Wow, may I have been right?

In my post a week ago I posited that there were indications we may be putting the worst behind us. Since then several positive signs have emerged. While I certainly have no crystal ball I remain convinced the world is not coming to an end and as always Americans, in particular, are adapting very quickly to the new financial reality. All that is needed now is for the government to finish articulating the "toxic asset" plan and then leave things alone for awhile. The ongoing threat of additional government intervention in additional aspects of business and life needs to be put on hold. People need to feel some stability and confidence in what the rules will be for at least the next year. 

Crazy "Customer Service" Letter

Just got a letter from my wireless provider, AT&T. It informs me of their efforts to "better serve you". I can summarize the lette :

1. I will have to change the address where the automatic bill payment is sent
2. My monthly service discount will no longer apply to the additional lines on my account
3. Various features and services will not longer be available (but of course in fine fashion it provides no clue as to what those may be)

Please explain to me how any of this better serves me...

Way out on a Limb

I'm going way out on a limb to say I am seeing some encouraging signs. Not items that are good news in the absolute sense but rather signs that the degree of necessary pain to put the worst behind us are starting to show up. Companies are finally cutting or eliminating dividends is one minor example. I mean, how insane is it to for a company that is facing huge funding and cash flow issues to keep paying a dividend? There is no shareholder value in going bankrupt...

Newly unemployed numbers are still huge but aren't accelerating. There is bound to be at least one more quarter of substantial layoffs. Heck, for all I know I'll be one of them. But with such poor government action there is no way to avoid this round of layoffs and the sooner they're done the sooner the bottom will have been reached. 

The massive numbers of people facing foreclosure and other loan problems is going to be a big boon to the financial service companies that are some of the ones facing the most dire situation. 

And it seems even GM is acknowledging that bankruptcy could be a viable option - something everyone except union-backed politicians has known all along. GM has long been a government subsidized company and can't compete without a bankruptcy to clean up unreasonable financial obligations. 

I'm not happy about all the pain. I'm feeling some now and it will be a miracle if I don't feel a lot more soon. But like a root canal the only option to get to a better days is to push through it.

Newest source of my disdain: People claiming things are as bad as the Great Depression. Get a friggin clue. Better yet, read some history books and pray for forgiveness. 

Death of a Newspaper

Over at CNet Matt Asay has a post about the future of newspapers.

This has been on my mind lately as the local rag, The Dallas Morning News, has been cutting cutting cutting content. I'm not much of a "write the editor" guy but a cut they made at the first of this year prompted my first ever missive. SportsDay used to include a listing of second and third tier area sports events. Things like college sports (basketball, soccer, tennis, baseball...) and minor league games primarily. Their response to my complaint was they needed to save space due to "these tough times". I replied asking why they didn't at least put it on the web site if space was the reason. Of course they never answered me. Their site pretty well sucks and its clear they aren't really trying to monetize its content.

I just don't see how eliminating local and timely information is a strategy to help justify my subscription cost. The only things I still find useful/interesting are:

• Coupons - helps offset the subscription cost but if I don't subscribe I probably have a net savings
• Weekend Guide that is published on Fridays (but omits all sports events?!?!?!)
• Ads with local CD and money market rates (a temporary interest, no pun intended)

If the Observer would add more of the family oriented events typical of the Weekend Guide I'd definitely drop my subscription. As it is I am still pretty close to canceling as I'm sure the usefulness of the DMN is in a fatal decline.

Views on Flickr

No, not some treatise on Flickr but literally some comments on view counts on my photos...

This shot of Vancouver from Stanley Park is my most popular photo, even though taken a long time ago. It has nearly 2,000 views. Most of the traffics is driven by image searches on the word Vancouver. No surprise, eh?


Next up is a photo I titled Long Goodbye leads to the Doorway to Heaven. This photo's popularity is quite surprising to me as I took it using my iPhone, which isn't the best quality camera for sure, and the subject isn't exactly a happy one. Frankly I am not sure why it is so popular and Flickr is unable to really track back visits to its page. This is one of my photos I'm sure is being used without my being notified.


The number three photo is another that has a surprisingly large view count. In this case I know it's due to usage on this web site (scroll down a few times to see it). I took this photo on a whim and just posted it for fun. Never thought it would be seen by so many folks.


Not much to say about number 4. It is a happy image from the holidays. But I did find it is being used on a couple of different web sites (one for cooking and one for BJ Club employees!).


