The Big 3

The question is, Should the big three get bailed out. A lot of people say no but I think more say yes. Although I think that they have done this to themselves they still should be bailed out because there are too many jobs at stake here and the hit to the economy both here and south of the border would be devastating.

The big 3 screwed themselves with their big trucks and suv's and if anyone tells me that they didn't know that gas prices were going to go up and hurt their sales, they are on crack. Gas has been going up for years and no signs of going back down. Now of course the price of gas has dropped again but it is too late. People are now scared that they might go back up again and you can see dealers yards full of trucks that they can't move.

Unfortunately the actions or the lack thereof by the head offices including sales, marketing and design have cost thousands of jobs and threaten thousands more. The current outlook shows that even with a bailout there will not be a big 3 at the end of next year. One or more will be gone. Chrysler is the best target. Chopped up and sold off in pieces with more jobs gone after 50 billion has been given to them. The big question is, will the government attach strings to the money like keeping jobs, fat chance. They will hand it over just like they did to the banks. No strings attached and away it will go.

Maybe they should give them the 50 billion on the condition that they use it to come up with electric cars. Lets see how fast they could bring something to market then. none of this 5 or 10 year crap.

The worst thing is that with all 3 in such bad shape a recent poll showed that 80% of people asked would not buy from the big 3 due to worries about them going under. It will take billions and years to get the confidence of the people back.

Does the big 3 have that long?

Obama

Well history was made last week. The reaction of the American people was a pleasant surprise. They were happy and peaceful. I, along with a lot of other people wish him luck. Unfortunately he is going to need it. The states is in a mess and he is being handed it on a platter. Two wars, economy in the tank, jobs, banks, crooks (oops I repeated myself there)

I think he can do it but it will take all of his first term to get it done if then. If he can pull it off he will get a second term np.

His choice of staff will make a big difference on how well he will do and his first appointment of Rahm Emanuel is a hot one. A pit bull that will keep everyone in line including the Democrats in congress and the senate who think that because they have everything in control it is a blank check to pork barrel heaven.

Now if he can do the same for the Sec of the Treasury and kick the banks in the ass, he will win great favour with the American people. If there is one group that is universally hated now it is the fat cats on wall street. Any measures to curb their excesses will win him points with everyone. (except those fat cats)

I think that the thing I like the most is the fact that he never said he was going to do anything. It was always "We". That's why his "Yes we can" was so well embraced and repeated. It made the American people think that they can overcome the current problems and they can live their dreams.

Good luck and congratulations President Obama

US Election Votes

I can't believe that this is still not fixed. After 8 years since the voting screwup in Florida and they still can't come up with a system that will work. The new voting machines that were built in response to that mess are a disaster. Check out the link.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080919/1553112317.shtml

If you google these things or search techdirt you will find lots of articles on the companies that make these machines. The worst was the fact that this company sued another company who's job it was to test the machines to make sure that they worked as advertised. The reviewing company found serious problems and when they tried to release their report they were sued and gagged.

The US - the bastion of democracy, :-}~~~~~

I feel bad for the people who just want to vote and have their say. They wonder why their turnouts are so low. People think that their votes don't count or will get screwed up so they think why bother.

8 years and they have not fixed the problem because they don't want to fix it. Our last municipal election here in Ontario used a new ballet that you filled out and then was scanned into the system. You got to see that the scan was good and the results were in 5 minutes after the polls closed. Worked great.

I bet that the company building the new evoting machines have friends in the Republican party.

Politics

I can't make up my mind who's campaign is worst. Ours or the one south of the border. Saw this though and I can't agree more.

Say what you want about Bill but he didn't run the country into the ground like the Republicans did. Our conservatives are not much better. The Liberals got the fiscal house in order and now they are coasting on all that work. Paul Martin might not have been the best prime minister but he was a very good finance minister.

Gas prices Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Tell me we are not getting screwed!!!!!

Today oil dropped to 101 a barrel. The last time it was at this price was the end of March and guess what the price of gas was then? 1.02/L

What am I paying today with oil at 101 a barrel??? !!!! 1.22/L

Tell me we are not getting screwed.

