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eBay finishes PayPal Acquisition
Aidenn writes "As some may remember,
eBay was in the process of merging with PayPal. It is finally finished. eBay has information here. news.com has a more complete story."
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-- Eric
Check out our Frequently Asked Questions to find an answer to your question. What is a trolling motor? What is Thrust? How much thrust do you need? Bow mount or transom mount? How do I change mounts? What steering options does MotorGuide offer? How does Dura Amp compare to a speed coil? What type of batteries do you recommend for trolling motors? How important is battery selection for electric motor usage? What is Amp Draw? What size and type of wire do you recommend for trolling motors? Why when I call MotorGuide do I get Mercury Marine? Where can I buy MotorGuide/Pinpoint trolling motors, obtain parts or service locally? If I have questions who can I contact? If I have trouble with my trolling motor what can I do? What if there is no authorized Service Center in my area? Can I return my trolling motor to the factory for repairs? What is needed to obtain service from the service center? Where is my model/serial number located? Is there a Warranty Repair Center close to me? Can I purchase Extended Warranty? How do I obtain an Owner's Guide or Brochure? Q: What is a trolling motor? A: The term "trolling motor" describes an electric positioning motor used to control the boat without the use of paddles or oars. A trolling motor is most often used for controlling the boat while fishing. Boats do not tend to go in a straight line. Because of this, it is much easier to pull a boat than to push a boat. It is also easier to move the bow of the boat sideways compared to moving the transom. Therefore, a bow-mounted electric motor allows for much greater boat control and positioning. If quick response, boat control and positioning is what you are looking for, a bow mount electric motor is a must. [top] Q: What is Thrust? A: Thrust is the amount of energy used by the motor's propeller to propel the boat through the water. The energy is measured in pounds of thrust, as opposed to horsepower. MotorGuide published thrust ratings are laboratory measurements taken by using a load cell and with voltage equivalent to a fully charged battery (or batteries) applied directly at the motor brushes. Horsepower is a measurement of "work" being performed. One horsepower is a unit of measurement equal to 550 foot-pounds of "work" per second. There is no direct correlation of thrust to horsepower. Contrary to what you may have been told, fifteen pounds of thrust DOES NOT equal one horsepower. As noted in the previous definition thrust is simply a static measurement of force. [top] Q: How much thrust do you need? A: MotorGuideâ Recommended Thrust Recommended Column Length Boat Type Bow Mount Transom Mount Bow Mount Transom Mount Buddy Boats 6' to 10' ---- 28 to 46 lbs. ---- 30" to 36" Canoes 10' to 14' ---- 28 to 54 lbs. ---- 30" to 36" Jon Boats 12' to 16' 28 to 54 lbs. 28 to 54 lbs. 36" to 42" 36" to 42" Walleye Deep "V" 16' to 18' 46 to 82 lbs. 40 to 82 lbs. 50" to 60" 36" to 45" Walleye Deep "V" 19' to 22' 60 to 109 lbs. 54 to 109 lbs. 50" to 60" 42" to 50" Bass Boats 16' to 18' 46 to 82 lbs. ---- 42" to 50" ---- Bass Boats 19' to 22' 60 to 109 lbs. ---- 42" to 50" ---- Salt Water Center Console 18' to 23' 60 to 109 lbs. 54 to 109 lbs. 50" to 60" 42" to 50" [top] Q: Bow mount or transom mount? A: Bow mount motors are designed for use by fishermen who own their fishing boats. They require permanent mounting, and can be operated by hand or foot. Bow motors generally have higher thrust capacity due to boat weight. Transom mount motors can be permanently or temporarily mounted. Transom motors are the most popular trolling motor, as many fishermen either don't own their own boats, or have smaller, lightweight boats that don't require the thrust of a bow mount motor. [top] Q: How do I change mounts? A: Contact your authorized local Service Center for assistance. Shaft Length Measuring the distance from the top of the bow or transom to the water level with full load. Use the measurement and the table below to find the right shaft length for you. For Rough Water Condition, add 5" to your measurement, add 12" for hand-controlled motors. Transom to Water Line Shaft Length Recommendation Bow to Water Line Shaft Length Recommendation 0" to 10" 30" 0" to 16" 36" 10" to 16" 36" 16" to 22" 42" 16" to 22" 42" 22" to 28" 50" 22" to 28" 50" 28" to 34" 54" 28" to 34" 54" 34" and over 60" 34" over 60" [top]
a/s/l here. Sorry, adding domain tags to your s
I'll start the bidding at, a +1 posting bonus :-)
I got the email from EBay yesterday, but they failed to address all of the issues with PayPal. They do mention that they'll phase out their BillPoint service, though.
