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It's one thing to have preferences, and quite another to show loyalty to a brand over all others - regardless of price, features (in most cases) or how long it takes to acquire the product. And at times, it's not clear where the said brand "earned" the customer loyalty - was it through a past positive experience, or through successful advertising and celebrity endorsement? How do we form brand loyalties, and stick to our guns when generic or alternative offerings may perform adequately?

I've often told my wife that "in our house, we don't purchase generics", or "we don't shop at CostCo". Sure, we probably would save a few bucks if I wasn't such an elitist twit, but given that's not going to change, it's interesting to see how we let brands express who we are. I have a favorite brand for almost everything - it's ridiculous. Some of the most obvious brand loyalties are very common. For jeans, I prefer Levis, and simply won't purchase any other brand. I prefer Diet Coke over Diet Pepsi... but somewhere along the way, I also decided that Cascade was my preferred dish detergent, Cheer is the laundry detergent, and when given my druthers, I'd bring home Coast bath soap. I don't get it. But if given a shopping list that said simply "laundry detergent, dish soap and bath soap", that's what I would come home with 9 out of 10 times, unless of course a competitor was offering a mean deal where I could buy one get one free... and to pick it up, I'd much rather go to Safeway than Albertson's.

In technology, Apple has been my brand for as long as I can seem to recall. It was a shock to me to enter college and realize that 9 out of 10 computers ran Windows, and not the other way around. This year, I became visibly upset when a co-worker of mine purchased some off-brand MP3 player, and not an iPod, which to me was a completely obvious choice. I even offered to help her trade it in... and she now knows better than to bring it up. When I was younger, I wouldn't purchase any running shoes unless they were from Nike, and to this day I don't like buying clothes from anywhere except Macy's - or Men's Wearhouse if I need to get dressed up. The worst thing you can do to my budget is leave me alone for 30 minutes in Macy's - because I'm sure I can find an Alfani brand something that I just don't happen to have that shade of already.

On the Web, brand is somewhat blurred. I don't visit MSNBC - period, because of that MS in the front. Microsoft may as well stand for Multiple Sclerosis for as much as I want to do with it. I don't visit MSN, and won't ever get a Hotmail account. I used to be the same way about Yahoo! - and for years avoided getting a Yahoo! account because it was 1) started by Stanford students, and 2) the generic link aggregation site that everybody and their dog had a logo for on their cheesy Web site. While I have preferred sites and plenty of bookmarks, articles are not more reputable because of their brand - they simply may be written more clearly or with an angle I like over another.

If I align myself with a brand that I take pride in, I want people to know that I've done so, as that brand represents a choice I've made. On my car, I have three logo stickers for the A's, Apple and TiVo. I will actively market those brands because I believe in what they do. I can talk to anybody who asks about those brands and what they stand for. But, somehow, I don't think you'll see logos for Cascade and Coast going up soon. That's probably another discussion for another post.

According to the latest CBS News poll, President-select Bush's approval ratings are at an all-time low of 34%, while his part-time vice president, part-time friend shooter, Dick Cheney scored even worse, with an 18% approval rating. Think about that for a second... when the old commercials used to say "Four out of Five dentists prefer you brush with toothpaste every day", there was always the one rogue dentist who didn't see eye to eye with reality. That one out of five nut job just happens to be the head case who also thinks the administration is doing well. Time to take the guy's car keys away, cancel any licenses he may have, and bar them from voting in any election ever.

If after mishandling Hurricane Katrina, leading us into an unjust, unending war in Iraq with falsified evidence, and spying on innocent American citizens wasn't enough to deter them from approving of the administration's activities, then maybe the Valerie Plame affair or the latest Dubai ports conflict will push them further toward sanity. After all, according to the same poll, seven in ten Americans is opposed to the agreement, including 58 percent of Republicans, and two out of three think our work in Iraq is destabilizing the region.

Meanwile, instead of enacting policy, Bush has been giving interviews to a book author chronicling his presidency, for a piece called "Strategery". I feel safer already.

Download the full survey in PDF

In the late 1990's, when Apple was "beleaguered" and people were more concerned with how many layoffs they would have or how much money they were set to lose each quarter, there was a small contingent of "Mac faithful" who lived and died with every MacWorld Expo keynote, Apple earnings call, and in the old days, Seybold conference, where Apple leveraged its strong roots in publishing to launch the latest in Mac hardware or OS tools. But we (yes, I was one of them) were considered the lunatic fringe, the exception to the rule.

