When a Dollar Isn’t Worth a Dollar
A friend was in town the other day on business and I went to meet him for lunch. We met at the convention center where he was working a booth for his company at the coin and currency tradeshow.
While wandering around the floor waiting for him I got intrigued. Especially interesting was a display from the U.S. Mint showing off things like printing plates for $10,000 notes, and a million dollars in the form of 10 $100,000 notes. Even saw a couple million dollar notes which looked pretty cool but were fakes.
Besides every imaginable form of coin and currency, both foreign and domestic, including confederate, I observed traders of old stock certificates, bonds, baseball cards, vintage jewelry, antique movie posters and all sorts of things that had some history behind them. I also saw an intriguing old chronograph watch and some pocket watches like those used in the past by railroad conductors and engineers.
I was wondering if this was really just for collectors and hobbyists or if one could really make any money trading these old coins and currency. My friend assured me that the graders and dealers did, but that several people he knew had done quite well at it for themselves.
Caught up in the moment, I decided to try my hand. But since I knew absolutely nothing about what to look for, my friend pulled out some catalogs and showed me a couple simple things to start with. We narrowed it down pretty precisely to one dollar bill silver certificates produced during two particular years.
So I set out and found some which according to the books were worth more than the dealer was asking. But since I like a margin of safety in everything, we haggled and I got them at an even better price.
I felt pretty pleased with myself because I had come away with 6 one dollar bills supposedly worth somewhere between $34 and $42. However my buyers remorse later told me I’d spent $15 to buy $6. Plus if I factored in the $16 cost of parking and admission I was really only looking at a scanty profit and probably a loss if I had to go to another show to sell them to another dealer.
In hindsight I probably should’ve thought more about it. But hey, I can always hold them for another 50 years till they rise in value. Even better, I’ll leave them for my heirs to deal with.
The Incredibly Frustrating Facebook
For all its popularity Facebook remains one of the most unreliable collections of software ever released, but what I can’t figure out is why people put up with its shortcomings. Maybe the real answer is that they don’t – maybe Facebook stats don’t reflect all those who finally got fed up and stopped using the service.
Even worse are their games. I have to admit the concept is ingenious – provide free games that rely on building networks of friends to keep people on the Facebook site. But talk about not ready for prime-time, the games even though deemed beta are generally not even a decent alpha release.
These games are admittedly enticing – at least to start. In fact it was only because a friend needed more neighbors in the Farmville game that I got on Facebook. Once there I tried some other games like Caribbean Pirates, Yo-Ville, and some kind of medieval kingdom building thing, but they are mostly the same. Ended up spending time mostly on Farmville and Pirates.
While its easy to get somewhat hooked on playing, it was the never-ending performance problems that made me quit. It’s hard to tell if these issues are the result poor software design & coding, or inadequate bandwidth and throughput capability on Facebook servers. Maybe both.
The worst symptoms would be the abysmally slow response and session lockups, often requiring a cold re-boot to clear the latter. Typical would be dropped packets and lost sessions, which caused things like gifts or collectables to disappear, or the game to freeze. And then there were the arbitrary re-directs where you end up somewhere totally unexpected, or back to start. Didn’t take long to where playing just wasn’t worth the aggravation.
One might question the complaints about something that’s free, but the thing is, it’s not free. It’s an investment of time that also exposes one to their ads, and even for direct purchases within the games themselves.
The bottom line is Facebook needs to work on improving the quality of their product which basically translates into better quality control and testing of their software before release and perhaps spending some bucks on decent server farms.
In fact bandwidth is only getting more saturated, so if they’re going to play in the cloud, they need to improve their platform. I’ve no idea what they’re using, but the new routers and switches offered by Cisco Systems are quite impressive.
At the end of the day, Facebook has created clever ways of pulling folks in, but if they don’t get a handle on providing an acceptable level of service I’d expect people to start leaving in droves. Of course I could be wrong, maybe folks are more tolerant than me, but with all the complaints I’m reading, that’s hard to believe.
Cisco Puts on the Speed with a 322 Terabit Router
Yes, terabits per second (tbps) - now that’s some serious speed! And with kudos to Cisco systems, it’s about time someone pushed the envelope some more. Fact is that our broadband world is looking more and more like its stuck in molasses.
Everything from Wi-Fi to iPhone seems to be getting slower these days due to the reams of data jamming up the lines. And having tasted what’s possible, there’s no way the worlds appetite will do anything but increase exponentially.
