The Pay As You Go Car
Every once in awhile, I look out my window at the peons on the street below, and I wonder if I would want to live a life like theirs. Working nine to five, struggling to pay my bills, and living beyond my means on a regular basis… I have to wonder who would want to do this.
Apparently lots of folks. So many, that a car dealer has decided that the best way to get people to pay their bill on time and not have to re-po their car is to add a device that disables the car if you don’t pay your bill:
Payment Protection Systems Inc., the privately held company in Temecula, Calif., that manufactures the engine-shutoff devices, says it has sold more than 200,000 of them since 1999, and sales are growing 40 percent a year.
More than 1,500 dealerships across the nation are using the On Time devices, including eight in Massachusetts and 10 throughout the rest of New England, the company said.
Mike Simon, chief executive of Payment Protection Systems, said the device isn’t meant to be punitive. He said drivers unable to obtain financing or forced to pay astronomical rates for a loan are often able to strike a much better deal if they agree to have the shutoff device installed in their cars.
”We’re here to help you, not to shut you down,” Simon said. ”We help people continue driving and help them get better interest rates and cars.”
Wow. I think if Simon had continued that thought, he would’ve been chin-deep into the ground via spinning.
Look, I’m no fan of people not paying their bills, and I know lots of people try to live in ways that they can’t really afford, but let’s be honest for a second. A kill switch on your car for not paying your bills?
Firstly, doesn’t this kind of send the message that the car you’re driving around is a loaner? I know you don’t actually own a car until you make the last payment, but there’s something about this that just doesn’t sit right with me with respect to the car being yours.
Secondly, and it’s related to the first point, doesn’t this just encourage people to live beyond their means? If they have such bad credit that they need a shutoff device installed in their car to make sure they pay their bills, is it really something they should have in the first place? For all the rosey “we’re helping people, here” stuff, the only one really being helped is the dealership. Someone who probably can’t afford a car is probably not going to feel helped the first time that system shuts down his engine.
I may be a powerful person, but I hate “big brother,” and this thing just smacks of it. My advice to all you would-be average-joes who think this might be a good idea is to just live within your means. If you can’t afford a car, take public transportation. If that’s not viable, move closer to your job. And if that’s not viable, then you really need to re-evaluate your life a little better, not buy a new car you can’t afford.
Technorati Tags: Payment Protection Systems, big brother
Sphere: Related ContentGeneral Motors Yanks Employee Chains
By now, you might have heard the news. General Motors (GM) is planning to cut 30,000 jobs and close 9 plants.
General Motors Corp. will eliminate 30,000 manufacturing jobs and close nine North American assembly, stamping and powertrain plants by 2008 as part of an effort to get production in line with demand and return the company to profitability and long-term growth.
The announcement Monday by Rick Wagoner, chairman and CEO of the world’s largest automaker, represents 5,000 more job cuts than the 25,000 that the automaker had previously indicated it planned to cut.
GM said the assembly plants that will close are in Oklahoma City, Lansing, Mich., Spring Hill, Tenn., Doraville, Ga., and Ontario, Canada. A shift also will be removed at a plant in Moraine, Ohio.
An engine facility in Flint, Mich., will close, along with a separate powertrain facility in Ontario and metal centers in Lansing and Pittsburgh.
Wagoner said GM also will close three service and parts operations facilities. They are in Ypsilanti, Mich., and Portland, Ore. One other site will to be announced later.
Don’t you find it odd that GM (and other U.S. automakers) felt they had to bribe you, the American consumer, to buy their product, instead of focusing on producing a quality product that you would choose to buy based on your own comparison of the choices available to you?
According to GM, they want to cut up to $7 billion in costs before the end of 2006. While I won’t begrudge them for wanting to cut costs, I think it is appalling that they are even considering cutting jobs. Especially when you look at the numbers.
As we all know, GM has been offering great incentives to buy their cars. In fact, the incentives in September and October were so good, consumers purchased 344,797 GM vehicles in September and 253,536 GM vehicles in October for a total of 598,333 vehicles in the previous two months.
According to The Detroit News Autos Insider, the average incentive for a GM vehicle is $4,102.
