Voting Democrat:
If caring about people carries a liberal label (say that fast 3 times) then I’m a liberal at heart. My ENT (ear, nose and throat doctor) started lecturing me about “those damn people who drain our economy” and how they need to “get off their asses” and “get off welfare”. Well the closet Republican in me agreed but the caring liberal didn’t care to hear that. I reminded him that he’s wealthy (not all docs are but I know he is) and that he lives in a prestigious neighborhood, comes from a good family and was probably force fed tons of opportunity as a young man. In contrast and since he mentioned “those” people, let’s look as someone who was less fortunate. Sure I could run through the million reasons why but frankly I’m too tired. We can start with money though. Unless you are a truly “special” person (and I don’t mean Olympics), it would be nearly impossible to break that cycle of poverty and lack of education without someone caring enough to lend a serious hand. If your parents are uneducated, you likely are too. If your parents have no morals, you will probably follow suit and so on. Kids are clay and we all know that. So again I could go on and on but I’m tired.

Point is, without social services we could have entire communities similar to those in India where masses are born with nothing, grow up with nothing, grow old with nothing and die with nothing. The circle of life at it’s finest ? Not so much for them I suppose. And BTW when I say “nothing”, that specifically includes opportunity. In all fairness I’m not suggesting that my doctor is an uncaring person, because I believe he is. He was a Vietnam Vet and performed over 800 face and neck surgeries in just one year in Vietnam which makes me grovel at his feet. But for some reason he doesn’t care about the unfortunates (not the bums) he was referring to. 

Closet Republican:
This one is easy… money.

I’ve got plenty of republican friends who vote straight republican party line for the wallet and nothing else. No regard for anything other than their own personal or business finances. As much as I hate to admin it, I like that too. Tax cuts for the rich make sense to me since they typically create jobs. Letting Wall Street execs rape people I disagree with. Zap their nuts with a taser all day long as far as I’m concerned but that’s an entirely different issue anyway. So if I create jobs and contribute to the economy, why not get some extra benefit from that aside from my paycheck? Cutting my taxes would allow me to hire more people, which in turn helps others, which makes me a liberal again.

Doh! Now I’m totally confused.

My definition of cloud computing is quite simple… It’s groups of servers working in tandem to provide a redundant, scalable and elastic platform which you can use to offer services via a web browser. There are plenty of people who would disagree with my definition but I don’t care because I’m one of those 100 people that I mentioned earlier. Now let me break it down in a bit more detail.

We’ll start with “groups of servers working together in tandem”…

When I say groups I don’t mean two, but rather cabinets full of rackmount servers. Lets say for example we have 1 cabinet with say 36 dual proc, quad core Dell PowerEdge servers with 32Gb or ram each. Let’s also say that we have a SAN w/16 TB of disk space. You can build a really nice cloud with that setup BTW. Since the current cloud hosting standard (and I use the term standard loosely) is based on how many instances you can squeeze out of a single server, let’s assume that number is 16 (although it could be considerably higher or lower depending on client requirements I would). I’ve arrived at that number by taking the 2 processors that I have on a single server, multiplying that by the 4 cores per processor and then multiplying that times 2, which gives 16. BTW I’m using very rough numbers and I’m leaving a lot of things out because this is intended to give you an example of how it works. So, we are left with 16 instances that can run on a single server. Based on that math if we multiply 16 instances by the 36 servers that we have in the cabinet, you have the capacity to provide 576 instances and. Since all clients are different and some require greater resources than others, you can rest assured that you will not have 576 identical instances running on this cloud. It’s more likely that you will have say 100 clients using the equivalent of 2 instances. Maybe 50 clients using the equivalent of 4 instances. Probably even some single clients using all of the resources of a single server and then of course at the bottom of the revenue-generating totem pole you have the guys who only want the least expensive option and they will get the tiniest slivers of available. Anyway you’d never want to sell all 576 instances on the server because then you would leave no room for clients to burst for additional CPU or memory requirements. I’m not going into the software and operating system side of this but let’s make the assumption that your server instances can be either Linux or Windows based. Now that we have the technical details out of the way, let’s move on to the basic concepts of server instances and how they’re created and moved around backed up and restored.

