Well, we just witnessed a historic moment in US politics: our first black president was elected. McCain gave a very good concession speech. The heavy lifting starts now.
Recently in off topic Category
USA Today has an article about airfare for the holidays hitting $1000 for domestic coach (plus fees). As a frequent traveler, I can say that the airlines need to go under - no more bail out. We gave them billions after 9/11 and they ended up in BK court anyway. These companies do not understand business nor customer service.
Why don't they just charge what the seat costs? It's a basic math equation. Southwest can do it. Why can't the bailed out bloated legacy carriers? I thought only in CLEC-Land did people price underwater.
Almost 75% of my flights in the last year have been delayed. Some was weather; some mechanical; and others who knows. It's always something. Again, a lot like an installation date in telecom.
Then there are schedule changes. Three of my last six flights changed, including Delta changing a direct flight to LA to a 1-stop (with no chance to get a refund). AirTran and JetBlue changing my flight times as well.
The airlines have tacked on so many fees*. (You have no idea what the final cost of the flight will be until it is over and you add it up - curbside check-in, baggage fees, etc.). Why would you charge to check bags? You should be encouraging it so that you can turn the planes around faster. However, you lose a lot of luggage and people can't risk that. Plus when you do lose the one in 138 bags, airlines just don't care -- and have no responsibility or liability. We taxpayers have forked up billions to keep these dinosaurs alive without getting any improvements. Why? Every hear of RFID tagging? How about plain old logistics and tracking?
(*Again, telecom has a ton of fees. More and more clients are asking me what the total bill will be for a circuit including taxes and fees. I actually have no idea. there are thousands of rate centers and taxing bodies. Plus some of VoIP has taxes and fees; some doesn't. Some of Internet is taxed and some is not. No way to know.)
If I want to switch flights, but checked a bag, it's a no-go. So you can track that, but not my bag? Makes no sense. Passengers rights? HA! Hardly. Look here and here.
The concept of customer service is so lost on these unionized employees that it galls me. But dare you say anything and they will call security. It was annoying at $400 per coach ticket; but at $500 or higher, they better re-think their attitude because they may be standing in line next to a lot of former financial or telecom folks soon (in the unemployment line). (In telecom, it doesn't matter which Duopoly you choose, many folks consider the customer service horrible. CS reps may not be able to be helpful, but they will try to upsell you.)
Like a monopoly, the airlines have you in a gotcha situation. But why more passengers don't plan ahead is beyond me. When you procrastinate, it costs more. If you go home to family at Thanksgiving, why wouldn't you have bought your ticket already? If you are going to ISPCON, why haven't you booked that ticket already?
Video conferencing will take a bite out of travel. Logitech just bought SightSpeed. Video conferencing will see an uptick.
Conferences are in trouble. How many small business owners are going to drop an additional $600 for the cost of a trip? Not many I know. The shows are going to have to adopt. There are way too many shows in telecommunications. It isn't just the show owners, but exhibitors. Companies that are going to exhibit need to become creative. Make product announcements. Do roll-outs. Add value. Make appointments ahead of the show. Double down at the show - maybe a sales meeting at the conference. There are a lot of ways to drive booth traffic and to showcase your company at a show, but most companies have not made the effort. A big, loud booth only goes so far. Don't hire former airline personnel to man your booth. You need excited, passionate people to engage the audience.
That's enough ranting for one morning.
Notice I didn't even mention the annoyance of the worthless security lines?
Why don't they just charge what the seat costs? It's a basic math equation. Southwest can do it. Why can't the bailed out bloated legacy carriers? I thought only in CLEC-Land did people price underwater.
Almost 75% of my flights in the last year have been delayed. Some was weather; some mechanical; and others who knows. It's always something. Again, a lot like an installation date in telecom.
Then there are schedule changes. Three of my last six flights changed, including Delta changing a direct flight to LA to a 1-stop (with no chance to get a refund). AirTran and JetBlue changing my flight times as well.