Now, with Apple having been rebirthed through a string of successes, started with the original Bondi Blue iMac in 1998, the introduction of Mac OS X in 2001, the overwhelming domination of the iPod and iTunes Music Store, and Apple's adoption of Intel chips, the number following Apple's announcements has grown dramatically. Mainstream tech sites openly speculate on what Steve Jobs and crew will uncover, and technology blogs are holding contests to mock up images in great anticipation of tomorrow's planned unveilings. Apple hasn't said anything publicly, but invited select media to attend a special event Tuesday morning for "some new fun products". Speculation has run rampant, from an iTunes Video Store, offering full-length feature films, to a new iPod HiFi Boombox, and new hardware - from a consumer MacBook (replacing the iBook) and a Mac Media Center, based on today's Mac Mini.

This speculation comes on the heels of the weekend rumor that Apple was considering a purchase of Disney, with Steve Jobs already owning 7% of the company, following their acquisition of Pixar. In fact, my post on this from Saturday was mentioned on one of Apple's more consistent rumor sites - "The Unofficial Apple Weblog" or TUAW, for short. In their short article, they said, "Blogger Louis Gray thinks it can only happen in  "a business reporter's dream." He argues that the financials don't add up and worries that taking over Disney would quash the possibility of Apple offering shows from competitors like NBC or Viacom/MTV on iTunes."

Funny, and I thought nobody was paying attention - given the lack of comments on the site.

Last year, on a lazy Saturday, I read a product review on Plasq's Comic Life, which was one Mac OS X application, unavailable for Windows, that took advantage of the Mac's inherent tilt toward design, and mimicked the ease of use and layout of Apple's iLife applications, enabling users to create their own comics from photos on their computer - using iPhoto. Bored, and amused by the idea, I downloaded the product, and quickly whipped up my first comic - featuring our 16-year-old beagle. Comic Life was easy to use, letting me add captions and word art, even though I don't have any kind of creative skills.

While that was fun, I felt I had to stretch to find another use for the inherently enjoyable product. I needed something that would be interesting, and where photos were readily available... which led me to the Oakland A's. Every A's game and practice yields dozens of AP or media photographs, and innumerable amateur photos. Within hours, I had downloaded enough photos to have my first attempt - a caricature of then-A's outfielder Eric Byrnes, cast as "Eric Byrnes - Superhero!". Eric was a perfect candidate, a player who gave his all into every play with sometimes hilarious outcomes - whether that meant body-crushing dives at missed balls into the outfield, taking the extra base, or tackling unruly, inebriated fans.

I took the new comic and posted it to Athletics Nation, hoping someone would find it amusing. Some did, demanding more. By the end of the day, I posted a follow-up, but there was no way to keep up the pace, with focus on a single player. Even worse, Byrnes was traded later in the week. I was foiled, but did a third and final comic as an epilogue. But by now, AN and I were hooked. I had the Comic Life bug, and launched from my experience covering Byrnes to what eventually become the ANtics - posted weekly, and set to continue through the A's 2006 season.

I don't consider myself a comic. I just happened to be the first to leverage some outstanding software and focus it on the A's. If I can do it, you can do it. Just download Comic Life yourself and get started. You'll be a pro in minutes.

Related Links: Plasq Comic Life | Flickr Gallery of Comic Life Art

It's a secret pleasure - but Fox's War at Home, which debuted after the Simpsons this season, featuring lead actor Michael Rapaport and an atypical dysfunctional family with two sons and a teenage daughter, has been much better than I ever could have expected. Though we haven't had a chance to catch every single show, due to conflicts with NBC's The West Wing, in its final season, I have yet to see an episode that didn't keep me laughing all the way through. Irreverent, surprisingly insightful and absurd all at once, War At Home quickly made its way onto our TiVo's season pass list, and we've even caught ourselves watching the reruns - for the jokes are still funny.

While the show's two main characters, Rapaport and wife Vicky, played by Anita Barone, have a sordid past, and checkered present, the show tries to mean well - they want their kids to get good grades, stay out of trouble, and generally avoid being too ridiculous, whether for their own good or to avoid parental embarrassment. In early episodes, War At Home has discussed teen drinking, first relationships, the potential of having a gay son, and revisiting old flings with former partners. While it's not likely to be critically acclaimed or be confused with 60 Minutes or Law and Order, War At Home is a raw look at conversations likely going on in homes around the country, if parents are taking the time to talk to their kids at all.

