go into the VCR/DVD, out to the Cable Box and then to the TV. This would allow the VCR to independently set stations as opposed to being locked into what the Cable Box was set at.
I hooked everything up and it worked as desired.
It was months before I tried to use the On Demand feature of our Digital cable - a waste of money if I ever saw one, more on that later. For some reason it just wouldn't work so I called the cable company and after trying a few things they sent out a technician. Lo and Behold the problem was how I wired the boxes. The Cable Box has to be first, the VCR is a slave to the cable box making it virtually useless for recording shows.
This got me thinking - I constantly see adds for the cable company provided DVR. By setting up their technology to require my VCR be a slave to their box they are attempting to force me to use their DVR. I could get around this by hooking up a VCR to a different cable outlet or what not but that means more equipment that I have to buy and maintain. Why shouldn't I pay the cable company more money for a DVR they ask?
Like all companies, cable companies want to make more money off their customers. Since they can't hit up the world for a buck like the oil companies they have to siphon it from their limited pool in the US. The first step in this is Digital cable. I don't need digital cable, the old one was just fine. The only thing I use on digital cable is the program guide feature. In a year I have used on demand once and have no desire to do so again. I rarely see any station above the on demand stuff which starts around 100. Scrolling through 1 to 100 even with the gaps (I think there are some but am not really sure) takes a long time. Getting through the on demands stuff is ridiculous. If you are a station after the 100's on Time Warner you should be complaining REALLY loud. There is plenty of garbage in the 100's you could replace, feel free to contact me and I will tell you which stations can go.
I am addicted to the program guide. When that thing isn't working I am like a lost puppy. I don't know how I ever survived before the guide. For some reason I frequently lose my guide and it says NO DATA. When this happens I freak out. A few times this occurred and then it corrected itself and I was relieved. Then one day it went out and was gone for 2 or 3 days straight. It was then that I overcame my inertia (we discussed that previously) and called the cable company. They said they had done an upgrade and I needed to unplug my box and they would send a signal and correct it. It worked, thank goodness.
I doubt I am the only addict to this feature, how many customers were having apoplexy until they called and got it fixed?
It went out again yesterday. Based on prior experience, that one call, I unplugged the box and started it up again. Sure enough, the guide was back. Life was good once more.
So now the cable company wants to bump my bill again with a DVR or with a premium channel package or with a digital telephone (the telephone company wants to do the same in reverse). I already spend around $100/month for my digital cable and internet access. If they think I want to pay them more they are mistaken. I find the cost for their service to already be excessive and seriously wish I could once again overcome my inertia and set up a website from my home computer that ate up bandwidth to make sure I get my moneys worth out of them.
Just to make matters worse, I own stock in the darn company that provides my cable service. I get really mad everytime I have a problem and remember that fact. Every upset customer is costing my stock value.
I hooked everything up and it worked as desired.
It was months before I tried to use the On Demand feature of our Digital cable - a waste of money if I ever saw one, more on that later. For some reason it just wouldn't work so I called the cable company and after trying a few things they sent out a technician. Lo and Behold the problem was how I wired the boxes. The Cable Box has to be first, the VCR is a slave to the cable box making it virtually useless for recording shows.
This got me thinking - I constantly see adds for the cable company provided DVR. By setting up their technology to require my VCR be a slave to their box they are attempting to force me to use their DVR. I could get around this by hooking up a VCR to a different cable outlet or what not but that means more equipment that I have to buy and maintain. Why shouldn't I pay the cable company more money for a DVR they ask?
Like all companies, cable companies want to make more money off their customers. Since they can't hit up the world for a buck like the oil companies they have to siphon it from their limited pool in the US. The first step in this is Digital cable. I don't need digital cable, the old one was just fine. The only thing I use on digital cable is the program guide feature. In a year I have used on demand once and have no desire to do so again. I rarely see any station above the on demand stuff which starts around 100. Scrolling through 1 to 100 even with the gaps (I think there are some but am not really sure) takes a long time. Getting through the on demands stuff is ridiculous. If you are a station after the 100's on Time Warner you should be complaining REALLY loud. There is plenty of garbage in the 100's you could replace, feel free to contact me and I will tell you which stations can go.
I am addicted to the program guide. When that thing isn't working I am like a lost puppy. I don't know how I ever survived before the guide. For some reason I frequently lose my guide and it says NO DATA. When this happens I freak out. A few times this occurred and then it corrected itself and I was relieved. Then one day it went out and was gone for 2 or 3 days straight. It was then that I overcame my inertia (we discussed that previously) and called the cable company. They said they had done an upgrade and I needed to unplug my box and they would send a signal and correct it. It worked, thank goodness.
I doubt I am the only addict to this feature, how many customers were having apoplexy until they called and got it fixed?
It went out again yesterday. Based on prior experience, that one call, I unplugged the box and started it up again. Sure enough, the guide was back. Life was good once more.
So now the cable company wants to bump my bill again with a DVR or with a premium channel package or with a digital telephone (the telephone company wants to do the same in reverse). I already spend around $100/month for my digital cable and internet access. If they think I want to pay them more they are mistaken. I find the cost for their service to already be excessive and seriously wish I could once again overcome my inertia and set up a website from my home computer that ate up bandwidth to make sure I get my moneys worth out of them.
Just to make matters worse, I own stock in the darn company that provides my cable service. I get really mad everytime I have a problem and remember that fact. Every upset customer is costing my stock value.
DVD Recorders....are crap
If you haven't already guessed, I do a fair amount of reading. Another article that caught my eye had to do with DVD Recorders and how everyone in the industry had been expecting them to replace VCRs and what not for the past two years and are expecting the same this year.
