Meus pensamentos

Meus pensamentos

Penso, portanto existo. Ou existo por que penso...Ou penso que existo...Vãs filosofias. Podem ficar tranquilos, não vou filosofar muito aqui. Coisas curtinhas, algumas tristes, algumas engraçadas, outras tantas bobas.

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• "It is nothing short of absurd to punish those who acted responsibly while rewarding the reckless – and sometimes illegal - actions of others."

  The author of this phrase is Rep. Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia. I thought it suiting as a title for this posting, which might turn out to be an open letter to him.

  Then again, it could be titled, "now it is time to sit down and negotiate".

  Back in 2004 I had to return a car I had leased from Mitsubishi. I liked the car very much. It was a sporty Eclipse, it was quite new, had only 13k miles on it. I had leased it for 4 years, and had paid over 22k in leasing and down payments. When it came time to return the car, I was naive enough to ask whether they were willing to negotiate the 10 k buy-out on the car. The curt answer from the anti-sales person was "we do not negotiate". End of story, a contract is a contract.

  I will not go into details as to the process used for the return of the car, but I suspect at the end of the day, Mitsubishi received only 5k for the car in a used car auction, tops, 6.5k. I was willing to negotiate down to 7.5k, so they would make at least 1k more from this transaction, build goodwill and keep a client. As it stands now, I am no longer willing to buy or lease a car from Mitsubishi - ever.

  Mr. Cantor either lives in a bubble, in need of a heavy duty reality check, or he needs to read his own website, which claims the politician is a champion of the middle class.

  I am a member of the much beleaguered middle class. I am one of those suckers who bought property in the last few years, thinking that the folks running the economy and financial institutions knew what they were doing, and there were enough checks and balances in the system to ensure my investment would not go down the dumps like it did. I was one of the folks Mr. Cantor might call a hard-working, rule abiding American, for I used no deceitful tactics to achieve the American dream.

  Yet, right now the property I have bought is probably worth between 50 to 75% of what I paid. If a buyer can be found anywhere.

  It is easy to throw the blame solely on those greedy folks who thought they would become millionaires by accumulating property after property. Although these people acted irresponsibly, it seems to me that the myriad banks, mortgage companies and brokers who lent to these people with little or no due diligence are as much at fault as the trumpwannabesofthisworld, fed on a steady diet of Rich-Man-Poor-Man books, videos and conferences. They also violated the fiduciary duty of publicly traded companies, investing money on thin air, building fat to become the next big merger in the market, which maximize shareholder value so much and generated so many lavish bonuses to executives.

  I am no simpleton. I do understand that pumping billions into failing financial institutions might ensure the very existence of our financial system. Yet, as far as I know, no one has been put in jail or been held responsible for the deceitful practices of lenders. These practices were "legal", after all, with the blessing of somebody. Were they in fact legal?

  There will come a point, Mr. Cantor, where financial institutions will need to sit down with borrowers and rework the gory details of the unreal real estate bubble of the late 90's-2000's. Can any banks add on to the enormous list of foreclosures nationwide? In an overall pitiful economic scenario, who has money to buy these properties even at much deflated values and take them off the hands of American banks?

  Just like Mitsubishi could have made a little bit more money by negotiating the car with me, rather than selling it for peanuts in a used-car auction and losing a client, banks will need to negotiate interest rate and principal on most property bought in the 6 to 7 years in this country.

  Saving the American middle class, Mr. Cantor, is much more important than saving the financial system. The latter can be taken over by the government - will the government take over people's lives? The American middle class is the wheel that makes this economy - and dare I say - the world run.

  Use your power smartly, keep the wheel rolling.

  
• A child's resourcefulness

  As I am in a `memory` mood, I recall an episode dating back a few years, when I just came to the United States.

  I was used to Phys Ed being playing soccer or basketball in the outdoor courts of our school in Brazil, so coming to a High School that had a full gym, a theater and a swimming pool was a bit of a shocker.

  It turned out that swimming was part of the senior year curriculum, and I did not know how to swim. This might have been a great opportunity to learn, but I honestly did not believe the teacher was able to teach anybody that fine sport. He was a huge man who probably weighed 400 pounds, and moved around veeeeeeeeeery slowly. Not your Johnny Weissmuller type, if you get my drift.
  
  So I kind of figured that swimming was included in the curriculum with the assumption that everybody knew how to swim. I did not trust the teacher, plus, did not believe any of my colleagues would help me, I had just met them. I also have to admit I was a bit embarrassed by my lack of natatorial skills. A plan was necessary.

  I would definitely handle matters differently today. I would be honest and admit that I did not know how to swim, and see what happened. At the time, the only solution I found was to go to a physician and complain of a real problem I had. For some reason I never found out, my right knee would make a cracking noise. I went to the doctor and complained about this. He asked whether there was any pain, neurologically I seemed to be OK, externally ditto. Whatever the problem, there was no solution or diagnosis. So he gave me a medical letter, saying that I had that unidentified condition on my knee.

  I then submitted the letter to the oversized swimming teacher, who still tried to get me involved, claiming that hot water might be good for my `problem`. One way or the other, I convinced him to let me sit out the sessions. I got a B for my troubles, and only learned how to swim years down the line...

  
• A confession

  I have a confession to make. No one likes to admit to being adverse to new things, retrograde, old-fashioned, conservative, whatever you want to call it. But it took me a long time to warm up to CDs.