It can be caught on Sundays at 8:30 p.m., immediately following the Simpsons. Set your DVRs.

Microsoft (MSFT) has been making a lot of noise of late in trying to take on Apple's (AAPL) 4-year lead with the iPod. While Windows Media has had strong success, Microsoft's efforts to promote tablet PCs through its OEM partners or promoting Windows Media Center have been less successful.

The company's software roots have prevented it from competing head on with the iPod, with the Xbox monopolizing Microsoft's hardware efforts, as the company prefers to rely on Gateway (GTW), HP (HPQ), Dell (DELL) and others to promote its products. But following the rise and fall of the Dell DJ (now only the DJ Ditty is offered), Creative's MuVo and Zen lines, and a myriad of flash player iPod wannabes, the iPod continues to have the overwhelming majority of unit sales and revenue, and Microsoft can't be too pleased.

In the last week, leaked images and a video of an upcoming product called "Origami" are making the rounds on the usual sites - including Engadget. A video promoting the product shows users operating the device with a handheld stylus, listening to MP3s, acting as a drawing tablet, and handling digital photography. Significantly larger than the iPod, but smaller than a sub-laptop, Origami is in avocado green, and certainly can't fit into your pocket. Estimates have said the device could debut in the $500 range, but all is clearly speculative at this point.

With the tablet PC market being in the gutter, is the world ready for a Microsoft-led offering, and does it stand a chance at breaking through Apple's iPod/iTunes duopoly?

Related Links:

The Origami Project
Engadget: Microsoft's Origami Project

The second ANtics comic of 2006 was posted to Athletics Nation this morning, highlighting the advances the A's have made on the offensive side, to match up with what's expected to be one of the best pitching staffs in all of baseball. Spring training is under way, and while we're all watching to see how Bradley, Thomas and Loaiza integrate with their new teammates, many fans, reporters and the A's themselves are eager to see if the team's offense will show marked improvement over what was an inconsistent part of the team in 2005. In this edition of the ANtics, we talk with Blanton, Zito and others about whether they will get the run support they need to be successful.


Click to See Larger Comic

ANtics Archive: 2005/06 ANtics | ANtics Extras

Slashdot is the premier site for geek-related news, insight and updates. After all, they bill themselves as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". Slashdot, one of the first and strongest community-focused Weblogs out there, has amassed significant pull and traffic - delivering what's know as the "Slashdot Effect", where a single story's posting can push so much traffic to the original URL that the site's server will slow down or in some cases, keel over.

But as the site grows in popularity, and users spiral upward, the number of stories submitted on a daily basis for editorial review to the site similarly expands, and the likelihood that what you find interesting will get accepted is decreased. That's why I've been intrigued with having seen the last four suggestions I posted be accepted. I don't know what the standard admittance rate is, but I'm sure it's well below 100 percent. But my feeling is the reason the last four I proposed made the site is because they were focused on news that hadn't yet been covered, they were written up concisely, and in a way that would be interesting to their core audience.

This morning, my comments on the proposed acquisition of Disney by Apple were posted to the site. Adding on to two I posted at the end of last year, and one earlier this month, I've got a streak of four going. It's like a little badge of honor, but I won't let it go to my head, will I?

Unfortunately for me, the ANtics don't just up and write themselves... which means every once in a while, one of my half-baked ideas turns out to be just that... half-baked. Usually I catch myself before getting all the way through a strip, but sometimes, they're all written up before I realize its a creative disaster.

This evening, I posted two of the comics that never made to Athletics Nation in a diary on AN - the first being "Zito's Zen Routine", which debuted here earlier this week, and the second, a comic that examined the A's activities during a losing streak. Neither of the two comics were good enough or timely enough to hit the front page of AN, so they've been gathering figurative dust on my hard drive since their creation.

The Athletics Nation diary can be found here. The full archive of ANtics can be found here.

On Friday, the judge overseeing the long haggled patent infringement case between Research In Motion (RIMM) and NTP Software gave the BlackBerry handheld maker a short-term reprieve, avoiding a service shutdown and sending sighs of relief out from Silicon Valley to Washington DC and beyond, as those who rely on the BlackBerry for everything from critical life-saving emergencies to those who hunt and peck at the devices like addicts saw their fears of being cut off quelled - for now.

