My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on August 19, 2011

The Dow closes at the low of the day noting that few want to stay long for the weekend. Moving the market down was the misguided management at HP after their announcement yesterday (traded down 20% today and yanking the DJIA with it). Hard to believe an iconic American company with such deep pockets and the ability to finance about any project they want could continue to screw up so bad (over and over).

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 172.63 points, or 1.6%, to 10817.95. The index swung nearly 250 points from its session highs to lows in a volatile session. The zigzag action comes after the blue-chip index tumbled 419.63 points on Thursday, putting it on track for a losing week and its worst month in more than two years.

Hewlett-Packard was by far the Dow’s biggest decliner, tumbling $5.91, or 20%, to a six-year low of $23.60 as investors fretted about the world’s largest personal-computer maker’s extensive plans to reshape its business model. The company is exploring a spinoff of its PC business and will abandon efforts to sell tablets and smartphones, a seemingly sharp reversal from management’s previous comments. It also agreed to buy U.K software firm Autonomy for about $10.25 billion in a bid to move further into data analytics.

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Here’s a questionable video … but if you are an HPQ share holder or HP/Palm product buyer then the chuckle may be needed (thanks for the link Scott).

Category: Financial, Video | No Comments »
Tags: dow, hitler, hp, youtube

Posted By RichC on August 19, 2011

I’m getting pretty geeky with this post, but then again it this is a Tech Friday post.

Having recently installed a QR (Quick Response) code reader on my Palm Pre, I’ve been trying to figure out just how to use them effectively. Obviously people sitting on a computer don’t need to use their smart-phone to access digital content, but as someone who works in the ink on paper world, using the codes might help to sell  “extra” content or as a way to enhance the information included on paper.

My first attempt was to use Kaywa.com to make a QR code for my blog (right) … which I’ve also included as a rotating icon on my Google+ avatar (just because its cool – FYI, you click on the photo to rotate through the images). If you have a reader for your phone, you might try taking a photo of the code to the right and see if where it links.

Other simple ideas off the top of my head would be to use them to enhance business/handout cards or making auto window stickers for an upcoming car show. I’m thinking of the TDIFest in Lexington Kentucky this year; it could be a way to mention CinciTDI or the TDIClub … including enhanced informational webpage. Maybe a bumper or window QR sticker would be a great way to offer information to those interested in TDI Volkswagen diesels? Hmm … I should get an adsense click for that!

Category: Automotive, Blogs, Technology, Volkswagen | No Comments »
Tags: barcode, diesel, kaywa, qr, quickresponse, tdi, techfriday, volkswagen, vw

Posted By RichC on August 19, 2011

I was disappointed to hear that HP lost its way as a productive technology company in this economic downturn and was caught off-guard in their decision to say “so long” to webOS. (business story LINK)

As a longtime webOS Palm Pre user (a “longtime” is a relative term for smartphones), I’ve been wondering just what has been going on over at HP headquarters while waiting for the molasses-like slow to market HP Palm Pre3. Obviously there hasn’t been much to cheer about in their tablet attempt, as the Touchpad was a dis-appointment with its “not ready for primetime” upgraded webOS; it wasn’t ready to compete with the big boys … meaning Apple iPad and the many Google Android tablets. In fact, according to most it was a mistake to try and hit a marketing date instead of having HP’s hardware and webOS software working in synergy (pun intended).

Here’s a little bit from Dieter Bohn’s editorial … I liked it.

The story of Palm and webOS is The Little Engine That Could, but some jerk ripped out the last three pages and we’re forced to read it over and over again. It’s frankly exhausting seeing this same narrative play out year after year, never seeing the top of the hill. webOS is perennially the little engine that could have.

Yet we keep opening that book at night, re-reading it. Mainly because there’s one key thing missing from that the litany of failures above: webOS itself. While the transition to webOS 3 and its Enyo underpinnings has been a little rocky, it still represents an intelligent, extensible, accessible, hackable, and above-all elegant framework. Yes, the original version that shipped on the TouchPad was critically flawed, but in general there’s more that’s right about webOS than what’s wrong. Now that HP has given up on making hardware, webOS may never get its chance.

Given the stiff competition webOS faced in the marketplace, it’s tempting to just say that webOS has failed. The truth is that we don’t really know if webOS could have succeeded given HP’s utter inability to execute on the basics of making smartphones and tablets.

I think it’s better to say this: HP failed webOS.

The good thing for me is that this new ‘now’ makes my decision to stick with webOS and hope for a Pre3 a lot easier. Good bye webOS and Pre3, you would have been a sharp smartphone (below) … Android … here I come!

Category: Cellphone, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: hp, palm, pre3, touchpad

Posted By RichC on August 18, 2011

The talk in financial circles has some pretty negative commentary on growing our economy. Traders and fund manager ran for low yielding safety today as the stock market was down and down big at over 500 points on the Dow just before the close. As the trading day ended, the stock indices were all red.

There is real fear that we’re in for a likely global recession with weak U.S. economic data and fresh concerns about Europe’s banks. Gold jumped to a new record of nearly $1,830 a troy ounce dipped below 2% in intraday trading for the first time since at least 1954 – investors were just looking for some refuge no matter how low the yields.

Perhaps the best quote on the day was: "If it’s not a recession, it sure feels like one. And if it feels like one, it doesn’t matter if you can prove it with statistics or not."

