Things I've Noticed

We Do So Much Because Other People Don't Do What They Should

First off, I want to say Happy New Year.  It's not belated though.  The new year is still taking place, (even if it will be over before we know it).

My first post of 2009 is about people doing what they're not supposed to do or not doing what they're supposed to do.  I'm not talking about New Year's resolutions.  Everybody talks about those.  Rather, I'm talking about actions that are taken every day, ones we must deal with because they lead to results that are undesirable.  They affect what society has to do.  I would say that many of the daily activities in which we partake are done as a direct consequence. 

If this was an ideal world with respect to how people behaved, there would be a lot more unemployment.  If people were honest and didn't steal, we wouldn't need locks, safes, computer security systems, or policemen.  Just think.  Life would be easier though.  You would never need keys, could move your friends car or take care of their house while they traveled without any prior planning.  We wouldn't have any security hassles at the airport, wouldn't need to sign when we used our credit cards.  You could have left your cookies un-licked at the school cafeteria table without worrying that your friends might eat them.  On the business side, contracts would be much shorter.  We would need far fewer lawyers.  (Such a shame).  Kids wouldn't have to be taught to not talk to strangers and parenting would be immensely easier.  Hitchhiking would be an interesting, stress-free experience.  My personal utopia angle on this is that we wouldn't need computer passwords, (which have ruined my life)!  Could you imagine?  The world would be so much more efficient. 

On the flip-side, we would have to find other jobs for all the people that design and manufacture security cameras or for any people whose duty it is to secure or protect someone or something.  On a different front, most people in white collar jobs have to do a lot of follow-up.  This is only because other people don't do what they're supposed to do as expected.  If everybody did their job like they're supposed to, there would be fewer managers to oversee what we're (not) doing.

But life would be a lot less interesting if everybody was forthright and did what they were supposed to.  There wouldn't be any funny criminal stories in the papers.  We wouldn't sharpen our senses in sniffing out spam.  We wouldn't have as much to complain about and we'd probably be more vulnerable to dangerous wild animals or aliens.  I say that it's good that there are people who don't do what they're supposed to.  It probably leads to innovation and great ideas both in trying to perform illegal activities and in trying to defend against them.  It probably accounts for a significant portion of our economy.

I'm not advocating that you don't do what you're supposed to do, but next time somebody steals your Garmin out of your car, maybe this post can help you laugh it off.  And in this bad economy, many of us should feel fortunate that we have jobs.  Many of them depend on human dishonesty.

+ Atul

Advertising Because Times Are Tough, But What Should Be Advertised?

Times are tough with the whole financial crisis, job losses, and an auto industry on the edge of bankruptcy, (although they just got loan money today). Accordingly, I’ve started some major advertising on Things I’ve Noticed to help defray TypePad’s monthly fees for the blogging service. I use both Google text ads and Adify’s high-falutin’ animated ads. (Feel free to click all you want, especially if you’re interested in what’s in the ad.) I figured out that if traffic to Things I’ve Noticed goes from 40 visitors a day to 100,000 visitors a day, I could live off of my blog, but that will never happen unless the top 50 blogs in the world start linking to me. I don’t see that in my future, so I have to continue working in a real job.

I have been noticing what’s getting advertised in these spaces on my site. With Google, I have little control but with Adify, I can approve or reject campaigns. I consider whether I want to advertise products or services that aren’t in keeping with my philosophies, or are too cheesy, even for this blog. For instance, I didn’t want to advertise meat products, so I rejected the McDonald’s campaign.  The specific advertising on my Google ads depends on what I write about, but I can't single out companies, only topic areas.  Although, I’m a very very small time advertising venue without complete control, I will do what I can.

But I wonder about ads accepted by major newspapers, magazines, and websites. Sometimes they advertise things like police radar camera license plate blocking sprays or products that enlarge certain body parts even when they know that these products are illegal and/or don’t work. I’m surprised that they don’t want to protect their readers from fraud or their own image by rejecting such ads. They just look the other way as long as the advertising revenue is coming in. It would be nice if they would verify the credibility of the advertisers before placing such ads in their publications or on their websites. I guess, in the end, it’s all about the money. That’s why I’m forcing readers of T.I.N. to endure ads that take up significant screen space, and I apologize... but I gotta eat.

+ Atul

The U.S. Government Must Provide Loans to Assure The Survival of GM, Ford, and Chrysler

We’ve heard a lot of news from the press lately about the dire situation the American automobile industry is in. In part due to the “financial hurricane” that the credit crisis has created, the Detroit 3, (D3), including GM, Ford, and Chrysler are on the brink of going bankrupt or closing up completely. As a former GM employee who loves cars, and cares for Detroit, my friends who work in the auto industry and our whole country, I believe that the government must provide loans to the Detroit 3. Blame can be laid on many things but a negative spin about the Detroit 3 has gotten out of control to the point that people have a grudge beyond reason, one that could lead to our government making a horrible decision. I don’t mean to dismiss mistakes of management and the possibly unreasonable demands of the unions up to this point, but the issue is not who we should punish but what we should do now to prevent a catastrophe.

