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Corporate deeds, misdeeds and everything else.

The World of Advertisement

I went to the ATM today to deposit some checks. As soon as I approached the teller machine, I was like, “WTF! What is that huge 7-11 sticker doing on the floor?” It turns out that 7-11 has a marketing deal going with Citibank. Not only is the tiny area in front of the teller plastered with a 7-11 smoothie, the touch screen of the machine is also polluted with 7-11 ads and catch phrase. Just before I thought this experience couldn’t be worse, my printed receipt from the ATM was also littered with stuff from 7-11…

Introducing the ATMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
7-ELEVEN now has Citibank ATMs.
Go to Citibank.com to find the location nearest you.

O~kay… I guess that’s good to know.

Now I can’t even get my own my money in a peace and quiet manner. As if Citibank isn’t doing me enough favor by squeezing every possible dollar out of my bank account, they want to also make money by selling me ads….

It feels like ads are all over the place now. They are between half-time breaks of professional sports games (“This half time break brought to you by Budwiser” ), half-time scores announcements (“This half time score brought to you by “AT&T” ), shopping carts…. everywhere. And now they are even on the ATM machines and printed receipts. What next? Toll booths and gasoline receipts (well, they ARE all over the back of Safeway’s receipts)? Or, ahem, blogs?

This kind of stuff makes me appreciate Apple and Macs even more. Allow me explain why.

When I had to buy a Dell years ago (stupid 3D modeling), I had to sign up an account with them. It’s been almost 5 years, I am STILL getting emails from Dell about their special deals despite of my opting out (can I sign up somewhere to sue them?). When I got the computer, there were endorsed trial services and softwares all over the computer! AOL, Earthlink, this or that financial services, this or that trial software… The computer was literally littered with stuff I didn’t want and didn’t ask for. So the first thing I did was reformat the hard drive and install only stuff I wanted. But when I had to support 10-15 Dell computers, it was a nightmare.

Fast forward to the day I got my PowerBook from Apple. I powered up the computer; I made an account; it asked if I had an ISP, if not, whether I wanted to sign one up with Earthlink. DONE. No more ads, trial software, advertising garbage. Nothing.

It’s been almost four years since I got the PowerBook, I have yet to receive a single piece of junk mail from Apple. I will take a company that does not compromise the integrity of its customers’ information v.s. another that treats it as another dollar sign any day, even if it means I have to pay a slight premium over the former’s products and services (all this is beside the point that Apple simply makes superior products).

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Author shunPosted on 04/08/200604/08/2006Categories Apple, No Logo, Rant1 Comment on The World of Advertisement

Can the PC Industry Survive Apple’s Boot Camp?

Apple never seizes to amaze the high tech industry with its top secrecy of projects and strategies. While most of us hardcore Apple and Steve Jobs fan weren’t surprised, Apple sent another shock wave into the PC galaxy with its introduction of Boot Camp.

Apple's introduces Boot Camp

The Mac-friendly cluster of the media thinks this is an ingenius idea on Apple’s part to have a trojan horse in the PC world to give the Mac-shy PC buyers no more reason to buy another box from Dell, HP or the like. And by doing so, since Mac OSX is already pre-installed, there’s no reason NOT to try an use it. Hence the great victory of the trojan. The same media cluster also thinks that since Apple is still a hardware company at heart, this strategy will help drive Apple’s hardware sales off the roof (somebody lend me $3000 for some AAPL shares!).

And of course there are also some doomsday predications. Some people think this will spend the end of Mac OSX as we know it. Why would developers want to invest the resources in developing anything for Mac OSX when Windows can also run on Macintosh hardware? This would also erode Apple’s own software business!

I told Murdza that maybe this is the final duel — Steve Jobs is now openly challenging the world to come and see what Mac and Mac OSX are made of. They are confident in saying that, “Look, we think our sh*t is so good that we will even HELP YOU run our competitor’s software on our hardware. And you know what? You will swtich.”

I foresee a lot of dual boots in the coming months. But perhaps the true ingenious of this strategy is still not revealed to the public. Once Boot Camp becomes part of Apple’s next release of operating system (should be due out first quarter of 2007), many of us think that maybe Apple will make it so that Windows will run side by side with Mac OSX without any kind of rebooting, having Windows run at near-native speed, like Mac Classic did under OSX for a couple of years (Darwine comes to mind). Now, THAT would kick ass!

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Author shunPosted on 04/05/200604/05/2006Categories Apple, Geek Stuff, No Logo, Windows1 Comment on Can the PC Industry Survive Apple’s Boot Camp?

