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K-Cup winners

If you’re going drink the damn things, here are some K-Cups recommeded by baristas:

  1. Green Mountain Kenyan AA – ” I would actually pay for this at a coffee shop.”
  2. Eight O’Clock Colombian – “This would definitely crush in a consumer taste-test.”
  3. Café Escapes Café Caramel – “reminds me of Werther’s Originals”
  4. Wolfgang Puck Jamaica Me Crazy – Supposed to taste like buttered rum.
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“Straight to hell” with the Sharing Economy

Here’s what “sharing economy” means: People want to offer goods and services outside of the scope of regulation, let caveat emptor reign supreme.  This is not going to be a popular post.

Want to rent out a room in your house without any of the restrictions placed on hotels while dodging the taxes these legitimately run businesses have to pay?  Claim “sharing economy”.   Want to hire out you car without having to be a licensed taxi?  Yep, scream “sharing economy”.

Sounds like pure free market huh?  Just great until it is YOUR next door neighbor’s house that becomes a revolving door of strangers in their new illegal, unlicensed bed and breakfast.  “Ride sharing” services like the God foresaken Uber are all fun and money until women get raped and assualted.  Good times when your credit card gets unexpectedly nailed for what would have been an $18 cab ride during a claimed “surge”.  Cashing in on hipster ignorance seems to be Uber’s business model.  Bad actor Ashton Kutcher, with his passion for hipsters, pumped money in so he can take from his fan base during a “surge”.

Consumer safegaurds matter with regards to both physical and financial safety.  The desperately sought lack of regulation in the “sharing economy” provides neither and once these alernatives have to play by the same rules as legitimate player in the industry they will learn WHY no one did it before.  In the past people were smart enought understand they would not make money if they had to play by the rules.  We now have a generation of hipster trickies who think the rules don’t apply to them.  Please, let’s hear the word “entitled” used out of context some more.  Meanwhile let these little ego trips manifest while defying authority for profit.   Then lay down the hammer and bankrupt their grandchildren who haven’t even been born yet.   Portland and New Delhi and poised to start arresting Uber drivers and inpounding their cars.  PROCEED.

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Whoa. The depths some financially desperate people will sink to.

A couple of years ago I received the following LinkedIn message from the account of Suzanne Witmer, a contact from my days at the AKC.  She was selling ServerTech power distribution units at the time.  There was more to the message but I cut the screenshot short because, well, you’ll get the point…

I was genuinely concerned but skeptical at the time I got the message.  Never seen anything like it on LinkedIn before.  Of course I didn’t call or send money.  I imagine her friends on FB got a similar message.

Flash Forward… Time Travel… April 2013…

04/05/2013: North Middleton Township Police are requesting assistance in locating Suzanne WITMER, 41, formerly of the Pike Motel, Middlesex Township. WITMER is wanted on charges of THEFT BY UNLAWFUL TAKING, RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY, FORGERY, IDENTITY THEFT and ACCESS DEVICE FRAUD. Anyone with information is asked to phone police at 717-243-7910.

Three days later…

“North Middleton Twp brought Suzanne WITMER into custody today, April 8th, 2013 w/ the help of Harrisburg City PD. WITMER was located in Harrisburg City and checked for warrants. Currently she is being held on $50,000 bail at Cumberland County Prison on charges to include: misdemeanor and felony Theft, Identity Theft, Forgery, Receiving Stolen Property and Access Device Fraud. WITMER awaits a preliminary hearing scheduled for DJ FEGLEY’s office on Monday, April 15th”.  http://nmtpdpa.crimestopperswanted.com/announcements.asp?page=&int_announcementid=7896

That looks like the face of someone who drove into a tree on meth alley.  Crystal meth is not your friend girl.  It will make you do things like try to steal from every professional contact you’ve ever had.  I hope you’re in jail because it’s likely the best place for ya right now.  You took your children through this with you and that part is unforgivable, earning you one solid CRAZY BITCH.

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If Net Nuetrality Does Not Prevail

In my 20’s I was part of a small dial up, ISP modem bank team in the mid 90’s run out of a warehouse in Raleigh, NC that eventually became NandoNet.  I managed teams for Covad installing DSLAMs in Bell South central offices during the roll out of DSL. I’ve spent a career building private, corporate networks all over Research Triangle Park from the ground up.  If the FCC doesn’t declare ISP’s a public utility and maintain net neutrality I will work diligently to create a company with broadband infrastructure that guarantees customers equal access to all websites through a NO THROTTLING policy.

I will undercut AT&T, Verizon and Comcast’s rates and pad early termination fees to draw customers away from them in droves.  Would it cost millions, maybe billions for the infrastructure? Yes.  Would investors see the value in the superior, unrestricted product offering?  Absolutely.

I am completely serious about this.  Others are too.  Many of them very wealthy.  Companies like Google stand ready to invest in maintaining an open internet where all traffic and websites are treated equally.