One would hope that they'd completey revamp PayPal's customer service. EBay is a highly visible company. Hopefully this will encourage them to start treating PayPal customers better.
"Anyway, long story short... is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling...." - Abraham Simpson
Heres to hoping EBay will finally fix PayPal's terrbile policies when it comes to fraud detection.
MABASPLOOM!
Planning Your Trolling Boat
When you rig a boat for trolling, you will want it to provide you and your fishing buddies with the most enjoyable fishing trips you could ask for. Here are some time proven trolling boat layouts.
If you fish alone in a small tiller boat, mounting the downriggers at the transom is a practical choice. You can keep everything in easy reach, eliminating the need to get up and move around the boat. (illustration 1)
If two or more people are fishing in a small tiller boat, try mounting the downriggers midship. Everybody can reach the downriggers and rods from either end of the boat. Pedestal mounts may be needed for the downriggers to clear the gunwales and swivel mounting bases will make for easier docking. (illustration 2)
On larger console style boats, a pair of Captain's Paks on swivel mounting bases are a popular arrangement. The swivel mounting base allows you to spread your lines wider when fishing and can be turned inline with the gunwales when the boat comes to dock. (illustration 3)
If your boat is large enough for a large fishing party, mount a pair of Pro Sportsmen at the transom and a pair of Captain's Paks on swivel mounting bases futher forward on the gunwales. When you use the Captain's Pak electric downriggers as sideriggers, you will quickly appreciate the locking, tip-up booms make it easy to set your lines. With this many lines in the water, your lure presentation will resemble a school of bait fish. (illustration 4)
The same kind of presentation can be achieved by installing four Captain's Paks on a removable transom bar. The whole downrigging system can be easily removed as one unit when your boat is to be used for other purposes. The transom bar is also an ideal location to mount a secondary fish finder/graph. (illustration 5)
When installing a planer rigger system, remember two important facts. First, the taller your mast is, the greater distance your planers will travel from the sides of your boat. And second, the futher forward you mount your mast, the less distance your planers will travel behind your transom. Both points effect navagation and line control. For the very best planer performance, use Big Jon's Otter boats. They are designed to produce a minimum of water resistance and out perform old fashion boards. They also will not stall in a turn. (illustration 6)
A popular method of mounting the planer mast is to use a pedestal seat mount (sold in our Parts Department). It fits Springfield seat bases, that are common on most boats. The seat mount makes the mast easily removable for storage. This base also allows you to use your planer rigger system on more than one boat. (illustration 7)
Two single reel planer mast mounted on the gunwales just behind the cabin or canopy top are popular for larger boats where the bow is not easily accessable. Mounting the planer riggers on the gunwale decks will provide the height needed for the Otter Boats to perform at their best. (illustration 8)
Or you can upgrade your mast with pair of electric planer reels. Big Jon electric reels come complete with remote switches and circuit breakers, so you can operate them from the cabin. Big Jon Electric Planer Reels are built using the same powerful sealed motor found on Big Jon downriggers. You can count on them for years of reliable performance. (illustration 9)
Plan your boat for comfort and safety. Having too much equipment, or having it located in the wrong place can hamper your ability to move around freely. Before mounting any equipment, get in your boat with your fishing buddies and discuss the best location for each piece of equipment. All equipment should be easily accessable to all fishermen.
That's just what we all need. Ebay merging with paypal, and possibly removing the non-auction services it offers
As the dotcom boom hits bottom you look around and notice that fewer and fewer services have competitors anymore. That's the way it has become in on-line payments. There are a couple of alternatives that may still unseat PayPal as the major player in the space, but now that eBay has them I doubt it.
Low barrier of entry means this and the auction space are ripe, but getting traction in it is hard.
What concerns me the most is the service aspect of the deal. PayPal has a bad reputation, but there is hope it will it will improve.
---
Go Daddy President Interview
Now that there is a reasonably reliable company running PayPal. I am just going to wait for a few more to jump on the bandwagon.
Maybe now, electronic cash will become far more acceptable, and smaller vendors will be able to open shop online without having to bow down to Visa and Mastercard's absurd policies. (or having to demand cash payment, which makes online business meaningless really.)
EBay has shown auctions can be done effectively online, now maybe they'll show that E-Cash can be done as well.
~ kjrose
Call It A Night, Cowboy!
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IMHO the problems I've heard of for both ebay and paypal only highlight the need for a better digital cash system.