And rounding out the top 5 is a second iPhone photo of a somewhat dramatic sky. Part of its popularity is the fact it has a UFO tag as well as having been featured on Flickr in a iPhone set. But the majority of the traffic can't be tracked so the main driver of views remains a mystery.


Flickr has been an eye opener for me as a photographer. It has been a great way to see how other people see my photographs - and their reactions are often a real surprise.

Nikon D90

When I bought my Nikon D40x last year I don't recall receiving many comments or questions. However since buying my Nikon D90 I've been getting quite a few so I thought I'd bore you with my opinions/experience. Email me with any questions, arguments or juicy rumors about your love life.

Unlike lenses, digital camera bodies follow the rapid depreciation curve of other electronics as technology makes rapid progress. If you can wait to upgrade your camera you will surely get a better one in the next generation - quite likely at a lower price. If you're debating better glass vs. a new camera body I'd go with the glass unless your current camera actually prevents you from accomplishing something important.

I have an engineering mind so I do a lot of spec and review comparisons for major purchases. Nikon has a very handy spec comparison for its current models. I used dpreview's evaluation of the Nikon D90 as my primary review. From these I came up with a longish list of advantages in the D90 vs. D40x. Here's my list along with my brief comment based on my usage. The first group, in green, are the ones that have proven of real value in practical shooting.

• Much improved CMOS sensor [shared with D300, great high ISO at this price]
  
• Built in dust removal system [so far no visible dust on real or test images]
  
• Exposure and white balance bracketing
  
• Records HD video with audio [a bit tricky but can produce some cool video]
  
• 12 MP vs 10 MP [more is better...]
  
• 4.5 fps [didn't realize how much faster 4.5fps is compared to 3fps until I tried it...]
  
• Can autofocus lenses lacking built in focus motors [wider choice of used lenses]
  
• 3" high resolution LCD [provides great in camera review]
  
• More buttons and other methods to quickly changes settings [handier than I expected]
• More autofocus points (but still only 11) [don't see much improvement in practice]
  
• High speed flash sync
  
• Wireless commander for flash
  
• Custom Picture Controls (can save and export)
• Live View for composing via LCD
• Depth of Field preview button [haven't had much luck with this one]
  
• Active D-Lighting to help with shadow areas [don't use it]
  

From all this the tipping point in my decision to upgrade so soon was the video capability. It is well known the D90 will not replace a camcorder. Lack of autofocus while shooting is one of several major limitations. However I got tired of juggling cameras at kid events. My main love and vehicle of visual communication is photography. But there are definitely times as a parent I want to capture motion and audio. Last year this meant taking two bulky devices (D40x and camcorder) to concerts etc and trying to juggle between them. Cumbersome, makes you look a bit like an obsessed fool, and in the end results in missed shots/video. With the D90 it is possible to instantly switch between photography and videotaping plus you can take advantage of the variety of lenses available on a DSLR.

As a photographer there are definitely things to love about the D90 (over a D40/40x/60). Near the top of the list is the high ISO performance (i.e. ability to take good looking photos, low in noise, even in darker conditions). I created a set of simple shots over on Flickr to illustrate the camera's capability. The D40x was OK up to 800 and pretty marginal at 1600. The D90 looks very good at 1600 (as long as you're not planning poster prints) and up through 6400 is still definitely usable. This sort of performance really opens up the world of indoor natural light photography. This is a great thing for me as I love using natural light for indoor candids and portraits. When you couple the high ISO performance with a fast prime lens (in my case the 50mm f/1.8D) you have a powerhouse on a budget. I think this is a feature even casual users can take advantage of (though they may not know they want it...).

Hope the above info and insight into my twisted decision process is of help to someone. Now back to having fun!

Flickr and Getty

I'm obviously a Flickr addict and love photography. I'm also a business man and of all the web-based services I use regularly Flickr is the one that has always mystified me. They started with a great idea and then - they did NOTHING. Last year they added video in a completely lame attempt to do what???? compete with YouTube? I think it was a waste of money and hasn't gained traction. All the while the low hanging fruit was left to ripen. Maybe now it is on to the rotting stage.

But Corazon Girl twittered today about possible moves Flickr is making to connect at least certain users with Getty Images. Flickr has attracted a large community of very talented photographers yet provides no marketplace for their work. Worse yet Flickr, in spite of their terms of usage and ability to have user's mark their work as copyright etc., virtually facilitates, via their API, the inappropriate and illegal use of photos. As you know it is hard to do a search for a photo someone may have downloaded and stolen for inappropriate use. Yet nearly anyone who posts much on Flickr encounters it on a regular basis. Obviously it is a rampant problem and has been a great source of tension between serious amateurs and professionals and Flickr.

