ZaneGee.com

28September2004

New $50 Bill Begins Circulating

Posted by Zane under: News.

A new $50 bill with touches of red, blue and yellow hit the streets Tuesday and a new $10 bill is in the works. It would be the third greenback to get colorized to cut back on counterfeiting.

The new $50s soon will be showing up at banks, cash registers and wallets. Government officials used one of the new $50s on Tuesday morning to buy a $45 U.S. flag, which came in a box, at a shop in Union Station. Old $50 bills will continue to be accepted and recirculated until they wear out.

As for plans for the new $10 bill, Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first treasury secretary, is expected to stay on the front, with the Treasury Department remaining on the back, Thomas Ferguson, director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, said in an interview.

Various efforts have emerged to put former President Ronald Reagan on the nation’s currency, on the $10 bill or the $20 bill, or possibly the dime. However, thus far, they have gone nowhere.

The new $10 bill is expected to be unveiled this spring and put into circulation in fall 2005. That last time the note got a new look was in 2000, when Hamilton’s portrait became oversized and moved slightly off center.

“As with the $50 and the $20, there will be subtle background tones and tints. They will be different from those used on the other two so each of the notes will start to be even more distinctive and easier for people to differentiate quickly,” Ferguson said. He wouldn’t say what the colors on the new $10 would be.

Colors for the redesigned notes vary by denomination.

After the $10 makeover comes the $100 bill, the most counterfeited note outside the United States, Ferguson said. The $5 bill won’t get a new look, and neither will the $1 and $2 notes, he said.

A new $100 note was supposed to follow the new $50, but that changed because the bureau is considering additional security features for the $100 bill. A timetable for a new $100 bill hasn’t been set.

The colorizing project is part of a broader effort to make the bills harder to counterfeit, especially against the backdrop of readily available digital technology.

“We’ve been working closely in cooperation … with the manufacturers of ink jet printers, editing software, computer software in order to make it more difficult for people to be able to use that kind of technology to counterfeit,” Ferguson said. As part of that effort, certain technology also has been incorporated in the new $20s, $50s and eventually the new $10s, he said.

The $20 bill, the most counterfeited note in the United States, was the first to get extra color. Featuring touches of peach, blue and yellow, the new $20 went into circulation last fall.

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24September2004

Google Browser?

Posted by Zane under: News.

The Google franchise could be coming to a Web browser near you–if all the recent clues add up, that is.

Evidence is growing that may support rumors that the preeminent search company plans to introduce a Google-branded Web browser down the road. Among the clues are a domain-name registration, a patent application and several recent hires.

Since the search star’s $1.66 billion public offering, investors and industry watchers have speculated about new products that could help contribute to the company’s next billion dollars in revenue or help broaden its lucrative advertising network.

A Web browser that would meld Google search, Gmail free e-mail, Google’s Blogger Web publishing software and pop-up blocking technology could be a winner for the company, industry analysts say.

Backing this idea up, Google registered the Web address “gbrowser.com” on April 26, according to a record at the WhoIs domain-name database. Employees of the company have also recently filed a patent application for delivering ads to client-side applications, including a Web browser or browser plug-in.

In addition, Google has hired several technical staff with expertise in graphics, Javascript and Web browser development in recent months. Included in those ranks are Adam Bosworth, a former employee of BEA and Microsoft who helped create Internet Explorer; Joe Beda, a seven-year Microsoft veteran who’s worked on the software giant’s next-generation graphics engine, Avalon; and Joshua Bloch, a Sun Microsystems developer who has designed major enhancements to the Java programming language and application programming interfaces, or APIs.

In addition, the company recently hosted the Mozilla Developer Day at its Mountain View, Calif., campus. Mozilla develops an open-source browser to which Google engineers could contribute code as a way of introducing a Google-flavored Internet tool.

Suggesting that such a working partnership exists, a post to Mozilla’s Bugzilla system indicated that a bug report had been closed because it mimicked an earlier report. The bug, the post read, was “a duplicate of a private bug about working with Google. So closing this one,” according to the blog Deftone.com.

