Overseas Chinese Web Guide

Category: Business

  • Gasoline Tipping Point

    I finally reached the tipping point. Since I biked to work yesterday and stayed up late, I really wanted to drive a car into work today. Kind of like a day off between going to the gym to allow the muscles to relax and recover. However, as I headed out the door, the thought of…

  • Sustainability

    New York Times: Rural U.S. Takes Worst Hit as Gas Tops $4 Average. Gasoline prices reached a national average of $4 a gallon for the first time over the weekend, adding more strain to motorists across the country. But the pain is not being felt uniformly. Across broad swaths of the South, Southwest and the…

  • Recession or Stagflation

    If you think a recession is bad, think twice. Stagflation is even worse! The last time a recession paid us a visit was when all the Silicon Valley dot.coms started imploding. Suddenly, I found it easier to commute to work and find parking at Cupertino Village. This time around? It’s worse. Over Memorial Day weekend,…

  • Make Money by Losing Money

    I received a bill for $0.86 from the City of San Jose. Seriously, some city official should calculate their costs for mailing a bill and processing the payment and determine whether certain sums are better left uncollected. The city sent their bill as presorted first-class mail. So, their postage costs will run between 32-36 cents.…

  • Office 2008 and Office 2007 Compatibility Headache

    I don’t know what to think about Microsoft. The Europeans believe that Microsoft is a bad actor that cannot be trusted. When a third-party application encounters compatibility problems with Microsoft software, the Europeans automatically attribute some nefarious monopolist motive to the Redmond behemoth. But, what if Microsoft was just incompetent and not ill-mannered? How else…

  • Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M Rocks

    The ScanSnap S510M Scanner is awesome. In one night of use, I managed to clear most of the documents off my desk that had accumulated over the months and, shamefully, even years! The scanner comes bundled with Fujitsu ScanSnap Manager, Cardiris 3, ABBYY FineReader for ScanSnap and Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional. It also comes with…

  • Costco Rations Rice

    We reported last Saturday (April 19th) that Costco was rationing rice purchases. At the time, we didn’t realize that we scooped the regional and national press. KPIX issued a similar report on April 21st, two days after us. The Huffington Post/AP reported on the Costco rice shortage on April 23rd.

  • Watches are Obsolete

    ForbesLife has an article about watches for the 21st century. Unfortunately, the online edition lacks the photos contained in the print edition. So, you have to look elsewhere to catch a glimpse of a $1 million plus Franck Muller Aeternitas Mega 4 watch. Actually, I don’t get it. Not just the price tag, but watches…

  • The Finger

    Stopped into 7-11 this afternoon and got The Finger. It’s actually a Butterfinger rebranded as The Finger for presumably an April Fool’s prank. As part of the promotion, the wrapper says “Go to Yahoo! and search ”THE FINGER” To find out more!” Besides the Butterfinger ad, Yahoo! also suggests: “Also try: the middle finger.” Uh,…

  • Cookie Cutter Marketing

    Marketing works. Why else are we drilled to not judge a book by its cover? Sometimes our marketing ideas work. Other times, they are a complete failure. And, you will never receive a more honest response than from a child. If they don’t like what you prepared, then they don’t eat it. One easy way…