Rochester MN is a mid sized midwestern town of about 100K people. About 6 months ago, one of the two blockbuster videos in town closed. This was the one that was in the same parking lot as a Super Target.
I drive home right past the other blockbuster each and every day. My observation is that it too, is on the skids. Used to be on a Friday night the parking lot was jammed with folks loading up for the weekend. Not anymore. Occaisionally we'll head there on a Sat night for something for the kids or a new release. used to be the parking lot was full and the line to check out was long. Not anymore..the place is a ghost town. Also gone is the "no late fee" policy.
I don't have any evidence to support this, but near as I can tell, netflix and $20 DVD's is kicking blocbusters ass.
1) Build a kick-ass wireless network from scratch 2) Staff your call centers and service counters with the BEST
people you can find. 3) Offer to unlock anyones phone, from any provider for free and
put it on your network. 4) Offer no-contract service to anyone
Onstar was 'standard' on my 2003 Envoy. It adds about $700 to the base price of the vehicle, but you get one year "safe and sound" package for free which is "worth" about $200. I keept the first year, used it once when I had a check engine light come on (left the gas cap off), and used about 2 minutes of my free 30 minutes of cell phone.
AFter enduring several months of onstar literature, they finally gave up on me. The onstar unit for my truck is located underneath one of the back seats. Easy enough to take the cover off and disconnect it, which I had done for about a year till my wife said to hook it back up.
Her cousin consults for OnStar. He told her that even if you aren't a subscriber, that you can hit the button in an emergency and they'll help you out. He said if you are in a bad neighborhood, you can hit the button and say "I don't feel safe" and they'll guide you out. They don't want the bad publicity of someone saying they contacted OnStar in an emergency only to get hung up on because they weren't a subscriber.
I've always wondered that if my vehicle ever got stolen, could I call OnStar up, sign up for the service, then say "oh, by the way, would you mind locating the vehicle...I was just carjacked".
I still think $16/month is too much for OnStar. I'd like to see them implement an "a la carte" menu. Lock your keys in the car, it'll cost you $100. Got your car ripped off AGAIN, that's gonna cost you $200 to locate it. I'd be glad to do a fee-for-service...but I'm just tired of getting nickeled and dimed to death with all these little monthly fees.
A big portion of OnStar subscribers are senior citizens. They like the idea of that someone is there to take care of them in an emergency. My in-laws are looking for a new vehicle, and they are specifically looking at GM so that they can get OnStar.
A couple of years ago I ordered an HP9000 laser printer for our department. Fast, I mean, FAST printer. The users loved it..until, 3 weeks into the eval, it said the toner was low, then a day or two later, the printer said "toner out" and it just stopped. Refused to print anything more. The brand new cartridge had something like 35K pages on it.
I get on the phone with HP and pitch a bitch at them. They said that the cartridges are metered and that to ensure print quality, they stop at 50K pages. Ok..they why has it only printed 35K pages. The guy explains to me that the cartridge is rated for 50K pages, but really it's 50K rotations of the drum. There's one rotation for the warmup cycle..then a rotation for each page, then one rotation at the end of the print cycle to clean the drum.
So I say, "you're telling me, that the cartridge is only rated for 50K CONTINUIOUS pages, (well, 49,998) and that after 16,666 single page jobs, i'd have to replace the cartridge". That's true he said.
"And there's no way to override this?"
"Nope"
So, I asked how to go about returning the printer. I ended up getting two slower HP 8150's for the cost of this single HP9000.
HP has now changed their tune and said the cartridge has a average yield of 30K pages for $269. We get refurbished HP8150 cartridges for just over $100 and they last at least that long. Run them till they are dry or till they start to suck and we still get close to 25-30K pages out of them.
I saw this back in the 80's in Discover magazine.
I even did a school report on it.
13 months each with 28 days. Leap years would get a 'sol' day in the middle of the summer where everyone would get the day off!
Hopefully you weren't supersticious because every month had a friday the 13th.
Side effect was that it would put all calendar makers out of business...
I saw this technology over 10 years ago, and then it disappeared off the map. I think the story was that TI had the patent, then it got lost during a shuffle of mergers and selloffs, and resurfaced a few years ago. This company http://www.speralsolar.com/ picked it up and started making them.
The unique idea behind this solar collector is that they use a doped slicon ball bearing embeded in a flexible foil backing. The collector comes of the assembly line in a continuous roll.
