Why no postings? The impact of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas ...

Tooth brushes next to semiconductors, home theater systems next to automatic embroidery machines, GPS navigation systems next to home automation systems, software next to intelligent plumbing fixtures, etc.

Every conceivable application of electronics to life was represented - and, yes, many were, you guessed it, designed and promoted by bozos.

However, the highest bozo rating must go to those who thought up theater systems for SUVs:

Is it a tribute to the human race that now, for a suitably princely sum, an SUV owner can indeed purchase and have installed a complete theater system - screens for each passenger, and, yes, complete Dolby 5.1 sound.

So, now we can be assured that SUVs will be out there, cruising along, with all people on board completely oblivious to their external surroundings. No doubt, given the increasing density of SUVs in the US, we can look forward to States curtailing the use of SUV-based theater systems as they did with cell phones.

Of course, cell phones generally serve a purpose (reaching out?) whereas what's the purpose of an SUV-based theater? What ever happened to watching the world go by, not to mention listening for other traffic?

The only thing more surreal than an SUV-based theater system was the fact that CES happened to be collocated in the same city as another fairly large trade show - the Adult Entertainment Industry show. Picture the CES-types mixing with the Adult Entertainment types, against the backdrop of Las Vegas Casino-land ...

It seems that a couple of years ago advertising paid for everything on the net, including online video news. This was fine - just the same as most (except for the US PBS and UK BBC services) televised news. No problem - we all knew what to expect.

Now, however, it seems that all online news services are going to either an overt or covert "subscription" model. Either you sign up for RealNetworks Real 1 (paid in some cases or free in others), or, you wind up needing to download the MSN Media Player from Microsoft and sign up for a Passport account (required for the MSN version of Windows Media Player ...).

So, the question is: where's the bozo?

With Real's solution, you wind up with client software that does its best to take over every media type on your desktop and then report back on what you are watching or listening too. Of course, you can turn that off, but you have to know how to do it - the default is "ownership by Real". Why? Why not have the default the most limited installation and leave control in the hands of the poor users?

Well, Microsoft has apparently decided to one up Real. Convincing entities like MSNBC - which used to have the best, freely available video news content in the US - to use MSN's Media Player is a real Trojan play. The Trojan is the Passport account - Microsoft's attempt to centralize user information (and therefore usage information).

Those who've already bowed into the MSN world have been encumbered by Passport for a few years now. Linking Passport to non-MSN specific content gives Microsoft a leg up on expanding into the user identity, demographic and content usage habits. Starting as a solution to the "one login username/password" problem and now potentially gives Microsoft a foot hold towards control and management of online user information.

Again, where's the bozo?

Could it be the folks that thought up this subscription linkage model for Real, now more insidiously implemented by Microsoft? Could it be the folks fighting for online privacy, who seem to ignore this growing and strategic area?

• Could it by the FCC, who controls the broadcast and telecommunication worlds but ignores this level of consumer information and channel access/management?
• Could it be all those people who either sue each other for monopolistic behavior or are sued by others for monopolistic behavior?

In the end, it is not the technology that is the monopolistic leverage point - it's just the obvious leverage point. It is the control of user access to information and communication services that is the strategic goal. Anyone out there paying attention to this, or is everyone still just concerned about pricing, market linkages for technology and market development funds spiffed out to extend technological advantage?

What after all is the purpose of technological advantage? Think for a moment what you get if you capture the username/password/online ID base for the world .... now that's a monopoly.

As Morpheus would say, "Wake up Neo ..."

An unexpected side effect of spending a week in Belize was the apparent lack of bozos. The people of Belize are refreshingly genuine, friendly and helpful. While there have been (and likely will be) many acts in Belize by various foreign interests that demonstrate a level of bozosity, the people are struggling to come to grips with managing their natural resources and establishing their unique place in the world.

A refreshing week of relief from bozodom!

Well, almost ... (bozos do, after all, by their very nature, get everywhere ...)

Of course, it was almost the last moment in the country - where the demands of the US meet the abilities of a small country without the wealth, infrastructure of the US. I'm talking, of course, of the Belizean equivalent of the TSA - airport "security" intended for the post 9-11 world of shrinking personal privacy and freedom that we unfortunately live in due to the acts of extremists (on both sides of the problem).

Not having large X-Ray and scanning equipment, Belize has instituted a hand search of ALL baggage - checked an unchecked.

(Unchecked, carry-on bags are also X-Rayed in the usual airport small X-Ray units ... though that seems more a formality than a serious undertaking in Belize ...)

So, each passenger checking in on a flight for the US (not for other countries) has her or his bags hand searched by one of only a couple of "searchers", looking very official in their crisp uniforms. (And it is very difficult to keep any cloth looking crisp in the Tropics ...) Ignoring the inefficiencies of creating such a pin-hole approach to passenger check-in, the "rigor" of the search is the most amazing thing:

Belize is a big scuba diving destination. That means most passengers arrive with clothes, souvenirs, cameras and LARGE BAGS OF DIVE GEAR. Now, dive gear includes regulators (values, rubber tubes, mouthpieces, gages, etc.), neoprene wet suits, electronic gear (i.e. dive computers), underwater camera housings, dive knives (with very sharp blades), etc.

