Category: product complaints

Verizon paid less tax than they charged YOU last year

On By Rick McIn economics, government, product complaints3 Comments

Although Verizon paid less in income taxes than its average customer paid in phone bills, the company broke no laws. America’s corporations spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on lobbying, and they get a good return on their investments. They get tax loopholes — and plenty of them. Last year, Verizon shelled out $16.8 million to lobby federal lawmakers and another $18.7 million on contributions into the campaign accounts of their favorite federal politicians.

Obviously Verizon needs to charge customers MORE … so they can pay some corporate tax.

Read more on Consumerist.

I know that the USA cannot tax itself to fiscal balance. But it’s stupid to perpetuate a system where “25 out of the country’s 100 highest-paid chief executives actually earned more in 2010 than their companies paid out in corporate income taxes”.

Corporations and rich individuals should actually pay more tax.

Bank scam – Fauxclosure Crisis

On By Rick McIn government, product complaintsLeave a comment

“60 Minutes” … weighed in with a thoughtful segment on the mortgage mess involving faulty or fraudulent mortgage paperwork. (Deal Journal readers previously have dubbed this the “Fauxclosure Crisis.”)

The news magazine program went in search of “Linda Green,” a woman in rural Georgia whose signature was on thousands on mortgage documents as a vice president of more than 20 banks — at the same time. Linda Green told “60 Minutes” she had never been a bank vice president, but was dubbed one by an alleged mortgage sweatshop because her name was short and easy to spell.

Click HERE to watch the “60 Minutes” segment. …

WSJ

pie-in-the-face of Rupert Murdoch

On By Rick McIn bad news, government, product complaintsLeave a comment

Everybody loves a good pie in the face.

I’m not sure even Gandhi could suppress a giggle.

Jonnie Marbles: Why I foam-pied Rupert Murdoch:

… It’s not difficult to find reasons to dislike Rupert Murdoch. His reach is one of the most insidious and toxic forces in global politics today. The phone-hacking scandal, despicable though it is, barely scratches the surface of the damage done by News International. It is a media empire built on deceit and bile, that trades vitriol for debate and thinks nothing of greasing the wheels of power until they turn in its favour. What’s more, no matter what the grievances he wreaks on those he has never met, his power and money keep him forever safely out of their reach. …

read more – Guardian

I love symbolic actions, even mildly violent ones.

The average person doesn’t know Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corporation, the world’s second-largest media conglomerate.

His biographer, Michael Wolff, knows Murdoch – Ad Week – How Bad Is News Corp.?

… He is ranked 13th most powerful person in the world in the 2010 Forbes’ The World’s Most Powerful People list. With a personal net worth of US$7.6 billion, he was ranked 117th wealthiest person in the world in March 2011. …

My most trusted source on media, On The Media, thinks he and his son will be going down for the phone hacking scandal.

Not for the scummy and illegal practices, but for the cover-up.

Glad to hear it. His Fox News is the source of more bias, misinformation and downright lies than any other major media.

He bought the Wall Street Journal in 2007, once a bastion of news excellence. They’ve been slammed for jumping on the anti-Muslim bandwagon as quickly as tabloids.

In reaction to the massacre in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik, a Christian extremist:

… Many news organizations leapt to the conclusion that the bombing and shootings were the work of a jihadist terrorist group. The Wall Street Journal laid the blame in that direction in an editorial and then scrubbed away the evidence after it turned out to be incorrect. Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun went with the headline, “Al Qaeda Massacre: Norway’s 9/11.” …

The WSJ tried to cover-up the error rather than make a correction, standard practice.

If you like bashing Murdoch and Fox as I do, read on – Guardian – Even Rupert Murdoch is afraid of Roger Ailes, the paranoid boss of Fox News.


… apparently Murdoch has nothing to do with Fox News, so long as it keeps bringing in massive profits.

_____

On the bright side, the much maligned NY Times paywall seems to be working. About 250,000 subscribers are paying up to $500/yr. It may yet be a business model that can keep newspapers printed on dead trees.

Now The Onion is testing a paywall. Hmmm …

why are toilets so sh#!!y

On By Rick McIn product complaints1 Comment

Traveling much, I come across hundreds of different toilets and showers every year.

Why are they so crappy?

Showers are one of the few things essential to my life. Why are HOT and COLD reversed so often? (When the hot water tap works, the flow and temperature is often unreliable.)

Is this 1911 … or 2011?

Couldn’t somebody get rich inventing a voice controlled, temperature-accurate shower?

In 1959, Heinlein published Starship Troopers. Military life was rough … but at least they had individually programmed shower routines.

I have seen a few good showers. The best of the best (surprisingly) were in campgrounds.

