consumer

Beware The Email Onslaught When Signing Up For GoFobo [Consumer]

by on January 26, 2012

in consumer

Consumer Bits on Brusimm 200w logo, [Consumer News, advice and reviews]A Consumer Awareness piece….

I received an unwanted email the other day about the movie, The Grey, starring Liam Neeson.  It’s not that I am not interested in either the movie or the actor, but rather, it was the persistent source where I received the email from that aggravated the living (your favorite expletive goes here.) out of me.

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The other day I was given an opportunity to attend a free movie screening…  I’m not quite sure how I got this offer, but to be able to have a chance to get these tickets I had to sign up at ‘http://www.gofobo.com‘

Sure, great, no problem…

If you value the sanity of your email inbox, DON’T ****ING DO IT!

I signed up and then found out there were no more tickets available for what got me to the site.  OK, whatever.

But before the day was up, I lost count at how many emails I received from the website regarding various “conversations.”

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The Ukraine is Poisoning & Incinerating Thousands of Stray Dogs

by on January 20, 2012

in consumer

Dog and friends

The 2013 UEFA European Football (Soccer) Championships will be co-hosted by Ukraine.  In anticipation of hosting the event, they’re trying to clean up the streets of the stray animals.  But the approach they’re using is riling animal rights activists.

What the Ukraine is doing to clear out the thousands of stray dogs and cats on their streets is poisoning the animals, but they’re enlisting the citizens of the country in the process.

Country officials are not only leaving out poisoned food, they’re paying citizens for every dog corpse turned in.  Portable crematoriums are being used in the process and in some cases, allegedly some dogs are getting incinerated while they’re still alive.

At $55 a body, I’m guessing some morals go out the window… but that’s a guess on my part.  I can’t begin to imagine this situation.

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The 2012 Super Bowl Commercial Hype Is About To Commence!

by on January 17, 2012

in Entertainment, television

The Super Bowl 46The 46th annual NFL Super Bowl will be taking place on Sunday, February 5th, 2012, culminating the 2011 NFL season.  Kickoff time is slated for 6:25pm EST.  That, pretty much most red-blooded men know.

But are you ready for the TV commercials that cost on average, $3.5M per 30 second spot?

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It’s that time of year again…  the playoffs are here, and soon the Super Bowl 46 will be on those big screens.

When all is said and done, after “the best of the best of the best*” tackle each other in the Super Bowl, “There can be only one!*”  One winner.  One Super Bowl champion.  (They call them world champions, but I think they’re getting a bit liberal with that term!)

But prior to the Super Bowl, the game itself takes a backseat to something more important, and that’s the TV commercials between sets and quarters.

The TV ads that play during the Super Bowl have become a fascinating focus of both the fans and the media.  And it’s such a hot bed of business that by May of 2011, NBC had already sold half the TV commercial spots available.

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The Ads Were Fun When We Were Surprised

Fans used to love the ads and because we made such a fervor about them, the media and the advertisers have taken advantage of that mentality.

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TITLE NINE Gives The Customer an Awesome Consumer Experience

by on January 16, 2012

in consumer

Consumer Bits on Brusimm 200w logo, [Consumer News, advice and reviews]Title Nine, per their website, is a “Sporting Goods Store, Women’s Clothing Store, Sportswear Store.”   But don’t be fooled, they have cool trinkets too that might catch the guy’s eye too.

But what’s most important, is this is a husband’s point of view after having accompanied my wife to Title Nine in downtown Palo Alto, CA, and I have to say, this store, or company as a whole, gives you a fantastic consumer experience.

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When my wife arrived at the store, she was looking for something specific, and walking into the store, you can pretty much see all that they have to offer the consumer.  The layout is clean and easy to define where the products you are l00king for is located.  And if you don’t see it right away, asking the staff that’s on hand seems to always be a win-win for everyone.

The staff is incredibly friendly, patient and knowledgeable, no matter what questions we laid out there for them.

The prices are about on par with what you’ll find in other venues.  They may not underbid other competitors, but they do have a subtle edge that I’ll explain in a moment.

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Contraband Led the Pack of Top-10 Movies At the Box Office Last Weekend

by on January 16, 2012

in Entertainment, movies

Cinema Static Top-10 Movies & Box Office NumbersLast weekend consumers decided to give some power to he three new movies last weekend and put them in the top-4 spots amongst the top-10 movies at the box office last weekend.

Estimated numbers:

Number One Movie At the Box Office

Contraband showed that Mark Wahlberg can switch hats from his executive producer hat (Boardwalk Empire, Entourage) to his acting hat (The Other Guys, Date Night, The Lovely Bones) and still draw the fans in to the movie theater for his new movies.  He does have that pull on you and he can pull off an action role pretty awesomely.  (Is that even a word?  LOL)

Contraband movie poster

Contraband, from director Baltasar Kormákur (Inhale, A Little Trip to Heaven), pulled in just over $24M at the ticket window, averaging almost $8.5K per theater.  Yea…  the fans like Wahlberg!

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Beauty and the Beast 3D movie poster

The 1991 animated classic, Beauty and the Beast, was re-released in 3D this last weekend and showed that classic movies that are close to the heart can still have an interesting draw when slapped out in the 3D theater…

Beauty and the Beast drew in almost $18.5M at the box office, which surprised me.  I was sure it would do OK, but I wasn’t sure it would be such the hit to be the No. 2 movie in America.

This brings the movies’ overall worldwide tally to $378M.

Sure, it’s a 3D release.  Sure, they’re just adding money to their coffers by taking advantage of your heart strings, but A: It worked, B: Animated features in 3D can be awesome.

