Tag: You’re Doing it Wrong

How’s That Pricing Fixing Working For You

Cuba being a communist nation has a fixed economic system. Part of a fixed economic system involved fixing prices at certain levels which are usually absurdly skewed from what the free-market value is. What happens when the price of a good is fixed so low that money is lost on that item? Simple, the price must either be raised of the quality must be lowered. Cuba has decided to go with the latter and have reinstated the mixing of peas in coffee:

Cuba is resuming mixing coffee with roasted peas in a bid to cope with rising international coffee prices, the authorities say.

The blend for domestic consumption will help cut costs, given that coffee prices had risen some 69% over the last year, the announcement said.

Coffee mixed with peas isn’t exactly something that tastes all that great:

The measures mean that the authorities will be able to continue distributing coffee with the subsidised price fixed at at 4 pesos (17 US cents) for a 115g (4oz) bag, the statement said.
Workers handles sacks of coffee imported from Brazil Imports of coffee help to meet local demand

Cubans, who tend to drink small cups of highly sweetened coffee, are used to pea-blended coffee.

“It’s much, much more bitter than pure coffee, which is smoother,” Havana resident Froilan Valido told AP news agency.

This is the inevitable end to a planned economy. It’s impossible to actually plan an economy due to the extremely large number of factors that determine the value of a consumer good. Since coffee harvests have been poor in Cuba the commodity is rarer which raises the price. Harvest amounts aren’t fixed and can be affected by everything from weather to disease. This combined with countless other factors means any economic plan is likely to fail as such events can’t be predicted with any amount of regularity.

Of course this action will lead to higher pea consumption which will make the product rarer and thus increase it’s market value. Thus this action won’t bring the price of coffee down for any meaningful amount of time because the price of peas will have to go up with increased demand. This is akin to corn subsidies in the United States which involves much of produced corn being consumed in producing ethanol fuel which drives the price of corn up. Thus a food product becomes more expensive.

More Products From the Bad Ideas Department

There are bad ideas, really bad ideas, and epically bad ideas. Having an umbrella that looks like a firearm is hovering somewhere between the latter two. It seems like nothing but trouble could be had from having an umbrella in the shape of a firearm but as Every Day, No Days Off points out one company decided this bad idea needed to be implemented.

I often wonder how some products get past the lawyer department.

TomTom Sending Customers’ GPS Data to Police

With the recent fiasco facing iOS and Android devices and their retention of location data it’s nice to know one company out there isn’t leaving speculation to chance but is openly admitting that they provide customer location data to government officials:

Dear TomTom customer,

Customers come first at TomTom.
When you use one of our products we ask for your permission to collect travel time information on
an anonymous basis. The vast majority of you do indeed grant us that permission. When you connect
your TomTom to a computer we aggregate this information and use it for a variety of applications,
most importantly to create high quality traffic information and to route you around traffic jams.

We also make this information available to local governments and authorities. It helps them to
better understand where congestion takes place, where to build new roads and how to make
roads safer.

We are actively promoting the use of this information because we believe we can help make roads
safer and less congested.

We are now aware that the police have used traffic information that you have helped to create to
place speed cameras at dangerous locations where the average speed is higher than the legally
allowed speed limit. We are aware a lot of our customers do not like the idea and we will look at
if we should allow this type of usage.

This is what we really do with the data:

  • We ask for your permission to collect historical data. You can opt in or opt out and can disable the data collection function at any time.
  • If you are using a LIVE device, you receive traffic information in real time and you automatically contribute to generating traffic information.
  • We make all traffic data anonymous. We can never trace it back to you or your device.
  • We turn anonymous data into traffic information to give you the fastest route available and route you through traffic jams in real time.
  • We are working with road authorities around the world to use anonymous traffic information to help make roads flow more efficiently and safer.
  • Our goal is to create a driver community capable of reducing traffic congestion for everyone.