More Evils of Microsoft

An excerpt from Cringely on behalf of PBS:

There was a time when Paul Allen, not Bill Gates, was the boss at Microsoft. When it came time to visit Albuquerque to demonstrate that first BASIC interpreter to the folks at MITs, Allen made the trip, not Gates. It was Paul Allen, not Gates, who was later offered the job as head of software for MITs — a job I have in the past characterized as the single most expensive position in the history of employment because accepting that job meant that Allen got only 36 percent of Microsoft’s founders shares, compared to Bill Gates’ 64 percent.
.
.
But during one of those last long nights of working to finish-up DOS 2.0, something happened. I have heard this story from two people, each of whom was a friend of Allen’s and in a position to know. Each told me the same story the same way. I am not staking my reputation on the accuracy of the story, but I am saying I have it from two good sources. Paul Allen certainly won’t confirm or deny it, so I’ll just throw it out for you to consider.

During one of those last long nights working to deliver DOS 2.0 in early 1983, I am told that Paul Allen heard Gates and Ballmer discussing his health and talking about how to get his Microsoft shares back if Allen were to die.

Gulp….

This is far worse than the rumor of Steve Jobs pocketing money without Woz’s knowledge.

Are business geniuses inherently evil?

via [MacDailyNews]

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Author shunPosted on 04/03/200604/03/2006Categories Geek Stuff, No Logo, Rant, WindowsLeave a comment on More Evils of Microsoft

Microsoft is A Cry Baby

It’s hard to imagine why people keep using Microsoft products when the alternatives are obviously so much better (except for the poor souls who are locked in to the platform because their preferred software vendors, ahem, Autodesk, don’t know any better). Here’s another reason why Microsoft is really, truly, incredibly evil.

Worst yet, the U.S. government is playing into Microsoft’s hands for something that is clearly a punishment for Microsoft’s own antitrust behaviors. Double standards?

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Author shunPosted on 03/31/200604/02/2006Categories Geek Stuff, No Logo, Politics, Rant, WindowsLeave a comment on Microsoft is A Cry Baby

Collecting Pixar’s Stock Certificates

I cam across this article on the craze that’s going on with people flocking to collect Pixar’s stock certificates. It’s reported that once Pixar and Disney have completed their merger, Pixar will stop issuing their colorful and playful stock certificates (which then becomes a collector’s item immediately).

This article has more details on the whole charade.

Here’s an image of the “actual” stock certificate:
Pixar stock certificate
(Image courtesy of WHACO.com)

via [MacDailyNews]

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Author shunPosted on 03/20/200603/25/2006Categories Geek Stuff, No LogoLeave a comment on Collecting Pixar’s Stock Certificates

UPS — the Ultimate Cost Savings Machine

Murdza sent me a crazy interview with the CIO of UPS, Dave Barnes, about what UPS is doing to cut costs in optimizing its world wide shipping operations. If you are an efficiency-freak like Murdza, this is the video for you.

I think Murdza just found a new idol besides Steve “the God” Jobs.

Interview with UPS CIO, Dave Barnes

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Author shunPosted on 03/19/200603/19/2006Categories Geek Stuff, No LogoLeave a comment on UPS — the Ultimate Cost Savings Machine

A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy

Brian and I got into a pretty lengthy discussion about “limitations” certain governments placed on the idea of “Freedom of Speech” over Skype. This came about when some moron in Germany (or was it Austria?) got arrested for preaching that Holocaust never happened. Apparently it’s illegal to deny this very historical fact.

Brian thinks there shouldn’t be any limitations at all on freedom of speech. The government should have used abundance of true information to fight dis-information. While I agreed with most of his points, I thought maybe it’s a good idea of have some oversight to ensure certain “facts” will remain factual for futural generations (as opposed to having even a shred of doubt about the integrity of that “fact” ). Or else you end up with something like Japan to whom the Rape of Nanking never took place. And when enough people buy into the idea and gathers enough momentum, dis-information just might overtake the facts, and that very dis-information may become the “fact” that it just replaced.

In the context of social engineering and group dynamics, Clay Shirky thinks that certain amount of moderation is always a good idea in light of what programmers have learned from the early days of the Internet. He argues that when freedom of speech is truly “free”, online communities always fail and burn in chaos. There are certain kinds of behavioral traits in humans that will always surface. So in essence, there can probably never be true freedom of speech for as long as the humans are in charge of things. Without the rules of law, can civilized socieities stay civilized? Based on the findings of online forums Clay Shirky cited, the short answer is NO.

