There was still an abundance of new equipment manufactured to use these frequencies on sound equipment sellers shelves in June when the new law went into effect and they continue to make their way into the hands of unsuspecting buyers.

Online auction sites like Ebay are full of these now illegal mics.  If you encounter one, you should notify Ebay, who has said they will remove the offending item.

The FCC ruling makes clear that the sale, manufacture or import of wireless mics operating in the 700 MHz range is now illegal.  If you have been sold one of these units at any time after January 15, 2010, you should return it to the seller for a full refund.  If the seller is not cooperative, you can report them to the FCC.

While you can expect that the FCC will deal swiftly and firmly with the offending vendor, that does not mean that the unsuspecting buyer of a 700 MHz mic is off the hook.  Even if you were not aware that it would be illegal to use the microphone you were sold, you are still subject to both criminal and civil actions if you continue to use the device.

Nobody should become a member of the “700 Club”.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  We offer “FCC-approved” wireless mics at BuyWirelessMic.com.

That prediction was that the FCC would let those major telco companies that had bought exclusive access to these frequencies do their own policing on this issue.

It seemed that it was time to look at this issue again, to see if there was any record of the FCC taking actions against wireless mic users.  A quick scan of enforcement-related “Field Notices” at the FCC web site did not turn up any actions related to wireless mic use.  I guess that that is not really surprising after only ten weeks.

I did turn up a document, however, that would seem to confirm my June prediction.  It is a form letter issued by Verizon Wireless (one of the companies now controlling the 700 MHz spectrum) that is being sent directly to wireless mic users who are considered to be in violation of the FCC ruling.

In the letter Verizon claims “exclusive” license to the 700 MHz spectrum and, thus, a right to “protection” against harmful interference that might be caused by wireless microophones.

Verizon then refers to a specific “violation” of the new law and demands that the recipient of the letter “immediately cease operations of such devices”.

In the final paragraph of the letter, Verizon Wireless refers the recipient of the letter directly to the FCC with any questions they may have.

What happens next?  Check back here, or better yet, let us know if you have actually received one of these letters.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  We offer FCC compliant wireless mics at buywirelessmic.com.

After several years of not being able to find our address (on a private road) in any of the online mapping software, there we were on Google Street View.  Apparently a Google mapping survey vehicle had visited our neighborhood, and there was a picture of our loading dock-uncut grass included-for all the world to see.

While Google Street View may be useful for businesses, say a delivery driver who is wondering which dock is ours, its indiscriminate use, regardless of the address being sought out, is troubling.  I don’t mind someone being able to identify my business address, I would prefer that not just anyone be able to identify which home driveway is mine and which is my neighbors’.

Of less concern in the privacy arena, but clearly of great interest to a business owner, is how unflattering the image Google chose to use was.  We have a very attractive building with a large landscaped front lawn fronting on a major US highway.  We take care in presenting a good face to the public and regret that Google chose to use a view of our facility that almost no one ever sees.

While we have no interest in manipulating accurate data that is in the public domain, we do feel that Google should take more care to present a balanced presentation of what their images really represent.

Here’s one of our favorite indicators. We call it the “PI” and it stand for pallet index.

Almost everything we sell arrives at our loading dock on wooden pallets-sometimes eight or ten a day.  They eat up valuable space and can be difficult to dispose of.  Until the beginning of the summer, we had to beg delivery drivers to take them back and even resorted several times to hauling them away and burning them.

For the last couple of months, they have been disappearing before our eyes.  Every time a driver shows up with a delivery, he seems to more than ready to take back a pallet and usually asks if we have any more.  If five or six have accumulated, his eyes really light up.

It seems that other stops on his route have a need (for the first time in months) for more pallets than they can get to ship their goods, and the driver is able to sell them our pallets when he makes a delivery.

This seems like a really positive sign to us.

Maybe it is time for MSNBC to add the “PI” to their list of leading economic indicators.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. What’s your favorite business health indicator?  Share it with our readers.

My Facebook page

Little did I know, these games (and others) are generating huge income for a company called Zynga.  Zynga develops incredibly popular social networking games and they make their money in an amazing way.

