Businesses NEED Investment Opportunities

September 15, 2011 — Mrs. Mecomber
Smiling Group of Professionals

I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of the blather from Washington that the government can “create jobs.” How on earth did this myth ever get started? Everyone assumes that the federal government can wave their magic wand, pull out billions of printed money and magically “create” private sector jobs. It is FALSE.

The only “jobs” government can create are MORE GOVERNMENT jobs. And that’s part of what’s wrong with the economy! Government jobs are supported by taxpayer money, money that is not coming in because the government is wrecking the economy by spending more money to create more tax-funded government jobs! It’s just… insane.

What the government should do is scale back their burdensome regulations and taxes. Businesses need Investment Opportunities to support the economy, and they aren’t getting much opportunity because we’re to busy scrambling to pay all the taxes! Starting a new business or expanding an existing one takes guts. You just never know what the future holds. Your product or service may be magnificent, but in a shaky economy, consumers just aren’t going to buy. And in a shaky economy, banks don’t like to lend, either. CNN has some good business information on these topics and the state of our economy and current business climate. Unfortunately, the business climate is none too friendly for small businesses right now. I think that the small business owner will probably need to look elsewhere than tightwad major banks and government. Some money lenders actually consider small business loans as an investment, as well as a token of hope and faith in American enterprise. The more I look around, the more I realize that the days of government largesse is over. I’m not too sad about it, but the void must be filled by Americans who are willing to reach to and support one another.

What do you think? Do you think our economy will bounce back, or is this all a change for the worse?

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Posted in business services, news, politics. Tags: , , , , . Comments Off »

Google’s Street View Hated By More Countries

August 10, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

Google’s invasive Street View mobile, a small car that drives along roads worldwide, snapping photos and soaking up wireless data, is coming under increasing hostility. South Korea has recently raided Google’s files. Bloomberg News reports:

South Korean police raided Google Inc.’s Seoul office as part of an investigation into possible breaches of privacy laws resulting from the company’s collection of data for its Street View mapping service.

Law-enforcement officials confiscated materials from Google in a raid today and will ask the company to surrender all data that may have been collected illegally from late last year until May, the Korean National Police Agency said in a statement. Google said it will cooperate with the investigation.

Europe and the United States have made some tepid outrages, too. Germany has made a bold stand (I believe they were the ones who spoke first about this issue).

What do you think? As nifty as Google Street View is, Google should abandon it. I don’t believe Google has good intentions, for one; secondly, the “nifty” aspect of Google Earth should not come at the expense of other countries and the people. People have the right to be safe and secure in their persons and effects. That includes being monitored.

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Posted in Google, surveillance. Tags: , . Comments Off »

Social Searching and More With LeapFish

November 12, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

One of the biggest complaints I have with search engines is that a LOT of the material I get is dated. I am constantly searching for news, current events, and forum help postings, and it is SO frustrating to get stories from 2007, 2008, and even earlier. And there doesn’t seem to be any way to modify the search settings by date, none that I am aware of. Plus, many search engines are hopelessly outdated. The Internet has grown, and we with it. With most search engines, we still get the plain old “website” text and maybe a few images or small video results added in. Social networking and social media has really changed the atmosphere of the Net; there’s a lot more information out there from other sources besides the “name brand” mediocre websites. Additionally, the social aspect of the Net makes it so we share more with each other– via Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, etc. I think the traditional search engines are very far behind with that.

So I am delighted, as I usually am, to announce that there’s a NEW search engine kid on the block: LeapFish. It’s pretty nice. The interface is not complex (always a plus), but the search results are excellent. LeapFish draws results from the top three search engine giants, but arranges results in a very intuitive way. For example, I did a search for “Paterson New York” and was immediately presented with a page of highly-organized results: the primary ones were informational, then of recent news. To the side were “Answers” which are the current questions and answers people are discussing related to my search, and at the bottom were video results, Twitters, images, and mentions in blogs. Very elegant and detailed! The only thing I didn’t like was that the videos played when I hovered over them; this has become a common feature for video results, but I’d like to see it changed to an actual click before playing videos.

