Why California cannot get out of their fiscal hole...

The state of California has a governor whose balls seem to have fallen off-although to be fair after year of rampant steroid use they were probably non existent when he first took office, lol

Republicans in California "holding just 29 of 80 Assembly seats and 15 of 40 state Senate seats[...] have great power even though they are a distinct and declining minority in a heavily blue state. Why? Because of the two-thirds vote rule, GOP legislators can be pure to their principles. Living in a Proposition 13 world, the state Republican Party has little incentive to reach out to the moderates necessary to win a majority in the state house." 

Source: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1907506,00.html

This explains why California government is so dysfunctional it cannot pass a budget. Arnold for all his bluster is really a "girlie man" (the term Dana Carvey coined in SNL parodies.) Too afraid to challenge a (hopefully) soon to be extinct minority of partisan hacks.  He is neither tough (like his carefully constructed movie image) or a person who can get things done-the two claims he made against Gray Davis during the recall drive.  

So what is the difference between the two? About 18 billion dollars-the amount Arnold added to the California deficit (Source: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1907506,00.html)

He is in every sense of the word a "girlie man"  A pretend action star who believed his hype. It is a shame that a recall put a B-grade action star into the governors house. It is a greater shame that the state now has to rely on a pathetic 60 year old man with no balls,  growing man boobies and a botched botox job. He still has tons of one liners but California deserves more then that. How sad.

Another political post. sorry about that-I just had to get it off my chest. 

A bankrupt state-how depressing!

Are you also ashamed that the State of California is bankrupt! I feel bad for everyone that is suffering because the rules to get a budget or bill passed are so asinine it's a joke. There is no way 2/3 of politicians will agree on anything-particularly if there is no incentive for the 1 or 2 state senators that seem to never say yes dig in deep. They do not care. I doubt our governor cares either. It is like he is playing a game of chicken-but if no one backs down he WILL be exposed as the most UNQUALIFIED governor in the U.S.-that is saying a lot considering some of the hacks that are Governors now (Jindal of Lousiana, Sanford of South Carolina anyone.) 

I find it a joke that Time once picked our California governor as one of the best in the U.S.-what the heck are they smoking! If anyone really thinks he is qualified to be governor-surprise California is bankrupt under his watch! I would be ashamed if I made California a laughing stock to the outside world-but I am not governor.  The whole situation stinks for all the people depending on the State for help-I feel particularly bad for California college students. They got the short end on this. I doubt many colleges accept IOU's in lieu of tuition.

Our governor took a huge dump on California and he DOES NOT take responsibility. He needs to grow a pair and stop being a spineless worm. Did the steroids cause his balls to drop off. lol Stand up to the 1 to 2 people in the Republican party who refuse to budge. If he does not he can add coward, to the list of unflattering things expressed by residents-maybe not in this area but judging from the TV demonstrations he is not a popular fellow.

Sorry for the off topic rant-but more people in Mountain View and surrounding areas should be speaking up-this affects everyone including us in Silicon Valley! If you do not express your opinion-nothing changes. This is not idealism but reality.  

Viva myabuy.com and god speed.

Getting screwed over in business-it happens but it still sucks

I have gotten screwed over a few times in my life. In business it is more acute because it involves losing money-not just pride or ego. Usually it has happened when I try to do things on the cheap-I am careful with my money-but being good with money and trying to get something done for much less usually produces toxic results.

I learned that crooks are everywhere-sometimes there difficult to and often they are shameless. Most have no discernible conscience-they are twisted greedy POS who tend to screw over all customers-not just you. A lot are found on sites that heavily promote outsourcing to cheap labor countries-although the U.S providers they list are not much better.  

Getting screwed over in business is not pleasant. It happens to the best and brightest. Many of these bastards have gotten the fraud down to an art form that their lies fool even the smartest individuals. 

Do not get down on yourself-even if payback is impossible (which in some cases it literally is) be sure to learn from the experience and spot the signs  I may list some of the nasty providers I have encountered in a later blog post but for now stay safe and don't let the many crooked bastards loitering online get you down.

-Peace from the Chief Myabuyer

The great western migration (aka why California economy is in deep doody!)

I noticed that there are a lot of people leaving California-not me personally- I just got here in 2008. But others are finding that life out West is not as prosperous as it once was. Perhaps it is because California (the 8th largest economy in the world) is bleeding red ink. What is most sickening is that the states b-rated actor/steroid abuser/body builder Governor (the man who rode into office due to a bogus recall and is leaving with his tail between his legs.) Many people I met here are counting the days till he leaves office in 2010. He cannot run again but even if he could I doubt anyone would vote for him. Why am I talking about the lame duck governor of California in this blog-because he is making the state poorer and that affects business everywhere-Mountain View and Silicon Valley is not immune. It affects me personally with his plan to impose higher sales tax (8.75%) while cutting benefits to everything else that matters in our day to day lives-healthcare, education, public services. I hate the 8.25% sales tax California has now-if they are gonna raise it should go to helping the economy and not to cover a lame duck governors bad mismanagement. 

