Bush approves $17.4 billion for auto makers
While this may come as no surprise to anyone, we really have to wonder if these bailouts are in the best interest of the US. Yes, yes, I understand the argument about people losing their jobs, the trickle down issue of suppliers going out of business, etc etc. I do understand all of that. But, the one significant question is… When did it become the government’s responsibility to make sure businesses remain in business? Isn’t that the business’s responsibility?
Credit Crisis
Clearly, every company that has to extend credit is at risk during the credit meltdown, but the Detroit car makers were in trouble long before the credit meltdown. It’s just that now it is making it even harder for them to sell cars. But, is this because of the credit meltdown or is it the types of cars they are producing?
While I would love to say that their woes can be entirely blamed on the credit crisis, it can’t. Detroit has been lagging behind producing unappealing cars for many years now. Is it no wonder no one is going to the dealership and buying their cars? Sure, consumers may not be able to get the credit necessary to get a new car now, but even when credit was readily available, consumers still weren’t buying. If Detroit were making cars that people want, their business would have been booming all along. Just look at Apple. They make appealing technological products. Even in this economy, people are still buying iPhones that come with $90-120 a month plans! It’s an amazing feat when people, who probably cannot afford that amount per month, are shelling out that money just to get an iPhone!
Yet, the car makers can’t get their cars into consumer’s hands. So, the big question is.. why? Clearly, they aren’t providing high enough quality or appealing enough design, nor are they doing anything about becoming ecologically friendly. When gas prices hit almost $4 a gallon, they were still cranking out cars producing 20 mpg. Does this make sense?
By Design
The Detroit design teams need to rethink their ideas. They need to come out with some innovative approaches to vehicles. That means, trying things that haven’t been done before. I don’t usually like to give out free ideas, but I’ll make an exception here. For example, Toyota put into the Prius a touch screen control panel for pretty much all of the necessary comfort and convenience systems of the car. That’s a great first step. But, let’s take that one step further. Auto makers need to put in a touch screen system to control all aspects of the car including such things as controlling and viewing the engine tuning, tire pressure, and setting and releasing cruise control.
They should probably team up with Apple (or Microsoft) to add a mainstream operating system (embedded, of course) into their cars. Cars should offer WiFi or 3G connectivity. Cars should also have a full fledge computer as an optional built-in. But, the computer needs to be removable to take in during excessive heat or cold.
Ecologically Friendly
Fuel cells have been talked about for quite some time. But, this and other forms of innovation has not progressed. For example, when you’re driving the car along, there are other ways to recoup energy into the batteries. For example, wind and sun. As you’re driving, there is wind against the car. It should be a simple matter to add a wind turbine to recoup energy during driving. Adding solar panels in strategic places would also allow for additional energy.
Frankly, I’m surprised someone hasn’t come up with a photo conductive paint surface to use the entire vehicle’s painted surface as a giant solar panel. These are the kinds of innovations that make you go, “Hmm”. These are also the kinds of innovations that lead energy conscious consumers to buy into them. Regenerative breaking is a great first step, but we need to take it far beyond that.
Business 101
The detroit car makers have become so distant from what people actually want, that they can’t consistently produce sellable products. When you’re putting a car together, which is not an insignificant task, you want to make sure that you produce the best product possible. Detroit seems to have lost that edge and, instead, is hiding in a cave producing things they feel are ‘safe’, but that don’t sell.
Government and Business
What it comes down to is that Government should not become (nor have to become) involved in the day to day operations of ANY business, let alone the car makers. So, if these companies can’t produce quality wanted products, perhaps it’s time we let them go. We don’t need to prop up industries that don’t deserve to be propped up… no matter how many employees or small companies that they may incidentally subsidize.
In the spirit of randomness: Oxiclean
While I know that this may sound like an advertisement, it really is not intended to be. I’ve had a lot of people tell me that this product doesn’t work. However, that’s not actually true. The spirit of this article is intended to help people understand just how to properly use this product (and possibly other similar oxygen based laundry cleaners).
In the spirit
I’ve had some people actually ask me how I get my whites so white… and I thought that only happened in commercials. Well, after I started using OxiClean, that’s when it started happening. But, there is a trick to using this product. However, some people who’ve asked me what I use are usually also the ones who are quick to fire back, “It doesn’t work for me”. Yes, because you’re not using it correctly.
Regardless of what the commercials or packaging may tell you about this product, it really is only good at doing one thing: cleaning white cotton materials. It may work on colors to a degree, but probably no better than any other product on the market.