Dunno what the price/watt is.
From their web site:
The SuperFlex(TM) solar module is designed to keep your batteries fully charged and/or provide power for portable appliances. Whether you are a boater, RVer or an outdoor enthusiast, the SuperFlex(TM) series will provide enough energy for all your recreational needs. SuperFlex(TM) is available in 25, 50 and 75 watt models making them the most powerful flexible solar panels on the market today
My wife got me a photo printer with my digital camera some 2.5 years ago. I printed tons of stuff at first, but after I finally did the math, it was clear that online photo printers can do it cheaper and better.
I like http://clubphoto.com/. They have matte prints and production is in Texas, so their stuff gets to me faster in MN than all the other online photo processing which seems to be in OR or CA.
When clubphoto has a sale ($0.17/print) I will send groups of 20 pictures to in-laws and family. Sure, they look at them online, but grandma likes to have the paper and show it to her friends.
I've become the departmental resource for all things realated to digital photography. I say the same thing, don't bother with a fancy photo printer.
I graduated from the University of Michigan College of Engineering almost 20 years ago.
I'll agree that there is a certain amount of pedigree that goes along with attending the likes of MIT & Harvard...but here's my case for why attending a large university might be a good thing:
o I once had a recruiter from Motorola tell me that he liked recruiting from Michigan because he knew that grads would be able to handle themselves in a large organization like Moto. I'd have to agree. Dealing with red tape is a part of life, and my undergrad years at Michigan taught me how to "work the system".
o I've had my share of crappy professors and even crappier TA's. If there's one thing a big university teaches you is that you can teach yourself just about anything. I've worked with other grads from smaller colleges that knew more nitty gritty detail about this subject or that. It was impressive that they could actually recall some abstract equation, but we were working in a commercial world, not research. Results is what matters, not some detail from some long ago class.
o There's still an "awe" factor being a grad from a big name school like Michigan. I'm at the age where other parents say "My kid wants to go to Michigan." And I say that I'd gladly talk to them about it. I've never met a Michigan grad that wished they had gone to a different school.
But, it's not for everyone. I had a few High School friends attend then drop out. It's a sink or swim environment. Weeder classes are a reality. There's no hand holding. It's a 4 year (well 5 in my case) hazing ritual. No doubt it's high pressure, and people crack. Competition is fierce (especially in engineering). You get a huge ego boost and feeling of accomplishment when you graduate, and you carry that confidence forward the rest of your life.
Did I get an education? Sure I did. Was it as good 'academically' as an education I might receive at a local college or boutique school. Hard to say, but I would guess that it was only marginally better. Would I do it again? Absolutely. Best 5 years of my life. It's like the marines, I went there as a boy and came out a man.
So yes, I would have to say that there is a added plus to attending a larger university. It's not an 'academic' plus, but it is most certainly a life lesson 'plus'.
I have a 2003 GMC Envoy. I found the OnStar box about 10 minutes after I drove it home from the dealer. It's underneath the rear passenger seat.
I kept it hooked up for the first year and used their free 30 minutes of hands free cell phone calls just for grins.
Soon after my 1 year of complimentary OnStar, I disconnected the 2 data cables as well as the GPS can cell antenna. Even had the vehicle in for service a couple of times since then and the dealer didn't say anything about it being disconnected.
If you've come to Fargo, might I suggest travelling just a little bit farther to Rochester, MN.
As a Rochester resident, I hear lots of stories of the "Mayo Miracle". Patients that have exhuasted all other medical avenues with their home town docs and clinics come here. Sometimes they call the operator (507-284-2511) or sometimes they just show up at the ER. The infectous diseases area is 507-538-0030.
There are over 1500 docs and I'm sure one of them will be able to help.
Try to get into a co-op program. Not the housing kind of co-op, but a work/study kind of co-op. Not sure how many of the large corporations are doing it nowadays, but I co-op'd with IBM back in the 80s. Best thing I did for my education and carreer.
Co-oping does three really big things for you. A) It gives you a first look at the working world and allows you to change gears and shift your career based on REAL WORLD experience. B) You get $$ for college. C) You graduate with a resume.
Basically I did 2 years of undergrad, then alternated a semester of work and a semester of school.
I did 3 co-ops with IBM. One in NY, and 2 in VA. The NY coop taught me that I didn't want to code all day long, and VA got me intersted in VLSI, the last coop I did reliability and FA.
