Michael Gracie

SMS just won’t make it in America, if things proceed on their present course. The reason being, we are just to trusting to newfangled service providers. That should be a good thing, but those same service providers are often the ones using every means possible to get your business, even if it means spamming your phone and IM address.

Case in point…SMS.ac.

It seems that during the signup process for an otherwise nifty service, these folks down in San Diego snatch your email, your mobile phone number, your IM address and its buddy lists, and who knows what else. A number of folks have found their contacts getting pummeled by invitations to join the service, even if they never finished the signup process.

To make matters worse (in what will end up worse for the company), they have happened on a couple of cyberspace blog-jockeys with deep pockets, big connections, and plenty of time to spare on bashing.

Some very popular folks in cyberspace have had problems with these guys, including Russell Beattie (read Russell Beattie Notebook - SMS.ac is a scam), and Joi Ito (see Joi Ito’s Web: Apologies for spamming friends with SMS.ac). Topping it off, the company has even threated to sue Joi, which did nothing more than make for added bad publicity (dirty details here).

If the strategy here is negative publicity, SMS.ac is sure doing a good job of it.

Now the bull is well on his way to smashing the china closet, as complaints of fraudulent billing, misrepresentation, and other nastiness are now coming out of the woodwork. It seems SMS.ac is not what it seems, and neither are their proprietors. For more, check out the following blurbs:

from the Rip Off Report or U n l e a d e d O n l i n e . n e t.

There is no shortage of international backlash either. See Whirlpool Forums - Stay away from “sms.ac”" for starters.

Many thanks to Eric Smith of Spamblogging.com for leading us to this (see spamblogging: Making friends and influencing people: SMS.ac and Joi Ito).,

We are seeing a lot of hype over the issue of instant messaging spam nowadays. Part of this hype could be an actual problem, and part of it could be guilt by association. With all the talk about the Secret Service and Paris Hilton getting hacked via T-Mobile, I wonder if this isn’t already a little overdone - people seem to associate the instant message with mobility, and more and more phones are coming to market with chatting features. Don’t shoot me for reaching.

BetaNews thinks it is less of an issue than is being described, and points out a lot of the security features that service providers have to put a clamp on the “problem” (see BetaNews | The Hype Over Spim).

What’s worse is the potential for association with politics and laws such as CAN-SPAM.
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Once again, stock analysts cannot make up their minds about the search advertising model. Month on month, these guys swing recommendations like Babe Ruth swung at fastballs - with reckless abandon and little emphasis on quality. The latest is a flip flop by the folks over at RBC Capital Markets (see Google, Yahoo! Ripped).

Now, I have to give some minor credit, as the companies in question cannot proceed on their tracks forever. But putting in fairly aggressive buy recomendation in January, only to reduce the price target by close to 20% in February, leads me to believe that they really have no idea what is going to happen.

They don’t. Running searches on a Windows 2000 workstations, crunching a one page spreadsheet with nary a variable built in which resembles the companies’ business model drivers, and then issuing a public press release, hardly qualifies these analysts as credible. But that is IMHO.

For further reading, see Sell-side Equity Analysts Continue Guessing.

Meanwhile…
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Andy McCue of Silicon.com deserves a special thanks for plugging the latest “me-too” book, this time on RSS feeds and how they are the emarketers’ dream come true, in Have RSS feeds killed the email star? - silicon.com.

Why thank Andy….? Well no opinion was expressed on the validity of Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS, by Rok Hrastnik, that’s why. Finally someone shows a little skepticism by not going overboard with a glorious review of what I suspect is bunk.
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AT Kearney recently completed a study where they found top executives at manufacturers, software companies, and IT services firms were determined to concentrate on nurturing existing product lines, rather than invest in new technology development. In Poll: U.S. has conservative tack on innovation, they say AT Kearney found roughly 90% of executives were concerned about “falling behind”, but were doing little about it. If that isn’t a tech entrepreneur’s call to arms, I don’t know what is.
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Gizmodo had a review of the Dell 42″ Plasma TV the other day (see Dell W4200HD 42-Inch Plasma Reviewed (Verdict: Wait for Sale) : Gizmodo).

Well the title is pretty self-explanatory.

