I became confused when I heard these terms with reference to the word 'service'.
Internal Revenue 'Service'
U.S.Postal 'Service'
Telephone 'Service'
Cable 'Service'
Civil 'Service'
Customer 'Service'
State, City & County Public 'Service'
This is not what I thought 'service' meant.
But today, I overheard two farmers talking,
and one of them said he had hired a bull to 'service' a few cows.
BAM!!! It all came into focus. Now I understand what all those 'service' agencies are doing to us. I hope you are as enlightened as I am.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
The Paypal Scam Continues
Paypal seems to be leaking into other areas of ecommerce. It is not just for ebay junkies any longer.
Have you noticed, though, the growing number of people no longer accepting it? I just went through an experience (to be kind) which explains why disenchanted ranks continue to grow.
For those unfamiliar, paypal is an ingenious service that makes buying and selling on the Internet relatively painless, does not charge a fee unlike credit cards and allows sellers to ship sooner than if they had to wait for a check to arrive and clear.
How do they make money, you ask. Just like traditional financial institutions, whether banks or investment houses, make money on the 'float'. This is the time between when your money is received by the institution until it is released to the payor (the seller in the case of e commerce). Services like paypal take usually 48 hours to 'clear' the funds owed to the seller. These are 48 hours (at minimum) they are making money on your money. It gets better!
I recently rented one of my investment homes to a family moving to Reno from out of town. As both parties are tech savvy, we decided to use paypal to make it easier on both sides. Silly us. Both of us have been using paypal for years, for purchases from $10 to several thousand dollars without incident. Until now. Paypal notified both parties of a pending 'investigation' into the transaction. We needed to provide additional info and this 'investigation' would take about a week. I did what they required and then decided to do a little 'investigation' of my own. What I uncovered seems to be the reason so many are no longer using their pal.
Keep in mind, that paypal handles millions of dollars of transactions a day, nipping at the heals of the incumbent credit card clearing houses. Unlike the credit card companies, they are satisfied with making their profit on the float. To make extra profit, the number of 'investigations' have been growing as exponential as their customer base. The more people that use the service, the more then can play the float game with unsuspecting buyers and sellers. They only need to do it once per new subscriber to increase their income 3x to 4x. Good work if you can get it.
So, my friends, another example of nobody does anything for free!
Caveat Emptor!
Have you noticed, though, the growing number of people no longer accepting it? I just went through an experience (to be kind) which explains why disenchanted ranks continue to grow.
For those unfamiliar, paypal is an ingenious service that makes buying and selling on the Internet relatively painless, does not charge a fee unlike credit cards and allows sellers to ship sooner than if they had to wait for a check to arrive and clear.
How do they make money, you ask. Just like traditional financial institutions, whether banks or investment houses, make money on the 'float'. This is the time between when your money is received by the institution until it is released to the payor (the seller in the case of e commerce). Services like paypal take usually 48 hours to 'clear' the funds owed to the seller. These are 48 hours (at minimum) they are making money on your money. It gets better!
I recently rented one of my investment homes to a family moving to Reno from out of town. As both parties are tech savvy, we decided to use paypal to make it easier on both sides. Silly us. Both of us have been using paypal for years, for purchases from $10 to several thousand dollars without incident. Until now. Paypal notified both parties of a pending 'investigation' into the transaction. We needed to provide additional info and this 'investigation' would take about a week. I did what they required and then decided to do a little 'investigation' of my own. What I uncovered seems to be the reason so many are no longer using their pal.
Keep in mind, that paypal handles millions of dollars of transactions a day, nipping at the heals of the incumbent credit card clearing houses. Unlike the credit card companies, they are satisfied with making their profit on the float. To make extra profit, the number of 'investigations' have been growing as exponential as their customer base. The more people that use the service, the more then can play the float game with unsuspecting buyers and sellers. They only need to do it once per new subscriber to increase their income 3x to 4x. Good work if you can get it.
So, my friends, another example of nobody does anything for free!
Caveat Emptor!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
He Fails, We Fail
I'm as conservative as the next guy. With that said, events since 9/11 have pushed me more towards non-partisan than ever before. Having had the misfortune of being stuck listening to am radio (I drove the truck today due to weather, no satellite radio...darn!!), I was floored by the idiotic diatribes of Rush Limbaugh. Has his abuse of oxycontin turned him into an oxymoron?
He wants the new President to fail. He wants him to fail?
People, if he fails....we ALL fail!
We do not have the luxury of partisan BS anymore. We have entered a desperate hour. Now is the time to pull together and pull ourselves out of this quagmire we have put ourselves in. YES, WE! Noone forced us to buy a bigger house. No one forced us to use our home as a piggy bank. No one forced us to buy a new mega SUV and fill it full of future garage sale items.
We can no longer mortgage our children's future...that mortgage, too, is in foreclosure. For the first time, we will leave the world a worse place for our children. Well done. Now we have to figure out a way to avoid the second, a possibly farther reaching, depression.
Wake up, get away from the idiot box and get involved.
Taking the reigns of this country at this time is like winning a major supply contract with Walmart...any false move can put you out of business. Only this time, the 'business' is our country and way of life.
If he fails, we all fail!
He wants the new President to fail. He wants him to fail?
People, if he fails....we ALL fail!
We do not have the luxury of partisan BS anymore. We have entered a desperate hour. Now is the time to pull together and pull ourselves out of this quagmire we have put ourselves in. YES, WE! Noone forced us to buy a bigger house. No one forced us to use our home as a piggy bank. No one forced us to buy a new mega SUV and fill it full of future garage sale items.
