Picoftheweek

Picoftheweek
Waaaaaaaay too many to count...

My Statement

"Let me emphatically say that I am not anti-Facebook (Fleecebook), anti-smart phone, anti-Microsoft, anti-Apple, anti-Google or anti-Internet. I do believe, though, that the consumer is being ripped off of his privacy, identity and purchase history. We are being herded into a Facebook corner where what we "Like" and where we go physically and on the net will be scrutinized and sold numerous times to actually corrode and erode our culture while tempting us only with convenience, high tech and flashing video screens. The unsuspecting consumers need to be aware..." - Gary Lapman

Quote of Note

“If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”-W.C. Fields

"For the strength of the Wolf is in the Pack, and the strength of the Pack is in the Wolf." - Rudyard Kipling

"Common sense is not so common. " -Voltaire

“Fame is vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wing, but only character endures.” - Matthew McConaughey

"In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him"

"Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason" - Jerry Seinfeld

"Fleecebook is free, you (and your identity) is the product!" - Gary Lapman


"Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves." - Eric Sevareid

"'Smart' phones are only smart for the cell phone providers!" - Gary Lapman

"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." -- Charles Babbage (1791-1871)

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.” -Albert Einstein

"Technology creates the illusion of companionship without the intimacy of friendship." - unknown

"No worry, there's an app for that..." - Gary Lapman

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Less Competition Does Not Promote Better Service

One more tidbit about AT&T-Mobile: NOBODY believes that less competition will produce better service at better prices.  Just how stupid does AT&T think we really are [don't answer that].  I would REALLY like to have a smart phone.  Other than the fact that there are too many choices out there; the data charges are ASTRONOMICAL [especially since I am already getting raped by the cable company for internet access at home].  Why can't AT&T improve their service and prices without eliminating the competition?  The answer is pretty clear; they don't want to AND don't need to.  They have the major smart phones [especially the iPhone] covered.  If anyone wants the most performance out of their smart phone, they'd have to go to AT&T AND put up with AT&T. Even the President can't ignore what this purchase would ALLOW and IMPLY.  I am totally against allowing the purchase to occur.  I have managed to circumvent SOME of the crappy service by contracting and buying our phones through Best Buy.  The first mark of good service that you'll discover there is that Best Buy makes your rebates instantaneous!  You don't have ANY "fill-in forms/mail-in/wait for six to twenty weeks while AT&T has my money" rebates to deal with.  Next, they have a better selection of phones.  The AT&T stores appear almost bare in comparison.  The salespeople are rude, condescending and slow.  You won't see any of that at Best Buy.  So if you are going to buy a smart phone, I suggest you go to Best Buy.  Next, unless you have a tremendous need for data on 3G/4G, I suggest to buy a phone with WI-FI capabilities and only a minimum data plan.  There are so many WI-FI hotspots that are essentially free, that it really doesn't pay.  For example, my daughter's college campus is all WI-FI and so is our house.  That covers more than 90% of our usage, and the WIFI use doesn't get charged to your data service at all.
Once and for all:  SILICON is sand.  They make electronics out of it. SILICONE is what they fill breast implant with.  THEY ARE NOT THE SAME.  Sorry, there are certainly a lot of ignorant newspaper writers and radio announcers.
Sooo we knew this day would come.  The Big Three are unable to build their AMERICAN cars because of JAPANESE parts that are in short supply.  We need desperately to wean ourselves of  dependence on foreign parts.  What if these were military vehicles or weapons?  We would be in DEEP DOO-DOO.  We ARE in DEEP DOO-DOO.  American companies have to find a better way to use AMERICAN parts and remain competitive.  I own two Japanese cars.  Why did we do that ?  Because they are built better and more reliably.  There were the best vehicles that I could buy "for the money" at the time.  I WANT that to CHANGE so I can be proud to BUY AMERICAN and support our own industries.  Why should I do that when they are mad of non-American parts?
Our time is valuable.  Just surfing the net, much valuable information is being drained from us and sold many times over (hence Facebook or Google being worth so much). Why in the world, then, are we forced to watch stupid commercials every time we want to see a video on a news site ?  I am sick and tired of watching them.  I'm ALMOST ready for pay news, just so that's ALL that I get....


Some new golf terms to use when you're out on the course..
A 'Rock Hudson' - a putt that looked straight, but wasn't.
A 'Saddam Hussein' - from one bunker into another.
A 'Yasser Arafat' - butt ugly and in the sand.
A 'John Kennedy Jr.' - didn't quite make it over the water.
A 'Rodney King' - over-clubbed.
An 'O.J.'- got away with one.
A 'Princess Grace' - should have used a driver.
A 'Princess Di' - shouldn't have used the driver.
A 'Condom' - safe, but didn't feel very good.
A 'Brazilian' - shaved the hole.
A 'Rush Limbaugh' - a little to the right.
A 'Nancy Pelosi' - Way to the left and out of bounds.
A 'James Joyce' - a putt that's impossible to read.
A 'Ted Kennedy' - goes in the water and jumps out.
A 'Pee Wee Herman' - too much wrist.
A 'Sonny Bono' - straight into the trees.
A 'Paris Hilton' - a very expensive hole.
A 'Tiger Woods' - wrong hole 





Over 50When I bought my Blackberry, I thought about the 30-year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a cell phone that plays music, takes videos, pictures and communicates with Facebook and Twitter. I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grandkids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.

That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it's red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife and everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. I had to take my hearing aid out to use it, and I got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside that gadget was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, "Re-cal-cu-lat-ing." You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then if I made a right turn instead. Well, it was not a good relationship.

When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me.

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven't figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused, but I never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or Plastic?" I just say, "Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual." Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look. I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, No, but I do toot a lot."

P.S. I know some of you are not over 50. I sent it to you to allow you to forward it to those who are.

Us senior citizens don't need any more gadgets. The TV remote and the garage door remote are about all we can handle.