Inside the world of Rob Mclean, Author

If you ever wondered what it would be like to hear a politician speak the plain truth, you've got to watch Ron Paul's farewell speech that he gave this week. Now in his late 70s, Ron Paul won't be returning to congress next year. Infamously known as Dr. No (for voting against spending increases) and for inspiring (the start of) a Libertarian revolution during the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, whether you agree or disagree with him, he's one of the few politicians who tells it like it is (and hence why neither party, Republican or Democrat, have ever embraced him... he's always been a thorn in their side). In an era of carefully tailored PR talking points designed to address the various cares of special interest groups, Ron Paul speaks to the masses as a whole. He doesn't tell them what they want to hear, he simply tells them the truth. His final speech is something worth saving and re-visiting as we watch the world unfold around us in the years...

I blogged about Wind Mobile a while ago - Bye Bye Landline, Hello Smartphone - and for a long time I've been a happy Wind customer, until today! My advice to anyone considering Wind Mobile is to seriously reconsider (I feel guilty that a year ago I spoke so highly of Wind). Here is what has soured me on Wind Mobile... Worst Tech Support EVER! Seriously, their tech support might just be the worst I've ever experienced (and I remember the days when Rogers was using India for all their tech support). The agents basically don't speak English. They speak broken English and really can't understand anything you are asking. You literally will get so frustrated that you will simply hang up. In addition, no matter what your problem is (billing for instance) you get put through to tech support, who have no idea how to help you. Inconsistent Billing So if you are on an unlimited voice, text and data plan your bill should be the same every month right? WRONG. The a...

If you are like me and have a whiteboard then you know how hard it is to find whiteboard cleaner. Hardly anyone carries it any more and those that do usually carry these tiny little bottle for five bucks or more. Now, five bucks is no big deal, but I hate paying more than something is worth. So I went in search of an alternative. It turns out that you can use rubbing alcohol to clean your whiteboard. I just tried it and it works great. If you are using pure rubbing alcohol you should mix it with four parts water to one part rubbing alcohol. I'm using a 70% Isopropyl rubbing alcohol solution and it doesn't need to be watered down (I just pour some on a paper towel, wipe down the board and voila, good as new). You can mix up a large batch though and put it in a spray bottle, you don't have to use a paper towel. Anyway, instead of a 200 ml bottle for five bucks you can get a big 500ml bottle (of rubbing alcohol) for two bucks. Not to mention, you can also use the rub...

Looks very cool....

Conrad Black wrote an interesting (if not foreboding) piece in the National Post which sums up the US elections -  Conrad Black: The Obama Disaster: Part II  - it's worth a read. It highlights the PR problem that Obama is going to face in his second term, which is that he is a highly polarized figure. Half the folks love him and half think he's a phony and a giant failure. To quote Black:  .... If American politics continues along these lines, the social strains, piled onto the funeral pyre of the national accounts, will put the fate of what has long been the world’s greatest nation in acute doubt. Canadians who are rejoicing today should not imagine that the ripples of the American crisis will replicate a day at the beach when the ripples from it land on our shore. There is an opportunity for Canada and Germany and a few other countries that have played their cards relatively wisely (and China is not particularly one of them), but the geopolitical vacuum i...

Story broke yesterday that Colorado and Washington have legalized the use of marijuana for recreational use (as opposed to just medicinal use). While the two states may have legalized marijuana it remains a crime at the federal level, so it will be interesting to see whether Obama cracks down on the two states and overrules them. The decision to make marijuana legal was the result of citizens voting, so a federal crack down would be interesting as it would be a case of superseding the democratic rights of the states' citizens. Either way, this development reminded me of a blog entry I wrote a long time ago about this issue - decriminalizing drugs - interesting PR . The points I make in the post still holds true today. I don't think that people are necessarily PRO marijuana so much as they are AGAINST destroying people's lives with criminal charges because they smoked a joint.  I think a lot of folks are like myself... I don't use marijuana, but I really don...

Fidelity just released what I think is one of the best, yet at the same time worst, commercials ever. "Today is the day" is a commercial for their trading services (ie. investing) and the theme is clearly that investing is a 'game' and that it's all about the 'thrill of winning'. While they don't use those words, the theme is clear. It's one of the best ads in the sense that it makes you want to go gamble.  You can imagine yourself taking on the markets and raising your fist in victory like the guy in the commercial. It's one of the worst (most socially irresponsible) ads because it makes you want to go gamble!  Especially given this is the worst time ever to be investing in my opinion (much less trading). Investing (use to be) about diversification and using savings to generate a consistent return on capital to  help people enjoy a better retirement (or achieve retirement in the first place). The 'day trader' phenomena of t...

I'm not a historian so I can't even answer my own question, but one has to wonder if this might go down as the ugliest 'win' in US Presidential history. The reason I say this is the following - if the projections on Huffington Post site (as for 11:43pm Eastern) hold, it looks like Obama has won the electoral college (and hence the Presidency) yet could still easily lose the popular vote.  (note: as of 12:12am, while electorally Obama is at 290 electoral votes, Romney still holds the popular vote).  In addition to potentially losing the popular vote, more states voted for Romney. If you didn't take the electoral college into consideration you'd have thought Romney won (the map is covered in red more so than blue).   One has to wonder if this is perhaps the ugliest win in US Presidential history as a result.  From a PR perspective this is about as bad as it can get for the next four years.  The best case scenario would have been a decisi...

I've always been slightly negative on apps for Android and iPhone simply because most of them are a total waste of time. That said, I stumbled on a couple that I thought I'd mention. Quit Smoking Log  (free) For those who smoke and want to quit (such as myself) or who want to cut back this is the app for you. I've tried tons of quit smoking apps and they are all annoying. The biggest annoying thing is that if you forget to record a smoke you have no way of doing so later. With Quit Smoking Log it lets you insert entries and input the time you smoked. This way, when you look at your statistics they actually reflect your smoking pattern. Carbodroid (free) If you are like me you probably don't drink nearly enough water during the day. Carbodroid is a neat little app that lets you track your H2O drinking. Nothing flashing about this app, but that's what makes it good.  Simply click on the glass every time you drink and your Android guy fills up with...

So the Presidential election is only a couple days away now. All the campaigning has essentially been done and all that's left is for Americans to vote. Right now it appears to be about as close a race as it could be. Some polls have Romney up a couple points, others have Obama up a couple points. Some pundits argue Obama has locked in the electoral college. Others argue Romney has locked in the popular vote. So here is my official prediction, based purely on PR, as to who will be the next President. The winner will be ..... I don't know . I know, what a let down eh? But based on the campaigns each candidate has run, it's truly impossible to know who will win. Both have run pretty bad campaigns. While Romney tried to chop his food off with a kitchen knife early in the race, he later recovered and has held that recovery. While Obama has failed to deliver on most of his 2008 promises and blames the economy on Republicans and George W Bush (showing a marked lack...

So Hurricane Sandy hit and it was a mess. While the President and Gov. Chris Christie did their tour of ground zero was it enough to contain a potential PR disaster? At first it looked like it might be, but in the proceeding days what we've seen is a string of media reports that have made everyone associated with the disaster, from FEMA to the media itself, cast in a negative light. Some of the highlights include: Staten Island residents rip in to the Red Cross View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com . View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com . Michael Moore went on CNN and ripped in to them for their coverage of Hurricane Sandy. I have to admit, it's pretty absurd that the media is telling people to 'leave' while at the same time the reporter telling people to leave is not leaving himself.  The unspoken message from the media is that if it's safe enough for them to be there, it's probably safe enough for you too (which was NOT ...