I bought a DVD recorder/VCR combo last year. It said something like, "Simple One Button Copying from VCR to DVD". I thought that was great since we have a few video tapes we wanted to copy and preserve.
Would you believe that my wife has a videtape of herself, on stage, singing with Barry Manilow at an old concert? She was the one called from the audience to join him for a song. She considers this item priceless and wants it copied and preserved forever. But I digress.
So I gave my wife this wonderful DVD/VCR for Christmas and replaced the old VCR and the old DVD - woo hoo, 2 boxes gone only 1 added, progress. I then pulled out the manual and started reading how to copy from VCR to DVD. Now, if I have to read about this then it is not one button copying. After trudging through several steps, most of which made no sense to me and must have still been written and Japanese or something, I decided to just give it a try. All those speed settings and what not would hopefully default correctly.
I put in the tape, put in the blank DVD and hit a bunch of buttons, not one mind you, a bunch. Soon the machine was whirring and out spit a DVD. How exciting. I put the DVD back in and played it, miracle of miracles, the video was playing from the DVD - SUCCESS.
Then a time came when my wife was going to see a friend. She wanted a tape of the two of them skydiving copied so she could take one with her. I once again managed to copy the video and all was good in the land.
When my wife and her friend put the DVD in her friends player.....nothing. The DVD said the disc was blank! I quickly took my DVD of Barry M. and tried playing it on my new Dell computer (the other piece of technological trash), nothing. Back into the DVD player, it played. how could that be? I still have no friggin clue.
Why don't folks buy DVD Recorders in place of VCRs? Because they are still too complex and don't work for crap. My wife hates the machine because it is too complex to figure out how to tell it when to record a show in the future which you can't really do now thank to the cable company........what a lead in for tomorrow.
I bought a DVD recorder/VCR combo last year. It said something like, "Simple One Button Copying from VCR to DVD". I thought that was great since we have a few video tapes we wanted to copy and preserve.
Would you believe that my wife has a videtape of herself, on stage, singing with Barry Manilow at an old concert? She was the one called from the audience to join him for a song. She considers this item priceless and wants it copied and preserved forever. But I digress.
So I gave my wife this wonderful DVD/VCR for Christmas and replaced the old VCR and the old DVD - woo hoo, 2 boxes gone only 1 added, progress. I then pulled out the manual and started reading how to copy from VCR to DVD. Now, if I have to read about this then it is not one button copying. After trudging through several steps, most of which made no sense to me and must have still been written and Japanese or something, I decided to just give it a try. All those speed settings and what not would hopefully default correctly.
I put in the tape, put in the blank DVD and hit a bunch of buttons, not one mind you, a bunch. Soon the machine was whirring and out spit a DVD. How exciting. I put the DVD back in and played it, miracle of miracles, the video was playing from the DVD - SUCCESS.
Then a time came when my wife was going to see a friend. She wanted a tape of the two of them skydiving copied so she could take one with her. I once again managed to copy the video and all was good in the land.
When my wife and her friend put the DVD in her friends player.....nothing. The DVD said the disc was blank! I quickly took my DVD of Barry M. and tried playing it on my new Dell computer (the other piece of technological trash), nothing. Back into the DVD player, it played. how could that be? I still have no friggin clue.
Why don't folks buy DVD Recorders in place of VCRs? Because they are still too complex and don't work for crap. My wife hates the machine because it is too complex to figure out how to tell it when to record a show in the future which you can't really do now thank to the cable company........what a lead in for tomorrow.
Monday, November 28, 2005
Justice in Florida?
How many of you saw the school teacher (age 25) who plead guilty to having sex with a student (age 14) and received probation?
Are you kidding me? A woman whose lawyer described her as 'too pretty' to go to jail has sex with a child and gets off with probation and filing as a sex offender. If that had been a man with a young girl he would have been dragged to the town center and strung up from the nearest tree.
Everyone who agreed to this settlement should be fired.
Where are her neighbors in all of this? Everytime I hear of a pedophile getting out of jail the neighbors where they will be living are up in arms, carrying torches and demanding that the person spend eternity in jail and never be released to endanger their children. This lady never went to jail and never had counseling so she MUST be a significant risk of repeating her sin. Why isn't she being run out of town?
Oh well, I guess she was having sex with a boy and that is what boys are supposed to be doing and girls are supposed to be saying 'No' so it wasn't that bad was it. Bullshit, do the crime, do the time!!!
Are you kidding me? A woman whose lawyer described her as 'too pretty' to go to jail has sex with a child and gets off with probation and filing as a sex offender. If that had been a man with a young girl he would have been dragged to the town center and strung up from the nearest tree.
Everyone who agreed to this settlement should be fired.
Where are her neighbors in all of this? Everytime I hear of a pedophile getting out of jail the neighbors where they will be living are up in arms, carrying torches and demanding that the person spend eternity in jail and never be released to endanger their children. This lady never went to jail and never had counseling so she MUST be a significant risk of repeating her sin. Why isn't she being run out of town?
Oh well, I guess she was having sex with a boy and that is what boys are supposed to be doing and girls are supposed to be saying 'No' so it wasn't that bad was it. Bullshit, do the crime, do the time!!!
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Norton Security Products
I have Norton Internet Security, Norton Anti-Virus and whatever came in the package I bought. I activated the auto update feature and life was good.
Last week a weird thing happened - I received a notice of an update. I never had this occur, it just happened in the past. This one required that I restart my computer. That should have been a big ole red flag.
I downloaded the update it installed and the computer relaunched itself.
As I am prone to do I opened Internet Explorer and Outlook. Both had errors reaching the internet. Hmm.
I rebooted the machine again and soon Explorer was working - not Outlook. For a few days I put up with this and used an internet tool to read my email. See my post from a few days ago on inertia to understand why I did this. One morning I finally decided to call Norton and figure out the issue.
