as random as Ek Do 3

So here’s the scoop… MSN.com is launching a huge marketing campaign in order to gain market share for homepage dominance. Recent research studies show that mature internet users(10 years or more online) tend to begin their searches for information on either Google or Yahoo, primarily for their relevant results, and most have either one of those bookmarked as their home page. Knowing that it cannot compete with the big ‘G,’ MSN has begun its quest to battle it out with Yahoo for 2nd place in the ‘Homepage’ Showdown.

In looking over its competition, MSN will have to revamp its homepage to make it more useable, functional and appealing to its users as well as new users signing up for their hotmail email service. They will have to offer something above and beyond what their competition is currently offering, and they believe they have found their answer in ’social causes’. Very soon, MSN will be launching its ‘for a cause’ campaign. What exactly does that mean?

In conducting their tests, internet users are looking for the following features when using a website, listed in order of importance:

1) Credibility
2) Informational
3) Ease Of Use
4) Site Design

That said, MSN along with other portals are already pretty Credible and Filled with information. Ease of Use and Site Design are two features that MSN will be improving on; that in itself will not be enough though. So MSN has decided to move forward with the ‘for a cause’ feature. Their thinking goes along the lines that if users are searching for information online, they might as well use MSN.com since MSN will be donating a portion of the advertising revenue generated to any organization of the users choosing. So, once the user creates a hotmail account, they will at that time determine a ’cause’ of their choice.  It could be anything such as fighting poverty, world hunger, global warming or any other charity/cause of the users choice.  If the user stays logged in, and begins searching on MSN or its affiliate sites such as Live.com, a portion of the advertising revenue that is generated during that session will be donated to the charity the user has designated.

Sure everyone feels good by donating, however it does come at a cost; the cost in this case being a change in users internet behaviour.  Without a particular marketing angle such as Yahoooooo, the question remains….Will MSN be able to convert millions of users to its service?  That is yet TBD.

Here is a list of the top 8 Dividend paying stocks:

SPY - SPDRs, Standard & Poor’s Depositary Receipts, represent ownership in the SPDR Trust, Series 1 (the Trust), a unit investment trust. The Trust is an exchange-traded fund that was created to provide investors with the opportunity to purchase a security representing a proportionate undivided interest in a portfolio of securities consisting of substantially all of the common stocks, in substantially the same weighting, which comprise the Standard & Poor’s 500 Composite Price Index (the S&P Index). Each unit of fractional undivided interest in the Trust is referred to as a Standard & Poor’s Depositary Receipt (SPDR). The Trust utilizes a full replication approach. With this approach, all 500 securities of the S&P 500 Index are owned by the Trust in their approximate market capitalization weight.

CAG - ConAgra Foods, Inc. is a packaged food company serving grocery retailers, as well as restaurants and other foodservice establishments. It has four business segments. The Consumer Foods segment includes branded, private label and customized food products, which are sold in various retail and foodservice channels. The Food and Ingredients segment includes commercially branded foods and ingredients, which are sold principally to foodservice, food manufacturing and industrial customers. The Trading and Merchandising segment includes the sourcing, merchandising, trading, marketing and distribution of agricultural and energy commodities. The International Foods segment includes branded food products, which are sold in retail channels principally in North America, Europe and Asia. During the fiscal year ended May 27, 2007, the Company divested its packaged meats business, nutritional supplement business, packaged cheese business, oat milling business and the refrigerated pizza business.

CB - The Chubb Corporation (Chubb) is a holding company for a family of property and casualty insurance companies known as the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies (the P&C Group). The P&C Group is divided into three business units: Chubb Commercial Insurance, Chubb Commercial Insurance and Chubb Specialty Insurance. Chubb Commercial Insurance offers a range of commercial customer insurance products, including coverage for multiple peril, casualty, workers’ compensation, property and marine. Chubb Specialty Insurance offers a variety of specialized professional liability products for privately and publicly owned companies, financial institutions, professional firms and healthcare organizations.

EMR - Emerson Electric Co. is engaged in designing and supplying product technology and delivering engineering services in a range of industrial, commercial and consumer markets. It has five segments. The Process Management segment provides measurement, control and diagnostic capabilities for automated industrial processes producing items. The Industrial Automation segment brings integrated manufacturing solutions to industries worldwide. The Network Power segment provides power and environmental conditioning, and reliability to help keep telecommunication systems, data networks and critical business applications continuously operating. The Climate Technologies segment enhances household and commercial comfort. The Appliance and Tools segment provides motors for a range of applications, appliances and integrated appliance solutions, and tools for homeowners and professionals.