Ok, so what is the trick?
It’s very simple, the trick to using OxiClean effectively is hot water (the hotter the better) and time. OxiClean is most effective in hot water. In fact, it’s much more effective in hot water than bleach is in any temperature of water. OxiClean also doesn’t eat away at your clothes like bleach. But, you need to keep the water hot. Additionally, you need to give the garments adequate time to wash/soak. Running it in the shortest wash cycle will do nothing. For example, I have one of the European style front loading High Efficiency (HE) washers. When I place the dial to start on the Hot (regular) cycle, this cycle lasts at least 2 hours.
I then combine my regular tide HE detergent with about a half a cup of OxiClean and let it run the entire 2 hours with hot water. So, adding your standard detergent also helps the OxiClean.
But, but, but …
There’s no buts here. This product does work. Although, it doesn’t work without hot water. Don’t put it cold water washes. That’s a complete waste of OxiClean. So, if you have a garment that can’t tolerate hot water, there’s no point to using OxiClean as it won’t do much, if anything. This is probably why people generally think this product doesn’t work and is also the wrong way and reason to use it.
Soaking things
OxiClean works better the hotter the water is and the longer you let the garment soak. So, for heavily stained whites, you’ll want to let them soak at least 3 hours, if not overnight. For minimal to average discoloration, 1-2 hours should be sufficient to remove most stains.
Remember, use hot water and combine it with your longest hot water cycle (and your regular detergent) and your whites should whiten right up. The first time I used OxiClean like this, I realized that this would be the way I wash my whites from now on. I’ve been using OxiClean like this for at least 2 years now. No, it’s not the best product on the market for laundry overall, but it is the best product on the market for washing whites.
America’s Recession: loans and scams
Economic Downturn & The Fed
Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave, you’re probably aware that we’re going through a fairly deep recession. Recessions are cyclical, but in this case it probably could have been either avoided or lessened IF the banks and lenders had not been offering creative financing techniques. It also could likely have been avoided if our current pro-business govt. administration hadn’t chosen to look the other way while bad mortgages were being doled out. The problem with all of the creative financing is that it tended to lead some people into believing they could afford a mortgage they could not afford. When the loan reset after the promotional period, the realization quickly set in. Worse, the situation was compounded by property investors who sank huge amounts of loaned money into properties that would eventually become valued less than the loan.
It’s not as if the handwriting wasn’t on the wall several years ago when the fed dropped the rate to 1 percent. Now, we are back in this exact situation again with the fed dropping the rate to an unprecedented 1/2 percent. The feds are, again, trying to spur the economy like they did 2-3 years ago. But, this time, the banks don’t have money to lend. So, the 1/2 percent may not trickle down into the mortgage market like it did several years ago.
But, our economy is still likely being set up for yet another financial failure. The banks that do have money to lend are still advertising on the radio claiming extremely low interest rates. The problem isn’t the rate, but the loan you’ll be getting. If it’s a standard fixed rate loan, that’s fine. But, it’s the fine print you need to read. Don’t get locked into an adjustable rate mortgage or a limited time interest only loan. Once these creative loans reset in a couple of years, you may end up deep under water.
The Fed, therefore, needs to be extra careful when cutting the rates this low again to avoid the same mortgage problems all over again.
Scams in a down economy
With the economy being so depressed, it’s also a good idea to watch your money closely. As money gets tighter and tighter, the scammers will come out of the woodwork (and they already are). I’ve already noticed a drastic increase in spam and phishing emails since the economy has taken a turn. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.
There are many scams out there from the Nigerian 419 scam that claims to give you a ton of money only to rip you off of thousands of dollars before you realize it, to sending you what look like official invoices that only turn out to be scams in themselves. Don’t fall for them. The easiest way to avoid scams is to not give out any personal information to anyone who approaches you claiming to be from a legit company. This means, if you receive a call asking you to make a payment and they request for you to give a credit card over the phone, don’t. Make sure you know who this company is first and make sure you are a customer. Then, tell the company that you will call them back through their official channels and make a payment that way. As long as you are the person making the call to the official number, you should be safe. With incoming calls, you have no idea who is really calling you no matter what the CallerID says. Always, always call companies back from official numbers located on a trusted bill or from the back of your credit card.