  To me, buying an album was an event. I loved the large covers, full of photographs, and lyric sheets, booklets, you name it. The covers were veritable works of art (many of them, anyway), a sight to behold. I even loved the smell of an old valve record player I had, the record lazily spinning at 33 1/3 rpm, and the noise made by static, especially between cuts. The vinyl smell also had its allure. The whole thing was very eventful to me.

  So when CDs came, with the little plastic boxes, lyrics so small not even an ant could read, and subdued presence, I could only see the disadvantages. For one thing, albums cost about 5 to 6 bucks at the time, and stores started selling CDs at about 20 a pop, 20 years ago!!! The prices were supposed to come down substantially with time, but we are still paying much more than the 5 buck equivalent, factoring inflation and all. Plus, production and distribution prices for CDs are much lower these days, down to a few cents at a big scale. We were taken for a ride.

  The sound advantage was obvious. CD players had clearer quality than records, but I guess I was not lucky from the start. My first CD player worked whenever it wanted, which was not often. Plus, a lot of the CDs I bought skipped, so I got very annoyed at the deal I got. While albums were widely available, I continued buying them in profusion.

  Until, one day, they were no longer widely available. CD killed the album star. They became a thing of the past, momentous as they were. Eventually I warmed up to CDs, for although they were not big events, they were minor ones, if you may.

  Sad to say, I guess now CDs are on the way out too. Very bad for record companies and artists, who will increasingly see very little income from the fruit of their labor. The age of the downloads is here to stay, and I have no idea how the industry will control this, but I think record stores might be on the way out, too. I remember in the late 90’s getting a very official letter from Microsoft sent to my office, warning me that software piracy was a crime, and that Microsoft could at any moment drop in and enforce their rights. I had no idea why they sent me the nasty missive, as I had (and still do) spent thousands of dollars in authentic software, much of it sent Bill’s way I might add, and to my knowledge had no pirated software lying about anywhere. I guess they were getting a bit edgy about the very monster they created and were sending the thing randomly. I hope it had nothing to do with profiling…

  Nowadays bits replace many a profession. Even in my profession, things have changed for the worse. It was bound to happen sooner or later to music, but it is very difficult to fathom how this thing will get sorted out. At a day and age when terrorism looms large on the horizon, I don’t see much law enforcement getting worked up about “possession of illegal downloads with the intent to sell.” I do feel sorry for the musicians, who, like translators, will have to work ever harder to earn an honest dollar, trying to get people to buy their downloads in a crowded myspace…