It appears that those who play the games are willing to pay real money for “virtual” goods.  That pink tractor my friend was bragging about having-it turns out she paid $3.50 for it.  Yes, the $3.50 was real, but the tractor is not.  Zynga needs no warehouses, no trucks and no maintenance facilities.  The pink tractor exists only on their servers and costs essentially nothing.  The bulk of their costs (minimal) are tied to the credit card transaction fee for the purchase.

This article in last week’s New York Times values Zynga at $4.5 billion dollars and estimates their annual revenues at $500 million, almost all of it from the sale of virtual goods.  The Times goes on the crown Zynga “the Google of Games”.

We sell real things, and the cost of warehousing, shipping and guaranteeing them is the majority of the cost of running our business.  If we could figure out a way to sell “virtual” gaffers tape, we could become the “Google of sticky stuff“.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Got an observation about social network gaming that you would like to share with our readers?  Let us know.

I recently went on a “round up” and moved all the domain registrations to a single registrar because it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with renewals.

I chose to use Godaddy.com because their pricing seemed a little lower and they offer hosting services as well.

Now I am reconsidering that decision.

Godaddy.com is the “hands down winner” of the contest for the “most characters per page contest” and they lead the competition by miles in the “most in-your-face upselling contest” as well.  It is impossible to complete any sort of transaction at their site without their making dozens of attempts to sell you more products and services, and completing any sort of complicated administrative tasks almost always requires a phone call.

There ought to be some way to turn off all the special offers, deals and contests and choose a simple menu option for the task you came there to get done.

It is past time for Godaddy.com to provide a simple-to-navigate option for customers who know why they came to the site.  We can save looking at the Danica Patrick pictures till later.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Got an alternative to Godaddy.com that you would like to share with our readers?  Let us know.

This article caught my eye in yesterday’s New York Times .  Matt Reynolds, an electrical engineering professor at Duke, is working on “self-powered” devices that use the radio waves all around us in the atmosphere to power electrical devices.  He has founded a company whose first product is a “beeper” built into a hard hat that can warn the wearer when he is too close to a piece of dangerous construction equipment.  The amazing thing about this beeper is it needs no external power source (no battery) because it is powered by radio waves.

Equipment on the job site transmits its location and when a wearer of the beeper-equipped hard hat gets too close, a warning buzzer lets him know to watch out.  Since the radio waves that provide power for the device are around all the time and free to anything that can utilize them,  this device has perpetual power-no battery change required-ever!

Radio waves are all around us in the atmosphere, produced by radio and tv towers, cell phone transmissions, Wi-Fi transmitters and lots of other sources.  Professor Reyonolds research and development allows harvesting of the the power from random waves without impacting those transmitted for a specific use.

Major companies like Intel have expressed an interest in this research and exploitation of  “random” waves has already proved that they can power some calculators and clocks, replacing a AAA battery.

Someday, your inability to “get that song out of your head” may be complicated by the fact that a radio wave powered device could actually be implanted in your head.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

The most recent (and our favorite) way to solve the issue involves something dear to my heart-gaffers tape.  It seems that much of the problem caused by how you hold the new iPhone can be solved by putting a small piece of  gaffers tape over the part of the external antenna where you might normally touch the phone.  This keeps your hand from interfering with the antenna transmission.  (CBS News video of this solution)

Naturally, we are intrigued by the fashion statement that your choice of gaffers tape to stick on your new $300.00 smart phone would make.  Pink for Pink.  Neon green for Al Green,  and, of course,  black for Steve Jobs.

I was pretty excited about this potential new market, until I realized that a single roll of gaffers tape would be enough to handle every iPhone in North America.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Got an iPhone 4.  How did you fix yours?

By the time you reach my age, changing batteries in the remote control (or anything else) usually starts with a search for my reading glasses.  If I can put the batteries in the wrong way, I will.

Microsoft (go figure?) has come up with a really elegant and practical solution for this problem.  They have designed a battery holder that has both a positive and a negative terminal.  This means that no matter how the battery is oriented, it will still work.  Genius.

