The new iPod touch has been disassembled and its components priced. The result shows that Apple is squeezing nearly 100% profit from sales of this music player, which seems to be a nasty habit with this company. There are a few abstract costs not included in the reverse-pricing figure, but I find this very interesting, especially as I struggle to justify the exorbitant price of a new MacBook Pro:
You can likely guess what this simple freeware [for residential use, $20 license for commercial use] app does just from reading its name. The goal of The PC Decrapifier is to remove the trial “junkware” clogging up new computers purchased from major PC manufacturers. Makers such as Dell, HP and Sony make large sums of money on the back end of retail computer sales by installing trial or limited-functionality licenses of many programs on the new systems they sell.
According to a recent PC World article mentioned on The PC Decrapifier’s website, backlash from consumers is now strong enough for at least one of these PC makers to offer an opt-out option – though it appears a complicated process. PC World goes into further detail about this greedy behavior, noting that none but one of the companies involved would comment specifically except to say “it’s a feature!”
Well, I know exactly where they can put their features.
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The PC Decrapifier has enjoyed fairly steady development since its introduction. It removes a long list of common junkware. Please be careful and read the documentation if you decide to enlist its help in the fight to take back your new PC.
Consumer Reports’ Health Blog has begun publishing videos in a series they’re calling “Consumer Reports Adwatch” where they will tackle claims made by pharmaceutical ads. (At least, I believe it’s just pharmaceutical ads.) The first of these covers an advertisement for RLS, or “Restless Leg Syndrome”, that ridiculous sounding ailment that drug companies made up to make a buck right after they made up “Acid Reflux Disease.”
Now, before anyone flames me for scoffing at this nonsense, please note that I learned RLS is a real illness, though rare. It’s completely different from the nervous-energy-triggered, bouncing-leg behavior someone exhibited during every minute of every class period in highschool.
Acid Reflux may be real as well and not just symptoms of the crazy modern diet. (I doubt it.) But the ads by Megapharmacorp, Inc. are propaganda, cut and dry. I’m not being naïve. I will never quit expecting people to behave ethically and scrupulous. And in this country (USA), corporations are legally people, too (more so, even).
Lawrence Lessig (1) (2), professor of law at Stanford Law School, founder of the Creative Commons (3) and board member at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (4) has announced his next ten years will be dedicated to ending corruption (5) (6).
Where do I sign up?! Well, probably at Lessig’s Corruption wiki (7).
(If you would like to see more of Mr. Lessig, take a look at “The Withering of the Net: How DC Pathologies are Undermining the Growth and Wealth of the Net” (8) (9). Very worth the 40 minutes.)
John C. Bogle appeared for an interview on Bill Moyers’ Journal this evening to discuss the state of capitalism in general and in the U.S. in particular. (I’ve seen this guy before somewhere, perhaps on NOW. Searching PBS.org brings up many hits, so apparently he’s been fairly active on public television.) This interview was really excellent. It’s a wonderful thing to see someone as skilled a businessman as Mr. Bogle, with his ethics and morals to all appearances fully intact and healthy, dissect and disseminate his analysis of the state of capitalism in the United States. And that’s what he did, though fairly briefly as it’s a 25 minute spot and the subject is damn complex.
A focus of the interview at the outset is this recent story about private equity firms buying nursing homes, “reducing costs”, and then selling them at a profit. Then when things go wrong, there’s no one to account for the mismanagement. They’ve taken the money and run.
And this is happening everywhere. Mr. Bogle says “My estimate is that the financial sector takes $560 billion a year out of society.” Of course, Bill Moyers asks “Where does it go?” and Mr. Bogle replies that it’s going straight into the pockets of the top 1 percent, or the top 1/10th of a percent. Those are the people who already have all the money in this county but just can’t get enough; and they get it by taking it from nursing homes, or by taking it from our soldiers in Iraq or from the Iraqis themselves, or from airline employees, or wherever. I can’t pretend not to be rabidly pissed about this or to not believe that these executive assholes own us all and run our gov’t, but I won’t mention it here in the interest of keeping this post lighthearted and factual.
According to John Bogle this is standard, modern financial practice, which I think is pretty clear. He also says it’s not sustainable - also clear. So, I found some of the most interesting things he had to say to be about the philosophy of capitalism, such as this:
“…the job of capitalism is to serve the consumer. Serve the citizenry. You’re allowed to make a profit for that. But, you’ve got to provide good products and services at fair prices. And that’s the long term, that’s what businesses do in the long term. The businesses that have endured in America have done that and done that successfully.”
I realize now that I just haven’t ever heard anyone speak of capitalism in any terms other than those waxing wank over the ideal of free markets or defining greed and selfishness and attempts to exploit others to a financial advantage, which, of course, is usually what it’s all about. I could go on, but John Bogle puts it better. Check out the video at the link above.