New Cell Phones

Sorry for the delay in posting but August was a bit nuts and between mom being in the hospital and me dropping a ladder on my foot I have spent more time in hospitals and clinics that I can shake a stick at. Mom is now home and I am still hobbling around but time heals all.

Now for the goodies. Anyone looking at a new phone should hold off for a bit. There are some great phones coming down the pipe from HTC and Sony. So if you are an Apple fanboy don't bother reading any further because I am no fan of the Iphone. Nice phone if you don't mind being spoonfed media and apps all at a cost.

From HTC there is the Touch Diamond. Great phone, here is the link from Giz

http://gizmodo.com/5045615/sprint-htc-touch-diamond-out-on-sept-14-for-250

Then there is the HTC Touch Pro which I like even more because it has a 5 line qwery keyboard

http://gizmodo.com/5047833/sprint-to-get-htc-touch-pro-in-october-for-300

Then HTC released info on another new one that will replace the original Touch. It's called the Opal, nice but no 3G and same slow processor

http://gizmodo.com/5047151/htc-opal-leaks-the-sequel-to-the-htc-touch

Then yesterday HTC got the howard forums in an uproar when they released info on the newest smartphone, the Touch HD. Huge screen and at 800/480 double the resolution of the Iphone :-)

http://gizmodo.com/5047830/htc-touch-hd-looks-big-and-beautiful

Sony has also come out with a winner if you don't need a smartphone running Winmo. The Xperia X1. Great screen and new and innovative UI.

http://gizmodo.com/5047734/sony-ericsson-xperia-x1-to-hit-streets-first-in-europe-september-30

These will all be coming out in Europe first of course and then the states and then Canada last of course. Watch Gizmodo for updates on release dates for your carrier.

Now if we can just get the carriers to offer decent packages to go with these great phones we will all be happy.

Solar Farms

Well now I have heard it all. First they bitched about the windmills and now it's solar farms. People at a public meeting about a proposed solar farm all bitched about it. I don't want it in my front yard, It will ruin my view, I don't want to be a guinea pig. That last one really got me?????? What the hell!!!! First they bitch about noise from the windmills and now solar panels. How much more low impact can you get that a panel that sits there soaking up the sun. The farm in question will power 5000 homes.

And of course the top line is, "my property value will go down" Maybe they just want the power corp to give them free power for being a neighbour.

I give up!!!

Turning 50

So I just turned 50...big deal. Half the people were surprised when they found out that I was 50 and the other half moaned and groaned in sympathy that the end of the world has come and I might as well buy my plot and get ready to get laid out.

Well let me tell you I'm not ready to lay down and die quite yet. Lay down and do something else maybe :-}

What the hell is the big deal with 50. I can't tell the difference between that and 30 or 40 or 60. Who cares it's just another year. It's not like we just stop working on our birthday. Sure the body doesn't work as well as it did when I was 20 but if I took better care of it and lost some weight I would be fine. Just too damn lazy to get off my ass and get in shape. What's wrong with round anyway.

The only thing you may do when you turn 50 is look ahead to retirement and see if your plans are going well for that. Of course with the stock market the way it is lately I am sure that the majority of us do not like looking at our mutual fund statements but oh well, life's a bitch. Investing is a full time job as Aunt Margret used to say and she did well but she treated it as such.

A word to the younger people out there. Don't wait until you are 50. Start early. I know you don't want to bother and you think you have lots of time but the years fly by when you are having fun. I can see them all now reading this and going, "ya ya piss off"

So much for giving advice :-P

Windmills

Never heard such bitching in all my life. First the tree huggers whine about coal power and nuclear power. The provincial gov promises to get rid of the coal power, right. They couldn't build nuke plants fast enough to replace the coal plants that they wanted to shut down in the time frame outlined. Typical politician bs and everyone knew it. Can't put anymore hydro power in Ontario as they have every river and stream big enough for a turbine damed already.