Yes there is a reason why people are getting the hell out of California-cause the unemployment is over 10% and all Californians are about to pay more out of pocket and get less. People with less money to spend adversely affects business-all businesses including web, brick and mortar, service industry-everything. I know that the worse is yet to come for Silicon Valley (it is inevitable considering the sorry fiscal condition of the State) and when there is no more money to squeeze out of the few businesses and people that decided to stay-then "it" will really hit the fan. 

But regardless of what happens in Mountain View, Silicon Valley or California myabuy.com will prosper and survive. Being self funded I am used to doing more with less-and concentrating on making a better site rather then putting lipstick on a pig and hoping no one notices the difference. 

Till later my pretties:)

Chief myabuyer

Why Transparency Matters on the Web!

Why does transparency matter-ask investors of Madoff and Stanford. Why does transparency on the Web matter? Because as easy as it was for Madoff and Stanford to fool thousands of investors offline in ponzi schemes- the web makes bamboolzing regular folks like you and me a hell of a lot easier and cheaper.

Yet well known sites on the web (including a popular auction site I will not name to protect the not so innocent) are allowing thousands of mini-Madoffs to run roughshod on their site and cheat regular folks out of their hard earned money-and unlike Madoff and Stanford victims the chances of recovering anything later on is virtually nil. While nothing can guarantee that regular folks like you and me will never get screwed by an mini-Madoff or a copycat crook transparency makes a huge difference.

Had Madoff been forced to be more transparent the scheme would have been spotted fast and the victims would not be going through the utter hell they are experiencing trying to recover their money.

As Obama emphasized transparency makes a world of difference. It is a shame that many well known websites still chose to stick their head in the sand.

Stay safe my fellow Web Users:0)

Chief myabuyer

The danger of taking short cuts

I notice that a lot of businesses now more then ever are taking short cuts to make profits and meet "wall street" projections.  The buyer usually suffers. It can be as simple as the leading auction site being even more lax (if thats possible) on pirates and crooked con artists/businesses in order to collect final value fees and boost their bottom line, to tactically allowing people with bad intentions to exploit buyers that are facing difficult times, knowing that desperate people rarely spend the time to practice due diligence before dealing with a business selling and/or services.) 

It is scary to buy or trust many sources online-some questions I often ask is who are these people? are they trustworthy? Are they being paid to give "their opinion" on their experience with the business? Paying people to write "positive" things about a product, person, service, even government is common practice worldwide (including here in the U.S.) 

I am willing to bet that when myabuy.com about to be revamped and launched people used to crooked businesses and an utter lack of transparency will experience an utter breath of fresh air and start to ask the question-why the f**k am I settling for less from other sites. Why would I settle for low standards practiced by major auction sites, social networking sites that will readily let crooks, con men, and people with bad intentions run wild.

Now is not the time to settle-when you see the new and revamped myabuy.com (coming very soon) you will not have to anymore.

Till then stay safe and don't settle for less.

Peace!

Chief Myabuyer 

Mountain View, myabuy, and me!

I recently thought of moving myabuy from Mountain View to another city either in Silicon Valley or closer to San Francisco. But the more I think about it Mountain View is the best place to be in this economic climate. Google and Mountain View now have a symbiotic relationship-if Mountain View goes downhill and turns into a dangerous place filled with crack whores and gang bangers it negatively affects Google.  If Google starts to lose money this negatively affects Mountain View because they rely on Google to help build their city as the unofficial Silicon Valley headquarters. 

I am sticking to Mountain View. Google will not let Mountain View become a failed city/town filled with crime, crack whores and gang members. The cities surrounding Mountain View have no safeguard. 

Even if Silicon Valley is not perfect or filled with friendly, polite residents, the city of Mountain View is the creme of the non perfect crop- and that is worth something to me and myabuy.com.

Adios, ciao, domo, sawadee, sayonara from the Chief

Chief Myabuyer

Why do some people have trouble spelling myabuy.com?!!

I had a weird conversation with a lady in Mountain View when discussing my site myabuy.com. She misspelled the word myabuy by leaving out the letter "u". I wonder who in their right mind would name a site myaby? I mean there are some funny site names out there but myaby? That does not make sense. I fear that others will be just as silly and type myaby in the URL. I have no idea what myaby is but it is not affiliated with myabuy.com.  

That is a really annoying thing I am discovering on the web-domain squatters buying up names that sound similar to the real thing but with one or two mistyped letters-so when people type the name in URL even an accidental typo takes you to some domain parking POS garbage site that you would never choose to visit in a million years.

That is why the days of Adwords and sponsored search may be numbered. Because that sort of garbage is easy to do with adwords-buy a similar but slightly different domain name and direct all the users looking for the real site to the POS domain parking garbage one.

 Search engines make money off it, but us users end up cussing to ourselves asking why the f**k did I get directed to the POS domain parking garbage site. 

