Archive for September, 2008
George F. Will Finds the Deeper Issue
September 28th, 2008 ThoughtProvokingTags: abc news, george f will
In a roundtable discussion this morning with George Stephanopoulos, George Will, Steven Pearlstein, Robert Reich, and Newt Gingrich; the group started off talking about the proposed $700B bailout plan. Later on in the program, the group gets to the heart of the matter:
"You are coming dangerously close to the truth. The 'sainted' American people are the problem here. They have 105 billion credit cards; that's 9 per cardholder. Self-reporting, they have $12,000 credit card debt per household. Household debt is 139% of household income. They can't go on like this. The refusal to defer gratification is a fundamental attribute of childishness," says George Will.
Gingrich comments, "we are overspending on immediate gratification and underspending on investment."
This video is definitely worth a watch. View it (here)
Current Workspace and Routine
September 24th, 2008 ProductivityTags: totem poll, totempoll
The above picture is my current workspace. I can hear the constant roar of 440 and West End. There is a fire station less than a mile away and within a 2 mile radius of my apartment, there are 2 hospitals. This is not a quiet place. Amazingly, I'm pretty productive and I actually get stuff done. Call me "Productivity Ninja."
Here is my normal "work" schedule:
- Check Gmail.
- Read all the tweets I missed in Twitterrific.
- Browse through my RSS feeds in Google Reader.
- Hit Drudge Report.
- Peruse Hacker News.
- Write emails, send resumes, research job opportunities. (Lots of time spent here)
- Aggregate data for TotemPoll.
- Repeat steps 1-5
- Read whatever book is on my list. Currently I'm reading Founders at Work.
- Hit the hay.
Financial Companies are Crumbling
September 15th, 2008 ThoughtProvokingTags: bank of america, lehman brothers, merrill lynch, mortgage crisis, sub prime lending debacle
The disaster of the sub-prime mortgage crisis has not seen the bottom. Only one shoe is off the foot and it seems there is more room to fall. Ever since IndyMac closed up shop, the industry dived into tailspin. Here is a list of all the banks that have closed up shop since 2000. So far 11 banks have failed, I expect this list to double over the next couple months.
How did we get to this point? Warren Buffett (the great Oracle of Omaha) foresaw this problem almost 5 years ago.
IP Phone and Voip.ms Make Calls Cheap, Cheap, Cheap!
September 12th, 2008 ProductivityTags: linksys spa962, taylor brooks, voip, voix phone
The past two months I have gone over my cellular calling plan by 200+ minutes. Multiply those minutes by the $0.40 charge they nail you with and you're staring a $200 phone bill in the face. Screw that…
I took matters into my own hands and registered an additional number with Voip.ms and got a new IP phone. Calls through Voip.ms are less than 2 cents a minute; however, I opted to pay $7.95 for unlimited calling instead of the "pay-as-you-go" option.
When I'm outside of my apartment and traveling, I use a downloaded version of the phone that runs on my laptop. Out of all the softphones I messed with, Voix Phone was the easiest to configure and use.
Please add my new number to your address books: (615) 345-6610.
Miss Evelyn a.k.a Cary Barlowe
September 2nd, 2008 GeneralTags: cary barlowe, dachshunds, luna halo, miss evelyn, tyler ward
Tyler Ward sent me this video a couple months ago. Cary Barlowe (of Luna Halo) shows his alter-ego Miss Evelyn and her dilemmas with her "show puppy" baby dachshunds.
