I read an article written by John C. Dvorak posted on MarketWatch about Foxconn;  I thought it was quite interesting and worth a read.

From what friends have told me and from most reports it is “essentially a steel mill on one end and computers come out of the other end.”

Read More: Foxconn’s troubles expose China’s woes

After the Vegas DEFCON ATM debacle where hackers hacked hackers by setting up a fake ATM in front of the facilities security office, I needed to see how stupid easy it was to buy an ATM and just set it up anywhere. So my search began.

I started looking on e-bay and found plenty of new and used ATMs ranging from $500-2500 but quickly determined I didn’t want to pay $300 for shipping. Next was Craigslist…

I quickly found an ad from a bar north of Boston. They were selling pool tables, Budweiser neon signs and an ATM. I took my hacker with me and met Bob. Bob rented a room above the bar and was doing the deed for the owner. The bar was an old relic that was closing and liquidating its grungy assets. The ATM was sitting right next to the bar covered in 5 years of beer. Thank heavens they were smart enough to cover the keypad in clear plastic…

Needless to say I wanted to unbolt this thing as quickly as possible, get out of there and douse myself head to toe in pure alcohol hand sanitizer. After my hacker played with the manual, got it working and determined it was worth the financial risk, we loaded it on my trailer, paid $750 (down from a grand) and brought it home and put it in my garage.

My hacker comes over to my garage, manual in hand, all giggly, like hackers sometimes do and says “Watch this”. He punches the master codes to access the machines data on a device called an eprom and hundreds of credit and debit card numbers just start falling all over the floor…

One of the reasons I don’t use ATMs.  The other reason?  I RARELY use cash.

Why close them? Why not convert them to plants that produce vehicles that consumers want. I do have to say, though, the writing has been on the wall. I would like to meet the board of directors and ask them where they got the strategy to build SUVs. I know they are profitable, but the board should be smart enough to realize that the strategy to build SUVs is not sustainable. Jesus. If I was a stock holder in this company, I would be trying desperately to knock the entire board and management team out. I sense they are a bunch of yes men, or greedy people. Obviously most of the board incompetent to lead General Motors.

On a related note, at the most recent USG shareholder meeting, the shareholders voted (I voted NO) to add Robert Barnett to our board of directors. Mr. Barnett was a retired Executive Vice President of Motorola. So here are the two questions I have:

1. Why did shareholders add a member to the board that was previously part of the management of a technology company. USG is a building supplies manufacturer. Does not make sense to me.
2. Why did shareholders add him to the board when he has been part of the management team that has lead Motorola into a spiral of death?

When do I get to run a company?