Acorns From An Okie » Stupidity

Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness…

Allen — Sat, 17 May 2008 02:33:41 +0000

But neither does poverty.

Caveat Emptor

Allen — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 19:17:51 +0000

Great article in Unpeeling Apple’s Nano. Apparently the new Apple Nanos have a profit margin of 50% before distribution and marketing which I assume are quite large and cut into that figure.

But my caveat emptor came at the end of the article:

As of 2004, the top three manufacturers of flash-based players were iRiver, Creative Technologies (CREAF ) and Samsung, according to IDC analyst Susan Kevorkian, with Sony (SNE ) lagging far behind the pack. Other companies in the business include Dell (DELL ) and Matsushita (MC ), which sells players under its Panasonic brand. Still, some are feeling heat. D&M Holdings, owner of the Rio brand, recently announced it was getting out of the business.

Sigh. Figures I find this out after my latest purchase.

Slimebucket or Spawn of Satan?

Allen — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 13:48:10 +0000

We report, you decide….

Our family was gone over this past weekend — college "shopping" for my son who is a senior this year in high school. I had a rather large inbox to wade through when I got back today.

One of the emails is from ConsumerReports.org. It even has their logo on it and everything. Here is the text of the letter (sans graphics and hyperlinks):

Dear Okie,

I’m hoping you have a few minutes to help me with a project we’re
working on at Consumer ReportsÂ©. To begin, simply
click here.

I selected your name as one of our online subscribers who could help us
review laptop computers and televisions for upcoming articles.

Since you’re part of a select group receiving this survey, your answers
are essential to the accuracy of the study.

Your responses are totally confidential. I’ll be combining them with the
experiences of other subscribers like you. You will not be asked to buy
any products as a result of any answers you provide.

To thank you for your valuable time, you may win a year’s extension of
your subscription to Consumer Reports Online. I’ll be selecting 10 lucky
people from those who respond to this survey. You’ll be notified by e-
mail if you’re a winner.

To begin, simply click here.

If you have any problems taking this survey, click here for answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

Thanks again for helping me with this project!

Charles Daviet

Director, Survey Research

Now normally I discard out-of-hand notifications from PayPal, my bank, etc that I desperately need to update my account information before they (a) suspend my account, (b) garnish all my cash and wages for the next 20 years, (c) release the attack aardvarks.

I almost clicked on this one, but I stopped when I saw the URL down in the status bar. (BTW, everyone should turn on the ‘show URL in status bar’ of your browser. No tutorials here. Figure it out and just do it.)

The results? Well, the top-level domain for the link is cu.cr-mail.org.

Hmmm… Quick trip to ‘whois.net’ reveals:

Domain ID:D87273807-LRORDomain Name:CR-MAIL.ORGCreated On:05-Jun-2002 20:22:48 UTCLast Updated On:05-Dec-2003 17:04:27 UTCExpiration Date:05-Jun-2006 20:22:48 UTCSponsoring Registrar:Register.com Inc. (R71-LROR)Status:OKRegistrant ID:C38284996-RCOMRegistrant Name:DoubleClick Inc.

Now I don’t know. Perhaps ConsumerReports.org has obtained the services of DoubleClick.com to conduct this survey. But somehow I don’t think so. If so, my estimation of ConsumerReports.org has gone down.

Attention Amazon.com

Allen — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 14:49:12 +0000

I don’t want to click on the "Add to Shopping Cart" button to see the price even if I can always remove it later.

Just lost another sale, you twits: Amazon.com: Computers: PalmOne Tungsten E2 Handheld.

Not that I’m sure I’m going to replace my current busted Palm Pilot with another one. I’m reading lots of feedback that indicate that the never-that-good Palm customer service has really gone downhill.

Hipster PDA, perhaps? I just have a problem with having to manually ‘sync’ with my organizer.

Oh, and for those who are interested. Introducing your Palm Pilot to the inner-workings of a hinge on a lounger is considered to be a bad idea. Unless you are really into the giant black hole of doom where your screen should be.

Tired of blogging why I’m not blogging.

Allen — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 16:59:07 +0000

It seems lately that I’ve done blog entries that complain that I don’t have time to blog, but that is the simple truth. I’m usually come up with something to write about, but never seem to get a chance to write it as the day progresses.

We finally transitioned to SAP here at work and a lot of my code is starting to "die" off. Of course, I’m now spending a lot of my time working on getting a new job. I’ve received several nibbles and have some talks lined up.

Don’t really reach that many other blogs (or rather peruse using an RSS aggregator), so that may be another reason why I’m not posting as much. Perhaps I need to slim my "daily reads" back far enough that I can really read them daily.

Need to get back to a program I’m finishing up, but I’m listening to "Mercy Now" by Mary Gauthier. Highly recommended if y0u like bluesy country.

The Hug-less Father

Allen — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 05:24:23 +0000

Scene: A father enters the room where his two loving daughters are lounging in chairs. He proudly announces that he has signed up the family for a cellular phone plan. This results in (drum roll) free family talk time. Luckily the mother saves the day by announcing that the girls can talk to their friend (rather than their lame dad) with this plan. Group hug ensues — sans Dad. The commercial finishes with Dad plaintively asking, “Call me?”

Who, exactly, is this commerical aimed at? The father that is going to sign up the family with a phone plan? Oh, yeah. I want to swing my business to a company that rubs my nose in the fact that my young princesses no longer think I’m cool and no longer wants to talk to me.

Funny? Perhaps. Effective? I doubt it.