Don’t be a placenta
I’ve watched this video by former Oklahoman Gary Busey a couple of times, and I’m not sure whether he’s acting or if he really fancies himself an enterpreneur. There’s more at “Gary Busey on Business.” Frankly, I’ve been worried about the guy since his cracked his skull in a motorcycle accident in 1988.
Business Writer
Investment Capital: Oklahoma’s ‘grow your own’ solution
Oklahoma’s home grown solution to the lack of investment funding for state technology-based startups has received some national attention.
The August issue of Inc. Magazine spotlights the Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund, which is administered by i2E, the not-for-profit corporation that works closely with tech-based start-up companies through a contract with the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology.
From the magazine:
“In 2007, Oklahoma launched a $7 million seed fund, which is administered by i2E. The group won’t do any deals unless private angels or venture capitalists are also investing. And for those private investors, there’s an added bonus: i2E does a lot of the legwork by conducting due diligence and drawing up term sheets. Since the launch, i2E has invested $2.2 million in five companies, and that money has been met with another $10.2 million from private investors.”
The article goes on to describe how the seed fund investments “are helping to keep entrepreneurs close to home,” and uses Tulsa-based Emotion Media as an example. Emotion raised $750,000 from i2E and seven additional investors.
“Without the state program we wouldn’t be in Oklahoma today,” said Emotion’s Brian McMurray in the Inc. magazine article.
Click here to read the entire article on the i2E Web site.
Business Reporter
Google: 1 trillion served
We knew the Google was everywhere, but now we know just how big everywhere is — 1 trillion unique URLs.
From the official Google blog:
This graph of one trillion URLs is similar to a map made up of one trillion intersections. So multiple times every day, we do the computational equivalent of fully exploring every intersection of every road in the United States. Except it’d be a map about 50,000 times as big as the U.S., with 50,000 times as many roads and intersections.
However, if you weed out pages reserved by domain squatters, pornography and personal blogs that contain less than a dozen posts, the number drops significantly.
If your earnest and funny but unread blog is not among the 1 trillion indexed pages, you can enter it here.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Tele-scammers
I got an illegal telephone call this morning offering to help me with interest rates. The phone call started with a recording issuing a vague statement expressing concern about my credit card interest rates. Since I’m on the national and Oklahoma “Do Not Call” list, I followed through with the offer to talk to a live person.
The guy who picked up the phone immediately asked for my name and telephone number (hey, you called me, dude!) When I tried to tell him to remove me from their calling list and to complain that the company was illegally employing a prerecorded telemarketing message, I found I was talking into a dead phone.
Looks like I’m not the only one receiving the calls. I had no information about the company or the phone number that called me, or I would have reported it here.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Bank on it
Several recent bank failures have made many consumers nervous about their own banks. For the vast majority of depositors, there is little to fear.
FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair recently issued a good reminder of our protections for cash deposited in institutions covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
FDIC’s Depositor’s Bill of Rights
1. You have the right to automatic deposit insurance coverage when you open a deposit account at an FDIC-insured bank, with no additional cost or action on your part.
2. You have the right to separate FDIC insurance coverage for deposits held at different FDIC-insured banks.
3. You have the right to confirm that a bank is insured by using the FDIC’s Bank Find service (www2.fdic.gov/IDASP/main_bankfind.asp) or by calling the FDIC toll-free at 877-275-3342.
4. You have the right to deposit insurance coverage of $100,000 for your deposits at an FDIC-insured bank – up to $250,000 for your IRA deposits.
5. You have the right to deposit insurance coverage of more than $100,000 at a single bank when deposits are held in different “ownership categories,” such as a single, joint and trust accounts.
6. You have the right to confirm that your deposits are within the insurance limits by using the FDIC’s Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator and other online resources at www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits or by calling the FDIC at 877-275-3342.
7. You have the right to be informed when a financial product offered by your bank is not covered by FDIC insurance.
8. You have a right, if your bank fails, to prompt access to your insured deposits.
9. You have the right, if you are an uninsured depositor, to receive distributions from the receivership as the sale of assets permits.
10. You have the right to sleep well, knowing that since the creation of the FDIC 75 years ago, no depositor has ever lost one penny of insured deposits.
Oklahoma Banking Commissioner Mick Thompson this month issued a statement assuring state consumers that our banking system is not experiencing the ills of those in other regions.
“Oklahoma has not experienced a bank failure in 16 years and the industry in Oklahoma is well-capitalized and strong,” Thompson said.
If that doesn’t make you feel any better, here’s a list of “talking points” created by the Oklahoma Bankers Association for its members.
Finally, here’s Roger Beverage, chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Bankers Association, producing some of those talking points on camera.
sharedVideo(1674063080)
Business Writer
Early Apple retail store hours for 3G iPhone
The demand for the 3G iPhone is such that Apple Inc. is opening all of its retail stores beginning at 8 a.m. Monday through Saturday instead of the customary 10 a.m. opening. I checked the Penn Square store page on the Apple Web site and saw this message:
iPhone 3G HoursMonday through Saturday, we open early at 8:00 a.m. for iPhone 3G sales. Regular hours on Sunday.