GM hiked incentives after the September 11 attacks and they have since risen to $4,102 per vehicle, on average — compared with $2,976 for the overall industry and $1,542 for leading Japanese automakers, according to Autodata Corp.
Using these numbers, GM has “given away” $2,454,361,966 since September 1st. That’s 2.45 BILLION dollars!!! In two months! Imagine how much they have simply given away since “employee discounts” were passed on to the consumer beginning in June. If they want to cut $7 billion in cost, I just found 35% of it in the last two months.
Now, let’s look at those GM jobs.
According to Free Money Finance, the average GM worker makes $153,358 per year ( $76,877 in salary PLUS benefits)
“In 1977, hourly wages without benefits were $9.64 and with benefits they were $12.56. In 2004, hourly wages without benefits were $36.96 and with benefits they were $73.73.”
Let’s do a little math here:
40 hours per week x 52 weeks per year = 2,080 hours per year
2,080 hours per year x $36.96 = $76,877 (This is what the average GM worker makes without benefits. Not bad. Not bad at all. It’s a lot more than I would have imagined for factory work, but it’s not outrageous. Yet.)
2,080 hours per week x $73.73 = $153,358 (This is what the average GM worker makes with benefits.)
GM is trying to convince their employees, and the American people, that they need to do away with 30,000 jobs and 9 plants to “increase profitablity” within their corporation. I wonder if anyone has stopped to realize that the $2.45 billion dollars they gave away in September and October alone, would pay the YEARLY salary ($76,877) for 31,925 employees or the YEARLY salary PLUS benefits ($153,358) for (plus benefits) for 16,004 of those employees.
Does it really make sense to offer such incentives for buyers when you are screwing the very employees whose discounts wont mean shit if they no longer have a job?
Other Sources In The News:
GM to Eliminate 30,000 Jobs
GM’s employee-discount offer on new autos pays off
As goes General Motors
U.S. Auto Sales Table for October 2005
Other Sources In The Blogosphere:
GM to cut 30,000 jobs
Shrinking Giant, Winking Banker
GM In Full Retreat
Technorati Tags: GM, Employee Discounts, Job Cuts, Oklahoma City, Lansing Michigan, Spring Hill Tennesee, Doraville Georgia, Moraine Ohio, Ontario Canada, General Motors, 2006, layoffs, benefits, incentives
Sphere: Related ContentAmazon Will Sell Books in a Strange New Way
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 6 months, you surely know the grief created when Google launched Google Print (Now called Google Book Search). Copyright holders, as they are apt to do, lined up with pitchforks and torches to burn down Google’s offices for daring to allow people to search their precious tomes online, calling it a violation of copyright. Despite the silliness of the claims (would you read a 500 page book scanned at low resolution on a computer monitor), Google tried on numerous occasions to appease the critics, and as an ultimate solution offered an opt-out mechanism for publishers, which some took.
Now we see that their objections weren’t that Google was going to be offering book searching, it’s that they couldn’t make money off of the concept.
Enter Amazon.com:
Through a service called Amazon Pages, Amazon will allow people to “inexpensively” buy chapters from a book and read them online, the Seattle-based company said in a statement. Customers will get complete online access to the book through another service called Amazon Upgrade. Both services are an extension of Amazon’s existing search within a book program. The company, which didn’t specify prices, didn’t return phone calls for comment.
“Amazon Pages and Amazon Upgrade leverage Amazon’s existing Search Inside the Book technology to give customers unusual flexibility in how they buy and read books,” said CEO Jeff Bezos. “In collaboration with our publishing partners, we’re working hard to make the world’s books instantly accessible anytime and anywhere.”
Did you catch the important word in those two paragraphs? Come on, sure you did. You’re smart. You’re technically savvy. You know things… Oh, and it’s in boldface.
Publishers hate Google Book Search because they scanned the books and allowed people to search them for the content they wanted. Kind of funny that they would object to such a thing from Google because to the left of every search result is an actual link to buy the actual book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and others, but they do, obviously because Google isn’t paying the King’s ransom that copyright holders seem to think anyone is entitled to anytime someone merely thinks about their products.