The story of NTP vs. RIM is complicated. The short version is that NTP software owns patents regarding sending e-mail data to wireless devices, despite having never created machinery to take advantage of their inventions. When RIM developed their handheld BlackBerry, and NTP believed it to infringe on their patents, RIM was slow to respond, not taking the holding company seriously. While in the years since, NTP has seen many of their patents invalidated, as in parallel the case progressed, legal analysts are faulting RIM for not finding a way out of this morass before now, declining settlement proposals, and there remains the possibility that the millions of BlackBerry users out there may be forced to turn to the Palm Treo or another option. While RIM has offered a work-around, should they lose the case, others aren't convinced it's a workable solution.

I remember first being introduced to BlackBerry in 1999 or 2000 by a co-worker who had acquired version 1.0 of their product. It was black and bulky, but did send and receive e-mail. I wasn't too impressed - thinking that Handspring/Palm's offerings would eventually manage to handle e-mail in a more elegant package. As usual, I was wrong. BlackBerry took off. I've got one, and they're the standard at the office. I don't know of anybody who is rooting for RIM to fail. Everybody wants them to win, and finds this case to be a great example of the patent litigation system just being a tad nutty. At least, for once, it's a small company pushing a large company, and not a large bully using patents as a legal sword to stifle competition. There's sure to be some interesting developments in the coming months, so we'll watch and see.

Sometimes, you have to wonder if the business trades have anything resembling sources or financial acumen to provide real insight or scoops. This week, Barron's is suggesting that with Steve Jobs on board as the number one shareholder of Disney (DIS), following Pixar's acquisition, that Disney is ripe for the plucking for an acquisition by Apple (AAPL). Yes, you read that right. The article says that Disney is horribly undervalued, and that Jobs would take the opportunity to "take it out".

Anybody who's followed the world of Apple rumors for longer than say, since the iPod was introduced, can remember this rumor du jour being floated, but in the opposite direction. If it wasn't Disney buying Apple, or Sun (SUNW) buying Apple, it was Larry Ellison (ORCL) buying Apple, or in Michael Dell's (DELL) fantasy world, that Apple would shut down and give their money to the shareholders. Now that the Pixar deal is consummated, people are chomping at the bit for the next big move.

But look at the numbers. Apple has a $60 billion market cap, and Disney's is over $50 billion. Apple's cash on hand is in the $10 billion range. And does Apple really want to own ESPN and ABC and Disneyland, Disney World and the whole bit? Wouldn't Apple prefer to continue dominating the technology space in innovation, and leave media monopolies alone? Wouldn't a Disney acquisition eliminate the possibility of working with NBC's shows on iTunes, or working with Viacom/MTV? It would seem the conflicts and competition would outweigh a purchase of Disney - Pixar or not.

Steve Jobs has surprised us before. Apple's acquisition of Next resulted in Jobs' triumphant return to lead Apple to unforeseen new heights, but an acquisition of Disney? Only in a business reporter's dream world!

You know that sinking feeling that hits you when you realize you accidentally hit "Reply All" instead of reply, or accidentally sent an e-mail that hadn't been completed or edited, or the sudden realization you accidentally CC'd somebody with a similar name to the intended recipient? We've all done it. Now imagine the absolute horror that befell the admissions director at UC Berkeley's law school, after they told ALL 7,000 applicants they had been admitted - when in actuality, only about 800 will make it!

As written in a Computerworld story released today, that very thing happened during an innocent training exercise.

The story says, "Tom was demonstrating the e-mail software used by the school and was highlighting several features, including how the user can filter mail and set it to send messages to one recipient or many at the same time.That’s when he chose what happened to be a standard congratulatory message on being admitted to the university’s prestigious law school and accidentally sent it to all 7,000 students who have applied for admission to the law school."

Now let's think about this. Do you believe any of these prospective law students have access to a say... lawyer? Haven't they suffered unjust pain and suffering? Do you remember the absolute stress you felt when you were awaiting acceptance letters from college or any post-graduate programs? To ride the incredible high and devastating lows of learning you'd been admitted only to find it was a clerical error is just mind-numbing.

You can see the school's admitting the error here.

