His name is Chris Shaw. He won the Powerball in Missouri in April 2010. He’s now got $258 million in his bank account (depending on annuity or lump-sum, of course), up from just $29 before. He’s happy he doesn’t have to worry how he’ll pay utilities or repay a friend $1,000 for a used pick-up. He plans to take his kids to DisneyWorld. There’s no word on it, but I imagine he’ll get his smile spruced up a bit, too. He also says he’ll take a few days to decide whether he’ll quit his convenience store job (you know where I’ll place my bet).

How can you not like this guy? It’s a rags to riches story. And you like to feel good for him.

But then there’s reality.

Swindlers will be all over Shaw with “no-risk” deals to double a fortune. Some schemers make a full time job out of stalking new lotto winners. Their tactics are sinister, shrewd, and convincing.

Family members will have expectations of Shaw that will be way out of line. Demands for fancy homes and luxury cars will come from even distant relatives only because “hey, you can spare it, cuz.” If he says no, then responses will eventually become violent.

And this good guy, Chris Shaw, is not at all ready for any of it.

There’s a reason there’s not a light-hearted reality show about lotto winners. It’s because a lot of them are broke and ruined within 2 years of “hitting it big.”

I wish the best for Chris. I hope he gets sound financial advice from someone with the right amount of fiduciary responsibility.

Say what you will about the recent Health Care Reform (I sure have), but I fully support Obama’s views and focus on economic overhaul.

In a speech at Cooper Union College, President Obama compared quotes from his 2008 presidential campaign speech with the disastrous economic events that unfolded later that year.

A free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it.

– Presidential Candidate Barack Obama, 2008

It’s clear that financial group-think in corporate boardrooms are having fundamental impacts on the well-being of most Americans. Too many creative loan schemes and money-making from non-producing financial instruments have negatively affected middle-class and poor in the United States. Interest-only loans don’t belong in the consumer markets. They turn what should be investments (peoples’ homes) into debilitating liabilities. Speculators in the commodities markets (corn, grain, oil) and derivatives (investments that base their performance on the ups and downs of other investments) tie money to investments that do not contribute to the country’s productivity.

That is what happened too often in the years leading up to the crisis. Some on Wall Street forgot that behind every dollar traded or leveraged, there is family looking to buy a house, pay for an education, open a business or save for retirement. What happens here [at Wall Street] has real consequences across our country.

– President Barack Obama, April 22, 2010

Key provisions of the bill focus on regulating derivatives trading, establishing a consumer protection agency, and creating a council to monitor threats to financial stability. New York Mayor Micheal Bloomberg supports these measures, as well.

This is the sort of leader I knew Obama could be. I hope this overhaul effort isn’t sullied by backroom deals and closed negotiations like the health care overhaul was.

Gizmodo’s story about the found iPhone 4G/HD is creating a lot of buzz on the Web … and at Apple. While it might be a fun idea that someone got the upper hand on Apple, there might be some consequences that sting after the euphoria fades.

The most wince-inducing fact is that Gizmodo named the Apple employee who allegedly lost the prototype iPhone. Now, seriously. What value did that add to the story? That employee’s shaky career status just got a lot worse.

Gizmodo insisted that Apple go on record to request the return of the prototype phone. A company lawyer did so in a concise letter that carefully avoided naming the product. Company leaders don’t like being jerked around. And it encourages the lawyers to review applicable laws and precedents for potential legal actions.

Gizmodo is short-sighted. Because of this story, who won’t ever be invited to an Apple tech preview or product unveiling? Anyone from Gizmodo. Anyone who is connected to this story, no matter where their careers take them. That’s a valuable relationship flushed down the toilet. And Gizmodo apparently paid $5,000 to the person who found the phone. So they paid to runa story that will hurt their long-term credibility.

All for what? A story that will swirl for a few days? And cross-hairs that follow them for months?

There’s an odd story going around of a prototype iPhone 4G (perhaps being renamed to iPhone HD??) being found in a San Jose pub/eatery. Or maybe it’s Redwood City. Odd or not, the photos and information are compelling. However, they finders could not actually boot the phone. They claim Apple remotely killed the phone, so reviewing iPhone OS 4 wasn’t possible.

Here’s a few of the specs along with my obligatory blatherings.

Front-Facing Camera: Excellent for people who can video conference with a stone-still hand. Good luck on that. I predict mobile Skypers will be getting sea-sick.

Larger Back-Facing Camera with Flash: It’s about time! I don’t mind the 3 megapixel camera on my iPhone 3G S, but for crying out loud! There should have been a 5 MP camera on the iPhone in June 2009.

Micro-SIM: Unless you’re a mega-tech-head, this is not a big deal. But it might lend additional credence to this unit being authentic because the Micro-SIM form factor isn’t used in the United States … yet.

Aluminum Chasis: Back to iPhone version 1 aesthetics, it seems. Well, not really. The back is plastic, glass, or ceramic. And the back is completely flat. The front is still glass. The sides are aluminum all around, and the buttons are, too. However, this might not be the final design.

Larger Battery: The article says 16% heavier. I coulda sworn it was 14.573% but whatever. Longer battery life is always nice.

Higher Resolution Screen: You knew that was coming. My Zune HD has better resolution than my iPhone. But it’s not like I really notice on a daily basis.

So far, I’m not too jealous about the new iPhone, especially since iPhone OS 4 will be available for my soon-to-be-outdated phone. The debut of the Summer 2011 iPhone will probably have me itching, though. Unless the Windows Phone becomes a hit. Or unless Android continues its trend. Or if Palm’s webOS gets integrated into a cool HTC phone. I hate that I’m so fickle!

