A Trip To The Moon or A Day w/ Steve Jobs: An Idea About How Steve Jobs Could Take One Small Step As A Man To Help All Of Mankind.

July 20, 2009 ...

marks the 40th anniversary of a man landing on the moon.

We all know the famous first words quote from astronaut Neil Armstrong,

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

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If someone were to ask me, what would you rather do, go to the moon or spend a day with Steve Jobs ... I'd honestly have to think about it a day or two ... then I'd most likely take the day with Steve Jobs. Let me take that back ... I wouldn't even hesitate ... I'd take the day with Steve Jobs.

To me, that day, would be invaluable ... to witness just one day of his life - to learn even the smallest of things that makes him unique in the business world would be a dream come true to me.

I'm a guy who's a capitalist and salesman by nature, but not a used car salesman. I think integrity and compassion are integral to the personality of the salesman. I also think knowing what people want is key to being a great salesman. I've always had that knack. It's one of the things that keeps me involved with Apple Computer products. I know that it's what most people want - all of them just don't know it.


Steve Jobs:

"A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."

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There's an opportunity here ... for a man (Steve Jobs) to make as huge an impact on mankind as the moon landing.

Warren Buffet has auctioned off a day with him for charity for the past years.

Here is a link to this year's auction for LUNCH w/ WARREN BUFFET auctioned off on eBay.

* eBay auction link available until September 25, 2009



I propose that Steve Jobs auction a day with him, no holds barred (only the signing of a non disclosure agreement) for charity. Highest bidder gets the day - the National Center for Cancer Research gets 100% of the money - and 100% of that money focuses solely on pancreatic cancer.

At first I thought eBay would be the best venue - like Buffet's auctions ... then I considered all of the media attention this would get - it would be best for bids to be placed directly on APPLE.COM. One could use their AppleID to bid. It would be relatively simple to set up something such as this. Apple (& Jobs & NFCR) should get all of the attention for this - not eBay or anyone else.

It shouldn't be sealed bid - it would be awesome to see who was bidding and how much and to see the bid increase exponentially during the process. It would be interesting to see well known CEOs and small business leaders get publicity - telling the world (through the media) how much they'd love to do this. Maybe there will be some enterprising CEO that would win the bid then give the opportunity away to an uncommonly wealthy person, maybe an employee, or a customer, for their own publicity.

I see the potential for raising millions for a good cause - one that is personal to Jobs - personal to me.

In 2002, my first cousin died of pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, he didn't have the rare, treatable form Jobs now has in remission. "Little Jim" as everyone in the family called him, once diagnosed, was given the prognosis of only 4-5 months left to live. It was hard on the family to see him get worse - especially his children. He tried a lot of the holostic treatments to extend his life and ease the pain. Being in an upper middle class income as a nurse with a good health care plan and having a wife that was a Pharmacy Technician was a big help to their research and ability to cope with the problem. His funeral was the day after my 28th birthday, on February 24th, 2002. Ironically, this is Steve Jobs birthday - February 24th. Also rather ironically my cousin, was born in 1955 - the same year as Jobs. If my cousin was alive today, he would be 54 like Jobs. He would be able to see his son graduate from college and his daughter graduate with her Masters Degree in medicine this year.

This is one small thing, one man could do; for the better of all mankind.

I see it as a great opportunity for Jobs to impart some wisdom before he leaves us - whether unexpectedly, tragically, or many many years from now naturally. In any case ... it would be the chance of a lifetime and an opportunity to contribute a wealth of knowledge to a lucky someone and a wealth of research funding - increasing the luck for those with pancreatic cancer.

Jim Wells
1955-2002
"Little Jim"
"A Big Heart"

One of the many reasons not to use eHarmony to find a date

* picture of my junk mail box @ yahoomail for July 10 2009
Besides being ridiculously overpriced and extremely awkward for the impatient people like me ... here's another reason not to use eHarmony - their email marketing and email affiliate program is out of control.

eHarmony pays a HUGE amount for affiliates and so the spammers have been overloading my junkbox for the last two months.

eHarmony should be put to task in the media for sending emails out to married people - even if from an affiliate.