The downside of cooping is graduating later than all your friends. You may feel a little out of step with the rest of your class because you keep coming and going. Rent is *EASY* because there is usually someone that drops out and is willing to sublet for a single semester. Summers on campus are easy and cheap because EVERYONE is looking to unload.
You're more focused when you're back on campus after having a 4 month working stint...and you have $$ in your pocket and don't need to get a p/t job to support yourself.
Mom and Dad paid for my first 2 years, then they picked up just tuition the next 2 years. My last year I picked up the tab. That's what felt *really* good.
Oh, and my biggest regret: not taking a world religion course.
Lots of agreement to lots of previous posts...my $0.02:
Back in the day I shot lots of black and white with my Canon F1. The B&W file was cheap (bulk loaded) and I could develop it myself. The great thing about B&W is that it teaches you composition. No pretty flowers to distract the eye...you look for shadows and highlights, an emotion, some action.
I always always figured that 10% of my pics were good enough to print, the rest was junk.
My brother in law just got a fancy Canon Digital SLR (his mom came into some $$ and bought it for him). He's a nice guy, but doesn't know a THING about photography. I'm always explaining f-stops, and shutter speed, and lighting conditions, depth of field, etc. He needs to learn the basics...and at least in the digital realm, he can do it cheaply.
Lately I've noticed people walking around talking to themselves. My first thought is that this is some sort of wacko, but then they turn their head a little bit and I catch a glimpse of a boom mike and realize they're just on the phone.
It's getting harder and harder to pass yourself off as a bona-fide wack-job these days...
When we were actively engaged in the war with Iraq...someone from the media commented that they flew on a transport helicopter that he thought was the same one he flew on in 'Nam.
A friend of mine works high up in the finance department for a big military contractor. I commented to her that the military spending was really just 'welfare for the rich'.
She was initially offended by the comment (having never been called a welfare recipient), but after thinking about it, saw the logic. What would all of those defense contractor programmers, engineers, technicians and production workers actually *DO* if there were no big fat defense contracts?
Call me a bleeding heart, but there's something wrong when the DOD budget is bigger than HHS budget.
This has already been done 20 years ago at the University of Michigan.
The Michigan Terminal System (MTS) had a pretty good email/messaging program ($MESSAGE). MTS was Michigan's proprietary mainframe operating system that ran on Amdahl and IBM hardware. One of the features of the mail system they added (somewhere in the mid 80's) was 'history'. You could reply back and forth, and if you had to look back at the exchange, you gave the command 'history'.
Be careful with that axe Eugene! It could bite you in the ass, because if you forwarded your email to someone else, then THEY could look at your history as well. Had some limitations, but I don't recall the details.
MTS had lots of other goodies, including a really nice conferencing system. Details at:
http://www.clock.org/~jss/work/mts
I worked with a guy that created games as a hobby/second income. He used to bring his prototypes into work and have people mess with them. One I remmeber was a sort of chance/propability type game sending a marble through an array of nails to see which slot it landed in.
I do know that he sold several of his games and does in fact get royalty checks every once in a while. I had heard through the grapevine that he hit it big on one game and sold it in a 6 figure deal.
The point of this post is this: Do your research. He had been talking about this game that he'd been working on for months. Some sort of hockey game, and I didn't pay attention. One day he brings it into work and it was stand up hockey players sandwhiched between two sheets of plexiglass. You control the players with magnets from top and botton. You should have seen the look on his face whenI told him that I had owned a similar game as a kid called "Phil and Tony Esposito Action Hockey". He was really bummed.
At any rate, dunno how you go about marketing/selling a game...but I do know that you don't have to work for Mattel to make a few bucks off it.
Slashdot Mirror
Rochester MN is a mid sized midwestern town of about 100K people. About 6 months ago, one of the two blockbuster videos in town closed. This was the one that was in the same parking lot as a Super Target.
I drive home right past the other blockbuster each and every day. My observation is that it too, is on the skids. Used to be on a Friday night the parking lot was jammed with folks loading up for the weekend. Not anymore. Occaisionally we'll head there on a Sat night for something for the kids or a new release. used to be the parking lot was full and the line to check out was long. Not anymore..the place is a ghost town. Also gone is the "no late fee" policy.