On to the “redundant” part of my definition that I mentioned earlier…
The coolest thing for me about cloud computing is that everything is virtualized and therefore virtual. I know that sounds dumb but bear with me as it requires further explanation. The hardest thing for most people to get past when they try to grapple with the concept of cloud computing is the fact that your server instance doesn’t physically exist, yet it looks feels and acts exactly like a physical server. When you reboot it you can access the BIOS just like a physical server. You can slam off the power to it just like a physical server. It can get hacked into oblivion just like a physical server. It can be backed up and restored just like a physical server (but that process is way better in the cloud).

Another great thing about this is the ease and speed of deployment. If you need 50 servers in 5 minutes, you can have 50 servers in 5 minutes. If you want to configure 1 server perfectly and then launch another similarly configured server, you can convert your server into a template and then spin up another instance based on that template. If your cloud is built properly you will most likely not use local storage. When I say local storage I am referring to the physical hard drives that typically live within the physical server that your particular website happens to live on. The reason it’s best to not do that is that you lose redundancy across the cloud. If you have an attached storage device and all of your server instances live on that device, physical servers simply connect to that storage device, grab the instances that they need and then they spin those puppies up. What this means for the average user is that if your instances are running on a particular server and that server happens to fail, your data is still intact because it lives elsewhere. And if the cloud is configured properly, available servers that have adequate amount of free resources will be notified automatically that a physical server failed and it will redirect other physical servers to lend a hand and spin up any instances that were left hanging. This is the auto healing feature of cloud computing has so many people sitting at the edge of their seat. Also if you have all of your data stored in one location it’s much easier to back that up and again if the cloud was built properly, you would have redundant storage or at least a storage device with lots of redundancy built into the chassis.

Now that we’ve learned how instances spin up and how they can be moved around, now let’s talk for a moment about how they are backed up and restored…
Unlike traditional backup systems that connect to your server, analyze the data that has to be moved and then they download the data either on a file by file basis or a block by block basis, cloud computing typically uses what is referred to as snapshots. Snapshots are essentially the equivalent of a photograph of your instance and its state at the moment that snapshot was taken. Snapshots are instantaneous, easy to archive and are fully functioning replicas of your server instances. The key thing to remember about that is the “fully functioning” part. What that means is that they don’t have to be restored, they just have to be booted up. There are people out there who would say “yeah that might be true but they have to be moved from the storage array back to the.. wait a minute, you said everything lives on the storage server, nevermind”. In a nutshell this essentially eliminates the need for time-consuming and often problematic server restores from backup devices. If your cloud is configured properly, you should be able to set snapshots to occur on a recurring monthly, weekly, daily and even hourly basis if needed. You can then select the number of instances that you want to retain and you just created a vast library of backups that you can access if needed. Another great thing about snapshots is that they are 1 ginormous file which makes them easy to move around and securely upload to an off-site location or even to your corporate headquarters for extra safe keeping. Of course, they should be encrypted because they could contain sensitive data.

Now let’s talk about the “scalable” & “elastic” part of my definition…
Scalability is quite easy with cloud computing because it’s typically something that you can do on-the-fly and from a web-based control panel. Unlike expanding the disk space on a dedicated server which requires taking the server down, transferring the data, swapping the drive, etc. Cloud Computing allows you to resize the drive from within the control panel in real-time. Depending on how the cloud is configured it might require a reboot but I would take that any day to double my disk space. Same thing with memory (RAM) because that is something that can be adjusted at the user level through a control panel and you can typically expand up to the available resources on the particular server node where your instances happen to live. But let’s take it a step further and make an assumption that for some reason you feel you need 24GB of RAM for your environment. It’s very unlikely that the physical server your instances would be living on would have 24 GB of available memory for you to utilize. However with a few clicks of a mouse on the control panel your instances could be transferred to a server node that has no other clients on it and just happens to have 32 GB of RAM. So yes it is very possible for a single server instance to have 24 or more GB of RAM. The only limitation that I’m aware of is the amount of physical RAM installed on the server node that your instance happens to live on in that particular moment. But again since all of your data lives on a separate storage device, it’s easy enough for the controllers to instruct a server node that has 32 gigs of RAM to spin up your instances thus providing you with this ridiculous amount of memory that you might need. CPU scaling works the same way so there’s no need for me to go into the gory details again. Bandwidth is a non-issue because most respectable providers have an over abundance of available bandwidth to provide to you.

