“Feds shut down NetBank after big subprime defaults”
That’s really not a headline one would want to read about his bank heading into the weekend. Unfortunately, it’s true. The Feds have pulled the plug on NetBank.
The interesting thing is ING Direct, where i have my savings account, will be acquiring the federally insured deposits, including mine, from NetBank. So because of NetBank going kaputt, by Monday, both my savings and checking accounts will be under the same bank!
Here’s FDIC’s notice on the shutdown of NetBank.
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I have been swimming about 3 times a week at the outdoor pool in the Providence Marriott. One thing that i can’t stand when i am swimming laps in the pool are people moving around everywhere in the pool, blocking my path. I refuse to swim when there are more than two people in the pool. But after seeing the picture of this crowded pool in Japan, i think i will quit whining about the pool in future.
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Jerk #1: Andrew Speaker. He was fully aware that he has a drug resistant form of TB and yet willing to risk the health of everyone else by traveling to Europe for his honeymoon. Even when notified that his TB was highly resistant to drugs and was told not to travel on commercial airlines, he decided to sneak back to the US via a commercial aircraft to Montreal and drove the rest of the way back. Even when being exposed as such a selfish and thoughtless jerk that he is, he tried to hit back at his critics by explaining his reason for speaking out was his concern about his law career:
“When I’m done with all this, am I going to have a practice to get back to, with the impression out there now that I’m this selfish, self-absorbed person? It’s not how I’ve lived my life. When I’m done with all this, I want to make sure I still have my life to get back to.”
It may not be how he has lived his life but this self-absorbing piece of shit knowingly risked transmitting his drug-resistant TB to all those around him does not deserve to have his practice to go back to. In fact, he does not deserve to have his life to get back to.
Jerk #2: Ted Speaker, Andres Speaker’s father. He was extremely combative with health officials when they tried to prevent his son from going to Europe for his honeymoon. When asked for the whereabout of Andrew, he refused to divulge the location of his son.
Jerk #3: Robert Cooksey. Being a microbiologist at CDC with focus on contagious diseases like TB, not only refused to stop the Greek wedding but went to the ceremony himself.
Jerk #4: Sarah Speaker, the newly wed wife of Andrew Speaker. Knowing that Andrew has a drug resistant form of TB and yet decided to go to Europe with her fiancee. Worse, even when she found out that his TB is highly drug resistant, she conspired with him to sneak back into the US, traveling on commercial aircraft, potentially affecting more passengers.
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I do not know James Kim personally. I only know him by watching his reviews of products on cnet.com and also on the cnet tech review on my Tivo. I am not even sure why but somehow what happened to him affected me. There is this deep sense of sadness i felt when his body was found on Wednesday. I was hoping that he would be found alive and be united with his family. A few things came to my mind, including why he was able to drive onto a road that was supposedly closed. Why wasn’t the closed road gated? I remember driving to Mount Rainier in the winter of 2003 and found that i was not able to proceed because the road was closed and it was gated.
Well, in a AP story today, it was discovered that the road that the Kims took was supposed to have been gated. According to the Forest Service, “vandals had cut the lock on a gate that should have stopped the Kim family from taking that spur road.” For this act of vandalism by some reckless asshole, James Kim paid for that with his life.
Update 12/14/2006
The Bureau of Land Management has now admitted that the gate on the logging road where James Kim made a wrong turn was NEVER locked. So this tragedy is now due to some incompetent federal employees.
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One of the advantages of working in a large corporation is the discounts one gets on products and services. The firm that i am working for has negotiated discounts with several wireless providers, including Cingular. From the Cingular web page created exclusively to describe its discount program for the employees of this firm:
- 50% off Phones
- More than 20% off Service Plans
- $25 off new orders
- 30-day, Risk-Free Trial
- and more…
It seems like a really really great deal right? Or is it?
To see how good of a corporate discount Cingular is offering, i select the Sony Ericsson W810i phone on both the corporate site and the normal consumer site.
Corporate price:
Personal price:
Both prices require a new activation and a 2-year contract. So after a 50% “Company Discount” and a $70.01 “Web discount”, the final corporate price comes up to be exactly the same as the one for a non-business consumer - $149.99. Notice Cingular is taking a 50% “Company Discount” off an inflated “Base Price” of $439.99, instead of $349.99 as seen by a non-business consumer.
According to Cingular, “Base Price” is the standard business customer price for a Cingular device and does not reflect any promotions or discounts currently in effect. In another word, the “Base Price” is how much one will have to pay Cingular to get the same phone without any contract or new activation. The last time i checked, while i was at a Cingular store more than 2 months ago, the retail price for the Sony Ericsson W810i was $349.99. So why is Cingular using a “Base Price” of $439.99 instead of $349.99 for its corporate customers and why is the “standard business price” significantly more than the retail consumer price? If one is to use the actual retail price as the “Base Price”, then the corporate price comes up to be $104.99 instead of $149.99.
At the “About Us” page for Cingular, one of the five values that guides Cingular is Integrity. Cingular describes its Integrity as: We operate with unyielding integrity, obeying all laws and adhering to a stringent code of business conduct. We will not tolerate unethical business conduct by our team members..
Is it ethical to use an inflated “Base Price” as a starting point of discount for its corporate customers?
Cingular is definitely “raising the bar”, that is, in raising its pricing scheme for the corporate customers.
If you still want to get a good deal out of your corporate discount, get the phone elsewhere. Currently, the Sony Ericsson W810i is literally free at amazon.com, and after the $70 mail-in rebate, you actually come up on top with $20, minus any local tax that you may have to pay. After getting the phone, contact Cingular and have them apply the 20% or so corporate discount to your monthly service plan.
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It is quite unusual for me to get more than 20 kills in a Halo2 game on Xbox Live and for it to remain a close game. Well, it happened. I was in a Team Hardcore (no radar) game and i was making some serious killings off the opposing team. However, everytime i looked at the game stats, my team was only leading by 1 or 2 kills. At one point, i think we even lost the lead. I had to bring my game up another notch to barely beat the opposing team by 1. Finally score: red team 50 and blue team 49.
These are some screenshots of the game from bungie.net.
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