Tag: economy (Page 1 of 3)

Daily Reading List — November 17th

November 17, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class – It's important to me that our kids understand that we're multi-generational working class, and that we don't lose sight of that.

That's one reason I drink "Old Man Coffee". "Old Man Coffee" is made in a regular old coffee pot (or press) from a can that is bought in bulk. It doesn't come from a Starbucks or a single serving made-especially-for-me-by-a-machine cup.

"Old Man Coffee" was good enough for my old man. It was good enough for his old man too.

It's good enough for me.

Google Play Music starts using your location & activity to recommend tunes – Needed. Why should I have to search for my "Sunday Morning Coffee" playlist every Sunday morning while I'm making coffee?

Why should I have to search for my "Old Man Rolling" playlist when they know I'm at the gym during jiu jitsu class.

Can't wait!

The Great Fall of Chyna –

Microsoft Flow Is Out of Beta, Ready to Challenge IFTTT’s Automation – Microsoft does its products well. But they always seem to be late. Now I need a reason to switch from IFTTT, and charging me $5/month for something I'm already getting somewhere else for free isn't a good reason to switch.

BTW, this post was bookmarked in Pinboard by me. IFTTT automatically tweeted it with a link to the article on my behalf (without all this commentary), and it also made an appended a draft version of a blog post that continues to grow until x number of entries have been made, then automatically publishes out to my blog, which is where you're probably reading this.

This didn't take very long to set up, but why would I want to bother doing it again?

How To Clean Burnt Stains off Enameled Cookware – Works so great, I wish I'd taken before and after photos. Next time.

Who Wins in the Gig Economy, and Who Loses – "There’s no way to avoid the truth that fundamental changes in the ways we work are here to stay and are creating a new set of winners and losers. But the proliferation of new opportunities in the gig economy to choose how, how much, where, and when to work is one big win for all."

Was listening to Joe Rogan's podcast the other day, and he noted that the whole corporate structured way to work is a pretty new phenomenon. If you look at it over the course of history, it's just a blip. An anomaly.

Says the guy with a full-time job.

The Elimination Of Reason – Vote today with the 2020 election in mind. #MakeAmericaAgain

Daily Reading List — July 10th

July 10, 2016 / Scott / 0 Comments

Homeschooled Weirdoes And The Culture Of Conformity –

DC Administrator Expects Good Schools "Sometime in the Next 10 or 20 Years" – Ugh. Homeschool soap box here…

If something isn't working for you kid, you can change it now. Immediately. You don't even have to wait 10 or 20 minutes.

Why America Is So Obsessed with Florida (man)? – Keep Flarda weird.

Soon you’ll be able to Cast tabs from Chrome without an extension – Yaaaaas

All the OK Google commands. Or at least a lot of them. –

Strength Contests from the WWII Era – AoM – Do this kind of stuff daily with a friendly neighbor if you can, and toughen up.

You can’t kill email – This is way more depressing than the articles I read claiming we are headed for a political and financial meltdown.

The End Game Of Bubble Finance – I think they may have at least one more bubble in them.

Daily Reading List — October 29th

October 29, 2013 / Scott / 0 Comments

Why Proprietary Big Data Technologies Have No Hope Of Competing With Hadoop – It's a good time to have procrastinated and not gone with a proprietary vendor yet.

Copy that Race: 5 Lessons from Kona – 34% of the bikes at Kona had power meters on them. I don't want to hear any more about Ironman (capital 'i') being for rich people.

Does Bigger Data Lead to Better Decisions? – HT @jfloyd.

The CEOs Are Wrong: Smart Machines Will Replace Millions Of Jobs – Millions. *pinky finger next to mouth*

Daily Reading List — August 21st

August 21, 2013 / Scott / 0 Comments

Mall Becoming Cheaper Than Amazon – And the consumer wins again!

The problem with the mall is that I have to go to the mall. Triple B (Bed, Bath, Beyond) is like a SkyMall you can walk through.

John R. Mathers 2 Mile Cross River Swim – This is tentatively scheduled for September 15 this year, and I can't wait. I really like the John Mathers story Rob gives us in this post. That there was a real man.

The Internet: We’re Doing It Wrong – By wrong, I thought they meant we just spend too much time on it. Turns out, that's not what they meant at all.

Preventing Swamp Crotch – Blue Gold Bond powder is definitely the most manly choice. Baby's butt paste is highly recommended though.

Daily Reading List — April 16th

April 16, 2013 / Scott / 0 Comments

IMtx 70.3 (BETA) – If you're training for or considering a 70.3, this podcast has an unbelievable amount of good information and tips. If I could afford a coach, Coach Brett would be my guy.

A Sunny Outcome: Why Florida’s Startups Are Soaring High – The perfect place for tech startups I think. No state income tax and great weather. Plus, look at the soil around here Stuart–you can't build on it. You can't grow anything in it.

The day I aged up… what life has taught me. – I <3 runners. Swimmers are cool too.

50 Amazing jQuery Plugins That You Should Start Using Right Now – Sharepoint desperately needs the help of many of these.