What we need is something that is trustworthy, anonymous (private from the prying eyes of 3rd parties), indenpendent of a government monetary authority or any centralized authority, easy to send and transfer electronicly, and with general predictability and liquidity in value.
for anonymity I was thinking there might be some kind of a scheme where you could reveal the identity of the selling party if you were willing to sacrifice the value of the digital cash they gave you.
Also, perhaps there's some type of a need, like computing cycles, storage, or some type of computing service that would have market value that could be actuated by this form of digital cash.
any thoughts?
Did they buy it using paypal?
Speaking of which - I wonder if e-Bay will ever become big enough to start standing up to those Microsoft complaints? My Old Windows Licenses aren't doing me any good....
. And of course fix those neutral ratings against Microsoft's e-bay account
I Almost accepted a job with paypal last weel - Nice people, nice offices, lousy commute, but I really declined because it would have made me a small part of an already large venture, now that this is through I'd be an even smaller part of this grey commerce beast. (It was one of 4 offers)
A powerful on-line economy! (Oh, and you can bet your buns it'll happen!) What wonders! We can all do business easily, quickly, without hassles! Who needs cash? Ah, the FUTURE! Bring it ON!
Sigh.
The only problem I see with this, (well, one of the biggest problems, at any rate), is that unless something has changed in the last year, then the CIA has its hand on the switch of virtually the whole stinking internet. They can single you out, and make your website gone if they don't like what you're doing.
Remy C's End Secrecy List recently ran a look back at SAIC read this item if you're interested in the details.
(It's a bit of a longish read, and the first article is, of course, SAIC P.R. It gets interesting further down.)
In any case, unless anything has changed recently, then, well, I must say that I feel just peachy about the new economy being at the total & complete mercy of a bunch of Bushian ex-spooks.
Come to think of it. .
I must wonder ALOUD why there are so few outward looking stories on Slashdot these days that a conspiracy nut like me can leave his spray on. Especially when there is so much fascinating stuff going on in the big blue world. If nerds would really rather keep their noses stuck into the latest unix front-end distraction, then you ain't like the nerds I grew up with.
Wonder who whispers into Taco's ear these days. .
-Fantastic Lad
Buy It Now for US $1,500,000,000
This option disappears
once a bid is placed.
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
Ebay tried to pay Paypal using Paypal. Becuase Paypal flagged the transaction as "suspect", Ebay's checking account with a balance of $1.2 mil has been frozen. Multiple calls to Paypal's customer service have gone unanswered and industry experts believe it may take up to 3 months before the situation can be rectified.
Asked about the deal, an Ebay spokesperson described PayPal's management as "A++++++++++", calling them "VERY RESPONSIVE" and noting that they "WOULD DEFINITLY BUY FROM AGAIN." PayPal's feedback rating is 1283.
It turns out they just fell for some Finnish guy's scam (never send $1.5B of stock to a P.O. box!). He claimed he was selling PayPal "for a friend", but oddly became angry upon suggestion of sending it C.O.D. Unfortunately, due to their toothless fraud protection policies, it looks like they're just gonna have to suck it up and take the loss.
Better luck next time, eBay! They probably should have bought PayPal through an escrow service...
even further alienating PayPal from non-US participation...
What we need is something that is trustworthy, anonymous (private from the prying eyes of 3rd parties), indenpendent of a government monetary authority or any centralized authority, easy to send and transfer electronicly, and with general predictability and liquidity in value.
;).
The only thing that gives any form of money value is endorsement by some large entity. The pieces of paper in your wallet are called "notes" for a reason - they're statements by the government to the effect that the bearer of the note has control of a certain amount of capital. Once upon a time this actually correlated with a certain amount of gold (e.g. for the US) or silver (e.g. for England), but even without the correlation, the principle remains. The reason paper money has value is that the government says it has value.
Similarly, the reason a cheque or money order has value is that your bank says it has value.
Take away the backing authority, and you lose the value of any e-cash you'd implement. Whether it's the government or a bank or a company like PayPal or Ebay, you need _someone_.
I'd personally prefer it be the government, but I'm one of those communist Canadians
paypal was down yesterday. I guess they were transferring stuff?
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
All in all, I think eBay is a really good system. I hope it stays that way, and doesn't turn to poop because some corporate jerk wants to be greedy.
or would it be PayBay ? Hmm.
Yesterday, I received this scam e-mail from "service@paypal.com"
7 5/%70% 70%64
The sending IP was an AOL address: ACC1D4A2.ipt.aol.com [172.193.212.162]
The "click here" links, which I've broken for obvious reasons in the email below, led to this URL:
http://www.paypal.com@%77%77%77.%61%7A.%72%
Which, unencoded, is:
http://www.paypal.com@http://www.az.ru/ppd/
And sure enough, it is an (insecure) page on www.az.ru asking you to enter your PayPal email address and password to "confirm" your account. If this is an old scam (this particular one; I was spoofing login screens on my college network in the 80s!), I haven't heard about it.