“Google is investing heavily in JavaScript-powered desktop-like Web apps like G-mail and Blogger. Google could use their JavaScript expertise to build Mozilla applications. Built-in blogging tools. Built-in Gmail tools. Built-in search tools,” one well-known blogger, Jason Kottke, wrote recently.

The browser could involve a “search pane that watches what you’re browsing and suggests related pages and search queries, or watches what you’re blogging and suggests related pages, news items, or emails you’ve written,” Kottke wrote earlier this week in a post that also noted Google’s gbrowser.com domain name registration.

A Google representative said the company has not announced any plans for a Web browser and that it does not comment on rumor and speculation.

The Mozilla Foundation expressed gratitude to Google for hosting its recent Mozilla developer day but declined to comment specifically on the recent flurry of blog posts speculating of the Google browser.

“To the extent that Google or any other company is starting to invest in the browser space, that’s good for users and it’s good for the Web,” said Bart Decrem, spokesman for the Mozilla Foundation.

Decrem warned against reading too much into bug reports posted to the foundation’s Bugzilla system, noting that it cataloged more than 1.2 million largely unregulated bug reports.

“Anybody that wants to can enter a bug that says whatever they want it to say,” Decrem said. “Someone could enter a bug saying Microsoft should use Gecko as its next rendering engine.”

To be sure, Google throws many technologies against the wall to see if they stick. Earlier this year, it introduced Gmail, a free Web-based e-mail service, and the Google Deskbar, a PC download that lets people search the Web without a browser. It has formulated shopping engine Froogle, search-inside-the-book service Google Print, and personalization tools.

Speculation is rampant that Google will eventually unveil an instant messaging application. Google has also been rumored to be working on a thin-client operating system that would compete with Microsoft in areas beyond search. Techies have even discussed the idea of Google becoming a file storage system.

“It’s brilliant marketing,” said Gary Price, a librarian and news editor at search-industry site Searchenginewatch.com. “They’re constantly putting themselves out there in news ways and reinforcing their brand. It gives them another place to potentially sell advertising.”

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23September2004

What’s In A Name?

Posted by Zane under: Personal.

So what’s in a name, especially one like Zane. Parenting.com says,

What, we wonder, would have happened if famed western writer Zane Grey had written under his real first name of Pearl? We certainly wouldn’t be looking at Zane as a viable name right now, since the author was pretty much solely responsible for this name’s cool western image. Zane is, in fact, a name that may be too cool, if you believe such a state is possible. Any Zane would certainly have to grapple with people’s expectations that he be sharp, sexy, and sophisticated in a way that a John or a George would not.

So, am I sharp, sexy, sophisticated, or even too cool? You be the judge of that. Oh and on a side note, I have twelve of Zane Grey’s western novels. Now, if that isn’t too cool I don’t know what is.

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22September2004

Interstate Bakeries Files For Bankruptcy

Posted by Zane under: News.

Interstate Bakeries Corp. filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday after struggling with more than $1.3 billion in debt and weak demand for bread products amid the popularity of low-carbohydrate diets.

The largest U.S. wholesale bakery, maker of Wonder bread and Hostess Twinkies, also accepted the resignation of James Elsesser as chairman and chief executive, according to the Chapter 11 filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City.

The company named Leo Benatar as nonexecutive chairman and Antonio Alvarez as chief executive, according to court papers. Alvarez is managing director of the turnaround firm Alvarez & Marsal, which was hired to assist Interstate in restructuring.

Interstate said it would seek court approval for a debtor-in-possession financing facility not to exceed $200 million.

The company said earlier this month its lenders had allowed additional borrowing on its revolving credit line but the facility required the company to file its fiscal 2004 financial statements by Sept. 26. The company’s fiscal year ended May 29.

Interstate has delayed filing its annual report twice because of uncertainty over its upcoming financial results and whether it will be in compliance with certain debt covenants during its fiscal year 2005.

Kansas City, Missouri-based Interstate, along with other food companies, has been hurt by decreased demand for bread and pastries due to the popularity of low-carbohydrate diets.

Furthermore, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission launched an accounting probe into the company in July, looking into how it set workers’ compensation and other reserves.

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21September2004

Inventories: Too Much Of A Good Thing

Posted by Zane under: News.