I don't have any evidence to support this, but near as I can tell, netflix and $20 DVD's is kicking blocbusters ass.
To quote the late Hunter S. Thompson:
In a closed society where everyone is guilty, the only crime is getting caught.
In a world of thieves, the ultimate final sin is stupidity.
1) Build a kick-ass wireless network from scratch
2) Staff your call centers and service counters with the BEST
people you can find.
3) Offer to unlock anyones phone, from any provider for free and
put it on your network.
4) Offer no-contract service to anyone
5) Profit!
Onstar was 'standard' on my 2003 Envoy. It adds about $700 to the base price of the vehicle, but you get one year "safe and sound" package for free which is "worth" about $200. I keept the first year, used it once when I had a check engine light come on (left the gas cap off), and used about 2 minutes of my free 30 minutes of cell phone.
AFter enduring several months of onstar literature, they finally gave up on me. The onstar unit for my truck is located underneath one of the back seats. Easy enough to take the cover off and disconnect it, which I had done for about a year till my wife said to hook it back up.
Her cousin consults for OnStar. He told her that even if you aren't a subscriber, that you can hit the button in an emergency and they'll help you out. He said if you are in a bad neighborhood, you can hit the button and say "I don't feel safe" and they'll guide you out. They don't want the bad publicity of someone saying they contacted OnStar in an emergency only to get hung up on because they weren't a subscriber.
I've always wondered that if my vehicle ever got stolen, could I call OnStar up, sign up for the service, then say "oh, by the way, would you mind locating the vehicle...I was just carjacked".
I still think $16/month is too much for OnStar. I'd like to see them implement an "a la carte" menu. Lock your keys in the car, it'll cost you $100. Got your car ripped off AGAIN, that's gonna cost you $200 to locate it. I'd be glad to do a fee-for-service...but I'm just tired of getting nickeled and dimed to death with all these little monthly fees.
A big portion of OnStar subscribers are senior citizens. They like the idea of that someone is there to take care of them in an emergency. My in-laws are looking for a new vehicle, and they are specifically looking at GM so that they can get OnStar.
I feel that if the conservatives want to consider a fetus "life" then they should give it a social security number.
Every vote counts..but what's more important, is who's counting those votes.
A couple of years ago I ordered an HP9000 laser printer for our department. Fast, I mean, FAST printer. The users loved it..until, 3 weeks into the eval, it said the toner was low, then a day or two later, the printer said "toner out" and it just stopped. Refused to print anything more. The brand new cartridge had something like 35K pages on it.
I get on the phone with HP and pitch a bitch at them. They said that the cartridges are metered and that to ensure print quality, they stop at 50K pages. Ok..they why has it only printed 35K pages. The guy explains to me that the cartridge is rated for 50K pages, but really it's 50K rotations of the drum. There's one rotation for the warmup cycle..then a rotation for each page, then one rotation at the end of the print cycle to clean the drum.
So I say, "you're telling me, that the cartridge is only rated for 50K CONTINUIOUS pages, (well, 49,998) and that after 16,666 single page jobs, i'd have to replace the cartridge". That's true he said.
"And there's no way to override this?"
"Nope"
So, I asked how to go about returning the printer. I ended up getting two slower HP 8150's for the cost of this single HP9000.
HP has now changed their tune and said the cartridge has a average yield of 30K pages for $269. We get refurbished HP8150 cartridges for just over $100 and they last at least that long. Run them till they are dry or till they start to suck and we still get close to 25-30K pages out of them.
Tell them you charge $250/hr and they'll stop asking you...
Quality.
Cheap.
Fast (as in time to creat/deliver)
Pick any two.
I saw this back in the 80's in Discover magazine. I even did a school report on it. 13 months each with 28 days. Leap years would get a 'sol' day in the middle of the summer where everyone would get the day off! Hopefully you weren't supersticious because every month had a friday the 13th. Side effect was that it would put all calendar makers out of business...
This has been around for a long time.
I saw this technology over 10 years ago, and then it disappeared off the map. I think the story was that TI had the patent, then it got lost during a shuffle of mergers and selloffs, and resurfaced a few years ago. This company http://www.speralsolar.com/ picked it up and started making them.
The unique idea behind this solar collector is that they use a doped slicon ball bearing embeded in a flexible foil backing. The collector comes of the assembly line in a continuous roll.
Dunno what the price/watt is.