Along comes the greenest power out there other than solar panels. Windmills. A few companies want to put wind farms in southwestern Ontario as we have good winds and flat land. Perfect for windmills and green power to boot. You would think everyone would be cheering left and right. Wrong. The first wind farm was going to go in the lake off shore like they do in Europe. Well the bitching started. "They are ugly", "They block my view of the lake", They will kill the fish". Gawd I never heard such crap in my life. It went downhill from there. These people want to spend millions to put these farms in to give us cleaner power and everyone lined up against them. "They will lower my property value", "They make too much noise", and my fav, "They will kill the birds".

Let me tell you if any bird flies into a windmill that has blades that are over 100' long they are just improving the gene pool. Noise??? There is no engine, it's a generator!!! A little whoop whoop whoop sound from the blades going around. And as for lowering the property value, well I guess they are still better than the polution from the coal plants. More people are coming around just to look at them, maybe a tourist attraction for an area that could use the traffic.

Cell phones and driving

Quick and dirty. I hate people who think they can talk and drive with one hand. Most of them can't drive with two hands so what makes them think that they can drive with one hand and no brain. There is no excuse for this anymore. With blue tooth headsets and car stereos now or add ons like blue tooth mirrors etc you can have hands free calling and talking while you are in the car.

This rates right up there with putting your makeup on while driving or reading the map on the steering wheel.

nuff said. Soon to be against the law in Ontario and hopefully everywhere.

The Iphone

My take on the Iphone. Nice hardware. Can't fault Steve Jobs and crew. They make good stuff and then turn their marketing department loose to create a frenzy to buy it. I'm not sure who is better, Steve or his marketers. The only problem is that Steve usually makes products that are so cutting edge that they are ahead of their time and the services that they run on can't handle them.

Thus the screaming in Canada over Rogers offering the Iphone and their packages to go along with it. Great hardware with shitty packages will cause pissed off people. The hype has been going for over a year while we in Canada waited for the hardware only to get screwed on the packages at the last minute. No wonder there are web sites with over 50,000 people signing up that want Roger's ass hanging from the flag pole.

The only happy people are Bell and Telus. Bell is offering the Samsung Instinct with an excellent plan in August and Telus has the Diamond and later Touch Pro which I want later this fall. Telus I am sure will offer the $15.00 unlimited package that they had last winter that was a great hit.

The Iphone might be the nicest phone out there for multimedia right now but there are others coming fast and people will not buy it if they think that they will get screwed at the end of the month on their bills. Just wait a few months and then we will see the articles about people with 500 to 1000 bills from Rogers.

If you are thinking about getting a new phone or your contract is coming due then do you research before you head to the store to buy new or renew. Visit the Howard Forums web site. Link at the right. The best source of info on all the hardware and packages from all the service providers in north america. Great site.

Night Shift

A little slow this week. First week of night shift in about 10 months so I am not awake at the right time of the day. Takes a few days to get the bodies clock straight again. I don't mind the shift. It's getting switched over to it that sucks. Afternoons is easier but it's nights for the next two weeks, so....

Put up or shut up. lol

Drivers in a hurry to get nowhere

This is more a rant from my wife but I agree with her 100% The drivers in Windsor are nuts. Red lights mean very little and yellow lights just mean speed up. Stop signs are just for window dressing and I have already been rear ended once for stopping at a stop sign when the guy behind me just expected me to run right through like everyone else. Intersections are death traps that you enter at your own risk and green lights give you no safety at all. I have seen people that don't even try to slow down at yellow lights and blow through the intersection when the light has already gone red.

The newest craze is all about the construction on ECRow our local freeway. It is down to one lane in a lot of areas now and they have pylons up and signs warning people to merge right or left. Now there are a lot of people who after a few days move over to the right early but there are still lots who roar up the left lane until it is nearly gone and then try to cut in at the head of the line.

My wife's has seen things that I didn't know if I should laugh or go out and buy a Hummer no matter what the gas cost. She said that people in the main lane are now moving out and straddling both lanes to stop people from racing up the left lane to cut in. One day a truck moved out to stop someone from getting past everyone. The guy behind honked and yelled to no avail. The traffic stopped and the truck driver got out and came back to the car. The driver got out of the car and next thing they were pounding each other on the road. The wife called 911 and their only concern was if she saw any weapons. Good grief I guess they get so many calls like this they don't care unless someone is going to shoot someone. The other favourite trick of the road warriors was seen today on the freeway. Three cars moved out to block both lanes and a van who would have none of this drove right down into the grass in the median and roared ahead to pass them.