TV advertisements that offer products or services usually employ people who are not paid very well. So, be wary when you give your credit card number out to TV commercial based purchases. Not only are some of these companies impossible to get refunds, your card number could be enrolled in a club or, worse, stolen by one of the telephone operators in an independent scam. You should always Google the product you are thinking of purchasing to 1) find out if you can find it cheaper online and 2) find out if people have had issues with either the product or the companies refund polices.
Get rich schemes are basically another form of scam. Yes, they do make someone rich… the person who created the scheme, but not you. Get rich schemes are usually designed to part you from your money. So, in a down economy, you should avoid get rich schemes (placing classified ads, setting up ecommerce sites that sell Amway products, or Multi Level Marketing – MLM schemes). Note that MLMs only make the top most people money. If you’re anywhere near the bottom, you will be parted from your money.
Craigslist and even eBay are a haven for scammers. Be careful when you work with people selling or renting things. Never buy or rent anything sight unseen and never give money out as a ‘deposit’ or to ‘hold’ something unless you truly trust the individual. Chances are, if the person you are thinking of doing business is presently outside of the US, you should immediately stop the transaction unless you know for sure that what they are selling/renting is legit.
If you are selling a car or renting out an apartment, watch out for scams here too. There are some people who are outside of the US who will claim to give you an excessive sum of money in the form of a check. They may even send you what looks like an official check.. the problem is that it will bounce causing you fees and other associated problems (and may let them get access to your account number). Don’t cash any checks like this.
The bottom line is that in this weak economy, you should be extra careful with your money as there are lots of desperate unemployed people willing to do anything to make a buck (or a thousand). Always make sure to do your homework before buying anything or giving out personal information to someone you don’t know. If you suspect a scam, you should alert your bank or credit card company immediately.
iTunes 8 never installs or upgrades, requests to reboot over and over in Vista
[UPDATE: 9/15/10]
This issue is back (without the rebooting part) in iTunes 10 and Windows 7. Please see my most current post describing how to resolve this issue. Note, the information contained in the article below is here for historical value only. Please see my latest post describing how to fix the most current issue with iTunes 10 and Windows 7. -Brian
[UPDATE: 10/28/09]
As an update to this Randosity article, I have upgraded my system to Windows 7 and then installed iTunes 9. Since making this change, I am no longer having the registry issue documented in this Randosity article. So, it may be worthwhile to upgrade your system to Windows 7 to alleviate this issue. Of course, it could be a fluke, but iTunes installed and started up without any issues on Windows 7. Before you upgrade, though, you’ll want to remove iTunes from your system, then run the upgrade to Windows 7, then reinstall iTunes 9. If you still experience registry issues with Windows 7 and iTunes 9, refer to this article for tips on what to do.
[UPDATE: 4/08/09]
Note: I’ve just found that the permissions issues resurface after the upgrade to the 8.1.1.10 version of iTunes. If it happens to you, you will want to follow the instructions below to fix the permissions problems such as to enable the use of the itms protocol (the protocol that lets you get to iTunes URLs from your browser through the iTunes app). Note that you may be able to uninstall iTunes and reinstall it with success. However, I wasn’t able to do this on my system. So, I had to utilize the instructions below. Note also that when you use the Software Update tool under Windows that it will change the permissions back to being non-functional. So, you will, again, need to follow the instructions below.
Note that I have simplified these instructions.
[END UPDATE}
What is this all about?
I ran into this iTunes problem on my Windows Vista 64 Home Premium installation. If you have an iPod or an iPhone, this can be extremely frustrating. I am also using the iTunes 64 bit version. I spent probably 2-3 days poking around on the Internet for answers to this problem. The answer is not as easy as one might have hoped. This fix should work with all versions of Vista, but specifically works for Vista 64. However, there is a solution.
So, let’s describe the problems you might encounter because of this issue:
- iTunes upgrades and asks you to reboot. You reboot. You try to start iTunes and a Windows Installer says ‘configuring’ again. It asks you to reboot again. You do this 2 -3 times and realize this is a dead end. iTunes won’t start from the icon.
- You launch an itms, itmss or itpc protocol in your browser and the browser tells you there is no application associated with this protocol.
- Quicktime gives you an ActiveX error and won’t run.
There have been several proposed solutions to this issue. The easiest being, go to your Program Files folder and create a shortcut from the iTunes.exe file to your desktop (or wherever). While this first resolution does work and will let you play your music, it will only work to a degree. It doesn’t fix Quicktime. It also doesn’t fix the underlying issue and it doesn’t fix the browser launching problem described above. For that, read on.