I could literally go on all day about cloud computing because I am completely fascinated by the possibilities. Clients love it for the ease-of-use and power that it gives them over their environments. Providers love it because of the economies of scale and centralized management. As the clouds of the world mature, I believe that power users will begin to let their guard down and start dropping dedicated servers in droves to hop on the cloud. As long as you don’t take a significant performance hit by moving your application to cloud, the benefits of being on a properly configured cloud are astronomically lopsided when compared to a typical dedicated server environment.

Cloud computing has evolved past bleeding edge and some would say even passed cutting edge but like any emerging technology, there will be pain aplenty. You can mitigate your exposure by easing into it and testing the waters rather than taking your website to turns $1 million per month and yanking it from your perfectly stable dedicated servers and tossing it on the cloud. Rather I would recommend that you incrementally migrate your environment or better yet, build out a virtual development environment that mimics your current production environment. Since cloud instances can be purchased by the hour or by the month, the cost to do this is relatively low. Point is you can build a full-blown development environment that would cost you thousands and take potentially weeks to deploy, probably within a couple of hours while you sip on a latte in your home office. You could stress test this environment until you develop a level of confidence that would allow you to migrate into the cloud without sacrificing your peace of mind.

Thanks for reading this and I really do hope this was helpful.

Some people say Dallas “has no soul”, or that it’s “plastic fantastic”, but I say it’s a great place to live if you travel a lot. One thing I noticed right off the bat was that most women were blond, fake that is. Not that it’s a bad thing and I suppose if I were a woman with mousy brown hair or started to prematurely gray, I would consider hitting the peroxide bottle too. In fact the first joke I remember hearing in Dallas was.. What’s black and blond and black and blond and black and blond? A blond doing cartwheels.

Enough of that, on to the important stuff. Life here is actually pretty good. We have an over abundance of (deep breath) restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, clothing stores, liquor stores, car dealerships, bank after bank after bank after bank after bank after bank, tons of pawn shops, a bazillion car repair places, too many movies theaters, (3d, reg, drive-in, independent, etc..) at least a couple hundred sushi bars, tons of strip clubs, parks, lakes, walking and biking trails, way too many doggie day care centers, lot’s of airports, auto race tracks, sports teams, horse racing, massive arts community, the grassy knoll and way more Churches than you could ever imagine or want to see in one place. You could start your Sunday morning in a Baptist Church, walk to a Lutheran, Church, mosey on down to the Synagogue, skip over a block to the Mosque, drop by the Hindu temple on your way to the Vihara (Buddhist monastery) and wrap up at the 3rd Church of Christ Scientist (whatever that means) all within about one square mile. I’m not joking about that.. they don’t call this the bible belt for nothing and the lord giveth mightily to those willing to venture into the lucrative (and tax free) business of Religion.

Dallas is a great place for the workforce and for business. Texas has as massive economy, great airports, highways and rail systems so goods flow easily in and out. Tech is big here as well since space, bandwidth and electricity are plentiful and cheap. Dell is right down the highway, we have EDS, American Airlines and lots of other big Companies that call Dallas home.

Personally Dallas is a bit drab when it comes to things to do. Sure restaurants, movies, museums and the like are fun but if you want to get away for the weekend, you have to either get on a plane or drive at least (3) hours in any direction (but West) to find anything that does not resemble Dallas. It’s also hotter than hell in the Summer and it gets pretty cold in the winter. We had a full month a few years ago when the temp was over 100 degrees everyday with no rain. We’ve had (2) bouts of snow already this Winter and just saw 12.5″ which is a new record. In fact it was below freezing for at least (5) nights in a row. We can’t really complain though because having lived in NY, I know all too well how mild our Winters are in comparison.

One of my favorite things about Dallas is that I know my way around and I know lots of people. Even in a city of Millions, I find myself bumping into a friend or acquaintance at the market or movies or museum, etc. It’s also a great place to go for long walks if you have a dog (or even if you don’t) although I’m amazed at how may people prefer to sit on the couch when it’s nice outside. I’m not qualified to comment on traffic since I live less than 1mi from my office. That’s by design but I do know that any freeway here can and will become a parking lot at least once during a typical day (weekends included).

So there you have it. Dallas is a fairly new city, it’s mostly clean, fairly safe, nice roads for the most part, great to travel in and out of and most of all it’s economically stable with somewhat mild temperatures. I would have to give it a solid 7 out of 10.

Till next time ~ John

~

Am I the only person having issue with horrible reception on AT&T in the Dallas area? I think not, since pretty much everyone I know who uses an iPhone is having issues.

