Author: luken7

An avid and passionate sailor, drummer and technologist. My career focuses around computing and storage technologies. My passion is sailing and playing drums. I love music, especially progressive jazz and rock.

GM is back into subprime lending – latimes.com

Posted on by luken7

Well that was quick. Call us the United States of Amnesia. First, we bail out GM and bondholders get wiped out, or had their money taken away from them and handed to the auto unions to pay off favors. Many folks had GM bonds in their retirement or investment portfolios somewhere, so we essentially were robbed.

GM provided subprime loans to finance the sale of vehicles, to people who probably shouldn’t have been purchasing new vehicles. Why buy a used car when you can get a new one, even if you really can’t afford it. Part of GM’s collapse was due to it’s financial arm’s lending, it definitely contributed to the problem. Now they are back in that same business, spending ~$3.5B to buy a subprime financier. Let’s see if Congress or the President will have anything to say about it. Probably not because the tap dance will be about job creation, never mind if we decide to repeat history.

General Motors Co. is getting back into subprime lending, a move that will give its dealers more options to lease and finance car sales but one which critics worry could drive the automaker into another financial pileup.GM said Thursday that it would purchase AmeriCredit Corp. in an all-cash transaction valued at about $3.5 billion, or $24.50 a share.The acquisition gives GM whats known as a “captive finance unit” or lending division that allows it more flexibility to offer lease and finance deals. It would fill the role once played by GMAC; the automaker sold all but a minority interest in that company in 2006.”Adding AmeriCredit to our team will improve our competitiveness in auto financing offerings, and I am very pleased to have them on board,” GM Chief Executive Edward E. Whitacre Jr. said.But the deal immediately drew fire from critics, who recalled how the Detroit automakers former addiction to providing easy credit and cut-rate financing contributed to GMs financial woes and eventually a federal bailout that cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

via GM deal to buy AmeriCredit gets it back into subprime lending – latimes.com.

Baffled by Health Plan? So Are Some Lawmakers – NYTimes.com

Posted on by luken7

You simply cannot make this stuff up. So congress votes o a healthcare bill, without actually reading the bill. Only to find out that it may adversely affect them and their staff. So if the plan negatively affects them directly because they didn’t read it and don’t know what’s in it, how does it affect me and my family?

This is what happens when you take a kneejerk reaction to a big and critical issue.

In a new report, the Congressional Research Service says the law may have significant unintended consequences for the “personal health insurance coverage” of senators, representatives and their staff members.For example, it says, the law may “remove members of Congress and Congressional staff” from their current coverage, in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, before any alternatives are available.The confusion raises the inevitable question: If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?


via Washington Memo – Baffled by Health Plan? So Are Some Lawmakers – NYTimes.com.

Best Senatorial Quote of The Week

Posted on by luken7

This weeks best quote goes out to Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.

It is arrogant to imagine that 100 senators are wise enough to reform comprehensively a health care system that constitutes 17 percent of the world’s largest economy and affects 300 million Americans of disparate backgrounds and circumstances

Exactly, especially when a majority of them do not have backgrounds in economics, finance or medicine. The industry knows best. What’s needed is oversight and basic regulation and a few simple rules. Those rules to come in another post shortly.

via On Health Bill, G.O.P.’s Road Is a New Map – NYTimes.com.

My Barnes & Noble Nook review-ish thoughts

Posted on by luken7

nook_front_viewI thing Barnes and Noble has a winner here. This is definitely a Kindle killer. It’s as though B&N looked at all the flaws and complaints of the Kindle and ran with it. The interesting feature that I like is that you can share your ebooks with other people, and every book in B&N’s catalog has a free preview. Now match this with the built-in Wifi and 3-ish-G from  AT&T for always being connected, you’ve got a winner. I think I’m sensing a birthday or Christmas gift for myself.

But nothing is without a few issues. First, being an Android device, I’m a bit surprised to the thickness of the product being a 1/2 inch. I guess I was looking more towards that highly thin tablet the Capt. Piccard used to carry, wafer thin. Next, with the always connected ability of the device, why no browser? Or did I miss that? It comes with an MP3 player, might as well throw in a browser, not chewing up much data with that, even AT&T can handle that.