From their web site:
The SuperFlex(TM) solar module is designed to keep your batteries fully charged and/or provide power for portable appliances. Whether you are a boater, RVer or an outdoor enthusiast, the SuperFlex(TM) series will provide enough energy for all your recreational needs. SuperFlex(TM) is available in 25, 50 and 75 watt models making them the most powerful flexible solar panels on the market today
I agree completely.
My wife got me a photo printer with my digital camera some 2.5 years ago. I printed tons of stuff at first, but after I finally did the math, it was clear that online photo printers can do it cheaper and better.
I like http://clubphoto.com/. They have matte prints and production is in Texas, so their stuff gets to me faster in MN than all the other online photo processing which seems to be in OR or CA.
When clubphoto has a sale ($0.17/print) I will send groups of 20 pictures to in-laws and family. Sure, they look at them online, but grandma likes to have the paper and show it to her friends.
I've become the departmental resource for all things realated to digital photography. I say the same thing, don't bother with a fancy photo printer.
I've been using spamgourmet http://spamgourmet.com/ for about a year now. Very nice way to create throwaway email addresses.
You set up and account with them (no charge) and give them your forwarding email address.
Then, when you have to fill in an email on a form somewhere, you give it the format of:
madeupname.n.youraccount@spamgourmet.com
Where
madeupname is something you create on the spot, i.e. amazon, landsend, disney, etc
n is the number of emails you want forwarded before spamgourmet cuts them off.
youraccount is the account you created at spamgourmet.
After the n messages go through, spamgourmet throws everything else into the bitbucket.
it's easy, it's cheap, and it works!
I graduated from the University of Michigan College of Engineering almost 20 years ago.
I'll agree that there is a certain amount of pedigree that goes along with attending the likes of MIT & Harvard...but here's my case for why attending a large university might be a good thing:
o I once had a recruiter from Motorola tell me that he liked recruiting from Michigan because he knew that grads would be able to handle themselves in a large organization like Moto. I'd have to agree. Dealing with red tape is a part of life, and my undergrad years at Michigan taught me how to "work the system".
o I've had my share of crappy professors and even crappier TA's. If there's one thing a big university teaches you is that you can teach yourself just about anything. I've worked with other grads from smaller colleges that knew more nitty gritty detail about this subject or that. It was impressive that they could actually recall some abstract equation, but we were working in a commercial world, not research. Results is what matters, not some detail from some long ago class.
o There's still an "awe" factor being a grad from a big name school like Michigan. I'm at the age where other parents say "My kid wants to go to Michigan." And I say that I'd gladly talk to them about it. I've never met a Michigan grad that wished they had gone to a different school.
But, it's not for everyone. I had a few High School friends attend then drop out. It's a sink or swim environment. Weeder classes are a reality. There's no hand holding. It's a 4 year (well 5 in my case) hazing ritual. No doubt it's high pressure, and people crack. Competition is fierce (especially in engineering). You get a huge ego boost and feeling of accomplishment when you graduate, and you carry that confidence forward the rest of your life.
Did I get an education? Sure I did. Was it as good 'academically' as an education I might receive at a local college or boutique school. Hard to say, but I would guess that it was only marginally better. Would I do it again? Absolutely. Best 5 years of my life. It's like the marines, I went there as a boy and came out a man.
So yes, I would have to say that there is a added plus to attending a larger university. It's not an 'academic' plus, but it is most certainly a life lesson 'plus'.
I have a 2003 GMC Envoy. I found the OnStar box about 10 minutes after I drove it home from the dealer. It's underneath the rear passenger seat.
I kept it hooked up for the first year and used their free 30 minutes of hands free cell phone calls just for grins.
Soon after my 1 year of complimentary OnStar, I disconnected the 2 data cables as well as the GPS can cell antenna. Even had the vehicle in for service a couple of times since then and the dealer didn't say anything about it being disconnected.
This one uses a suspended car instead of vehicle on a track.
http://skytran.net/
If you've come to Fargo, might I suggest travelling just a little bit farther to Rochester, MN.
As a Rochester resident, I hear lots of stories of the "Mayo Miracle". Patients that have exhuasted all other medical avenues with their home town docs and clinics come here. Sometimes they call the operator (507-284-2511) or sometimes they just show up at the ER. The infectous diseases area is 507-538-0030.
There are over 1500 docs and I'm sure one of them will be able to help.