Apparently demand for the 3G iPhone is such that lines are still forming outside many Apple retail stores, according to various reports I read Saturday.AT&T stores are also battling shortages and using what it calls “direct fulfillment” by which customers order the phone and have it delivered a few days later to the store.
Meanwhile, before you make the trip down to the mall early one morning next week, be sure to check the 3G iPhone availability Web site to see if it is in the store.
Thanks to Apple Insider and a site called “topmuffin” for the 3G iPhone information.
Business Reporter
Not in my backyard, or on my street
For every action there is a reaction, and never is that more true than with advances in technology.
For instance, wind turbines allow the ultimate renewable energy source — wind — to be captured and turned into electricity. The concept is great until it turns up in someone’s backyard or spoils their view from the living room window.
Suddenly, wind power isn’t so great.
Same goes for transmission lines that bring the electricity into heavily populated areas to power our lives. The not-in-my-backyard naysayers come out in full voice. It spoils their view. It hurts their property values. It’s dangerous. High-sulfur coal is a wonderful alternative.
Yada, yada, yada.
All of which leads me to the latest cry from the naysayers. This one is from a group called stopinternetpredators.org. Seems like a worthy cause.
However, from an e-mail that landed in my mailbox today, it appears that the main focus of stopinternetpredators.org is to stop Google from offering its Street View. That’s the Google mapping feature that offers a detailed, 360-degree look at property along thousands of streets and roads nationwide.
In a video linked from the e-mail, a spokeswoman speaks passionately about the dangers that lurk behind Street View because it allows online predators ways to scope out areas such as playgrounds, yards and bus stops where children congregate.
It’s sort of a chicken little syndrome long before any signs appear that the sky is falling. As far as I can tell, Street View has not been linked to any kidnappings or sexual assaults.
But the danger is there, aided by Google’s Street View, stopinternetpredators.org alleges. There is also a danger that falling space junk might crash on my house, too.
Jim Stafford
Business Reporter
Plastic panic
Americans are more likely to discuss their sex lives, their salary, weight, religious views and even the death of a loved one before they are willing to talk about their credit card debt.
Those are the findings of a poll conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media for CreditCards.com. More than eight out of 10 respondents said they are reluctant to talk about their credit card debts with someone they just met.
Here, in order, are the topics respondents said they would be somewhat or highly unlikely to discuss with a new acquaintance:
- Amount of credit card debt
- Your love life
- Your salary
- Your mortgage, rent payment
- Your health
- The death of a loved one
- Your weight
- Your religious views
- Your political views
- Your age
- Gas prices
- The weather
Nearly one-third of respondents said they carry a balance on their credit card, the survey showed.
These numbers aren’t all that surprising, but it’s unfortunate that many consumers have trouble controlling their credit card debt, which may be the most insidious form on consumer debt. If you have some extra money, such as that government stimulus check, use it to pay down your credit card debt. It’s the best return on your money available. Don’t be shopping for a stock or mutual fund if you’ve got credit card debt. Pay it off.
My question is: where the heck are these people who are reluctant to discuss gasoline prices and the weather? They seem to be clustered around these parts.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Thinking inside the box
The work cubicle is 40 years old this month. Anyone want to celebrate that?
Business Writer
Pickens on Iraq
Boone Pickens participates in his favorite weekend activity. (Photo courtesy of BoonePickens.com)
Boone Pickens never ducks a question. And Pickens, who has launched an all-out effort to promote wind energy and natural gas as primary energy sources, has been talking to the media a lot in recent days.
In a recent interview with The Hill, a Washington, D.C., publication that focuses on politics, Pickens provided some good copy. After noting that he intends to spend $58 million this year to promote his energy plan, Pickens gives some thoughts on Iraq.
We should never leave Iraq without a call on that oil. It should be made available to us at market price. I mean, we’ve earned that by the trillion dollars or whatever it is we’ve spent plus the fact that we lost 4,000 people.
And we should have a call on it. Did we go there for it? Hell, no, we didn’t go there for it. … This came up the other day. They said, “How would you suppose we do that?” I said, “When they push one of those documents in front on me and say, ‘We need another $100 million,’ ” I’d say, “Here’s one for you to sign.” That’s the way I’d go. Every time I sign one for them, I’d get somebody else to sign one that says we get a call on the oil. At market price, so they don’t lose any money.
Pickens also discounts speculation as a primary cause of surging oil prices. It’s simply supply and demand, he said.
Doesn’t have anything to do with it. You have 85 million barrels of oil available in the world, and demand is at 86.4. I don’t think that guy over in China paying $140 for oil is blaming Wall Street speculators for what’s happened to him.
Everybody tries to place the blame. And the blame is our own lack of leadership over the last 40 years on energy.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