Next, and it’s not their fault, is that being an electronic device, it’s not airplane friendly. I fly quite a bit and have given up trying to use the ebook reader on my iPhone because of outdated rules of electronic devices on planes. have to be turned off when the door closes, and since a lot of flights are delayed, they close the doors and pull away from the gate (so they can claim on-time departure) then sit there for 20 or so minutes. That’s a lot of reading time I loose. Next, you take off and can’t turn on your device until you’re past 10,000 feet. Why not 8634 feet? What’s so magical about 10,000? And the worst part, when you’re within 150 miles of your destination or 30 minutes out, all devices must be off. So I’ve been carrying old fashioned paperbacks with me, and I keep loosing my place in the books. Would love to be able to use an electronic e-reader from start to finish, from the moment I sit down on to the time I get up. I’ll just have to sit in a window seat and keep a look out for the flight attendant I guess.

But with a $259 price tag, is it worth it? I think it’s maybe a little too steep but hey, gotta help America get back on track (although it’s probably made overseas).

Ok, so a quick followup, the first major kink in the armor. Leave it to the content providers to find a way to rub off the polish on the Nook. How, apparently the lending feature is restricted to just one time and even that feature is by the publishers choice. If I buy a hardcopy book, I can lend it as much as I want.

Unfortunately, the “world’s most advanced e-book reader” limits the LendMe feature to one 14-day period per book, ever, and that’s only if the publisher gives permission. You also can’t read the title yourself during the loaner period.

Nook, eBook Reader, eBook Device – Barnes & Noble.

Can't beat 'em so I'm running for Congress

Posted on by luken7

Today, I officially declare my candidacy for congress. Nothing personal but first off, I can care less about you people, I’m not going there to represent you. I’m going for the perks. All I need is to get elected and get sworn in. I promise that right after that, I’ll bring some pork project to Wake County, then resign.  It’s a win-win for us all. You eventually get who you want after I leave, and I get all the perks.

First off, the health plan, why not run for Congress. Take a look at this. This is totally worth lying and kissing babies for.

Personal doctors on call 24/7. Coverage that knows no caps. No exemptions for pre-existing conditions.Those are the sorts of benefits members of Congress currently enjoy on the taxpayer’s dime, and the kinds of benefits Americans on a government-run public health care plan will never see if Obamacare passes.“One thing is certain: Congress will exempt itself from whatever lousy health care system it forces on we little people,” said Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute. “Congress will get better insurance than you do because politicians always get a better deal under government-run health care.”While it’s not news that Congressional health insurance plans are posh, CBS News recently uncovered the details of plans – right as the details of the Baucus health care bill are being hashed out.Members of Congress can choose from five different plans, and have access to both the VIP Bethesda Naval Hospital and a reserved spot Ward 72 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, an elite division usually reserved for military members. Their everyday medical concerns can be taken care of at a doctors office located inside of Congress.Their premiums are the same as those of insurance plans with half the benefits, and the plans last a lifetime; not until Medicare kicks in do ex-Members or loose their Congressional health benefits. Congress has repeatedly voted down any provision that would switch their insurance plans to the lower-grade public option if Obamacare goes through.

That’s just great, regardless what I subject my constituents to whom I’m supposed to represent, I get a premium plan loaded with perks. I also hear that the lifetime pension is a great deal too. So just serve a single two-year term and collect money the rest of my life.

And in related humorous news, check out how it’s going in Britian with their health system. It’s soon to collapse under it’s own weight.

THE National Health Service has spent £1.5m paying for hundreds of its staff to have private health treatment so they can leapfrog their own waiting lists. More than 3,000 staff, including doctors and nurses, have gone private at the taxpayers’ expense in the past three years because the queues at the clinics and hospitals where they work are too long.

via Gateway Pundit.

A "Man of God" refuses to marry an interracial couple

Posted on by luken7

Ah..the south. At times it’s just a reminder of just how far we have to go. The last sentence just kills me, talk about a self-fullfining prophecy. He should start with himself, then there would be one less problem.

