The Only Blog That Gets You Smartenized®
By Dave Hitt on Aug 6, 2013 in Bad Business, Personal Adventures | 7 Comments
Eight years ago, Roland J. Down, a large local company, installed a new heater and air conditioner in my home. I’ve had them do a few annual inspections since then, so a week ago, when the air conditioner died during a heat wave, I gave them a call. The repair guy showed up on time, […]
By Dave Hitt on Jun 13, 2012 in Bad Business, Big Brother, Political Correctness, Politics | 0 Comments
Despite earning world-wide scorn for his plan to outlaw large sodas in New York City, little mayor Bloomberg evidently plans on going through with it. (P. J. O’Rourke said he wants to outlaw any drink that’s taller than he is.) And although thinking people are appalled, there are plenty of slobbering sycophants cheering him on. The […]
By Dave Hitt on Jan 19, 2012 in Bad Business, Politics | 2 Comments
I built my first website in the mid 90’s. It was a single page containing a list of local dial-up BBSs, with mine, Electric Avenue, at the top of the list. (Ponder the awesomeness of that business model – advertising a dial-up BBS on a web page. Ugh.) Before building it I sought out the […]
By Dave Hitt on Feb 1, 2011 in Bad Business, Writing | 13 Comments
You’ll appreciate this post more if you read this first. Publish America is a vanity publisher who takes their scam one step further than most by saddeling authors with outrageous contracts. The contracts have varied a bit over time, but often contain a clause that requires authors to buy a butt-load of their own books […]
By Dave Hitt on Jan 11, 2011 in Bad Business, Personal Adventures | 2 Comments
Despite the problems I’d had with Mozy, I kept using them because I was lazy and never got around to switching to a better service. They were taking their monthly payment out of Paypal, but when that account got depleted they notified me I needed to give them a different card to continue using their […]
By Dave Hitt on Dec 27, 2010 in Bad Business, Big Brother | 3 Comments
So now the FCC is in charge of the internet, and Big Brother’s lovers are cheering. “Big Brother has saved us from a mortal danger that we have been imagining might happen someday!” The generic argument against government regulation should be the default position for anyone even remotely interested in liberty. Laws (and regulations are […]
By Dave Hitt on Nov 21, 2010 in Bad Business, Yeah - That'll Work | 7 Comments
Imagine that you had a business with the following business model: The business has been in existence for over 200 years. Your logo and brand name is instantly recognized by approximately 100% of the people in the United States. You have a customer base of over a quarter of a billion people. Nearly all of […]