I don’t buy into the hype. More to come later when I have more time.

Why are dealerships so huge and stocked with so many vehicles? If you want to reinvent the company do a build to order system. If I want a certain car and want better brakes I shouldn’t have to get a sunroof and premium sound system. I say have two display versions of the vehicle on the dealer lot. One would be a basic model and the other totally optioned out. They allow buyers to start with the basic model and then add whatever options they want without having to add unnecessary items.
For example, I own a 2004 Sierra crewcab shourtbed Quadrasteer truck. When you introduced the quadrasteer system it was only offered on the Denali which means you had to basically get every option just to have quadrasteer. It would have made a ton of sense if you could have built the truck you wanted and then just add quadrasteer. Gm didn’t even try it and tacked on all the other options to try and cover the cost of the system. Do you know how many systems you could have sold if it could have been ordered on any truck. Imagine how well a standard cab shortbed truck would have turned or how many Crewcab longbed diesel’s would have sold.
So to sum it up, Small dealerships with 2 of each vehicle and build to order so customers could pick whatever options they want.

It saddens me to see that  Circuit City is closing. http://www.circuitcity.com/closed.html

I worked there for about 10 years, it was my first Real job in Florida.  I had some fun times and created some good memories.  I do see why they failed though, the only reason I ever bought anything there was because I got an employee discount, their prices weren’t that great.  I expect now that CC is out of the picture BestBuy will be raising their prices since there won’t be any competition.

RIP CircuitCity..

Upgraded to wordpress 2.7 tonight.. i’m still configuring it and picking a theme..

A friend forwarded this to me and I thought parts were funny so I’m sharing it.

21 Economic Models explained with Cows - 2008 update

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk
away…

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of
credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity
swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with
a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a
Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the
rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one
more.
You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with
nine cows.
No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three
cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and
produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called ‘Cowkimon’ and market it
worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk
themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
Y ou have two cows, but you don’t know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you h ave none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of Democracy….

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive.

General Election Day

Elections for all federal elected officials are held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years presidential elections are held in every year divisible by four. Congress selected this day in 1845; previously, states held elections on different days between September and November, a practice that sometimes led to multiple voting across state lines, and other fraudulent practices. By tradition, November was chosen because the harvest was in, and farmers were able to take the time needed to vote. Tuesday was selected because it gave a full day’s travel between Sunday, which was widely observed as a strict day of rest, and election day. Travel was also easier throughout the north during November, before winter had set in.

Source- http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=290&display_order=6&mini_id=1045

Well the new Knight Rider was on tonight and it was ok..

I didn’t like how KITT transformed all the time and how he becomes a Truck.. that’s just absurd.

Then they have some story line about Micheal’s forgotten past and how it will haunt him.. Who cares lets just see some explosions, crashes and car chases.

They do have some nice cars on the show, but it’s sad when the new 90210 has nicer one and more of them.

I received an email summarizing some of the changes that ebay has and will be making. IMO I think this shows the direction towards eliminating the small seller and doing away with auctions to become more of a “buy it now” for big retailers.

Over the last few months, eBay has announced a number of major changes to its site that all sellers need to be aware of. From a new fee structure to sweeping changes in listing policies, eBay’s latest rule revisions—and their varied timetable for rollout—are causing waves of angst among sellers. Keeping it all straight can be a bit overwhelming, so here are some helpful links to bring you up-to-date on what changes are already in effect, and what’s coming down the pipe:

General Overview of all the changes: http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/Overview/

• Paperless payments only—effective late October, 2008—checks/money orders will no longer be allowed as a form of payment (with the exception of “Payment on Pick-up.”) http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/Payments/
• Fee changes—effective 9/16/08—lower insertion fees for fixed-price listings; increases in final-value fees for fixed-price listings (with the exception of items in certain media categories, where the FVFs actually decrease.) http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/BasicFees/
• eBay Motors fee changes—effective 9/02/08—eBay is eliminating the insertion fees on the first four vehicles you list in a 12-month period. Insertion fees on the fifth and any subsequent vehicle listing during that period is reduced 50% to $20 per listing. On the flip side, successful vehicle listings will pay a much larger “Successful Listing” fee—as much as 150% higher than the old fee. http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/FeatureFees/
• Specified shipping in listings—effective 8/25/08—all listings must now have the shipping cost/service specified. http://pages.ebay.com/sell/june2008Update/faq/index.html#39
• Limits on shipping/handling charges in media categories (Books, DVDs & Movies, Music and Video Games)—effective 10/05/08. http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/MaxShipping/
• Specified return policy/handling time required—effective late October 2008—specify a return policy (even if you don’t accept returns, you still have to state that) and enter a handling time for shipping. http://pages.ebay.com/sell/june2008Update/faq/index.html#37
• Special incentives for free shipping—effective October thru December 2008—sellers who offer free shipping during the holiday season will get a free subtitle upgrade and PowerSellers will get double their FVF discounts. http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/OtherFAQ/index.html#2
• New item page—effective late 2008 or early 2009—a new revamped Item Page with larger photos, real-time countdown timer, tabs to organize shipping and payment information, and much more. For a preview click here: http://pages.ebay.com/newitempage/
• ebay.uk/ebay.ie changes: http://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200808.shtml#2008-08-20110529
• Recent sales history a factor in “Best Match” search results—effective mid-September—recent sales of an individual item will now be a factor in Best Match search results. http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/OtherFAQ/#5

Auctiva Staff

Well after getting killed with spam the past few days i’ve decided to upgrade the forum software on syty.net. Hopfully there won’t be to many broken hacks when it’s done.

I’m just testing wordpress out.. not sure if i’m going to keeep it or not.. we’ll see.