The pilot is going to lose his medical and never fly again.
My guess is that they were screwing around with a laser pointer in the cockpit and the pilot got his eyeball fried.
Make the claim that you saw it come in while you were landing, and you've got a lifetime of disability payments.
Try to get into a co-op program. Not the housing kind of co-op, but a work/study kind of co-op. Not sure how many of the large corporations are doing it nowadays, but I co-op'd with IBM back in the 80s. Best thing I did for my education and carreer.
Co-oping does three really big things for you. A) It gives you a first look at the working world and allows you to change gears and shift your career based on REAL WORLD experience. B) You get $$ for college. C) You graduate with a resume.
Basically I did 2 years of undergrad, then alternated a semester of work and a semester of school.
I did 3 co-ops with IBM. One in NY, and 2 in VA. The NY coop taught me that I didn't want to code all day long, and VA got me intersted in VLSI, the last coop I did reliability and FA.
The downside of cooping is graduating later than all your friends. You may feel a little out of step with the rest of your class because you keep coming and going. Rent is *EASY* because there is usually someone that drops out and is willing to sublet for a single semester. Summers on campus are easy and cheap because EVERYONE is looking to unload.
You're more focused when you're back on campus after having a 4 month working stint...and you have $$ in your pocket and don't need to get a p/t job to support yourself.
Mom and Dad paid for my first 2 years, then they picked up just tuition the next 2 years. My last year I picked up the tab. That's what felt *really* good.
Oh, and my biggest regret: not taking a world religion course.
Lots of agreement to lots of previous posts...my $0.02:
Back in the day I shot lots of black and white with my Canon F1. The B&W file was cheap (bulk loaded) and I could develop it myself. The great thing about B&W is that it teaches you composition. No pretty flowers to distract the eye...you look for shadows and highlights, an emotion, some action.
I always always figured that 10% of my pics were good enough to print, the rest was junk.
My brother in law just got a fancy Canon Digital SLR (his mom came into some $$ and bought it for him). He's a nice guy, but doesn't know a THING about photography. I'm always explaining f-stops, and shutter speed, and lighting conditions, depth of field, etc. He needs to learn the basics...and at least in the digital realm, he can do it cheaply.
It's getting harder and harder to pass yourself off as a bona-fide wack-job these days...
When we were actively engaged in the war with Iraq...someone from the media commented that they flew on a transport helicopter that he thought was
the same one he flew on in 'Nam.
A friend of mine works high up in the finance department for a big military contractor. I commented to her that the military spending was really just 'welfare for the rich'.
She was initially offended by the comment (having never been called a welfare recipient), but after thinking about it, saw the logic. What would all of those defense contractor programmers, engineers, technicians and production workers actually *DO* if there were no big fat defense contracts?
Call me a bleeding heart, but there's something wrong when the DOD budget is bigger than HHS budget.
The Michigan Terminal System (MTS) had a pretty good email/messaging program ($MESSAGE). MTS was Michigan's proprietary mainframe operating system that ran on Amdahl and IBM hardware. One of the features of the mail system they added (somewhere in the mid 80's) was 'history'. You could reply back and forth, and if you had to look back at the exchange, you gave the command 'history'.
Be careful with that axe Eugene! It could bite you in the ass, because if you forwarded your email to someone else, then THEY could look at your history as well. Had some limitations, but I don't recall the details.
MTS had lots of other goodies, including a really nice conferencing system. Details at: http://www.clock.org/~jss/work/mts
I worked with a guy that created games as a hobby/second income. He used to bring his prototypes into work and have people mess with them. One I remmeber was a sort of chance/propability type game sending a marble through an array of nails to see which slot it landed in.
I do know that he sold several of his games and does in fact get royalty checks every once in a while. I had heard through the grapevine that he hit it big on one game and sold it in a 6 figure deal.
The point of this post is this: Do your research. He had been talking about this game that he'd been working on for months. Some sort of hockey game, and I didn't pay attention. One day he brings it into work and it was stand up hockey players sandwhiched between two sheets of plexiglass. You control the players with magnets from top and botton. You should have seen the look on his face whenI told him that I had owned a similar game as a kid called "Phil and Tony Esposito Action Hockey". He was really bummed.
At any rate, dunno how you go about marketing/selling a game...but I do know that you don't have to work for Mattel to make a few bucks off it.