  
• A day in the life of Lou Dobbs and Bill O'Reilly

  A busy day looms ahead of you, L.D.. In addition to your prominent work as a TV commentator, there are little errands that can drive a human being nut, everything happening at the same time, it seems. The door bell rings at 7:30 A.M.. Red headed, shy Rachel comes to pick up your dogs for a daily walk. Just a little while later, John, the contractor who will redo your apartment comes in to settle a few more details. He was by far the one who gave you the best price for the major bedroom renovation. Those Union workers are all crazy, charging over $40,000 for something that should not cost 20 grand. You may be wealthy, but money does not grow on trees! A new housecleaner will begin today, so you tell your wife about a few things you want to have done. The last cleaner was not very good, but this one called Ana came very highly recommended by a colleague, known to be very picky as far as housekeeping is concerned. You pick a cab, driven by Mr. Muhammad, and get to work right on time. You say a quick hello to your assistant, and ask her to buy the usual breakfast, from the place around the corner. Before settling in, you call the car shop and find about your Mercedes Benz, which seemed to be rattling a bit. The shop owner assured you, L.D., that Pietr was the best Mercedes mechanic he had ever seen - the problem will be solved later that day. You eat the hearty and delicious breakfast and begin your day on a high note. What a bagel! Your wife calls, to ask where you put the dry cleaner receipt. You probably have a hundred shirts to be picked up. You tell her it was in the top drawer of your bathroom cabinet. Wenderson comes to shine your shoe, as usual, and you look indeed very sharp. You look like a million bucks! An early lunch is eaten at one of the best places around your office building. The service is impeccable, there seems to be hundreds of maitre’s, waiters, busboys serving the demanding clientele. And the dishes, wow, they are so impeccably clean, just the way you like them. Plus they have that wonderful salad they make with the freshest vegetables money can buy. Before you go up to the office, you swing by the framing shop, to pick up a photograph of yourself with a prominent entertainer who just passed away. A perky blond girl, whose name you don’t know, but is called Helga, hands you the perfectly executed job. You shoot your program in the afternoon, and the rest of the day is spent discussing more features for tomorrow’s edition. Again, you have a few things to say about illegal immigration. At 8 PM you have an important dinner with a prominent politician. You take a limo midtown, driven by a Mr. Ortega, and again, thanks to the man’s knowledge of shortcuts, you are right on time. The posh French restaurant is just as well staffed as the place you had lunch. More of those nice vegetables you like so much. The limo takes you back home, where you find an impeccably cleaned house. Life is good for you. Well L.D., the girl who picked up your dog in the morning, Rachel, is from Ireland. She is illegal. John, the contractor, is as American as they come, but the only reason his prices are reasonable is because he hired a whole bunch of Serbs, all illegal, who do perfect work for peanuts. Ana probably fooled everybody with her perfect English. She was an exchange student from Uruguay, during high school, who returned to the U.S. when she found out that speaking English alone would not get her a decent job in her homeland. She is now cleaning houses, but does not look, or sound, illegal, but so she is. 100% I-L-L-E-G-A-L. Muhammad is from Pakistan. He endures long 12 hour shifts behind the wheel of a cab, seven days a week, even eating lunch while driving, hoping that one day he will become legalized. Pietr, the mechanic, comes from Poland. He was trained at the Mercedes factory in Germany, but back in Poland opportunities were little, so now he was fixing cars for the New York jet set. He also dreams of a green card, often promised by his boss, known for tall tales. The breakfast was bought at a place run by two Israeli brothers, who run a very tight ship. A distant relative promised to legalize them, but it turned out to be a fluke, so they stuck around hoping for some type of amnesty. Your clothes are impeccably dry cleaned and washed by the Young family, from Korea. Everybody in the shop, besides the owner, is illegal. Including the folks who did your shirts. Wenderson, who shines your shoe, is from Brazil. He has a law degree, but was unable to put it to good use in his own land. He does not like being illegal, but his work is honest and he dreams of practicing law in the U.S., one day. Dream on, Wend… The service at the lunch restaurant was provided mostly by illegal immigrants who bring your dishes red hot from the kitchen, often burning themselves. Most waiters are American, but the support group is all illegal. Your dishes are cleaned to perfection by Guillermo, from Ecuador. Don’t forget the pristine vegetables were picked by a horde of Mexican immigrants in California, courtesy of Maria, Eduardo and Gonzalo. Helga, at the framing shop, is from Sweden. Very much illegal, although her blond good looks and charming accent don’t quite make her look that way. Illegal Swedes? Nah…The guy who prepared your frame was from China, Mr. Wang. He has been illegal in this country for twenty years, but he is well hidden in the back of the shop! Mr. Ortega, the Guatemalan limo driver, is also waiting for a miracle - the green card - so he can bring his family over. The kitchen staff in the French restaurant is all illegal, so are the nice busboys who attended to your every request, some of them unreasonable. Another Mexican crew picked the tasty California vegetables that adorned your table. Life is good for you, L.D. You live the American dream: a host of anonymous people serve your needs all day long. You don’t even walk your dog, for goodness’ sakes. You don’t ever eat at home, and you are either driven around in cabs or limos all day. Guess what, you and the few million in the United States who are lucky to be a part of the financial elite of the country, top executives and businessmen, big time attorneys and doctors, politicians, entertainers, Hollywood and TV starts, media barons, heirs, artists, you are the ones who drive the illegal immigration job market! Do you want to stop illegal immigration, Mr. D? Set the example. Walk your own dog, and don’t forget to clean up after him. Take a subway around town, no more cabs and limos, and don’t ever eat outside of your home again. Eat only processed foods that come in cartons or bags, fresh veggies can be tainted by illegal work! Buy yourself a Detroit made car: who knows who might be servicing your German luxury auto? Shine your own shoes before leaving the house, which, incidentally, will be cleaned by your wife. You better frequent Home Depot a little more, and learn to renovate your own place. While there, buy a good washer to wash your own clothes. Too bad you will have to stop using fine cotton shirts, which are a handful to press, but after all, you have to set an example. You don’t want to be called hypocritical, do you? Plus, Mr. D., you know a thing or two about economics. You obviously know about the law of supply and demand. If you wealthy folks are driving this mad market, if you stop the demand for services, very soon the illegals will flee from the country. Simple logic! You might be surprised, mr. D, that most of the folks above pay income tax and social security. They have tax ids, not real social security cards, so in all likelihood, most will never reap any benefit from their S.S. contributions. While on the subject, let us not forget that although you, and most of your relations and peers, make millions of dollars a year, taxable income for social security taps out at a little over 80k. So you do not contribute a lion’s share of Social Security funds, in spite of your lavish income. In fact, just a handful of those illegals that served you today cumulatively contribute much more towards S.S. than you do. And millions more around the country contribute billions every year… I am so glad you actually decided to put your money where your mouth is, mr. D. One final thing. Don’ be fooled by my name. I am a naturalized American citizen, who has not spent a single second in this country illegally!

  
• A missed, great opportunity to shut up

  Angelina Jolie is not only known for her huge lips, she should also be noteworthy for a big mouth. The actress who rose to fame on the backdrop of double entendres involving a sibling, later became a U.S. tabloid darling, due to her involvement with Brad Pitt. In her latter iteration she has chosen to become a humanist, adopting children on a wholesale basis, and becoming a U.N. Ambassador for whatever.

  I am referring to one of her latest interviews, when Jolie alleged that she has done every drug on the book. From marijuana, to LSD, ecstasy, you name it. Can't fault her for honesty, but surely, she would probably not answer whether she had sex the night before, claiming that was not the journalist's business, that it was a private matter. It beats me why go public on her drug use, especially from her current platform.

  You see, the problem with folks like Jolie being so blatant about their drug use is that celebrities have influential power over young people, indeed a lot of power. It is not by chance that Madison Avenue hires tons of celebrities to `endorse` products they have probably never used in their lives. By just showing up in ads, people will be compelled to go to stores in droves and consume hitherto unwanted products.

  Jolie says she no longer does drugs. That is not the point, Angelina. The point is that by claiming that she, a still young, beautiful and successful actress, with a highly sought husband, and loads of money in the bank, has done all drugs on the book in the not so distant past, and has surfaced the way she did, you know, so well, then all young folks should do it!!! They should be Angelina!!! You can be Angelia Jolie too, just do some doobies, shoot up a little bit, snort it up, gobble them ecstasies, you will be fine like Jolie!!! That is basically her message, whether she likes it or not.

  If you confront celebrities in general who have been unnecessarily candid about their drug use, and tell them are partly responsible for wars and urban violence taking place around the world, due to the drug demand boosting caused by their `endorsements` they will say you are delirious.