All these combinations are possible

By using this

Microsoft’s Instaload system is compatible with AA, AAA, C, D and CR123 (all the major battery types used in multiples) and it will require only a minor redesign by any manufacturer of a battery powered device that wants to integrate it.

Surprisingly, Microsoft is making this design available under a royalty free  license so that any manufacturer can adopt it.

Maybe Microsoft has finally come up with a winner.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Seen a  good idea lately?  Share it with us.

I never cease to be amazed that a company will pay for an online add and then link the ad to a web page that has nothing to do with the product being advertised.  The ad link simply takes you to a “generic” home page for the company and then you must navigate the site  to locate what you originally were searching for.  After a couple of clicks you give up and go back to the original search page ready to click on some other ad.

An ad served up by a keyword search should take the searcher to a landing page that is specifically about the product for which they are searching.  Anything else is simply throwing the ad budget away.  You can’t necessarily control what pages Google or Yahoo will serve up in the free listings for search, but you can control the page that links to your ad.

Before spending any more money on keyword driven advertising, make sure that you serve up information relevant to  what is being searched for.  Dedicated landing pages are what keyword ads are all about.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

Thousands of churches, schools and entertainment venues have not yet replaced their 700 MHz equipment and may think that they don’t have to.  The common sentiment seems to be that the FCC doesn’t have the capacity to monitor local use all over the country, so individual users aren’t likely to be found out.

The point that these scofflaws are overlooking is that there is someone with much greater interest in their wireless mic use than the FCC and this will make enforcing the new law a whole lot easier.

The major telecommunications companies that paid billions for the right to exclusive use of this spectrum are the ones that are going to make the law work.  They can simply report trespassers to the FCC and then stand back and let the government do the dirty work.

Since companies like AT&T and Verizon have nationwide presence in thousands of communities, they will be able to quickly identify those users who operate now illegal 700MHz devices and force the FCC to take action.  Since the auction price was so high, those who now control access to this part of the broadcast spectrum will probably show little patience with those who don’t upgrade and replace their equipment.

Fines will be steep, particularly since the FCC can make a case that unauthorized use of these devices can potentially endanger the public.  One of the uses for the reallocated spectrum is for public safety broadcasts and wireless devices that potentially interfere with that sort of communication will have serious consequences.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  More information about this subject is at wirelessmic.net.

Their most recent adventure is building a duct tape bridge, a potentially death defying project.  The episode aired May 12 and you can watch it online.

While it’s unlikely that any viewer would actually build a duct tape bridge fifty feet up in  the air (it took over 200 rolls of tape), this high profile promotion of the strength of duct tape might lead someone to take on a less challenging but possibly just as dangerous project.

One of the many things that the show fails to point out is that there are many different strengths of duct tape and some of the tapes most easily obtained are the ones with the least strength (and the lowest cost).  Failure to understand what these specifications related to strength mean could make a project like one you see on television turn out with very different results if you do it yourself with the wrong tape.

As long time sellers of duct tape (25 years and counting), we are always happy to see this lowly product get good publicity.  We don’t, however, believe that all publicity is good publicity.  It’s one thing to make a prom dress from duct tape and quote another to trust your safety to a product you know only generically as “duct tape”.

This Mythbusters episode has generated some interesting discussion in the physics community (real science!) about duct tape.  If you’re interested in following up, click here.

If you’re interested in the different specifications that are used to measure and compare duct tapes, take a look at this.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Bringing duct tape to the masses since 1986!

The real  point I am hoping to make here is it seems almost as odd to me that a business might have only one web site.  We’ve got about twenty, and some days that hardly seems like enough.

With the cost of domain registration below $10 and offers left and right for “free” hosting, there is no reason to limit the way potential customers might stumble across your company.

Our strategy has been to take the different names of the products we sell and simply add the prefix “buy” in front of the name.  For example, we sell tape at buytape.com, batteries at buybattery.com, etc., but both domains link back to our primary domain.

