Apollo Group Profiting from Bankruptcy

In an article in Yahoo! Finance I noticed that the Apollo Group is behind 3 of the significant bankruptcies mentioned.

Are they bad at business or do they know what they're doing? I don't know enough about business to say how one might go about sinking a business and profiting from it, but I'm sure it can be done.

Romney Comments on Auto Bailout

Preach on, Brotha Mitt!

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Let Detroit Go Bankrupt

election day unemployment rambling ruminations

In the midst of my current joblessness, I've been feeling a resurgence of rebelliousness. I'm being radicalized by unemployment. I can feel it happening. Of course I'm going to feel bad things towards a system that isn't currently working for me. It's the story of radicals around the world. Do you think most suicide bombers come from good economic situations?

It's a matter of national security for the US to strengthen its economy. Otherwise the likelihood of homegrown terrorism grows signficantly.

I'm suggesting that the preponderance of nontraditional work schedules is a threat to national security. Such schedules cause, continue, and exacerbate the disillusionment of workers. People with chaotic living patterns are drawn towards job with chaotic schedules ungrounded in reality. Nontraditional work schedules are bad for this country.

Everybody agrees that it's nice to have weekends and holidays off, but they're afraid to demand it. After a handful of years in the bar/restaurant industry I'm tired of working when everyone else is playing and relaxing. I got into that world because I wanted to be with people, but what it ends up doing is confining you to the shiftless, limited group of bar/restaurant people and college students and the unemployed. I mean, who else doesn't need to be up in the morning? On a Tuesday?

We've created a consumer world where we expect to be able to shop and buy things and get tech support every freakin second of the day, all week long, all year long...never stopping, never taking a break...always there.

What do we really need at all times? The cops, firefighters, EMTs, constantly aloft nuclear-armed bombers...all these things I acknowledge as needing to be at hand at all times. But is it really right to think it's OK for that cook to be grilling your steak at 10:30 PM when he should be home with his wife and kids? Is it his fault that he took the job? Or is your fault for creating the need?

The Business of Zune Musings

Came across this at Beyond Binary:

Why did Microsoft get in the Zune business? Why is it an important business to be in?
Belfiore: We think the possibilities for creating value for people around how they are entertained...is incredibly important. The potential for doing great things for people is huge. It can affect a wide range of devices, from portable devices that you carry around to devices that are hooked up to your TV to devices that look like what you think of as your PC or laptop today. We aspire to really making people's lives better in the way they are entertained. Being able to create those connections between people and get them content on whatever kind of device it is, we think is important and compelling and worth doing.

Joe Belfiore is apparently the guy in charge of the Zune for Microsoft. Whatever. I just want to pick at his words a bit.

His first response to the question of "Why is MS in this business?" is the stupendously obvious "To make money." Duh. That's what "creating value" means.

Then he says they want to do "great things". Wow. Walkmen...er iPods...er Zunes or whatever are now on the same level as feeding the poor and providing clean water for everybody. Those are great things.

The next sentence he's saying that they can defeat Apple by spreading the Microsoft...er Zune music experience across a wider and more popular selection of devices...and reach more people...and make more money. The Zune mission encompasses MP3 players, TVs, and computers. What about Zune theaters?

They want to improve people's entertainment experience. I'm all for that. Tough to pick on that one.

They want to connect people by the music they listen to and movies they watch. OK. He reiterates that their efforst are not limited to the Zune device itself. It's like Zune is Microsoft's codename for Entertainment. "We will entertain the people in every facet of their life and we will commodify it and connect people via their interests to create more profitable ad networks and virtual parties and we will call it Zune." Or is that XBox?

I'm confused.

Verizon Wireless Buying Alltel for a Bazillion Dollars

By the end of the year, AT&T's reign as the largest wireless service provider in the United States will come to an end and Verizon will ascend to the throne: Verizon Wireless Agrees to Buy Alltel for $28.1 Billion.

