At the time, the only pricing option if I remember correctly was $14.99/month for all the channels and I couldn’t justify that expense when my commute was only 20 minutes.     Today, XM seems to have tiered service with pricing options from as low as $2.99 to $16.99 and I find it ironic that $2.99 is the low end because that’s about as much as I would be willing to pay for the full service.

Here’s the real problem with satellite radio: it competes with too many alternatives that are far cheaper.    If I want to listen to music I can listen to the radio, hook up my ipod or if I’m daring, hook up a laptop or a future iPad with access to music streaming.    Worse yet is that if Netflix can offer streaming entertainment for $8.99 for an all-u-can-eat buffet style then why is satellite radio prices at $16.99 on the high end?

I don’t think the future bodes well for satellite radio unless they change their business proposition.   When I buy my iPad later this year I’ll hook it up to an all you can eat Virgin Mobile Wi-Fi router and get streaming entertainment in my car and that’s a very persuasive entertainment proposition.

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1. Dirty filthy isles.

2. Dirty filthy parking lots as people change their kids diapers (and car motor oil) and leave all the garbage behind.  Along with open bottles, wrappers and a variety of other garbage.

3. A bunch of opened, half-eaten packages of whatever.

4. Lots of arguing at the checkout lane with the cashiers.

5. Lots of time wasted at the check out lane as frustrated shoppers roll their eyes while they wait for the drama to be over.

6. Lots of left over items sitting at the check out lane as shoppers run out of food stamp money.

7. Eventually, crime will come to the parking lot and that will be the straw that breaks the Costco prestige and descent into the abyss.

While #1 and #2 haven’t happened yet I can tell you that I personally witnessed  #4, #5, #6 definitely did happen while I was at the store.   I have a family member that works in security and was told that there have been increasing amounts of break-ins of vehicles so much so that this family member stays away from this particular location.   So #7 is finally here.

I took some flack for writing that post and as usual someone somewhere on the planet was offended, well guess what, I’m now offended that one of my favorite shopping places is becoming infested with crime and wasted time at the check out as people can’t perform simple math to understand what it is they can afford to buy and what they can’t.   But all is not lost however because this is valuable learning material as we now know that it takes approximately 12 months for a retailer to go from heaven to hell once they begin to accept foodstamps.

Oh and before anyone writes a comment that they are offended and unsubscribing, save yourself the digital ink and don’t waste your time or mine, I’m sure someone somewhere isn’t going to like this post and that just comes with the territory of the internet.

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This brings me to a recent discovery on new TV’s; Many new TV’s are now coming with online capability built in such as the items here.  I will likely purchase a new set or tv sometime toward the latter part of the year when the sales go hot either black Friday or perhaps after Christmas and this is definitely one of the features I want.   I may replace all my TV’s with this feature to enable online Netflix access throughout the house.  Seriously, who wants to pay $100 per month for cable TV when Netflix is $9/month?

Between $0.99 TV shows (commercial free by the way) on iTunes, $9/month on Netflix and free Youtube and other online content, why bother with anything else?   The only thing missing right now is a box (computer) to bind them all together.    I wish the Mac mini were a bit cheaper so I could attach these to all my TVs and stream content throughout the house with my new storage array.

This ultimately doesn’t bode well for advertisers as I’m spending less and less time watching pointless ads and watching commercial free entertainment.   There goes another industry down the toilet through the advancement of modern technology.

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Which brings me to the Golden Age of the Stock market.  If you look at the chart below

click for larger image

You will clearly see the Golden Age of the stock market was from 1987 (right after the crash) thru 2007 right before the last crash.   The stock market will, in my opinion, flounder for the next decade or two and possibly recover in the 2030′s or 2040′s if we’re lucky.    If you didn’t live thru this golden age of the stock market let me tell you a little about it.

It was an era when ever increasing amounts of money was thrown around at anyone that wanted to be a brokerage trading stocks.  I can’t even remember all the names of all the brokerages I dealt with after one after the other bought each other out.   It was an era where bonuses of $100 to $500 were not uncommon for opening accounts at these brokerages.  It was an era where trading fees went from $49 per trade down to dollars per trade in an ever growing feeding frenzy of trying to attract customers.   The thing I loved most of course was the tremendous growth in capability with the online trading platforms whereby today you can buy stocks on almost any exchange worldwide.

Oh this was the golden age of the stock market kids and I remember it like it was yesterday…..

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I still can’t believe that I’ve had the same laptop for three years and I only realized this as I was cleaning up some files and I came across tax returns for 2007, 2008 and 2009 on my laptop!  My general rule in the PC/Windows world was that after 18 months, it was time to order a new laptop.   The cheap plastic and other components most PC makers use is sheer crap and I’ve always tossed a laptop after 18 months as the hinges crack, the plastic cracks, and components fail.   All of this brings me to think that we’re now in the Golden Age of Computing.   I am salivating over the iPad and I can’t wait to buy one this Christmas as a treat for myself.  To be honest, I plan on buying one for everyone in my family, the wife, kids, myself and if I have the money perhaps some siblings too.

With iPods, iPads, iPhones, iMacs, MacBooks and Steve Jobs we are living in the golden age of computing.   Enjoy it while it lasts people!