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Author shunPosted on 03/16/200603/17/2006Categories Geek Stuff, No Logo, Society + Environment3 Comments on A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy

Fake Gmail Service

I casually typed in just “gmail” into my url box the other day. But instead of the real Gmail, I got this:

Fake 'Made in China' Gmail

It’s a fake “Made in China” Gmail imposter. (gmail.cn)

I gotta tell you, the damn Communist Chinese are relentless in their pursuit of pirating, no matter what form, format or media. Interested in what this lame offer has in store, I signed up for a fake account:

And this is what I got:

Fake Chinese Gmail account

I hate myself for even bothering to “try”….

Losers.

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Author shunPosted on 03/10/200603/10/2006Categories No Logo, Rant2 Comments on Fake Gmail Service

Why Privatizing Public Services Is A Bad Idea

I know I said I didn’t want to get into why nationalized healthcare is a better idea, but I just think privatizing healthcare and education are just stupid ideas. Corporations exist for only one true purpose — to maximize shareholders values. Any first year business school student can tell you that in his sleep. And why is the Republican party so adamant in placing the two most important public facilities in the hands of private entities whose highest priority is to bring their shareholders most money possible? Sure, some companies do have a good conscience and are responsible to the greater good of the society, but guess what, those decisions are made only after sharesholder’s values are secured, never the other way around (because I think that could be borderline illegal and is against the very purpose of a corporation’s existance. Look it up. I guarantee you that if a company’s CEO purposely chooses to do good for the society but in the process lose a lot of money when he knows the other way around can make the company great profit, he will go to jail).

Many people insist that private schools consistently perform better than public schools. Yeah, NO SHIT. That’s because private schools get to choose who they want to accept into their exclusive club. Public schools have no choice because the law mandates they accept and educate anyone and everyone who wants to learn (even ones who don’t even want to be there). So you see how unfair the scores can look for the public schools in most cases. On the flip side, there are plenty of excellent public schools all over the United States that do far better than any of the private schools you can find. How does one explain that? And how does one explain all those public schools elsewhere in the world that crank out great students who can do just as well as students from private schools? In countries like Taiwan and Japan, private schools are for losers for can’t make it in the public schools (outcasts, drop outs, trouble makers). What does that say?

Placing children’s education in the hands of profit generating machines en mass can be a pretty bad idea. Let’s just for a moment imagine if all schools in the United States are privatized. What does each pupil look to the schools? Think about it…. Dollar signs. The United States has one of the highest per-pupil expenditures in the world. Private companies schools will only be too interested in getting that child for the Federal and State money s/he is attached to, not necessarily the well-being of the child. I am sure sophisticated laws, checks-n-balances, and all sorts of things can be implemented to make sure the child is doing well, but how does that differ from a well-run public school/school district where all those checks-n-balances are already in place mandated by the law? And what about the working conditions of the teachers and staff in private schools? From what I have researched, some are worse off than the public school teachers. Remember, those teachers are employees of corporations. And corporations want to maximize each employee’s time and resources to maximize the value for… you guessed it, the investors and shareholders.

I can go on forever on the topic of education, thanks to my previous job in the education sector. But I digress.

A similar arguement goes to the public healthcare system and the welfare system. Why is it that someone has to pay so much money each month into the private healthcare industry when that money could just as well go into a public healthcare fund and have a national healthcare system, much like Taiwan, Malaysia and almost all other industrialized countries? The latest Medicare fiasco under the Bush Administration is proof that privatized public healthcare just plain sucks. Who’s going to be looking out for the well beings of the senior citizens? They are often expensive to take care of when they get sick. And if we learned anything about the private companies, that is… you got it, they want to maximize value for their investors, not the senior citizens. So they’ll do as much as they can to cut corners, deny benefits and give them the run arounds to minimize expenditure (hence increasing company value).

Sure, sometimes government can be inefficient. And often social programs are huge budget holes. But some programs are worth losing that money for… Or, a better term should be, “worth the investment for.” When citizens can’t count on their most basic needs being met (the right to be educated and the right to receive quality low cost healthcare), how can the government count on them to be productive? In the case of the United States, if its government can stop spending those billions in Iraq, Afghanistan and all those efforts trying to bully other countries into their submission, maybe a lot more scholarships can be properly funded? Maybe a lot more schools woulnd’t be failing? Maybe senior citizens won’t have to decide between food and medicine? Maybe it ought to take care of its own citizens before it is out there telling others how to run their own damn government? And just maybe the United States will be respected again?

Dreams can be so cruel.

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Author shunPosted on 03/09/200603/09/2006Categories No Logo, Politics, Rant, Society + Environment, Taiwan3 Comments on Why Privatizing Public Services Is A Bad Idea

Health Insurance Frauds

On my last trip back to Savannah, Billy and I met up with another friend and her family for dinner. They are the only Republicans I know who are actually for a nationalized American healthcare system. But I won’t even try to go into that debate in this entry… While she and her husband were questioning the logic of why it couldn’t be done in the United States when all other industrialized (or not so industrialized) countries have implemented it so successfully, they brought up the issue of health insurance frauds — not by consumers, but by the doctors!