Engadget is a whiny baby

 Engadget recently distilled a NY Times article into a blog post, Microsoft and NBC working on copyright filters for Zune?  They go through the routine of how it's bullshit that companies are trying to protect their property, as if we have an inherent right to do whatever we want with whatever we want.  I'm mostly sympathetic to such views.  I believe in freedom, and that means I believe that people/companies have the freedom to protect their shit.  It's no more "wrong" for Microsoft to want their products to protect the rights of their clients than it is for me to want to be able to watch a movie, which I copied from you (illegally), on my media player.  Companies (and a lot of people) exist so they can make money.  Giving their products away for free or sitting idly by while people just take whatever they want doesn't make any sense.  There's not a lot of proof that illegal sharing (LOL...illegal sharing...thou shalt not share) is pilfering from the coffers of the corporations and it's impossible to totally lock down your stuff but that doesn't mean that companies are evil or foolish for wanting to try to lock down their property.  It's like not bothering to put locks on your doors because there are ninjas who can pick them.  Whatever.  I lock my doors.

And then Engadget goes on to bitch about Micro$oft and AT$T working on filtering copyrighted material at the ISP level.  I just don't get why people think that companies are evil for trying to prevent them from doing shit that's illegal.  Again, I'm not against file sharing.  I'm just against the belief that for-profit entities are wrong for attempting to maximize profit.  If you have a network that you built and paid for then you'd want to do what you want with it.  Is it so wrong for there to be forces patrolling the internet in the same way there are forces patrolling our highways trying to bust people for breaking the law?  Only the staunchest anarchist would argue that there is no good reason for the existence of police.  You don't have to be for such groups.  Do what you want to do and accept the fact that your behavior brings you enemies.  Repercussions make life fun, right?

Keep em teetering on the EDGE

GigaOm is reporting that EDGE networks will soon be sped up via a software update, Coming Soon, Even Faster EDGE Networks.

In case you don't know, EDGE, which stands for Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution, is adigital mobile phone technology that allows increased data transmission rates and improved data transmission reliability.[EDGE - Wikipedia] It's employed by AT&T and T-Mobile.

I'm an AT&T Wireless customer with an EDGE compatible phone so I think it's wonderful that they're upgrading even though I'm not sure that my phone would be able to take advantage of it. What I'm wondering is this, though: if a software upgrade can increase bandwidth, are they intentionally holding out on us so they can string us along and get more money out of us as we pay to upgrade each time or are they just now figuring out the code that'll take better advantage of their hardware?

collateral damage of capitalism

Yesterday, Engadget posted a letter from a disgruntled employee of a failing department in a huge technology company (Motorola) to its executive board: Motorola insider tells all about the fall of a technology icon.

I dunno...call me cold but I think the author of the letter is just a whiney crybaby who's mad because he's too weak to make his dreams into reality. It's not that his points aren't valid, it's just that they don't matter. Does he really think Motorola's board of directors cares what he thinks? Maybe a few do, but I can't help thinking that for the men (the board has 1 woman) being addressed in the letter, Motorola Inc is nothing more than a machine to make them money. Everything is secondary to HOW MUCH MONEY ARE WE MAKING? So the company's going down because the CEO would rather play golf? Who fucking cares? Right after the Primary Question comes their next one: HOW MUCH MONEY DO I HAVE? I have $100,000,000 will continue to rake in millions even if I lose my job, sink a company, and lay off thousands of workers. Fuck it. I'm a rich CEO who has worked really hard to do what I want to do with my life. It's not my fault you got ground up in the gears of one of my money-making machines. Collateral damage of capitalism. You bought into the system with all that you had. It's sweet that you grew so attached to a material object whose destiny you had no real control over. It's sweet that you wanted the whole world to walk around with a mobile digital communicator which you helped shape and design. Go do it. Quit whining to us and praying to Motorola the deity.

I can relate to all parties in this little capitalist soap opera. I feel the pain of the disgruntled employee, but I can't help thinking that it should be plainly obvious to him that he's a mere tool, little more than a slave. It's pathetic. He's practically groveling.

If you're an employee (as opposed to boss/owner) then your own concerns for the business (if you even have any) are hardly of any concern to those above you AS LONG AS YOU COME TO WORK AND DO YOUR JOB like the good little slave you are. Yes, there are enlightened bosses out there, but not many. The vast majority do not care about you when it comes down to it. You're just a small piece in the money game.

Engadget does well in referring to Motorola as an energy icon. Motorola is more than just a company, it's an idea...an idea which the author of the letter grew entirely too attached to.

I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

In other words, If you don't want to be a slave, do what God is about to say. (Which, of course, is utterly ironic yet totally true.)

Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them...

A man bases his efforts and ideas on other men who do not care about him and gets mad when it all comes crashing down on him. He made an easily avoidable common mistake: he bowed to an idol and got burned for it. It's a story as old as humanity.