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Did you know that you once could easily get credit limits of $5,000 to $30,000 without even proving you had income?   Did you know that you could charge up $30k in credit card debt, file for bankruptcy and get it all wiped off so you could start all over again?  If you don’t remember or know of these days it is likely because you weren’t old enough to take advantage of them during the golden age from 1997 thru 2007.

There was a time when banks fought each other to get you to carry their card, it was called the golden age of credit cards and I miss that era.

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Unfortunately, if you’ve just begun to travel, the concepts I am about to write about will likely be foreign to you.    There was a time when an entire family could go up to the terminal gate to meeting passengers as they got off a plane!   You would see hugs and tears as family members embraced right after they got off the plane.   On occasion there would be little kids running up to their mom’s or dad’s and embrace with joy.   Those days are gone with the gestapo, err…. I mean TSA standing around everywhere asking for your papers.   There was a time when you weren’t subjected to a complete and total virtual strip search before you boarded a plane.

There was a time when meals which included metal cutlery were served on a plane with actual glasses.   There was a time when blankets and pillows were offered to weary passengers.  There was a time when seats on an airplane didn’t cut off your circulation and you could actually stretch your legs a bit.

There was a time when you were greeted at the gate with a smile and welcome.   There was a time when you could speak to an agent at the ticket counter to get issues resolved quickly and efficiently.   There was a time when airplanes were large jets with many flights and sporadically empty seats between cities instead of small commuter jets packed to the rim with people.   There was a time when your baggage was included in the cost of airfare instead of an additional fee.   There was a time when there weren’t any fees for changing your airline ticket and it was fairly easy to get your money back.

There was a time when a jet could take you from New York to London in three hours instead of 6 to 7 hours, it was called a supersonic jet.   There was a time when jets actually had phones in every seat!

There was a time when air travel was better….it was called the Golden Age of Air Travel and it is long gone now.

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Over the past twelve weeks I’ve been traveling consistently all over the place and here are a few distilled observations:

Big jets – Gone.  Almost every flight I get on now is in a small regional type jet.  I’m assuming big jets are only for overseas flights now.

Food – Gone.  This has been gone every since 9/11 but you can’t even buy a meal now, just simple over priced Doritos bags.

Service – Gone.  Service is non existent as you have to mostly rely on automated kiosks to do most of the heavy lifting.  God forbid your flight gets canceled because you’ll be left in limbo.   The only saving grace I’ve had is reliance on corporate travel service for emergencies.

Blankets – Gone.   I didn’t notice it until the lady a row over asked for a blanket and was told by the attendant that they were discontinued for “sanitary” reasons.

Sanitation – Gone.  Speaking of unsanitary blankets, sanitation seems to be gone with bathroom periodically not functioning, soap and paper towels frequently missing from airplanes!

Frequent Flyer Perks – Nearly Gone!  With airlines merging what instantly happens when one buys another out is all existing “privileged” members immediately compete with the other airlines members.   So if Airline A had 100 Platinum Members which got upgraded to first class and Airline B had 100 Platinum members then A + B = 200.   So instead of being 1 in 100, you are now 1 in 200.  Brilliant?

Fees – Plenty available.   Fees for snacks, fees for bags, fees for seat selection, fees for changing your mind.

Frequent flier miles – Plenty!   If there’s one thing that keeps being printed/created faster out of thin air than US Dollars it is frequent flier miles.   These miles are worthless as it’s nearly impossible to ever book a ticket on a flight and if you do, there’s a great chance you’ll be bumped off anyway!

There are a few workarounds to the misery but that’s another post for another day.

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“April 14 (Bloomberg) — The amount of diesel fuel bought using credit cards at U.S. truck stops increased in March to the highest level in more than a year, indicating the recovery is broadening beyond manufacturing.

…

“We’re climbing out of the hole,” Bob Costello, chief economist at the American Trucking Associations, said in an interview. “It is a moderate economic recovery and trucking is going to be like that as well.”

Back on March 9th I wrote this post indicating that I had seen a substantial tick of trucks moving across the interstate as I sit in my office and look out the window.  It’s not difficult to do, just pick a consistent hour on each day and count how many big rigs you see barrel down the freeway.  If the number goes up things are improving, if the number goes down then things are not improving -simple observation.

Unfortunately, the stock market has become totally detached from reality so I’m expecting a disaster in that arena but only time will tell.   I’ll be sure you remind you about it in a few months

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We stopped by to look at the iPad intending only to check them out but we all ended up playing with one for about 30 minutes and would have been there longer if I hadn’t told the kids we needed to make some other stops.    The iPad is pretty cool and I left there wanting one BUT I had already read about the numerous short comings of the device:  No Adobe Flash, 1st Generation (i.e. buggy), No camera, Apps restricted to Apple app store.   So I won’t be buying one anytime soon but I may buy a few for Christmas if we’re on second generation by then with a few enhancements if possible.  The device has a lot of potential but the lack of flash means I  won’t be able to trade stocks on it and that’s just too bad; my son lamented the fact that his Facebook flash games would not play.

After the mall we went over to a place called REI which sells outdoor/camping/sports equipment and that place was pretty packed.   I’m guessing that the new vacation strategy for many is going to be camping and visiting parks rather than air/hotel/car route.   I’m tempted to buy into these camping/outdoor company stocks but I may have missed the boat already.

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