A field guide to the Meeting Troll – "The meeting troll has a neverending list of reasonable objections. It's the length of the list that makes the objections unreasonable."

Hey! I know that dude!

Daily Reading List — April 4th

April 4, 2013 / Scott / 0 Comments

Professor Discusses Higher Education Bubble – Key point–college should be looked at as either an investment (measure the ROI) or a consumer good.

Obama administration pushes banks to make home loans to people with weaker credit – At least the people who are paying attention know what will happen this time and can plan accordingly.

It’s not just about the Finisher’s T-Shirt – Man…some really good points here. The one exception to this for me is Kona. Do the pros owe it to the AGers to stick it out and finish there?

Jay Leno’s Ratings Rise as He Taunts NBC – Ummm…Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon figured out that publicly fighting your boss generates ratings years ago. #WatchMoreRasslin

Aren’t You Supposed To Be Hungry In College?

February 2, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

College students on food stamps.

“I did not even know that I was applicable for food stamps until someone told me about the site and to apply to see if I would get it.”

Added Smith, “Since then, I have saved a ton of money.”

I remember being a cash-strapped and hungry college student. My solution was to get a job at the school cafeteria. Minimum wage at a crappy job, but it was an easy job to get since no one else wanted it, and you got to eat when you worked. There were lots of days when the only two meals I ate were immediately before and immediately following my shift. I never even considered there may be a ~~better~~ different way.

Pre-Pre-Turkey Day Link Dump

November 16, 2011 / Scott / 0 Comments

What If Middle-Class Jobs Disappear? – Some stuff to think about regarding your kids’ education. What will the world be like for the next two generations?

Chinese TV Host Says Regime Nearly Bankrupt – Not good.

Netflix’s New Tablet UI Does Not Solve Its Search Problems – Agree with this. When I have a movie selected, I should have options to search for more based on actors, directors, and community likes.

Wall Street Still Thinks Germany Is Bluffing

It’s not clear why investors should believe Germany is just bluffing. Could it be that American investors are so used to a central bank opting for easy money that they cannot conceive a truly hawkish Bundesbank? Or that since US politicians are so supportive of major banks the possibility of German politicians actually making a decision that could hurt the banking sector grievously seems impossible?

Markets are logical over the long term.

Social Power And The Coming Corporate Revolution – Don’t know if it’s coming…I think it’s here.

Google+ had a chance to compete with Facebook. Not anymore. – I read this and could not believe I see every single point here in the exact opposite light.

Unhappy 99%ers: Sell Your US Citizenship to Chinese Millionaires – Heh. I like it!

The Rage of the Almost-Elite – Is #OWS the “Haves” vs. the “Have Lots”?

How The Ames Debate Could Have Been Won

August 12, 2011 / Scott / 4 Comments

If you watched the GOP debate last night, you are probably worried. I heard one analyst mention that there’s a political void right now in politics (on “both” sides). I know these candidates all have consultants who are highly paid and know more about politics than me, but let me tell you what would have struck a chord last night–focus on the economy.

When I say focus, I mean that someone up there should have answered every single question in relation to the economy.

Immigration? “I think _____, but if we can’t develop a sustainable economic policy, no one will be immigrating here anyway.”

Afghanistan? “I think _____, but if we can’t develop get a sustainable economic policy, we’ll have to bring the troops back very soon or leave them stranded there.”

Guantanamo Bay? “I think _____, but if we can’t develop a sustainable economic policy, those prisoners may as well be hostages that someone’s going to ransom.”

Energy? “I think _____, but if we can’t develop a sustainable economic policy, there won’t be any jobs to drive to and folks won’t be able to buy power to heat and cool their homes at any price.”

While I have my own opinions about what that policy should be, I’m not pushing those here. I’m saying someone on that stage should have been smart enough to relate every issue brought up in last night’s questions to the number one issue on everyone’s mind. That’s the economy, stupid.

It worries me that the “best and brightest” can’t figure out that the economy is all most people are concerned about right now. Once unemployment and the national debt are both down, we can once again enjoy the luxury of worrying about what other people do with their private parts behind closed doors.

Link Dump – I Think The Debt Ceiling Is Causing Global Warming

July 28, 2011 / Scott / 0 Comments

Five Facts About the Debt

“When it was Chrysler secured bondholders objecting to getting defaulted on by the president’s auto task force, Mr. Obama denounced them as “a small group of speculators” who were “hoping that everybody else would make sacrifices and they would have to make none.” Where was Mr. Obama’s newfound respect for bondholders back during the Chrysler deal?”

NASA Data Blow Gaping Hole In Global Warming Alarmism – The hell you say! Can we go back to regular light bulbs now?

Tips for overcoming fear of open water swimming – Good stuff here on overcoming your fears. Now I just need to find out why I feel like I’m going so much slower in the open water so I can calm down.

How to Migrate Your Facebook Account and Data to Google+ – Making some assumptions you actually want to move all that stuff, but useful!

Ironman Lake Placid Race Report – @emilysweats has written of the best race reports ever. Worth your time

‘Mad Men’ Begins Streaming on Netflix – Cracking open a single malt scotch and settling in for this one.