The Reason Behind this Issue
Feel free to skip to the The Solution below if you want to get started right away.
Windows Vista adds in much stronger security protections within Windows including Windows registry entries. So, things tend to run as the psuedo user SYSTEM (sometimes called Local System) and also apparently some registry entries get installed as the SYSTEM user. Note, the SYSTEM user is not an actual user. So, you cannot log in as this user, nor can you easily use RunAs on this user. Fret not, there is a way to get an interactive session with the SYSTEM user in Vista. We’ll come to that under the solutions section.
With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft has completely thwarted the idea of a superuser. No longer is there a superuser on Windows Vista. Because of this change, there are now permissions that can be set onto objects, things and registry entries that can even prevent Administrator (the once previous superuser) from getting access to that object within Vista. That doesn’t mean that Administrator can’t ulimately get access to the object, it means that the initial permissions prevent it. The superuser Administrator can still change the permissions and ownerships always, but the initial permissions prevent access. In a truly superuser system, this should never happen. There should always be a full superuser that always has access 100% of the time regardless of set permissions. That’s the idea behind a superuser. Thus, Microsoft has officially broken the Windows’ superuser.
The Broken Apple Problem
Because the superuser is now broken in Vista, there are registry entries that get placed (or replaced) as a result of Apple’s inept handling of the installation of iTunes (and probably Quicktime also). So, entries get built with only SYSTEM user permissions. No permissions are given to Administrator, Users or any other group or user on the system. Because SYSTEM has such limited privileges (created specifically by MS to thwart privilege escalation exploits), the installer for iTunes (actually the Windows installer) cannot reset the broken permissions that the initial installer created in the first place!
In other words, let’s say you’re logged in as your account named ‘beaners’. The account ‘beaners’ is not allow access to read objects that are created by the SYSTEM user (where this object has no other permissions set). Since your ‘beaners’ account doesn’t have permissions to SYSTEM created objects, your account gets ‘Access Denied’. That would be fine if the object were intentionally supposed to be set this way. However, because of Apple’s ineptness, the iTunes registry entries get set up this way. So, your ‘beaners’ account again gets ‘Access Denied’ to these registry entries. This breaks iTunes and is probably not what Apple intended. In fact, the permissions for these registry entries should have been set so that all users have full control over these registry entries. Yes, there is a Users group that includes all users of Windows.
This is a fairly serious and stupid mistake by Apple.
The Solution
As of 4/08/09, I have found that the reason the script didn’t work for me initially wasn’t related the administrator account. Instead, it was the script itself being incomplete. I have, therefore, included a lot more registry fixes for mostly iTunes, but it also includes many Quicktime registry entries. Because of the fixed script, I am able to present a far easier methodology to get iTunes working. As a result of fixing this script to work better, I was able to reduce this article down to only a few steps.
Actually, the solution relies on a script that ultimately resets the permissions on the iTunes and Quicktime registry entries to give Administrator and Users (the group described above) access to all of these entries. The script must run as Administrator to be successful. Therefore, you will need to use the ‘Run as administrator’ feature on the script. This fix will not succeed if the script isn’t running as Administrator.
To proceed with this fix, you will need the following things:
- Subinacl: Download ‘subinacl.exe’ from Microsoft here.
- Reset.cmd: You can download the script from here.
Find your script where you downloaded it. Make sure that subinacl.exe is in your path or place this subinacl.exe in the same directory with the script. Next, right-click the reset.cmd file and choose ‘Run as administrator’ (see image below):
Run reset.cmd as Administrator
Once you run it as Administrator, it will open a command shell. You may see the security warning below:
Security Warning
If you see the security warning, it is just asking you to confirm that this is what you really want to do. Click the ‘Run’ button to run reset.cmd script. Once it runs, it will open a command shell:
Command Shell Running Reset.cmd
Press any key to begin the repair or close the window to abort. If you want to see what the Reset.cmd command does before you run it, open it in Notepad. You will see that it simply modifies the permissions on the registry keys associated with Quicktime and iTunes to allow Everyone to access these registry keys. Once this task is completed, your iTunes will be repaired and functional.
Good luck and let me know if you have questions or if you have a success story.
Disclaimer: You are responsible for your use of this information. This information is provided as-is with no warranty expressed or implied. Use the above information at your own risk. You should always make system restore points or backups before making registry changes so you can restore your system in the event of unexpected problems.