Let me preface this by saying that despite it’s obvious shortcomings, I still love my iPhone. However I dislike the reception & rates. Data is fast, stable and works well almost all of the time. Voice is bad to the extent that I can’t (this is not an exaggeration) get through a call without some garbled crud on the other end. I’ve obediently followed the upgrade path as mandated by Apple. Bought the iPhone 1st gen, thought it sucked as a communications device but great for everything else. Held out on the 3G since I suspected something else would be coming soon so I jumped on the 3GS 32GB version.  3G was a huge upgrade in data but the voice started having issues right away. Went to the Apple store and they gave me a new one (kudos to Apple) which quickly started having the same issue. Went back a week later and they told me to reset the network settings and even suggested I turn off 3G and use the “older more stable Edge network”. That didn’t go over too well so they suggested I wait for AT&T to upgrade the system since that would “resolve any issues”. Reluctantly I agree but should have taken that nerd to the mat and made him give up a new iPhone on the spot.

Fast forward (2) weeks.

Tuesday – September 29th, 2009
I’ve struggled with the reception non stop for the past 2 weeks and someone told me today that they had reception issues, get a new iPhone from the Apple store last week and it works perfectly. So my guess is that Apple is instructing their staff to keep the masses at bay with the “AT&T upgrade” spiel in hopes that AT&T will actually do an upgrade one day. My other guess is that the hardware has an issue on certain lots of iPhones (like mine) and getting a new one that was manufactured in a different Chinese factory by a different child, just might do the trick. So I plan to bum rush a mac guy tomorrow morning and not leave his side until I get a new iPhone.

I’ll update this post in a couple days after I’ve had a chance to use the new iPhone for a while.

~

Wednesday – September 30th, 2009
Quick update from the Apple store..

Currently waiting to speak with someone for almost an hour now at the Apple store and jumped on a demo MacBook Pro since they have Wifi here . Will update later to see what happens, but I’m sick of waiting.

~

Friday – October 2nd, 2009
Two days later I have been using my new iPhone with much lack of success. This tells me that that iPhone itself is probably OK but as I suspected, AT&T still sucks. So there you have it, AT&T sucks and my iPhone is jonesing for a new provider. Somewhere I read that Verizon is getting it soon so instead of hearing nothing on the other end you can hear, “can you hear me now” over and over.

My three suggestions
1. AT&T should stop spending money on crap like this and upgrade their network
2. Apple should offer the iPhone through multiple providers and create some much needed competition
3. If you have a real job, get a Blackberry. If you’re an unemployed person with money, get the iPhone

~

Update – Sunday October 4th, 2009
After having spent the weekend in College Station (about 200mi S/W of Dallas) I can confirm without a doubt that the problem is not the iPhone, it’s AT&T. While driving back to Dallas from College Station I had a 2.5 hour call with no drops, no static, no in and out audio and it was crystal clear the entire time. That is until I got within about 20 miles of downtown Dallas and then the reception was very poor and the calls dropped twice until I got home. Unlike North Dallas, South Dallas is very undeveloped and one of the first signs you see of urban sprawl is the downtown skyline. So you are in the country and suddenly you see downtown. Point is I would assume that as my call jumped from tower to tower in the country, they were likely not oversubscribed to death. However the towers that carried my call into Dallas were probably oversubscribed more than AOL in it’s heyday.

So it’s official, AT&T sucks and the iPhone does not.

Well I love Mexicans.. so much in fact that I married one and have a permanent crew of Mexican friends. My sister even has one and calls him “husband”.

Now on to this true and startling story about a well to do, ignorant racist. My wife is 100% Mexican of Spanish decent and a 1st generation American as well. She completed the citizenship process around 2000 and enjoys dual citizenship. We have lived in Dallas for nearly 15 years and our home is 2 blocks from Highland Park which is the self proclaimed Beverly Hills of Dallas. It’s embarrassing but we actually have magazines called “Envy” and “Image”, both of which apparently enjoy robust circulation if you can stomach that. Anyway we are dog owners and our dog enjoys at least 2 hours of walks per day which are usually in and around Highland Park. Traffic is low, sidewalks are wide, homes are HUGE and you better pickup after your dog or else.  It’s a nice, safe and clean place to take a dog for a walk.