“The publishing industry is united behind this lawsuit against Google and united in the fight to defend their rights,” said AAP President Patricia Schroeder. “While authors and publishers know how useful Google’s search engine can be and think the Print Library could be an excellent resource, the bottom line is that under its current plan Google is seeking to make millions of dollars by freeloading on the talent and property of authors and publishers.”
No specifics were given by Schroeder as to how, exactly, Google was going to make “millions” with Google Book Search.
However, the Association of American Publishers is clearly on board with Amazon’s plan:
“Amazon seems to be going about the right way by respecting the rights of authors and publishers,” said Judy Platt, spokesman for the Association of American Publishers, in an interview.
The Author’s Guild is also all for selling bits of books a bit at a time:
Finding new sources of revenue for publishers will also benefit authors, said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild.
“If there is a new way to get some value out of some books, than the authors will be able to share in that value in some way,” he said.
Authors? Some way?
By a show of hands, does anyone here really believe that authors will see one cent of this? And when it comes to sharing in value, how much more sharing do you think the publishers will be doing?
If you’re an author, would you want your work cut up and sold in pieces? Google’s model may allow people to search the entire book, but if they want it, they have to buy the whole book. Amazon’s model allows people to “inexpensively” buy pieces. If I’m an author, and I’m looking to what’s going to benefit me, why would I go with Amazon’s nickel and dime?
The truth is, I have no problem with Amazon’s plan or Google’s plan. I think both of them have a role and a place in the marketplace for the most part. What I have a problem with is the publishers complaining about something that adds value for book buyers without them having to pay for it, versus giving them a trickle and charging them for it which they have no problems with. Until corporations and copyright holders loosen their grips on their content a bit and stop treating all their customers like they’re about to go running out and make a million unauthorized copies of every work, this price gouging and lock it down type mentality will always be around.
No true value for the consumer, or the creator of the content, just tons for the corporate copyright holders.
Source: Thestreet.com
Technorati Tags: Copyright, Google, Amazon Pages, Amazon, Jeff Bezos, Google Book Search, Patricia Schroeder, Association of American Publishers, Author’s Guild
Sphere: Related ContentAIMing to Upset Users
A very important boardmember like myself should never have to log into their instant messenger and find stuff added to their contact list without their permission. However, that’s exactly what happened this morning as AOL decided, in its infinite wisdom, to add two contacts to the buddy list of every single user this morning. They’re some of AOL’s “bots” which let you send questions to an automated attendant who responds back for you.
The problem is nobody agreed to let AOL add these users, if they were added by AOL, it means they weren’t on your buddy list already, and the only “out” they give you is a notice that basically says, “Oh sure, we added a few buddies because, well heck, we’re AOL. But if you really want to, you can delete these buddies without consequence.”
If that’s the only out they give, that it’s easy enough to undo what they had no right to do to begin with, then they deserve some heat for it. Whether or not your software is provided for free is irrelevant. I have to look at ads when I use AIM just like everyone else (although, truthfully, I use Trillian because I’m cool like that), so why should I have you ramming your services (MovieFone and AOL Shopping) down my throat?
Things must not be well down there in Virginia if they’re trying to hook you into their services that surreptitiously.
Technorati Tags: AOL, bots, AIM, Trillian, MovieFone, AOL Shopping
Sphere: Related ContentMicrosoft: 360 Degrees of Kook
When the other members of the board and myself sit in our wonderfully expensive board room sipping lattes, sometimes a bad decision comes out. We rarely ever actually admit to it being a bad decision, but we do know it was bad to begin with. I imagine the same thing happened with Microsoft, when they made the decision to not include backward compatibility by default in the Xbox 360, their new flagship game console which should be arriving in stores shortly:
Microsoft has posted a list of 212 Xbox games that are backward-compatible with the Xbox 360 - but only next-generation consoles with a hard drive.
The list, which you can view here, contains all the best-known Xbox titles. Games not present on the list will not run on the 360.
