Opinion: Too much information?

It seems that everyone wants to collect information about us. From name and address to demographic, medical and financial information.

And everyone wants to share that information… for a price.

This amusing yet disturbing vignette shows what could happen when everyone shares information with everyone, and also gives a good sold reason why we should NOT have a national ID card system..

Opinion: Advice for CEOs

• You are overpaid. No CEO should make more than 25x the average salary of non-executive staff.
• When it comes to performance-based rewards, do not confuse mediocrity with excellence.
• You should not be getting stock options unless everyone else does.
• You cannot fire your way into profitability. Any attempt to improve the bottom line by ruining lives will result in your losing your best and brightest. If that happens, whom will you be left with?
• A company that cares more about what Wall Street thinks than it does about its own employees is bound to fail.
• A company that places more importance on lawsuits than on making and selling widgets is statistically dead.
• If you have to fire staff, start with Personnel – it was, after all, if there was a hiring error, it was theirs…
• …doubly so if they changed their name to “Human Resources”.
• Do one thing well – too many companies try to be all things to all people – and fail.
• Corporate mergers that result in reduced competition should be outlawed.
• Customer Service is about more than telling the customer “No”.
• Outsourcing Customer Service to India does not work.
• Neither does “squeezing” your employees for added profitability.

The Accidental Zillionaire

He’s the third richest person in the US after Bill Gates and Warren Buffett – and the seventh richest in the world.

His name is Paul Allen.

Paul who?

F-22A Raptor Aircraft Ready For Combat

F-22A Raptor Aircraft Ready For Combat

The Air Force’s Pride and joy, the F22A Raptor has finally gone into service.

I’ve been flying this baby in simulation for about ten years.

I hope it lives up to the hype.

The US was discovered by… China?

BBC NEWS: China map lays claim to Americas

Looks like ol’ Chris Columbus has some explaining to do…

Whose phone is it anyway?

Sprint Refuses To Reveal Location Of Cell Phone In Carjacked SUV

Car is stolen with 10-month-old baby in it. Fortunately, also in the car is Daddy’s (Sprint) phone. Daddy talks to Sprint, who says they have the information, but will not divulge it without a subpoena. Daddy and Mommy go nuts while Sprint rep ties them up in red tape. A couple of hours later the car is found by local Sheriffs with Junior safe and sound.

Sprint claims that their employee should have followed their “emergency protocol” but did not. Ironically, I switched from Sprint to Verizon a few years ago, mainly because of lousy Customer Service. Looks like things have not changed.

Bottom line. No provider should EVER object to telling you where your phone is. It’s your phone!

What’s wrong with this picture?

According to This story from the Daily Telegraph, A Scottish driver makes the V-sign (the British equivalent of “the finger”) at a speed trap camera.

He was neither speeding nor driving dangerously, yet gets banned from driving.

• Was the Camera placed there as a method of surveillance? No, it there to catch speeders.
• Was he speeding? No.
• Was a passer-by upset by his “offensive gesture”? No.
• Did he lose control of the vehicle? No.

I think it a little heavy-handed to ban someone from driving for an offensive gesture that offended no-one… but apparently being rude to surveillance cameras is now a crime in Britain.

Personally, I think it should be a national sport!

Postscript: Actually, from the photograph, it looks like the V-sign was backwards, which as any British schoolboy knows is the V-for-Victory sign as popularized by Churchill (and later horribly mangled my Margaret Thatcher)

Coming to a shower near you: FedGov!

The Bureaucrat in Your Shower

Another example of Governmental intervention run amok. Apparently they have the authority to much water you use – water that most of us have to pay for anyway.