Due to remote location, campgrounds often must hack their plumbing, inventing unique solutions. Once in a while, that solution turns out better than the cheapest, minimum-code-allowable versions we get in cities.

This toilet in a Swiss campground worked perfectly.

A commercial product, it’s as steep and deep as any I’ve ever seen. No splashback. No need to brush.

It had an old style individual water tank mounted high.

Gravity does all the work, a simple mechanism. The force of water falling from just a few feet was tremendously effective in flushing.

I’m no plumber. (My IQ is higher than the maximum allowed.) But I’ve been studying plumbing since visiting Gandhi’s toilet research centre in the 1990s.

Why is toilet technology evolving so slowly?

booking Aeroplan?

On By Rick McIn product complaints, travel3 Comments

Any tips for booking a flight with Air Canada AEROPLAN points ?? …

I tried booking a trip to Asia online via the link above.

First attempt was 75,000 points AND $778.68 CAD taxes. … I’m guessing that’s normal for Aeroplan.

But what’s the advantage of using my points again? … I might find a NEW return flight for $778.68.

Once I use these points, I’ll completely abandon frequent flyer programs. I don’t use any one airline enough to make it worthwhile.

What Does a Gigabyte Cost?

On By Rick McIn economics, internet, product complaintsLeave a comment

In expensive Canada, about $0.07 / GB.

What does your ISP or Phone company charge YOU / GB?

In Canada, folks are charged as much as $10 per gigabyte. (Companies try to convince that there is a shortage of electrons traveling over wires or fibre. That’s a lie.)

Once the wires are in place, the cost for extra electrons is almost zero.

related – CNet – Are you overpaying for smartphone data?

average Canadian cellphone bill $58

On By Rick McIn product complaints1 Comment

What do you pay a month compared with the average Canadian in 2010 …

Are you happy with your service?

Do you feel you get good value?

…Overall, the number of wireless subscriptions in Canada grew by 8.5 per cent to 25.8 million, just slightly higher than the eight per cent growth the year before.

At the same time, the number of households with broadband internet subscriptions grew by 9.2 per cent to nine million — significantly higher than the six per cent growth in 2009. …

CBC – Average cellphone bill $1 cheaper in 2010

One Report from 2010 found Canada to have the highest costs of any nation in the world, overall – An International Comparison of Cell Phone Plans and Prices

More competition doesn’t seem to be helping much.

… I still don’t own a phone.

problems with First Past the Post voting

On By Rick McIn government, product complaintsLeave a comment

Here’s a comprehensive summary of the issue. (If a topic can’t be explained to me in less than 7mins of edutainment, it’s too complicated to care about. Right?)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

airports: Dublin v Geneva

On By Rick McIn product complaints, product endorsements, travelLeave a comment

International jet-setters like moiself spend a lot of time cursing airports. (The terrorists have already won).

Ultra-modern airport in Dublin is a superb … shopping mall. I spent 20 minutes walking through shops carrying near identical over-priced product just to get to my departure gate. Do many travelers make impulse buys out of boredom?

I assume they do.

By contrast, the Geneva airport needed a serious renovation … in 1995. How can one of the richest cities in the world have such a crappy airport?

For the first time ever in an airport, I saw a fellow going from rubbish bin-to-bin collecting recyclables. Do homeless people (aside from me) live there?

… But I experienced a magical incident in the Geneva airport. Confused hovering over a ticket machine, trying to navigate my way by train to the centre of town, an elderly German gentleman appeared my shoulder. He quickly got a ticket (from another machine) and delivered me to the departing train. … With specific instructions on how to get to the Hostel.

By the time I’d lifted my suitcase on board, he was gone.

I write from City Hostel Geneva, one of most enjoyable in years. UPDATE: By the end of my 2-day stay hostel staff had bungled my reservation, the washing machine flooded and the promised long term luggage storage turned out to be a myth.

Geneva is ranked as the fourth most expensive city in the world, though. I find it surprisingly run down and disorganized. It’s not my 4th favourite city in the world.

I’m organizing to travel to Corsica for hiking next.

Samsung Series 5 Chromebook a failure

On By Rick McIn Google, product complaintsLeave a comment

… Tomorrow, the first one goes on sale: the Samsung Series 5 ($500 with cellular, $430 Wi-Fi only).

So what is the Chromebook concept? Assumption 1: These days, you can get online almost anywhere. Assumption 2: Google’s free online software can do almost everything regular software can do — e-mail (Gmail), Web browsing (Chrome), chat (Google Talk), photos (Picasa), word processing, spreadsheets, slide shows (Google Docs). …

I liked the concept when I first heard of it.

Unfortunately, after a week trying to use this thing as his primary computer, David Pogue was ready to toss it like a Frisbee.

BIG FAIL.