So here’s the story as she explained it…

My friend’s insurance covers chiropractics for her back pain. So both her and her husband went to see a really good chiropractor in Savannah. But soon they figured out the guy was making appointments with them for unnecessary visits (it got pretty suspicious when the chiropractor called on Christmas eve to make an appointment for the next day). So it turned out that the chiropractor was trying to max out both of their insurance accounts allowable for each patient in that specific care coverage. He got so greedy that he even asked for their daughter’s insurance information!!

This is how the private insurance industry works in the United States as I understand it: For each covered plan, each person has a maximum allowable coverage for each type of care. For example, a particular plan may cover you for ER visits for up to $20,000 each year, after which amount you are liable to pay for the costs incurred yourself. Now just imagine a dollar value assigned to everything you’d ever need to visit a doctor for — flu shots, hospital overnight stays, surgeries, X-rays, MRI scans, medicine… etc. In other words, for an unethical doctor, he only sees each patient as a dollar sign walking in the front door of his clinic.

While the majority of doctors are probably good people, insurance frauds like what my friend’s family experienced happens often enough that now there’s a high premium offered by most health insurance companies. And now I understand those premiums are not necessarily incurred by unjust lawsuits from patients, high medical bills or even patient frauds. But most likely, it’s due to fradulent practices of unethical doctors. Just imagine how much money an insurance company could lose if one unethical doctor goes unnoticed/unpunished for 10 years with a solid patient base?

Health insurance fraud probably hapens quite frequently because in my friend’s case, they have gone through two chiropractors with exactly the same issue. And just recently, we also experienced the same thing ourselves when Grace visited our dentist.

As soon as the dentist found no cavities in Grace’s teeth, she had to come up with something to max out Grace’s insurance account. So she chose the most expensive procedure allowed under our plan, which was a deep cleaning. Granted a deep cleaning has long been overdue for Grace, but the amount to which the dentist charged the insurance company was suspicious enough to warrant a call from Grace to the insurance company. And Grace found out that the dentist was WAY overcharging Grace as well as the insurance company on the procedure (over $1500 total, $500 out of which is not covered by the insurance!). For $1500, a patient can have 4 deep cleanings done at other dental offices (as Grace confirmed by having called several dental offices to varify the prices).

It’s pretty disgusting to get the feeling that your doctor doesn’t see you as a patient but more like a walking dollar sign. If insurance companies have to keep charging customers for higher premiums to cover their losses to the doctors, ultimately United States will have one of the least insured population eligible for healthcare. And that’d be a pretty sick population.

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Author shunPosted on 03/09/200603/09/2006Categories Day to day life, No Logo, Politics, RantLeave a comment on Health Insurance Frauds

What if Microsoft Redesigned Apple iPod Packaging?

via [MacDailyNews]

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Author shunPosted on 02/27/200602/27/2006Categories Apple, Geek Stuff, No Logo, WindowsLeave a comment on What if Microsoft Redesigned Apple iPod Packaging?

More Shots and Weekend Shopping

Bryan got four more immunity shots last week. He was supposed to get all cranky with fever and all that good stuff that comes with having side affects from those shots… but nada… He slept through the night without any problems…

As he gets older, he seems to understand more about the idea of “getting shots”. Grace said he cried a hell lot more this time around. But the trieds were quickly replaced with laughters from mommy’s warm comfort.

We went to Baby’s-R-Us yesterday. Bad idea. There were so many damn people that it made me want to smack every insensitive idiot in the aisles for wanting plow his/her oversized shopping cart through all the baby-carrying parents. Idiots. I think shopping over the weekend anywhere is just a bad idea in general, especially in the malls. Just being in the vicinity of a mall makes me nervous because of all the traffic. I like people watching and everything (because people do amusing things), but the hassle of having to look for a parking spot among 50,000 shoppers is not particularly a fun experience.

Why are Americans so obssessed with battery-powered “things”? While looking for a plastic bib for Bryan, we saw this mixer for blending formula evenly with water… Um, so… what’s wrong with moving the wrists a little? What do they even want to consider buying a power mixer for baby formula!?! Mixer/blender for juice, yes. For baby formula, why? And then of course, just about every other item sold at Baby’s-R-Us requires some form of battery or electrical outlet.

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Author shunPosted on 02/12/200602/12/2006Categories Baby stuff, No Logo, Society + EnvironmentLeave a comment on More Shots and Weekend Shopping

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