Here's the e-mail:
----------------------
Dear PayPal Customer,
This e-mail is to inform you of a recent update we have made to our systems. To avoid service interruption we require that you confirm your account as soon as possible. Please click here and take a moment to confirm your account.
Please follow the following steps:
1.) Click here to confirm your account.
2.) Your account will be updated in our system and you may continue using PayPal services without any interruptions.
Please note: If you fail to update your account, it will be 'flagged' with restricted status.
Thank you,
The Paypal Staff
***
Do not reply to this e-mail. For assistance, contact the customer service team.
***
I have no special gift, I am only passionately curious. --Albert Einstein
paypalsucks.com
"Oh no, 3 horny women and only 2 condoms...Thank god I read slashdot"
One thing that I always thought was smart was how Ebay stayed out of the financial end of things. They were providing a listing service; actual payment and whatnot, unlike with a real life auction house, were up to the buyer and seller.
now ebay is involving themselves in the financial end as well... this will make things more complicated.
"Will PayPal continue to offer live telephone support?"
"PayPal will continue to offer the same Customer Support services now available. We are committed to offering quality customer support to all of our members, and are always looking for ways to expand and improve our services."
So no, they don't plan on improving it from the sounds of it (how can you keep it the same but always looking to improve it?), just keeping it the same.
Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different. -- Earl of Chesterfield
Obviously, the majority of their users don't have problems, or else they would not be so popular. Butg consider this:
... but to hold up funds for months on end for any reason they want, something even a bank could not do without a court order, is another.
To err on the side of caution is one thing
Not only will they freeze an account so you can't withdraw your funds, but they will still permit that account to *accept* new payments... so you can have customers paying you for things and you can't refund their money or otherwise touch it.
think that if they add new features at a cost, it's not going to affect anybody who doesn't decide to use those features. Remember, it takes them time and money to implement these features, so making people pay for them makes sense as long as the fee isn't huge.
Most companies charge for new features, though many implement them as free in the beginning to get clients hooked. Look at all the new stuff that's become more readily available on cellphones in the past few years. A lot of people doesn't bother subscribing to extra feautures, but I'm sure somebody pays it or they wouldn't be offered
close, but not quite true. Gold, for example, has no monolithic backing authority, but it's recognized as valuable.
a big backing authority is by far the most likely way for "e-cash" to catch on though, yes.
I'd also like to point out that PayPal is not anything like cash. It's more like "e-debit-card".
The name of the game for online transactions is building a critical mass of transactors. That's why eBay has no real competition in the online auction game, despite well engineered attempts by players with deep pockets, like Yahoo and Microsoft.
The same goes for PayPal. They realized they had to build a critical mass of customers quickly, so they made it easy to sign up and offerred cash incentives. By the time anybody else discovered this market, it was just too late.
I agree the absence of competition is a Bad Thing. But side-by-side transaction systems isn't going to create competition -- nobody has any incentive to sign up with the minor players. If you want a transaction monopoly to give up being a monopoly, you have to force it to open up its system.
It took only a few minutes to sign up and add their canned HTML forms to my web site.
I write free web books, and I use PayPal to accept donations and it is also useful for accepting payment for consulting services and the few commercial products that I sell.
I did a fair amount of research re: getting a merchant account, etc., but I think that PayPal works out a little cheaper for me; it is also zero hassle.
One possible thing to worry about: they do have the right to freeze your bank account if a customer ever wants a refund and you don't have funds to cover the refund in your PayPal account. I have never been asked for a refund (after many, many transactions) but for safety I always just leave some money in my PayPal account - the interest that I loose in a year doing this is negligible compared to the costs of a merchant account, etc.
-Mark
So how long till they uncover the massive accounting fraud all dot-com companies have to use to make money... :)
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
"eBay's acquisition of PayPal follows its failed effort to establish Billpoint as a serious competitor to PayPal." An accepted business practice, but I can't help thinking of the Dilbert cartoon where the PHB says: "we take 2 good companies and ruin them by a process we call merging"
"Give a woman two glasses of wine and some pad thai, and they'll agree to just about anything." the Sports Guy
"There are three principal ways to lose money: wine, women, and engineers.
While the first two are more pleasant, the third is by far the more certain."
-- Baron Rothschild, ca. 1800
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