  They believe they can only influence the world positively, by being U.S. ambassadors to whatever, saving the rain forests, campaigning against global warming, but no, their pecadillos do not influence society at all. Especially young folks! They know better. Helllooooooo!!!

  I have not met a single person who has a child, who wants that child to be a junkie when he/she grows up. That does not rank high up with doctors, lawyers, football players and artists in the career list. Even heavy drug users don't want their children to do drugs. This apology of circumstantial drug use in one's life is part of the new moral that pervades the world.

  Sure, journalists are partly at fault, when they ask the question even of presidential candidates, one of whom ducked the demand by saying he did not inhale. However, those being interviewed, specially artists, whose private life does not need to be scrutinized, should claim privacy.

  It is no wonder Hollywood folks got no privacy...

  
• A thing of genius

  Whenever the list of Nobel prize winners comes out, I get upset. I figure, there are so many geniuses all over the world, sometimes right next to us, but because they are not part of an academic institution, the world is not privy to their astounding mental capabilities and irrefutable logic, with a touch of creativity.

  For instance, the U.S. Post office is full of such geniuses.

  Just see the post card below. It was stamped addresses unknown, and returned to me the sender. A simple mind would merely cross out the address. What does a genius do? Thoroughly cross the name and address on the label on thick black ink, so that I am unable to remove the person from the mailing list.

  This is genius in its purest form.

  

  Perhaps this is the reason why the USPS is falling apart...

  
• A word of advice

  In Portuguese they say if advice were any good, people would sell it, not give it away for free. Well, I am willing to give it. You be the judge. I have been on the internet for a while, in fact, since 1995. As you might have guessed it, I missed out on the Internet bubble of the early 2000s, in fact, I never really made any money from websites per se, for I am too busy with my other occupation, which is translation work. So for me writing on the Internet is a bit of a hobby, a way of expressing myself and providing certain types of content, such as the history of car racing. It gives me pleasure. I obviously do not want my writings to go to total waste, so while I do not expect to be a John Grisham in terms of readership, I want as many people to be encouraged or ticked off by whatever I have to say. So I will not lie, getting as many people to read my stuff has been a bit of an obsession.

  It took me a while to realize this, but here it goes. If you have not read it anywhere, you have read it here. Believe it. Do a blog. A lot of the software, such as the one I am using, is free and easy to use. The reason why you want to go blogging is that search engines do not like stationary sites. PERIOD. You know, the Front Page type of site. They will rank your page 1,897,888th for most search strings, and many never rank a page at all. On the other hand, they love blogs. The pages get preferential treatment in ranking (they only fall behind media, but that is another story altogether), and while a search engine treats the same text appearing twice on a stationary site as an attempt to fool it, for some reason, it lists multiple pages containing the same blog text!

  That was number one. Number 2. Do not waste your time with adsense or yahoo text ads. For one thing, the ads that show 99% of the time have nothing whatsoever to do with the content of your page (that is my experience). You should try the image ads only configuration. People are more attracted to images than writing, and your monetization is likely to be more successful.

  Good luck.

  
• Accepting Credit Cards - Things you should know

  If you intend to start a business, or if you run a business, you should for all intents and purposes accept credit cards. If you are doing business on line, it is a must. One of the advantages of credit cards is that you close sales with impulse buyers, an important clientelle for all retail businesses. But there are disadvantages as well.
  
  First of all, if you are just starting a business, you should be aware that a certain percentage of you business volume WILL BE A LOSS during the course of a year. Returned merchandise, bounced checks, even receiving counterfeit money are a day to day occurrence for all businesses. So get on your head that between 1% to 5% of your sales will be losses and establish your margins accordingly.
  
  When it comes to credit cards, the major problem is the so-called chargeback. A chargeback is initiated when a client disputes a charge. Although most chargebacks are initiated by honest credit card holders, may use the prerogative maliciously, as a means of delaying or altogether failing to pay for ordered merchandise.
  
  The fact is that when a client initiates a chargeback, much of the time the credit card merchant company will take the side of the credit cardholder, even if you provide all documentation. Whether the client’s credit card company does credit the cardholder’s account is another story. Be aware that almost 100% of credit card transactions involve a merchant service in one side, and a different credit card issuer on the other. It is not an “inhouse” issue.

  However, you should always document every sale, keeping copies of the order, credit card receipts, etc., for at least a year. Always run a printout of the sales receipt.
  
  There is a third reason why a client initiates a chargeback: if somebody other than the cardholder used the card, without the cardholder’s authorization! This is not uncommon, and there are a few things you should consider. First, if the name of the card holder and the recipient of merchandise are different, try to call the client. If the provided phone number or email are incorrect, or not in service, this is likely to be a fraud attempt. If you run the charge through, you should be aware there is a risk this will result in a charge back.
  Be very careful with overseas orders. Never process an order without first securing payment. You will be surprised that a lot of credit card numbers from overseas orders are rejected. If it is rejected, contact the client. If the email provided bounces back, this is most likely a malicious fraud attempt.
  
  Some credit card orders might be Approved, but still, you should not process them at all. Forget about orders from Africa, especially Nigeria, and be extremely careful with orders from the Philippines. Orders from these countries often are placed with stolen credit cards that might be approved, but will almost definitely result in a chargeback later. Don’t be very happy if you get unusually large orders from overseas. Almost 100% of the time they are fraud attempts!

  
• ADSENSE- IS IT FOR YOU?