More often that not you run into the same people over and over and oddly enough, you find yourself remembering the dogs name but not the owners.  So anyway on one of our marathon walks we met a nice lady name Unice and her husband. Her name was easy to remember because he husband said “yea, her name is Unice and it’s spelled u…nice, but she’s not very nice” followed by a penguin-esq (wah wah wah). They seemed nice nice enough and obviously were very wealthy. Within 2 minutes of the conversation she was bagging about how they take their private jet to Vail. Good for them I say, no jealousy here and I’m happy for their success. We talked for almost an hour before we finally managed to pry ourselves away. We ran into Unice many times after that and she always had a way of making you stick around when you really wanted to leave. If you don’t know what I mean then you probably have that same problem. She was fun to talk to but she would not stop and we eventually started avoiding her from time to time because our dog needed a good walk more than we needed to hear the latest local gossip.  We would run into Unice at the grocery store, see her in traffic or at a restaurant. Unice is in her mid to late 70′s and is attractive for an elderly woman. She claims to have been a Neiman Marcus model back in the day and always makes effort to fix her hair, makeup and all that stuff.

Well the other day my wife who co-owns a successful business, provides jobs for people, pays lots of taxes and contributes mightily to the growth and prosperity of this Country, ran into Unice while walking our dog. They exchanged pleasantries and then Unice proceeded to tear Obama a new one about how he was costing them so much money that they had to pump their oil wells faster since Obama already raised taxes on the rich. My wife reminded her that no taxes had been raised yet but Unice was not interested in hearing about facts since she already knew everything. She asked my wife who she voted for and she told her “Obama”. Unice seemed surprised and then asked where she was from and she said “Mexico”. She then turned to my wife and said “It’s people like you that are ruining everything. Why don’t you go back to your own fucking Country and leave us alone”. Then she turned to her dog and said “come on Coco, let’s go” and stormed off.  BTW her dog is named after Channel, hence the Coco part.  My wife was in shock but started tailing Unice asking her what she was talking about and saying things like “‘Unice, I’ve known you for years and we have spoken for hours and I can’t believe that you are judging me because of who I voted for and where I come from”. Unice turned around crying and said “I’m sorry honey but we are losing so much money” and my wife said “why are you losing money, Obama has not raised taxes yet”. She had no answer because she obviously has no idea how the system works. Then Unice went on to say “well you don’t have money so how would you know?” to which my wife responded “what makes you think we don’t have money, we have plenty of money , we pay plenty of taxes, we employ lots of people so what are you talking about?”.

This went back and forth for almost an hour and over the course of that hour my wife proceeded to respectfully tear Unice a new one without raising her voice, using profanity or being an ignorant racist. Of course Unice never stopped to think about the Mexicans who manicure her lawn, repair her homes, built her homes, cook her meals, wash her dishes, iron her clothes, wash her cars, wash her plane, sweep up her hair at the beauty shop and god knows what else those awful Mexicans are doing to ruin this poor woman’s life. Who do they think they are? My wife explained to her that migrant workers don’t come here to steal jobs, they come here because Americans are as willing as ever to exploit them with illegally low wages so they can cheat on their taxes and make more money. So who is really causing the problem here? If the contractors, restaurateurs and anyone else exploiting them would stop offering them jobs and pay their fair share of taxes like the rest of us, they would eventually have to go away or go through the system and become legal. It’s funny but American people really believe that Mexicans WANT to come here.. when in fact they don’t want to come here at all. Seriously, would YOU like to have to leave your Country, your family and your friends, be treated as a second class citizen, walk across the desert, risk arrest and deportation all because you need more money to provide for yourself and for your loved ones?

I’m as white as they come and with a name like Cunningham it should be a crime to be anything other than bleached white. That said, I too felt discriminated against and was really upset that my educated, cultured, beautiful and amazing wife was disrespected by an old, ignorant, racist republican. Especially one that we knew and had built a meaningless but long lasting relationship with. My wife’s friends were upset, her parents were angry, my friends were angry and now Unice has been demoted from nice white lady to an ignorant, old racist who has probably never even left the Country. Talk about judging a book by it’s cover, we judged her in a positive way and could not have been more wrong. Maybe it was my wifes light complexion, total lack of Spanish accent or the German car she was driving, but Unice could not have been more wrong when she judged her. Unice’s husband was right and she is “not very nice” so we are done with Unice and feel pity for the misery that fills her life each day as she walks alone around Highland park with only Coco to complain to.

Now when Unice and Coco are out walking, we cross the street before we get close enough to say hello. We have chosen not to associate or even exchange pleasantries with someone as ignorant as her. Hopefully as her generation dies off a more well educated group will replace them.