So here we have Cisco’s recently announced latest innovation, Carrier Routing System 3 (CRS-3), a router that could potentially transfer voice, video and data at up to 322 tbps.
John Chambers, Cisco president, in reference to Cisco’s strategy of helping large corporations use cloud computing services, said It brings the services of the cloud to life…and enables a new generation of collaboration built around video.
And according to Pankaj Patel, Cisco SVP and general manager of Cisco’s service provider group, the CRS-3 would allow every man, woman and child in China to make a video call at the same time.
In a conference call Cisco officials also said the CRS-3 is 12 times faster than the competition and while specific competitors were not mentioned, it’s known that Juniper Networks Inc.’s TX Matrix Plus has a max speed of 25 tbps.
The CRS-3 is also considerably faster than the CRS-1 introduced by Cisco six years ago which tops out at 92 tbps.
To the question, when can we get one, Cisco is currently conducting user trials with AT&T Corp. and plans to ship the CRS-3 sometime in the third quarter of 2010.
See more Cisco switching solutions including the new Catalyst Series here
Health Care Reform Bill Does Little to Fix Real Problems
First off, it’s not especially easy to figure out exactly what’s in the new healthcare reform bill. Choices are either trying to decipher the legal speak of the thousand plus page bill itself, or trying to find consensus on the summary points among all the biased reporting.
For the most part it seems to add a lot more poorly thought out regulations along with more taxes to pay for supposedly getting some care for poorer folks and eliminating pre-existing condition gotcha’s.
What it does not do is fix what’s really broken in the current system, which is fraud and absurdly overpriced services.
Speaking of fraud, I seriously doubt we’d need to raise taxes or come up with other ways to pay for improved healthcare if we would just fix the existing misuse and abuse problems in the current healthcare system.
I mean how hard can it be for Medicare to not accept claims from dead doctors? And yet they send out hundreds of millions of dollars to these scam artists. Or how about the guys that bought the defunct hospital for it’s Medicare license and then proceeded to bilk Medicare for four billion dollars in fraudulent claims? All they did was set up some computers and crank out claims.
Seems to me there is plenty of money to be saved and spent on useful services if Medicare could get its act together and stop flushing billions of dollars down the drain.
The other thing not addressed in this so-called Health Reform Bill is the hyper-inflated prices we pay for everything from doctors, hospitals, prescription drugs, etc.
As an example, I was reviewing the Explanation of Benefits (EOBs) I received recently for some tests and lab work my wife had done. The EOB showed that of $362 of billed services, the insurance company paid $86. There was also a note relating to the $275 not covered which said the amount billed is greater than the amount allowed for this service and that I would not be billed for this amount.
While most folks look at that and think gee, I’m glad I have this insurance so I don’t have to pay that non-covered amount, I instead think why the heck was that amount even charged? And don’t fall for that absurd we make it up on volume comeback.
Bottom line is that it’s plain old price-gouging. Without insurance, I would have to pay the whole $362 versus just the $86 that the insurer got away with, and that’s just not right. The hospital and lab are grossly inflating their prices and that’s something that could actually stand a little regulating, along with all the other fees charged by hospitals and doctors.
Heck, most folks, me included, would just pay the $86 out-of-pocket and not even bother with insurance. And just think, if all healthcare services were provided at a fair price, we wouldn’t even need insurance except for the super-costly procedures - gee didn’t it used to be that way?
As a matter of fact it did. In the beginning, the average Joe just needed insurance for the catastrophic problems. But over the years the system fed on itself and got us to where the U.S. has one of the least satisfactory yet over-priced healthcare systems in the world.
Congress could fix this if they wanted, but they refuse to make the hard choices like ignoring the lobbyists, dealing with tort reform, and basically doing something that actually serves the best interest of the people.
Cisco Catalyst Switches for Borderless Networks
If your network has turned to sludge, and you’re struggling just to tread water much less expand your business, then Cisco’s borderless network may be worth a look.
And you’re not alone as many shops are dealing with the onslaught of ever more apps and tons of data, not to mention even worse prospects with increased conversion and proliferation of mobile wireless.
To that end, Cisco offers solutions that provide connection to anyone, anywhere, using any device, to any resource, securely, reliably, and seamlessly. Now that’s a pretty substantial claim but well worth looking into.
Cisco’s Borderless Network architecture uses the power of the network to deliver an enhanced, more productive media experience, and streamline operations increasing flexibility and resiliency, as well as improving security.