Even with the scarcity of good domain names, combining something you sell or do with a “call to action” prefix or suffix can often generate a memorable domain name that is still unclaimed.  A  search at any number of domain registration websites can quickly help you define this technique.

A small but informative site that deals with only one component of your business can link back to your primary site in a way that leads prospects to where you would like them to end up.

These specialized content sites are very attractive to search engines as well, so you might be able to gain an advantage over your competition by addressing a very narrow niche.

Next time someone asks you if your business has a website, tell them “No, we don’t have a website.  We’ve got a dozen!”.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Got a good web development strategy?  Share it with us.

Wireless intercom, ” in ear” wireless monitors (IEM,s), wireless instrument transmitters and IFB’s (interupptable feedback units), all have been designed and marketed for operation in the 800 MHz frequency range. They will all be impacted and will have to be replaced, even though they are not specifically listed in the FCC ruling, if they transmit on the newly restricted frequencies.

The technology that makes UHF wireless mics possible has found lots of other uses within the entertainment production industry.  The stage performer with a wireless mic in hand is likely to also be wearing a set of wireless in-ear monitors which may well be also operating in the 800MHz  range.  The same goes for a guitar player using a wireless rig.  He may well have a wireless mic, in-ear monitors and a wireless instrument transmitter in use all at the same time.

Wireless intercom has allowed technicians to roam production spaces without being tethered to a cable.  The most popular systems now in use operate in the same frequency range as wireless microphones.

Finally IFB’s (the small ear pieces you see in a television anchor’s ear) are also impacted.  These devices allow the director or producer to speak directly to on-air talent.  In order to allow the weatherman to move about the tv set freely, these devices need to be wireless.

If you use any of these devices, you’ll need to check the frequencies (it should be stamped directly on the transmitter and receiver).   You may well be replacing more than just your  wireless mics.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Join our discussion on wireless mic issues here.

Net neutrality is the concept that says all traffic should move across the internet at the same speed and that those who actually own the networks (the large telcom companies in most cases)  should not be able to favor one sort of traffic over another .  The internet service providers in this case (AT&T and Comcast) argued that they should be able to slow down the movement of large files when network speed was impeded.  The court agreed with them, essentially telling the FCC that it had no power to regulate the internet.

Now,  I’m no fan of large telecom companies (particularly AT&T) but I have to admit that their argument resonates with me.  Those who argued (unsuccessfully) that the federal government should exercise control over data movement are ignoring a long standing precedent related to one of the most highly regulated infrastructures in the country.

I’m talking about highways.

I used to own a fleet of trucks and once a year I dutifully wrote a really big check to register my vehicles with the state dept. of transportation.  The cost of registering each vehicle was based on its weight, the theory being “the bigger the truck the more wear and tear there is to highways and bridges”.  I paid another tax every time I bought fuel-larger trucks burned more diesel fuel and thus paid more of a tax called “highway use”.

The FCC’s argument seemed to say that the telecoms should not be able to do something that federal and state government had been doing for decades.

It would seem that this argument deserves consideration in the net neutrality discussion.  The government does not actually own the internet infrastructure, but the argument still is relevant.  Those who make the most of the internet-transferring the largest files and the most data-would be charged the most.

The owners of the internet infrastructure don’t want to regulate what is actually being transmitted.  What they really want to be able to do is charge more to those who use their infrastructure the most.

It’s an argument worth considering.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

Companies like Microsoft and Google have paid billions in auctions to be able to control spectrum once used by wireless microphones and many believe that they will make their billions (and much more) back by being able to take advantage of this government mandated monopoly.

Little has been said about another windfall.  That is sales that will go to wireless mic manufacturers.  An article buried in the back pages of FOH Magazine about sound for Cirque du Soleil shows caught my eye.  Dave Stephens, a sound engineer for one of Cirque’s Las Vegas shows dropped the fact that the MGM Grand had spend $140,000.00 in order to replace their 700 mHZ wireless microphone equipment.  That’s just one entertainment center in one city.  Admittedly, the Grand is a major facility, but there are hundreds more of comparable size and complexity around the country and hundreds of thousands of churches, theatres,  schools and entertainers that will also be replacing their mics.

