TeamCushman

As I’ve posted before, I truly can’t wait for this merger to happen.  The DOJ has approved it, so more than likely this will happen.  Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and a senior member the Senate Commerce Committee is  campaigning against the merger.  In his letter to the FCC he states that this merger would be “contrary to public interest” and would result in higher prices to the consumer.   DUH! Are either company in the black right now? While I don’t think that the merger of two failing companies will make a successful company, the synergies will make the likelihood that they would survive as one greater than if they continued to operate as two.  In addition, Sirius Chairman, Mel Karmazin has mentioned that the new company would offer an al la cart menu, allowing customers to pay for the channels they listen to and get a refund for those they don’t.  So, while the $12.95 monthly fee will eventually go up,  most customers will pony up more,  but for a much more superior product.  It’s called Capitalism.  If those customers don’t see the value of paying, say … $19.95 a month for the new product, then they can always get an Ipod or worse yet, listen to commercial radio.  Interesting how most of these decisions are being made by senators who haven’t listened to radio since before FM.

I see a disturbing trend heading our way. In this era of “going green”, there is movement of yellow in the bathroom world. As a way to save water, flushing toilets on an “as needed” basis is becoming the norm. The average toilet uses approximately 4 -5 gallons of water with every flush. This doesn’t count the water that fills the bowl. The thought is to follow the mantra “If it’s brown flush it down, if it’s yellow let is mellow.” The problem with this is that while we are saving water, the thought of walking up to a urinal with marinating urine that’s been sitting there for who knows how long, disgusts me. I don’t really want to know if you had asparagus the night before. There has to be a better way. The toilet industry is coming up with “water saving” toilets that use less water. Only problem here is that since it uses half the water, the chances of plugging them up increase. What do you do when you plug up your toilet? Get out the plunger, plunge a few times, then flush once or twice. As a result, using more water. There are several ways to save water with our toilets. I’m all for preservation of water, just not urine. Save the whales, save energy, even save our cows by not eating red meat, me … I’m for saving my olfactory senses.

I’ve been a fan of satellite radio for several years no.  In fact, I’ve had mine for 3 years.  Specifically, XM.  The biggest reason for XM has been baseball.  I’m a big fan of the Braves and live out of market.  And with TBS getting out of baseball broadcasting, its either listen to my XM or pay for MLB.TV.   This past week, I rented a car that had Sirius in it.  I’ve had a number of friends that have told me that Sirius is much better.  I chalk it up to Howard Stern, sorry  not a fan at all.  I have to say, Sirius has a better line up.  And I’m not talking about the NFL (season has ended).  So, without further delay, here’s my top 5 reasons for switching to Sirius:

1. 80’s Hair Band station
2. Elvis 24/7
3. The Dead 24/7
4. Springsteen 24/7
5. the Playboy station

I listened to a few minutes of Stern to see if he could be any more raunchier than commercial radio.  It’s worse than I could have imagined.  I won’t go into detail here, but I could only stand a few minutes.  Extra credit to Sirius for having Nina Blackwood as one of their DJ’s.  remember her from MTV in the 80’s?

I see a huge growing problem. In one day, both my wife’s cell phone and my kids are starting to get a number of text messages, from spammers! While a new problem for us, apparently in Japan this costs consumers over the pond many Yen per year. The problem is two fold. One, you can’t reply to the message and ask them to stop, your message will just bounce back. Two, these messages cost money! This is like giving them the ability to charge something to your bill without your authority and you have nothing to say about it. This got me thinking. Which companies do the best job in shutting down text spamming. The easy way out is to just shut off text messaging entirely, which many of you resort to. In an age in which texting is becoming the norm (especially with one teenager and a preteen in the house), turning off text would be like taking away cable TV. The key though, is that will your provider let you turn off texting. Here’s your answer …

Tmobile: No, “because it’s where voice mail and billing notifications are delivered.”
Verizon: Yes,, you can ask for “data” to be shut off, which will turn off text messaging, get it now, mobile web, and mobile email, or just simply ask for them to disable receiving text messages sent from emails or web browsers.
Sprint: Yes.
AT&T: Yes.
Alltel: Yes

Verizon wins. Almost all text-message spam campaigns are run from a computer (basically, they are emails) so disabling receiving messages sent by computer, while still retaining the ability to receive cellphone text messages, is the best option.

 Ok, I know this is not a Blackberry, but a smartphone, but you get the just of it …