BTW, we stole Texas and pretty much the entire southern part of the Country from the Mexicans anyway.

There was an interesting moment when a Z06 in the session before us blew his engine on turn (6) and dumped all his oil onto the braking zone which is the area right before the turn where you are supposed to finish all of your braking (in a straight line) prior to entering the turn. My car was first on the grid and while we waited for (20) minutes as they mopped up the mess I got a little nervous when it became apparent to me that I would be the first car through the oil slick. My instructor said to “go right through it” so I would know what I was dealing with on the next lap. Great advice and as expected I took that braking zone a bit slower than normal. My car has been hitting about 110mph on the short straight into that braking zone but I started braking sooner and slowed it down a bit more and when I came upon that area I just saw what appeared to be baby power all over the track. As I entered the slick all I could see was a HUGE white cloud in all three mirrors and then I was in the turn, car stuck like glue and all was well. It was funny speaking later to the guy (Mark) who was right behind me as he recalled watching my car disappear into a white cloud having no idea what was on the other side. Better him than me I suppose.

My instructor was Steve Amos and he gave me high grades for control, aggression, speed, awareness and that I was the fastest car/driver in my run group. On the last day I had an issue with my brakes that forced me out for the rest of the day and required new rotors and pads on the front. Thank goodness for my bumper to bumper warranty and that the dealer I bought from understands that my car was made for the track and actually appreciates that I drop the hammer from time to time. Plans are to use racing fluid and racing pads for any future events and hone my braking skills to prolong my brakes.

The next event is July 11-12 and Eagles Canyon and I’m pumped about this one as I already know the track pretty well. My 2nd and 3rd track days took place here and my goal is to get solo status with Drivers Edge so I can do the Texas Motor Speedway night driving event on August 8th. (2) of my (4) tracks days have been solo so I hope and expect to get cleared for this and future events as a solo driver soon.

Here is my buddy Karl tearing it up in his Supercharged Cobra (my wife says it sounds like a mosquito)

Now back to the iPhone issue:
My wife has a 3G and I have a 3GS, she needed the 3.0 update so she could copy, paste and a few other cool new features. She uses a Sony Vaio and I use a MacBook Pro so everything works differently when you have an issue. So I connected her iPhone to her notebook, started up iTunes, clicked the update button and watched in awe as it took a digital dump. Not only did it render the phone useless, iTunes could not see the phone at all. I tried reinstalling iTunes, rebooting the PC, restarting the iPhone, reinstalling the USB drivers, tried two different USB cables, used msconfig to stop all services except for ituneshelper and qtask and nothing. Having tried everything I knew and after scouring Google for answers I quickly realized it was going to be a long day and that I was NOT the only person suffering from the dreaded 1604 error.

This left me with no alternative but to call AT&T because I assumed that Apple would be unreachable only (2) days after the release of a new iPhone and iPhone O/S.

611 is the number you call from your cel to get AT&T support so I called and started navigating the prompts until I heard “for Apple iPhone support press 1″. Then I took a deep breath, settled back into my chair, took a sip of water, closed my eyes and reluctantly pressed 1. To my amazement within a single ring I was greeted by a friendly voice who appeared to speak English as a first language. He was friendly, calm, helpful and determined to resolve my issue quickly. We ended up doing basic troubleshooting and he quickly understood that I had a clue and had done everything correctly up until this point. He eventually confessed that Apple had no resolution for this error but said there was a work around and all I had to do was restore the iPhone on a different computer  and my Mac happened to be in my lap at the time. He stayed on the line as I did a quick restore and then plugged the phone back into the PC so it could sync again. It worked flawlessly and I was grateful but sure wish that tip had been in the FAQ on apple.com. It does say “try a different computer” but it doesn’t say “restore to factory settings on another computer and then sync to your normal computer” which would have been clear enough for me to figure it out without calling in. Either way my blood was starting to boil as I navigated the voice mail prompts but it quickly cooled off when this Apple rep (yes he worked for Apple, not AT&T) took charge and led me to the promise land.

Way to go Apple for excellent customer service and thanks again for not forcing me to speak with four different people who all call me Mr. John.

Received a letter the other day from Republic stating that they have decided to not cancel my policy Not sure why but Kudos for them to nut up like that.