One of the things eHarmony prides itself in is not allowing "Married But Looking" matchmaking.

A Brief Hands On With The Palm Pre

I was a little early to a lunch meeting yesterday...

Lunch was at a place called Sushi Hana in Greenville SC (excellent by the way)

It's right next to a Sprint store so I thought I'd try to go hit fixyourthinking to see how it came up on the Pre.

First, the physical keyboard was very difficult to use ... I dunno ... Maybe I'm used to the iPhone touch keyboard now.

Second, in full page view ... FIXYOURTHINKING was very pixelated.

Third ... Many of the features and symbiology for "actions" are not intuitive ... I had to think for a few seconds.

The sales guy warned me that one of the units was in a weird Demo mode that would revert every 5 minutes to "setup mode".

Lastly, the Pre crashed several times.

I brought my best friend in after our meal to take a look at it.

He had a similar impression. He uses the Verizon Blackberry Storm.

We both quipped this about Palm and Sprint:

"If this is their joint cellphone saviour, and this is the best they can do, with no Palm reps in EVERY SPRINT STORE ... then I see Palm (and Sprint) outta business within 2 years.

Some Notes About My Competition On eBay For Apple Compatible USB Ethernet Network Adapters

* PIcture from seller RCube/VamDickyStyle

For the past few weeks I've noticed a number of USB to Ethernet Adapters being listed on eBay by a seller in Hong Kong - listing them as compatible with Vista, Linux, Mac.

He's offering them under a number of seller IDs - but it's all the same guy - as verified through the "contact member" messaging system.

I'd like to clear up a few things about those adapters:

1) First and foremost these DO NOT WORK AS ADVERTISED. I purchased one and here's the compatibility chart - listed in a README on the included software CD:

This Document describes how to install MCS7830 USB Ethernet adapter Driver for MacOS X.

This driver is for Mac OS X 10.X and has been tested on the following Mac versions.

10.4.7 - MAC Mini
10.4.10 - MAC Mini
10.2.8 - Power MAC
10.3.5 - Power MAC
10.4.3 - Power MAC
10.4.9 - Power MAC

2) It is a mess trying to translate broken English and get any support with these adapters. I offer full email and even phone support for my adapters. I've been selling these adapters for 8 years and I stand behind them working 100% with ANY MAC with every Apple operating system 9.2.2 or higher.

3) These adapters are bulkier than they appear in the picture and there are no included instructions. These adapters also use the same chipset as Apple's adapters. I've written on the many caveats to using Apple's adapter here:

eBay Blog: USB TO ETHERNET ADAPTERS FOR MACS

4) This adapter's drivers are unlicensed. You may be breaking copyright and licensing regulations if you use them. You most likely won't be prosecuted and I don't want this particular caveat to scare you - it's just something you should be aware of. If your driver ever becomes broken by an OS - say the new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - I usually have a patch within a week to ten days. You will most likely NEVER get a patch from a seller in Hong Kong.

5) The seller is in Hong Kong - this means the FREE SHIPPING included will take 10 - 14 business days from payment to reach you. My FREE shipping is 1st class international and usually take 2-5 days US and 4-10 days international. Customs hold ups in your country and weather can sometimes extend those times - but that applies to Hong Kong sellers too.

6) Hong Kong sellers cannot obtain tracking or delivery confirmation. Once they've mailed an item, in their minds, you've received it ... end of story. With patience, I always make sure my customers receive their adapters either by tracking in USA or tracing internationally. If a problem with delivery arises, I send another out immediately!

Thank you for reading ... I hope this helps in your decision to purchase an adapter if you need one.

iPhone Snaps

Last year, my father-in-law planted a seed. He didn't know what it was from... he just wanted to plant it to see what would come up. This year it came up and here it is. From looking on the net, it appears to be an avacado or a mango (which are related) ... Do any of you know what it is?

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

Above image © Stephen Sondheim
On Friday ... I noticed a small uptick in traffic. I investigated.

Apparently, The Cult Of Mac Blog @ WIRED had linked to my "3Gs prototype on eBay" story.