Finding a phone number to call Norton proved to be an ordeal in itself. Internet companies have come to learn that if they post a number everyone will call so they bury it if they put it on a website at all. I finally located a number and called in. I then put up with the assanine system where you choose this or that option - none of which seem to deal with the issue you are calling for. Eventually I just started hitting numbers and finally got a real person.
This persons name was Mark, not! I had reached an Indian call center and having dealt with Indian outsourcing I can assure you that not one of them has an anglicized name like Mark. Mark asks me my problem and says that I should try deactivating the program and then reactivating which has solved this issue previously. Apparently their database on issues is pretty good as he was quick with this bit - or it is a major issue they should look into.
This failed to make a difference. Next we disabled the Internet security app and suddenly email worked. Mark said the issue was clearly with Norton and that he would send me an email detailing what to do to fix it. Great.
I get my email from Mark and it says that I should call their Service Representatives....What was Mark?
My computer still isn't working - I disable the Internet security every time I open email and then shut down email when it is done so I don't get the error as security kicks back in after 5 minutes or so. Inertia.
Now I have received a notice that I am not protected from some devastating problem and I need to be!!!!! or so they say. The auto update runs and doesn't work. It says I should manually run it - huh, if it doesn't work what does manual change?
I try to run it and get a message saying it is running in the background already and I have to wait for it to finish. I get this for about an hour before I decide to launch this application and see if I can shut the process down. Long story short - it is still running and now my Norton is completely screwed up. I don't know if it is all running or just parts of it. The internet part is still running as email still doesn't work correctly.
I guess I am going to have to bite the bullet and make another call to Norton. I wish there were a way for me to contact the Chairman of the company and have him (guessing at the sex but how many are female? Hint, you don't need your toes to count them and you should require a lot more then that) call the help desk and resolve my problem. Then he could understand my frustration and take some real action to correct it. Meanwhile I am left with a new computer that doesn't work properly and is likely wide open to attack by hackers - go for it folks, break in and steal everything. Screaming at Mark or some other poor hack who is paid peanuts to use some psuedonym isn't going to help me.
Last week a weird thing happened - I received a notice of an update. I never had this occur, it just happened in the past. This one required that I restart my computer. That should have been a big ole red flag.
I downloaded the update it installed and the computer relaunched itself.
As I am prone to do I opened Internet Explorer and Outlook. Both had errors reaching the internet. Hmm.
I rebooted the machine again and soon Explorer was working - not Outlook. For a few days I put up with this and used an internet tool to read my email. See my post from a few days ago on inertia to understand why I did this. One morning I finally decided to call Norton and figure out the issue.
Finding a phone number to call Norton proved to be an ordeal in itself. Internet companies have come to learn that if they post a number everyone will call so they bury it if they put it on a website at all. I finally located a number and called in. I then put up with the assanine system where you choose this or that option - none of which seem to deal with the issue you are calling for. Eventually I just started hitting numbers and finally got a real person.
This persons name was Mark, not! I had reached an Indian call center and having dealt with Indian outsourcing I can assure you that not one of them has an anglicized name like Mark. Mark asks me my problem and says that I should try deactivating the program and then reactivating which has solved this issue previously. Apparently their database on issues is pretty good as he was quick with this bit - or it is a major issue they should look into.
This failed to make a difference. Next we disabled the Internet security app and suddenly email worked. Mark said the issue was clearly with Norton and that he would send me an email detailing what to do to fix it. Great.
I get my email from Mark and it says that I should call their Service Representatives....What was Mark?
My computer still isn't working - I disable the Internet security every time I open email and then shut down email when it is done so I don't get the error as security kicks back in after 5 minutes or so. Inertia.
Now I have received a notice that I am not protected from some devastating problem and I need to be!!!!! or so they say. The auto update runs and doesn't work. It says I should manually run it - huh, if it doesn't work what does manual change?
I try to run it and get a message saying it is running in the background already and I have to wait for it to finish. I get this for about an hour before I decide to launch this application and see if I can shut the process down. Long story short - it is still running and now my Norton is completely screwed up. I don't know if it is all running or just parts of it. The internet part is still running as email still doesn't work correctly.
I guess I am going to have to bite the bullet and make another call to Norton. I wish there were a way for me to contact the Chairman of the company and have him (guessing at the sex but how many are female? Hint, you don't need your toes to count them and you should require a lot more then that) call the help desk and resolve my problem. Then he could understand my frustration and take some real action to correct it. Meanwhile I am left with a new computer that doesn't work properly and is likely wide open to attack by hackers - go for it folks, break in and steal everything. Screaming at Mark or some other poor hack who is paid peanuts to use some psuedonym isn't going to help me.
Internet Advertising
Is it just me or does insanity still rule the internet and internet advertising?
The other day the Wall Street Journal ran a story on a kid who decided to try paying for his college education by selling advertising space on a website. This site is just a page he put up with nothing but ads on it. Despite this he has sold a significant amount of ad space. It was theorized that the uniqueness of what he was doing helped not ot mention the fact he was mentioned in lots of blogs (by himself to start) and then in the media (note the WSJ article).
This reminds me of the person who asked everyone to send him a penny to help defray college costs and people did. Once started it fed on itself and the media promoted it and folks sent 1 cent in an envelope with a 32 cent stamp (or whatever the cost at the time).
I forget the specifics but the latest kid has already made over $40,000 (or maybe that was in Euros). Companies can't possibly believe they will get their moneys worth out of this endeavour. The attention will fade and the website will join others (like this one) in obscurity. If you are an investor in a firm that bought space on this kids site you should sell your stock- FAST. On the other hand I have to take my hat off to the kid who thought of it and actually pulled it off. He is laughing all the way to the bank. P.T. Barnum would be proud.
