Archive for November 29th, 2010

More whining from Warren Buffett … and I’ve got the remedy.

November 29, 2010

Warren Buffett is back on the talk shows sanctimoniously asserting that the wealthy don’t get taxed enough.

ABC, Warren Buffett: “There’s No Sacrifice Among The Rich”
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/11/28/warren_buffett_theres_no_sacrifice_among_the_rich.html

Since he won’t shut up, I suggest that the extension of the Bush tax cuts come with the following modifications:

  • For anyone with wealth (not income) totaling more than $1 billion, all current income – whether ordinary income or capital gains — shall be taxed 95%.  Call it the Gates / Buffet tax.
  • For anyone with wealth totaling more than $1 billion, no deductions shall be allowed against adjusted gross incomes.  Specifically, charitable deductions shall be made after-tax.  Sorry, Bill, but I want to see more of Buffet’s money going to the Feds instead of Gates Foundation … just like mine.
  • For all citizens, an estate can be sheltered by a maximum of $1 million of charitable gifts. Ditto the prior point. Confiscate Buffet’s estate and throw it into the gov’t grinder.

And, while we’re at it:

  • For all members of Congress (House & Senate) and all members of the Administration who report directly to the President, no income tax deductions shall be allowed and all income – regardless of source, type or amount – shall be taxed in its entirety at the highest marginal rate paid by any taxpayer. Let’s make the Congressional tax discussions a bit more personal.
  • For all retired members of Congress and any retired members of any Administration who reported directly to the President, all government pension and retirements benefits (including gov’t paid healthcare premiums) shall be taxed in its entirety – with no allowable deductions —  at the highest current marginal rate paid by any taxpayer. Let them ‘feel our pain’ everyday when they wake up

The above plans kill many birds with relatively few stones:

  1. Raises some dough for deficit reduction
  2. ‘Sensitizes’ our lawmakers.
  3. Potentially, gets Buffett to shut the blank up.

Win, win, win.

Is that a giant Quiznos toaster floating across the outfield grass?

November 29, 2010

TakeAway: Marketers are always looking for ways to increase consumers’ engagement with their brands.

Augmented reality technology offers a new way to do this.

But as Quiznos has learned, there are still some issues to be worked out.

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Excerpted from Fortune, “Augmented reality lacks bite for marketers,” by Kristina Grifantini, November 12, 2010

While enjoying a game at Yankee Stadium, you take out your smart phone and point its camera at the field. If the resulting image on your screen shows a giant Quiznos toaster floating above the grass, does that make you more inclined to go get a Quiznos sandwich? …

To users, augmented reality (AR) can seem like magic. When they hold up their phones to their surroundings, the program uses the phone’s camera, GPS, compass, and Web connection to superimpose digital images and information on an on-screen view. …

Though this technology has been around for a while, it has largely been confined to computers with webcams, or to special goggles and headsets. But with the exploding popularity of sensor-equipped smart phones, marketers are trying to use it to sell everything from lunch to concert tickets.

For the Denver-based Quiznos, the idea came about when the number of mobile users visiting its website skyrocketed from 20,000 to a million in a year. Tim Kraus, Quiznos’s interactive-marketing manager, wondered how he could turn those visits into additional real-life trips to one of the chain’s 5,000-plus stores. …

But since Quiznos launched the AR campaign in June, fewer than 2,000 people have user the layer, says Kraus, and he is unable to link the campaign to any increase in sales. Undaunted, he calls it an early-stage experiment to discover what works and what doesn’t. Aside from the fun and novelty factor, “there’s actually some utility in there,” he says. “I definitely think it’s a platform that’s going to grow.” …

This fall, Qualcomm released a software development kit that programmers can use to build vision-based AR applications for Android phones; the company expects commercial campaigns based on the technology to kick off next year. …

Edit by DMG

 

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Full Article
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/11/12/augmented-reality-lacks-bite-for-marketers/

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