Ponzi Schemes and Wall Street
I hope that everyone who invests money knows that entrusting your money to someone else is risky. It doesn’t matter if the yield is 0%, 2% or 5%. The act of handing your money to someone else involves risk. So, is it then no surprise when someone like Bernard Madoff, who once the chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market, is arrested for an alleged ponzi scheme that bilked people out of billions?
Hello, no! Wake up people. When times are good, no one delves into such corrupt Wall Street vehicles because they are self-sustaining. It’s only when times become bad that these schemes fall apart. The way a ponzi scheme works is by paying old investors out with new investor money. The fund itself is not self-sustaining (and probably was never intended to be). So, as new investors dry up, the older investers can no longer be paid. The whole thing then falls apart.
But, the question isn’t so much that this one person did this. It’s the loss of trust and of faith in the system. It’s the question of how many more people are doing it? When respected people of the invesment community end up operating such scam vehicles, what does that say of Wall Street as a whole? Clearly, this is not and will not be the only ponzi scheme to turn up. It’s the first major case of it recently, but it certainly won’t be the last.
Is investing a bad idea? Not necessarily. But, it is risky. This is why diversification is part of the answer. Do not put your money into one fund or even two or three funds. Spread the money out into many funds. Granted, it’s harder to keep track of, but the chances that every single investment fund being corrupt is unlikely. However, we all know that money corrupts. So, you have to take the good with the bad when you give someone your cash to manage.
These are the kinds of problems that shake the foundations of investing to the core. These are the kinds of trust issues that the investment community needs to avoid like the plague. Yet, here we are. These are also the kinds of problems that America itself has been fostering for the last 10-15 years. Why is greed, power and corruption such a big part of the American dream today? Only a historian will be able to look back and fully answer this question. Today, these problems appear to be unrelated. But, is this problem systemic? Is it only likely to get worse? When well respected Wall Street investment professionals, such as Madoff, can bilk so many out of their money, this is much more than isolated and, indeed, does appear to be systemic and a symptom of a much bigger issue.
At this point, America needs an overhaul and perhaps this downturn and the financial sector upheaval is the beginning of that overhaul. The corporate and financial system on which this country is based is near completely broken. When 20 year veterans of Wall Street can turn to Ponzi schemes to keep their lifestyle afloat, anything can happen. So, watch your money closely when you invest. But, even doing so is no guarantee that you aren’t investing in a sham. One quote is more salient now than ever… “Caveat Emptor” (Buyer Beware).
Car Maker Bailout
Because I’ve already discussed my views on bailouts, I’ve debated about creating a post on this topic. So, I will keep this one short and sweet.
No no no! No bailout for car makers. We do not need to be footing any more bills for badly run companies. If the car makers cannot get their act together on their own, what makes anyone think they’ll be able to succeed with an infusion of cash from the government? The answer, they won’t.
Worse, without any government oversight (and there has been little oversight of the bank bailouts), they’ll take the cash and run without actually becoming accountable for it.
Again, no no no. No more bailouts. Let these companies go through Chapter 11 and rework their own company’s finances on their own.
Alleged Time Traveler – John Titor
John Titor — Time Traveler or Time Waster?
John Titor is the alleged time traveler from the year 2036. He was apparently born in 1998 and would be 10 years old in 2008. He also claims that a civil war begins in 2005 and ends by 2015 which, Titor says, leads to a very rapid nuclear holocaust on major cities in the US. Anyway, in 2008 we should be right in the heart of Titor’s described civil war. So far, I don’t see it. Anyway, that’s not my point, but it does support it.
2038 UNIX Problem
One of the consistent things that Titor kept mentioning in his posts is the 2038 UNIX problem. Unfortnately, he didn’t describe this problem in detail. Well, the UNIX problem that he keeps mentioning is related to a 32 bit issue with the clock. UNIX sets its epoch (starting point) to midnight 1/1/1970. Calculating 32 bits out for the clock, the clock will end in 2038 (the clock rolls over). It’s basically the millennium clock issue over again in UNIX. His arguments completely ignore the fact that 32 bit UNIX could be fixed by resetting the Epoch time to a more recent date. This fix would postpone the 32 bit issue to a much later date. Note that this 2038 issue should actually be affecting us already in 2008. The reason is that new 30 year mortgages and other long term investment or loan situations would already be affected (and miscalculated) because of this problem. I digress.