  If you are looking for opportunities to make money on the Internet, you have probably run into the phrase “Google Adsense” a zillion times. In one of my previous articles I actually advised readers to consider Google Adsense as a legitimate source of income, rather than affiliate programs, based on my own experience (Click here) The real question remains: is Google Adsense for you and is it worth the trouble? In your search for information on business opportunities you have probably seen numerous rags to riches claims; you know, the ads saying “I make $4,000 on Adsense weekly” or “I make too much money on Adsense”, etc. These are basically hype. They are the modern day equivalent of the ancient newspaper ads “make money stuffing envelopes”. You are extremely unlikely to make a substantial amount of money on Adsense, unless you work on your website fulltime, and have the means of adding a lot of content on a daily basis. If you do this part time, come down to Earth, please. Bottom line, there are companies/sites who are making money with Adsense.

  For starters, Google is, and lots of it! Nothing wrong with that, they are in business to make money, after all. Remember that Google does not disclose how much commission the company pays publishers, which incidentally, is entirely and indisputably their prerogative. It might not strike at something extremely nice to some, but that is their right, plus, they are not putting a gun on anyone’s head to sign up for their system. You do it if you want, under the provided terms. Remember that Google is a private company, so there is no such a thing as “entitlement” in your relations to the company. Next the large publishers are also making money, those that have huge amounts of traffic on a single site. We are talking about 100,000 to over 1,000,000 page impressions a day. These are not your regular Joes.

  Huge traffic and return visitors will definitely result in greater Adsense payouts, although, again there is no guarantee. If your website gets a few thousand visits a day, you are likely to make tops $200.00 on Adsense. Let’s put it this way, you will not buy a summer home on adsense income, if your single site does not have a lot of content and traffic. Then, there are companies out there that literally have hundreds to thousands of websites, and they might make a nice amount of money on adsense by multiplying $100.00/$50.00 payout-a-site a month for hundreds of sites. These are normally not very good sites, use doorways (which Google and other search engines does not like for ranking as well) and some of these companies/individuals get kicked out of the program. It is pretty much impossible for an individual to run or put together thousands of websites, after all the day still has 24 hours.

  Let us say you are reasonable and do not intend to get rich from this, but set a target $2,000.00 a month? Is it doable? Yes, but very hard, I am afraid to say. First of all, you have to design a website(or websites) that complies with all google design guidelines, or else, you might not only be removed from the program, but also have your site altogether delisted. But that is the subject for another article. This means that you have to use extreme care in attempting to increase your traffic: there are tons of unscrupulous SEO companies out there who will promise you all types of things that might raise your ranking for a very short while, then actually cause your site to be delisted, so watch out for that. If the German BMW (bmw.de) site has been recently delisted, believe me, it can happen to you as well. The fact that you are in the adsense network will not prevent Google from delisting you, in fact, might be an additional reason.

  So let’s say your area of expertise is fixing teddy bear noses, and you decide that is how you are going to make money on adsense, with a website on that subject. Sorry to say, no matter how much content you include on this matter, you are likely to make cents a month, if at all. Even if you write a website on celebrities like Britney Spears, you might be surprised to find out that celebrities keywords pay very little, plus you are likely to be ranked 100,000th by this stage of the game. Therefore, ideally your subject matter should generate high paying keywords, and you might have trouble coming up with enough content to fill up such a site. Actually finding out which are the most expensive keywords is not that difficult: the trouble is putting together sites that will have content which will generate high commission ads and which are considered relevant content by Google. Again, you must be very careful, as Google might actually consider that your site exists for the single purpose of generating adsense clicks, and kick you out of the program and delist your site! Google seems to change every once in a while their criteria, so what is OK today might be grounds for your removal at a latter date.

  Even if you do design a relevant site, with a subject matter that relates to expensive keywords, I am afraid the displayed ads are left to the discretion of the google adsense algorithm. I have examined thousands of my pages, in different days, times, etc., and realize that the adsense program often places ads that have nothing whatsoever to do with my site’s or page’s content, sometimes even in languages that are not used on my websites. You should remember that a lot of people sign up for Adwords targeting sites, rather than keywords, and they might decide that your site is good bet for them, although their subject matter is totally distinct from your content. This is often the case with dating services, that plague the internet. The paradigm for ad payment is different for them: the advertisers first pay for 1000 impressions, then for clicks, whereas regular Keyword targeted advertisers pay only for clicks generated on his/her ads. In my experience, the site targeting campaigns generate very little in terms of clicks. By this point you get the drift that making thousands, much less millions with adsense is not that easy.

  The real key, I suppose, is that adsense cannot be your site’s single source of income, or for that matter, the site’s “reason for existing”. In fact, it might be downright dangerous for you to exclusively rely on adsense for income, for the very fact that ranking/listing paradigms are changing all the time, and one day, out of nothing, you realize your site with 10,000 content pages has been delisted by google. It happens (just ask bmw.de), and getting it listed again might not be easy. Then what do you do? Let’s face it. It works like this: you have to have your site well positioned in google, to get traffic to begin with, and then hope somebody will click on an ad displayed on your site, so you can make a few cents, and they leave your site. Unless you have a very good standing and returning audience already, your whole structure might be too fragile, God forbid Google delists your site! You see, it is more likely Google that got you a visitor in the first place! So there is a danger, a big danger investing a whole lot of time, and maybe even money, on a business plan that relies heavily on Google adsense income. Unless you are absolutely sure that your site is 100% compliant with the company’s policy, which incidentally is amended all the time, and continue to check it all the time. Last, but not least, once you put the adsense javascript on your site, you no longer have full control over your content/links. It might direct your visitors to competitors or to content you might consider objectionable. Let us say you have an article on dentistry, use the word “oral” and a couple of lines down, for whatever reason, you use that famous 3-letter word that starts with an “s” and ends with an “x”, and has an “e” in the middle. You might be shocked in finding out what type of ads the algorithm might pick up. If your have a religious content site, you might be frustrated to find that displayed ads might be from organizations whose doctrines you strongly oppose. Sure, there is a “competitive filter” in the adsense sign up, but so far you can only block individual sites, not keywords, topics or terms, and even that is limited to 200 items. Plus you have to constantly examine your pages to ensure your site is not pointing to sites promoting causes you might be disputing. You might consider this article a bummer, but in fact it is not. Get your expectations down a notch, don’t become another traffic neurotic, who spends inordinate amounts of money and time in the hope of making millions, because this is not going to happen. CONCLUSION: If you have enough sense, the adsense program will work for you, under a reasonable basis. If not, it might only be a source of frustration and expenditure.