Of course these acts of stupidity get them a few cars ahead and then they still have to slow down in the single lane and don't get to where they are going any faster. Unfortunately the construction season is just getting underway and we can expect this until xmas. I can see it getting worse and road rage is going to hurt or kill someone. Where the hell are the cops. You think they would be out there watching especially in the morning and again in the later afternoon at rush hours. Unfortunately they are nowhere to be found at these busiest of times. Not that they are any great role models for driving. I pull up to a 4 way stop with a police car facing me. I stop and he rolls right through the intersection, sigh. The wife says she sees the same thing all the time.

They don't see stop signs either.

ps. If the city put in red light cameras they would have enough money in a year to build their own tunnelled road to the bridge and to hell with the province :-)

Senate passes anti-spanking bill

Here we go again. Our government and why the senate and not the house of commons I don't know passes another law to prevent parents from spanking their kids. I don't advocate child abuse but we have gone over the limit in limiting the parents ability to parent. I don't know how many times I have been in a mall with my girls and there is some kid screaming it's head off and there is the mother trying to get the kid out of there without touching it because she is scared that someone will call the cops and report her for abuse. My oldest daughter turned to me and said, "We never acted like that when we were small, did we?" The answer was no and before you rant that I beat my kids when they were young, I didn't. My daughter laughed and said that I just had to give her the "look" and they behaved.

I think I only had to spank either one of my girls once and only one crack on the arse was more of a shock to their ego than a pain in the butt. After that the "look" was all it took but I never had to give it that often. They were well behaved kids that knew that they didn't behave like barnyard animals in public. If they wanted something they asked and if I said no then no amount of whining or temper would make a difference.

I remember watching a teacher at daycare "talking" to her daughter who was about 2 at the time. She was doing the frying bacon on the floor and howling because she didn't want to get dressed. Her mother kept saying, "I'm not talking to you if you act like that". Well what was she doing, talking to the kid and getting nowhere.

When I was a kid I got the belt from my dad and I deserved it. When I went to school I got the strap a few times and of course I didn't think I deserved it. Kids in school behaved because you know that the strap was there. At first in the class and later in the VP's office. Now the school is handing out the 1-800 number for abuse and don't dare touch the kids or the parents will sue them. And we wonder why little Johnny is in a gang, doing b&e's and drugs.

Discipline has gone down the drain and the kids are ruling the schools. Then they get out in real life and end up in jail and can't figure out why or spend their life whining about how unfair everything is. The education system is going down the toilet because the teachers can't teach because kids are swearing in their class at them and if they don't do their work they have to pass them anyway. Then you wonder why universities have remedial English and math for first year students because they can't put a full sentence together.

A snack on the butt when they are 2 will be a lesson learned that will last a lifetime. The government is in our life enough as it is. Tell them to mind their own business until they can show us that they have their own house in better order than ours.

The Iphone in Canada

Apple has a nice product that either you love or hate. Just like Apple vs Microsoft. The Iphone is a great phone but a huge data hog. Of course Apple wants it that way so they can shovel all those adds to you while you are browsing or reading feeds or emails. Problem is that all that data on a mobile device costs big bucks. Now when Apple released the Iphone last year in the states they held a big stick over AT&T and "convinced" them to come up with a great data plan to go along with the Iphone. It was the only way that AT&T got the hardware as an exclusive.

One year later and the Iphone comes to Canada via Rogers. Now Rogers was never known for being generous to their users on their contracts for minutes or data. Everyone was waiting for the news on how much they were going to charge for the package and now the word is out. OUCH!!! 3 year contracts and 70 to 115 bucks for up to 2gb of data. Now Rogers says that it enough for over 1,000,000 text emails. Note the word text. most people get their emails in html format which take much more data. Also everyone knows that Apple is pushing the video capabilities of the Iphone so watching youtube and tv shows on the unit will gobble up data at a huge rate.

Needless to say the people in the know like at the Howard forums, http://www.howardforums.com/ are not surprised at the plans that have been announced.