Category: Financial | No Comments »
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Posted By RichC on August 18, 2011

Category: Financial | No Comments »
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Posted By RichC on August 18, 2011

After hearing and seeing reports of an Australian man arrested for driving his beer cooler scooter, I wondered just how popular motorized coolers or cases of beer might be – they’re not as rare as you might think. A few years ago in Germany this cellphone video of this shirtless guy was uploaded to YouTube… crazy!

Category: Humor, Misc, Video | 4 Comments »
Tags: beer, cooler, scooter

Posted By RichC on August 17, 2011

From the start, it wasn’t that hard to predict a slow go for HP in releasing their Touchpad. As a Palm Pre webOS user and sometimes enthusiast, the slow-motion releases in handset, webOS and tablet products have left existing users wanting and contemplating buyers asking “Why?” Couple that with the largest users base (Sprint) feeling ignored after HP acquired Palm … there isn’t even the built in first day release buzz to give HP’s new products free word of mouth advertising. I’m unsure who to blame for the Sprint/HP fallout, but the fact that original Pre webOS buyers don’t have a path or reason to buy a Touchpad “if a new webOS Palm Pre3 phone isn’t in their future.”

As an unhappy HPQ shareholder, heads should roll over the blunder that didn’t capitalized on the existing chunk of Sprint webOS users when releasing the Touchpad. Although I still like and use my first generation Palm Pre, I see little reason to be encouraged that HP management is currently on the right track with their webOS devices and carrier support. (perhaps I’m just a bitter Sprint Palm Pre user seeing a “roadway ends here” sign)

Category: Cellphone, Financial, Technology | 3 Comments »
Tags: hp, hpq, palm, pre3, touchpad, webos

Posted By RichC on August 17, 2011

From “10 percent of users create 90 percent of Twitter’s content” to “ICanStalkU.com” … there are a few good reason to read Sara Germano’s SmartMoney article.

WSJThisMorning Sara Germano on Twitter

Here’s a tip on paying attention when uploading photos from your smartphone:

“… smartphone pics are embedded with GPS data, making it so easy to determine your precise latitude and longitude that "a first grader could stalk someone," says cofounder Larry Pesce. For its part, Twitter’s image-hosting service strips geotagged data from phone-uploaded pics, but third-party services like TwitPic are still vulnerable.

LINK

Here’s a bit about “news reporting” on Twitter (probably obvious, but a good reminder when considering RT (retweeting) fast breaking news stories:

The death of Osama bin Laden was tweeted by Donald Rumsfeld’s chief of staff Keith Urbahn more than an hour before President Obama’s official address to the nation and before most news outlets had posted it on their Web pages. That tweet turned out to be true. But as more top stories get broken on Twitter, journalists using the site to try to keep up with a never-ending news cycle sometimes rush to report information that isn’t accurate. Thomson Reuters, for instance, was among several news outlets that erroneously tweeted Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was killed in the Arizona shooting in January. (A spokesperson for Reuters says the organization is now enforcing a stricter social-media policy.)

LINK

Here’s a PDF of the entire story since it is difficult to read page by page on SmartMoney.

Category: Audio, Social Media | No Comments »
Tags: Photos, smartmoney, twitter, wsj

Posted By RichC on August 16, 2011

While listening for updates from the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris today, a CNBC guest analyst made the observation that “If all countries were like Germany, Germany would not survive. Germany needs the weaker European countries to export to in order to prosper.” (paraphrased)

BTW, no news from the meeting as of lunch.

Preliminary figures from the statistics office said growth dropped to 0.1 percent in seasonally adjusted terms, dragged on by a negative trade balance, flagging consumption and weak construction investment.

The office also revised growth in the first three months of the year down to 1.3 percent, leading some economists to cut their 2011 and 2012 forecasts.

"The second quarter marks a turning point in the German business cycle," said Unicredit analyst Andreas Rees, lowering his 2011 forecast to 3 percent from 3.5 percent, and his 2012 forecast to 1.25 from 2 percent.

"The period of exuberant growth is now behind us," he said.

The sluggish German growth contributed to a sharp euro zone slowdown, raising fears that a longer-term dip could derail efforts to resolve the bloc’s debt crisis.

more

Category: Financial, News, Politics | 1 Comment »
Tags: economy, euro zone, europe, european union

Posted By RichC on August 16, 2011

With the Obama administration failing to lead in the area we expect, liberal politicians (might as well say “all politicians”) have little problem taking a leadership role when it comes to telling the industry how to run their businesses.

The Department of Energy distributes our taxes as gifts grants as a way to warp free market capitalism to achieve “their vision” – an EV in every garage (perhaps we should still be thankful “they” will still permit us individual car ownership?) If I sound a little cynical, it is because I’m not fond of the gamesmanship most businesses are forced to engaged in so they can compete. Let’s see, to stay completive business pays for political clout (lobbyist and campaign donations) in order to receive millions in federal grant dollars from the bloated taxpayer funded bureaucracy in Washington DC so they can sell their cars back to taxpayers at a profit.

If it were up to me, maybe the Department of Energy would be a good place to start when tackling our country’s addiction to taxing, borrowing and spending.

General Motors, Chrysler and Ford were among the three-dozen entities that received a combined $175 million in U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grants to be used to further develop technology aimed at boosting light-duty vehicle fuel economy by more than 75 percent over the next 14 years.

LINK

Category: Automotive, Financial, Politics | No Comments »
Tags: chrysler, doe, ford, GM, government