Monthly Archives: May 2006

Yes, Vonage truly sucks.

Vonage future looks troubled | Tech News on ZDNet

On its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, shares in the company slid to $14.85, almost 13 percent below the initial offering price of $17. Losses continued on Thursday as shares closed at $13. Many on Wall Street have predicted the stock could finish the week in single digits.

Vonage (VG) Sinks in IPO Debut

There’s not much to “WooHoo” about for Vonage Holdings’ (NYSE: VG) investors today after a lackluster IPO debut on the Nasdaq. In recent trading, shares of Vonage were down about 12% from the $17 IPO price, making it one of the worst IPOs of the year.

Vonage to reimburse bankers-reports

Internet telephone service provider Vonage Holdings Corp., stung by the year’s worst initial public share offer, plans to reimburse underwriters if customers who were allotted shares did not pay for them, according to media reports.

About 15 percent of Vonage’s 31.25 million shares were offered to about 10,000 Vonage customers, who had until May 30 to open an account to pay for the shares at $17 per share, according to a report on the New York Times Web site.

Now Vonage may be stuck with the bill as some customers are reluctant to pay for their shares, the Times reported.

Vonage, I have two words for you – *HA HA*. See what happens when you have such lousy customer service?

It’s all freakin’ karma, man…

Slashdot | Ahead of IPO, Vonage Faces User Complaints

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes “Internet phone-service provider Vonage (whose planned IPO was mentioned on Slashdot last week) is confronting complaints of poor sound quality, dropped calls and other glitches, the Wall Street Journal reports. From the article: ‘Customers who try to leave are complaining of bureaucratic hassles and snafus, particularly when they seek to switch services and take their numbers with them. Ironically, Vonage has long complained that local phone giants drag their feet in releasing the phone numbers of customers who want to leave.'”

Finally! Saturday Night Live’s Lung Brush has become a reality…

From Yahoo! News – First Non-Drug Asthma Treatment Tested

In a radical experiment, doctors are snaking wires inside the lungs of asthma patients to essentially burn off some of the tissue that blocks their ability to breathe.

Called bronchial thermoplasty, the procedure is the first attempt at a non-drug treatment for asthma.

SNL	Reality

There are generally two schools of thought surrounding the growth of allergies in the twentieth century. Both have evidence in their favor, and neither is complete. Both explain why developed countries have seen such a dramatic increase of allergies, whereas developing nations have not.

_Everyday Chemicals_ – Since the end of World War II, an abundance of chemicals has been introduced into the human environment. Not just the HFCS in our soda pop, but the things in soap and shampoo, the chemical residue on our dishes, leftover Teflon from a pan, or the phthalates that leech out of PVC pipes. It’s true that preservatives and additives all undergo years of testing before they are approved for human consumption, but that handful of years mayn’t be adequate to understand what a lifetime of use can do to a body. No one assumes that any one of our common chemicals is responsible, but all in conjunction are creating an adverse holistic effect.

_The Hygiene Hypothesis_ – Over millions of years the human body has armed itself against a number of ills. It’s had to stockpile immune system weapons for all manner of parasites, germs, and junk, but in our age of daily baths, kitchen sanitizers, and purified water those weapons are somewhat superfluous. A million years of hard-won evolution don’t turn inactive after a mere hundred years of environment. No, instead they go cabin-fever, and freak out attack even benign substances like pollen and dust with a fervor of pent-up frustration.

See Immune System Gone Bad on Damn Interesting.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that the Dutch think that a rooster sounds like “kukeleku”. Or that angry Finnish bull sounds like “kukeleku”. Or that a Turkish chicken says “gut gut gdak”.

And what the hell is with the Japanese?!? Do they really think a dog sounds like “wan wan”, a lion “gaooooo”, a cat “goro goro” and a pig “bu-hii bu-hii”? That’s messed up…

See Derek Abbott’s Animal Noise Page

I can’t wait to get my hands on a Nintendo Wii. I’ve owned every Nintendo console since the 8-bit. Nintendo’s console sales have been low since the SNES, so it’s great to see that the crowds at the E3 show are praising their latest offering as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

From Reuters:

Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s new Wii video game console, considered the underdog in the console wars because it lacks the high-definition graphics and multimedia features of its rivals, is stealing the show at this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show.

The wait to try out the Wii at E3 pushed past four hours on Thursday afternoon, while the wait for hands-on time with Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 was barely 30 minutes. Both consoles will hit the market later this year, though the Wii is expected to cost much less than rival consoles.

“It’s basically a whole different thing from anything I’ve seen before,” said Josef Faulkner, who had been waiting in line for three hours to get his hands on Wii. He still had an hour to go. “This is definitely the biggest thing here.”

The enduring image of the show might end up being the enormous line, which snakes completely around Nintendo’s floor space. A security guard estimated that 1,500 to 2,000 people have been in the line at any given time.

Matt Rogers and Steve Bollinger said they waited almost three hours to get their hands on Wii, even though they lined up as soon as the convention center doors opened. After exiting the booth, they said the wait was definitely worth it.

“Nintendo really nailed it,” said Rogers.

“They really worked hard to put fun games in this booth,” said Bollinger. “Now I know the next thing I’m getting.”