The airlines have tacked on so many fees*. (You have no idea what the final cost of the flight will be until it is over and you add it up - curbside check-in, baggage fees, etc.). Why would you charge to check bags? You should be encouraging it so that you can turn the planes around faster. However, you lose a lot of luggage and people can't risk that. Plus when you do lose the one in 138 bags, airlines just don't care -- and have no responsibility or liability. We taxpayers have forked up billions to keep these dinosaurs alive without getting any improvements. Why? Every hear of RFID tagging? How about plain old logistics and tracking?
(*Again, telecom has a ton of fees. More and more clients are asking me what the total bill will be for a circuit including taxes and fees. I actually have no idea. there are thousands of rate centers and taxing bodies. Plus some of VoIP has taxes and fees; some doesn't. Some of Internet is taxed and some is not. No way to know.)
If I want to switch flights, but checked a bag, it's a no-go. So you can track that, but not my bag? Makes no sense. Passengers rights? HA! Hardly. Look here and here.
The concept of customer service is so lost on these unionized employees that it galls me. But dare you say anything and they will call security. It was annoying at $400 per coach ticket; but at $500 or higher, they better re-think their attitude because they may be standing in line next to a lot of former financial or telecom folks soon (in the unemployment line). (In telecom, it doesn't matter which Duopoly you choose, many folks consider the customer service horrible. CS reps may not be able to be helpful, but they will try to upsell you.)
Like a monopoly, the airlines have you in a gotcha situation. But why more passengers don't plan ahead is beyond me. When you procrastinate, it costs more. If you go home to family at Thanksgiving, why wouldn't you have bought your ticket already? If you are going to ISPCON, why haven't you booked that ticket already?
Video conferencing will take a bite out of travel. Logitech just bought SightSpeed. Video conferencing will see an uptick.
Conferences are in trouble. How many small business owners are going to drop an additional $600 for the cost of a trip? Not many I know. The shows are going to have to adopt. There are way too many shows in telecommunications. It isn't just the show owners, but exhibitors. Companies that are going to exhibit need to become creative. Make product announcements. Do roll-outs. Add value. Make appointments ahead of the show. Double down at the show - maybe a sales meeting at the conference. There are a lot of ways to drive booth traffic and to showcase your company at a show, but most companies have not made the effort. A big, loud booth only goes so far. Don't hire former airline personnel to man your booth. You need excited, passionate people to engage the audience.
That's enough ranting for one morning.
Notice I didn't even mention the annoyance of the worthless security lines?
I realize that I have several interviews in the backlog. I apologize for that but between travel and consulting, I just cannot find the 2 or 3 hours per interview it takes to write an adequate post. I will get to them hopefully next week when I am in CT.
As we start Monday, we learn that Lehman Bros. filed for BK, AIG needs to re-structure (and needs another $40B! after raising $20B) and Merrill Lynch gets bought by BoA for $50B. This follows on the heels of last week's Freddie Mac and Fannie May take over by the Fed.
Interesting note from USA Today, " When Bank of America balked at buying Lehman, the government urged it to buy Merrill instead."
Oh, and Ike smashed much of Houston, but oil still dropped below $100 per barrel.
Yesterday, Greenspan, on ABC's This Week with George, said that this is "by far" the worst economic crisis he has ever seen. "it still is not resolved and it still has a way to go." My response to this what: "Look what you created." To avoid Inflation, Greenspand spent several years dropping interest rates - in other words making money very cheap, which allowed this soft market to happen. He didn't do it alone. He had help from the Treasury, the Administration, the hedge funds, and the very folks that we taxpayers are going to have to bail-out, the banks. This isn't the first banking industry real-estate debacle.
When you look at all the problems this nation faces: poor education (certainly not enough PhD students); mounting healthcare costs; Social Security crisis; the banking disaster; and the energy situation. These didn't just creep up on us -- well, maybe the banking disaster did -- but Congress and the White House has had 8 years, yes, 8 years, to fix. (That's one of the problems I have with McCain and Obama - you been there more than 6 years and haven't done anything to fix anything. Why move up the street?)