Click HereUnlike other console makers, Microsoft has chosen to implement backward compatibility in software. The downloadable app converts Intel x86 processor instructions from the original Xbox into their PowerPC equivalents, in the process compensating for the different ways the two CPU types store numbers larger than 255.
Microsoft said the emulation software would be made available to Xbox Live subscribers, from the Xbox.com website - as a downloadable disk image to burn to CD - or direct from Microsoft on CD. Presumably it’s then installed on the 360’s hard drive, though the website doesn’t make this clear.
That leaves anyone who buys the cheaper Xbox 360 Core System out in the cold - it doesn’t ship with the 20GB HDD that’s part of the standard package.
If you don’t buy the higher-end Xbox 360 package that ships with a hard disk, you’re out of luck, folks. Someone at Microsoft has obviously determined that most people who are going to buy an Xbox 360 (many of whom are probably Xbox owners) won’t mind either leaving their entire game collection behind or keeping both units hooked up. Smart move, Microsoft.
The Register rightly points out that Sony’s PlayStation 2 was a very attractive console because it could play older games without any special tweaking. Apparently obvious history tends to get lost on some of these fine-suited individuals. Advice to Sony: Don’t make this mistake when the PS3 releases. If it takes a little longer, so be it. While Microsoft crammed the Xbox 360 out the door in time for Christmas, learn from that big mistake.
You also have to wonder how much Microsoft’s typical strategy of “get it out now, patch it later” is going to sit with console gamers. We already know that PC users don’t like it very much. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Source: The Register
Sphere: Related ContentEA Inducted Into the Kook Department
Far be it from us, your humble Corporate Raiders, to not bag on a product or company or CEO just because we like their products.
Yours truly has been a major fan of Electronic Arts’ sports lineup for years. Madden, NHL, and NBA Live are some great games and provide hours of entertainment, particularly when you go online and watch some 10 year old from Oklahoma bitch slap you with T-Mac shooting threes and dunkin on yo punk ass…
I digress…
EA is now assuming, much like Sony, that every customer is a potential pirate. In this case, EA is quite friendly about it, telling you how to get their games playing on your PC despite that pesky emulation software:
Question
What do you do when you get a “CD/DVD Emulation Software Detected” error?
AnswerThis error is presented when active CD Emulation software is detected by the copy protection on the game CD. This software must be disabled for the game to launch properly. It is very common for CD/DVD copying software to include such software as a suite of products, so you will need to make sure that if your CD/DVD copying software includes such software that it is disabled as well. We have CD-ROM Troubleshooting steps along with information on background tasks available covering this issue to help resolve this issue but see our screenshots below for more detailed information.
Here’s a list of software that is known as, or known to include CD Emulation Software that could potentially prevent the game from playing properly:
* Fantom CD Emulator
* Alcohol 120%
* Nero Image Drive
* Phantom CD
* Clone CD
* Ark Virtual DriveIf you are unsure about how to turn off emulation settings, consult your emulation program help files. If you have emulation software not listed above that does not provide adequate information about how to turn off emulation to avoid software conflicts, and then remove the software from your machine.
It’s time to ponder the implications of this, folks. Once again, a media-producing company has assumed your only goal is to steal their product for fun or profit. To that end, EA is building their software to specifically not run on any computer where certain legal (keyword alert, folks) software is installed, even if for a legal purpose. Note, also, that the games will not function if the software is installed and not whether or not it’s being used to run EA software.
Its mere existence creates problems for them.
Shame on you, EA, for treating your customers like criminals simply for having software on their computers. This type of attitude is unacceptable from any company, including one that has built its gaming empire on the backs of the very people it refuses to trust now.
Sphere: Related ContentIt Gets Worse
My good friend, the illustrious Bed Burner has been warning you all of the dangers associated with Sony’s XCP copy protection. Just so you’re aware, there are even more problems with it, this time related to the uninstallation of it:
Alex Halderman and I have confirmed that Sony’s Web-based XCP uninstallation utility exposes users to serious security risk. Under at least some circumstances, running Sony’s Web-based uninstaller opens a huge security hole on your computer. We have a working demonstration exploit.