We can no longer mortgage our children's future...that mortgage, too, is in foreclosure. For the first time, we will leave the world a worse place for our children. Well done. Now we have to figure out a way to avoid the second, a possibly farther reaching, depression.
Wake up, get away from the idiot box and get involved.
Taking the reigns of this country at this time is like winning a major supply contract with Walmart...any false move can put you out of business. Only this time, the 'business' is our country and way of life.
If he fails, we all fail!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Thought Of The Day
"How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage? "
Turning the Silver State Green
Well, time to get back to it.
For decades, being green conjured up Kermit and tree hugging. Since Al Gore (the inventor of the internet?!) brought much needed visibility with "An Uncomfortable Truth", being green has become the buzz for government and industry alike. We, as concerned citizens and business people my finally have the eyes and ears to radically change the way we live.
Now that we have been freed from the arrogance and ignorance of the Cheney Administration, we may now be able to set a course to free ourselves from our petro masters (more about petro-terrorism in another post).
We are in the middle of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression (though you'd think by the number of mood-enhancing drug commercials on the idiot box, the US is in the greatest of them all). The promise of our new President for the new New Deal offers the opportunity for our nation to build the skill sets that will allow us to again take the lead in innovation at the advent of a new energy age. There in lies the opportunity for the state of Nevada.
Renewable energy technologies are already in place to undo our ties to dirty energy. As with any technology, the more pervasive, the lower the cost. This year's auto show is a prime example. The number of hybrid and pure electric cars at the show (coming to a showroom near your...very soon!), tells of a turning of the tide. Even GM, an early adopter with the EVO in the 90's before the oil lobby crushed it (look up the film "Who Killed the Electric Car") is coming up with some novel concepts.
Nevada has at least 3 nearly inexhaustible resources: Solar, GeoThermal and Wind. The state, with the success of companies such as Ormat, is already a leader in Geothermal energy. Our entrepreneur community is also strong in the game with ever more cost-effective wind capture technologies, even turbines artsy enough for the backyard. As far as solar is concerned, we have more sun-drenched land than any state in the union. What we need is the investment in the technologies that will provide cheap, renewable energy and the jobs for those industries to lead us out of this dark financial hole. There in lies the opportunity.
Stopped being fooled by the ever-changing prices of a barrel of oil. Stop being lulled by the attraction of cheap electrons provided by filthy coal ("clean coal", please). Even our Senior statesman, Senator Harry Reid, sees through this ruse.
There’s not a coal-fired plant in America that’s clean. They’re all dirty,” Reid told reporters after speaking at a conference on renewable energy. “Unless we do something quickly about global warming, we’re in trouble.”
Reid said the U.S. should rely on renewable forms of energy in an effort to curb emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change. Nevada and other Western states have an abundance of such renewables as wind, solar and geothermal power.
Bottom line, we can all pitch in. Write your elected officials (Senators, Congressmen, Assemblymen, Mayors, Councilmen. Speak with them when the opportunity presents itself. It is incumbent upon all of us. We can no longer mortgage our children's future. That money is already gone. Tomorrow was yesterday...act now!
For decades, being green conjured up Kermit and tree hugging. Since Al Gore (the inventor of the internet?!) brought much needed visibility with "An Uncomfortable Truth", being green has become the buzz for government and industry alike. We, as concerned citizens and business people my finally have the eyes and ears to radically change the way we live.
Now that we have been freed from the arrogance and ignorance of the Cheney Administration, we may now be able to set a course to free ourselves from our petro masters (more about petro-terrorism in another post).
We are in the middle of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression (though you'd think by the number of mood-enhancing drug commercials on the idiot box, the US is in the greatest of them all). The promise of our new President for the new New Deal offers the opportunity for our nation to build the skill sets that will allow us to again take the lead in innovation at the advent of a new energy age. There in lies the opportunity for the state of Nevada.
Renewable energy technologies are already in place to undo our ties to dirty energy. As with any technology, the more pervasive, the lower the cost. This year's auto show is a prime example. The number of hybrid and pure electric cars at the show (coming to a showroom near your...very soon!), tells of a turning of the tide. Even GM, an early adopter with the EVO in the 90's before the oil lobby crushed it (look up the film "Who Killed the Electric Car") is coming up with some novel concepts.
Nevada has at least 3 nearly inexhaustible resources: Solar, GeoThermal and Wind. The state, with the success of companies such as Ormat, is already a leader in Geothermal energy. Our entrepreneur community is also strong in the game with ever more cost-effective wind capture technologies, even turbines artsy enough for the backyard. As far as solar is concerned, we have more sun-drenched land than any state in the union. What we need is the investment in the technologies that will provide cheap, renewable energy and the jobs for those industries to lead us out of this dark financial hole. There in lies the opportunity.
Stopped being fooled by the ever-changing prices of a barrel of oil. Stop being lulled by the attraction of cheap electrons provided by filthy coal ("clean coal", please). Even our Senior statesman, Senator Harry Reid, sees through this ruse.
There’s not a coal-fired plant in America that’s clean. They’re all dirty,” Reid told reporters after speaking at a conference on renewable energy. “Unless we do something quickly about global warming, we’re in trouble.”
Reid said the U.S. should rely on renewable forms of energy in an effort to curb emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change. Nevada and other Western states have an abundance of such renewables as wind, solar and geothermal power.
Bottom line, we can all pitch in. Write your elected officials (Senators, Congressmen, Assemblymen, Mayors, Councilmen. Speak with them when the opportunity presents itself. It is incumbent upon all of us. We can no longer mortgage our children's future. That money is already gone. Tomorrow was yesterday...act now!
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