How does this make my life easier as a Internet user and consumer. It does not. The Internet was not meant to consist of POS domain parking garbage sites. No one benefits from the Internet becoming a wasteland for the domain parkers-who contribute nothing to the web except enriching the Adwords owners and the motley bottom feeders that are the domain parkers. Those that offer nothing of substance-call me old fashioned but if you have NOTHING To contribute online, don't waste my time setting up POS domain parking sites. 

I hate to think that the web is being clogged up by domain parking POS sites designed to confuse the hell out of any Internet user whose finger slips and is directed to a POS domain parking site. 

People and companies that own and profit off of domain parking are f%&king losers who deserve to have their website shut down-or at least incur fines for trying to screw Internet Users over. 

Now that I gave my 2 cents I await any comments-if anyone actually likes POS domain parking and thinks they benefit Internet Users feel free to send a rebuttal-I can always use fodder for my next blog post:)

Chief Myabuyer

Being Polite to get ahead in business and life!

I consider myself a very polite guy. Sometimes too polite for my own good. I get that from my Thai side of the family, where those who are not polite are seen in a bad light-and sometimes out casted. I know this is true for other Asian societies too. The non-polite men and women are the ones that are excluded from the social group.

Politeness is good for business-to a point. While a lot of times my politeness is out of habit-rather then due to the merit of the other party, it made me realize that politeness is bad when dealing with unscrupulous crooks-i.e. most of the early people I met while working on myabuy.com. The shittier ones I will not name here-but if you really want to know send me a comment and I will name names. 

Will my natural politeness help develop myabuy.com. I think it will-although it is tough to be polite to some of the rank jerk offs I have dealt with in the past. One such jerk off is an Indian outsourcing co. that I will not name here (I read in a recent article about the law firm suing a customer that gave them a bad review) whose owner is a grade A crook. He is the type of guy who gives outsourcing a bad name. I hate to generalize but people like him and his company deserve all the shit I plan to give them-all without having to worry about being sued for libel due to maintaining some form of politeness. It takes discipline but my experience dealing with crooks is that pursuing those that cheated you-while maintaining a polite disposition-pisses crooks off even more then just ripping into their guts and calling them all the bad names in the book (even though all are applicable.)

Politeness is hard to maintain and I keep you updated on whether my polite disposition will get me my money back from the crooked Indian outsourcing co. and the POS owner. If not I will burn them all to get the money his co. still owes me. My politeness has its limits after all:)

Best of luck and take care,

Chief-Myabuyer

www.myabuy.com

Why copy when you can lead?!

I always wonder how some sites succeed and some fail online. Friendster.com used to be the big network on the block. Myspace.com came later and overtook them, and Facebook.com came even later and has overtaken Myspace.com. The first mover advantage discussed in business textbooks does not seem to apply online. Neither Friendster, Myspace or facebook can claim they created some sort of one of a kind whiz application that is clearly superior to their predecessor. So how is that a site can be the king of the hill one day and nearly irrelevant the next.

When one site overtakes another and their features and functions are nearly the same it makes me wonder what happened. Do the people just decide that one network is not cool anymore and move on to the next. What determines the appeal of the new next big network compared to their predecessor. I wonder what happens when networks that market themselves as the cool college network or the place for hip new bands, become populated with older people, parents, teachers, professors, family friends, grandparents.  Does that become the beginning of the end of a social networks nexus? 

What happens to networks that have not figured out how to make money while they are at the peak of their popularity? Judging from history social networks come and go, rising from the peak of popularity to an also ran and if their lucky return back.  Are these social networks worth money-and to whom. If a lot of people are on a site but ignore the businesses' advertising does the business actually benefit or profit in the future. Do users resent the ads. How can the business be sustain itself  without tons of outside capital or a large buyout. In this recession finding either will be tougher then ever before. 

Hype over substance is what got us into this whole mess. Substance is what will drag us out of this mess. Substance, transparency and becoming a web portal for all users without hidden fees, and in an transparent environment is m dream. Myabuy.com will just how valuable tr

transparency and  content with substance can be.

Chief myabuyer.com;

Jocool (Joel)

Another cold day out in Mountain View...

Hi y'all,

Happy belated New Years! It's another cold day out in Mountain View, CA. I have not updated this blog in a while-sorry about that.

My first new years in Mountain View came and went... nothing special happened:(
Still single-this sort of sucks the more I think about it-but it does give me options. I try to see things in a different light-not being attached actually may help me as an entrepreneur. I can take chances that most sane guys-or those attached and responsible for a significant other will think twice about if not avoid it altogether. If I want to spend my money on my site myabuy.com-which I am doing now- I can do so with a clear conscious-knowing I do not have to justify the decision with my companion.

My site is why I will stay in Mountain View for the near future-I spent too much time, and tolerated too much shit to have a few unfriendly, socially retarded townies drive me out. Some locals may not respond to my saying hi or engaging in small talk-that is their problem. I am here for business-not to make friends, get a girl or be the life of the party. It would be nice if that happens-but I am not counting on it.

Well I hope everyone reading this had a happy new year! Peace out and stay savvy.

Your friendly neighborhood,

Myabuyer