Delay DTV NOT!

Jan 28 2009 Published by under American Consumer, Dumb Americans, Goverment policy


Question from J Q Public:
Why the DTV delay?

Answer from Washington:
You are not ready!

First I would think that the Obama administration would have more important things to deal with, like the failing United States economy!

But instead they are pushing a bill through the House and Congress to delay the Digital Television transition. The Digital Transitions has been going on for eight years. So is four months going to make any difference?

Ok so the 1.3 billion dollars ran out, that means 32.5 million converter boxes were bought. According to ConsumersAffairs.com 58% of the households have cable, 29% have satellite. If there about 100 million households in the United States that means the majority of us are ready for the conversion to digital television or do not need it.  Remember anyone using cable, satellite or IPTV will not be effected by the digital transition.

So there are two million plus waiting for a converter box coupion.  Let them buy a converter box and get a tax credit. There is no delay and no excuses.

The delay, if approved, will cost the broadcasters millions of dollars in cost over the additional four months. This increase in cost is because they will need to run both the analog and digital transmitters for an additional 4 months. Most broadcasters have hundreds of  station across the country. So this adds up fast.

In my opinion we should not add to the confusion over the digital transition. Instead after eight years of having feet in both the digital and analog world, just do the cut over on February 17 , 2009 as planed. Washington should get on the task at handle the US economy. Washington does not need to be worried about or TV.

2 responses so far

Who is watching your Vudu?

Jan 16 2009 Published by under American Consumer, Corporate America, Dumb Americans

On the Vudu website is this quote:

“Unlike other services that rely on large server farms to deliver content, as more VUDU Boxes are installed, the network will become even more efficient and require less of each box.”

So what does the mean? It means your Vudu set top box serves up content and uses your internet connection to deliver the content. Did you get that! That means you are providing the electricity, the hard drive space, and the network bandwidth so other Vudu owners can watch content.

Wow… did you know you were providing a service to other Vudu owners when you bought your Vudu set top box? This is call a peer-to-peer network. Other software out there, call BitTorrent, is used by hobbyist to share and download very large files. Peer-to-peer networking is also known as a bandwidth hogs. I would not want several Vudu users on the same provider in my network neighborhood.

Other services like Hulu, Sling and Netflix, use large distributed server farms to send out content. They pay for the hosting services to house the server farms not you. They pay for the badwidth to connect there server to the internet, not you.

So the Vudu service sound great upfront but is the price, Vudu using your resources, too high? Or will the dumb American consumer just march forward and not care?

One response so far

Early AM T&A Show

Dec 28 2008 Published by under American Consumer, Changing scene, Dumb Americans

In the Los Angeles area you need to get up early to go anywhere on the freeways. But in December when it is cold and still dark, at 5AM, hundreds of guys got up to see the Double D’s in December beauty pageant. For the last two December KROQ radio early morning KEVIN & BEAN SHOW host a pageant outside the Slidebar in Fullerton. This show airs from 5AM to 9AM for the morning commute.

So there is a mass sea of guys all drinking and watching nine girls prance around, on the outdoor stage, in their short skirts and bikinis (lots of goose bumps here). In the competition were Cassandra( 25) from Chino Hills, Roxanne(24) from Huntington Beach, Stacy(24) also from Huntington Beach( 23) from Costa Mesa , Janelle(22) of La Verne, Danielle,(21) from Covina, Camry(22) of Norco, Nicolette(23) of Covina, and Crystal(23) from Anaheim.

Cassandra was voted the winner. There were no judges and the voting was done on-line over the internet. Now this is an early morning radio show, that is position for the morning commute time slot.

So how does the voting work. You’re in your car! For one you cannot see the girls, as this is a radio program. So how do you know who to vote for? And two if you are voting on you handheld mobile device you’re breaking California law, as it is now against the law, in California, to use your mobile phone while driving.

Alright, your right, the whole pageant was webcasted live on the KROQ website. So if you had web access you could see the ladies. But that means…. you were late for work or…. Your messing around on the internet at work.