Although they anonymize the data it’s still quite possible to retrieve who location data applies to. For instance you can use records of credit card translations, cell towers the person’s phone was connected to, cameras to find what car was where and when, etc. It would be possible to setup a system to tie this anonymized data to drivers and write them speeding tickets using that system as evidence.

That’s a theoretical problem, a real problem is the fact that the data is being used to setup police revenue sources such as speed cameras. A Dutch firm has openly admitted that they use TomTom customer data to setup speed traps. So this anonymized data is actually being used to cost you money for something that isn’t actually dangerous as currently implemented (in other words speed limits aren’t actually a safety limit but an arbitrarily selected number).

Anonymous collection and transmission of data is a threat with any device capable of determining a location and sending data. Cell phones are the best tracking devices on the planet as a side effect of how they work. But TomTom has openly admitted they send not just location data but data relating to customer travel times which is then given to government entities. This providing of data sets up a mechanism that could allow for government agencies automatically writing tickets or performing other actions that will cost you money. Personally I find that disgusting.

Let this also be a lesson to those who don’t actually read the end user license agreements of the devices and software they use.

So How’s That Budget Going

Remember all those Minnesota “representatives” who were going on about how they were going to fix the budget lickety-split? That and promoting job creation was going to be job one. I’m glad to see those guys are moving to make both of these promises come true working to push a consittutional amendment banning gay marriage… wait what?

Republicans in the Minnesota House and Senate announced a bill Tuesday that would put the issue on the statewide ballot in 2012 as a proposed constitutional amendment.

The proposed amendment would define marriage as between one man and one woman. Republicans have tried unsuccessfully in the past to get a similar measure on the ballot, but now they have majorities in the House and Senate. Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, said a constitutional amendment will let voters decide the issue.

Three questions come to mind. First, how is this going to fix the budget? Second, how is this going to promote job creation? Third, why the fuck is government still involved in the concept of marriage? I think the third question is the one of most importance. As the debate about allowing gay marriage rages across the country I’ve been listening to both sides and have come to the conclusion that the only proper action that can be taken is to get government out of the whole institution of marriage. Marriage is really a religious and contractual issue and should be dealt with between the two individuals who wish to join together.

Government should have no more say in marriage than they have in what socks I wear… I take that back they shouldn’t have any say in marriage and through cotton regulations I’m sure they have some say in what socks I wear.

In Lieu of Doing Something

The economy is in the toilet, the government has fucked the market so hard through laws and regulations that the chances of it recovering grow slimmer with each passing day, and unemployment keeps rising due to businesses failing. If you’re an unemployment agency what can you do? Obviously you can’t make jobs, only private industry can do that (I’m referring to actual jobs that create wealth). What would be the next best thing? How about giving $14,000 worth of capes to the unemployed:

Workforce Central Florida spent more than $14,000 on the red capes as part of its “Cape-A-Bility Challenge” public relations campaign. The campaign featured a cartoon character, “Dr. Evil Unemployment,” who needs to be vanquished.

That’s much easier than actually doing something.

What Do You Do When You’re Organization Is Shown to Be Ineffective

Let’s say you’re the head of an organization that has shown to be completely ineffective in its mission. You ineffectiveness has been demonstrated so often that you can no longer hide it and now donations from believers in your cause are drying up. What is one last desperate maneuver you can make in the hopes of staving off death? Well, if You’re the Brady Campaign you claim the President is passing super secret gun control laws:

During the meeting, President Obama dropped in and, according to Sarah Brady, brought up the issue of gun control, “to fill us in that it was very much on his agenda,” she said.

“I just want you to know that we are working on it,” Brady recalled the president telling them. “We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”

This could be an effective strategy to drum up money because it makes it appear as though the Brady Campaign has influence with the President and the results of this influence will go unnoticed but will accomplish a desired goal. Basically this strategy would allow the Brady Campaign to make up success. Instead of having to point at newly passed laws to demonstrate success the Brady Campaign could use changing Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) regulations as “under the radar” gun control measures influenced by none other than the Brady Campaign. This isn’t as hard to do either as the ATF is rather schizophrenic about their regulations and like to change them on a whim without actually telling anybody.