My normal daily totals are usually around 5000 hits these days. Some days I see 8 or 9000. On days where I have a good story, I can see as many as 40,000 visitors. My highest one day total is 540,000 - yeah FIVE HUNDRED FORTY THOUSAND!

I did a story on Steve Jobs and a story about a MATCH.COM date gone wrong in 2006 - both of those stories got quite a bit of attention around the web. Mostly - I get a spike when a large website picks up one of my stories and properly links here.

I've had Google Adsense and Amazon affiliate links set up for almost three years now. My average off of both of these sources of revenue is about $100 a month.

On the day my infamous court case got on the front page of Slashdot, and recycled around the web - I received $1482.17 in Adsense revenue, $118.00 in Amazon affiliate revenue, and had two "offers" for advertising on my blog.

At that time, I wasn't advertising my USB Network Adapter.

Over the years - I've had a number of stories DUGG, Slashdotted, etc etc - I have yet to get "Grubered" - but I would expect the traffic would be significant if I ever do.

I was upset to find that on Friday afternoon two of the top 50 websites for geeks on the net - Engadget & MacRumors - had linked to the Cult Of Mac entry - that linked to me. Engadget, took it a step further and linked to an obscure website called Electric Pig, which linked to Cult Of Mac, which linked to me.

* Engadget's improper crediting almost seemed blatant

I wasn't receiving any recognition from a story that I had reported on A WEEK PRIOR and already been aggregated in MacSurfer for - due to my own article submission.

MacRumors:Prototype iPhone 3GS on eBay? (No, No Matte Case)

Engadget: iPhone 3GS prototype scooped up at airport, now on eBay

Both Engadget AND MacRumors didn't properly credit me for the story - which I posted within 23 minutes of the auction being posted and had up on several mac News feeds within a few hours. It may sound like I'm whining - but we're talking about possibly thousands of dollars that I was cheated out of because news sources THAT KNOW BETTER didn't properly footnote their stories.

I tried to salvage some of the hits by commenting more than I could here in the forums of the two websites regarding this "prototype" - the trail of lies and vitriol spread by the eBay seller (which commented in both forums) is quite the spectacle. Hit the links above and read the story.

End of rant ...

If any of you feel sorry for me (ha ha) click on a Google adsense ad to help make up for this!

Bottled Water: Why Does It Have An Expiration Date?

via DIGG:

Have you ever wondered why that bottle of Poland Spring has a “drink by” date on it when common sense dictates that water doesn’t go bad? You can thank the great state of New Jersey. A 1987 NJ state law required all food products sold there to display an expiration date of two years or less from the date of manufacture. Labeling, separating and shipping batches of expiration-dated water to the Garden State seemed a little inefficient to bottled water producers, so most of them simply started giving every bottle a two-year expiration date, no matter where it was going.

Just a little tidbit I found interesting ... I'm sure it applies to a lot of things. I've read that canned goods stored in a moisture free/UV ray free room can last up to 10 years.

Link to full story here:

http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/26866.html

Supposed iPhone 3Gs Prototype on eBay

Here's a link to the auction: iPhone 3Gs "prototype" on eBay

... But because this auction will most likely be ended by eBay (and Apple):

Hello to EveryOne!

Up for sale is White 16GB APPLE IPHONE 3G S PROTOTYPE UNIT!

I Got this phone couple weeks ago and was trying to figure out what is it through the Apple Store and through Apple Product Specialists. Nobody never gave me any info on it - they told me it's an Apple Ptoduct, but they don't service it, cause it have never been sold. Before the 3G S came out last Friday, iTunes was giving me error "iPhone can not be restored, because software for this iPhone is not available yet". I tried to restore it on Friday and it took 3G S Firmware with the error after unpacking it "This device is not eligible for the requested build". All I can see on the screen is the Apple Logo after I start it up and Conncect to iTunes Cable. Last time I was at the Apple store the Genius Guy told me that this is defenitely iPhone 3G S, He matched the Serial Number on the SIM Tray with the Serial Number on the LogicBoard - they are the same, but He told me, nothing he can do about it, because He was unable to locate the number in Apple's Database.

So here it is for YOU! Not too easy to find such product, so it might be a Treasure for You. Listing is for the phone ONLY! Excellent overall condition!