The problem I have with his consistent commentary about this UNIX issue is that by 2038 we should be using 64 bit operating systems almost exclusively (if not even more bits than that). 64 bit operating systems do not have the 2038 clock problem because the clock variable would be 64 bits in size and the clock’s rollover value would be orders of magnitude larger (tens of thousands of years in the future).
Secondarily, he implies that he has traveled back to get an IBM 5100 (old 70s portable mainframe computer) because of the impending 2038 UNIX problem. I don’t see how the two are related. It’s possible that the original UNIX developers used a 5100 to help develop the original UNIX (or should I say Multics from which UNIX was born). But, Linux and other open source UNIX systems offer ways to recompile the kernel from within itself. So, you wouldn’t need a 5100 to recompile UNIX (unless you’re running the original UNIX developed by AT&T). Who would be doing that in 2036 and why? With Linux, you could fix the issue and recompile the kernel in itself.. and you could do it better and faster on notebook from the 2000s than you could on a computer from the 70s. So, his argument needing a 5100 is rather flawed no matter what ‘special mode’ it offered. Again, why would anyone in 2036 be operating a computer from the 70s? If time travel were possible, why would you choose such an old computer and then why would you go back to the time when it was new? For example, you could pick one up cheap in 1996 from eBay (presumably you could even find one today).
Inconsistent arguments
These inconsistencies, among others, in his time travel tales just don’t make sense and don’t ring true. Granted, his arguments can be excused based on the string theory of time travel (to which he clings). Assuming infinite strings and that you can only travel to strings not your own, then traveling to another string suggests his original timeline may not have developed 64 bit UNIX or any other modern unix flavors. But, that doesn’t exactly jibe with his 2.5% string divergence argument. Not developing 64 bit UNIX indicates a lot more than a 2.5% divergence. Note that Titor claimed he jumped to our timeline because the divergence from his own timeline was no more than 2.5%.
But, that assumes time travel is possible at all…
For fanciful time travel tales, I suggest watching Stargate SG1. This series had several well thought out time travel episodes that postulated string theory time travel. In these episodes, the series suggested that one timeline could have had such major changes that little was the same as the ‘real’ timeline.
So, John Titor, I’m just not convinced that you did time travel. That doesn’t mean time travel is not possible, it just means I’m not convinced you actually did. After reading through your answers, I’m still unsure of your agenda on the message board so many years ago… that is, unless you were a doctoral or masters student using that 4 month stint as research into your thesis or dissertation. Let’s hope you got an A on it.
Does CitiGroup deserve a government umbrella?
I guess the broader question, does any large commercial business deserve to be bailed out? Well, clearly Mom and Pop businesses fail every day. Yet, the government does nothing. Why do large conglomerates deserve special treatment?
The short answer is that there is some magical threshold where there are too many people who would lose their jobs as a result of the failure combined with possible economic ramifications. But, still, does that warrant a bailout? No.
If a business cannot run itself in a fiscally appropriate manner (large or small) it deserves to fail and go away. If any of your family is employed by CitiGroup or any financial company caught up in the turmoil of the financial sector crisis, I feel for you. But, that doesn’t mean that the company deserves to continue to exist if they cannot maintain profitability even in the toughest of times. Fiscal responsibility starts at the top of the company and trickles down to even the most bottom level employee.
What does this mean? It means, don’t request a new computer every year. Don’t ask for Herman Miller chairs and the most expensive ergonomic keyboard simply because you can. If the item is considered ergonomic, the company is almost obligated to make sure you get it. Buying all of these expensive amenities for your desk makes you fiscally irresponsible to the company if you don’t really need it (and, in most cases, you don’t). But, that’s not to say that this is responsible for CitiGroup’s problems.
Who knows where the money hemmorage is going inside these companies. But, clearly, it’s not going back into the business. Again, I ask, why do these companies deserved to be bailed out? What makes them special? I have no sympathy for large companies that can’t properly manage themselves. Neither should the government. Spending all of this money to prop up these badly run organizations is clearly counter to free enterprise.
In Free Enterprise you have to take the good with the bad. That means, when business is good, you profit. When it’s bad, you bankrupt and close. There needs to be no governmental cushion here to soften the fall.
Does CitiGroup or any other badly run business deserve an umbrella? What do you think?
Songwriting Competition or Lottery?
If you are a songwriter, you want your songs to be heard. However, there are so many web sites and people out there that promise you the world and deliver nothing. This article will discuss songwriting competitions.