That's a lot of stuff. And none of it is suspicious or could be used for "other purposes", right? Not!

It turns out that, even though Belize is not an Island, the searchers operate in "Island mode" - that is, not exactly with rigor. In particular, anything that looks (or more appropriately, smells) like dive gear is opened but not touched. The most time is spent looking at really suspicious things, i.e. clothes. Furthermore, Camera Bags are completely ignored!!

In this day of Digital connectivity and Digital images, almost everyone also has a laptop and, yes, in a move obviously designed to irk US TSA folks, laptops are completely ignored by the Belizians.

(Of course, it is a separate question as to why the US TSA folks require laptops to be removed from bags and X-Rayed separately, while other equally dense objects can be left in bags - an amazing example of bozo logic designed to inconvenience the majority of travelers ... but that's a separate topic.

And, while talking about separate topics: In a move clearly designed to placate any TSA types, there is a small sign at the carry-on X-Ray machine (there is only one) that asks people to "Please Remove Your Shoes". It is hand made and, if you ignore it, no one says anything. In fact, the people operating that part of the facility seem much more interests in social interaction with each other and their airport colleagues. Passengers are just the product flowing through the pipe, right?)

So, hats off to thinking about protecting the flying public, but, seriously, who's the bozo who instituted the "hand search" in Belize and obviously never bothered to do put in place quality control checks.

Bottom line: if you want to check, then check. Otherwise, skip it. All a poorly thought out and implemented system such as that found at Belize City International will do is delay the innocent and completely miss anything that the unsavory would decide to bring aboard. Top bozo marks to someone - and the bet is that the person behind this is not Belizean at all but, yes, you guessed it, an American involved in Airport security - a consultant!

Of course, this ignores the previously mentioned level of bozo reality here: these checks are apparently for US-bound flights only. It seems that the bozo-in-charge hasn't thought of someone hijacking a flight intended for a non-US destination and flying it to the US for some nefarious purpose. Of course, that would be breakthrough thinking: hijackers typically have taken planes away from the US ...

Bozos aren't noted for their ability to breakthrough - at least not in a positive way.

Anyone noticed one of the latest lawsuits out there? A well known company whose software installs itself without user permission (and usually without the user even knowing it has happened) on a user's system is suing another company for calling the software "spyware".

This is an extraordinary application of Habeas Bozonos: if you can't fool them, use lawyers and if you get away with it, you aren't the bozo anymore - everyone else is!

Seriously, if companies that stick their software on the systems of unsuspecting users and then gather information about those users don't want their products called "spyware", let's invent some new names that may be even more appropriate:

• SneakyWare - they who do this are sneaks
• StinkerWare - because their motivations stink
• SlimeWare - only slime would make a business out of other people's privacy
• PeeperWare - since that's what they so: peep at you
• PeepingTomWare - why not name them for the icon they resemble?
• InvasiveWare - they invade and ravage your privacy against your will (information rape?)
• ExposureWare - after all, what happens to your information then? it gets exposed ...
• ViolationWare - when they are done with you, you are truly violated
• SuckerWare - they suck up your information and try to make you into a sucker
• etc. etc.

Basically the people that produce this extremely intrusive and vile form of information gathering have no ethics. You'd think that they would know the alternatives to "spyware" already and that "spyware" would be the least innocuous of all names!

It takes time and it takes many people, but it is possible to strike back at pop up ads:

1. The ultimate solution is not to buy the product or service being so advertised.
2. To make (1) effective faster, simply let the product/service owner/seller know.
3. If you can't find an email address for (2) from the owner/seller's website, look for something like "Investor Relations" and send them a note - they LOVE to hear from the public!

Here's a safe process to use:

To let them know, go and get a second email account that you don't care about (use Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.). Send an email to the company who owns the product or service being advertised and tell them you won't do business with them because you are bothered by pop up ads advertising their products. Be polite but firm. Don't rant (too much).

Ultimately, if you threaten to hit them in the wallet like that, they will start contracting with Ad agencies and websites in a way that doesn't cause pop ups. At least one can hope that if they are hit over the head enough, they might notice. Otherwise, let's just let them "go out of business", OK?

A couple of things to note:

1. Don't send email to the website that the pop up came from (unless it is the website for the company that owns the products or services). A 3rd party site likely doesn't have control over whether the advertisers are using pop ups.
2. Don't send email to the Ad agency (like doubleclick) because, frankly, they don't care what consumers say - if they did, we wouldn't have this problem! (And they'd be more effective which, ultimately in their business model, means they'd earn less money because they wouldn't get to charge their clients for as much time and rework to "improve the campaign", etc.) 
3. Don't use your regular email account unless you want to risk increasing spam to that account ...

The bottom line is that a pop up ad is annoying and it takes a bozo to continue to believe that an annoying thing will influence anyone to positively - i.e. make a buy decision.

However, since there are a lot of bozos in the chain that starts at a product/service company and winds through ad agencies, placement agencies, website operators, etc., the only way to get them to develop an understand of the real world is to be direct with them: tell them you won't buy!