We are working furiously to nail down the details and will report our results here as soon as we can.
In the meantime, we recommend strongly against downloading or running Sony’s Web-based XCP uninstaller.
Yet again, the solution causes more problems than the actual problem. In the meantime, you may want to stay away from any kind of removal utilities until the various sources have all the issues / bugs / kinks worked out. Remember, as Sony put it, since you didn’t know about rootkits anyway, why worry about them?
Source: Freedom to Tinker via Boing Boing
Sphere: Related ContentSony BMG: Our First Kook!
Our first kook is not one person! It’s a whole damned company!
Congratulations to SONY BMG for being kooky enough to help us launch our site!
I have noticed over the course of the last week that there has been a lot of buzz in podcasts about the Sony DRM Rootkit, but there has been very little buzz in the blogosphere.
A security analyst alleged Monday that playing a Sony copy-protected CD on his PC actually installed a rootkit into his computer from a third-party rights-management package.
According to Mark Russinovich’s security blog on Sysinternals.com, the Van Zant CD Get Right With The Man contains a rootkit that was installed when the CD’s on-disc player software was installed. That software, which Russinovich traced to U.K. vendor First 4 Internet, modified the Windows registry and was configured to hide system files encoded with a “$sys$” prefix.
The CD used a version of First 4’s rights management software, called “XCP,” to protect the CD from unauthorized copying. Sony configured the software to allow two legal backups of the entire CD. Over 2 million CDs encoded with the First 4 Internet files have been shipped by Sony, according to MSNBC.
…
A “rootkit” is so named because it theoretically allows an attacker a easy way to “go root,” or to gain control of a vulnerable PC. According to Russinovich, the CD’s software patched the registry, hiding itself from security software in the process in an effort to ensure the legitimacy of the software – every two seconds. Theoretically, an attacker or virus managing to inject a file labeled with the “$sys$” prefix onto that user’s system would be able to modify it without the user’s knowledge.
According to Russinovich, the CD’s EULA license also did not notify the user that any software would be installed that could modify his system, a possible violation of the U.K.’s Computer Misuse Act and California state law, which both prohibit the unauthorized modification of the contents of a user’s computer. Gilliat-Smith, for his part, said that accepting the software was part of a “consent agreement” agreed to by the customer.
Furthermore, the player software did not offer any method of uninstalling itself, Russinovich wrote. When Russinovich tried to do so, removing the software also disabled the computer’s CD-ROM drive through a “filter”, a file dependency built into Windows.
“The entire experience was frustrating and irritating,” Russinovich wrote. “Not only had Sony put software on my system that uses techniques commonly used by malware to mask its presence, the software is poorly written and provides no means for uninstall. Worse, most users that stumble across the cloaked files with a RKR scan will cripple their computer if they attempt the obvious step of deleting the cloaked files.
Distributing software, of any kind, that installs itself on my computer without my knowledge should be illegal.
Sony had no right to distribute such dangerous software, and, in my opinion, violated the rights of every person who purchased a CD from them, whether or not their computer was actually compromised by the software.
Apparently, other people are thinking the same thing.
Record company Sony BMG Music Entertainment has been targeted in a class-action lawsuit in California by consumers claiming their computers have been harmed by anti-piracy software on some Sony BMG CDs.
The claim states that Sony BMG’s failed to disclose the true nature of the digital rights management system it uses on its CDs and thousands of computer users have unknowingly infected their computers, according to court documents.
The suit, filed November 1 in Los Angeles Superior Court asks the court to stop Sony BMG from selling additional CDs protected by the anti-piracy software and seeks monetary damages for California consumers who purchased them.
A spokesman for Sony BMG declined comment.
Sony BMG is a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG.
Alan Himmelfarb, the attorney for the consumers, was not available for comment.
The suit claims that around June 2005, Sony BMG began to issue some CDs that install digital rights management software that continuously monitor for rights problems, depleting a computer’s available resources. The suit says the technology cannot be removed without damage to the system and that Sony BMG does not advise consumers of the existence or true nature of the program.
Apparently, hackers are already exploiting the computers of those who have unwittingly become victim to this invasive software and anti-virus software companies are jumping to protect their customers.