Synopsis:

They say never start a sentence with the word I so rather than “I own a..”, I started it with “They say never”.. which should be acceptable? Anyway I own a new high performance sports car and have already taken it to the race track (3) times for track day without incident. Track day is essentially non competitive, non timed, high performance driving events that are designed to allow you to learn about the capabilities of your car in a safe, controlled and highly supervised environment rather than on the Toll Road surrounded my soccer moms. It is not racing, there are no trophies at the end and nobody is being timed. So anyway I’m off to an event this weekend and asked my insurance Company “Republic Group” if my car was covered, big mistake! They said “we don’t know, but will get back to you”. Well they got back to me alright and told me “you would be covered for the event” but also said they “set the policy to non-renew due to increased exposure”. Let me repeat.. They told me “you would be covered for the event” but also said they “set the policy to non-renew due to increased exposure”. Maybe I didn’t mention this but I have (3) cars and own a home, all of which are insured through Republic Group.

This tells me several things about Republic Group and their policies.

1.
Like too many other Companies they only really care about making a buck. That’s fine however, happily taking my money year after year and then pulling the rug out from under me for being honest is just plain sucks. Read on for more on my point of view.

2.
They claim to offer “coverage to fit the needs of our customers” which could not be more untrue, at least for me.

3.
Customer retention is an alien concept as we’ve used them for at least (6) years with no auto claims. This seemed to never even occur to them and I was treated like crap throughout my discussions with them regarding this.

Aside from all that we are on auto debit with them so we have never been late on an insurance payment, have purchased additional coverage for home contents and have even recommended them to others. That ends today and the old adage “treat a customer right and they might tell a few people, treat them poorly and they will tell everyone” has been proven accurate yet again.

~

When I started this blog a week ago I caught myself being a critic and realized that it’s easy to criticize and difficult to offer sound suggestions. So I made a rule for myself to not complain about anything unless I offer up at least (3) suggestions for resolving the complaint, so here I go.

1. Be appreciative of your client base
This felt more like health insurance and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being processed according to a complex series of analytics which led them to arrive at their bullshit conclusion. Needless to say this left an awfully sour taste in my mouth. Not just for Republic Group but for insurance companies in general. I’ll write about health insurance soon enough but fear I’ll wear out my keyboard since they really are just an awful bunch of leeches. The notion that they can jettison me as a client because I asked a question about my coverage is stunning. That the car is covered but they still have chosen to fire me as a client is even more disturbing. I’ve done nothing wrong, my credit is perfect, income is good, marriage is very stable, no auto claims and have not been convicted of a speeding ticket, ever! So why the ejection? Maybe they fear that I might slide off the track and crash into a wall or another car. Or even worse that I might cause bodily injury and dismemberment to a fellow driver or myself? That’s a fair argument but how about offering up some options? Work for that money for a change I say. Now I’ve only done track events (4) times but even going well over 100mph I feel far safer than going 75mph on the Toll road surrounded by drunkards, texting teens and ultra aggressive truckers.

2. Use rational when making decisions (aka don’t be a chicken shit)
Who am I to tell them how to run their business? They appear successful and their CEO Parker Rush (see pic below) is probably a nice enough guy , but I look at him and wonder what he would say if sitting across from me right now. “Well Mr. Cunningham, you must understand that while we appreciate your patronage our primary responsibility lies with our shareholders, therefore we mitigate risk though careful statistical analysis and by crapping on clients when our stats tell us to”. Ok maybe not that last part but Parker Rush has no idea who I am and probably never will. Even if he did I’m just client X and I fully understand how that works. It’s not like we’re going to go grab a beer one day. But how someone with a name as cool as Parker Rush can allow a good, loyal client to get canceled just for calling to verify coverage is beyond me. Over the years I’ve paid them between $40-50k which is peanuts, but it’s still easy money. I’m what you would call “low hanging fruit”. If they could draw up a list of attributes for a dream client, my photograph would magically appear. I pay, pay, pay, pay, pay, never get tickets, call or make claims. What could be easier?

3. Offer solutions instead of dead ends
This is key to my argument but maybe I’m a simpleton. How about this as a response. “Mr. Cunningham, we see you are a loyal client and while we do not encourage these activities, they are covered. How about this, we can modify your coverage to make sure you have the coverage you need and so it makes sense for us as well? Because we want your business, but we also want you to be safe and fully covered regardless of which type of driving activities you participate in.” My reply might be, “hmm, sounds reasonable, tell me more” instead of feeling betrayed, lied too and disrespected. Perhaps I would choose to pay more money but I would still like them and would not be venting my frustrations in a public forum. Not in a million years will that happen because I suspect that Parker Rush will not only never see this, he might not care if he did.  Sure I could be wrong about him but those are my suspicions.