Please SEE More Pictures of the actual phone below!

I do ship WorldWide!!!

Feel free to contact me anytime if You have any questions or Offers!

The doofus who listed this included a picture of the serial number ... so if it is a prototype ... it'll be tracked and someone will be charged for breaking a non disclosure agreement.

Here's a few of the pictures included in the auction:

iTunes Gift Card Fraud Lawsuit/ Apple Cracking Down On Gift Card Fraud On eBay

As reported by InformationWeek:

Illinois plaintiffs seek a refund for songs purchased for $1.29 while using Apple's $.99 iTunes gift cards.

Apple Inc. on Wednesday was sued for fraud, breach of contract, and violations of Illinois consumer protection laws by attorneys representing two residents of the state.

The plaintiffs, Daniel E. Owens and Barbara S. Owens, allege that Apple's iTunes Gift Cards promised song downloads for $0.99 and that the company's decision to raise song prices on April 7 to $1.29 turned the company's marketing message into misrepresentation.

The plaintiffs "seek a $0.30 refund for any song that has been purchased for $1.29 while using a 99 iTunes Gift Card," the complaint states. They also are seeking class certification, in order to represent the estimated tens of thousands of other iTunes Gift Card users in a similar situation.

If a judge certifies the suit as a class action, the amount involved would exceed $5 million.

Apple, the complaint states, "knowingly and fraudulently misrepresented, concealed, omitted, and/or suppressed the cost to purchase individual songs from its iTunes Internet Web site. As a result, Plaintiffs and members of the putative class have suffered economic harm in that they have paid monies for a product that was worth less than what was represented and/or they have been denied the benefit of their bargain to purchase any song from Defendant's iTunes Store for $0.99."

While viewing this story (mentioned above) at InformationWeek ... I saw that they linked to a Washington Post story about Apple cracking down on eBay sales of iTunes gift cards.

* via MacSurfer

Movie Reviews: Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen

I want to title this review:

Transformers 2: It Didn't Transform My Life But It Is What It Is

I loved the Transformers as a child ... I had Shockwave and Soundwave (with all of his cassettes Berzerk (a robitic eagle) Ravage (a robotic dog) and Rumble (a little Transformer robot man).

I still love the Transformers and I enjoyed getting to see this with my son on premiere day.

I think it's worth noting right off the bat ... there were a lot of 4 letter words in this movie. This is being promoted in kids meals at Burger King, Toys in the toy departments, and on Cartoon Network during "kiddie viewing times". This movie is being pitched at children with adult fathers that liked the cartoon as a kid. It's not a grown up version of the Transformers - its an awfully scripted movie with amazing special effects and a decent plot.

Secondly, there is a lot of overt sexual innuendo that children understand. My six year old understood that one of the girls in the movie was acting like a slut and asked why they "showed her booty".

The violence is pretty intense in this movie and a lot of people die. It's kind of tear jerking to see Optimus Prime killed as well*.

* Don't worry, that's not as big a spolier as you think.

Aside from that - there was nothing about this movie (other than the human actors) that didn't look real. The Transformer, Devastator - which is a number of construction vehicles that combine into one giant robot - may be the greatest, most complex special effect ever created for the big screen. This effect alone is amazing to see from an artistic point of view as well as a fantasy perspective. It was a unique take on the cartoon version.

I'll give you my son's worst and favorite scenes:

BEST: The scene with Devastator (funny, I thought the same)

WORST: A scene where a teenage college student hiked up her dress and jumped on another teenage college student and kissed him with her tongue. (funny, I thought the same ... there's a bit more to this scene that I'm not telling so as not to give out any spoilers)

These movies - moreso this second installment - definitely follow the plot lines of the old cartoon series - always looking for energy. Plot wise - there aren't many twists but there are some unique story elements - such as Transformers switching from Decepticon to Autobot - like a Democrat to Republican. This movie has it's share of unnecessary elements and completely out of place elements as well - like a Terminator like female/human robot.

On a 1 to 10 scale with 10 being the best - I'd give this a solid 7. It's worth seeing in the theater due to the complex action and special effects - some of which may be lost on even the biggest of televisions.