When I was applying to colleges, I had applied to UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UCLA, as well as BYU and Chico State (for backup). Through one of the UC's more arcane rules, they didn't accept my selected major to UCLA, and chose to refund my $40 admission fee instead of taking my alternate major. After trying to re-apply and get back in the running, I eventually found myself rejected by UCLA, and getting in everywhere else. Finding out I didn't get into UCLA, even when I could blame the bureaucracy for part of it, was crushing. I had a dream of going to UCLA with my best friend from high school (he got in), and had that taken away with a small envelope that told me how difficult it was to get in in the first place. Now, 80 percent of these applicants to Berkeley law school will get to learn they didn't get in - twice.

Just ten days ago, I wrote on here to say that my wife and I had wrapped up our 2005 taxes, courtesy of using TurboTax online. This morning, I had the pleasant surprise of logging into my Wells Fargo account online and seeing I had quite a bit more cash than when I'd gone to bed the night before. That's always good. The reason for it was that both our tax refunds from the state and federal levels were deposited automatically, getting me the money that was rightly ours in the first place back a lot more quickly. Now, with it not even being March, we can close the door on our 2005 finances.

Of course... that depends on whether our good friends at the IRS opt to open up the discussion at any point in the future. After all, it's their right to do so, but I say, bring it on. We're ready.

Every year, especially as the date moves closer to April 15th, you hear the inevitable belly-aching and gnashing of teeth over the stress of taxes, getting the forms right, making sure your deductions are in order. But I've never quite understood why. It's a right of passage. It's a challenge. There's some nostalgia involved - especially as I go through every single stock trade from the previous year. (I owned that? What was I thinking?) And there's definitely some self-satisfaction to finishing the task well ahead of time and with a minimum of fuss. I almost would beg for the sticker that says "I paid my taxes", the same way you get one that says "I voted", if you're one of the 38% of us who do that every couple of years or so.

At least today, I feel like we're financially secure. But almost all of the refund already has to be spent on bills that were outstanding, and simply catches us up. But today, I have cash - let's see if I can hold onto that feeling.

It's one thing to live in a modern society and have access to the finest things - reliable transportation, high-speed Internet, comfortable housing, cable TV... I'm sure your list is different than mine... but with the Internet dominating our communications tools, and near exclusive 24 by 7 reliance on the power, telephone and cable wires into our homes, any interruption is, needless to say, very annoying and undesired.

We got home late this evening to find all our digital clocks flashing "12:00", and the cable Internet out. We then checked the cable TV and found it too was on the blink. We managed to watch an archived TiVo show of Jon Stewart before everything came back to normal, just in time for my wife to be surprised by the lady's figure skating results - hours and hours after the rest of the world had learned of the outcome. Just after the competition had concluded around midnight, everything went dark and we lost power again. More than halfway through an online submission form for the office, I knew that effort had been in vain, and I shut the laptop, while my wife got out candles and the flashlight so we could stumble around and hope power came on before we were to wake up.

Obviously, it did. We were out for only 30 minutes... this time.

Our leaders hem and holler and worry about outside risks to our infrastructure or massive disasters, but all you need are some teenagers, some booze, and a well-placed telephone pole to knock us off the grid, and that's ridiculous.

The Web offers more content sources than ever before, from people with storied, credentialed histories, as well as anonymous bloggers and commenters who may present themselves as experts, whether they have knowledge of their space, or not. With so many comments and posts being written in a constant deluge of words, how do readers determine where they'll stay? How does one gain credibility in this new medium?

Some would argue that only through proving their posts factually accurate, or their opinions applicable, can bloggers draw credibility and respect, leading to repeat visits and consistency. The argument is that through increased awareness of opposing viewpoints, visitors can learn from the other side and adopt new insight. But I think often the opposite is true, and the Web makes it even easier to "stick to your guns". It is human nature to seek out a community of peers and equals, of those who yearn for the same things or have parallel experiences. At the same time, there are also those who have opposing viewpoints, undesired by the first group. As such, two polarized and wholly separate communities will grow and thrive. And after visitors find themselves acclimated to a community, they aren't likely to visit its polar opposite, but instead will latch onto branches of the same tree and stick close to the familiar and comfortable.

The most clear example of this on the Web is in the political realm. For left-leaning political discussion, Daily Kos has no equal. On the right, you have the Free Republic. The two sides are in such contrast that no one sane user would be registered and active on both sites. A Daily Kos user would instead migrate to friendly sites like Talking Points Memo, MyDD, Eschaton and This Modern World, bookmarking each, and slowly traversing the left-o-sphere, rather than getting a more broad view. Similarly in technology, you see a bifurcation of opinions - Macintosh vs. Windows, Open Source vs. Microsoft.... basically, Microsoft vs. anybody. For Mac fans, one would move from MacNN and MacInTouch to MacCentral to Apple message boards, to the rumors sites aplenty... MacRumors, Think Secret, AppleInsider. But there's no interest from a Mac user to join the WinSuperSite or worship at the throne of John Dvorak.