There’s lots more, so check out the Gizmodo post!

You can’t deny the mega-stardom of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is predictable, unpretentious, and cheesy. He’s also governor of California and pretty classy, overall.

Here’s a walk down memory lane with notables and groaners. Warning: Not all that safe for work…

Okay, I’ve heard enough about the iPad to know I need to wait.

Price. $500 for the cheapest iPad is a bit steep, but not all that bad, either. That said, Apple has already hinted that they’ll drop the price to spur sales. Not that they need to do that now, but in 4 months the hype will have died down and sales will drop. Apple lowered the price of the iPhone significantly within its first year, much to the chagrin of the schmoes who waited in line overnight to pay $600 for the gadget on day-one.

Weight & Ergonomics. The iPad is 1.5 lbs. Not a lot, but hold a 1.5-lb package of, say, ground beef. Now hold it for a while. The weight slowly becomes non-trivial. Also, the iPad design is sleek and shiny. But I’ve seen pictures of smudgy screens because humans had the audacity to actually touch it to use it. And I think there needs to be something around the edges for fingers to naturally curve onto. Ergonomics can be made sexy, too, Mr. Jobs.

Camera. This is something that will clearly be added. I saw a picture of an unassembled iPad, and there was a space for camera electronics on the edge of the device. There must be a forward facing one for video calls. There’s no way I can sell my wife on the idea of an iPad unless she can make a video call from the sofa. If another camera can be added to snap a picture, then all the better.

So, if Apple can get me a forward facing camera, 32 GB of storage, and an accessory to make the slippery device holdable for $500, then I’ll probably visit an Apple store for iPad 2.0. Unless a competitor beats Jobs to the punch.

Apple apparently has invited the press to an event scheduled April 8. The guess is Apple will provide details for the upcoming iPhone OS 4 update and the new hardware (an iPhone with more features).

Both are expected later in the summer. Probably July/August 2010.

I recently got a Kodak Theatre HD Player from Woot! Fifty clams for a (sort of) media player extender seemed like a great idea. It arrived, and I tried to set it up on my main computer. Frustration ensued.

After a lot of search engine research, I got nowhere. A few days later it dawned on me. Perhaps it had something to do with x64 (64-bit) versus x86 (32-bit) versions of Windows. I set things up on a Windows 7 Professional x86 machine, and voila! It’s working. So I posted the following to the Woot! forum on page 12:

In case anyone makes it this far into this thread, I have some insight on the Windows 7 support issue. Windows 7 WILL indeed work … but not if you’re using x64 (64-bit) versions. My x86 (32-bit) version of Windows 7 Professional is working fine. The laptop is wired to the router and wireless to the player.

However, I cannot get the Kodak player to scan a mapped network drive. So I copy the media from my main computer to the laptop’s drive.

Hope this helps someone…

I tell ya. What good is the Internet when the likes of me makes a ground-breaking contribution to a forum??

Is it just me or is going to the doctor’s office becoming more and more like visiting a car showroom? You go in for something in particular, you get that thing, and then you get a lot of disconnected fees that nickel-and-dime your wallet to death.

I blame the ongoing war between caregivers and insurers. Physicians treat their patients and then bill their patients’ insurance companies. Those insurance companies begin paying less and less over time, but require medical offices to charge to myriad inconspicuous service numbers (MA-4406705-A for administration of acetylsaliclic acid tablet, or “giving an aspirin”).

The mix of stingy insurers and desperate doctors is dangerous to patients and their bank accounts. What doctors can’t get from insurers, they bill their patients.

For my child’s yearly check-up, the doctor had him read an eye chart. It took 10 seconds. A month later, we get a bill for eye services for $17. Why?, we asked. Well, reading the eye chart is vision services, and vision services are not covered by our medical insurance. Therefore, it’s now expected that patients act more like wary consumers. If this is our new responsibility, then physicians should have menus so we know what we’re consuming and what it will cost if our insurers decide they have a rule-loophole that de-obligates their payment.

A while back, I had a stubborn respiratory infection, and the doctor prescribed an inhaler. I’m forty years old, but he asked me if I knew how to use an atomizer/inhaler. I say yes, but he still proceeds to explain it to me like I’m a four-year-old. A month later, I received a bill for $25 for instruction services. Yep, I was charged $25 for the 45 seconds the doctor patronized me. When the office wouldn’t waive the fee, I decided I would not return to that medical practice again. And I didn’t. Hope that $25 goes a long way for them. But their actions are a result of years of bullying by the health care insurance industry.

Perhaps Obama’s new healthcare overhaul will fix this sort of thing … but I’m not holding my breath (that might be detrimental to my health and discretionary income).

Tim Bray posted to his blog an article about accepting work from Google. In it, he makes a painfully truthful remark about Apple Computer. I had first heard about this on CNET’s Buzz Out Loud podcast, so I looked it up. Tim Bray is a co-author of Extensible Markup Language (XML), and he’s respected in the technology fields.

Here’s part of what he wrote:

The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger.

I hate it.

I hate it even though the iPhone hardware and software are great, because freedom’s not just another word for anything, nor is it an optional ingredient.

Even as a user of the iPhone 3G S, I completely agree with what Tim Bray says about Apple.

The iPhone hardware, software, and app ecosystem are undeniably the best … that currently exists. I chose the iPhone and a 2-year contract with the suspicion that I would move to something else at the end of that contract.

I expect that Google Android will be at least as good as iPhone in 2012 (probably better), and the Windows Phone platform will probably have a large and active following, as well.

I don’t count Apple out, though. iPhone can definitely adapt in a world where smartphones are becoming the new personal computer.