Zone Labs(R), a Check Point(R) company (NASDAQ:CHKP),announced today that users of the award-winning ZoneAlarm(R) 6.0 lineof Internet security solutions have, from day one, been proactivelyprotected from the recently-reported rootkit packaged with select Sonymusic CDs and related threats, including a newly-launched Trojanattack that uses the Sony rootkit to hide within a PC.
The new Trojan, named Win32.Outsbot.V by Zone Labs antiviruspartner Computer Associates (NYSE: CA), connects the compromised PC toan Internet chat relay server where it joins a bot net — a network ofcompromised computers used by hackers to launch denial of serviceattacks and distribute spam and other malware.
Of course, with their feet pressed into the fire, and the possibilty of their checkbook developing a case of the dropsies, Sony BMG has responded by stopping production of the copy-protected CD’s.
On Friday, Sony responded to the furor and announced that it will suspend production of CDs that contain this particular copy-protection technology and take a second look at its digital rights management strategy.
While it may take months, or even years for the pending court cases to shed any light on the matter, here is some information I thought you could use. Now. Before some hacker dweeb takes control of your computer without you knowing about it.
Even if you could find the hidden copy protection components yourself, computer experts warn against trying to uninstall it without help. Trying to do remove it without official instructions could damage the computer, rendering the CD drive inoperable.
Sony’s Web site has a downloadable patch which will remove the ability of the copy protection software to hide from view, but will not uninstall it.
To uninstall the software completely, a user must fill out a separate customer service form on Sony’s Web site, asking for instructions on how to uninstall the rootkit software.
Needless to say, Sony BMG has really screwed up and it’s time for them to step up to the plate to (a) make things right with those whose systems have been comprised, and (b) make things right so those of us who might still want to purchase a CD from them wont have to worry about this in the future.
To find out more about Rootkits you can listen to the Security Now podcast, episodes 9 and 12.
UPDATE MEMO: I was sitting at the conference table with Zack (Mr. Belch to you) and he informed me of a couple of links that will help root out these rootkits.
The first is RootKit Revealer
RootkitRevealer is an advanced patent-pending root kit detection utility. It runs on Windows NT 4 and higher and its output lists Registry and file system API discrepancies that may indicate the presence of a user-mode or kernel-mode rootkit. RootkitRevealer successfully detects all persistent rootkits published at www.rootkit.com, including AFX, Vanquish and HackerDefender (note: RootkitRevealer is not intended to detect rootkits like Fu that don’t attempt to hide their files or registry keys). If you use it to identify the presence of a rootkit please let us know!
The second is Blacklight
Now, there is a cure, F-Secure BlackLight Rootkit Elimination Technology. And, it’s time to find out, whether your computer is infected by invisible rootkits.
Thanks Zack!
FOLLOW UP: Do not use the above mentioned products to actually remove the rootkit. Use them only for detection. You must contact SONY for the proper removal instructions.
A good way to know if you are “infected” is to create a new file on your desktop named “$sys$Canary”. If the rootkit is present, the file will suddenly disappear. If you get infected later on, it will disappear at that time.
Welcome To Kooks In Suits!
Kooks In Suits is a team blog designed to bring you the latest information, gossip, and blunderings of “kooks” in corporate American suits.
Our site is not meant as an “attack” on corporate America, but rather as a “whistleblowing” of sorts for the kooks that run corporate America. While we will be dedicated to revealing these kooks for the dolts they really are, we will not focus on “attacking” them personally. It’s all professional. Really, it is. No, really.
Our Board of Directors is comprised of well-seasoned bloggers who may, or may not, choose to reveal their true identities. We really don’t care. Really. If they want to stay anonymous, that’s their choice. If they want to reveal themselves because you slipped them $20 under the table, so be it. We really don’t care. Really.
Why waste time focusing on the identity of our board, when we can focus on the idiocy in the business world?
We really don’t want to focus on “political” topics, but we may touch on them from time to time, because we can. If we want to. We will.
Anyway, we hope you enjoy the site. Really.
Sphere: Related Content