the air

Since hurricane Katrina devastated the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, both businesses and people have struggled to make ends meet and get back on their feet. Recently, State Farm Insurance company announced that they will no longer write new policies for homeowners and commercial businesses. In most cases, some would argue that this is a pure business decision since an insurance company is trying to make a profit and stay profitable. However, I feel that State Farm’s actions are inappropriate since they already knew that the area was prone to hurricanes. In addition, State Farm simply does not want more people to claim damages because they would end up losing money. I find it ironic that these companies are willing to take the money from the consumer but are not willing to help the consumer when they need it.

The Mississippi Attorney General, Jim Hood, has voiced his concerns and is hoping to help pass a resolution that will force insurance companies, such as State Farm, to offer policies within the state if they offer policies in other states. A similar tactic has been enforced in the state of Florida.

Hood’s plan would require any company that writes automobile insurance in Mississippi and also writes homeowners policies in other states to offer homeowners and commercial properties throughout Mississippi.

Hood said his plan is modeled after actions taken by Florida. Florida’s legislation primarily deals with preventing policy cancelations and non-renewals, but Hood said a model could be crafted to force companies to write new policies.

The amusing part of this is that State Farm claims that its nothing personal, its just a business decision. What I cannot comprehend is why they are moving out now when they knew from the beginning that the region is prone to hurricane attacks. Did they happen to forget 1991’s hurricane Andrew? Although hurricane Andrew devastated Florida, the storm was in the same vicinity as Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. I’m sure State Farm, along with other insurance companies, will fight the Mississippi Attorney General and the legislation vigorously. I simply hope that the insurance companies fail in their quest and are forced to provide reasonable services.

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One of the biggest questions relating to the automotive industry this week has been, “Is GM going to buy Chrysler?” The answer to this question is bound to have significant impact throughout the entire industry and could easily become the most significant event of 2007. Although Chrysler has introduced numerous vehicles with exotic styling, it has struggled to turn a profit. DaimlerChrysler has hinted strongly that the Chrysler division is holding it back from success and they officially put Chrysler on the selling block. However, many analysts are suggesting that an outright purchase of Chrysler by GM is highly unlikely given that GM has its own financial woes to consider first.

Jim Hall, an automotive analyst at consulting company AutoPacific, points out that GM already bears a heavy burden of $5 billion to $7 billion a year in health care and pension costs for current and retired employees. That’s money the world’s biggest automaker can’t spend on product development or marketing, and taking on similar obligations at Chrysler would increase those costs by a minimum of 30 percent, he said.

Surprisingly, DaimlerChrysler has recently unveiled a turn-around plan for Chrysler that hopes to yield a profit by 2008. It calls on the trimming of approximately 13000 jobs, roughly 16% of its North American workforce. Both GM and Chrysler are struggling with pension and health-care costs. As such, both companies are looking into ways to trim the number of employees and shutter production facilities. A possible avenue that GM is looking into is shared development and production costs. By creating similar components, both companies can share development costs and reduce overall costs. Analysts are also suggesting that Ford and GM have, in the past, developed a transmission that has proven to be quite successful and a similar deal may be in the works between GM and Chrysler.

Reports in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times Friday said Chrysler and GM have held discussions related to developing a large sport utility vehicle like the Chevrolet Suburban or Tahoe, which Chrysler doesn’t have in its current product lineup. The Journal also said the two are looking at sharing small cars developed by a unit of GM in South Korea.

I don’t think GM is going to purchase Chrysler until it is able to control its own spiraling costs. However, to better compete with Toyota, Honda, and other manufacturers, it seems that the best thing for Chrysler and GM to do is to create an alliance. This alliance could further lead to a much more deeper cooperation and possibly leaner companies that are better equipped to deal with the onslaught of foreign competition.

Source: MSNBC.

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I’ve often wondered why the US is unable to host the hottest new cell phones from the top manufacturers. Many of Motorola’s own phones debut overseas before they hit American shores. While most Americans are awed by the prospect of seeing the iPhone, millions around the world are already enjoying many of the benefits that the iPhone boasts in other models. For the most part, the main reason why Americans do not see the newest phones is due to the technological limitations.

Most of the world has been using the GSM standard for well over two decades. Many countries have also instituted a ban on competing technologies so that they can conform to the world-wide standard. In the United States, CDMA and GSM were both allowed to operate and evolve. Initially CDMA was the de facto standard but has since been struggling to compete with GSM. It would be a matter of personal opinion to claim that CDMA was better than GSM or vice versa. Rather, the free market system in place has forced the US to struggle to keep up with other countries. As such, while millions are able to enjoy high speed internet access, Americans are just embracing text messaging.

I think another major problem with the American market is that companies charge prohibitive rates for the newest features. Most European carriers offer competitive and affordable pricing that encourages faster adoption rates. In addition, most Americans view their phones as mostly voice communication devices, rather than provocative multimedia devices. I cannot see things changing too much in the near future, but as GSM evolves into 4G, things may improve. The US has always followed its own path and I simply hope that carriers change their minds and implement a system that the entire world operates on.