I’ve written on countless numbers of website comment sections and based on what I’ve written, I want to address all the claims others have made as to why they think the Detroit 3 shouldn’t get support in the form of a loan, (not a bail-out). Please don’t quote me on the exact numbers as these are estimates, but read this with the understanding that I do know a lot about the auto industry from experience and interest. Feel free to research some of my general figures.

Here are claims and suggestions listed, with bullets beneath them addressing why the suggestions aren’t feasible, the claims are overstatements or just aren’t true.

The Detroit 3 don’t make cars that people want to buy:
- Ford, Chrysler and GM sell nearly half the vehicles purchased in our country. 50% of the customers are not nobody, and many of these customers are loyal repeat ones.
- The Detroit 3 had fewer competitors in the 70's than they do now, so some market share attrition is bound to occur by virtue of there being more choice.
- GM sells the most mid-sized cars of any manufacturer, but they are spread out amongst many models with different styles but the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry get all the credit for their manufacturers

The D3 only make gas guzzlers and SUV’s:
- They did profit from the SUV craze but so did/do all the other competitors. Consumers tended to equate value with size and the D3 couldn’t get its typical consumer to buy small cars at prices that would be profitable.
- Admittedly, they should have started making hybrids earlier but that’s a small slice of the market. - For the segments that sell the most, American car company vehicles are amongst the most fuel efficient in their segments such as the Chevy Malibu, Saturn AURA and Ford Focus...
http://www.freep.com/article/20081117/COL14/811170379

The quality of vehicles from the Detroit 3 is not nearly as good as that of the Asian and Europeans:
- The quality gap has narrowed significantly and in some cases, D3 products have better quality than Toyota and Honda, (Chevy Malibu and Ford Fusion are prime examples in JD Powers studies.) http://www.freep.com/article/20081117/COL14/811170379
- Toyota recalled more vehicles last year than GM did http://forums.motortrend.com/70/6495664/the-general-forum/recall-numbers-for-2007-honda-toyota-numbers-highe/index.html

If the Detroit 3 go under, the import competitors will just sell more cars and provide just as many jobs:
- The Detroit 3 employ far more people in our country than foreign-based companies. It’s not just at plants but at headquarters white collar professional, engineering and technical jobs.
- If any one of the D3 go under, then many suppliers will go bankrupt leading to more job losses and parts will stop flowing to the Toyota, BMW, Honda plants here. That would lead to (at least temporary) layoffs at the transplant company plants.
- No other company is going to take up slack in our industrial base by starting a large, new auto manufacturing company as the major investment, expertise, low profitability, and economy would be inhibitors. Small companies like Tesla and Fisker will take tens of years to become mass market manufacturers, (assuming they succeed).

The Evilness of Digital Photography

I can’t remember the last time I used a “regular” film camera and I’m not alone. The world switched from film photography to digital a long time ago. It’s mostly a good thing as digital photos can be taken without having to have them printed. So, they don’t use paper when they’re not printed out and they don’t cost anything to take if they’re not developed into prints. In these ways, digital photos help the environment and the budget. Bhat’s where a positive can become a negative. People now take way too many photos. They’re free so why not? The need for judicious use of film no longer exists.

As an amateur photographer, I do like the fact that I can act like a pro and take thousands of pictures on a trip so that I know a few hundred will turn out good. But what is annoying is how many moments get captured by the numerous digital cameras that your friends and family have. I really feel sorry for children born after the dawn of the digital camera, (and the camcorder for that matter). Many of us lucked out.

Add to the digital photo phenomena, the fact that photo-taking capability is often provided on other non-camera devices like phones, PDA’s, and you have a recipe for disaster. We will all have countless digital skeletons on our hard drives and memory cards. But even worse, these digital photos are easily copied and sent or posted electronically for all the world to see. In the “old days,” duplication of film photographs required money and effort.

Despite all the evilness, digital photography has allowed us to capture memories better. And pictures can be altered with software to look better. But I’m afraid we’ll all become inundated with countless pictures that never get organized or viewed again. Now there’s no looking back. Digital photography is here to stay, and it is as evil as ever.

+ Atul

Quick Quote on Email

"It's sad that in today's world, if I go 10 minutes without receiving an email, I begin to wonder if something is wrong with the internet."

+ Atul

Quick Quote on Red Lights

"When it comes to approaching red lights, sometimes slower is faster."

+ Atul

Lost Writing And The Inferior Re-write

We've all been there.  You see a great blogpost, (perhaps like this one), and you feel the urge to comment.  Or, you write an intense, well-thought out email to a close friend expressing your every emotion in just the right way.  But the one way you don't think things through is not having the foresight to back up what you wrote "just in case".  And then the worst case just in case happens.  Your masterpiece of writing doesn't get accepted by the blog site you commented on and when you hit BACK, you find that your writing is completely gone.  This also happens with emails more often than it should.  Well, this minor incident in isolation may not seem like such a big deal, but when considered collectively, it is a wasteland of masterpieces.  How many times do you lose some great work, and then force yourself to re-write it?  After you scream out in frustration, the reality of the situation sets in and then you have to decide what to do next.

