Sorry We Screwed You Over…To Make Up For It We Will Give You The Privilege Of Paying Our Surcharge Fees…

For those that missed the hoopla, Bruce Springsteen played the half-time show during the Superbowl.  Due to the positive reviews that everyone had for the 12 minute show, when tickets went on sale for his new tour, tickets sold out in minutes…or did they?  Many potential ticket buyers were told as they were trying to buy tickets that there were no tickets available through TicketMaster, but if you went over to TicketsNow.com you could buy tickets.  What the people discovered there was that the price of the tickets were for a whole heck of a lot more than the face value of the ticket.

In the aftermath it was discovered that a whole bunch of tickets were sold to ticket brokers (most likely before they went on sale to the general public) so they could sell them on TicketsNow.com for way over ticket price.  Just in case you didn’t know, TicketsNow.com is a subsidiary of TicketMaster (So basically TicketsNow is the legal scalping site for TicketMaster).  1000s of complaints were made from people who either couldn’t get tickets or were fooled into purchasing tickets way above the ticket price thinking that was the price that TicketMaster was offering them at.  And thats when the politicians got involved.  Most of the time I believe the politicians just need to stay out of the way, but this time it might be a good thing since now is the time that TicketMaster wants to play nice so their proposed merger with Live Nation would get approved.

So to make up with the public, what does TicketMaster do?  Well they offer a sweepstakes to the people that were screwed over, and allow them not to win tickets, but have the ability TO PURCHASE their tickets at face value, plus all the fees that go along with it.  And that is not to say they are going to offer this to everyone, but one lucky winner will have the privilege of paying up to 30% extra in service charges, facility charges, processing charges, and convenience charges.

People have been complaining of the monopoly that TicketMaster has had ever since I was a kid.  Live Nation was supposed to be a breath of fresh air, but they turned out to be about the same, and now to survive they are looking to merge with Ticketmaster, creating once again a monopoly that the government doesn’t seem to have a problem with.  I hope that the FTC and congress shoots down the proposed merger of these two companies in hopes that one day will wont be stuck paying 60 bucks for a 30 dollar ticket.

UPDATE - Well it seems that my info was slightly off on what TicketMaster will be doing to make right with the customers.  Here is what TicketMaster has agreed to do according to The Consumerist:

• No more linking to TicketsNow directly from a Ticketmaster transaction screen.
• Ticketmaster will pay New Jersey $350,000 to cover the cost of the investigation (this is where the bulk of the complaints came in since the tour starts in NJ).
• Ticketmaster will stop an advertising agreement with Google which redirected Ticketmaster searches to the TicketsNow website.
• Ticketmaster will hold a lottery to sell 2,000 Springsteen tickets at face value (plus fees) to customers who complained about the botched sales. Another 1,000 customers who don’t win the lottery will be given $100 gift certificates and an opportunity to purchase tickets to an upcoming NJ Springsteen concert.

Does that make it all better? I’ll let you be the judge.

Time To Lose Your Mind – IT’S FREE PANCAKE DAY AT IHOP!

Just thought you should know

Get there before 10pm and you can get your free pancakes from IHOP

He Is Back…Schwarzenegger To Play A Small Role In An Upcoming Stallone Film

Schwarzenegger is back to play…himself.  Sylvester Stallone is creating a movie about a group of mercenaries that are trying to overthrow a South American dictator (sound familar).  Schwarzenegger will play a small role in the film where he will make an appearance as the Governor of California (which he is playing in real life).  Schwarzenegger (wow that name is hard to type) said he would not be in any films while in office, but he has actually played 3 small cameos since becoming the leader of the largest state in the country.  The movie starts filming in March, so it probably will be out sometime in 2010.

Another small tidbit about the movie: Dolph Lundgren will be playing a major role in the movie.  Hopefully we can get Stallone to holler DRAGO at some point during the movie.  Even better, maybe Stallone will grow a beard and climb a mountain with lots of snow on it, and when he makes it to the top, he can lift his arms and then holler DRAGO.  OR, OR! maybe we could get Stallone to grow a beard, chops some wood in the snow, lift some rocks in a dirty barn that resides in the snow, and then climb a mountain with lots of snow, then lift his arms and holler DRAGO

Just in case, those you are not up to date with their boxing movies Dolph Lundgren played the bad guy in Rocky IV…and his name was Ivan Drago

Sorry We Fired You…Oh And Give Your Severance Back Too!

