Gadgets et al

It must be in the DNA of men that says we must have the coolest gadgets. Here are some of the gadgets I read about in Fortune magazine.

While on the subject of genetic codes, there is also a gene in men that gets us lost and makes us refuse to ask for directions. Well ladies, there is a new PDA (personal digital assistant) out there! It is called the Garmin iQue 3600 PDA. It is a GPS (Global Positioning System) powered mapping device. Not only can it tell you where you are, it can even suggest the right club to use in a golf game. It also doubles as an MP3 player and an e-book reader. (Sorry, it’s not available until May and prices could be in the $500 range.)

In the recent Consumer Electronics Show (the big boys’ toy fair) in Las Vegas, they launched a new cool gadget. It is called the Splash Pad. It can recharge your Splash-enabled wireless devices like cellphones, MP3 players and PDAs by just having your gadget lounge on it without any plugs – using inductive power transfer, and no wires, except for the main AC plug to the electrical outlet, and no more huge DC adaptor plugs.

Also at the show was a super wireless microphone called the UmeVoice, which looks like a regular Bluetooth headset. It uses the same technology that Wall Street traders use at the trading pits and by Black Hawk helicopter pilots. Using the UmeVoice, one can whisper in loud surroundings and still be heard by the other side. They say you can even use it in a bar when the wife calls and she will not know where you are. Hmmm….

Speaking of gadgets… I have been trying to get my wife to use a PDA for more than five years. Her version is a 2 x 6 inch planning diary, which she either bought from the National Bookstore for less than P100 or something we got free last Christmas. With a pen, she has not missed an appointment. And I still ask her for phone numbers of our friends. She does lose a lot of pens though.

My Two Cents: The only difference between men and boys are the prices of their toys. Gadgets are toys; the sooner we accept that the sooner our wives will get them for us! Long live tech TV!

* * * IT in the restaurant

My friend Paul (he has been trying to sell me software since my life at Dole, but to no avail) and I went to lunch one day. It dawned on us that the most stress one gets from sit-down restaurants is chasing down a waiter to get our order and to get our bill (using the universal Filipino sign for asking for the bill – the mystical, magical square box sign in the air).

Why can we not have our own terminals at the table and order our food from a touchscreen menu? The kitchen then receives the order and cooks our order. No waiters, just busboys to deliver the food. Minimal error. When you finish, you swipe your credit card at the terminal and you are done. No more asking for the bill. No more getting the wrong bill. No more waiting for the change. No more waiters, just busboys to prepare the table for the next guest. For the restaurant owner, busboys are cheaper to hire than waiters; then again, IT hardware and software are more expensive than waiters.

My Two Cents: My sister just left for a two-year stint at the CIA (Sorry! Not the one in McLean, Virginia but the Culinary Institute of America in Upstate New York). Watch out for her restaurant when she comes back! It will be full of flavor, fun, and definitely free of fat. If she invites me to invest, it will be definitely full of gadgets!

* * * Veto power

As much as I love French wine and cheese, and as much as my best man was French, I just cannot stand their President Ch-IRAQ right now. As of this writing, he has promised to veto any resolution that will trigger military action. (Veto is not the hygiene product of decades past but rather the right to use one’s vote to override the majority.)

It is really quite interesting that the countries that are against the US-UK-led UN resolution to give Saddam a deadline are Russia, France, Germany and China. Is it a coincidence that these countries recently signed contracts to drill in Iraq? I also wonder if there is not a less than altruistic motive on the US side but to have Iraq’s oil in the hands of friendlier governments. (I would love to be a "fly on the wall" at the United Nations and even the West Wing but I have no patience for double-talk and forked tongues.)

In a recent article in the Far Eastern Economic Review, they cited that Iraq has about 74 discovered and evaluated oilfields, of which only 15 have been developed. If we extrapolate their current production of 2.6 million barrels a day, there is about 10 million barrels a day or 3.6 billion barrels a year of additional oil to be pumped. (At stabilized prices of $25, there is $20 of profit to be had, or $72 billion a year.) Let’s see… cost of war approximately $90 billion, equates to slightly over a one-year payback.

It costs about $5 per barrel to take oil out of the ground. This means that at current prices of $35 to $37 per barrel, the OPEC folks are making $30 per barrel. (Note: worldwide production is approximately 135 million barrels per day or 49 billion per year.) The oil community makes about $1.5 trillion in profit a year if this price holds. This does not include the downstream profits after refining. However, OPEC has always tried to keep oil affordable because at these high price levels, people will look to discover alternative energies and once discovered, will never return to oil again. Surely they can spare a billion or two for Saddam’s exile expenses.

My Two Cents: I think Saddam and the other potentates need to be taught a lesson, else they will continue to push the envelope on what they can get away with. Why do you think Mr. Kim of North Korea is now posturing? George W. should be given a copy of Sun Tzu’s Art of War and not telegraph his moves all the time.

Speaking of potentates…did you know that ex-President Marcos’ birthday is Sept. 11?

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Dickson Co is CFO (C is for Cheap) of Dfnn, Intelligent Wave Philippines and HatchAsia.com. For comments or suggestions, e-mail [email protected]