Automotive News reports that as of Sept. 1, U.S. inventories of passenger cars and light trucks climbed to 3.7 million units. That compares with 3.3 million vehicles a year ago, which means that 400,000 additional cars and trucks are sitting around in dealers’ lots and showrooms. I think the auto industry is courting disaster.

More From Jerry Flint One day manufacturers will be caught with those huge inventories–when business slumps or the cars won’t move no matter what the incentives. If it happens this fall then the 2005 model year will turn into a catastrophe because the dealers will spend all their time getting rid of the old stuff and the new models will die on the lot.

If it happens at the start of the new calendar year then there will be massive plant shutdowns this coming winter–January and February–which will sink the economy. I’ve seen these things happen.

Detroit’s inventories have been growing for several years because the domestic manufacturers like to run their factories full even if they aren’t retailing cars as fast as they can make them. In recent years the problem has been solved by December “blowout” sales. Lots of retailers use this word, but when a car company has a genuine blowout it means a monster sale–big rebates for customers, and big incentives for dealers and sales people. Companies will do almost anything to get those old cars off the lots.

Yes, the domestics are cutting back some production, but not much so far. Sales in September and October will tell the story. Even if Detroit gets by this year, the industry is on a dangerous road.

Those bloated inventories are a symptom of the problem: The U.S. manufacturers are continually losing ground to foreign nameplates but don’t want to shut plants to match their lower market share.

The conventional wisdom in the U.S. auto industry is that it is better to keep the plants open–and hope to hold onto market share–than it is to shut down a facility. High-seniority workers, which are in abundance in older U.S. auto factories, keep collecting pay and medical benefits even when permanently laid off. That is, until they become old enough to qualify for their pensions.

The current arrangement is particularly tough for General Motors. Thus it overproduces and then tries to push the sales with ever-growing incentives. GM is hoping that an ever-growing market will cover the problem until their cars and trucks get so much better that customers take more of them without so much cash on the table. But these days, the only thing that is growing for GM is inventories.

GM’s strategy has worked so far, but it’s no way to run a business. And the incentives have reached such a point that it’s hard to believe that they can go much higher.

Just look at some of the incentive numbers, furnished by Edmunds.com, an authority on the industry.

In the latest month the average sticker on a Cadillac DeVille was $54,193 but the net price was $42,211, a 22% difference. This means that the factory gives up that much in potential profit through rebates, dealer cash, or lease or interest rate subsidies. And buyers usually get additional discounts from the dealer.

A Ford Motor’s Explorer sticker averaged $33,881 but the net price was $25,745, a 24% difference, or $5,378 in various factory incentives. Those SUVs get harder to sell.

How do you get out of that? By building cars that, in the words of GM Vice Chairman Robert A. “Bob” Lutz, customers “gotta have.” Chrysler’s new 300 seems to be one of those models. A typical sticker for the Chrysler 300 last month was $32,345 versus a net price of $30,574. So Chrysler’s factor incentive was only 5%, or $1,219. And that deal expired.

In this market even the top-tier Japanese manufacturers are cutting their prices, but not as much. A Honda Accord has an average sticker $24,186 and a net of $21,589, or an 11% giveback worth $707 in factory incentives, says Edmunds.

The industry likes to count its stockpile in “days supply,” which measures the inventory for a model divided by the daily selling rate in the past month.

You get some amazing figures when you look at these supply figures: 316 days worth for the Chevy SSR, a $40,000-plus sports truck, which dealers hold for top dollar; 387 days for the Saab 9-2X (just put on sale); and 212 days for the Chrysler Crossfire. And at the other end there’s the Mini Cooper (owned by BMW), with an 8-day supply–700 cars in inventory–because everybody loves the Mini and they aren’t overproduced.

General Motors has 72 days of inventory as of Sept. 1; Ford, 76 days and Chrysler (without Mercedes-Benz), 74 days. The conventional wisdom is that a 60-day supply is fine. Personally, I’ve always thought that 60 days is too high. Toyota Motor is doing great with 32 days. Honda has 34 days.

What Detroit needs–and fast–are cars and trucks that are better in every way: looks, performance, handling, quality and fuel economy. In addition, it is time that capacity is brought into line with demand. This means closing more factories.

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