Archive for the ‘Business/Investment’ Category
Can the crooked ever be made straight?
Authenticity Some salesmen will use every devious trick in the book to get you to sign the dotted line and make their cold hearts dance ka-ching! They’ll imitate and fake their way through life, ignoring or brushing over the truth, sucking the life and light out of their victims with hyped up promises and weasel […]
OK, so it’s not a hopeless quest …
Filed here for the sake of completeness: Well done Sarah. It took 5 years and 257 complaints but the Commerce Commission have finally acted on NBO and all the spin off “businesses” operated by Shallendra Singh, Jitendra Singh and Sonia “All I ever did was work for him” Klair who just so happens to also […]
When ideas grow into serious money
A very worthwhile article/extract on the mid-early days of Facebook, an extract from an upcoming book… From this: Zuckerberg decided to relocate his company for the summer to the promised land of technology, Palo Alto. Searching Craigslist, he found a four-bedroom house to sublet as an office and bunkhouse, and persuaded roommate Dustin Moskovitz to […]
At last, some good news for the Blue Chip victims
The rather obvious injustice in this situation cried out for a remedy. Just what it will be remains to be seen. Many victims of the smooth-talking Blue Chip spruikers will never recover as it is. This will, I hope, send a message to those spruikers still operating (and their accomplices) that it ain’t over till […]
Spy cam detector? Ooh er.
Oh boy! What a bargain! 45% off! I had to laugh at the fine print … Note: While spy cameras do not have a standard protocol for data transfer they usually use a 2.4GHz RF signal. This detector will detect any 2.4GHz RF signal, even in instances where a spy cam may not be present. […]
Honesty in advertising — a rare and beautiful thing
Yes, I know, I spend a bit of time hassling spruikers (and others) for their hyperbolic marketing claims — like this from Mr ‘get-rich-quick’ himself Dean Letfus: After this week it’s “too late baby now it’s too late” to catch Shaun Stenning and I showing you how to generate genuine, sustainable cashflow fast. … Did […]
Lowlife con-artist uses internet to fleece Kiwis
Good riddance to this lowlife who, according to the NZ Herald this morning, came to this country as a visitor and scammed Kiwis using his ‘knowledge’ of how to pull confidence tricks over the internet: Rogers, who is in his late-30s, was sentenced this week in the Napier District Court to 17 months in jail […]
A glimpse of the future?
For geeks only: Charlie Stross expounds on his version of the future of computing — and it’s far more than the ‘death to PCs viva everything in the cloud’ mantra. He extrapolates from recent statements and events surrounding Apple … I’ve got a theory, and it’s this: Steve Jobs believes he’s gambling Apple’s future — […]
Powerpoint makes us stoopid
I’m not a big fan of overcomplicated, dense Powerpoint ‘presentations’. I’ve seen them used as a crutch and overladen with bullet points and too much type. Looks like other people have reached the same conclusion… Like an insurgency, PowerPoint has crept into the daily lives of military commanders and reached the level of near obsession. […]
Even more convergence
OK this is getting spooky. After Dilbert climbed into the G4 iPhone prototype theft, now Jon Stewart has also … “buying” for the sake of his commentary the idea that Apple has the Silicon Valley police SWAT team in its pocket. And coining the term ‘Appholes’. Zing! Watch the full 8 min video clip at […]
True or false doesn’t seem to matter to liars
This is a really good essay about dishonest argument — which is one of my bugbears, as we have discussed before. It’s about US politics, but many of the points apply to the business of selling as well. Salon’s Gene Lyons examines the tactics deceivers use — repeatedly telling bare-faced lies or claiming the exact opposite […]
‘If you tell a lie often enough you’ll start to believe it…’
More from Michael Lewis on the success of Dr Michael Burry… Includes this: [Big finance firms selling sub-prime instruments] create lots of risk. The only way you get that risk out there and get people to take it is to disguise it. So they got really good at disguising the risk and they got so […]
Lost or stolen part 2 …
Apropos this … Lost iPhone prototype spurs police probe Silicon Valley police are investigating what appears to be a lost Apple iPhone prototype purchased by a gadget blog, a transaction that may have violated criminal laws, a law enforcement official told CNET on Friday. Apple has spoken to local police about the incident and the […]