Did any of my readers see this in 3D?  Was it any fun in 3D?

Hey, at the very least, you get to take your kids to the same movie and give them the experience you had once when you were young!  Right?

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A Winter Spare the Air Day Alert Around The Corner, But Who Cares?

by on January 11, 2012

in consumer

Spare the Air, Bay AreaOver the 2011 holidays, we had several Winter Spare the Air alerts.  All of them on critical days when friends and family would have loved to have had a fireplace going…  Christmas eve, Christmas day, etc., etc..

The timing was poorly executed by mother nature.  But none-the-less, the advisory board that runs the show distributed the warnings, regardless of the day.

It felt like the Grinch was running the show.

But it can be pricey to ignore the official warnings…  first offense is a warning for any Bay Area resident found burning anything during the Spare the Air warnings.  Subsequent fines could land in the $400 range.

That would be one expensive fireplace.  The only exemptions are those who depend solely on fireplaces or wood stoves for their heat.

Back in 2008 when the Spare the Air program went into effect, they had seventy inspectors roaming neighborhoods.

But…

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Do 3D Movies Still Have A Place In The Marketplace For You?

by on January 7, 2012

in Entertainment, movies

3D movies - Are they right for you

Right now it seems that no matter what most of us say, the 3D movies option is hurtling at us and not slowing down.  From home entertainment systems to movies only being offered in 3D at the movie theater or older movies being re-released in 3D, the consumer options are getting whittled down to either not going to some movies or taking the plunge, “at least this once.”

But the mentality of “at least this once” is what the industry is banking on.  Even if you never go see another 3D movie again after that one time, if they tap every single movie-goer at least once, then the marketing onslaught of 3D movies has worked to some degree.

As it was, 2011 saw the lowest number of movie attendee’s in 16 years.  Yet as a mere 1.28 billion customers coughed up money for a movie last year, in amongst all the dire headlines of declining movie attendance, folks seem to forget that “The overseas movie market has generated an all-time record of $13.53B in 2011.”

Yea… body counts are low, but prices are up, as are profits.

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Did You Know You Can or Have To Set Your Garmin 305 To Record Splits? [Consumer]

by on January 3, 2012

in consumer

Garmin Forerunner 305Setting Splits on Your Garmin Forerunner 305… it doesn’t come out of the box recording splits automatically, but did you know it can be set to record splits?

I’ve owned a Garmin 305 since I did my Garmin 305 Product Review in March of 2010.  It’s one of the best toys a runner can have.

Before owning a Garmin GPS tracking computer, I used to run predefined courses and then map them out on either Google Earth, Map My Run, and now, lately, if I do this any more, over on USATF America’s Running Routes.

To be honest, after a good run, the last thing you want to do is sit down and tinker on the computer.

So I snagged a GPS 305 back then because it was on sale for a ridiculous price on Amazon.com.  Today I took a peek and today I noticed a Garmin or two on sale for around $180 at the time of writing this article.  (Garmin GPS Watches on Amazon.com)

Since my introduction to my Garmin, I’ve been loving the premise of turning on my Garmin 305, putting it in the window sill until it catches the satellite signals, and taking off.  This works out great because the watch needs a few minutes to find the sky and I use that time to load up my running fuel and water bottles.  By the time I’m done with that, my Garmin is ready.

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Plastic Bag Ban in San Jose, And Now Costumers Get Charged for Paper Bags

by on January 2, 2012

in consumer

Consumer Bits on Brusimm 200w logo, [Consumer News, advice and reviews]In an interesting state of developments, starting January 1st, 2012, a plastic bag ban is going into effect in different parts of the Bay Area.  Specifically, in the city of San Jose, CA.

The plastic bag ban is angling towards keeping plastic bags out of the environment because there are many lazy people who can’t dispose of their own trash repsonsibly.

Now the rest of us pay for it.  The dog owners who use them to scoop, people who use them as trash bags, etc., etc..

But along with the ban of plastic bags, it seems that now that you don’t have any options, stores are going to charge their customers money for using the paper bag option.

Which seems odd… since my presumption is that part of my cost of purchasing a product from a store involves paying them for their supply costs and store labor.

But now consumers are being charged an extra ten cents for something that’s part of their bill.

That does not seem right, that’s for sure.

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Netflix Won’t Let Customers Clear Their Viewing History. Why Is That?

by on January 2, 2012

in consumer, product review

NetflixNetflix users have been asking since at least 2007, for the ability to clear or hide their “recent viewed” queue.  And yet there are still no options for this?  Why’s that?  You would think with the clamor that Netflix would want to appease those for this long-running inquiry.

I’ve seen suggestions, but not logical ones.

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I’ve been watching my brother-in-law tinker around with his Netflix account and the principle is pretty neat.  But the more I see him tinker, the more I’m thinking that Netflix is not better than sliced bread.  Most movies are not the newest and there’s an eclectic and cumbersome way to navigate their entertainment choices.

But what I’ve noticed is that as you create a viewing history, THERE IS NO WAY TO FILTER, HIDE or DELETE it.

Why filter, or delete the viewing history?  The most common reason I’m seeing out on the web is if someone watches something of a questionable moral nature, they don’t want their friends, family, or more importantly, their kids to see this viewing activity.  I get that.

The reason I’m focused on this is because I noticed that with my brother-in-law’s situation, his kids use Netflix to watch their movies, but they have access and are exposed to the entire viewing history of the account.

That doesn’t seem smart from Netflix’s side of things.  They don’t seem to care that their customers are asking for a filter.

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