I spent most of yesterday flying back from Vegas to New York. We left on time. We arrived early. Miracles happen.
Shorting Research in Motion. The BlackBerry folks took a huge booth at CES to announce not one single new product. They announced an upgrade to the operating system running their useless Playbook tablet. Soon time to short them again:
Autopay is delicious, but can be a real pain. The morons at bankrupt Fairpoint Communications have disconnected the phone service at our country mansion. They did this because my credit card bounced. It bounced because someone hacked it. Citigroup cancelled it. I forgot to tell Fairpoint. And they forgot to call me. There are lessons from this collective idiocy:
+ Your credit card will be hacked. One day soon someone will buy TVs on your card. Your life will suddenly become a mess.
+ The thieves will get your credit card information from two sources — a waiter at a restaurant or, most likely, from the database of a company you bought something from.
+ You have a million companies on auto-pay on your card. A week later you’ll have no phones, no heating, no life,. + You’d better keep a list of all your auto-pay companies, plus information on how to contact them. I didn’t. My list is now ten companies, all of whom now believe I’m a deadbeat. Yuch.
Don’t buy a new smartphone for now. There are so many new ones coming out.. It pays to wait a couple of months. For a glimpse of what’s coming, click here.
Canon is one incredible camera maker. This is the new G1X:
It’s bigger than my beloved G10, which I schlepped around CES. But it has an awesomely larger photo sensor, which means it will take awesome photos in all light, including very low light. It’s bulky — not as big as a DSLR and not as pricey — at $800. But still big and heavy. Will I get one? Probably not. My G10 is smaller, but fine for what I mostly need. When I need greatness, I’ll my Nikon D7000 DSLR which is large, heavy and ultra-pricey.
The moral of this story is you clearly can’t have enough cameras. I now have four — my G10, my D7000, a Canon D10 waterproof camera) and my iPhone 4.
This is the camera that will revolutionize the movie making business. You get all this for $20,000 (but not the lens). This much used to cost you over $100,000.
Big features of this camera: small size (less intimidating to your actors), low weight (only 3.2 lbs), great sensitivity to low light (you don’t need expensive lighting) and a zillion other useful features. You can shoot full-length major movies with this camera.
David Pogue’s CES Roundup. Click here.
Latest travel tips:
+ Buy your tickets early. The lady next to me paid $900 for her seat to New York. More than twice what I paid.
+ Some weeks are cheaper. All airlines jacked up their prices for the CES week. A “normal” ticket from Vegas to New York on JetBlue is $169.
+ Board crowded flights early. If late, you’ll find the overhead bins filled. And your luggage will be checked, adding half an hour of waiting to your trip.
+ Don’t fly JetBlue. Lousy service. No Internet. Their tickets cost the same as their competitors who offer more service.
+ Drink water. Lots and lots of it.You’ll feel better. It’s remarkable.
+ Keep the air vents aimed directly at your face. That will keep you breathing cleaned air.
+ Learn to sleep — everywhere. You can learn to sleep on planes. Short naps anywhere and everywhere are very therapeutic.
“The Art of Flight” movie. For a trailer of this incredible movie, click here.
Favorite Christmas cards. I don’t make this stuff up. These are real Christmas cards.
Harry Newton who spent most of the Internet-less JetBlue flight writing and not thinking of new investments. VWALX continues to do well. Intel moves up because of its new aggressiveness with smartphones and small ultra-notebooks. I don’t believe either will save the company. ARM is too entrenched in smartphones. And ultrabooks aren’t that exciting. They won’t dent iPad sales. I personally hate the chiclet keyboards on ultrabooks.
Harry, Your CES picture last week of lovely Star with her star tattoo founds its match in a Modesto Starbucks where an attractive gal behind the counter yesterday had two stars, one on each front shoulder. “Hi”, says I, “Your name Star by any chance?” Nope, just likes stars!
Hi Harry
I prefer not to use credit cards for autopay because they expire every few years and I don't always remember which one is on what…I find out when the utility contacted me that my card had expired…never had your problem. I prefer autopay on utilities direct from my bank account. I check my bank accounts daily and know what is going on, I check credit cards 2-3 times each week to make sure nothing irregular is going on. Utilities are big companies and “usually” any errors can be reversed if necessary. I also don't have a landline anymore…only Cell.
I only book leisure air travel these days and try to do so about 6 months in advance to get best price and best seating. I am thinking of doing first class rail enroute to our summer cottage this year. More expensive and takes longer, just want the experience again. Last time I did trans-continental rail it was in coach and I'll never do that again…ooooh what a tired butt I had.
Auto-pay on credit cards gives you some airline miles. Never had any problem with them until recently when I (and zillions others) got hacked.
Absolutely, Abba, the rear of the plane is the best place to sit. I am a perpetual business flier who is terrified to fly. Not a good combination. But thanks to Xanax and researching the best place to sit on the flight – rear, aisle seat – I muddle through. Compelte loss of control – hate giving it up. Also, the nonstop reports of drunk pilots don't help.
Hi Harry,
I enjoy your blog and jokes daily.
Regarding flights, I looked on the web a year or so ago for research on where the safest place to sit on a plane would be. I found statistically, you are safer sitting in the rear. As the website I saw noted, “you don't hear of planes crashing while backing up”. So I began choosing seats just behind the exit row near the middle of the plane or in the rear. Well, turns out everyone wants to sit in the front I guess to get off quicker. Low and behold, now probably 60% of the time I have no one sitting next to me!! It's great.
L'chaim,
Richard from NC
Front or back, it's all the same coming down from 34,000 feet. You're right though; they don't often reverse into mountains.
Statistically, you're more likely to be killed on just about any other form of transportation. Do you make the same effort to choose where to sit on a bus?
Not being sarcastic, just enjoy working out people's rationalizations.
The funniest thing ever recorded about flying. Ignore the video; the soundtrack is of an after-dinner speech from the early eighties. Dated, but hysterical. http://www.ustream.tv/recorded…
I saw the same report on safety, back has best odds of surviving. What I don't like about the back or tail of the plane is it also is the most turbulent, very noticeably so. Comfort or safety?