The rest of the poor unsuspecting public that were waiting and drooling for the new phone are howling in anger. Articles on blogs like http://www.boygeniusreport.com/?p=4086 and web sites like http://www.ruinediphone.com/ are popping up all over and some like the above web site are targeting Steve Jobs for help with what they see is a raw deal to get his new product.

So much hype and with this product well deserved, but a hefty price to pay to get it.

Watch the interesting feeds on the right to keep up with the story or visit the Howard forums for all the latest news in cell phones, hardware and carriers.

Manny Maroun

If nothing else he is a sharp businessman. Right in the middle of the DRIC study to build a second bridge from Windsor to Detroit he comes out and tells everyone that he is going to twin the Ambassador Bridge that he owns. Who cares that there is a binational study going on that will decide the best place to put one. He just ups and starts digging up both ends of the bridge to expand the plazas. Gets the state government online to revamp the I75 and I96 ramps and all at breakneck speeds. I wonder how many friends he has in government, it seems lots. Unfortunately for him his best friend is the mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick. If you have not heard about Detroits famous mayor then you must be living under a rock.

Needless to say the politics are as thick and messy as can be on the Michigan side and he just ignores everyone over here and keeps building. His latest rant was if they build another bridge he will loose money. No shit sherlock. His real bitch is that they are going to build a bridge that he is neither going to own or control.

Just watch. he will spend all that money on the plazas and aproaches and when he doesn't get to build the twin span he will sue everyone on both sides of the border and accept the consolation prize of control and management of the new bridge for a 50 year lease.

New bridge for Windsor

For the last few years there has been an ongoing fight on where and how to put a second bridge from Windsor to Detroit. Politics has of course overruled all and the fight is getting down to the end game. The two sides are the city of Windsor with our mayor Eddie Francis at the helm and DRIC the binational study group that is looking at all options or so they say.

The Windsor proposal is called Greenlink and is about the access to the new bridge. They don't have any problems with the bridge itself just the access road through the city. They have a nice web site that shows there view on things.

http://www.greenlinkwindsor.com/

DRIC on the other hand has their site which tells their story.

http://www.partnershipborderstudy.com/

The long and the short of it is that Windsor wanted the access route tunnelled below ground with parks above. DRIC wanted a below grade road with no tunnelling. Of course there is more to it. Thousands of details that were nit picked over. Windsor hired some very good experts and comprimised with the Greenlink which would tunnel about 2/3rds of the route. DRIC responded with a new proposal which covered about 1/3rd

DRIC says that the Windsor proposal doesn't meet spec, costs too much and so forth. Windsor says that DRIC doesn't know shit about tunneling as they are using Ontario provincial transport engineers who have never tunneled anything in Ontario.

A huge pissing match that will come to no good end for sure. Add the multiple levels of politicians in the mix and the people of Windsor are now suffering battle fatigue and just want something built. I am sure that DRIC was counting on that and figure that they would just give up. Eddie has other ideas though and will not let it die. He has lots of support and may take them to court especially after they admited that they didn't look at the new Windsor plan as an option.

I am sure though in the end we will get screwed by our polititions especially at the provincial level. They don't give a shit about the people, just the bucks. Get it done and get it done cheap. That is their mantra.

The irony is that the whole thing started because of the traffic conjestion and increase in truck traffic. With both the American and Canadian economies headed to the toilet we won't need the new bridge for a while, sigh.

And then there is Manny Maroun, but that is another story.

First one

Well I thought I would give this blogging thing a try. I promise not to rant and rave too much but there is a lot out there to rant and rave about. I am not a political animal but we all have thoughts on what our elected representatives are doing or not doing for us. I will be touching on local and national items as they grate my nerves.

I am a big fan of new technologies but preach caution about adopting things too early as you are bound to get burned by paying too much or getting junk that is pushed on the market too soon. More about that later.

Don't look for sports news as I gave up on hockey when Ballard traded Dave Keon so that should tell you where I stand on the NHL. I think the best sport I have ever seen is Aussie rules football. TSN had it on years ago and of course cancelled it :-(

I'll try to post regularly but don't bother flaming me if I miss a day here or there.