HighEndBuzz

Thoughts on Home

Growing up as an Air Force brat means that you don't really have a home.  I was born in Germany, but the home I most relate to is Del City, Oklahoma.  I lived there when I was 12 until I left college in 91'(I went to OU in Norman).  I was just there for a vacation (strong word for what it really was) and must say I now remember why I left that place in the rear-view mirror.

Oklahoma (although I do love growing up there) is a complete shit-hole these days.  I don't remember it being like that, but as a kid you just don't see it the way it really is.  Now there are parts of OK that are really nice, Norman is one of them.  But visiting Del City was unusually disturbing.  There is trash everywhere and almost every other business is a pawn shop, liquor store, gun shop or express check-cashing operation. 

My father lives in Seattle now, but still has a house in that area.  I didn't expect him to have wifi since the house is never occupied, but usually you'd expect someone in the neighborhood to have some type of high speed I could "hack" into.  Nope, we're talking 3rd world.  Additionally, the closest Starbucks was miles and miles away.

I know that living in Minnesota warps my perspective on most other places, with our clean streets, nice neighborhoods, low crime and moderate summer weather, but even my friends that still live there think it's a complete shit-hole these days.  What's happening to that part of the country?

Did I mention it was "hotter than hell"?

Engineers Vs. Stadiums

I posted this on another blog and thought I would re-post it here.

I'm an angry American.  I'm can't stand the Democrats and I'm really pissed at the Republicans. 

The problem in our country is political grid-lock and Football Stadiums.  Now I love football, I live for football season.  Football is the greatest sport of all time.  At 6'4, 265, I've played my share of football.  But WTF are we doing building stadiums with tax payer money when our education system in this country is at the bottom rung of developed nations. 

I attended the Minnesota High Tech Association's spring event in Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago and heard some news about education in our country that should bring a chill to your spine. 

We suck. 

Last year we graduated about 60,000 engineers and scientists (many of them of foreign origin).  China graduated 350,000 last year. Furthermore, they're in year 3 of a plan to do 350k/year for the next 15 years.  The socialists in the EU graduated 120,000.  Isn't it fun to make jokes about the education system in your state compared to Mississippi or Louisiana?  New flash, we are Mississippi.  By removing competition, we've put ourselves right in the heart of Dixie (no offense to those who live there, just trying to make a point).

To add insult to injury, we're digging into the taxpayers pockets to build not one, but three new stadiums (Vikings, Gophers, Twins) in Minnesota.  Look how far our priorities have fallen.  Now I know education isn't black and white; we do spend close to $7k/student on education in our state, but are we spending it in the right areas?  Why don't we pay teachers six figures to teach our children; wouldn't that attract the best?  Just because you live in a great zip code doesn't mean your children are getting the right education.  Parental apathy is at an all time high.  You're doing nothing about your legislature spending your tax dollars to build a new stadium while our kids fall further and further behind.  SHAME ON YOU US ALL.

The final nail in the coffin comes form our elected politicians who ADMIT we have a problem.  All we get from those guys is "We're coming up with a comprehensive plan, blah blah blah..."  If it's a problem, DO SOMETHING NEXT SCHOOL YEAR, NOT NEXT GENERATION!!!

China and India aren't waiting around for our gridlocked politicians to "come up with a plan", they're acting.  Isn't it time we actually acted?

Home for the Holidays

I hope that everyone had a great holiday.  I just got through running some statistics on our site.  We're getting over 8000 readers/month on HighEndBuzz.com which is a major milestone.  About 20% of that traffic comes from reciprocal traffic sites like BlogExplosion, most of whom don't necessarily read the content, they simply wait 30 seconds and browse to the next site (but we do appreciate those that do read a bit and comment).

Our attempt at creating a consumer panel is going rather well and we do appreciate those of you who registered with us.  There is still room on the panel for those who wish to participate; and no, we're not giving away any XBox 360 for your opinions, sorry. (we had a laugh since we're not a for-profit organization; and Ad revenues only cover about 25% of the operating costs of this site). 

For 2006 I'd like to hear from you; what topics you'd like for us to cover?  We've had a lot of success and our review of the Razr phone caused a 25% spike in traffic via search engines.  I've received emails from people asking for more insight into the mobile phone markets as well as Internet Technologies and gaming. 

We plan on changing the very generic banner we have here over the next couple of days as we prepare for the 2006 launch of the site.  Have a safe week!

Now I've seen it all...Government becomes a Pimp.

I've got to admit that we're now living in the end of times.  It just has to be.  The Article states that anyone in Germany who is under 55 may lose their unemployment benefits if they're recruited and refuse work as a prostitute.  I really don't understand what's happening to morality in Germany and other European nations.  It's one thing to be a prostitute, it's quite another for a modern nation to potentially force people into prostitution.  This could be simply a case of "shock" reporting, but if this is truly the case in Germany, I'm really confused and saddened.