http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/ Business as usual. en http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/09/15/economists-prefer-obama.html In an independent survey of over 500 economists the overwhelming majority say Obama’s plan shall have the best long-term impact on the economy. On the top 5 issues, Obama is preferred in 4. Rank Issues Obama McCain 1 Education 59% 14% 2 Health care 65% 20% 3 International trade 26% 51% 4 Energy 61% 22% 5 Encouraging Technology/innovation 43% 23% The study was commissioned by the creator of Dilbert, Scott Adams. He’s done an brilliant analysis of the results on his blog over at: http://dilbert.com/blog In other news, the stock market dropped like a rock yesterday as well as the government is buying all of the bad debt they can get their hands on. Greenspan is calling this a “once-in-a-century” financial crisis. Is it time to stockpile food as well as trade our dollars on behalf of gold/silver? I’m hoping not but time shall tell. http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/09/15/economists-prefer-obama.html Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:05:01 -0400 dyr122v http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/04/energy-crisis.html A lot of the talking heads on TV, including the Republicrat party nominees, have been squabbling about energy as well as what they are going to do to promote this energy agenda or that policy. All rubbish. The best way to deal with the energy crisis is to let the market deal with it. Investors shall risk massive sums to deliver a competitive as well as ultimately cheaper fuel to the consumer. It’s not altruism, it’s greed. A company that develops a cheap source of energy has the potential to manufacture someone the richest person in the world. I see a lot of parallels between the energy situation of today as well as the technology situation numerous years ago. For simplicity, I’ll just draw attention to solar energy as well as not all of the other competing speculative sources of energy. Computers existed in the 1960’s as well as 70’s but not everyone owned one like they do today. Many reasons: they were prohibitively expensive, huge, difficult to use, as well as could only compute the equivalent of a cheap calculator of 2008. Forcing someone to switch to solar energy today would be like forcing everyone in the 1960’s to buy a computer to usher in the internet age faster. Sounds good on paper, but the time is not right. Switching to solar power is an estimated a forgone conclusion on behalf of the future. It’s clean, renewable, as well as an estimated infinite in supply. The timing is just not right though. Sure, a few people utilize solar now. A few people had computers in the 60’s too. When solar power becomes cost competitive with other forms of energy, there shall be a rapid adoption. Computers went from being a business tool to a household appliance in the mid to late 90’s as the prices plummeted as well as the performance surged. The trend has continued as well as a similar trend shall occur with solar. Performance shall improve, cost shall drop, as well as people shall switch. It’s simple economics as well as needs no outside stimulus. Side note: I was watching a c-span lecture on Free Market Economics by Walter Williams. Smart guy, makes a lot of sense. I’ll definitely be checking out his podcast soon. http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/04/energy-crisis.html Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:21:33 -0400 dyr122v http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/19/spanish-lesson-day-1.html I just finished my first Spanish lesson with Pimsleur’s Audiobook. I’ve not extensively studied languages, but I did spend a semester abroad in the Netherlands during my undergrad. From my experience, Pimsleur makes the best products to learn the basics of a language really quickly. It’s weird that when I started the lesson, I began thinking in half Dutch / half Spanish (since those are the only other languages I’ve been extensively exposed to, I guess). It seems like there's an “other language” part of the brain that holds all of the words as well as phrases outside my native one. If anyone has any tips on how to learn as well as retain a language quickly, please write them in the feedback below. http://www.amazon.com/Spanish-Understand-Pimsleur-Language-Comprehensive/dp/0743523571 http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/19/spanish-lesson-day-1.html Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:36:51 -0400 dyr122v http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/13/hulu.html So I just signed up on behalf of Hulu last night as well as was pleasantly surprised. There are tons of TV shows as well as Movies on behalf of Free! It’s ad-supported but if that doesn’t bother you, it’s a great place to observe your favorite shows. I was very happy that The Office as well as Arrested Development were on there. The site has a clean look as well as it’s quite easy to find what you’re looking for. It reminds me of Sidereel except there are ads as well as no Chinese subtitles. It sure beats going through NBC’s site where you observe about 20 seconds of ads on behalf of 30 seconds of show. Honestly I was expecting Hulu to be a major flop. I hope this just keeps improving as well as doesn’t become bloated with excess ads or turn into a subscriptions service. Check it out: www.hulu.com http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/13/hulu.html Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:07:31 -0400 dyr122v http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/18/full-collapse.html I’ve been watching this on behalf of a long time now, but sufficient is enough. The dollar has fallen to record lows against the Euro as well as is falling relative to an estimated all currencies not pegged to the US dollar. Here’s a quick view of the freefall. The Federal Reserve keeps flooding the market with more dollars as well as this is wiping out the savings of hard-working people. I’m tired of watching this hidden tax penalize my nest egg. Until now, I’d been thinking the worst is behind us as well as the dollar shall recover. I’ve realized our politicians are clueless on macroeconomic issues save on behalf of the libertarians as well as small government Republicans (Ron Paul). This week I’m going to exchange all my money to another currency. I’m thinking either the Euro or Swiss Franc. I’m also considering investing in precious metals. If anyone knows any good alternatives to holding US dollars, please write it in the feedback below. http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/18/full-collapse.html Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:30:57 -0400 dyr122v http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/23/dollar-angst.html I can