In theory, all of this activity needs to take place in the next three months in order to meet the FCC deadline.  While that will surely not happen, it is reasonable to assume that the majority of this “soon to be illegal” equipment will eventually be replaced, reaping multi-million dollar sales for companies like Shure and Sennheiser.

It’s a good time to be a manufacturer of wireless mics!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

I reference this story as an introduction to one of the most vexing, but easily solvable problems I face every day.  We make an effort to make sure customers and reach us on the phone, even though we are a web based business, and we usually prefer to conduct transactions online.  Still, we’ve had the same toll free phone number for 25 years and try to insure that it is answered by the third ring.

More and more, the caller on the other end of the line is a non-native English speaker and this usually means trouble.  We deal in some fairly technical issues (product specs, tracking info, etc.) and language barriers can be a real problem.  We’re a small business and, do date, no one in our shop is fluent in any other languages.  Sometimes the confusion is humorous, but usually it is just frustrating-on both ends of the line.

In just about every case the problem, or inquiry, could be much more easily resolved if the customer would go to the web rather than the phone.  In most cases, the answer to their question is readily available on one of our thousands of web pages.  If not, our email address and contact form are easy to find.

Best of all, new translation software from Google means that the inquiry doesn’t even need to be posted in English. An inquiry in Spanish about a “micrófono se encuentra” can quickly be translated to “microphone stand” and a term like UPS tracking number becomes “Número de rastreo de UPS” with a couple of key strokes.  It’s almost like having an international customer service department.

We’ll continue to prominently publish our toll free phone numbers and cheerfully answer the phone, but if you want the best customer service we can offer, then you’ll be happiest by sticking to the web.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Tell us how you use online translation services.

Today  Seth’s posting deals with how a business can keep prices down by having a customer do some of the work.  This is what internet pricing is all about.  When we are able to get you to do most of the time consuming work in setting up an account (read-data entry) and processing payments (read-credit card authorization), then there are savings that can be applied to our pricing.  A more direct  route between us and our customers means a more efficient operation. Thus, a narrower profit margin is acceptable.  No need for a middle man to do any hand holding on either side of the transaction.

We get the same phone call almost every day (different caller-same script).  It always starts out “ I found you on the internet.”  “We are a reseller and I was wondering if you have reseller pricing?“  I patiently try to explain that we do have scaled pricing, but it is based on how much you buy, not who you are.  It’s not like you found us on some sort of “secret” internet.  If you found us online, then so can your customer.

By asking for “reseller pricing” you are asking me to pay you to do work that I have already done-making our company easy to find by anyone who might need our products.

Unless you can convince me that by selling through you that some sort of value is added for the end user, then we will continue to do all we can to avoid the middle man.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

The city of Wilmington, NC will use frequencies within this part of the broadcast spectrum to operate wireless surveillance cameras and environmental sensors in what city officials are calling a “smart city” deployment.

Wilmington has been on the leading edge of these developments before, being the first city to publicly experiment with high definition digital television broadcasts before this service was rolled out nationwide.

The FCC has issued what it is calling an “experimental license” which can be used while the final rules for using the newly available spectrum are worked out.

Here’s what Wilmington plans to do.

Their first use will be to transmit data from wireless traffic cameras in hopes of relieving congestion and reducing fuel consumption.

Second, Wilmington will install cameras in some city parks for surveillance.

Finally, the city will monitor and manage wetland areas in conjunction wit the EPA.

What might be most interesting is that commercial providers-primarily cell phone companies-can already provide all of these services through their data networks.

This sounds like it might just be an experimental “place holder” until major new players in the wireless  game like Google and Microsoft are ready to roll out new products since they are now clearing wireless mic users from the spectrum they purchased through auctions.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Join our discussion on wireless mic issues here.

I’ve been working on this idea for a while, but I need a little help.  It makes sense to me, but I can’t quite do the math.

There’s lots of talk these days about getting rid of the penny.  The government says that the cost of producing the one cent piece is more than the value of the coin and that the great majority pennies are in jars on dressers or in the sofa cushions.  Still, pennies continue to be produced by the millions.

