23 October 2009

Irritant from Prudential

Caller: 'Hello, this is XXXXXX calling from Prudential. We have a special plan and...' Me: "Prudential?' Caller: 'Yes, I am calling from Prudential and we are sending our business associates into your area tomorrow and they will be coming down to explain our insurance plans..." Me: "They are not welcome." Caller: "Er.." Me: "Goodbye."

What makes these overbearing callers think that they are welcome? It is not merely Prudential, AIA, First Financial, AXA and others also make these intrusive and aggressive calls at all hours.

10 October 2009

When they only want to buy one


"In turn, others note that the location of manufacturing elsewhere makes it easier for competitors to copy and build their own cloned systems. iRobot engineers tell how they have already seen cloned copies of both their Roomba vacuum cleaner and the PackBot military robot. Indeed, they once angrily confronted a group of Singaporean military officers who were showing off what appeared to be a clone of a PackBot at an demonstration. Stayne Hoff smiliarly says that a good sign that a buyer just wants to clone a drone is "when they only want to buy one."

Exerpt from 'Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century' by P. W. Singer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. Page 250.

The source of this appeared to be from an interview.

07 October 2009

A delay

I hadn't updated the blog for a period because I had more tank drawings that I had wanted to post and I had wanted to maintain the continuity. In any case, after a period of time, I had decided against finishing those drawings of tanks, thus the hiatus in updates.