You at first try to re-trace your mental steps and rewrite the text exactly as you did the first time.  But it's never as good the second time around.  Even if it's important writing, we still put less effort into the "second work" after the first piece is gone.  And I suppose this makes sense.  Why try to recreate original thoughts when they are no longer as original and succinct?  I find that I start off my second writing the same, but then I take the writing in a slightly different direction.  There is a chance that some of our second works have been better than our lost original works, but I doubt that happens very often.

Make sure to over-use the SAVE button on any email program.  I also highly recommend copying and pasting blogposts or blogpost comments into a word processor before you SUBMIT.  These techniques have saved me numerous times, but I occasionally fall into the trap of creative carelessness.  Perhaps it's just fate that certain "original works" of writing on the computer were never meant to be posted or published.  That gets into philosophy of technology, a relatively new branch of philosophy which I intend to explore further.

+ Atul

The Internet is Making Us Smarter

For all the negatives that the internet is associated with, such as spam, pornography, and phishing scams, it does have some very positive effects on the world.  You get to read blogs like this one, even though that's not all that positive.  We all know about the efficient commerce that is made possible through search engines like Google, sites like Craigslist or eBay, but I think one of the rarely mentioned benefits is that it makes us, (meaning those with web access), smarter.  In "the old days," if you had a question or wondered something, you just told yourself you'd look it up one day… and then you most likely forgot, or had to wait until the library opened again.  Once you arrived at the library, it was never certain that the information you wanted would be available.  Now, with the world at your fingertips, you look it up instantly.  Not only that, but when I look up facts, I'm usually sharing them with others I know.  Additionally, knowledge and ideas can also be spread across borders and across oceans in an instant like never before.  Of course, there's a lot of false information on the internet, but follow my advice.  If you see bits of information repeated by multiple sites, it's more likely to be accurate.  For instance, I find visits to the doctor's office for minor afflictions to be more hassle than value, and so I research health topics on line.  Advice frequently repeated is usually good.  This comes in handy because, as I always say, "by the time I get a doctor's appointment, I'll either be healed or dead."  (NOTE:  I am not advocating that others skip seeing the doctor for a health problem of any kind.)

On the creative front, the internet can inspire with idea sharing and inspiration.  It creates virtual communities and entertainment that other media cannot match.  Sure, time can be wasted on the internet, (especially at work), but I would argue that if a person is going to waste time, she/he would probably find some other way to waste it by doing things like chit-chatting or smoking, or making a personal phone call.  Besides, an email is usually quicker (and cheaper) to complete than a phone call.  Instant Messaging is a different story.  At home, web surfing is no worse than channel surfing, and you have a higher chance of learning something as opposed to just being entertained.

It's time we accentuate the positives of the internet and continue to use it so that our brains can continue to swell.  After the next global catastrophe, all the knowledge of the internet will be in our collective heads, a la Fahrenheit 451.

+ Atul

The Future You Wish You Lived In Today

Steven, (with the moral support of Scootis & Squish), is the Roundtabler of honor this week and as usual they're Serenading You in Green, this time with thoughts of the future.  In his blogpost, he's wondering what the future future will be like since the future of the past just doesn't impress him.  Perhaps he's been watching too many sci-fi movies, but he makes a great point.  Looking forward, the future always seems more impressive than it ends up being.  And that bugs him.  He doesn't think the year 3007 will be any better but then unless we live for 1000 more years, it won't matter to us anyway.  Have a visit to his blog and add to the discussion.

+ Atul

If I Were A Spammer

If I were a spammer, I would do it so much better.  Spam doesn't fool me the least bit anymore and I have a feeling it's not working for the spammers and their miserable careers.  I've thought about it and created a guide for myself in case times turn rough and I have to resort to spamming.  (Just kidding).  I thought it would be fun to put these words of advice together anyway.

Make your email addresses seem like real people even if the domains are shady.
Most of the time when I get a spam email, the email address is complet jibberish.

Use proper spelling and grammar.
This is an obvious tip off to people who have any command over the English language.  We don't trust those who can't write well enough to make us believe they finished 8th grade.

Use sentences that make sense.
Where did you get that idea to use weird poetic almost biblical sounding text strings and do you think that it makes people think you're selling anything.  Are you?  I'm not sure this is not good marketing.

Try a different kind of subject line.
I already bought enough Viagra and bought all the stocks you suggested.  I'm looking for something else to make my life more complete.  To be fair though, some spammers have resorted to news headline type subject lines.  These almost fooled me, actually made me open the email, but I'm not the only one who has caught on in two clicks.

Create some truly funny emails or links to video clips.
My friends send me enough jokes and most of them aren't very funny.  Entertain me for real and I might just forward your spam and so will others.  Well done joke emails might even make people think your company is legitimate.

Try the "sex sells" approach.
Just paste the picture of some very attractive men or women in the email and you might get some more responses.  It works for marketers from "real" companies.  Just ask GoDaddy.com.

As a marketer, I truly believe some of my tactics would work.  I just know that if I was a spammer, I would be one of the best.  Too bad my ethics get in the way.  And for those of you who might criticize me for helping spammers, I don't think they have time to read my blog so don't worry.

+ Atul