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Dying the Wrong Way

Dec 05 2008 Published by under Changing scene, Dumb Americans, Goverment policy


When you die without a “will” the State move in and takes over. The result is an estate auction. The auctioneer takes everything you owned and sells it off to the highest bidder. That a sad thought, that one’s live time is dissolved through and impersonal sale of all your personal belongings. And if you own personal property that is auction off also. At this particular estate sale two autos were sold to the highest bidder.

After the estate sale is done the state then puts your house on the auction block. So what took a life time to accumulate and pay for is gone in days.

So how do you prevent this? Get a will and leave your property to someone, even a charity or church, somebody. Please do not be a dumb american and leave it to the State to decide.

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You won’t lose your money, or will you?

Nov 21 2008 Published by under American Consumer, Changing scene, Dumb Americans

Hard times bring out the most curious products. Here is a guy that is playing off the recent rash of bank failures. By trade he is a licensed septic installer, so he uses material that he is familiar with, Plastic pipe. So with a short twelve inch long, four inch diameter PVC pipe, one end cap, a slip to thread coupling and a thread plug, Earl creates the “Midnight Gardner”. Oh and he paints it blue.

Midnight_GardenerAnd what do you do with the Midnight Gardner you fill it full of money and bury it. That’s right you dig a deep hole in your yard and bury it. Now you better remember where you buried all that money. So in the FAQ section of his website he offers solution on how to remember where you buried it.

So for the skeptical and doom a gloomers you can visit his website and pick up your new device to save your money in. I guess I will file this one under Dumb Americans. Or with the current stock market the Midnight Gardner might be a smart investment.

3 responses so far

FlexFuel = Higher food prices

Nov 19 2008 Published by under American Consumer, Dumb Americans

flex_fuelWhen you see the FlexFuel badge on a car or truck, just think about higher food prices. The car or truck with this badge could be burning food product to power the Vehicle. If they are burning e-85 ethanol fuel, corn or some food grain use used to produce the ethanol. Even if a non food product, like switchgrass was use it still effect food prices. Land that would normally be used to grow corn was use to rise the switchgrass.

All this drives up food cost. We see the higher prices reflected in beef, dairy and grain products. A better solution to our consumption of oil is true renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and hydro.

But as dumb Americans we follow the corporate lead and burn our food to fuel our cars!

One response so far

JUNK political Signs

Oct 23 2008 Published by under Changing scene, Dumb Americans, Goverment policy, Uncategorized

JunkSigns
No the lower case p in the title “JUNK political Signs” was not a typo. I typed that way. The clutter of political signs, during election, is yet another sign of the dual standards of Joe private citizen vs. government politicians. Local politicians have all kinds of ordnances restricting how business can advertise. BUT when it comes to the politicians they can place a sign all most anywhere. True they can only be placed 30 days before the election and must be removed shortly after the election, but the still become an eyesore.

Do politicians really think that a display of sign, as pictured above, will convince a person to vote for them? To me it shows total disregard, by the person running for office, for the city they are running in.

There once again another indication of Dumb Americans, the way we allow the dual standards.

JunkSigns2
This photo was take accross the street from the photos above. So on the west side of the street are 17 signs and on the east side there are 21 signs.

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Burning our Food leads to higher food prices

Apr 01 2008 Published by under Changing scene, Corporate America, Dumb Americans, Goverment policy

May 25, 2005 a senate panel votes, unanimously, to encourage ethanol production. The Panel was lead by Senator Jim Talent (r-Mo) in a response to higher gasoline prices. The oil industry opposed the plan clamming that the wide use of such a policy would lead to higher food prices.

Then that same year, 2005, Congress instructed the Environmental Protection agency to enforce the Renewable Standards Act. Which required at least 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels be added too and blended into our existing fossil fuel by the year 2012. And so starts the process that is giving us higher food prices today.

Now jump forward to 2008 looking at two staple we all need, back in Feb 2006 corn was $2.28 per bushel just a few months ago Feb 2008 the price per bushel rose to $5.46. This is almost double the cost in just 24 months. Wheat another staple food item was $3.48 per bushel in Feb 2006; now in Feb 2008 it is $11.21/bushel.