Why Leaders Need to Exercise – I’ve found this to be almost exclusively true, and not just with leaders. People in general seem to be more productive, less affected by stress, and more pleasant to be around when they are fit. I know I am.

Long Overdue Link Dump

May 2, 2011 / Scott / 0 Comments

I’ve been crazy busy with work for the past few weeks, and a lot has happened. Obviously, I haven’t been reading very much, but here’s a small sample.

An Outsider’s Guide to a Triathlon – Love Todd’s approach.

Justice is Not an Excuse for Jubilation – Pretty much how I feel about it all.

Gas Pump Activism – This. Is. Awsum.

Surprise! Woman finds 7-foot gator in bathroom – Had to read this just to make sure she didn’t find it in my bathroom. Of course, I’d be just as concerned about this woman wandering into the house as I would the gator.

Apocalypse later: what happens the day after we hit the debt ceiling – The horror. The horror.

Higher Education: The Next Asset Bubble? – If you consider college to be an investment, it’s reasonable to calculate your ROI before investing, right?

Social Media for Small Businesses: 6 Effective Strategies – Great tips here for one man shows!

Online Poker Legal Now (in D.C.) – I bet (haha) it won’t take long until this ripples out.

Personal Finance, Government Style

April 14, 2011 / Scott / 0 Comments

Wait…let me get this straight. Using this approach, if a person is facing extreme debt with collectors calling, cars and houses on the verge of being repo’d and foreclosed, and maxed out credit cards, these are the steps they should take to fix the problem:

Ask for higher limits on their cards
Demand a raise from their employer (at gunpoint if necessary)
Create a plan to spend the extra money from the raise and the newly available credit to raise their kids’ allowances, trade-in for a new car that gets better gas mileage (no need for cost analysis, right?), and buy some new clothes to interview for jobs that pay a much higher salary. They’ll get these interviews by leveraging the great references the current employer they just held up at gunpoint gave them.

Sounds like a solid plan.

Google’s Moats, “The Wire” Reviewed, and Hagar Abduction Link Dump

March 27, 2011 / Scott / 0 Comments

Android as Google’s Moat – I like this take on Android as a defensive product for Google. I also like what that implies for us as consumers–costs keep decreasing while functionality keeps increasing. Can you believe someone wanted to charge for a web browser at one time? Now there are several free browsers, and they are still trying to out-do each other in features and speed!

The Quintessentially Victorian Vision of Ogden’s “The Wire” – Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Are We Better Off Today? – Definitely. I think the problem is that we have a skewed idea of "comfortable". If I have food in my belly and shoes (hopefully some $1 Old Navy flip-flops) on my feet and I'm not bleeding, chances are I'd say I'm comfortable.

6 Common E-Mail Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make – Read the bold points as a checklist before you hit send.

Integration Of Google Voice and Sprint – A daddy of an announcement. Now…do I have to pick one number or the other to have seamless integration? I like having both.

"Red" rocker Sammy Hagar says abducted by aliens – Still trying to "Out-Dave" DRL. You sir, are no David Lee Roth

NYT’s DIgital Pricing Plan Discriminates By Device – Alternate Headline: Requiem to an Ass Biter.

I’m reading– February 22nd through February 25th

February 25, 2011 / Scott / 0 Comments

Some WordPress 3.1 Themes That Take Advantage of Post Formats – Lots of good ideas here.

Make Tumblr Out Of WordPress 3.1 – If you recently upgraded to 3.1 and want to take advantage of the post formats, here's a great tutorial.

Moms Know What Ben Bernanke Doesn’t: Inflation Is Here – Not only is it here, it's more aggressive than is being reported. At least that's what trusted moms are telling me.

WordPress 3.1 Codex – Some really cool stuff in this release. I can't wait to see what kinds of cool things theme developers do with the new Post Formats!

Homebuyer Tax Credit Scheme..err…Alternative – Here's an idea: Let's stop propping up the market artificially and just get through this mess.

Breaking Up Boredom for Homeschoolers – Here are four really smart ways to change gears for a day and still keep the education ball rolling. Administration approved!

I’m reading– January 18th through January 21st

January 22, 2011 / Scott / 0 Comments

First two years of college show small gains – Get thee to a community college.

Pick At It! – It’s been a long time since I’ve LOL’d all the way through an article.

Scott: ‘We’re spending too much money’ – The “Scott” in the article is our governor, not me. But this Scott agrees. Here’s what I don’t get about how budgets are crafted–why can’t they just do it the way we do at our house? Start with the amount of money you have, then subtract (by priority) the cost of all the things you have to pay for. As you go down the list of priorities, “needs” transition to “wants”. In good months, we actually make it to some pure “wants”. When the amount of money you have reaches zero, the budget is finished. The budget damn near writes itself! I realize it’s a little more complicated than that for a state legislature, but what if they approached the process by simply prioritizing the spending first?

Worldwide Coffee Production and Consumption – Doing my part on the consumption end. Pretty cool map!

Intro to Heart Rate Training From Mark Allen – If you’re new to heart rate training, this is good. Nice of him to share his personal experience of beginning to use a heart rate monitor.

Gettin’ After It!