Switching mediums - how many of you click on banner advertisments on websites? I can't remember the last time I did this. I can't remember EVER clicking on one of the paid listings on the search engines. Despite my habits someone must be clicking on these links or Google wouldn't be earning a dime in revenue which is clearly not true.
I even signed up for the banner ad program on the blog just in case someone actually reads this - why pass up free money.
I suppose this is yet another opportunity that I have failed to capitalize on.
Even though I don't use the ads, I do purchase products on the internet fairly regularly. I must admit that the simpler the product the better - my experiences with Dell have been less then stellar. They best hope I am the aberation. Then there are the Norton Security products.......
The other day the Wall Street Journal ran a story on a kid who decided to try paying for his college education by selling advertising space on a website. This site is just a page he put up with nothing but ads on it. Despite this he has sold a significant amount of ad space. It was theorized that the uniqueness of what he was doing helped not ot mention the fact he was mentioned in lots of blogs (by himself to start) and then in the media (note the WSJ article).
This reminds me of the person who asked everyone to send him a penny to help defray college costs and people did. Once started it fed on itself and the media promoted it and folks sent 1 cent in an envelope with a 32 cent stamp (or whatever the cost at the time).
I forget the specifics but the latest kid has already made over $40,000 (or maybe that was in Euros). Companies can't possibly believe they will get their moneys worth out of this endeavour. The attention will fade and the website will join others (like this one) in obscurity. If you are an investor in a firm that bought space on this kids site you should sell your stock- FAST. On the other hand I have to take my hat off to the kid who thought of it and actually pulled it off. He is laughing all the way to the bank. P.T. Barnum would be proud.
Switching mediums - how many of you click on banner advertisments on websites? I can't remember the last time I did this. I can't remember EVER clicking on one of the paid listings on the search engines. Despite my habits someone must be clicking on these links or Google wouldn't be earning a dime in revenue which is clearly not true.
I even signed up for the banner ad program on the blog just in case someone actually reads this - why pass up free money.
I suppose this is yet another opportunity that I have failed to capitalize on.
Even though I don't use the ads, I do purchase products on the internet fairly regularly. I must admit that the simpler the product the better - my experiences with Dell have been less then stellar. They best hope I am the aberation. Then there are the Norton Security products.......
Costco
Yesterday my wife went to Costco to pick up some holiday supplies. As she was checking out and her bill reached the stratosphere the customer service staff suddenly come running over to her checkout. Our total purchases in the past 12 months had exceeded $2,500 or some other magical number in that neighborhood. What this meant was that if we were in the EXECUTIVE membership level we could make more in a 2% rebate then it cost to raise our memebership level. WE were missing a golden opportunity.
Isn't technology an amazing thing. Their customer information system was able to tell them in real time that my wife was at checkout # X and that her spending had hit THE threshhold.
Well, my wife was a bit mystified by all this sudden attention. She understood what they were saying but she just wanted to buy her holiday stuff and get out of there. The service folks really wanted her to sign up and spend the extra $55 to upgrade our membership (prorated for the time left on the current membership). The customers in line behind my wife were none to happy either, they all just wanted out of there.
My wife passed on this generous opportunity by saying she had to speak with me. Being the analytical sort that I am I started considering the benefit. It turns out that we just barely spent the magical amount in the last 12 months. Our membership was JUST renewed. Our spending has been higher then ever before due to our woderful daughter and all those expensive diapers and formula cans. Will we spend enough to justify the extra cost?
If I knew that I was planning on purchasing something large there I would jump on it but my greatest fear is really that of future inertia. Many of you have probably joined a gym in the past. Most if not all of you have gone for a while and then slowly drifted away. Meanwhile your credit card/bank account keeps getting dinged for the monthly memebership fee. Eventually you cancel the membership but in the meantime you have paid a lot of money for nothing simply because inertia kept you from calling and cancelling the charge. I fear the same thing with Costco. I know that once I sign up for the Executive level they will keep sending me annual renewals for Executive. I bet they will even try to get me to set up some automatic renewal plan like everyone else who counts on inertia. Once my spending drops I am sure the customer service folks won't come running over to suggest I reduce my membership and save myself $55.
And that gym example - although I have been guilty of this to slight extent (a few months only) my wife has been a member of 24 Hour Fitness since before it was 24 Hour Fitness. I have known my wife for around 4 years and she has NEVER gone to the gym - EVER. She keeps saying the membership fee is ONLY $8/month or something considered dirt cheap these days so if she gives it up she will never get it back. Meanwhile we are out $400 for nothing and 24 Hour Fitness has never called to ask about her lack of attendance. Actually, just the opposite, they have no clue she is a member and keep trying to get her to sign up like a new member.
I did keep a dial up internet service once for a long time without ever using it. I kept saying it was backup for my cable connection and for when I was travelling for work. It didn't matter, it was unused for around 2 years before I finally bit the bullet and cancelled it. The customer service rep tried to get me to keep it even though she had to have known I NEVER dialed in. If she didn't know then I would have to wonder why Costco has such a superior customer information system then a tech company?
Isn't technology an amazing thing. Their customer information system was able to tell them in real time that my wife was at checkout # X and that her spending had hit THE threshhold.
Well, my wife was a bit mystified by all this sudden attention. She understood what they were saying but she just wanted to buy her holiday stuff and get out of there. The service folks really wanted her to sign up and spend the extra $55 to upgrade our membership (prorated for the time left on the current membership). The customers in line behind my wife were none to happy either, they all just wanted out of there.