And with the newly launched Borderless Access solutions, they deliver powerful systems capabilities that allow you to increase business innovation with video, mobility, and security.
Their flagship switching solution is the Catalyst 6500 Series ideal for enterprise-scale organizations and service providers. It offers industry leading services, maximum network up-time, integrated security, and up to 400-mpps performance with distributed forwarding architecture.
But its Cisco’s newer products including the Catalyst 3750-X, Catalyst 3569-X, and Catalyst 2960 Series that are of interest to the majority of organizations. Compare features below and see what it takes to get some serious speed for a reasonable price.
Cisco Catalyst 3750-X Series Switches
- Stackable fixed-configuration switches for campus and branches
- Maximized investment protection during deployment of highly secure converged applications
- High-availability and operational efficiency with StackPower
Cisco Catalyst 3560-X Series Switches
- Standalone fixed-configuration switches for campus and branches
- Maximize investment protection during deployment of highly secure converged applications
- Catalyst Smart Operations for automating infrastructure deployment
Cisco Catalyst 2960 Series Switches
- Stackable and standalone switches with Cisco FlexStack for delivering enhanced LAN services for mid-sized enterprise and branch office networks
- Layer 2 switching with intelligent Layer 2-4 services
- Power over Ethernet Plus for next generation high power devices
- Catalyst Smart Operations for automating infrastructure deployment
Eating Healthy At Chipotle Grill
The Chipotle Mexican Grill is one of my favorite restaurants. This taqueria style purveyor of tacos and burritos offers fresh, simple, delicious, and inexpensive food fast. My only complaint, and it’s minor, is that I can’t get enough onions. Problem is they have the grilled green peppers and onions together and when I ask for more onions, the peppers seem to win out.
I’m guessing there’s no chance of getting the store to separate them since having the two items together saves on the burrito build time. Obviously I’m in the minority in terms of onion preference and far be it for me to interfere with efficiency - I wonder would it help if I learned the Spanish word for onions.
Aside from the onion issue, I really quite like these restaurants and their short, uncomplicated menu. You just walk in and they custom build your burrito, taco, or whatever as you walk along the assembly line. The ability to get great food this fast is perfect for impatient people like me.
Besides all that, the food is superbly fresh and healthy. Chipotle believes in using food that is unprocessed, seasonal, family-farmed, sustainable, nutritious, naturally raised, added hormone free, organic, and artisanal.
They accomplish this natural sustainability by following a philosophy they call Food With Integrity that states:
We can always do better in terms of the food we buy, and when we say better, we mean better in every sense of the word - better tasting, coming from better sources, better for the environment, better for the animals, and better for the farmers who raise the animals and grow the produce.
That’s a true differentiator in a highly competitive business and at 300 stores and still growing they are proving they can do it and still be successful.
In fact they are the largest restaurant buyer of avocados and naturally raised meats in the country. No added growth hormones, no antibiotics, no animal by-products used in feeds, no artificial colors, no artificial flavors, etc.
Chipotle Mexican Grill is proof that people want fresh food that is healthy for them and produced in ways that are both sustainable and humane to animals. Because of this approach and their success, they were recently featured as one of the few companies doing it right, in the documentary Food, Inc. which takes the viewer on a journey behind the scenes of where our food comes from.
But don’t just take my word for it – go try Chipotle for yourself and see how easy eating healthy can be – not to mention fast!
Tags: Chipotle Mexican Grill > fresh food > mexican food > natural foods > sustainable foods
Does Your ISP Make You Crazy?
Well mine does, and is doing it again - this time for about a week and a half now. I get bundled services from Time Warner Cable (TWC) that provides TV cable, broadband internet and telephone service, but recently the internet and phone have been more off than on.
For several mornings in a row I’d sit down to work and find no service. Re-booting the modem would eventually succeed around mid-day, but finally one day it wouldn’t re-boot at all and upon calling Time Warner for service, was told there was a network outage for a couple hours.
By days end, I still have no internet or phone and call again to learn they were unaware of any outage but would send a technician out next day. So who was this guy lying to me before?
Obviously no way to find out, but a technician does come next day and swapped out the modem. Unfortunately it only worked for the rest of the day before going out again. It should be noted this is the second modem in only about three months.
But now it was the weekend and had to wait a couple more days for service. Good thing we had cell phones for backup since my VOIP service was also dead. Well at least the cable kept working so I could watch TV.
