Mikel A. Cole

Entrepreneurship/Small Business Management at Oregon Institute of Technology Bassist/Musician Employed at Asurion/Directv

[themacole2]

Car-makers Now want to make it Illegal to repair or modify your own car.

Recently automakers have reached out to lawmakers to have it essentially illegal to have vehicle owners repair and or modify their own vehicles. Why do you ask? Well it has to do with copyright over modern cars ECU or Electronic Control Unit. The ECU is a computer inside modern cars that can manage the time of valves and pistons. This intern makes car engines more efficient. Now the Tuner community (those who actively improve the performance of their vehicle) often buy what are called access ports, which are devices that access a cars ECU and modify the program inside to give the car increased horsepower. The argument that automakers make is that because these are computer programs that it violates copyright on digital programs. They also make the argument that modifying a cars ecu can decrease the safety of the vehicle because the ECU also controls airbags, ant-lock brakes and other features. Also when making modifications the car becomes tricky to sell. While all of these are good points that automakers meet there are problems. First of all when you buy a product, like a car. you own the car. Thus you should be given the freedom to do anything you want to the car. As far as reprogramming the ECU that is also part of the car which means its part of the product. Plus you can always removed the access port and return the ECU program back to stock. As for selling the car, well the car would be used. So none of the money used to sell a used car goes to the automakers. Also most Tuners can’t sell their car to a dealership because of the legal complications of whether it meets safety standards and emission standards and trying to determine the value of the car can be difficult too. especially if major modifications were done to the vehicle. However tuners already know this when modifying their vehicles and if selling the car will try to sell it private party then through a dealership. What they are proposing also would make it illegal to work on your own car and would make it illegal for independent car shops to even make repairs and would force a customer to go to a dealership. This law would probably not go through as it would put a lot of independent repair shops out of business or would have to spend resources to become certified under a manufacturer to be able to make repairs.

source: http://jalopnik.com/carmakers-want-to-make-working-on-your-car-illegal-beca-1699132210

[themacole2]

Building my own Internet Business

If I were to build my own Internet Business I think I would make a site specifically for the tuner community. I currently own a Subaru Legacy GT and have made e modifications to the car and I plan in the future to make more performance modifications. The thing about Tuners is that if your not a mechanical engineer or have a degree in automotive mechanics yourself then you do a lot of research on the web. Forum, after forum, after forum of reading. And it takes a lot of your time. Plus aftermarket auto parts are not necessarily cheap wich is why you have to be certain that the part you are buying is the one that is going to benefit you the most. That’s why I would like to buy a website that specifically maps out other people’s builds and what parts you need to hit stage 1, stage 2, so on and so forth. 8 think it would be convenient in a website to have the forum’s, build maps, and a shopping area for the parts talked about all in one place. With the current sites that are out there it’s either one or the other. A build map, aftermarket parts shopping, or forums. None of these things are all in one place so you end up having multiple tabs open and you end up having to many choices to where you can’t make a decision. The parady of choice all over again. That’s why I believe a website like that would be successful. Eliminate the amount of research and pages you have open.

@robjellesed @OITMIS225 @blog5

[themacole2]

Internet Shopping

As an Internet user and an active consumer, I have bought all sorts of products online. Since I live in a small town with no real shopping mall or a huge variety of different stores, I have bought many of products on the internet. These Items usually include products that I can’t go to the store in town to get or they are items I know I can get at a lower price online. I’m not the only one that buys products online. For the year 2015 there will be an estimated $1,700 Billion that will flow through online shopping. In this world of digital information how can we know that our information is secure? Trillions of bytes of information gets passed around on the internet which can include who you are, what you buy online, and companies can have records of your financial information every time you make a purchase such as you credit/debit card, home address, and where you have made a purchase. As a consumer I’m honestly not too concerned when making a purchase. Truthfully every time I have made a purchase I don’t think I was consciously aware that my information will be now be known from this entity that I’m purchasing a product from. I can say however that I am consciously aware if the website I am buying from is a legitimate company. There are ways you can be sure of. Googling the identity of a company can do just that. I can’t say however what happens to my information when I share it though. Such as does my information get sold to different companies that will try to put me into a target market that will be most likely to buy this companies said product? Does it get taken then automatically deleted? Many companies on their websites project pages have some security tag explaining that their security on your information is protected by a security engine. For example “protected by Norton Internet Security” can be one of the tags you’ll see on the purchasing page on the page. Now what about convenience vs security? Do I want the internet to be more convenient when making a purchase? Or do I want it to be secure as possible? I wouldn’t really trade one over the other. I do go on the internet for the convenience of finding the product that I want to buy, however, I wouldn’t there to be any security however. I would want a little of both. I want convenience but also a statement or clarification at the time of sale how my information is secure.

[themacole2]

The Worst Customer Service Experience

I would say the Worst customer experience I have had is ordering textbooks off of Amazon. Now it was the separate student trade in site that they had so when the books were ordered it was up to whoever the individual was to send them. But I ordered the books off the site because they were cheap but it took six weeks to receive the textbooks. turns out whoever had the books never got around to sending them until much later. I tried to get a refund for the order because I had to purchase the books from the school bookstore anyway because I needed the books to pass my classes. Amazon pretty much told me that they are not responsible for the individual not sending the books and because I did finally receive them they would not refund me the books. 

[themacole2]

Why I Play Bass

I've been playing Bass Guitar since I was in the 7th grade. I guess the start of the story is that I was a Band geek starting out on clarinet but when I got to the 7th grade the opportunity of being in the Jazz Band was presented. I really wanted to be apart of the Jazz Band at the time but Clarinet was not an instrument that was part of the Junior High entry level Jazz Band. My band instructor though suggested Playing Bass because that was a rare instrument that many at my age were not playing. SO I ended up picking it up. learning how to play it and getting into the Jazz band when it came available. I got started learning on my own but I did end up getting an instructor who helped me fine tune my skills.I continued to play Jazz all the way up till my Senior year of High-school. After High-school I played in an assortment of different local rock groups and I try to find the time every once in awhile to play now. The thing about playing the bass that is no matter what genre of music your playing whether its Jazz, rock, country etc. Bass is essentially the foundation of the rhythm and the emotion of the music. In Jazz your soul responsibility was to not only keep the beat but also to set the tone and essentially the “attitude” of the song. Jazz allowed me to see the beauty and emotion that music generates in you. This is why i play Bass. To feel a connection not only with the song I am playing but also with the people around me. 

[themacole2]

Business on the Internet? Learning and creating Websites as businesses do to connect to customers through the digital world? #OITMIS225