Archive for the 'American Consumer' category

License Plate Billboards

Jun 25 2010 Published by under American Consumer, Changing scene, Dumb Americans, Goverment policy, unbelievable

California Democratic Sen. Curren Price is sponsoring  BILL NUMBER: SB 1453 to bring Digital Billboard License Plates to California.

So what is a Digital Billboard License Plates? It turns the license plate on YOUR car in to a State of California controlled rolling billboard. So the State of California can sell ad space on Your car. When your car stops, for a predetermined time, the license numbers go away and a digital billboard comes alive. The ads will start to be displayed, until your car starts to move again.

The idea behind the plate wasn’t to make the vehicle into a rolling billboard. Rather, the plate was devised to allow the driver to customize their own license plate to support organizations, sports teams, and colleges. Says M. Conrad Jorda, CEO of Smart Plate.

I can not believe the arrogance of the state legislators that put this Bill together. A Bill that would would become LAW and force you to display the ads the state sells. They need to remember who pays for the car. The state’s reasoning behind this it to develop alternative revenue streams. If the state does this  it it will be  infringing on your rights and privacy. Again, State law makers IT IS NOT YOUR CAR!

I can think of all kinds of problems with this. For starters I’m sure there will be all kinds of ads running on the back of YOUR car. Say your a person that does not believe in a product or topic, or has religious beliefs against a product or topic. Will you be forced to let that ad run on the license plate mounted to your car.

Plus the digital license billboard requires electricity to run, where is the electricity coming form? Thats right your cars electrical system. So let’s say the digital license plate malfunctions and stays on all night running down your battery. You do not find out until you try a drive to work in the morning. No battery and you can not start you car. Now you can not get to work. Who’s at fault?

Or the plate malfunction in traffic and the Digital Billboard is flashing ads while you are driving. It distracts a driver and that rear ends you. Who is responsible, the state? It was the California State run digital billboard that caused the distraction that caused the accident?

It’s not all big brother, the digital license plate could also be used to alert drivers of an Amber Alerts or other emergency messages. But it will mostly be unwanted junk.

I hope and pray that the State of California does not do this! It is MY car not the State of California’s rolling billboard.

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100 million is not that much

May 27 2010 Published by under American Consumer, Dumb Americans, Goverment policy

BudgetNeed some help on making sense of what Obama is talking about. Obama talks about a cutting 100 million  from the 3.5 Trillion Dollar budget. Sound Like a lot of money right? And we all feel good that our president is making a differance.

Watch the video. This guy makes it easy to see what the President is doing. And it points our how small 100 million is compared to 3.5 trillion.

Size of the US budget Video

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Airlines charge passengers by their weight

Apr 30 2010 Published by under American Consumer, Changing scene, Corporate America

weighing_inIt seams like every week the airlines a adding new fees on top of the normal ticket price.  At first they were small charges, like charging to buy a ticket, or change a ticket. Then they started charging for heavy baggage. Now the trend is to charge for checked baggage. There is talk in the industry that the airlines might start charging for Carry-on bags.

But what I think is coming is a day where the airlines start charge for passengers tickets by weight. After all a big heavy person takes up more room in the airplanes cabin. Airline fuel consumption is determined by weight. The heaver a plane is the more fuel it will burn. Air freight prices are determined by size and weight of the package. The larger a package is the more it cost to ship it by air. Same goes for weight, the packages can be small, but if it is heavy it cost more to ship.

So do not be supprised that  some day, in the future, you are asked to stand on a scale at the airline ticket counter so the ticket agent can determin the cost of your ticket.

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Steve Jobs out of Touch

Feb 24 2010 Published by under American Consumer, Changing scene, Geek stuff

steve-jobsThe iPad look and sounds cool, but who will buy it. When I talk to friend and co-works I always a are you going to buy and iPad? I asked the same question a few years back about the iphone and always got a resounding yea you bet, as soon as it comes out. No matter how long the lines are or how much it cost.

Well the response, i’am get now, when I ask the question about the iPad is “No I’am not going to buy the iPad for myself”. Then they continue “I will definitely buy it for my parents!”

Parents! Why are you going to buy it for you parents? “Because, it is easy to use and does not have a mouse.”

I though Apple product were always for the generation x and y’ers not the old baby boomer’s of the 50′s.  You know the cool products that the young persone has to have. The fancy packaging, the modern stores, stuff that a baby boomer would never identity with.

So what happened? Is Jobs designing products for a different generation?  Is this a planed marketing change? Or did Apple just miss-read the masses? Or is Steve just getting old like the rest of us Baby Boomer’s?

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Save Electricity Without Doing Anything

Jan 22 2010 Published by under American Consumer, Geek stuff

cutoffSave electricity with out doing anything, well almost. You do need to buy this handy new plug strip. The gizmo works like a  normal power strip/surge protector. With a twist.

There is a USB cable attached to the plug strip, strange right. Not for this new plug strip. You plug the USB cable into you computer. Then plug all your peripherals into the plug strip. Now the USB controlled power strip will turn off all your peripherals when you turn off your computer. And that is when you star to save money. The manufacture clams a 10% savings, for me that $25.00 a month.