LeapFish looks like a real contender, and one of the terrific features is that you can add it to your browser. Very easy and convenient. Just go to the LeapFish homepage and look in the right top corner for “Add Leapfish to your browser.”

leapfh

Here’s a film trailer-type of video that shows you the features of LeapFish. The LeapFish website has much more information about the details of the search engine.

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Posted in browsers, Google, Internet. Tags: , . Comments Off »

California To Ban Power-Guzzling TVs

October 16, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

It’s not a done deal YET, but it looks extremely probable: California is set to ban those high-energy consuming televisions.

On Tuesday, executives and consultants for the Arlington, Va., trade group asked members of the California Energy Commission to instead let consumers use their wallets to decide whether they want to buy the most energy-saving new models of liquid-crystal display and plasma high-definition TVs.

“Voluntary efforts are succeeding without regulations,” said Doug Johnson, the association’s senior director for technology policy. Too much government interference could hamstring industry innovation and prove expensive to manufacturers and consumers, he warned.

But those pleas didn’t appear to elicit much support from commissioners at a public hearing on the proposed rules that would set maximum energy-consumption standards for televisions to be phased in over two years beginning in January 2011. A vote could come as early as Nov. 4.

The association’s views weren’t shared by everyone in the TV business. Representatives of some TV makers, including top-seller Vizio Inc. of Irvine, said they would have little trouble complying with tighter state standards without substantially increasing prices.

Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with something like this. I think California is within its right to restrict excessive energy use. It shouldn’t HAVE to, though. Individuals ought to be concerned themselves, because meaningless energy-suckers hurt the community at large. I’m not big on state-sponsored “green” measures, but if the consumers are so bent on their own destruction, something must be done.

I think the current mess we are in (planned obsolescence, contamination of our lakes and streams and properties, the rabid consumerism that has replaced our capitalistic economy since the 1950s) is a result of the lack of community concern in our country. While I don’t like the state having to enforce protectionist regulations, it sometimes become necessary when the population will not be self-governed. I know this is a deviation from my politically “conservative” and “libertarian” roots, but to quote the words of Benjamin Rush: I am neither a Democrat or an Aristocrat. I am a Christocrat. ;)

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Posted in chatty, news, technology. Tags: , , . 2 Comments »

Bringing Civilization To Its Knees

October 1, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

LOL. Pretty ironic, isn’t it?

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Posted in chatty, Internet. Tags: , . 4 Comments »

Google Boot

April 3, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

As fun as it is to use Google Earth and look at their Street View setting, people are getting fed up with the Google intrusion. According to a Times Online news report, a group of residents in a small village in Britain formed a small mob to resist the Google rv vehicle.

A spate of burglaries in a Buckinghamshire village had already put residents on the alert for any suspicious vehicles. So when the Google Street View car trundled towards Broughton with a 360-degree camera on its roof, villagers sprang into action. Forming a human chain to stop it, they harangued the driver about the “invasion of privacy”, adding that the images that Google planned to put online could be used by burglars.

As police made their way to the stand-off, the Google car yielded to the villagers. For now, Broughton remains off the internet search engine’s mapping service.

It was Paul Jacobs who provided the first line of resistance. “I was upstairs when I spotted the camera car driving down the lane,” he said. “My immediate reaction was anger; how dare anyone take a photograph of my home without my consent? I ran outside to flag the car down and told the driver he was not only invading our privacy but also facilitating crime.”

He then ran round the village knocking on doors to rouse fellow residents. While the police were called, the villagers stood in the road, not allowing the car to pass. The driver eventually did a U-turn and left.

Mr Jacobs said: “This is an affluent area. We’ve already had three burglaries locally in the past six weeks. If our houses are plastered all over Google it’s an invitation for more criminals to strike. I was determined to make a stand, so I called the police.”

Google Street View, which was introduced in Britain last month, gives 360-degree views of the biggest cities, allowing people to take virtual tours from their computers or mobile phones. The company’s camera-equipped cars, which take the photographs for Street View, aim to cover as much of Britain as possible.

I give those villagers a lot of credit! They were defending their property and their privacy. I say: more power to them!

I’ve not seen any Google mobile in my area, but I have seen my area suddenly pop up on the street view setting on Google Earth. :-p

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Posted in crime, Google, news. Tags: , . 5 Comments »
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