  
• Advice

  Now that the economy is turning sour, I would like to give a piece of advice to people that entertain the idea of making some extra money selling stuff on the Internet, either through an e-commerce website or Ebay. Or those that do shipping otherwise, selling through other means (catalogs, etc).

  I will start by saying that UPS has a very good tracking facility, and reasonable enough compensation for lost packages. They do take some time and effort to take the blame for damaged packages, as they almost always say the client packaged it incorrectly.

  As these account for much less than 1% of my shipping activity, the real bottom line is individual package cost, so critical in a time of crisis.

  My e-commerce site has a very useful and working link to the UPS website, which calculates the shipping on an individual basis. One of the most difficult things about using UPS is the fact that there is no fixed price - each individual area has a different price. This is not theoretically a problem, given the link.

  However, with UPS WYSINWYG. In other words, what you see is not what you get. Once you start receiving bills, the number of unfair address corrections is a thing to behold. For each address correction, UPS charges a whopping $5.00, sometimes because the apartment member is missing. Plus, now they charge fuel surcharges, which are basically added to most billings. Plus rural delivery surcharges, which are added to the bill. None of the hidden charges appears from the link to e-commerce sites, or on their published prices on their site. Should the recipient not be found, guess what, UPS will charge you a good few bucks for shipping the box back to you.

  It does not stop there. UPS almost always corrects the reported weight on expensive 3-day, 2nd day and next day packages, to higher weights, never lower, by a large margin. I don't know what scale they use...

  So, if you are a small operator shipping light packages, you are much better off using the Post Offices Priority Mail, with all of its shortcomings - and there are a few. If you ship heavy packages, stick to UPS, but set your website to charge at least $2.50 more for all of the surcharges above add up to an ugly few hundred or thousands of dollars at the end of the year, depending on how much you ship.

  
• Adwords

  The Adwords feature of google.com has placed this search engine on the forefront of Internet advertising, for one displacing banner advertising as a realistic proposition, as well as rendering affiliate advertising obsolete.
  
  The basic premise is that advertisers pay per click made on their ad banners, and the pricing of ads is determined by a supply and demand bidding process, thus, it is performance driven, while not sales driven. The program offers small businesses great opportunities, if well managed, but can also result in unnecessary expenses, if poorly managed. The purpose of this article is to give you a few pointers as to how to manage your Adwords program. It is assumed that the reader already knows what Adwords is and how it works, and does not need a tutorial on the program. The contents of this article are based on my own personal experience, and should not be considered general, definitive answers.
  
  SHOULD I GO FOR GENERAL KEYWORDS?
  
  No, the more general your keywords, the more likely you are to waste tons of advertising dollars. General keywords are expensive. For instance, let us say your site sells only a line of Belgian candy, namely truffles. Fighting for position on the keyword candy will likely wipe out thousands of dollars off your advertising budget during the course of a year, with little, if any, result. You are fighting a losing battle. Let big companies that sell dozens of different lines of candy fight for position in the general keywords. Narrow down your keyword choices, such as “Belgian candy”, “Belgian truffles” and “truffles”. Best yet, use the brand name. Make sure you sell well known brands to start with.
  SHOULD I REALLY GO FOR IT WITH MY DAILY BUDGET?
  
  No. Don’t invest more than you can. If you can afford only $10.00 a day, set your budget at $10.00 a day. On the internet you can get thousands and thousands of visitors to your site, but sales are not as easy to come by as some would have you imagine. Be realistic and prudent, otherwise you can easily have a $1,800 charge to your credit card at the end of the month, and $500.00 in sales, specially if you fool around with general keywords and high click bids.

  IF I CLICK ON MY OWN AD WILL MY AD POSITION IMPROVE?
  
  This is a potential source of waste, but above all, I believe it is a major Internet urban legend. All you might be doing is spending money unnecessarily for a while. The google software is designed to pick up on abnormal activities, such as repeated clicks from the same IP address and it is also designed to identify YOUR IP address. So even if you go to someone else’s computer, and click repeatedly on your own ad, the software will realize this is an abnormal activity. Additionally, I found on my own experience that being on the first advertising page is all you need to do to ensure a nice number of visits and resulting sales. Being ranked 3rd or 5th on that first page does not make much of a difference.

  SHOULD I TRY SITE TARGETING, INSTEAD OF KEYWORD TARGETING?
  
  On my experience, site targeting did not work. I believe that site targeting works only if you do a lot of research and identify sites that indeed have obvious synergy with the product/service you are selling. Remember, the people who are seeing your ads are not necessarily looking for information on your product, you are trying to compel them to click on your ad. When you sign up for site targeting, google offers a number of likely places to display your ads, and in my experience 95% of these are a waste of advertising money.
  
