Our House is For Sale

If anyone is interested, or if you know somebody who may be in the market for a home close enough to New York City yet far enough away to feel detached and enjoy peaceful weekends, we are selling our 3 bedroom 2.5 bath in Middletown, NJ.

If you provide us with a successful referral, we will pay you $1000 upon closing.

For more info on our house click here: http://sites.google.com/site/4woodave/

Guess what? Even MORE Augmented Reality!

Three posts in a row dedicated to my newest favorite technology. This example comes from those crazy peoples in L.A., Zugara. For those who don't know Zugara, they're an awesome agency. I've worked with them in the past on IVR games and think the world of their team out there.

What they've done in the video above is apply augmented reality to the shopping experience. Basically allowing you to virtually "try on" clothes before you buy them. I can see a mainstream real-world application of this so kudos to them for being first to the fence.

More Augmented Reality!

I'm not pretending to be Al Gore but ever since I saw the mScape HP demos, I knew that AR was going to be hot hot hot.

Here's another example - a ghost hunting game called Ghostwire I found on Kotaku for the Nintendo DS. The horror game genre is so perfect for this...

Transformers & Augmented Reality

If you have a moment and have never experienced augmented reality before, you may want to check out the new weareautobots.com Transformers promotional movie website. Through AR, you print a piece of paper with a symbol on it (in the above case, it looks like a "T"). That symbol triggers an event which launches a 3D model of Bumble Bee. The model can be seen from multiple perspectives (think hologram) and is complete with sound as well.

Give it a shot if you've never done this before. All you need is a webcam and the downloadable plugin.


I'm a huge fan of AR and think the applications are endless.

Stephen Johns Memorial Fund Information

Per the Daily Kos, I encourage everyone to give something. This man stopped a monster from potentially killing scores of people all in the name of hate:

AJC sets up fund for family of Officer Johns

The American Jewish Committee's Washington, D.C. chapter has set up a memorial fund to benefit the family of Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, who was killed Wednesday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The organization said it will soon have a place on its Web site where one can contribute, but those who want to donate immediately should send checks made out to the American Jewish Committee, with "Holocaust Museum Memorial Fund" in the memo line, to:

American Jewish Committee, Washington Chapter

C/O Melanie Maron

1156 15th Street, NW, Suite 1201

Washington DC 20005

One hundred percent of the contribution will go to the Johns family

What's The ROI Of Putting On Your Pants?

GM's Chevy Dealerships Are Out Of Touch

You know those Chevy commercials with Howie Long? The ones that take place in the dealership pitting Howie against a small mob referred to in the third person as "Everybody"? Well in those commercials, there seems to be a key person missing - the dealer.

And with good reason. The dealer, along with the general manager and the dealership are irrelevant in my opinion. How irrelevant? Enough that I've bypassed all dealership interaction through vehicles I've owned over the past 5 years.

Yet sometimes, a dealer may get a product so tempting to check out, that you can't help but pull into the lot while their open.

This was my experience on Thursday, when a 2010 Camaro LT with the RS package caught my eye. Pressing on the break, I turned in and parked my car in plain view of the salesman. Now let me preface, I drive a pretty nice sedan that returns the favor when I turn it on (car buffs will get the clues). I'm in no way looking to trade, sell, or give away my vehicle. I was curious however as to how the new Camaro looked in real life because given the extreme value of the car ($22,000 for 300 horsepower and 29 mpg!!!) I couldn't help but stop and ponder what I'd buy next when my lease is up in a year.

So of course, like clockwork, the salesman asks if I wanted to see anything. I kindly explained I just wanted to see the new Camaro. Checking out my current car through the window he slyly suggests he could buy me out of my lease and put me in a new Camaro for the same price I'm paying now.

Interesting.

Only one issue. He's talking to me about car payments instead of price of the car.

So I ask him.

Now again let me pause for a moment. For those who know me, I'm a car geek. I know all the marketing speak, all the upsell touchpoints, and all the costs associated with them (30 years of Car & Driver magazine will do that to you.). So just eyeballing the Camaro on their lot, I knew that a loaded to the brim V6 with the RS package (20" rims, halo light effects) would come in around 28 with leather.

Now back to the program.

"The car out there, $34,000."

I lol'd. Correction, I LMAO'd.

I explained that there was no way I was going to pay a penny over 27. In fact when I buy a Camaro, or a Mustang, or a Charger, I fully expect to pay $500 below invoice. If not they don't get my business.

So the salesman explains to me in calm slow speak - he is only getting 12 a year in his dealership. The "market adjustment" as he referred to it, was meant to keep demand high to balance his lack of supply.

Easily this was the most asanine argument I've heard.

I explained that I was not willing to pay $6000 over MSRP sticker for the honor of driving a Camaro. If there was a level of exclusivity, maybe. If this was some limited edition variant, say a Z28, then maybe I could see a premium to get my hands on one, but this one I called like I saw it.

Greed.

And in trimes of recessionary pain, greed is not good my friends. I asked the salesman how many Camaros he'd be receiving again. He said 12. I retorted that in a year I'll have 12 to choose from since he won't move a single one off his lot with that mark up.

I'm not the only one who experienced this though. A number of bloggers walked into their Chevy dealerships, probably for the first time in years, only to be slapped in the face with an on average $5000 price tag over MSRP.

Some of the conversations about Camaro dealer marksups:

http://www.cartype.com/pages/3322/chevrolet_camaro_markups
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19639
http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/southern-california-area/523460-checked-out-2010-camaro.html ($10,000 dealer markup on this post!!!)
http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/texas-members/1104250-new-2010-camaro-here-lone-star-chevrolet-houston-7.html

There are many, many more. As excited as I am about the Camaro, I was more excited over the affordability of the car - how it undercuts the Mustang GT by $5000 yet delivers comprable performance in V6 form with better MPG. Dealerships need two things right now:

1. Customers driving around in their cars vs. keeping one on the lot collecting interest.
2. A positive cheerful helpful demeanor because most people walking in may have never even considered a Chevy before now. And we all know about first impressions...