My wife passed on this generous opportunity by saying she had to speak with me. Being the analytical sort that I am I started considering the benefit. It turns out that we just barely spent the magical amount in the last 12 months. Our membership was JUST renewed. Our spending has been higher then ever before due to our woderful daughter and all those expensive diapers and formula cans. Will we spend enough to justify the extra cost?
If I knew that I was planning on purchasing something large there I would jump on it but my greatest fear is really that of future inertia. Many of you have probably joined a gym in the past. Most if not all of you have gone for a while and then slowly drifted away. Meanwhile your credit card/bank account keeps getting dinged for the monthly memebership fee. Eventually you cancel the membership but in the meantime you have paid a lot of money for nothing simply because inertia kept you from calling and cancelling the charge. I fear the same thing with Costco. I know that once I sign up for the Executive level they will keep sending me annual renewals for Executive. I bet they will even try to get me to set up some automatic renewal plan like everyone else who counts on inertia. Once my spending drops I am sure the customer service folks won't come running over to suggest I reduce my membership and save myself $55.
And that gym example - although I have been guilty of this to slight extent (a few months only) my wife has been a member of 24 Hour Fitness since before it was 24 Hour Fitness. I have known my wife for around 4 years and she has NEVER gone to the gym - EVER. She keeps saying the membership fee is ONLY $8/month or something considered dirt cheap these days so if she gives it up she will never get it back. Meanwhile we are out $400 for nothing and 24 Hour Fitness has never called to ask about her lack of attendance. Actually, just the opposite, they have no clue she is a member and keep trying to get her to sign up like a new member.
I did keep a dial up internet service once for a long time without ever using it. I kept saying it was backup for my cable connection and for when I was travelling for work. It didn't matter, it was unused for around 2 years before I finally bit the bullet and cancelled it. The customer service rep tried to get me to keep it even though she had to have known I NEVER dialed in. If she didn't know then I would have to wonder why Costco has such a superior customer information system then a tech company?
Monday, November 14, 2005
Advertising and Liars
I spent this weekend thinking of topics I wished to expound upon and here I sit, wondering what they all were. On Friday I mentioned advertising and TV Commercials. I have always found TV commercials to be interesting for a number of reasons. I don't think one of them is trying to decide what to purchase but I am sure they have their impact.
Recently those of us in the US went through an election. Elections are always good for terrible advertising. Living in California I was treated to a series of referendum questions that generated ads both for and against. Personally, I feel the ads and went well beyond the legal boundaries but so far no one has been charged, I bet the AG is afraid he will be accused of taking sides in the political battles so it is hands off.
My personal favorite this go round was the redistricting plan. The foes of this plan (read as 'entrenched politicians who don't want to have to get real jobs') portrayed it as giving 3 former judges absolute power to rule the world. Cross them and you would end up in a deep pit with 500 others who dared challange them. Now I haven't been in California too long so I don't know just how bad drawing up the district lines really is but I did see this process in another state and there it was appaling. The politicains would look at a map that depicted concentrations of registered voters by party and pick the areas that would support them and strung them together so they wouldn't be voted out in the next election. I personally felt districts should be look more like a block then a snake all stretched out and bent in odd direction that just ate a couple baby rabbits . I know that ensuring equal numbers of voters in districts makes my simple image impossible and will require that towns be split but simplicity should still be the rule.
I guess that isn't about advertising as much as my disdain for old school politics. Back to the ads, the anti-ads were down right decpetive if not plain old fashioned lies. Yet the politicians got away with it. I read where a campaign in souther California went so far as to put out fliers in the last few days stating that if they OKed a local referendum they would be OKing the eminent domain seizure of their land. This was clearly a blatant lie as one had nothing to do with the other. Shouldn't the perpetrators of these lies and deceptions be held to the same accountability as corporate America? Where is the FCC and local authorities to correct these injustices? Oh yeah, they are part of and sometimes the very politicians putting out the deceptive ads and lies. Seems the loonies are in charge of the asylum Martha.
So far you must be assuming I don't like politicians, actually, I think I would be a great politician and could rise up above this stench and do great deeds while riding my white charger into battle. Of course every politician starts out saying just that don't they?
Back to advertising. Corporate America isn't really guilty of outright lies. Deception is the name of the game, they just try to keep it subtle. When it comes to product ads I find some amusing, like Jack in the Box. The funny adds in this series are too numerous to mention but the Chipotle add was great and the recent one poking fun at celebrity poker has a nice twist with Gary Coleman. If you can't laugh at yourself who can you laugh at?
What I can't understand i how some corporate advertisers allow the ads we see to get made AND aired publically. I picture the ad exec selling some concept and the managers thinking it sounds cool. The ad exec goes out and gets the commercial shot and then shows it to the managers. Don't they realize just how bad the ad is? Are they afraid that after having spent the money making the commercial they will lose their jobs if they can it?
Unfortunately I am drawing a blank on most terrible commercials right now. The only one that comes to mind is Mentos - I will NEVER EVER buy Mentos as long as I live. The commercials are so bad that I have to change the channel when they come on. That just reminded me, I also change the channel when ads for the Kellogs somethin somethin Krunch come on. At first the concept of the guy sitting their eating his crunchy cereal while the boss tried to fire him was cute. Now it is downright annoying. That might be the best cereal in the world but I will never know because the advertising has driven me away. I am still wondering how those ads got made, shouldn't the ad exec being sitting at his big ole desk eating the cereal non-stop from now until the firm crumbles around him because he stopped doing his real work and couldn't hear the phone ring when new customers tried calling?
I need to end this tirade as I am now worked up and need to use the punching bag.
Recently those of us in the US went through an election. Elections are always good for terrible advertising. Living in California I was treated to a series of referendum questions that generated ads both for and against. Personally, I feel the ads and went well beyond the legal boundaries but so far no one has been charged, I bet the AG is afraid he will be accused of taking sides in the political battles so it is hands off.