So there you have it. My insurance Company sucks and they’re giving me the shaft but hopefully anyone searching the web for auto insurance or home insurance might luckily stumble upon this article and reconsider. Lucky for them I’m not mean like this but I sure am angry and wish I had not given them a penny of my money.

Now off to the track!

Here are a few

1. Fire the unions
Unions are counter productive, they increase costs and cause disruption at every turn. If I could have run GM the first thing I would have done is tell the unions to take a hike and then offer fair paying jobs to their “members”. They claim to have fiercely loyal members but will the union offer them jobs? Hell no they won’t because all they do it leech and suck the life out of any industry they can. The concept and proposed benefits of union membership make sense on paper but it always seems to fail and nobody is happy with the end result. Their response.. my very own concrete shoes.

2. Stop making big, stupid cars
How about really committing to innovation for a change? Commit to alternative fuel sources, build with lighter materials, streamline operations, hire top notch designers and more importantly stop making crap.  Nobody wants a crappy car yet we keep buying them so again we are not helping. Why do all (OK, most) GM cars look so bland and Italian and German cars looks so nice? Can’t we learn anything from them instead of wallowing around in a sea of V8 monster trucks and 3 ton SUV’s?

3. Just start over again or do something else
Maybe GM is beyond repair. Just because they are huge doesn’t grant them a license to exist forever. Maybe the brand should be dissolved and just start over again with smarter, younger, more motivated people at the helm.  Complacency is cancer for business and GM looks like a giant tumor that has become so rotten that it can’t be saved. They could also just (my choice) lock the doors and say good bye. They would soon be forgotten just like Studebaker, Hudson Motor Car Company, The Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company or DeLorean Motor Company. How bad could that be?

After thinking about this it occurred to me that GM does do a few things right (see below)

And they still employ an awful lot of good, committed people so maybe they can turn it around. Just image a day when you could walk into a GM dealership and fully expect to be dazzled by the selection, design, engineering and culture of the brand. When I step into a Porsche dealership I’m confident that I’ll see beautiful cars whose performance and relative gas mileage are both stellar. When I walk into a GM dealership I can rest assured that with the exception of a few select models, the lineup will be uninspiring, dated and just plain boring. Maybe comparing a Porsche dealership to GM is not a fair fight, or is it?

A well equipped 2009 Hummer H2 is around $74,000 (from hummer.com)
6.2liter, 393hp, curb weight 6,613lbs, 0-60 in 8 sec, 10-12mpg average

A well equipped 2009 Porsche Cayenne GTS is around $72,000 (from porsche.com)
4.8 liter, 405hp, curb weight 4,762lbs, 0-60 in 5.6 sec, 13-18mpg average

So the Porsche has a smaller engine, more horse power, nearly 2,000 pounds lighter, WAY faster, gets better gas mileage and costs less (also looks better and fits in your garage) and has a HUGE advantage in resell value. So how is it that the Der Germans can make a better, faster, lighter, cheaper, greener, more valuable car yet pay their employees more than we do? See 1, 2, 3 above.

I’m obviously no economist or even qualified to speak intelligently about this but dropping “national pride” from the equation, why would you choose the GM over a higher quality, faster, greener, better looking and cheaper car? Anyone?

Almost forgot, GM is selling Hummer to some Chinese suckers so we finally we get to outsource some of our crap to them.

1. Instant stress release
Just imagine, you’re about to go postal and the office dog walks in with a huge smile, doesn’t judge you and even better, doesn’t have anything stupid say. All they want is a quick pat on the head and to be acknowledged.

2. An excuse to get outside for a few minutes
It’s therapeutic to take a good dog for a walk. I’m talking about the kind of good dog that doesn’t pull your arm out of the socket or bark at everything that moves. It’s good to clear the mind and people rarely “go for a walk” anyway so this will at least break the monotony.

3. No strings attached
You don’t have to commit to grab a beer later or act like your interested in what they have to say because they have nothing to say. It’s a mutual relationship with no strings attached and if it happens to be someone else’s dog, that might even be better for you because it’s truly a relationship of convenience. You both get what you want and you’re on your way. Rest assured that dog will not show up at your house one evening with a dozen roses in it’s paw.