Source: MSNBC

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Finally I got hit with lots of work and limited time. The whole day I’ve been running around at a job fair, working on homework, attending lectures, completing labs, and working on more homework. I left my apartment at 9 in the morning and at the time of this writing, it is 11:55 PM. For almost 15 hours I’ve been working on something relentlessly with no free time. Talk about a busy day. I actually don’t mind it too much since this is nature’s way of telling me to get my act together and start allocating my time better.

The funny part is that I still have more work that needs to be completed. I will have to wake up real early in the morning and continue working to meet the deadlines. Luckily, I’ll have some time during the day to work on the necessary tasks and complete them. In other news, Akismet, a plugin that intercepts “fake” comments (i.e., comment spam) has proudly blocked 100 spam comments since the start of this blog. Lately, I’ve noticed that it captures anywhere from five to ten spam comments a day. If you do not have Akismet installed and running on your blog, I highly recommend you get it and start using it. For me, it has been 99.99% effective. It has yet to let a spam comment slip through its fingers.

And that’s my rant for today.

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Have you noticed some changes around my blog? Most of the changes have been subtle but I think they have improved the overall perspective of this blog. I added a Blidget Widget, joined MyBlogLog, updated my “Connections”, and improved the “Terminals”. I also received an email earlier about how it would be nice if I can explain a bit about the categories (Terminals) and I figured it was a great way to have another original post up.

I remember when I started this blog, I only had like three categories: Rantings, My View, and Uncategorized. Since that day (11/05/2006), I have increased the number of categories in the hopes to make it easier to find some of my posts. I want to take this time and explain the different categories and what sort of posts they host.

Business/Finance

This category hosts posts about different businesses that I have written about such as Nokia, Boeing, and GM. These posts take into account company profiles, business plans and transactions, and anything related to the corporation as a whole. Generally, I add a small piece of my own thoughts into the posts, but I do try to keep it more informational than persuasive.

Cars

This should be pretty self-explanatory. I love cars and I love to drive them. This category simply talks about cars that have captured my interest and contain a few images. Like most of my categories, I try to simply present the key information and keep it more informational than persuasive. This is one of my favorite categories to write for.

College Help

As a college student, I have extensive experience in what many college students are going through. I have a proven track record that illustrates how my studying techniques and behavior is effective and can produce promising results. As a strong believer of the Kaizen theory, I have a strong desire to share my experiences and thoughts on how other college students can improve their own academic performance and see the results they strive for.

Movies

I have to admit that this is the only category that I have not updated in over a month. It’s not that I have not watched any movies lately, it simply is a lack of motivation to write about the movies I have watched. I think this is one category that I can safely say it probably won’t be updated very much, if at all.

My View

This is my second most popular category. This category hosts most of my opinion pages and many articles under this category can also be found in the other ones as well. Often, the first half of some of my posts are informational, followed by a paragraph or two of my own thoughts on the subject matter. I can easily see this category hosting the majority of my posts in the near future and it is always a pleasure to write about different things with my own thoughts included. If you ask me, I think the soul of this blog resides in this category.

Politics

This is one of my newest categories that I had mentioned I would start due to my increasing awareness of political issues. I feel that my blog should not be held back because of my views but it should further my views and that is why I feel that writing about political events/issues is beneficial. So far, I have not written much mainly due to the fact that I am still somewhat cautious of simply flinging my political propaganda throughout my blog. As time goes on and we approach election year, I think I will start to write more and more about different political issues. I can see this category becoming a “hot one” near the end of this year.

Rantings

Welcome to the most popular category of this blog. This category simply houses events that are not really pertinent to the other categories and is somewhat more personal. Generally these posts just convey my emotions and feelings or give updates on what I am doing in the near future. Since I have a new set of categories made up, I think this category has already reached its maximum potential. In essence, I think the My View category will overtake this one in terms of popularity.

Reflections

This is my “sluggish” category. In case you have not figured it out, I only update this category once a month and it talks about the month’s events. I generally write about my accomplishments and failed goals that I had set for the month. In addition, I also write about my blog and the direction it has taken over the past month. This is a great category to quickly acclimate yourself to my blog and to me.

Spirits & Lager

By no means am I an alcoholic. Rather, I am a big fan of alcoholic beverages and I enjoy trying out new drinks and new concoctions. Generally, this category simply caters to the liquor articles and news. My only comment about this category is, “please drink responsibly.”

Sports

Like the Spirits and Lager category, this category caters to my favorite sports teams. Here you will find posts about the NBA, NFL, NCAA Football, and some other sports. Generally, I’m a huge football fan so you will see more football news than any other sport. However, I do plan on diversifying my writings in sports and will write about a variety of issues in the near future. And, let’s not forget, this category will host the world famous Chicago Cubs, my favorite baseball team.

Technology/Internet

In this category, I write mostly different electronic devices and gadgets. Generally, many of these posts are linked together with the My View category since I do add my own two cents on the subject matter.

Tidbits

Tidbits pretty much contains little tips and bits of information that I find amusing or useful. Some of my most popular posts have been written in Tidbits. Generally, I find most of this information on the web and I shamelessly reproduce it on my own blog. Of course, I do link to the original article and I do my best to be original in writing my own comments.

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