My personal favorite this go round was the redistricting plan. The foes of this plan (read as 'entrenched politicians who don't want to have to get real jobs') portrayed it as giving 3 former judges absolute power to rule the world. Cross them and you would end up in a deep pit with 500 others who dared challange them. Now I haven't been in California too long so I don't know just how bad drawing up the district lines really is but I did see this process in another state and there it was appaling. The politicains would look at a map that depicted concentrations of registered voters by party and pick the areas that would support them and strung them together so they wouldn't be voted out in the next election. I personally felt districts should be look more like a block then a snake all stretched out and bent in odd direction that just ate a couple baby rabbits . I know that ensuring equal numbers of voters in districts makes my simple image impossible and will require that towns be split but simplicity should still be the rule.
I guess that isn't about advertising as much as my disdain for old school politics. Back to the ads, the anti-ads were down right decpetive if not plain old fashioned lies. Yet the politicians got away with it. I read where a campaign in souther California went so far as to put out fliers in the last few days stating that if they OKed a local referendum they would be OKing the eminent domain seizure of their land. This was clearly a blatant lie as one had nothing to do with the other. Shouldn't the perpetrators of these lies and deceptions be held to the same accountability as corporate America? Where is the FCC and local authorities to correct these injustices? Oh yeah, they are part of and sometimes the very politicians putting out the deceptive ads and lies. Seems the loonies are in charge of the asylum Martha.
So far you must be assuming I don't like politicians, actually, I think I would be a great politician and could rise up above this stench and do great deeds while riding my white charger into battle. Of course every politician starts out saying just that don't they?
Back to advertising. Corporate America isn't really guilty of outright lies. Deception is the name of the game, they just try to keep it subtle. When it comes to product ads I find some amusing, like Jack in the Box. The funny adds in this series are too numerous to mention but the Chipotle add was great and the recent one poking fun at celebrity poker has a nice twist with Gary Coleman. If you can't laugh at yourself who can you laugh at?
What I can't understand i how some corporate advertisers allow the ads we see to get made AND aired publically. I picture the ad exec selling some concept and the managers thinking it sounds cool. The ad exec goes out and gets the commercial shot and then shows it to the managers. Don't they realize just how bad the ad is? Are they afraid that after having spent the money making the commercial they will lose their jobs if they can it?
Unfortunately I am drawing a blank on most terrible commercials right now. The only one that comes to mind is Mentos - I will NEVER EVER buy Mentos as long as I live. The commercials are so bad that I have to change the channel when they come on. That just reminded me, I also change the channel when ads for the Kellogs somethin somethin Krunch come on. At first the concept of the guy sitting their eating his crunchy cereal while the boss tried to fire him was cute. Now it is downright annoying. That might be the best cereal in the world but I will never know because the advertising has driven me away. I am still wondering how those ads got made, shouldn't the ad exec being sitting at his big ole desk eating the cereal non-stop from now until the firm crumbles around him because he stopped doing his real work and couldn't hear the phone ring when new customers tried calling?
I need to end this tirade as I am now worked up and need to use the punching bag.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Decision Angst
Yesterday I explained why UPromise had lost a lot of it's shine for me lately. Part of that discussion involved how my decision to stop using the UPromise Credit Card caused me continuing angst.
Imagine my surprise while reading the Oct. 17th issue of Forbes magazine, during my flight home, you wouldn't believe how much reading an airplane ride can allow one to catch up on, I find an article detailing how Economic theory has a new area called Behavioral Economics. It takes the theory that we humans always act rationally unfettered by emotion or impulse and adds in the fetters.
Having once studied economics I was familiar with this theory and it was at the root of why I questioned my angst regarding the credit card decision. Suddenly, allowing for emotion I was allowed to have this angst. It is allowed if not expected.
The article went into some detail on expiraments they were conducting and how by putting an attractive female on an ad mailer the response rate skyrocketed when compared to cutting the interest rate 4 % pts on the same mailer. This immediately had me thinking of TV commercials (also mentioned in the article, can't claim any genius on this breakthrough) and especially the one for the firm that will sell your TimeShare. Darned if I remember who that company is since I don't own a time share nor intend to pick one up in the near future. What I do remember is that the very first image in the ad is a sexy, blonde female laying on a float in a pool in a tiny bikini. I had mentioned this ad to my wife in the past with the perplexing question of, "What does that lady have to do with selling my timeshare? Do they promise that in the pool of what ever time share I buy? Do I get that in my pool if they sell my timeshare?" As an expirament I should purchase and then sell my timeshare and figure out where this lady comes into the picture.
This transitions nicely into my issues with advertising, especially TV ads. Tomorrow we discuss what I like and what I don't like. Having just gone through an election there is plenty of fodder.
Imagine my surprise while reading the Oct. 17th issue of Forbes magazine, during my flight home, you wouldn't believe how much reading an airplane ride can allow one to catch up on, I find an article detailing how Economic theory has a new area called Behavioral Economics. It takes the theory that we humans always act rationally unfettered by emotion or impulse and adds in the fetters.
Having once studied economics I was familiar with this theory and it was at the root of why I questioned my angst regarding the credit card decision. Suddenly, allowing for emotion I was allowed to have this angst. It is allowed if not expected.