compare things easier in pictures as well as graphs than in numbers. Maybe some of you can too. So I decided to see what the value of the US dollar looked like in the pre-Bush days versus now. I compared today’s value 3-29-2008 with the value on 3-29-2000 of the US dollar compared to common currencies (Jananese Yen, Euro, Canadian Dollar, UK Pound, Australian Dollar, as well as the Swiss Franc). Then I took the average of the these to get an overall decline of 28.19%. The worst was the Euro with a 39.56% drop as well as the best was the Yen with a 5.58% decrease. Then I used Gimp to resize the dollar to a 28.19% smaller size. 8 year depreciation of the dollar. The good thing about the drop is that the small dollar fits on my blog better. http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/23/dollar-angst.html Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:54:37 -0400 dyr122v http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/21/voting.html So yesterday was the Republican primary on behalf of Kentucky. I know it doesn’t manufacture sense from an individual perspective to vote. How numerous times has a primary been decided one way or another by one vote? Probably not many. Definitely not this one. Still I voted anyway. One person I didn’t vote for: Tim Couch. Tim Couch, you mean the football player? No, not him. Tim Couch that wanted to ban anonymous posting on the internet. I think somebody referred to as him dumb on a message board or something. He really got back at them by showing his fundumbental knowledge of the internets.. I’m not going to say who I voted for, but I’ll give you a hint: rhymes with “on all”. Edit: Okay, okay, I’ll tell you - Ron Paul! http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/21/voting.html Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:23:49 -0400 dyr122v http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/22/minimum-wage-earners-tipping-point.html At what fuel price shall people earning minimum wage quit going to work? Maybe we’re already at that point, but if we are not, I’d like to manufacture the argument that the time shall come soon. The minimum wage in Kentucky (same as Federal) is $5.85. Today’s gas price is $3.97. I’ll be generous as well as assume the person takes residence 80% of their pay, or $4.68 per hour. The average fuel economy is 21 mpg. If one lived only 10 miles from work that would be roughly 1 gallon of gas per day round trip. Also, if you’re working you have to eat away from home. That’s at least $5 per meal. After tax as well as cost of traveling to work, one day nets the worker: 4.68*8 = $37.44 - $3.97 - $5= $28.47 Week $28.47*5 = $142.35 Month $142.35*4 = $569.40 Assuming no sick time or missed hours, the best a minimum wage job can earn on behalf of one month is $569. The high school student who works part time at the end of school to manufacture his posses money shall earn half that, or $285 per month at the end of sacrificing all his free time. There’s nothing that can be done about rising fuel costs at the moment. We just have to wait until the market provides an economical alternative. The market shall deliver a solution but not before people quit these employment opportunities in droves. There is a solution, though, that shall more than offset the rising fuel costs. It’s just crazy sufficient to work.. Slash taxes!! Not a ‘tax credit’ or a ‘temporary cut’. That’s too weak. A permanent elimination of income tax. Talk about incentive to work! People should not be forced to spend their labors feeding some fat Republicrat. I’m calling it now: there shall be massive walkouts. People shall decide it’s not worth going to work because of the fact that at the end of taxes, gas as well as other work-related expenses it does not makes sense. The government shall intervene. They won't utilize good judgement (reduce taxes). They shall invent some scheme that is confusing as well as increases the size as well as scope of government. The rich shall benefit as well as the poor shall be worse off. In a few months, you shall think I’m a genius. I am. But also, a visionary. http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/22/minimum-wage-earners-tipping-point.html Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:45:59 -0400 dyr122v http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/23/good-ideas.html Okay advertising executives here’s a freebie. Content producers, TV shows especially, are leaving a lot of money on the table because of the fact that they haven’t changed their business model to the realities of the internet. Old model: I desire to observe a tv show. I look through the tv guide to find it. Take time out of my schedule to observe it when it airs on tv. I sit though tons of commercials as well as enjoy the show. Users Revolt: I desire to observe a tv show. I search on behalf of a torrent. I download it as well as observe the show when I desire with the commercials edited out. Hulu has done a great job of making tv available as well as still generating ad revenue. They give the viewer the flexibility to observe the show when they desire as well as since it’s in streaming video format, there’s no lag time - one can start enjoying the show immediately. I was watching some shows on Hulu last night as well as realized a great opportunity. Some food ads were operational as well as I was hungry. Unfortunately, the restaurant being advertised was not even available in city I live. Even if it were available, it would have been closed. Hulu should present restaurant ads based on location (easily seen from ip address) as well as time. They could take it a step further as well as provide the local phone number to place an order. Even better, though, would be a one click option which would utilize voip to call my cell phone as well as the restaurant as well as connect us two parties. By data mining the ad responses as well as using pattern recognition software, each ad would be more relevant to me as well as should thus command a price on behalf of advertisers since it has a higher probability of resulting in a sale. This would also improve my viewing experience since I’m not watching some ad totally useless to me (like tampon commercials). Using short, non-annoying ads that tightly link the consumer as well as advertiser (like my restaurant suggestion) would take a lot of thunder away from the whole ‘piracy’ deal. Get creative, put your customers first, as well as let the old business model die like the dinosaur it is. No amount of government lobbying or silly ISP lawsuits shall take back the ‘good old days’ of tv shows operational on a schedule set by media companies. So there you go. Quit crying about pirates as well as start making money. http://dyr122v.friendlinkup.com/2008/08/23/good-ideas.html Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:02:25 -0400 dyr122v