One reason is pricing.  I have long believed in the power of a nine (e.g. $.99) in the pricing of items, making a customer subliminally believe that they are getting a bargain.  Its deeply ingrained in retail thinking and we use it ourselves on almost every product we sell.

Getting rid of the penny would mean a revolutionary new way of thinking about price.

How about this instead.

Get rid of the penny, but leave the nines (or whatever the number) in the price.  Every transaction would be rounded up or down to the nearest nickel.  A $.99 item would round up to a dollar when the transaction was completed, a $.91 or $.92 item would round down to $.90.  If the price was $.93 or $.96, you would pay $.95.

At the end of the day (or week, or month) I’m guessing that the total amount charged by a merchant, between rounding up and rounding down, would be almost, if not exactly, what would have been charged if the actual price was used, even after adding sales tax.

If this worked, current pricing psychology and pricing schema could remain in place, the books would balance, and that pesky penny would be a thing of the past.

Yes, I really thought of this myself.

Good idea, or no?  I’d love to hear from you.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

I practice at least a half hour every day, and the worst part of practicing, by far,  is playing with a metronome.  I’m ” tempo challenged” and this is no fun at all.

On Monday my metronome died (believe me, this blog is not a eulogy!) and  i realized pretty quickly that i would never get ready for my lesson without it.

I was ready to head for the mall, when I suddenly remembered “I have one in my pocket”.  A metronome?  Not exactly.  What I had was my Droid smart phone.  A quick search among free apps, and within less than a minute I had a new time keeper.  The cost?  $0.00.

Anybody who is in the business of designing and manufacturing small hand held devices has a really tough new challenge.  Are they going to be put out of business by cell phones.  Development of phones that do lots of other things is accelerating quickly and all sorts of device makers are impacted.

Students no longer buy or wear watches.  They use their phones?

Who needs a camera?  Some phones have zoom lens and 6 megapixel resolution?

GPS?  I wouldn’t want to invest in Garmin and Magellan stock.

Calculator or language translator?  If you’ve got a smart phone,  you’ve already got both.

This technology is even extending into areas with a very limited user base with applications like sound pressure level meters and digital remote controls for stage lighting systems.

I hate to admit it, but the monthly cost of my Verizon data plan is starting to seem like a bargain.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Got a favorite phone app?  Share it with us.

Taking on the problem of slow internet access that puts the US near the bottom of the world’s developed countries in internet speed could end up making Google a lot more wealthy and powerful than just online advertising ever could.

If Google is able to build and control the data delivery pipeline, then we have a clear historical example of what could happen next.  This is what broadcast television was about 70 years ago.  The moves that the three major tv networks made in controlling the airwaves gave them decades of exclusive control over the ability to deliver advertising to the entire country with little or no competition.

If or when Google builds and controls a data delivery system-particularly if it is better (read, faster) than what is currently in place, then the value of their advertising delivery capability to ad buyers will go through the roof.

If all you have to do in order to download a movie in minutes rather than hours is watch a couple of ads during the downlaod, then most people will happily watch those ads served up by Google while the download is going on.

If a doctor can stream 3D medical images at almost real time speed, then an ad from a pharmaceutical company being served up at the same time is, at worst, a minor annoyance.

Real time sports in high definition online?  I’ll click on the Budweiser ad.

Delivery of internet services by the telephone or cable companies is basically an “add on” that is burdened by infrastructure built for a very different purpose.  Their networks are already overloaded and their ability to expand has severe limitations.

When Google builds a network that shows consumers, advertisers and the government what really fast, open broadband networks can do, then they’ll have a choke hold on the ultimate ad delivery system.

Would I sit through a few sales pitches to have my internet speed increase by a factor of 10?  Can I have it now?

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

Pressure from manufacturers to control the price that online merchants charge for certain items mean that more and more web sites are no longer posting pricing with their items.

What may first look like an unwillingness of the seller to show you the price may actually be an effort on their part to keep the manufacturer from forcing them to charge a price dictated to them.