Although I'd be delighted to be paid for photography it's not a focus for me so this isn't a critical issue at the personal level. But I'd love to see Flickr do something to put some teeth behind Copyright and Creative Commons while at the same time making it easy for people to make legitimate use of the great photos on Flickr.

Maybe now that a business person is taking over Yahoo more attention will be paid to monetizing, in a win-win way, properties like Flickr.

The Cockroaches are coming out...

Check out this incredible confession Clusterstock regarding corporate fraud...

I can say from experience the type of thinking that led to this large fraud is, sadly, not uncommon. A great example of how a small sin can lead to enormous consequences.

A Tale of Online Banking

I have been banking online for quite awhile and it has overall been a convenient and trouble-free experience. However a few weeks ago I ran into a problem that got under my skin and it seems worth documenting the experience for others.

I will refer to this particular international banking firm as Slime in this blog. So, over the course of the year I set up a Money Market account and bought a couple of CD's from Slime. These experiences went well enough. They weren't quite as convenient in their online processes as some others but they were paying slightly better interest rates and I didn't mind the extra steps that much. Then one fine day I said to myself - Self, now would be a good time to ladder in one more CD. So I took Self over to their website and checked the rate. Sure enough they were offering a nice 4% for a 6 month CD so I slogged through their process which treats each CD purchase as if they had never heard of me before. 

Fast forward about 10 days and the new CD has been set up and funded electronically from another account. Self logs in and checks the status only to find that the interest rate has been set to only 3.1%! Of course by this time when I check their website the lower rate is the new advertised rate.

Being quite sure I am not yet senile and had properly checked the rate I contacted Slime, electronically of course, and to my shock Slime confirmed indeed I wasn't senile. However they informed me the rate they pay on a CD isn't locked at the time you file the paperwork to open the account. It is instead set when they fund the account and since the rate dropped after I opened the account I was only entitled to the lower rate. This was quite a trap but in reading their fine print it was within the stated terms and conditions. Essentially Slime had written in a clause allowing them to slime their own, in this case loyal, customers. 

I let it go for a day or two but it really was getting under my skin. So I fired off another email saying I found their policy highly unacceptable and bordering on false advertising. They simply responded once again that they were "within their rights" and "helpfully" letting me know I could withdraw my money from the CD if I was willing to pay an early withdrawal penalty. Now I was really peeved! Their "explanation" only served to irk me even more.

So I said to myself - Self, you gotta do something about this. Slime is taking advantage of people and they should be stopped. So I said to myself - Self, visit thy oracle for advice. By which I mean I did a quick Google search and found out which regulatory agency was responsible for overseeing Slime. Turns out it was a federal agency called OCC - no, not Orange County Choppers. I mean Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. I found a handy dandy complaint form, filled it out, and faxed it in. By which I mean I emailed it to Maxemail which turns electronic documents and email into faxes for next to nothing. Being a fair minded guy I let Slime know I was going to file a complaint in advance. Would it shock you to hear - er, read - they didn't respond to that message?

After not very many settings of the sun I get a letter from Slime. They apologized for the miscommunication and restored the rate on my CD to 4%. Now not for a minute was there any miscommunication involved. They're just trying to keep me from pushing my complaint with the OCC further. I feel that in light of the shenanigans perpetrated this year by financial institutions penalties and increased regulation are quite likely. Screwing over your customers isn't going to win you any points with the politicians and regulators.

I'm not sure yet if I will yank all of my money out of Slime as the CDs mature. Frankly money talks and if they offer superior rates I will likely still use them. They did "do the right thing" - with a gun pointed at their heads. However if their rates are only competitive I will take my money away.

And, oh yeah, the OCC promised to contact me after hearing from Slime. I'll tell them I'm satisfied with Slime's apologetic action but ask how I can lobby to ensure such actions become illegal. Any time I get tripped up by something like this I imagine how many times institutions get away with things - because people don't pay attention, because they are elderly or otherwise infirmed or impaired, or just too unsophisticated to know how to fight the system. 

It's a rough world and we need to look out for each other.