The CEO at AFS is always calling for Forbearance since CLEC's should be into fiber. How is that possible in this financial market?
Interesting note from USA Today, " When Bank of America balked at buying Lehman, the government urged it to buy Merrill instead."
Oh, and Ike smashed much of Houston, but oil still dropped below $100 per barrel.
Yesterday, Greenspan, on ABC's This Week with George, said that this is "by far" the worst economic crisis he has ever seen. "it still is not resolved and it still has a way to go." My response to this what: "Look what you created." To avoid Inflation, Greenspand spent several years dropping interest rates - in other words making money very cheap, which allowed this soft market to happen. He didn't do it alone. He had help from the Treasury, the Administration, the hedge funds, and the very folks that we taxpayers are going to have to bail-out, the banks. This isn't the first banking industry real-estate debacle.
When you look at all the problems this nation faces: poor education (certainly not enough PhD students); mounting healthcare costs; Social Security crisis; the banking disaster; and the energy situation. These didn't just creep up on us -- well, maybe the banking disaster did -- but Congress and the White House has had 8 years, yes, 8 years, to fix. (That's one of the problems I have with McCain and Obama - you been there more than 6 years and haven't done anything to fix anything. Why move up the street?)
The CEO at AFS is always calling for Forbearance since CLEC's should be into fiber. How is that possible in this financial market?
I was reminded this week about a few websites to click to give:
- The Animal Rescue site, where you click to have sponsors pay to feed a rescued animal.
- The Red Cross spends about $50M per Hurricane. We are on Ike, so they have spend a few hundred million. Help out by giving $10, especially with Ike about to batter Texas.
- The Breast Cancer site lets you click to have a sponsor pay for a Mammogram. Also, the fine folks (like my wife) who have spent 3 days walking 60 miles in the Susan B. Komen's 3 Day Cancer Walk could use $10 also.
So I get a marketing newsletter today and it has an ad/referral to a new book about Startup Success. The author has been CEO of 2 companies -- neither of which has been a success. One filed for bankruptcy and one has burned through millions in investment money with little to show for it. In fact, he was removed from his position at the second company. So how would you explain success to a start-up?
This isn't the only exec like that. A Tampa telco hired a someone to be prez back in 2002 or so. He BK'ed the first company and closed the telco. I have seen it time and time again, execs in telco get to fail but land at a new position elsewhere.
I understand the whole Tom Peters concept of fail fast, but he is talking about taking risk, failing, learning, trying again - without closing the doors. I can also understand that it may in fact be a learning experience to close the doors -- once, not twice. And write a book about what you learned from the failures, but not success, unless success means making it to CEO twice.
Obama is probably the candidate with the most tech-savvy staff. Ron Paul was better, but unfortunately for the US, he is not running any more. Instead we again have two choices that make me weep. How did 20+ candidates come down to just these 2?
One who is a tired old candidate that, I think, is out of touch with where we are and what the major issues are.
The other is a cult figure, if by cult you mean people are looking at him like he was an albino alligator. By that, I mean, people are fascinated with his campaign and his persona, but I'm not certain that many buy into his platform.
The platforms... Yeah. The issues that are important like Energy, Economy, and Healthcare. These issues should have been tackled by DC ten years ago. And the folks running have been in Congress ignoring these issues for the last 8 years -- so because they move up the street, we can expect them to solve something? It doesn't work that way. Ask Hilary. Congress passes bills into law. Bills get presented IF they can make it out of the political quagmire we call Committees. And you need Juice for that. Lobbyist and Power and Leverage (you know, Blackmail and Dirt).
Obama picked Biden. (I tell you this in case you live under a rock, and missed MSNBC interrupting an Olympic gold medal match to tell us). Biden's tech record is being examined. Guess what? Pro-RIAA. Pro-FBI (read wiretap).
