The advantages are obvious, since we wouldn't have to carry a card. The security for stolen smart phones is pretty good, depending on the PIN. The disadvantages (depending on your point of view, of course) can be many. When the debit/credit number is offered via the smart phone, certainly the phone number (and therefore the location) will go to the seller as well. This affords the opportunity to keep track of the type of purchases and in what stores you shop. Short term ads will begin to appear on your phone. Even more annoying, is that the store you purchase in will be trying to draw you to other departments by offering ads on items that will expire in very short periods of time ("Come to lingerie sales in the next five minutes to get 35% off on your purchase over $50....").
Stores, such as Kohl's, already have dynamic price tags that can be changed at their whim via a WiFi network within the store. Sales will be hourly, instead of by the day or week.
Also, there is a form of broadcast communication that can be used,(as is currently by Walmart and a few other retailers) which doesn't require your cell phone number and can hit all the phones in a small proximity to send them "come along ads".
On top of that, the purchase history will be used long term to send you "directed" ads.
I hope we will be given the means to opt-out of this pandemonium and bombardment of ads...
Aren't we all wondering what to expect from Apple in the way of innovation since their driving force (Jobs) is gone? Will the public continue to blindly buy Apple products if they are just so-so me-toos? I believe that Apple will spend some of its huge fortune "buying" innovation (i.e. other companies) to continue its trend. It would be very hard to believe, however, that they won't turn into the IBM or HP of the future. If the Asian labor costs grow beyond acceptable portions of manufacturing costs and cause the retail prices to be too high, what will Apple do? The best that we can hope for is that they bring manufacturing back to American soil, even if it is totally automated. The worst, it that they discover another untapped, cheap labor force someplace else in the world.
Difference between lateral and logical thinking:
Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender.
The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer's beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain.
He said he would forgo the farmer's debt if he could marry his daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag.
Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag.
1) If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father's debt would be forgiven.
2) If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven.
3) But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.
They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer's field. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.
Now, imagine that you were standing in the field.
What would you have done if you were the girl?
If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?
Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:
1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the money-lender as a cheat.
3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.
Take a moment to ponder over the story. The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking. The girl's dilemma cannot be solved with traditional logical thinking. Think of the consequences if she chooses the above logical answers.
What would you recommend to the Girl to do?
...
Well, here is what she did ....
The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.
"Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked."
Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.
Just Like a Dog
Two old guys were sitting on a park bench one morning playing checkers when a dog came by and laid down next to them and started to lick himself.
The one old man said to the other. “I wish I could do that!”
The other old man replied. “I don’t think you want to do that. That dog might bite you!”
If there is H2O on the inside of a fire hydrant,
what is on the outside?
K9P