The article went into some detail on expiraments they were conducting and how by putting an attractive female on an ad mailer the response rate skyrocketed when compared to cutting the interest rate 4 % pts on the same mailer. This immediately had me thinking of TV commercials (also mentioned in the article, can't claim any genius on this breakthrough) and especially the one for the firm that will sell your TimeShare. Darned if I remember who that company is since I don't own a time share nor intend to pick one up in the near future. What I do remember is that the very first image in the ad is a sexy, blonde female laying on a float in a pool in a tiny bikini. I had mentioned this ad to my wife in the past with the perplexing question of, "What does that lady have to do with selling my timeshare? Do they promise that in the pool of what ever time share I buy? Do I get that in my pool if they sell my timeshare?" As an expirament I should purchase and then sell my timeshare and figure out where this lady comes into the picture.
This transitions nicely into my issues with advertising, especially TV ads. Tomorrow we discuss what I like and what I don't like. Having just gone through an election there is plenty of fodder.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
As promised....UPromise...
I recently had a baby girl which prompted me to consider college and how to save money for it. I decided to give the UPromise plan a try. For those unfamiliar, Upromise is a program where you receive credit in a UPromise account for purchasing items from various merchants which can be used for education expenses. I juiced my account by signing up for the UPromise credit card which gives you 1% of all purchases back as a credit to your account.
After several months my account reached a balance of $200+. When I checked my balance, usually after my monthly update email, it would be suggested I open a 529 savings plan and deposit my money there so that it could grow. Otherwise it sits in a zero interest account with UPromise.
I read the first page of information and clicked more info. I read the second page of information and clicked more info. On the 3rd page of information I was finally informed that UPromise would charge an annual fee of $20 for my 529 account starting 12 months after it was opened.
Doing some quick math in my head I realized that I would need to earn around 10% annually on my $200 just to cover the $20 fee. Given my investing track record and my love of mutual funds I don't see this happening. If I opened this account, over time I would hand all of my UPromise money to UPromise. How will this help pay for college?
Now my trust in UPromise was starting to crack so I began considering the rest of the program. Most of my money has come from the Credit Card kickback. I have several credit cards including airline miles and points redeemable for overpriced merchandise or cash. Assuming I don't jump the gun, the cash rebate is 1%. So which is better, the UPromise card which puts money aside for future schooling needs or the straight cash back?
I can see some situations where people who find it hard to save money would like the UPromise program as they can't really touch the money so there will be something when the time comes for education. I personally don't have that problem so rationally I am better off getting 1% back in Cash which I can then choose to spend or save in any manner I desire - including putting into an account for education that doesn't charge me the $20 service fee. Despite the clear logic of this I still feel 'wrong' about it, the mind is a tricky thing.
Where does this leave me with UPromise? The rebates for purchasing specific items are miniscule but free if they are items that you would normally purchase so we refer to the old adage about beggers not being choosers. I will continue to make my purchases as I always have and will earn a few cents every month, perhaps even a whole dollar a year. In 18 years when I have to pay for college I will use the $217 but until then I won't be paying UPromise $20/year for a 529 account and my usage of the UPromise Credit Card will dry up. I better check on annual fees, if the card has one I will cancel it.
Sorry Upromise. You have a wonderful idea but you just aren't able to make it worth the effort of using your service.
After several months my account reached a balance of $200+. When I checked my balance, usually after my monthly update email, it would be suggested I open a 529 savings plan and deposit my money there so that it could grow. Otherwise it sits in a zero interest account with UPromise.
I read the first page of information and clicked more info. I read the second page of information and clicked more info. On the 3rd page of information I was finally informed that UPromise would charge an annual fee of $20 for my 529 account starting 12 months after it was opened.
Doing some quick math in my head I realized that I would need to earn around 10% annually on my $200 just to cover the $20 fee. Given my investing track record and my love of mutual funds I don't see this happening. If I opened this account, over time I would hand all of my UPromise money to UPromise. How will this help pay for college?
Now my trust in UPromise was starting to crack so I began considering the rest of the program. Most of my money has come from the Credit Card kickback. I have several credit cards including airline miles and points redeemable for overpriced merchandise or cash. Assuming I don't jump the gun, the cash rebate is 1%. So which is better, the UPromise card which puts money aside for future schooling needs or the straight cash back?
I can see some situations where people who find it hard to save money would like the UPromise program as they can't really touch the money so there will be something when the time comes for education. I personally don't have that problem so rationally I am better off getting 1% back in Cash which I can then choose to spend or save in any manner I desire - including putting into an account for education that doesn't charge me the $20 service fee. Despite the clear logic of this I still feel 'wrong' about it, the mind is a tricky thing.
Where does this leave me with UPromise? The rebates for purchasing specific items are miniscule but free if they are items that you would normally purchase so we refer to the old adage about beggers not being choosers. I will continue to make my purchases as I always have and will earn a few cents every month, perhaps even a whole dollar a year. In 18 years when I have to pay for college I will use the $217 but until then I won't be paying UPromise $20/year for a 529 account and my usage of the UPromise Credit Card will dry up. I better check on annual fees, if the card has one I will cancel it.
Sorry Upromise. You have a wonderful idea but you just aren't able to make it worth the effort of using your service.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Mutual Funds and other ways to go broke
Now that I have this blog started the big question is what to write about next. Since this is only the second day I have a few topics to choose from. Give it a week and I will be wondering what I was thinking.
Today's thoughts go out to Mutual Funds and other investment accounts. Investment Advisors, Retirement Planners and other folks doling out financial advice love to recommend Mutual Funds. A mutual fund is a wonderful concept, you put your money into a pool with lots of other folks and someone is hired to do nothing but make investment decisions on where to invest this money. Supposedly you win because the decisions are made by a professional and with all that money the risk is spread out allowing you to avoid a single disasterous investment.
My personal experiences indicate that investing in mutual funds are a disasterous investment. I have roughly estimated that I need to save $3 million by the time I retire in order to have $1 million left in my retirement account. My best investment in a mutual fund was a money market account paying 2% annually, at least I didn't lose what I put into it.