Unfortunately for them pro-gun people keep a constant eye on them and call their organization out when they try to make idiotic maneuvers like this. Sorry Sarah Brady but we caught this little attempt to appear relevant.

Just Doing Their Job

It often surprises me when anti-gunners claim us mere civilians shouldn’t be allowed to carry firearms because we lack the skill and training possessed by the police. Why does this argument surprise me? Because most police officers receive lackluster training with firearms which makes shit like this happen:

Sherronda Aycox was devastated over the loss of her 8-month old blue pit bull Capone, and for what she and her neighbors believe was dangerous and irresponsible behavior by Camden Police.
…
Aycox says Capone darted out of the partially opened door and toward the officers several houses down, who, according to residents, shot and killed the dog.

Aycox says police investigators told her 33 rounds were fired.

It took the police 33 rounds to hit a dog. I guess this is why the Brady Campaign believes they need 33-round magazines while you and I don’t, it appears to be an attempt to compensate for the polices’ apparent lack of training. The problem with being inaccurate with a firearm in a populated area is the fact those stray bullets have to go somewhere:

The dog was hit and fell in one area, but the bullets sprayed elsewhere, shooting out the window of a van that several women were getting ready to get into. The women say there were children everywhere.

Neighbors say several other vehicles were hit, and the bullets pierced a nearby home, hitting a window and a wall inside.

In this case they went into home and vehicles. It sounds to me like those officers need to be fired and the remainder of the staff should be taking lessons on handling a firearm in a high stress situation.

Green as in Money

Yesterday I had the oil changed on my truck. I usually got to one of the Valvoline instant oil change places because then I can do it over lunch and as I live in an apartment complex I have no place to dispose of old oil thus it’s a pain in the ass to do it myself.

While they were changing my oil they did the usual attempt to up sell me on the synthetic oil. As usual I turned them down but then they tried to sell me on Valvoline’s new link of “green” oil. I shit you not, it was oil labeled as being more environmentally friendly and game in a green bottle. The guy claimed it had the same properties as regular oil and only cost $5.00 more. I politely informed him that I derive some pleasure off of irritating greenies and thus I’d stick with the non-green oil.

Either way I learned that greenies will pay extra for anything “green.” That’s great as the greenies get more green and the company making these “green” products get more green (money). Well I decided to look into this fancy new “green” oil and have come to the conclusion the “green” oil is actually recycled oil. I can tell you I’m already not a fan. Instead of putting new oil into my engine they’re trying to put reprocessed previously used motor oil into my engine… and they’re charing you more for the privilege! It’s a great little scam and I must applaud Valvoline’s marketing department for something up with such a great way to exploit environmental concern.

If You’re Going to Commit a Crime Keep it Quiet

If you’re going to be one of those blokes who goes out and commits a crime it would probably be smart to avoid bragging about it. What would be really stupid is going on television and bragging about your capers which was the mistake made by a French hacker who is now in custody:

A French hacker has effectually tied a noose around his own neck when he bragged about hacking into the systems of a big government contractor on national TV.

He participated in a France 2 television program called “Complément d’enquête” (Further investigation), and he said – and demonstrated – that he has gained access to computers belonging to the French Army and Thales Group, a French company that provides information systems and services for the aerospace, defense, and security markets.

What I said goes double if your crime is against the government or its military. Doing crime is the government’s job and they don’t like competition.

The Difference Between Rifle and Pistol Powder

What’s the difference between pistol and rifle powder? It’s the difference between having a nice working AR-15 and one that is blown to Hell and back again. The shooter was lucky and ended up walking away from this with all his digits still firmly attached to his hands which are still firmly attached to his arms.

Reloading can be dangerous if you aren’t giving 100% of your attention to what you’re doing. It never hurts to triple check everything before you crank out some ammunition.