  SHOULD I CHOOSE THE CONTENT NETWORK, AS WELL AS SEARCH?
  
  I found that the more effective advertising campaign , dollar for dollar, is in Google search. At first you might get frustrated with the low number of clicks on your ad or even page impressions if you choose only the search feature, and choosing the content network might increase both. However, you will find that ads displayed on the content network might follow the same pattern as site targeting, failing to produce results. The name of the game is: how much in sales ($$$) are the ads generating. Don’t get caught up on the traffic neurosis. Remember that people clicking on your ad, through search ARE REALLY LOOKING FOR YOUR SPECIFIC PRODUCT/SERVICE, whereas this might not be the case of content ad impressions.

  DOES RUNNING ADWORDS IMPROVE MY POSITION IN REGULAR SEARCHES?
  
  Honestly if you embarking in an Adwords campaign with the exclusive aim of improving your position in regular searches (ranking), don’t run the Adwords campaign. I don’t believe there is any guarantee that it will indeed improve your ranking. If you are already very well positioned (first page) for your most relevant keywords, you don’t really need Adwords, continue to get traffic for free. Whether or not there is a cause/effect relationship, the fact is that while running Adwords campaign, the google ranking has substantially worsened for two of my sites, for their most relevant keywords. In one particular case, it dropped from first page to nowhere to be found, and another case from page 2 to 20. However, both sites continue to produce revenue from the Adwords program, so it really does not matter.
  IS ADWORDS THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN?
  
  I find the Yahoo program (formerly Overture) just as good in terms of results, although their interface leaves a lot to be desired. Implementing and editing information on the Yahoo advertising program is not always very clear, whereas the google program is very intuitive and easy to work with.
  
  SHOULD I GO INTERNATIONAL?
  
  Obviously, this depends on the type of service/product you are offering. If you choose to have your ad displayed all over the world, you will definitely have more page impressions and clicks. However, you will also increase your expenditures. If the method of delivery of your product/service is email or downloads, I believe going international is OK. However, if you are actually delivering products by physical means, think twice. I have had tons of delivery problems with the post offices of France, Germany and Belgium in the past year, that have caused me headache and losses. Additionally, you have to consider that a number of the people clicking on your ads might not even understand English at all, and again, you are just losing money. Let us say, you sell “Nike” sneakers. The brand is known internationally, and you are likely to get tons of visits from people that cannot communicate in English. Meanwhile, your ad campaign is getting more expensive. In my case, the ratio of accounts created to actual orders, in the USA, has been 3 to 1, whereas, for the international public, it has been 8 to 1. International orders are also less likely returning clients. The ratio of “problem” transactions is 3 international for every one domestic (bad credit card numbers, non deliveries, disputes etc) and handling returns for international orders is a sure loss. Plus there is the issue of customs. If you are really inclined to go international, I suggest you have two campaigns: a US campaign, and an International campaign. Needless to say, reduce your bid on the international campaigns, vis-a-vis domestic ones.

  
• Aliens

  I am not talking about illegal aliens. Well, in a sense they would be illegal, because they come from outer space without a green card or passport. Anyway, I just enjoyed watching on Youtube a "presentation" of the most genuine allien photographs from the 1950s to the present. Hilarious. The so-called presentation ends up a clear proof that aliens do no exist, and that any such photos are nothing more than fakes for a very simple and practical reason.

  In all of these pictures "aliens" are pictured walking about without any type of respiratory aid device. They all have nostrils, so they breathe! Yet, we are led to believe that aliens supposedly coming from different planets, are able to freely breathe the Earth's atmosphere!!! A thing of beauty!

  It does not take an anesthesiologist to tell you that a very minute change in the mix of gases we breathe can lead to a loss of conscience, the very basis of gas anesthesiology. On the other hand, by observation we notice that planets' atmospheres seem to be all different, due to different gravitational pulls, planet composition, specific gravity, presence or lack of water, volcanic activity etc.

  Therefore, if it is quite a tall order that "aliens" exist, in the first place, it would be borderline impossible for them to be able to freely breathe our atmosphere. Had they "evolved" somewhere else, they would have "evolved" breathing their own gaseous cocktail, not ours.

  Thus, all of you people who waste your time putting these "pictures" together, be a bit more imaginative and logical. Put some type of breathing mask, helmet and canister on your ET's. But watch it, Lou Dobbs or Bill O'Reilly might go after your precious creatures!!!!

  
• Always something new at Chase

  Now, every single day the Internet password and user names are malfunctioning. I have to go through the whole nine yards, and change it, as if I had nothing else to do with my time.

  So much for big business.

  
• Am I supposed to feel good about this, Chase?

  Today I got an email from JP Morgan Chase, which is not on my favorite list of companies at the present time, btw.

  They are announcing the Blink service. Now, I need not trouble myself with cashiers, in given locations. All I need to do is show my bank debit card to this reader (not a human being, of course), and voila, my purchase is paid and my money gone from the account.

  They call this secure. I don't see how.

  If this "service" becomes the norm, rather than the exception, and we are no longer required to provide a password to make purchases with a Debit card, a thief can just walk away with your card, and dispense with all money on your account in a matter of hours. Before you notice the card is gone.

  Am I supposed to clap???

  
• Another day on a Highway

  Another day on an Interstate Highway. A car gets pulled over.

  “License and registration, please”

  The driver complies readily.