NEW ORLEANS — At least two civil and constitutional rights groups in Louisiana are calling for a justice of the peace to resign after he refused to issue a marriage license for an interracial couple.The head of the American Civil Liberties Union in Louisiana and the Center for Constitutional Rights and Justice said Keith Bardwell should quit immediately.Bardwell is a white justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish in southeastern Louisiana. He refused earlier this month to issue a license or marry Beth Humphrey, who is white, and Terence McKay, who is black.Bardwell said he always asks if a couple is interracial and, if they are, refers them to another justice of the peace.He says children of such unions face troubling futures.

via The Associated Press: Groups upset man wouldnt marry interracial couple.

Dell To Close Plant, Screws NC Twice

Posted on by luken7

So some history, a few years ago, NC bent over backwards in attracting Dell to come to NC. All kinds of tax breaks and incentives were given to them. So now, the recession hit, they are closing the plant, 900 workers are gone and NC is out literally millions of dollars that they gave Dell. I’ve never liked the idea of a states bidding for business with lucrative incentives like tax breaks. They never work in the states or public good’s favor. Frankly, I think it should be illegal for states to gamble away tax payers money like that. A company should locate a facility based on the merits of the state, the available talent pool, utility costs, land costs, etc. Not by how much money a state can stuff in their pocket. It’s been an ongoing trend here in NC and I just think it’s worth the cost in the long term.

Dell Inc. DELL will close a North Carolina plant, putting some 905 employees out of work, as the personal-computer maker continues its restructuring.The company is in the midst of cutting $4 billion in costs the next two years as Dell deals with slumping profits and still-weak demand, especially among its key corporate customers.

via UPDATE: Dell To Close N.C. Plant, Affecting 905 Workers – WSJ.com.

Pigeon post faster than South Africas Telkom | Mail Online

Posted on by luken7

Honestly, I thought this was going to be an Onion article. Just goes to show, we still have  a ways to go for broadband around the world. I personally think it has more to do with the South African government and their not so friendly free market ideas that stifle innovation and investment. Not to mention the corruption that keeps things held back. That could never happen here.

Carrier pigeons are being used to transfer data between offices because bosses believe it is quicker than broadband. Computer experts at a South African firm said it took six hours to transfer four gigabytes of encrypted data from Durban to a call centre 50 miles away near Pietermaritzburg.

Staff at Unlimited Group, a financial services company, today attached a memory card to the leg of a pigeon called Winston who took just over an hour for the trip.

via Pigeon post faster than South Africas Telkom | Mail Online.

Even AT&T's "Seth" The Blogger won't change my mind

Posted on by luken7

Well, AT&T has gone to the extreme, introducing “Seth” the blogger. I’m assuming he’s supposed to be the face of AT&T’s new campaign to plead with their subscriber space about their shortcomings regarding network capacity.

Seth goes on to say that they are working really hard, around the clock, and spending BILLIONS (with a raised pinky finger) to improve their network. So first question, didn’t they expect the increased traffic when introducing the world’s first fully smart, smartphone? Or essentially a computer that also makes voice calls? A device that is solely dependent on network connectivity based on the applications it has? If they can start this campaign then they can also rebate their customers on a monthly basis for the reduced level of service they provide, until they catch up. Sorry, but I’m not feeling too much compassion for them right now.

Next, I find it ironic that they on one hand, would reach out to their customer base and say they are doing all they can while on the other hand, do everything they can to restrict user functionality and features such as GoogleVoice, and the many other applications that they feel would erode their revenue stream. I don’t hear an apology for their anti-competitive practices, complex billing, or never-ending voice response units used in customer service that leads to nowhere.

No AT&T, sorry, not feeling the sorrow for you. You knew exactly what you were getting into, which is why you’ve signed an exclusivity deal to have the iPhone, and even paid Apple a monthly fee per phone. You knew what the market segment was going to do and you chose not to invest in the most critical part, but chose to address it after it became an issue, knowing customers would put up with it because they simply had no other choice if they wanted an iPhone. Well, hopefully, choice is coming, if the FCC acts accordingly. iPhone should soon be available on other carriers such as T-Mobile, Verizon and maybe even Sprint in a couple of years. Then you will be measured on features, cost and customer experience, not on the fact that you’re the only provider and we’re stuck with you. Better days and better choices are coming. You have an opportunity to correct things and make amends with your customer base by then, but I doubt it. For you, it’s about how many  customers you can retain while providing the least amount of service. You’ll work the numbers and tweak it till it’s just right.

via YouTube – AT&T Network 101 & MMS Availability Update.