Not only did Microsoft kick 1400 employees to the curb last month, but they also mistakenly over paid some of those people’s severance.  Instead of dropping the matter and letting sleeping dogs lie, they send a letter asking for the overages back.  It’s like someone thought “Let’s find a way to make their lives even more miserable by taking back what we gave them.”   It seems to me that some companies have no attachment to reality when it comes to dealing with sensitive personnel matters such as firing people.

I would know, I’ve had my run in with stupid companies in the past…I worked in a certain office had a slew of incompetent managers that couldn’t drum up enough business…so they decide to lay off the new guy…the day before Thanksgiving. They didn’t take the two minutes to call another nearby office and realize they were understaffed and were begging for people. I had to make the calls myself, and a week later had a “new” job.

If I received the letter from Microsoft asking for money back, I think I would send the letter back with a big FU written on it…that’s until they sent the lawyers after me

UPDATE – It appears that the bad PR that M$ was getting has caused them to backtrack.  In a statement you can read here on CNET, an HR spokesperson has said that they will not require the laid off employees to return the money after all.  Now if they just did this in the first place, maybe they wouldn’t have had to worry about the bad PR…hmmm

Safari 4 Beta Available…Did Apple Just Pull a Microsoft?

Being an Apple convert I use Apple’s web browser Safari on both my Mac at home and my PC at work.  I like the way web pages are rendered and the functionality that it provides.  Outside of memory leaks when I have a whole bunch of tabs open, it’s my favorite browser out of the three heavy weights (especially since IE 7 came out).

I was excited to see the Beta of the new Safari come out (you can download it for both Mac and Windows here), especially since it is touting quicker processing time when it comes to Java, and an updated interface. What I noticed not 2 minutes after I downloaded and started using it was that I’ve used this browser before…it’s called Google Chrome!  Just like Microsoft has done with their O/S and their browser in the past, Apple has pulled many of the new features and the layout from a competing product.

Don’t believe me?  Let’s look at some screenshots.  First, here is the new Safari (I hope you can see these clearly):

Notice the tabs now at the top of the screen instead of below the menu bar like before, and you also can move them around as you please.  Additionally, notice the address bar with the two buttons on the right hand side unlike before that control your settings.

OK now lets look at the Google Chrome browser:

Notice the tabs at the top of the screen that you can move around as you see fit.  Also, notice the address bar with the two buttons on the right hand side that control most of your settings.  Similar?  I’ll let you make the call.

Additionally, one of Safari’s new features is a “Top Sites” webpage that shows all your top visited websites from the past. Hmmm…where have I seen that? Oh that’s right Google did this with their browser as well.

I remember when Microsoft went from being an innovator to a company that either took the ideas of others and made them their own, or just went out and bought the company with the idea…I really hope Apple is not headed down the same path. I’ll let you make your own conclusions, but as they say, the proof is in the pudding.

PS-If you download Safari, and also use the web-based WordPress to make blog entries note that it will not allow you to enter hyperlinks…must be some bug…but I guess that’s why it’s called a Beta.

Snuggie Bar Crawl! Maybe The Greatest Idea Ever!

Do you live in Chicago?  Do you own a Snuggie? Then you can participate in the April Snuggie Bar Crawl!  Whoever came up with this idea is a genius. Here is the website (yes they even have a website!)

In honor of the Snuggie Bar Crawl, here are some others I’d like to see:

1. The Mighty Putty Bar Crawl: Everyone must Mighty Putty themselves together for the crawl.  Might make bathroom trips difficult…so maybe split up the men and the women
2. The Awesome Auger Bar Crawl: You must use the Awesome Auger to create the holes where you will be pouring your drink
3. Might Mendit: You have to stand in a booth that has storm force winds while you drink your beverage…like this

Thanks Chris for the link!

4. Sham WOW Bar Crawl: You have to first suck up your drink with the Sham…WOW! before you can  drink your drink.  You also have to be fast…because “you know we can’t do this all day!”

Hulu Removed From Boxee

Sad day folks…

Hulu, the online media site has requested (or nicely required) Boxee remove the Hulu stream from their program.  Boxee is a program that organizes your media, as well as provides a front end for some of the online sources out there including Comedy Central, YouTube, CNN, and Hulu (which was created by NBC and Fox). To me, the most exciting part was that Boxee was available for the Apple TV, which basically gave you access to Hulu on your TV, using only your remote.  