FRE - Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned financial services company engaged in financing residential mortgage loans in the United States. It purchases residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities in the secondary mortgage market. The Company also purchases residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities for its investments portfolio in the secondary market to hold for investment purposes in its retained portfolio. Freddie Mac finances its purchases primarily by issuing a variety of debt instruments in the capital markets. The Company has two business activities: portfolio investment activities and credit guarantee activities.

FPL -  FPL Group, Inc. (FPL Group) provides electricity-related services. Its principal subsidiary, Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), serves more than 8.5 million people throughout most of the east and lower west coasts of Florida. FPL Energy, LLC (FPL Energy), FPL Group’s energy subsidiary, produces electricity primarily utilizing natural gas, wind and nuclear resources. As at December 31, 2006, together, FPL’s and FPL Energy’s generating assets represented approximately 34,300 megawatt of capacity. FPL FiberNet, LLC (FPL FiberNet) provides fiber-optic services to FPL, telecommunications companies and other customers throughout Florida.

WM - Washington Mutual, Inc. is a consumer and small business banking company with operations in United States markets. It is a savings and loan holding company. It owns two banking subsidiaries, as well as numerous non-bank subsidiaries. It has four operating segments: the Retail Banking Group, which operates a retail bank network of 2,225 stores; the Card Services Group, which operates credit card lending business; the Commercial Group, which conducts a multi-family and commercial real estate lending business in selected markets, and the Home Loans Group, which engages in single-family residential real estate lending, servicing and capital markets activities.

FNM -  Federal National Mortgage Association, operating as Fannie Mae, is engaged in providing funds to mortgage lenders through its purchases of mortgage assets, and issuing and guaranteeing mortgage-related securities that facilitate the flow of additional funds into the mortgage market. The Company also makes other investments that increase the supply of affordable housing. It is a government-sponsored enterprise chartered by the United States Congress and is aligned with national policies to support expanded access to housing and increased opportunities for homeownership. The Company’s business includes three integrated business segments: Single-Family Credit Guaranty, Housing and Community Development, and Capital Markets. It helps to make homeownership more available and affordable for low-, moderate- and middle-income Americans.

Interesting article today about a man that was sentenced  to 2 years in the slammer for consipiring to sell Coke’s “mystery ingredient” to Pepsi.  The article can be found here.

Wikipedia has the entire Coke formula pretty much spelled out on their site, including listing out the secret ingredient, that the  ex convict is being jailed for.
Here’s an excerpt:
Published accounts say it contains or once contained sugar crystals, caramel, caffeine, phosphoric acid, coca leaf and kola nut extract, lime extract, flavoring mixture, vanilla and glycerin. Merchandise 7X is the “secret ingredient” in Coca-Cola and has apparently remained a secret since its invention in 1886. Alleged syrup recipes vary greatly, and Coca-Cola reluctantly admits the formula has changed over the decades. For example, the formula was changed in 1935 with the help of Rabbi Tobias Geffen of Atlanta to allow it to be certified kosher.

The page is titled Coca Cola Formula.  How does Wikipedia get away with disclosing this information, and yet this guy get sent to jail for doing something similar?

Well, I feel confident enought to enter my site into the world of blogs.  Here goes:

Technorati Profile

I purchased the Palm Treo 700w in Aug 2006, and have had nothing but issues since. The main issue I have is that the phone does not pick up reception where I live, which makes it pretty much useless. My wife also has Verizon, but has an LG phone and it picks up reception in the same area perfectly, so the issue is not with the service, but with the phone itself. I have been in Verizon numerous times and have taken the following steps so far:

1) First I was told that I need to dial *228 to update the roaming capabilities
2) Did a hard reset. Here’s the instructions.
3) Updated Active Sync to version 4.5. Select your language here.
4) Updated software on Treo 700w phone from version 1.02 to version 1.10. Here’s the updater.

