Mike's Daily Lockup

Text Messaging is the equivlent to Buying an $8.50 Churro!

In an episode of the Simpson's, Homer is at a theme park similar to Disneyland. As he walks up to a food stand he orders a Churro. When the employee on the other side of the cart responds that it's $8.50, Homer throws a fit.

Text messaging today is the same as buying an $8.50 churro: the churro itself is maybe 25 cents to make, another .10 to .15 cents to ship, and there is very little cost to prepare it. The rest of the cost is pure profit to the seller. The New York Times did a great job getting to the bottom of the accurate cost of a text message, the four telecommunications companies will tell you that the cost is due to tower maintenance, support, overhead, cross-network traffic, etc...but in the end it costs them nothing. Just like the churro, it's pure profit.

So as we now pay anywhere between .15 to .20 cents per text message the TelCo's are simply making a profit off of something that costs them nothing. This is one of the reasons why I insist that people e-mail, IM, or even Tweet me. Why spend all of this extra money per month for outrageous rates on moving very small amounts through a cellular network.

Maybe congress under the new Obama Administration should investigate why the rates are so high?

You can read the original NY Times article here and Engadget's take on it here.

Closing out 2008: "Everything Must Go!"

With the end of the year soon upon us, the economy is in the toilet, everyone from Banks to Automotive companies are asking for bailouts, and American's are loosing their jobs at a record pace, it's time to look back at 2008 one more time.

This year has been an interesting one. It is the last year in the eight years of the Bush Administration (depending on your political leanings, one can look at that in one of two ways). Election 2008 lead to the election of Barack Obama and Joe Biden to be the President and Vice-President of the United States. For the first time since Clinton/Gore I finally picked the winner in a presidential race. (I'm going to forget about what happened to Dukakis, Gore, and Kerry.) We may soon be able to call Al Franken, "Senator Al Franken." Gee, that now sounds really funny, and it is not a joke. Now might be a good time for me to read Al Franken's book, the one that I have had sitting on my bookshelf since last year. As for the Obama/Biden presidency, I'm glad to see a guy like Biden as the VP, the man has been through so much in his life and his career in the senate that he deserves it.

The Holiday season has been tough on almost all Americans this year. Every week we read more and more about the bad economy. Some of our friends and family have become part of the unemployment statistics and companies are cutting back on benefits. Every time we as Americans go through a tough economic time in our lives we come back with a stronger economy, we need to innovate our way out of this economic muck, we need to do what we do best, invent, create, and build the technologies that will lift us out of our troubled times. We need employers to value education, we need them to stop outsourcing American jobs, we need to provide incentives to the American workforce. Only then will we climb out of the deep hole that we are in.

Just as we finish the presidential election, Californians will soon be preparing to return to the polls for statewide races. With the election in 2010 and the state party conventions just around the corner, names are being thrown about for Governor and Attorney General. In the Governor's race the names of Brown, Poizner, Newsome, and Feinstein are being tossed around. While in the Attorney General's race the names of Harris, Liu, and Kelly are starting to crop up. Harris, the San Francisco DA would be an interesting choice, but would she play well in Conservative areas and the relative newcomer of Kelly, the Cheif Privacy Officer for Facebook, might make this race interesting. Kelly could leverage his experience with the social networking site to build a social network for his campaign that might be similar to the one established for the Obama Campaign. And we all know what happened with Obama...just saying.

So I bid 2008 a fond farewell and don't let the door hit you on the way out. I've got Jan. 20, 2009 circled on my calender, I'm putting the peddle to the floor after the holidays, and I can't wait to see where life takes me in 2009.

So to all my readers: Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year from the MDLU!

Battle of the Concert Halls

In a battle of comparisons between The OC and LA, which of these concert halls would be a great place for a Holiday Concert?

A. OC B. LA or C. Both.

Vote via tweet @mdlu or in the comments.

Fine Art

899...This makes 900

Well, with the economy in the doldrums, the loss of jobs at a 37-year high, and I'm trying to get in to the holiday spirit, I just had to write post number 900. I really didn't think that my 900th post here on the MDLU would be about a topic that was put to rest a long time ago.

Since I have had some more time on my hands, I've been following the political news sites a lot more. Some of the more interesting stories to pop up lately have been the sudden challenges to Obama's citizenship. I mean, really, is this the best that you can think of. If McCain won, do you not think that he would suffer the same challenges? John McCain was born in the Canal Zone of Panama, which last I checked was not part of the United States. So for some to claim that Obama cannot be president due to a possible suspect birth-certificate from Hawaii, is a sign of desperation. The birth certificate that is suddenly suspect was vouched for by the State of Hawaii as authentic.

The one justice on the Supreme Court who decided to actually refer the case: Clarance Thomas.

Now the Court still has to decide if they will address this case. There have already been a couple attempts to stay the final count of the Electors (which would formally finalize the election) but that has been denied by the Court, Justice David Souter to be precise.

Also one must consider the ramifications if the Court does decided to hear this case and the issues surrounding it. First, going back to Gore v. Bush, the court overturned the will of the people, and we all know how well that one went... Second, if the Court decides to step in the middle of an election again it will overturn not only the overwhelming will of the people in this election and the majority of the electoral vote. I shudder to think of what would happen if the second ramification were to occur.

Will the Court hear this case, probably not, but the fact that the case was referred to the Court at all is a dangerous message to send to the President-Elect.

New Advertising Opportunities with The MDLU

With the current state of the economy and the fact that I have more time to focus on Mike's Daily Lockup, I would formally like to announce that we are now accepting advertisements.

I personally do not handle the process of selecting or placing ads on my site. But if an ad does conflict or is in bad taste please e-mail me.

If you would like to advertise with us please visit the advertising section of TypePad.

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The Management.