To measure credibility on the Web, visitors are looking for people who already agree with their opinions. They're not so much looking to be changed or to gain information from other viewpoints, but to instead become more hardened in their positions - just as you would in the real world, with Fox News viewers kissing up to Rush Limbaugh. There may be more sources for news out there, more viewpoints, but visitors aren't interested. They just want to hear that they are right and there are others there to cheer on their pre-conceived notions.

Not all of the drafted ANtics comics have been posted to Athletics Nation - some with good reason. They just weren't funny. Here's one from the cutting floor drafted during the 2005 regular season, starring Oakland A's left handed ace, Barry Zito. Click the image for a larger picture.

For more, visit the 2005 ANtics Archive.

Apple is on quite a roll with their iPod/iTunes music combo, which has propelled the once "beleaguered" computer company to the forefront of the technology leadership curve. In fact, at one point last month, only a few years removed from Michael Dell's catty comment that he would close Apple and divide up the take among the shareholders, Apple's (AAPL) market capitalization eclipsed that of Dell (DELL) itself. Though the stock has gone down a bit since then, the company's momentum has not.

Now, three years into the iTunes Music Store launch, Apple is on the verge of selling its one billionth song. The company announced a plethora of gifts to loyal music store customers, offering a free iPod Nano and gift card for each song sold at a multiple of 100,000 and is ramping up for the big prize -- whoever purchases the 1 billionth song will receive a new 20-inch iMac, 10 60 Gigabyte iPods, and a whopping $10,000 to spend at the iTunes Music Store for any media. I can't even think how I could spend $2,000, but I'm sure I'd find a way, given the challenge.

According to my iTunes library, my "purchased" collection from the iTunes Music Store numbers just under 1,000, at 982, since my first song purchase on April 28, 2003. I purchased 25 songs that day, ranging from R.E.M. and U2 to Traci Lords and DJ Encore. The iTunes Music Store has grown up in a big way since, offering a much greater set of music to choose from. The company's consistent pricing also throws a wrench into any of the retail stores who might otherwise get my money, and I've practically eliminated my spending on Amazon.com since the iTunes Music Store's introduction.

In the next hour, Apple will most likely hit 1 billion, and I'll try to win the big prize. If I do win, you'll be sure to know.

I first heard one of Bank of America's promotions for their new "Keep the Change" campaign while on a business trip last Spring in Arizona. The idea sounded preposterous - the bank would help you save money by taking the difference between your debits and the nearest whole dollar and depositing it into your savings account - theoretically helping you create a nest egg for the future. Somehow, they expect that we have no financial planning abilities, and that the nickels and dimes they transfer from one account to another will make us all rich some day, something we couldn't have achieved on our own, through stocks and bonds, real estate, or common sense.

Now, the commercials are getting more air time. This evening, during Winter Olympics coverage on NBC, an ad featured a young boy doing the math in his head while his mother paid for groceries. He gleefully spouted off 87 cents if she had been charged $4.13. Oh, what a bright young man, and how lucky we are for Bank of America to come to his family's aid and prepare for his inevitably illustrious college career! Ridiculous. If his parents have to rely on Bank of America to guard their piggy bank, it's not likely that little Johnny is going to make it to a community college, let alone a reputable four-year university.

The "Keep the Change" campaign effectively gives Bank of America the right to overcharge you not just on a small number of your purchases, but EVERY purchase. It guarantees that you will always pay more than the cost of goods. It gives Bank of America the right to take even more money from their clients and invest it as they choose to make even more money for the bank. And what is the likelihood that this campaign will even be around when it's Johnny's turn to brave the SATs? Marketing programs come and go, and with silly exceptions like Free Checking, most don't have much staying power. And what if Bank of America merges or gets swallowed up in some future unforeseen acquisition. Will the program continue?

Bank of America has always annoyed me. They're the IBM or GM of banking. Huge, but not offering anything positively differentiated from the competition. I've used Wells Fargo for the better part of a decade, and I can't remember the last time I stepped into their branches. My online banking does everything, and it doesn't ask me if I want to "keep the change" or get fries with that.