So what is going wrong with mutual funds besides my tendency to pick losers? Expenses! Investment Advisors who manage mutual funds charge outrageous fees to manage the money when compared to the fees charged large institutional investors like pension funds or really rich individuals. Now I am strictly talking about the Management Fee charges and not the other expenses such as accounting and custody fees. Differences in these fees between types of accounts is generally explainable.
It is not uncommon for an equity mutual fund to be charged in the neighborhood of 1% of assets annually in management fees. An institutional account on the other hand frequently pays the same investment manager .3% of assets. The only explanation for the difference is that the pension fund owners drive a harder bargain, after all, if GM pays a lower management fee on it's pension fund then it doesn't have to come up with as much cash to fund the pension obligations and the company earns more money.
The Board of a Mutual Fund has no such desire. The members are handpicked by the mutual fund sponsor (another name for sponsor is investment manager) so even if they are considered independent they have no loyalty to the mutual fund investor. They don't have any bottom line to look after.
What I am curious about and will look into if I have the time is whether any of these board members also have responsibility for pension funds and if they are getting the same rates in the pension funds as the mutual funds they work for. I doubt it. Given the voracious appetites of lawyers in the US I can't imagine why they haven't started delving into this topic. Conflicts of interest, favoritism, all concepts that make politicaly motivated AGs and class action lawyers salivate. Companies get blackmailed, sorry, I mean sued when the stock price drops and for no other reason, my idea seems to have a much better foundation, doesn't it?
I will have to pick up on this topic tomorrow as my real job requires my attention. Tomorrow I will also pick on UPromise and their 529 College Savings Account.
Today's thoughts go out to Mutual Funds and other investment accounts. Investment Advisors, Retirement Planners and other folks doling out financial advice love to recommend Mutual Funds. A mutual fund is a wonderful concept, you put your money into a pool with lots of other folks and someone is hired to do nothing but make investment decisions on where to invest this money. Supposedly you win because the decisions are made by a professional and with all that money the risk is spread out allowing you to avoid a single disasterous investment.
My personal experiences indicate that investing in mutual funds are a disasterous investment. I have roughly estimated that I need to save $3 million by the time I retire in order to have $1 million left in my retirement account. My best investment in a mutual fund was a money market account paying 2% annually, at least I didn't lose what I put into it.
So what is going wrong with mutual funds besides my tendency to pick losers? Expenses! Investment Advisors who manage mutual funds charge outrageous fees to manage the money when compared to the fees charged large institutional investors like pension funds or really rich individuals. Now I am strictly talking about the Management Fee charges and not the other expenses such as accounting and custody fees. Differences in these fees between types of accounts is generally explainable.
It is not uncommon for an equity mutual fund to be charged in the neighborhood of 1% of assets annually in management fees. An institutional account on the other hand frequently pays the same investment manager .3% of assets. The only explanation for the difference is that the pension fund owners drive a harder bargain, after all, if GM pays a lower management fee on it's pension fund then it doesn't have to come up with as much cash to fund the pension obligations and the company earns more money.
The Board of a Mutual Fund has no such desire. The members are handpicked by the mutual fund sponsor (another name for sponsor is investment manager) so even if they are considered independent they have no loyalty to the mutual fund investor. They don't have any bottom line to look after.
What I am curious about and will look into if I have the time is whether any of these board members also have responsibility for pension funds and if they are getting the same rates in the pension funds as the mutual funds they work for. I doubt it. Given the voracious appetites of lawyers in the US I can't imagine why they haven't started delving into this topic. Conflicts of interest, favoritism, all concepts that make politicaly motivated AGs and class action lawyers salivate. Companies get blackmailed, sorry, I mean sued when the stock price drops and for no other reason, my idea seems to have a much better foundation, doesn't it?
I will have to pick up on this topic tomorrow as my real job requires my attention. Tomorrow I will also pick on UPromise and their 529 College Savings Account.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Daily Irritations and Other Thoughts
I decided to try my hand at this while wondering how to vent my frustration with those little things in life that I find irritating if not down right perplexing. Althought this didn't start recently I have to credit Charles Jaffe, a columnist at Marketwatch.com, with making me give this serious consideration. He wrote a column about how an oil firm that just reported BILLIONS of $$$$ in profit for the prior 3 months had been hounding him for a credit card payment after the check went astray during delivery. He had an avenue to vent his frustration and let the world know what he had experienced - I didn't. Not that I have a beef with any oil companies at this particular moment but it relates to many other firms that I do have relationships with.
I actually have a bit of envy for the oil companies. When I was a youngster I thought I would be RICH if I could come up with an idea that garnered me $1 from every American. (As with most Americans I had/have a very American centric view of the world that sometimes imposes limits.) I never came up with this idea but I was reminded of it when I saw that 2 of the big oil firms had earned $19 billion between them for the prior quarter of the year. That translates into their garnering $1 from every person on the planet for 3 months in a row. In reality they garnered a lot more since that was strictly profit but in my originally theory of getting rich that $1 was profit as well. This has truly expanded my horizons and made me realize I must think much bigger going forward.
I actually have a bit of envy for the oil companies. When I was a youngster I thought I would be RICH if I could come up with an idea that garnered me $1 from every American. (As with most Americans I had/have a very American centric view of the world that sometimes imposes limits.) I never came up with this idea but I was reminded of it when I saw that 2 of the big oil firms had earned $19 billion between them for the prior quarter of the year. That translates into their garnering $1 from every person on the planet for 3 months in a row. In reality they garnered a lot more since that was strictly profit but in my originally theory of getting rich that $1 was profit as well. This has truly expanded my horizons and made me realize I must think much bigger going forward.
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