When you look at an item on a web site but can’t see the price until you “put it in your shopping cart“, it may be an effort on the merchant’s part to keep the manufacturer from easily seeing what price is being charged.  Because the price doesn’t appear with the item,  it won’t be indexed at popular shopping “bots” like Shopzilla and Pricegrabber, making it a lot harder for the manufacturer to control.

New interpretations of anti-trust law have given the manufacturers a lot more power in dictating prices to sellers.  Posting “lower than approved” pricing at a web site may violate advertising agreements.  This is likely why you can’t see the price until you add the item to a shopping cart.

This makes comparison shopping a whole lot tougher.

Periodically we are approached by manufacturers who would like us to sell their products, but negotiations always quickly end if they attempt to dictate the price we will charge our customers.  So called “MAP” pricing (minimum advertised pricing)does not come into play when we determine how to price what we sell to you.

We will always strive to give you the best price without regard to what the manufacturer thinks we should charge.  If we can take advantage of lower overhead and other efficiencies to offer you a better price than the competition, we are happy to share the savings.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Share your ideas on internet pricing with our readers.

If you’ve attended a major concert or other arena event recently, you realize that you can’t turn around without someone sticking their hand in  your pocket, even though you’ve already bought a ticket for the event.

Start with the ticket service fee.  You can’t buy a ticket without paying that, even if you purchase at the box office.

Next comes parking.  $7.00 is the going rate around here, and some tickets automatically add a parking surcharge to every ticket, regardless of how many patrons might share a ride.

Next comes concessions.  Mandatory purse and backpack checks assure that you won’t bring in so much as a bottle of water.  Once you’re inside, prices range from $4.00 up for a simple snack to as much as $11.00 for a beer.  If you’re covering the cost for a family of four, your out of pocket expenses can easily double the ticket price.

Ticketmaster and Live Nation share the credit for devising this system, and the Justice Department decisions means that it is now open season on event patrons.

By allowing these two companies to combine forces there is no longer any reason for one to try to gain a competitive advantage over the other by pricing tickets or add ons more competitively.

If you are concerned about this pending monopoly, you might find this web site interesting.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

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One of the justifications for kicking wireless mic users out of the neighborhood has been that opening up this part of the spectrum would lead to opportunities for entrepreneurs to develop new wireless technologies.

It’s fine to claim that you support entrepreneurs, but since the price bid for the 700 MHz spectrum was in excess of $19 billion dollars, we’re not talking about your garden variety start up.

Players like Google and Verizon were the real winners here and it’s unlikely that opportunities for real entrepreneurs are going to filter down from monsters like this.

The 700 MHz band may well see exciting next generation wireless services for both consumers and public agencies, but those developments won’t come from someone who simply has a good idea.  They’ll need a bag of money too!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Click here for unbeatable deals on Shure wireless microphones.

As more and more financial and other sensitive transactions migrate to the internet, the need for upgraded security at the user level is lagging dangerously behind.

Recent New York Times research identified about 30 passwords that tens of millions of users turn to over and over.  One of the most popular is “password”.

New tools available to hackers allow automated attacks incorporating the most popular passwords to break into supposedly secure accounts.  Increasing the pool of most popular choices from 30 to 5000 shows that a full 20% of internet users’ passwords are included.

Fast computers coupled with speedy networks give hackers the tools to go after thousands of accounts simultaneously.  Couple this capability with software that can automatically resubmit passwords over and over until access is gained, and the time consuming problem of cracking log ins is not longer an issue.

For secure passwords, always mix numbers, letters and characters and use both upper and lower case.  Use 12 character passwords to protect your most sensitive data and stay away from the most popular 30 choices.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Read about our security policy here.

As reported in the New York Times (Jan. 16, 2010), the FCC is standing behind the 2008 auction of this spectrum for new users, hoping to promote the development of “a whole new generation of wireless services”.

This version of the ruling essentially changes nothing regarding the intention of the FCC to no longer allow wireless mic use in this part of the UHF spectrum. It makes the date of June 12, 2010 the final deadline for theatres, concert tours, churches and entertainment venues to give up use of any wireless equipment operating in this band.