PCalc - a free version available now

Awhile back I wrote about a great iPhone utility called PCalc. I wanted to let everyone know that JT has put up a Lite aka free version of PCalc. Don't let the fact there is now a free version fool you. It also packs a ton of functionality and is the best iPhone calc app out there. And don't let the "RPN" in the title of the full version scare you either. PCalc works great as both a traditional and RPN calculator. If you don't know what RPN is you'll be just fine. Check it out!

Retailers and the 2008 Holiday Season

I see and read non-stop about how retailers are worried about the holiday shopping season and about how aggressive they're being in discounting items. Having hit the stores and completed my shopping in the past couple of days I can only say I sure didn't see discounting of much of anything anyone actually wants.

For example, Toy's R Us advertises some heavy discounts but not on anything any of the many kids or adults on my shopping list want (and believe me everyone, young and old, wanted toys). I'll at least give them credit for having staffed reasonably well. I went to a department store to look for a gift and after walking in circles for awhile never found anyone to locate the item for me. Hiked down to another store and was able to find it. A few weeks ago I had seen some shirts I liked for myself but the price was high. Self - I said - when you do the Christmas shopping you can pick those up at a much better price. Well, so far the shirts are only discounted 25%. For a normal year that would be OK but that sure doesn't represent "big discounting". And it was obvious from the tall stack of the shirts, in every size, they are not moving. If they had been discounted heavily I probably would have bought one or two. As it is I walked out spending $0.

I bought a second HD TV a couple months ago. Checking the ads, the price I got back then, with a discount, is less than what you can buy the set for now. And overall this seems to be the case. Other than Black Friday weekend TVs don't seem to have been discounted much at all.

On the other hand you sure can get big discounts on toys no one wants, ugly socks, hideous neckties, and other unwanted gifts. Basically the stores are just trying to move the junk you shouldn't buy as a gift...

Sorry excuse for parenting...

I never, ever would have imagined Chuck E Cheese was a hot bed for assaults against persons... Apparently on a nationwide basis - read the story here.

All they needed to know they learned - or not - in kindergarten.

I don't think the CEC around us serve alcohol. And I don't think they should.

Storming Pogue aka Blackberry Cult

My previous post was on the Blackberry Storm which has been marketing as oh so much cooler and better than an iPhone. As a BB user it was pretty obviously desperation marketing and I saw today that Pogue wrote a negative review in the NY Times. (This is the link but you can't get to it unless you sign up for free access).

Turns out on his blog today Pogue writes that a lot of folks commented in firm agreement with my (er his) conclusion. Not surprising since I'm always right. The amusing part is he has discovered there is a virulent strain of fanboy much stronger than the Apple variety - the Blackberry adherents. Apparently this new strain has never even used the Storm but is quite certain his review was fundamentally (and fundamentalistly?) wrong. Poor David...

N.B. oh, and the iPhone share tripled last quarter (via TUAW).

Storming the iPhone

RIM is introducing the Blackberry Storm to (finally) counter Apple's iPhone line. Years ago I thought BB's were da bomb. Problem is even the Storm is still a yesterday model.

E.g. they are hyping that it can play mp3s. Big whoop. That is ancient functionality at this point. Part of the greatness of the iPhone is the ability to do so many things effectively. iTunes brings with it movies, videos, video podcasts, etc. I can sync family photo albums - no more dealing with crappy wallet photos. And all this is so easy and for syncing is completely automatic.

Bored in line or some other twiddle-thumbs situation? Play a game. Don't have one you want to play? Fine, download one. 

The RIM browser totally sucks...

For those completely committed to RIM, or stuck with it because of corporate rules, Storm is a minor step forward. For the rest: skip this one.

A huge advance for Civilization...

In a huge advance for civilization and peace and understanding for the world, Monty Python now has a legit channel on YouTube that includes high quality images. They are still getting started adding content but I just saw one of my all  time faves, Black Knight, is already there. Killer Rabbit is too. I'm laughing just thinking about it :-)

Go forth and waste time laughing. Oh, wait. Laughing isn't a waste of time at all!

Spam be Gone???

I've seen several reports lately, such as this one, about spam machines being cut off.This kind of news has been reported in the past and I never paid much attention to it since my spam has been ever increasing. 

This time I'm a believer. My various anti-spam tools had been showing a running accumulation of junk mail totaling around 1,000 items - stashed neatly in a single folder to smolder and then be sent to oblivion on a rolling basis after being in purgatory for 1 week. A few weeks ago the count suddenly dropped to under 500 and held there.