I personally won’t wait for the sale, as I don’t watch much TV at all. But for those TV junkies out there, a better way exists to get that TV without having to wait, and WITHOUT HAVING TO PAY AT ALL! It’s called Blingo.

A new search engine which popped up on the radar a few months back, Blingo presents an interesting twist on the old search model. They give away prizes just for using them.

Now you may be wondering what the catch is. Well there is none. No signup process is required to win a prize - all you do is search. Now you must have cookies enabled on your browser in order to be tagged for a prize, but that is little sweat. Blingo does not gather extraneous information about you, nor do they harrass you after you win. Your name is not released to anyone outside of the Blingo crew, ever.

Yes, I am plugging another site. Reason being, I know these folks, quite well in fact. They are a standup crew with no intention of screwing anyone (unlike 99% of the sites out there). No, I am not an investor in the business, so I stand no gain on seeing them do well.

I would, however, like to see some intelligent, honest entrepreneurs hit a homer off a unique model, without raking their customers over the coals. I think Blingo can do that.

So go to Blingo, and win that sweet TV, you crazy, game playing, movie watching, Nick and Jessica loving, home theatre junkies, before its GONE!

Mark Cuban has an interesting post on shorting stocks, entitled I feel so dirty….Naked Shorts.

While most of Mark’s post targets SEC rules regarding stock loan regulation and its related market impact, I am not going to argue with him about shorting as he is right on target (most of the time). I short stocks as well - in fact I short more stock than I buy. Reason being something similar to what Mark says about bias.
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Microsoft is out there, fighting spam like a good software company should, while their partner organizations are building daily challenges for them. Interesting to note the emphasis on “human error” in MSNBC - Editor’s note: MSNBC spam error. When some college dropout tries making a few extra bucks by directing some people to their site with a little internet ingenuity, they get five years in the Federal Pen. When a multi-million dollar joint venture between two multinational corporations does it, it’s a mistake.

What really kills me, however, is the detailed manner in which MSNBC explained the breach. How about giving the bad guys your passwords, boys and girls.

Hmm, well at least they apologized.

Friends and I joke about people who always stick letters behind their names in correspondence, on their business cards, etc.

Why to they do that? John Doe, PhD, Jane Doe, CLU, and my favorite, Joe Blow, MBA. Cripes, you can get an MBA for 100 bucks from an online store. It isn’t a credential! Should everyone with a college degree (a real one) put BS or BA behind their name? Not likely, unless they want to be laughed at - there are only two letters there, for pete’s sake.

I am a certified public accountant - have been for over a decade. And I’d be embarrassed to add CPA to my name, everywhere said name goes. It is silly - some would say a bit narcissistic. I met a guy from Lincoln Financial Advisors once. His card said “JD*”. What did the “*” stand for - it was a note saying he was a “licensed” lawyer, just not practicing. What the hell does that mean? I’m a lawyer, but I can’t give you legal advice? What is the point?

The point is, they are compensating. These people want the world to know that they accomplished some educational, accreditation, or other high priced lofty goal. It says they weren’t working while they were doing all that studying, and it says they have accomplished little since.

Compliments of a friend, who IS a PhD, but prefers to use “SFG” at the end of his name (for Senior ****ing Geek).

The San Francisco Chronicle has a fresh piece on inflation. Inflation with a new face gives you the choice between the Producer Price Index (PPI) and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to fuel your inflation fears.

Which one is best is anyone’s guess, if you believe them at all.

In the simplest terms, the PPI measures the price of a basket of goods manufacturers buy to build plants and keep them running - to produce other goods. The CPI measures the price of a basket of everyday needs. The last PPI release was a monster, while the CPI seemed a little too tame.

If the PPI continues on an upward trend, consumer prices will eventually follow, as manufacturers cannot afford ever shrinking returns on investment. But with so much manufactured outside our fair nation, who knows how this number will really impact.

The CPI, which I commented on yesterday, seems more and more like a crock of malarky. With housing and education prices looking strangely tame, despite what your new mortgage balance and tuition bills say, and health care costs far removed from the basket, it seems as much a credible indicator of inflation as a warm southerly breeze.

To make a long story short, the PPI effect is a dart throw, and CPI could be renamed the BBB, for Babbling Bush (administration) Baloney.