Fortunately, by putting off the final implementation of this new ruling (yet again) the Federal Communications Commission has given the users of unlicensed wireless mics (almost all users) the better part of two years to make the transition.

Major manufacturers, including Shure, have extended their rebate offers one more time, so there are still incentives available for those how have put off making the frequency change.

The title of the FCC’s official pronouncement on this issue is titled,

OPERATION OF WIRELESS MICROPHONES IN THE 700 MHZ BAND
IS PROHIBITED AFTER JUNE 12, 2010

There is not really much need for interpretation to that sort of language.

If you are interested in the specifics of this ruling directly from the FCC, you can read it here.

If you’re not sure if your wireless mics are covered by this ruling, you can consult the FCC’s official list of offending manufacturers models here.

There is more information regarding this transition at our web site wirelessmic.net.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Click here for unbeatable deals on Shure wireless microphones.

The XLR connector was first developed by James Cannon at ITT and was introduced to the audio market in 1958.  Amazingly, through all the changes in connector standards and component wiring, the XLR is still the audio standard for microphone and patch cables.

One reason for its long life is that the basics of the design, much like good computer software design, have moved into the public domain.  Anyone who has a better idea can bring their own version of the XLR connector to market.

A simple innovation developed by the Switchcraft company is an example of this design concept.

Cannon’s design for the XLR was for a round connector-a good idea since it fit well to a round cable and allowed the cable to be dragged along the floor without catching and tangling.  Cannon’s concept called for both round body connectors on the cable and a round body “chassis mount” connector-the mating female connector found on the equipment or multicable box that the cable connector mated with.

A simple innovation by Switchcraft-changing the body shape of the panel mount connector from round to rectangular-meant that more connectors could be mounted side-by-side in a confined space since they could now fit edge to edge.  You can see the value of that design change today by comparing a contemporary audio mixer to one built in the 1960′s or ’70′s.

Many minds contributing to the evolution of the XLR connector means that it will remain the audio industry standard for many years to come.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Our Hosa & MI cables use industry standard XLR connectors.

The new Nexus One cell phone was released earlier this month, but buyers, some whom have paid over $500.00 for the smartphones, find they are on their own if they have problems.

Not only does Google not provide a customer service phone number, they have announced that buyers should not expect to have emails answered for at least 48 hours.

This has the potential to give Google a real black eye before they even get started with their new hardware sales initiative.  A company with the profits and excess cash flow of Google would have had no problem in financing and developing a customer service operation to support the launch of the Nexus.

It’s hard to know if they were being arrogant, or just naive, but they would have had no difficulty in understanding what sort of customer support would be required to support a new cell phone.  Just visit a Verizon store.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

I’m always amazed at how much black magic is applied to the science of selling cables.  No one excels at this as well as Monster Cable, a manufacturer of high end cables marketed both to the pro and the home market.

Believe it or not, Monster sells a HDMI hi definition video cable for as much as $1000.00.  That’s not the price for the television.  Just the cable!

An article in Monday’s New York Times shed a little light on why Monster wires are so incredibly expensive.  Chalk it up (mark it up?)to a very special sort of high end marketing.

At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Monster sponsored an invitation-only concert featuring John Legend and Stevie Wonder.  A Monster party featured Dr. Dre and Diddy, along with Monster CEO  Noel Lee riding a Segway scooter trimmed in flames.

A Monster press conference featured Lady Gaga, who was in Las Vegas to introduce a new line of Monster headphones.

Talent like this doesn’t come cheap.

Study after study has shown that most of  Monster’s claims regarding the superiority of their cables is mostly hype.  One of our favorite  tests even compared their speaker cables to coat hanger wire and claimed to hear no difference in audio quality between the two.

Did I mention, the Las Vegas events were not for Monster customers, they were for Monster Cable dealers, the sellers who share in the astronomical markups sales of these cables genterate.  Those heaping plates of shrimp and the flowing champagne at the event hosted by Diddy and Dr. Dre were paid for by you,  if you’re a purchaser of Monster Cables.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.