Why is the price of basic food elements climbing so fast? Because we are burning our food crops to fuel our cars, trucks and lawn mowers. So we cause a shift in the food paradigm. We create an entirely new use and market for crops that are scarce in the world today. Maybe the crops are not scarce today in America but large parts of the world are starving. People are dying every day because they do not have any food.

FoodPrices

Then here in America, not only do we waist food, but now we burn our food crops for transportation. The rest of the world is watching and now trying to import more food crops. They just want to protect their own countries food supply. The result is again, more pressure on the food supply that results in higher prices. We are truly dumb americans.

We need to stop the push for ethanol as a renewable fuel before we all starve to death. I would rather have the option of not filling up my car at $9.00 a gallon for gasoline opposed to not being able to eat.

One response so far

Will Ferrell Sport Series (Semi-Pro)

Mar 06 2008 Published by under American Consumer, Dumb Americans, Hollywood trash

Will Ferrell makes another sports based movie, why? First he spoofed the ice skating world with “Blades of Glory”. Then Will takes on the super popular NASCAR world with Talladega Nights: The Ballard Of Ricky Bobby. Then the first week of February 2008 Will Ferrell takes on the world of Basket ball with “Semi-Pro”.

WF_SportsSeries

And guess what, “Semi-Pro” is the top grossing movie the weekend it is released. Semi-pro beats out “Vantage Point” by taking in 15 million dollars vs. Vantage point 13 million. It should be noted that Vantage brought in almost 23 million its opening weekend, with a total to date (3/2/2008) of 41 million.

So does this mean we are “dumb Americans” falling for a repetitive formula movie? After all Bob Hope had great success in the 1940’s and 1950’s with his road series (“ The road to Morocco”, “ The road to Singapore”, “ The road to Utopia” , “ The road to Zanzibar “The Road to Bali”, “The Road to Rio” and “The Road to Hong Kong”).

But when you think about it there are a lot of series movies, Star Trek 1- 10, James Bond 1 -21, Batman, Superman, Star Wars and the list goes on and on. But are they a rip-off like the Ferrell sport series?

In my opinion series like Star trek and James Bond are good story telling movies. These series are full of action, beautiful places or great computer graphics. The Ferrell sport series are just a bunch of gags strung together around the sports thread. Some are funny and some are not. Do I get a laugh, ya some times? But do not watch the trailer or you will have seen every funny clip in the movie.

So are the dumb Americans getting smarter? Well according to folks that are in the know, the 15 million was not good enough to call ‘Semi-Pro” a success. In fact the main stream press is calling it a failure and even going so far as to question Mr. Ferrell future big screen potential.

So chalk one up for the Dumb Americans, you spotted this one.

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Limited Time Teaser Rates

Nov 02 2007 Published by under American Consumer, Corporate America, Dumb Americans

Companies in the telecommunications, cable and satellite dish industry are always advertising their services with a surprising low price.BadAd[1]At first glance the price looks good. Then you see the words promotional rate, introductory rate, first three months, or limited time at this rate. Or something along toughs lines. But nowhere, on the ad, is the real cost listed. Sometimes there is the little special symbol that denotes and additional explanation or terms. But good luck finding the fine print, it is buried somewhere in the multi page paper ad or on another web page with in the site.

So this advertising technique must work. The dumb Americans are jump at this low price and do not even think or consider what this service will cost after the low price time period expires. So as dumb Americans consumers we either get hooked on the service or we get lazes and never cancel the service. So the advertiser wins because you keep paying the monthly fee, month after month at the higher rate.

If the company will not display the real cost then it is not worth it singing up. Most likely they are trying to compete with someone else’s rate that is actually lower all the time. The new company is just trying to lure you into their program with a temporary rate that appears to be competitive. In my opinion this is on the edge of being dishonest, I understand the advertisers rational is they are offering a lower rate for new customers to check there service out for a trial period. It is still only a short term rate.

The advertisers should clearly (not is a tiny print that is imposable to find) state what real monthly rate is in addition to the promotional rate.

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