None of those options worked, so I contacted Verizon and they credited me $50 for the hassles and sent me a new phone to try. I received the phone on Monday May 7th and unfortunately the phone still does not pick up reception. Secondly, I tried to move my contacts over through Active Sync and was unable to do so, since I use Entourage, not Outlook. I contacted Verizon, and they suggested that I go to the store where they would be able to transfer everything over for me. I visited the store on Tuesday May 8th, during my lunch our. After waiting in que for 15 minutes it finally came my turn, and unfortunately got stuck with the most improvident and uncooperative employee.

To start off, her nails were approx. 3 inches long curled over….and she’s trying to type in my keypad. That’s just not right! Secondly, I handed her both my phones, (new and old) explained the issue, and without asking me which one is which she started to try the transfer process. After trying twice, she said that she was unable to extract any of my contacts. I looked over what she was doing and mentioned to her that she was extracting from the wrong phone - the new one, which had no contacts on there. After giving me an unpleasant look, she moved the batter from one phone to the other (her nails actually helped with taking the battery out), and gave it another shot.

So approx 40 minutes into my lunch break, we haven’t gotten anywhere and she comes back saying that the only way I can move the contacts over would be to write down each one and move them over that way. I laughed at her saying that there are over 250 contacts in my address book, and that is not an option. Plus, when I purchased the phone in Aug 2006, it was supposed to be the most high tech (not to mention the most expensive) and still is supposed to be pretty much on the high end of phones. Thats why I was shocked when I received such a medieval response from the Verizon employee.  So after much ado, it has left me nowhere, and I will be returning the new phone as the original issue of no reception is still there.

My next step will be to ask for a different smartphone and test the reception of that.  I’ll keep y’all posted.

I’ve been a Starbucks connoisseur for over 3 years now, and my drink has defintely evolved…..3SVVLXHDC. Since I am no longer working from home, my weekdays begin at a new Starbucks location, no longer the one across the street from my house. The new SBUX is walking distance from my office and is visually visable from my office window. Keeps me reassured that access within a stones throw.

At the Starbucks across the street from my house, the moment I walk in they start preparing my drink. Unfortunately after 4 months at the Starbucks across from my work, they still don’t know what drink I want. Had an incident the other day, where the employees were looking to move the line that had ballooned to approx 18-20 people, so they started to get ready the orders for people waiting in line, and by the time it was ready to pay, the drink was ready. In theory this sounds excellent, and worked pretty well however by the time my drink was ready, I hadnt even gotten close to paying and my drink was just sitting there; the extra hot vanilla latte was no longer ‘extra hot’.

To make matters worse, when it got time to pay, the employee charged my credit card $4.15 for my Latte that typically runs $3.50.  I questioned him about the difference and he said he thought I ordered something else.  Instead of offering a free drink next time, or possibly even refunding my card, he very plainly said “next time I’ll credit the difference - remind me”.  Besides frequenting the store, I am also a SBUX shareholder and this incident has to ‘downgrade’ the stock in my mind.

On my drive to work, I was approached by a young Indian man asking me a ride to the University.  He mentioned that he had missed his bus and he wanted to get to class.  I offered him a ride to the freeway where I was heading, approx 1/4 of the way to the University.  He politely declined by saying ‘Thanks anyway’.  On my drive to work, I pondered if I had done the right thing.  If I would have just taken 5-10 minutes out of my schedule to drive this young man to the University, would it really have impacted my day alot.  He, on the other hand was probably scrambling to find a ride to his school and get to his class.  As I continued my drive I went on to debate with myself that instead of going to Starbucks that morning maybe I should have given him a ride to class.  The other side of me argued that I am not responsible for others problems.
I justified my actions to myself by knowing that I offered him a ride as close to his destination without causing me to detour from my route this morning.  He would have been closer to his destination should he have accepted.  Im sure eventually he would have found someone going that way - I hope!

Here is Starbucks biggest competitor in Iran. Its called Raees Coffee:

http://www.raeescoffee.com/

Notice the logo looks exactly like Starbucks. I have actually been to this coffee house, and the inside of the store is surprisingly, very modern. Coffee doesn’t compare to Starbucks however it is not bad.
If you’re interested in knowing, the word ‘Raees’ means ‘Rich’

Iran is already a net savvy nation, as is evident in the case of a coffee shop having its website and menu online. As new technologies come to the market, the price of laptops and other wireless gadgets will start to decrease, and will become more affordable to developing countries. Considering that a quarter of the Iranian people are 15 years and younger, if Raees Coffee and other business are able to catch on to the wireless revolution, there is tremendous opportunity for growth.