Now I'm not a file-sharing nut, but do you really want Congress regulating Network Management? Have you seen what the DOT does to highways???? Ever travel I-95 in the summer? Enough said. If the F-Agencies (FTC, FCC) would just enforce current laws, we would be fine. Enough on that too.
Anyway. We head to Colorado to the Democratic Convention - at the same time as the US Open. What were they thinking? And AT&T will bring you there. See here. You will laugh, but they aren't joking. The largest telco as the largest patent troll in the world. Just great. Thankfully its 5. I need a drink. If you are attending IT Expo West, give me a shout. I promise not to talk about this stuff, until after 10 PM.
So a friend of mine sends me some emails about current events. "Here's something to blog about." I reply with the URL to my post about it that is up already. In the course of the email conversation, I realize he has no idea what I am talking about. His reply is below:
What I wrote: The FCC made a ruling on Comcast's network management (or P2P traffic interference).
His reply: Ok, got that.
There are 2 blogs that give an excellent view of the ruling - one is from OpenID and the other from Prof. Susan Crawford.
You don't mention their opinions or anything at all about the articles. They exist. Here is the link???
I wonder why they just don't use the Common Carriage definition.
Who is they? FCC? Comcast? Someone else? What is CC def?
If cable is a Common Carrier like telcos then stuff like DPI and traffic interference are a no-no.
DPI? I comprehend the sentence, I just don't understand what you mean. It is serious gleaning of info.
What? You mean Embarq and others are infringing on Common Carriage with something like NebuAd and Sandvine?
Okay, this is totally insider with no references for a newbie to latch hold of. In and out of my head... zoom!
No. Couldn't be. Not with the FCC around protecting the consumer and stuff. Oh, wait. ILEC's have a hall pass. I forgot.
Hall pass? ILECs?
Here is a quote from The Week......
This I got.
My friend used to program at IBM. He has been a computer geek for longer than me. (Well, I'm a telco geek which is different). So if he doesn't get what I am saying, maybe most of you don't either. I forget to translate to English. Sorry about that! I'll work on improving that.
apparently, Carl Icahn has a well-read blog. Probably due to his abuse of companies and people wondering where the next train wreck will be (like MOTO and Yahoo). In his latest post, Carl promises not to show up at the Yahoo! annual meeting. He thinks he would turn it into a media circus.
On Brad Feld's blog, he points to Alex Muse's blog post about Muse's biggest failuer (LayerOne and $20MM). The dialog in the comments on Muse's post are a good read.
That's one of the things I wish I had: lots of comments. I like dialog. The best blog for this is Tom Peters. Seth Godin has comments shut off.
One thing I like about Feld's blog is his Shelfari. Some folks can get all the widgets to work. I can't. There are a bunch others I follow (over 20) including Rich and Tom and Ike.
Who are you reading?
Profits tumbling. Stock market in disarray. Real estate is ugly. And now Mervyns files for Chapter 11. Also, today, Bennigan's (and its sister Steak N Ale) filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy (which means liquidation); all company-owned restaurants closed. Even Starbucks had to close stores.
"Merrill Lynch says will sell most of its troubled asset-backed securities and terminate hedges linked to bond insurers... [USA Today]. " The White House has increased its estimate for next year's deficit to nearly $490 billion..."
After another glum quarter, Russo out at Alcatel-Lucent. A former ATT marketing exec gets CEO job at Vonage just in time to pay the loan shark that refinanced Vonage's debt.
Speaking of debt re-fi, XO has finally refinanced its debt to the benefit of Carl Icahn, who was issued two kinds of preferred stock -- total value: $780M [TJS]
With all this going on, VZ and ATT add millions of cell users (from where?) and do very well this past quarter. BT bought Ribbitt, the Silicon Valley Phone Company that made a soft iPhone, for $105M (that's USD. It's a lot less in Euros!) The best this week was the FCC telling Qwest to take its 4-MSA Forbearance petition and stuff it.
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