I pay Verizon hundreds of dollars each month. Why don’t they sell me something?
I’d pay $1 a month for Verizon Alarm — my TV turns on with my favorite channel when it’s time to wake up.
Heck, why don’t they buy Slingbox and let me watch from afar the stuff I’ve recorded on my Verizon PVR?
They have a platform called MoCa, which is a local area network running over the coaxial cable in your home. It is designed to run between all your cable TV boxes (including Verizon’s). It’s meant to do everything the Internet can do — and more. Like have my TV just showing sports scores, or the price of my favorite stocks (if I can find any). Or my future travel plans, etc. But, no. Nothing.
MoCa was meant to be open, like the Internet, or open like apps for the iPhone, programmable by everyone. Verizon’s MoCa remains closed. Why? Management.
And the result. Here’s ten years of Verizon, AT&T and Amazon. VZ and T are the two horizontal lines.
It would look even worse if you compared it to Netflix.VZ and T are the two horizontal lines.
Which brings me to Netflix. It has fallen recently for many reasons: It spends more than it earns. Its debt is high. Some professors think it’s too expensive and there’s new competition — coming from Amazon, Apple, Google, Comcast, AT&T, Fox Nation and others — but not Verizon.
Am I worried about Netflix? Yes. But not because of the competition — but because of the market’s perception of it.
My recommendatons:
+ Read Netflix’s Audience if Multiplying. But So Is Its Debt. Click here.
+ Buy more Netflix under $295.
+ Read this story of good and bad managements:
For the full incredible story of great mismanagement and great management, click here.
Amazon continues to slide
No one went broke by taking a profit. But people have gone broke by hanging around too long and praying that the price will go up.
Take a profit. Wait for cheaper times to get back in.
Amazon is cratering — now much below the chart.
Here’s a good report on Amazon’s latest quarterly report: Click here.
Aussie Rules
Best show on Netflix
Best show on Amazon
Best place to visit — Croatia
This is Croatia’s Plitvice Lakes National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
I love Croatia. Been once. Going a second time next summer. For the full list of great Croatia places, click here.
Greatest tips
+ No carbs leads to less water, less pressure on knees and legs. “My knees feel 100% better,” Jill said.
+ WAZE now works Apple’s CarPlay. Simply update to the latest version.
+ Buy one LED bulb. Test it. Some are so bright white, you won’t want them anywhere near your house.
+ Keep a list of your auto-pays. When your credit card gets hacked and gets closed, all your auto-pays will now assume you’re a bum and cut your service off — with no notice (written or emailed). Thank you AT&T/DirecTV for warning me before you cut me off. You’re the best.
Favorite images
Junk mail from a dating service
Thoughts for today
+ Politicians and diapers should be changed often and for the same reason.
+ Money can’t buy happiness but it’s more comfortable to cry in a BMW than in a Ford.
+ Life isn’t tied with a bow but it’s still a gift.
+ In 30 years, we’ll have thousands of old ladies running around with tattoos.
Harry Newton, whose friend is on the board of a local synagogue. He tells me the synagogue’s biggest expense is security. I can’t imagine how his guards, retired New York City police officers, armed only with revolvers, will stop a determined nutcase with an AK-15 and large bullet magazines. Heck, you can buy at 42 bullet magazine for $13.97 from CheaperThanDirt.com and 1,000 bullets from AmmoForSale.com for $304.95. That’s 30 cents a bullet.
My friends who have AR-15 type assault rifles tell me they don’t shoot people. They use them for “target practice.” For targeting who?
Why should assault rifles be banned — as they once were. I point to Australia where, after a massacre by a nutcase in 1989, guns were rounded up and effectively banned.
History: In 1996 in Port Arthur, Tasmania a gunman opened fire on shop owners and tourists with two semi-automatic rifles that left 35 people dead and 23 wounded. This mass killing horrified the Australian public and transformed gun control legislation in Australia.
Prime Minister John Howard convinced the states to adopt the gun law proposals made in a report of the 1988 National Committee on Violence as the National Firearms Agreement. The Australian Constitution does not give the Commonwealth power to enact gun laws. In the face of some state resistance, Howard threatened to hold a nationwide referendum to alter the Australian Constitution to give the Commonwealth constitutional power over guns. The proposals included a ban on all semi-automatic rifles and all semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns, and a system of licensing and ownership controls.
New laws were enacted and the government offered a bounty on turned-in guns. It was called gun buy-back. Many people turned in their guns and the government destroyed them.
In the 18 years before the Port Arthur massacre, Australia had 13 mass shootings, defined as shootings in which five or more people were killed. In the 22 years since, there have been none.
After a recent American massacre, the U.S. Administration promised a ban on bump stocks.
A bump stock, also called a bump-fire stock, is an attachment that makes a semi-automatic weapon — like an AR-15 rifle — shoot nearly as fast as fully-automatic machine guns.
No legislation on bump stocks has been presented to Congress, which, anyway, is out of Session until after the upcoming mid-term elections.
Please remember to vote on Tuesday, November 6.
By the way, none of this anything to with politics. All my four grandchildren will soon be in school. I worry for them and local nutcases with assault rifles and bump stocks.
I am a strong supporter of the Second amendment, however, I see no reason that the general populace should own assault rifles of any type.
We love Croatia…have toured it from top to bottom…the morning after our arrival at Plitvice Lakes National Park we awoke to a beautiful light snow fall that was gone by noon…what a beautiful experience.
Harry, I did not know you were a gun owner. NRA member? I find it interesting that some of the stocks you’ve recommended for so long, like Amazon, are crashing. You need to own that, Harry. Admit you recommended it.