Brian @ Wongside

I got this list from a Blog on Marketwatch, but the post is mostly an advertisement for investment advice, so I grabbed the good stuff and wrote it up here.  Visit the blog here if you want to read the advertisement.

These are 10 of the dumbest predictions in technology.  Clearly, these people were not clairvoyant.

1. “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.” — Western Union internal memo, 1876.
2. “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” — Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943. “The world potential market for copying machines is 5,000 at most,” IBM executives to the eventual founders of Xerox, 1959.
3. “Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18 000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers of the future may have only 1 000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1½ tons.” — Popular Mechanics, March 1949
4. “I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.” — Jack Valenti, MPAA president, testimony to the House of Representatives, 1982
5. “Do not bother to sell your gas shares. The electric light has no future.” —Professor John Henry Pepper, Victorian-era celebrity scientist, sometime in the 1870s
6. “Television won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night,” Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox, 1946.
7. “The problem of TV was that people had to glue their eyes to a screen, and that the average American wouldn’t have time for it.”
   - The New York Times, 1939
8. “The subscription model of buying music is bankrupt. I think you could make available the Second Coming in a subscription model and it might not be successful.” Steve Jobs — Rolling Stone, Dec. 3, 2003
9. “Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” — Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre
10. “The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to no one in particular?” — Associates of David Sarnoff responding to the latter’s call for investment in the radio in 1921

I think my favorite is #3.  Imagine if computers were still over 2000 lbs!  I doubt there would be one sitting under my desk, much less in the palm of my hand.

I’m a stickler for customer service.  That is to say I hate bad customer service.  Yahoo! Finance had a great article on 18 companies that consumers hate. It’s so sad to see 3 banks on the list of most hated.  Frankly, I’m surprised that Comcast isn’t on there as well.

The weather’s getting crazy out there.  Stay warm and dry.

I thought this was an appropriate follow up article to my previous post from a few months ago, Costco:Love/Hate

It’s a list of things you should and should not buy at Costco.

Items not to buy:

1. Designer Clothes
2. Imported Shrimp
3. Sheets and Towels
4. 12-Pound crates of navel oranges

Things to buy:

• Chocolate truffles
• Eyeglasses
• Laptops
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

In my opinion, they left out the item at Costco which is near and dear to my heart: Prime Grade Beef. The price has gone up a few bucks since that article.  It may be due to the proximity of the Holiday Season with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. But it’s still a steal compared to what you’d get at Safeway or Whole Foods.

I think I’m developing a love/hate relationship with Costco. On the one hand, they have great products: inexpensive wetsuits, highly rated batteries, cheap gas, and let’s not forget great meat.  They also have an unbeatable return policy. But on the other hand, I’m discovering that they have absolutely awful customer service, even at the manager level.

Case in point:

I went to Costco this morning to try and find the High Sierra hydration pack they’ve been carrying for the last few months. I already own one, but the bite valve on mine leaks and has already caused a few “mini floods” in our apartment much to the chagrin of my wife. Little did I know that it’s a seasonal item that’s just gone out of stock for the year…

Read more…

This is absolutely ridiculous! It’s the end of May, nearly June, and it’s snowing in Tahoe!

I know we’ve had some crazy weather this year, but this is absolutely nuts.

It’s been over a month since I last blogged. Wayyyy too long. And lame, I know. I guess since I work on the computer all day long, the last thing I really want to do is come home and look at a screen again.  I’ve got a post for tomorrow or sometime later this week. It’ll be food related.

See you then.

In the past year or so, I’ve gotten a lot of…shall we say, “friendly encouragement”…from older friends advising me to buy a house. With the financial crisis, and housing prices lower than they’ve been in years, they’ve said it makes great sense to get into home ownership. But there’s a catch: if I want to buy a half a million dollar house, I’ll need at least $100,000 as a down payment.  Frankly, there are definitely things about home ownership that appeal to me. I might even admit that there’s a certain prideful part of me that thinks home ownership is a necessity before Charlene and I expand our family. But there’s also a part of me that’s not fully convinced.

Thankfully, I might not be totally wrong.  According to an article in the New York Times, for many people in this country, it makes much more sense to buy a home than to rent. But in certain locations, including San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle, housing prices are still high, and it might not make sense to buy…yet.

The gist of their argument is based on something called the rent ratio.  And I really like the concept.  The rent ratio is the price of a house divided by the annual cost of rent for something similar. The article indicates that if the ratio is greater than 20, it might not be a good idea to buy. (The rent ratio in the Bay Area is closer to 30.)  However, “when the ratio is well below 20, the case for buying becomes a lot stronger.” Well, it’s going to take a lot more of a drop in housing prices before we get to 20 around here.

I also like the sobering reminder that home ownership isn’t all a bed of roses:

But it’s worth remembering that the advantages of homeownership are frequently exaggerated. The mortgage-interest tax deduction doesn’t eliminate the cost of borrowing money; it merely reduces it. The freedom to paint your house any color you wish comes with the responsibility of paying for a new roof when the time comes. The $15,000 or $30,000 or $50,000 that real estate agents’ fees add to the price of a house can wipe out a lot of other savings.

So there you have it. I know a lot of our friends are settling down and buying houses. A couple of our friends have even bought, knowing that it wasn’t a good investment, but seeing it as the cost of living in a nice place. We’ll see what happens for us.

At the end of the day, I just have to remind myself that God will provide–Jehovah Jireh! He always has, and He always will.

Yesterday was my last day at Primitive Logic. About three weeks ago, PL announced that we would no longer be doing Workday implementations, which is exactly what I’ve been doing since I was hired 18 months ago.

I personally wasn’t quite ready to leave what is termed the “Workday Ecosystem”, so I found another firm that would allow me to continue doing what I’ve been doing. I also get to be a part of a rapidly growing company, which really excites me.

I had a great ride at PL. I gained some valuable skills, matured as a consultant, and had the opportunity to work with some really great people. I was especially blessed to work closely with (and for) my boss Lonnie for the past 18 months. He taught me some valuable lessons and was definitely a great support during my time at PL and Workday.  I’ll miss our conversations about meat and grilling/bbq as well as some of the mindless banter we shared.

Thanks Primitive Logic for a great ride. I’m sure we’ll cross paths again soon. The longer I’m in the consulting business, the more I’m finding that the world is a rather small place. So keep in touch.