You might be asking…So?  Well for those unfamiliar with Hulu, the site provides new shows, as well as older shows and movies with limited commercials (usually 1 commercial every ten minutes).  So in essence instead of having to watch 15 commercials for a 30 minute show, it was limited to about 3 for a 30 minute program.  Most people appluaded the site, and agreed that fewer commercials made their experience more enjoyable.  People enjoyed it so much that some people were getting rid of their cable connection altogether and just streamed the shows they wanted online.  Boxee became such a hit because it took Hulu which was limited to your computer screen, and brought it to your tv.  Now lets take a vote, say the folks that watch The Office, would you rather watch it with fewer commercials, at basically the same quality that your cable provider provides, or would you rather be innondated with 15 Snuggie commercials over a 30 minute period?  I think the answer is pretty obvious.

And here is where we run into the problem.  Hulu states that it was the “content providers” that caused them to have to remove the stream from Boxee.  Hulu goes on in this blog post that they are saddened by all this, and wish they could make nice with the people.  This essentially takes the pressure off them, and makes it appear as if they are not the bad guy in all this, but really it’s the big bad media exec…which most people hate anyway.  I guess what Hulu doesn’t real want you to know, that even though they might be a independent department…THEY ARE PART OF THE EVIL MEDIA COMPANY!  Hulu was created by NBC and News Corp (Fox).  How can Hulu that was created by the “content providers” say that the “content providers” are forcing them to do this?  To me it’s all just a ruse to confuse people.

Now you ask why the “content providers” would want to do this…I’ll give one guess?  The obvious answer is Money…pure greed and money.  Think about it, why would you watch The Office with 15 commercials in it when I could turn on my Apple TV and watch it with 3 commercials?  The media execs were fine when the content was only available to a single set of eyes on a 17 inch computer screen.  If Boxee, or other products like it were to take off, it would cause an awful lot of tv ad revenue to drop off, thus costing the media companies money.  Thus the reason that they want hulu to stay online and off your TV. 

It will be interesting these next few years to see how online video progresses.  I see very similar paths that the video market is taking that the music market took as mp3s became popular.  Music execs got scared to death of the Internet, and wanted to control their music anyway they could by slapping DRM, only allowing their music to be played in certain ways…the list goes on.  But the bottom line it was all about control.  The video market will go in the same way…The media execs will do everything they can to control their media, and their ad revenue.  They will do it by alienating their customer base, and making it more difficult to get to the media they are trying to get to people.  The music companies are slowly starting to get it…and I really hope it doesn’t take 13+ years for the video companies to get it.

I have one suggestion for the creators of Boxee, and it is; make an easy to navigate web browser built into Boxee so we can still get to Hulu, or any other web video site.  That way, you are essentially still getting to the media using a web browser, and then the media companies have no reason to come after you. I would say that should be your top priority as of…well yesterday.

BearingPoint Files For Chapter 11

Most people reading this will be asking who BearingPoint is…well it was my old stomping ground before I moved on down to the NRV.  BE as we called them always seemed to be close to pulling out of the muck they were in, only for something else to happen, or the final straw, the economy going in the crapper.  Hopefully by reorganizing they will be able to fix the root of the problems they have by either selling to someone else, or ridding themselves of the areas that have brought them down (the private sector pratctice).  The article from CNN is linked below.

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Brian Roberts Agrees to a 4 Year, $40 Million Contract

The O’s have locked up another key piece to their team by signing their second baseman, Brian Roberts, to a 4 year, 40 million dollar contract today.  They are awaiting the results of the physical to make it official, but no one is worried about it.  By locking Roberts up for the next 5 years (he still has one more year on his current contract), we have one of the top rated 2nd baseman in the game playing for the home team.  We now have several spots that are taken care of for years to come: RF, CF, C, and 2B.  Hopefully Andy McPhail will continue his march of bringing in young players to complement what we already have.  If you’d like to read about the signing click on the link below:

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Virginia Passes Smoking Ban!

Unless Governor Kaine goes crazy, starting December 1st, 2009, all restaurants and bars in the State of Virginia will be smoke free.  The only exceptions to the rule are private clubs, and areas with a sealed door and seperate ventilation.  There has been some wording added to allow smoking in outdoor areas, but this exception worried me a whole lot less than the defeated amendment which would have allowed smoking in places that don’t allow minors.  Since most of the places around me are bars, this would have ruined the use of the bill for me.  Luckily the amendment was dropped.  I’ve been waiting for something like to get passed for years, and I am glad we have finally gotten to that point.  If you would like to read more, here is an article from the RT:

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