After this latest anti-spam effort my junk folder has - incredibly - fewer than 100 items. I can't remember when I've seen such little junk mail. I never pay much attention to the junk mail folder but the crap does slow things down and occasionally causes false "new mail" notifications and other minor annoyances. Plus I'm a neat freak and just hate junk. I'm quite happy by this turn of events! Wonder how long it will last?

Ford & GM - Pathetic Leadership

Well for the second time this year Ford and GM have their hands out for billions of dollars of taxpayer money to help them do what they've fought and ignored for what seems my entire lifetime. Getting 25 billion dollars earlier this year isn't enough. Now they want another 25 billion. 

These companies have consistently and obstinately refused to produce fuel efficient cars - something that would have benefited their employees and shareholders as well as the climate. Laws were passed many years ago to "encourage" them to move in this direction but instead they chose the crack cocaine (producing large SUVs not classified for passenger use to bypass the laws). Now they are paying the price (for the second time in my life) for their totally shortsighted decisions and inefficiency. 

While I doubt that a standard Chapter 11 filing by these automakers would be the right thing I certainly think just handing over more money is absolutely the wrong thing to do. There must be real accountability and real pain for the stakeholders and, unfortunately, pain for the employees is unavoidable if this vicious near nationalization of the US automakers is to ever end. Problem is I have trouble seeing Democrats making this kind of tough decision since their re-elections are tied strongly to unionization. 

Parents !!!

Saturday we had our yearly Halloween aka "Fall Festival" neighborhood party. You know the drill - pony rides, chili cookoffs, costume contests, etc. All geared toward a fun ol' time for the kiddies. Yet there always seems to be at least one parent who doesn't get it that the whole thing is supposed to be fun.

To set the stage: one of the activities was a small bounce house. A rotating group of neighborhood volunteers was monitoring the bounce house - 8 kids at a time, 5 minutes per rotation. Now this bounce house was pretty closed-in. Not a lot of visibility from the outside.

So, I'm standing in line with the Princess for awhile (maybe I should call her Tinker Bell 'cause that's her costume this year...). We make our way to the front of the line and are patiently waiting our turn when a woman comes storming up with her daughter in tow. I would guess her daughter was in the 8-10 year old range. The mom starts going off on the volunteer about how her daughter had been hit in the mouth by some kid in the bounce house. Now I had been in line for quite awhile and that mom had been no where around. I saw no damage to the daughter, just a pouty face. Yet this woman started getting more-and-more aggressive toward the volunteer like it was her fault or as if something really horrible had happened. The volunteer patiently kept explaining she couldn't watch the kids all the time, was just a volunteer, and generally handling it more calmly than I would have. Finally the woman yelled she was going to hunt down the kid who hit her daughter so she could "tell his parents what she thinks about it." Apparently thoughts like "why weren't you watching your daughter" never crossed her own mind. For sure this lady's daughter will grow up having a hard time dealing with life on her own.

Oh, I saw the pair about 30 minutes later. The mother was still fuming. Yeah, they had a great time at the festival.

And folks wonder why no one likes to volunteer...

Reminds Me of the Internet Bubble

Microsoft has gotten so desperate to catch up in the (now misnamed) search business that it will pay you to use Live.com's search. Saw this originally at David Pogue's blog.

Following on the heels of the horrible Seinfeld ad campaign and Ballmer's denials in the "Vista ready" lawsuit I really wonder how such a rudderless ship manages to prosper. Ah, the miracles of a monopoly...

Oh Wyndham, How I Hate Ye!

Thanks to an ace corporate planner I am staying in a Wyndham hotel for a couple of days of meetings. This means the room is in the hotel as well as the meeting space and the meals are from the hotels crack kitchen staff. Some people would call this "jail". We call it meeting hell.

This is my third Wyndham stay and all have been bad hotels. This one is no exception. Three immediate problems:

• No kleenex in the room? You have got to be kidding me. This is a new low for inhospitable treatment. I see no signs of a place to hold kleenex - it isn't like the room ran out and they just forgot to put some in the room.
• The air conditioner is only slightly quieter than the back seat on the MD-80 I flew in on...
• And the crowning achievement? While I was unpacking I heard a noise that made me think someone was at the door. I walked over to check, found no one, and as I turned to finish unpacking saw some black crap coming up through the bathroom sink. I called the front desk more than two hours ago and they said someone would be right up. Hah!

So like I said, oh Wyndham how I hate ye!