Is it a lottery?
Most songwriting competitions charge money for each song entry. Think of the song entry as a form. You might as well have just submitted this form into a barrel. Then, they have judges who are supposed to review the entries and pick winners.
Because listening to a song is based entirely on subjective likes and dislikes, there can be no objective methodologies to pick a winner. Thus, subjective criteria equals random selection. This means that, overall, this is tantamount to pulling a slip of paper from the barrel and choosing winners at random. Because you must pay to enter and because it’s a random selection, it’s a lottery. Don’t fall for lotteries disguised as contests. Worse, there’s no guarantee the judges actually listen to every song submitted anyway… which further makes this a lottery by random selection.
Don’t support pay-for-play competitions
If you are an independent artist, songwriter or musician thinking of entering a songwriting competition, think twice before entering. Many of these competitions are scams. They are there to take your money and leave you high and dry. Instead, use your money to further your career (buy recording equipment, pay for studio time, book gigs to make money). If you really must play the lottery, play the state lottery. It costs less and you have equal odds of winning.
Allegedly, one of the largest ‘competitions’ is the ISC (International Songwriting Competition). They boast industry seasoned judges and lots of impressive things, but overall it’s still a lottery. As far as I know, independent lotteries are still illegal in most states.
What you win
Should you win, let’s put a spotlight on this aspect. If you do enter a competition and by some miracle fluke the judges actually pick your song, what’s next? This is tricky to answer. You need to read the fine print on the competition. You might win a recording contract, but then you might be required to turn over all rights of your music to the contest. Are you willing to part with your music rights just to record or win? These are not necessarily lucrative contracts. On the other hand, you might win a small pittance of cash or some dinky thing and still be required to relinquish your musical rights. You need to read closely to find out what you might be giving up.
Turning over music rights
This is a tricky subject because there’s no right answer. However, consider this. If you’ve written what you consider to be an absolutely fabulous song and other people agree, then you probably do not want to part with the rights to this song. If you turn over all rights for this music to the contest, that means that any money made from that music is no longer yours. If the music, for example, gets licensed to Justin Timberlake or Britney Spears and they turn it into a #1 hit, you still won’t get any money from it. Of course, you can always try to sue, but the contest probably has a reasonably binding contract in place. Thus, you aren’t likely to get very far with a lawsuit.
However, there’s the flip side of that. If you are wanting notoriety, then perhaps it is worth giving up the rights. Meaning, if you’re hungry and willing to lose the rights to one of your songs in order to get your name on the songwriter line that does become a #1 hit, it may actually help your career. That is, of course, assuming the contest has any obligation to put your name on the song as author based on the contest rules.
Furthering your career
If you really want to further your career as a songwriter, you’d probably do better to list your music through an A&R service like Taxi (see below) or another placement service who can get your music out to artists, TV shows, movies or video games. It may cost money to place your music, but it’s not a lottery. It’s more of a ‘music store’ where entertainment industry professionals can find new music for projects.
How about free contests?
By all means, enter as many free contests as you can find. That is, if you can find any. But, ignore contests that charge you money. You have no idea where that money goes… and many charge as much as $25-50 per song! By comparison, you can put an entire CD on iTunes, AmazonMP3 AND Rhapsody for that same $25-35 (the cost of 1 competition entry) using places like CDBaby. So, save your money and invest it into equipment (instruments, recording equipment, computers, etc) or advertising. This will take you a lot further in your career by allowing you to produce your own music. You can self-publish or submit demos right to labels. You can also take out your own personal advertisements for your CD as well.
Careful with your money
Always be careful as there are many musician placement (A&R) services out there that will scam you before they give you any real level of service. Taxi is one of the few that appears to be reputable in this regard, but they will charge you money for each submission on top of a monthly fee (so be cautious even here). Broadjam is another, but they also charge to submit music ($5-15 per song on top of a subscription fee) for placement consideration. When businesses charge you money to submit music for placement, you should be wary. There is no real way to know that they are doing the right thing for you. So, if you submit music without response or get an unexpected (strange) response, don’t spend money for that again.
Bottom line, there are plenty of places out there that can scam you… if it looks like a scam, feels like a scam and acts like a scam, it probably is.
State of the economy
Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave, you’re probably well aware of the issues facing the banking and finance sectors of the economy. Here are my thoughts on this.
What started it all?