  “Do you know why I am stopping you?”, says the displeased officer.

  “It certainly isn’t for speeding. I was doing 65.”

  “Huh, huh.”

  “Well officer, I am sorry, but I was doing 65. In fact, everybody else seems to be doing 90 on this highway. See all of these cars flying by? They were flying by me too. That motorcycle must have been doing 110 mph. Don’t tell me you are booking me for speeding?”

  “We know this tactic.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You were doing 90 miles an hour, and then you reduced the speed when you spotted me from the distance. I know your type.”

  “I did not do such a thing.”

  “You did too. Listen, I see this everyday. These other people flying by, they are at least honest. They stick to their speeding, they’ve got nothing to hide. On the other hand, sneaky people like you are dangerous…”

  “I can’t believe what I am hearing…”

  “Well, you better believe it. I will estimate by the heat of your engine you were doing at least 100, more or less. So I will book you for 100. That is settled.”

  “This is outrageous. Do you know why the car is hot? Because it is 15 years old. This thing heats up like crazy. It can’t go 100 mph.”

  The officer turns a notch more unpleasant.

  “Sir, please step out of the car.” The driver could swear the officer already had one hand on his weapon.

  “Why?”

  “You are way too aggressive. I see some patterns, I have to run some tests.”
  “I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs, I don’t take medicines. If those are the tests you are running, you are wasting your time.”

  “I see. Just like your car can’t go 100 mph, huh”

  “Ok. Just give me the breathalyzer, I’ve got nothing to hide.” The driver takes the test. Then he walks, the straightest walk on earth. The surprised officer goes to the car and calls the radio. Comes back with a very serious demeanor.

  “I am calling for back-up.”

  “What did I do now?”

  “Well, you didn’t do a thing. But I have reason to suspect my breathalyzer is broken. So I called another officer. We will use his instrument instead.”

  “This is outrageous…”

  “Sir, you are going to have to calm down, or else I will have to cuff you.” The driver decides to shut up. The officer means business.

  They wait another twenty minutes, when the other officer arrives, sirens blasting, walks out of the car with the breathalyzer ready to go.

  “Hey, guess what, we got a code 402 here,” screams the officer who called for back up.

  “Another 402? They are spreading like wildfires.” The back-up officer addresses the driver. ”Sir, please breathe right here.” They wait for the result, and find the driver’s breath was as clean as a whistle. Again.

  The officers look at each other baffled. They walk away from the driver and talk a little. They call the radio. Maybe the batteries were bad in both units. They start looking for fresh batteries in their cars. They found a set. They run the test again. Clean, clean, clean.

  “Well Mr. Rudolph, you got away from the D.U.I. this time. I have better things to do, so I will not call for further back-up or take you to the station. You are lucky my son was born today and I got a promotion, so I am in good spirits. I will only book you for doing 100 mph in an 65 mph zone.”

  “Sir, can I say something, please. I mean no disrespected, I like the police, I watch COPS every night, but my car cannot go 100 mph. In fact, it can only go 65. You know why, because after 65, it rattles and shakes so much it becomes undriveable. If you care to join me, I will show you.”

  The two officers look at each other, taken aback by the interesting, fresh piece of information. The booking officer decides to take a ride with the poor driver. The driver accelerates the car to 40, 50, 60, 65, once past 65, the thing makes all kinds of noise, shakes like crazy, and it seems it will fall apart if the driver accelerates even a bit more. The officer seems convinced, and tells the driver to return to the place where he was stopped. One and a half hours have elapsed since the police action began. The officer leaves the vehicle and walks to his patrol car again, talks on the radio, and comes back to address the driver.

  “Am I free to go? Did I prove this old piece of manure can’t exceed the speed limit?”, says the anxious and relieved driver.

  “Well sir, you indeed proved your can can’t do over 65. I am also calling a tow truck, and giving you a summons for driving an unsafe vehicle. We are taking this car off the road, and you will need to appear in Court. You get 3 points off your license too. You should consider yourself lucky that we are taking this car away from you. Safe driving, sir.”

  
• Another hello

  Hello robots? How is the family?

  
• Another jewel by Chase

  In the last few months, Chase lowered the credit limit on all credit cards my family had. Mind you, none of the were late. When it first happened, I was travelling to Europe, counting on the Chase credit card to pay for expenses. The credit line was reduced by 41%.

  They did the same to my wife.

  When I called, they said I should not feel bad or take it personally, they were doing this to EVERYBODY.

  And I found out from lots of friends that was the case.

  Then, about two months ago, my mailbox has been flooded with credit card offers from...Chase!

  I simply do not get it.

  They should adopt the slogan "We chase our customers away".

  
• Another thing that annoys me

  Windows mail refuses to send a Word file as an attachment if the file is open. Where exactly this is a safety feature or enhancement, I know not. Too many lattes on the programmers' heads, I suppose.

  
• Bad luck

  It is unfortunate, but it so happens that one of my main direct competitors on the internet is a major google spammer, operating, at last count, something like 100 different sites that violate several google design parameters.

  These violations supposedly would have been picked up by the alroghtm, a long time ago, and would result in delisting.

  However, the myriad sites persevere unscathed. Adding insult to injury, google ranks them high for very speficic keywords.

  
• Bad product names

  I just got information about a cell phone that is specialized for the legal profession. It is called ILEGAL! -- I suppose, iLegal, as in iPhone, etc...

  Herbalife had a vitamin for men, years ago, called MALE FACTOR - malefactor, get it?

  What are people thinking? Better yet, are they thinking?

  

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