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Jazz Guitarrist Tim bowman

Dec 10 2009 Published by under American Consumer, Changing scene

Tim_BowmanWho is Tim Bowman you ask? If you like smooth jazz or easy listing music, read on as we fill in the gaps.  If you like the hard rock or heavy metal stuff this post is not for you.

Sweet Sundays, on his new album, is a great track to relax and sip something cold by the pool.  Tim Bowman is not one of your main stream recording artist. He can be found on SirusXM Watercolors channel or SmoothJazz.com. Or on the old fasion FM radio you might find him on The Wave KTWV-FM.

It has been  a while since we have seen any new material from Tim but this 2009 CD was worth the wait. It was four years ago that he released is CD titled “This is what i hear’” and fours year before that i 2000 he released Smile. But this new CD will give me many hours of relaxed time around the pool.

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Blu-ray Disk Push Blu-ray Techonlogy

Nov 17 2009 Published by under American Consumer, Corporate America, Dumb Americans, Geek stuff

I_believeI do not get it! You already bought the Blu-ray player. You bought or rented a Blu-ray disk. You bought the high definition television to watch your Blu-ray disks. You are knowledgeable about high definition. After all you own all this Blu-ray hardware and software. Yet when you pop in the Blu-ray disk into your Blu-ray player  there is a 30 to 60 second commercial about how great Blu-ray is.

Well, ya I know Blu-ray is great, you already sold me on the Blu-ray technology. Otherwise how would I be viewing the Blu-ray disk. So why are the studios putting these Blu-ray commercials on a Blu-ray disk?  Beats me!

It has got to be the dumbest strategy I have ever seen. It is like preaching to the choir, we already believe  in the Blu-ray technology. So why the commercial? I just do not get it?

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Better TV with Widgets?

Oct 08 2009 Published by under American Consumer, Changing scene, Corporate America

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To solve the question, that was asked earlier this year “Who Decides What IPTV You Watch?” the industry has responded with the TV Widget. TV widgets allow you, the consumer, to break free from the iron fist of TV manufactures deciding what internet content you watch on your TV.

Several TV manufactures including LG, Samsung, Sony and soon to be Visio have introduced flat panel televisions that have Yahoo Widgets. Yahoo Widgets is a set of software that connects your TV to the internet and presents information kind of like an iPhone. The information comes from the internet but the user experience is not the normal personal computer browser model.

Visio has taken the Yahoo Widgets one step further. Not to be tied to Yahoo and Yahoos release schedule, Visio developed their own widget platform for Visio televisions. Visio developed there own platform using Adobe Flash. So it will be a very open platform. It will also support Yahoo’s Widgets, so you get the best of both worlds.

Visio is planning on releasing a SDK or software developer’s kit, so any one can develop a Widget for the Visio television. You could even develop a custom home automation interface or a interactive Game, the sky it the limit.

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Who Decides What IPTV You Watch?

Sep 05 2009 Published by under American Consumer, Changing scene, Corporate America, Dumb Americans, Geek stuff

Are only certain Networks channels displayed on your television set because the television manufacture has done a deal with that network?No, you get all the network channels that are broadcasted in your area.

So then why are Television manufactures making deals with internet video streaming sites and only displaying the ones they get paid too? It would be like Mitsubishi making a deal with NBC and CBS only. And since they do not have a deal with ABC you cannot receive ABC on the Mitsubishi Television. We would all thing that was nuts.

Will that is exactly what is taking place in today’s market. Television manufactures are only allowing streaming services that they cut deals with. No deal, no access through the television.

If the smarts are in a TV to receive, for example, Netflix, then the TV is smart enough to receive others. True the software for streaming is not standardized today BUT it should be. Manufactures should not be controlling what Internet Streaming sites work or do not work on a given television.

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Wave Taking Over the E-mail World

Aug 25 2009 Published by under American Consumer, Changing scene, Future things, Geek stuff, Google

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Is Google Wave what e-mail should be? What category does Google Wave  fit anyway? What is Google Wave exactly? Does it do too much?

It looks to me as Google is pushing for a complete paradigm change in the internet communication sea. At first glance, Google Wave, does E-mail, Instant messaging, pulse Collaboration. But then you start to peel back the layers and there is so much more. You could use Google Wave to Tweet, blog, share photos albums, project documentation, play games and the list keeps going on and on….

So will the world’s tides be shifted by the Google Wave. The first problem is Google Wave requires a forklift replacement of the old way of doing things on the internet today. Namely it replaces IM and E-mail as we know them to day, for the better in my opinion. After all that was the geniuses of the Google Wave project the mission was “What would e-mail be like, if it were created today, not 40 years ago?”

So you might see early adopters start using Google Wave in a Corporate or business setting. Google Wave could increase productive by offering faster communication and better collaboration between staff. Will the corporate world want all that data stored in the Google cloud? Or will they install their own Federation copy of Google Wave?

So will we be using Google Wave in a year or two? Or will the Google Wave project lead to something else that is better and easier to implement? Or will Google Wave be a wash out?

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