Clearly, this whole debacle started when the feds lowered the interest rate to 1% and the mortgage firms saw a field day. One only had to listen to the radio for about 5 minutes to hear a commercial for some bank advertising stupendous mortgage rates. During this period, this became known as the housing bubble. This sector was primarily propping up the economy even when consumer spending in other areas was lackluster.
Government regulation (or lack thereof)
First, this whole debacle would not have become an issue if the government had been properly regulating the banking industry. Unfortunately, this presidential administration has been so pro-business that they would let anything and everything slide to let businesses do whatever they want. Is government to blame? Yes, but only partly. The rest of the blame falls squarely on the businesses.
Does AIG and Lehman Brother’s deserve to fail? Most certainly they do. Badly run companies need to go away. If a company can’t do the proper things to ensure continued success, then they deserve to fail. Unfortunately, the government and the stock market don’t see it that way. Because AIG and Lehman propped up much of the banking industry with their services, letting these businesses fail is tantamount to pulling the rug out from under you while you’re walking. The issue here is… putting all your eggs in one basket. Drop the basket and.. you get the idea. Government LET banks basically put their eggs into one basket by allowing bank sector consolidations (this goes back to letting businesses do whatever they want to do). Instead of raising an issue when it should have been raised, the government just sat there and said nothing. So, instead of saying.. no, there must be several insurers to prevent ‘eggs in one basket’, the banks’ insurance policies were not policed and were primarily underwritten by AIG.
Lending Practices
The banks, brokers and mortgage firms are clearly to blame for beginning this debacle. If they had been practicing proper loan practices, this issue would not have occurred. Instead, they were not only handing out loans to anyone and everyone, they were handing out risky loans. Loans such as interest-only loans for the first two years or adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) that would also reset in 2 years.
Then, we had the speculators buying two, three, four or more homes all with multiple loans given by these ever-so-gracious banks. It’s not as if the handwriting wasn’t on the wall. But, again, no one stepped in to put on the brakes.
So, the foreclosures started, homes got devalued, more foreclosures ensued, banks began losing their interest payments and gaining properties they couldn’t sell… Banks tried to collect on their insurance policies for a bad loan from AIG. The payouts forced it to bubbled up to the top feeders who’s bottom lines got severely hit (like AIG and Lehman). Then, bankruptcy…
Bailout
So, that’s all hindsight.. what do we do now? The primary issue at this point is the bailout. Should it be allowed? Clearly, congress didn’t think so in the form that it was submitted. Personally, I’m torn. As a taxpayer, I don’t want to be forced to help bail out a company that isn’t run properly. If a company chooses to use policy holder premiums to buy executives parties, cars, yachts, summer and winter homes, vacations and everything else that can be thought of instead of banking that money in the case of insurance payout or to help fund rough times. then they need to go away.
On the other hand, I don’t really want the economy to go into the toilet. However, I think this issue is inevitable. The bailout is simply a bandaid. If the bailout does anything, it will just delay the economic issues until a few years out. Perhaps the bailout will smooth it out a little more than without it, but I don’t see the economy getting tremendously better with a bailout than without.
Tip of the iceberg
Worse, we are only seeing the tippy top of the iceberg. There’s way much more under water than we can’t see. How many other banks or financial institutions will fail before it’s all said and done? This is still unclear. There is also a trickledown here that just hasn’t completely trickled down yet. For example, local cities and municipalities will feel the crunch come property tax time. Now that so many homes are in foreclosure, the tax base is probably 75% of what it was… perhaps even less. Banks won’t pay the taxes on properties and the former owners won’t either. So, come 2009, and these municipalities will be struggling for budgets. This leaves police, fire and even education in the lurch again… and we haven’t even gotten there yet.
Stimulus Package given back
Since Bush has taken office, he’s given out two stimulus packages of around $500 each. That’s a total of $1000 to each person. However, if we are forced to bail out AIG, all of that stimulus will be wiped out and we, the taxpayer, will be forced to double that again (around $2-4k per person) to cover the bailout. We’re just going to give our stimulus package right back to the government and then also hand over additional cash.
So, where from here? The path is definitely not clear. But, the US certainly needs dramatic help both in government and in corporate businesses. How that’s supposed to happen, again, is not clear. But, we are certainly not on the path to success with skyrocketing deficit combined with financial debacles such as this. One thing is crystal clear, government needs to regulate corporations that cannot regulate themselves… and they need to regulate them BEFORE the issues become debacles.
Random Thoughts - Randocity! 
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