Blogging from 35,000 Feet

So here I am on Luftwaffe Lufthansa Airlines using their WIFI. I have to say there are a lot of good and bad things about this airline:

The good:

• WIFI - This should be mandatory on all flights over four hours. Yeah, they charge through the nose, but it is well worth it.
• Bier - Unlike AMERICAN carriers that stopped serving free alcohol in coach for overseas flights, Lufthansa still pours. I asked what kind of bier they had, and the stewardess frowned and said they "only" had Warsteiner Premium, probably assuming I wanted a Bud. This is a fine bier, full bodied and flavored. I had them bring me a couple.
• The Staff - My stewardess is Martina Hingess. Okay, probably not, but it looks just like her.

The Bad:

• Coach Seating - This coach seat has got to be the smallest, most cramped seat I have ever been in. That is saying a lot considering the Asian flag airliners I have flown, which scale their seats for smaller nationalities. Right now to type this blog entry I have the notebook screen pulled straight and angled down on my lap since the seat in front of me is in my lap.
• Check-In Line - Again, the worst line I have ever been in. My visions of German efficiency went out the window as I waited over 90 minutes in a line that went 150 yards out the door of the LAX terminal. I didn't freak out since it just meant I waited there instead of a bar, but still, pretty annoying.

Does the WIFI make up for the cramped seat? No, it doesn't. So I don't plan to fly this airline again unless I get business class or they improve seating in coach.

Read This Blog and Learn Something

I found out that at least one of my blog entries was used in a business class. I got emails from a couple of students at DeVry asking about my entry on valuating a start-up. I asked for a syllabus on the class where I was referenced and got the following:

This course covers issues unique to small business establishment, operations and management including the steps involved in improving the success rate for new firms; financing small businesses; analyzing means of regulatory compliance, and methods of collecting data in order to achieve improved performance.

Most of my business entries are marketing related, so I am pleasantly surprised that this is the entry that found its way into a classroom.

The Dark Side of Price Fixing

While at dinner last night (I am actually in Taiwan right now), someone brought up a little fact that I didn't realize, even though I work in the high tech industry: about a dozen guys served jail time for price fixing the DRAM market:

In late March, three executives from Samsung Electronics Company Ltd., the world’s largest manufacturer of DRAM, agreed to plead guilty and serve jail time in the United States. In early March, four Korean executives from Hynix agreed to plead guilty and to serve jail time in the United States for participating in a global conspiracy to fix DRAM prices. And in December 2005, four executives at Infineon pled guilty and faced jail time.

But this isn't the entire story. It wasn't just for price fixing, it was also for colluding to keep a new product - Rambus - off the market.

We all sat there chewing our meal, wondering if these guys were caught up in the rulings as a part of their normal business dealings, especially since all these guys were non-Americans and may have normally operated under different business principles.

Meanwhile, Buried in Section D...

Along with news that the economy is growing, unemployment is low, productivity is up, we have news that tax receipts are pouring in:

A surging economy producing robust growth in federal revenues promises to significantly cut the budget deficit for the current year, the Congressional Budget Office reported Thursday.

The deficit "will be significantly less than $350 billion, perhaps as low as $300 billion," CBO reported, well below the White House's February estimate of $423 billion.

One would think that a deficit coming in around 20% lower than expected would be bigger news. And this is from income tax receipts only; it doesn't take into consideration the higher government revenues that will be coming in thanks to higher oil prices.

Of course if we could get the bozos in congress to cut pork barrel spending that would be even better.

Celebrating an Alternative this May 5

Due to my position on illegal immigration, I will be celebrating the holiday of a country that sends us tons of legal immigrants (including my Tae Kwon Do Master and several instructors): South Korea.

So this May 5 I will be hoisting a cold one for Children's Day, which is celebrated each year in South Korea on the fifth of May.