So anyway, another technician comes out and swaps a coax cable around and gets the modem working. I can’t believe it, but he says different ends of the cable allow more or less signal to pass through depending on the season.
Had trouble buying that, but it was working so he left. Later that day it went out again. This time I played with the cables and got it going again. So far it’s working, but I’m wary.
Bottom line is that Time Warner Cable needs to get their act together and ensure this so-called refurbished equipment really is. I’d asked the first technician what caused him the most issues and he said problems with equipment - that’s a pretty clear indictment if you ask me.
And quite frankly, Time Warner isn’t exactly cheap, but they seem to care more about getting my monthly payment than ensuring reliable service. That’s a real problem for folks working from home and relying on phone and internet being available.
I don’t think it would require that much more effort to take steps to ensure adequate signal strength throughout the day, and add amplification in cases where there was degradation or borderline signal. Heck, even looking for unnecessary splitters would be useful.
Bottom line is those AT&T U-verse commercials are really starting to get my attention.
Banks Only Love You for the Fees You Generate
After a public outcry about the ever-escalating overdraft fees charged by banks, the government has taken some steps to crack down on these practices. Well maybe crack down is too strong, more like curb, at least until the banks figure new ways to circumvent the new rules.
Banks make billions of dollars in penalty income from folks overspending on their debit cards. Up til now they never had to ask your permission, they just did it and then charged a fee for it. Sounds useful on the surface, but lots of people would keep spending and rack up hundreds of dollars in daily fees. Isn’t it comforting to see how our banks are always looking out for us?
However, starting this summer, banks must get consumers permission first by getting them to agree to opt in, to any service covering purchases on a debit card when there is not enough money in their account. Same goes for withdrawals at ATMs.
So get ready for the aggressive marketing blitz as our friendly banks try to cajole, allure, and even threaten us to accept this service. Lest one think threaten too strong a word then how should we view this except from a Chase Bank letter to it’s customers:
Your debit card may not work the same way anymore, even if you just made a deposit, unless we hear from you, the message emblazoned in large red type, warns. If you don’t contact us, your everyday debit card transactions that overdraw your account will not be authorized after August 15, 2010 even in an emergency, with even in an emergency underlined for emphasis.
Also cited in the same recent NY Times article was the experience of a Bank of America customer visiting his branch to turn off overdraft protection on his debit card, and being told that if he did, a gas station might place a hold on his account and he might not be able to fill up at all, even if he had enough money in the bank to cover a full tank.
None of this should be surprising with the vast amounts of money at risk for banks. Long gone are the days when they were content to utilize our savings and charge a modest fee for checking. Now it’s all about fees for everything, and complicated financial products that have proven so useful as of late - can anyone say subprime meltdown or financial crisis and too big to fail?
But that’s a story for another day. There is actually a simple solution for this overdraft fee issue and it doesn’t involve the bank at all. It is for consumers to quit spending money they don’t have. Wow, what a novel idea that we should pay attention to our bank balance, never spend more than we have, and even ensuring there is a cushion for emergencies.
Back in the day, banks helped in this because they wouldn’t give you the money if you didn’t have it available – but then they figured out they could make a tidy profit by encouraging people to be irresponsible. And once they started, they never looked back.
Remember the Chase What Matters campaign by Chase Bank? It was simply a blatant marketing campaign promoting instant gratification and financial recklessness. What a joke. But the really sad part was how so many people couldn’t see it for what it was.
Never believe for an instant that your bank has your best interest as its goal. It is simply out to maximize profit. If you don’t care about you, no one will. Overdraft protection is vastly over-rated and is mostly a scare tactic to separate you from your money. Why not solve the problem through discipline instead?
Food Inc Shows the Sinister Side of What We Eat
I thought I pretty much knew what goes on behind the scenes regarding how the food we eat gets to our plates, but I was blind-sided by the things depicted in this film. It begs the question “How could we go so far wrong”
In the back of my mind it’s always seemed strange that I can still find a hamburger for a buck just like I could twenty years ago, but I never took the time to learn why. Same goes for noticing how chicken breasts have become absolutely huge, but the price goes down. And how about all those brilliantly colored veggies – why didn’t anything from my garden ever look that good?
The answers it turns out are pretty scary. They involve inhumane factory-farming where abuses have progressed from bad to worse in the name of ever-increasingly efficiency making these installations some of the worst breeders of disease. Even the deadly chemical washes leave the meat with as much as thirty-five times the germ levels as found on organic farms where the slaughtering is done the old fashioned way out in the fields.
