Card sharps

A co-worker received a scare-mail purporting to list stores that will close by the end of the year, thereby making their outstanding gift cards worthless. She wanted to know if it was true whether all the stores listed were really going bankrupt.

My co-workers often ask me such questions because I often have a ready answer.

Well, I must admit to not having memorized the names of all the retailers that have already declared bankruptcy. And I surely won't venture, as the generator of the aforementioned e-mail message did, to predict the future.

The simple answer is this: A bunch of retailers have already declared bankruptcy. A bunch more are likely to follow before the year is over. The folks at Snopes have done way more research on the topic than I care to.

In the present economic climate, I refuse to guess which store's gift cards won't turn out to be worthless. Because were I to name Some Big-Box Store—one with great sales numbers and a seemingly solid balance sheet—surely it would be the next one to make headlines, dragged down by hitherto unknown investments in subprime mortgage derivatives.

I will say this: I'm intrigued by this CNN story about charitable gifts. Charity Navigator's Good Cards look like an especially pragmatic answer to the annual quandary about what to buy for people who, as one friend of mine put it, "don't need one more thing to dust."

Clever, yes. Genius ... maybe not

My previous post, on the efficiency of the Apple Store tech department, was premature.

Was my MacBook fixed in less time than promised? Yes. Was it fixed completely?

No.

When I retrieved it, the MacBook worked perfectly. But the bezel that connects the screen to the outer case was still separated, even though I had pointed out the problem to two people.

So I had to leave the MacBook at the store again.

When I picked it up the second time, all was well. Surprisingly, I was not charged for these repairs, despite my having told three people "I dropped it." Either droppage is covered under the warranty, or they gave me a freebie because it wasn't right the first time.

I only hit one other hitch with Apple's Geniuses. Since the MacBook had an all-new hard drive, the admin account was all-new also. Unfortunately, they didn't tell me what the admin password was, which made it impossible to install my applications.

Here are the instructions for resetting the admin password, if you ever need to.

Truth in advertising...or at least in nomenclature

In Star Trek, Scotty maintained his reputation as a miracle worker by multiplying his repair estimates by a factor of four.

I don’t know whether the folks at the Apple Store follow Mr. Scott’s advice, or if they just happen to be remarkably efficient. Regardless, they have a well-deserved reputation for great customer service.

I carried my broken MacBook—I had dropped it—into our local Apple Store at about 1 p.m. The next available appointment at the Genius Bar, my concierge told me, was at 5:54 p.m. I could take that appointment and come back, or I could wait in “accommodation” mode, the Apple equivalent of flying standby. If another customer missed an appointment, I would be seen. But that meant waiting around the store, and my to-do list was long.

So I opted for the “QuickDrop,” leaving the computer with the concierge rather than speaking with a technician myself. Within “24 to 48 hours,” she said, a technician would call me with a diagnosis.

That was fine and, frankly, what I expected. So I left the ’Book with her and went on to the grocery store.

At home, while I was still putting away the bread and milk, my phone rang. The Apple Store technician confirmed my hard drive had failed and needed replacing. I gave him the go-ahead.

Just a few hours later, while folding laundry, I got another call. The ’Book was fixed and ready to be picked up.

That call came in just a few minutes before the appointment time I was first offered by the concierge.

So an estimated time of “24 to 48 hours” to diagnose my computer resolved into less-than-five hours to completely finish the repair. The “QuickDrop” service is aptly named. If you’re ever in need of a Mac repair, I strongly recommend it.

Using the "R" word

Dennis P. Lockhart, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, addressing a business development conference in Palm Beach County today, said “Recent data indicate that the national economy is in recession.”

This is the first time I’ve seen anyone connected with the Fed make this admission.

The whole text of his speech is here.

Mind you, Lockhart is careful to point out that this is his view, and “not necessarily shared by my colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee.”

Still, he’s in a position to judge. And the official arbiter of recessions, the National Bureau of Economic Research, is famous for being extremely cautious about issuing such statements. For example, it didn’t announce the November 2001 trough until July of 2003.

What the Pickens

T. Boone Pickens met with American City Business Journals editors at their annual meeting this week. Pickens explained his plan for diversifying America's energy sources.

His opinion on the two major parties' presidential candidates is particularly interesting: "They do not know anything about energy."



Pickens spent an hour and a half with ACBJ's editors. As of this writing, two video excerpts have been posted. I anticipate more to come.

Mainstream media fails the electorate--again

Orson Scott Card handed out some harsh medicine to local dailies in this opinion piece:

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?

In which he accuses daily newspapers of bias in failing to cover Barack Obama's part in the run-up to the subprime mortgage crisis. An excerpt:

If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats -- including Barack Obama -- and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans -- then you are not journalists by any standard.

Card's point is cogent, and eloquently put.

But many in the media are equally guilty of a less obvious bias: As long as mainstream media outlets continue to pretend that the Big Two are the only parties in this country, they cripple the democratic process.

An informed electorate is one of the keys to a successful democracy. Traditionally, Americans have looked to the media to consolidate the vast amount of information available. But when journalists employ bias in the process, or when they ignore third-party candidates simply because those parties are statistically unlikely to win, they prove themselves unworthy of the task.

The City Club of Cleveland hosted a debate today between Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr, independent candidate Ralph Nader, and Constitution Party nominee Chuck Baldwin. C-Span recorded the debate for addition to its archives.

I'm glad someone is paying attention. Because when I checked the "Election" tab at Google news, the only mention I found of any of these gentlemen was in this AP story, which is about a poll, not the debate.

So far, the blogosphere is picking up the slack, if you can pick through the slag. While I was picking, I came across this article, which shows that 55 percent of likely voters felt Barr should be included in the presidential debates. But the commission that organizes the debates will only admit a candidate who has "a mathematical chance of winning a majority of Electoral College votes, and . . . at least 15% support in national public opinion polls before the debates."

Get this, though--younger respondents were more likely to say that third-party candidates should be included. Because of this, the parties--and the media--need to change their approaches.

The more the love-hate triangle between the Democrats and the media and the Republicans continues to follow the same worn-out plot, the more disaffected voters are going to look for someone telling a new story in a new way.

Do the clothes make the woman?

Or is it the other way around?

Everyone, it seems, is in a tizzy about the Republican Party having given Governor Palin a designer-clothing shopping spree so she would look appropriately vice-presidential on the campaign trail.

"What a waste!" They claim. "Wretched excess!"

Of course, you realize that if Governor Palin campaigned in her usual Wasilla togs, no one would praise her frugality and down-homedness.

"What a slouch!" They would howl. "Wretched stinginess!"

We like to pretend that we judge people, as Dr. King once said, on the content of their character.

Baloney. Americans judge by image more often than not.

And, as Senator Clinton and House Speaker Pelosi already learned, female politicians are much more likely than their male counterparts to be judged by their dress. Or pants, as the case may be.