The chicken story is even more frightening. They seem to have figured ways to grow a chicken in about the third the normal time, while using hormones to ensure the breasts grow three times bigger because surveys show far more demand for light meat. Of course the chickens can hardly walk, but who cares. Just as an aside, I have to wonder if this is a contributor to these man-boobs that weren’t there before – now does that give one pause?
The veggie story is interesting as well, but it seems that exposing them to things like carbon-monoxide will make them bright and colorful. But wait a minute, isn’t that a deadly gas?
And I haven’t even touched on the whole corn story with its genetic re-engineering and big-business Gestapo-like tactics forcing the small players to get in line or get out.
I could go on and on as this hardly scratches the surface, but you need to see for yourself and draw your own conclusions. Again, the film is called Food, Inc. and is available on both DVD and Blu-ray
Is Gexa Energy Price Gouging?
Decide for yourself after reading this. It started when I opened the monthly electric bill and found it to be over $600. This was about twice the largest bill ever, so it got my attention. Upon investigation I noticed usage was up – no surprise as it had been cold in December, but the real culprit was the rate which had risen to over 20 cents per kWh.
Looking back over the years bills, I saw the rate had been slowly climbing higher from a starting point of under 10 cents per kWh. One or two cents a month without me really noticing. I had noticed bills that seemed a bit higher, but never enough to make me dig out the old statements and figure out what was happening.
So okay, my fault for not paying attention. Then I call Gexa Energy customer service to find out what’s going on, and the agent says I’m on a variable rate plan. I say I don’t really care, and that all I’ve ever been interested in is finding the cheapest possible rate – I mean come on, it’s a commodity – not like electricity has flavors or something.
Agent replies sure, he can give me an 11 cent rate if I agree to 6 months of service. Hmmmm, hard choice, 20 cents or 11 cents, since the 6 months contract is basically irrelevant to get that savings – besides which it’s breakable if I move anyway. (I’m actually wondering why I should have to call to request this – guess they aren’t really looking out for me huh?)
So I say sure, sign me up. Agent says okay but it won’t show right away on statement, may be the next months. Fine, I figure it’ll be retro whenever it catches up, so no big deal.
Now 30 days later, January bill, and the rate is still unchanged. I call up and agent says they said it won’t be there until following months bill. Now I’m suspicious, and ask the $64 question – will that bill be adjusted to reflect the change to my rate plan from a month ago? Answer was not just no, but that I would have to pay the current month at that higher rate also.
It seems Gexa Energy is incapable of making a rate change in less than 60 days. Gee, I wonder how they set up a new customer….
So yes, I’m steamed, and start the escalation process with the agent to see if I can get far enough up the food chain in the Gexa call center to actually find someone who can make a thoughtful decision rather than just working from a script. I got about 4 levels up – well maybe – they probably just passed me off as a lateral handoff on a couple of those.
Anyway, got to some guy who said they had to review the transcript and see if I was properly informed how long it would take to change rate. I said I didn’t care, that wasn’t the point. Regardless of what doubletalk the agent used, I’d still assumed that my actual billing rate would be changed pretty quick, even if it took a while to be reflected in the billing.
So I get no further with this guy and have to wait a couple days for the call back. He did call back and proceeded to tell me I was in fact properly informed and have no recourse. I tried to explain that he was missing the point, but he was pretty much clueless, so I told him he’d done everything according to the book to cover the collective Gexa corporate backside. He didn’t really seem to grasp that point either, at which point I said goodbye.
So here’s the bottom line. I’m not irritated with anyone but myself for not noticing my electric rate going up. I am very irritated with Gexa for waiting 2 months to reduce it to the new rate they agreed to. What they effectively did, was force me to pay twice as much for electricity as I should have.
One would think a corporation like Gexa Energy, that according to their advertising, is interested in the welfare of their customers, would not do something so underhanded – especially in the current economic environment where folks are struggling to make ends meet. Yet it would appear they aren’t really all that caring after all.
If you have service with Gexa – watch out for yourself. There is no reason for a 2x rate variance – just makes no sense. I could see a penny or two for no service contract, but beyond that seems absurd. And then for that extra two months of waiting, Gexa forced me to pay over $500 extra for electricity – just because they wouldn’t change their records? Just not right!
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