Don't Back Down

For the last couple of years, I've had a Toshiba U205-S5034 laptop, and in general, I've been really happy with it. This is one small laptop. If memory serves, it has a 12.1" screen, and is in fact pretty tiny. That can be annoying from time to time, but frankly I don't often use a laptop - only when I'm away from home - and that's a good thing when carrying it. I decided that I didn't really want to lug a massive machine with me any more, and it works great.

I did have to upgrade the memory (to 2GB), which gave me a little more breathing room, but other than that, it does the job well. The hard drive is sometimes slow when you try and do things like sync up with another computer (typically involving deleting a bunch of files or copying a ton of other files), but that doesn't happen too often, so it's not a huge deal. The problem is that every once in a while, it keeps locking up on me in the midst of, well, something.

Read "Toshiba U205-S5034 Lock-Up Problem" »

Intrepid readers of RSS feeds may have noticed an odd happening in the Movable Type Community Blog the other day - unfortunately you can't actually read it if you check the site now, you would have had to catch it in your feed-reader (or your feed-reader would have had to catch it for you, or you'll have to catch it later on in this entry). Product Manager Byrne Reese remarked Since the day we released Movable Type Open Source more than a year ago.

Everyone catch that? Apparently according to Byrne, MTOS came out sometime before June 3rd, 2007. Yet, the official announcement of a stable release was on January 28, 2008, and Anil Dash made the GPL licensing announcement on December 12, 2007 (my birthday, but that doesn't matter). How the heck did Byrne lose more than six months? I'm all for being on "Internet Time", but this is a little bit much, isn't it?

Read "What's in the Water Over at Six Apart?" »

A couple of weeks ago, Keyshawn Johnson did his second round of broadcasting for the NFL draft, and I mentioned just how bad it was. To be fair, it was a bit better than it was last year. For someone who appears to totally lack the ability to shut his mouth, when the cameras are on and rolling for hour after hour of incessant coverage, Keyshawn totally clams up. It's like he just becomes a different person.

What's even more amazing to watch is that he is totally and utterly upstaged by Mel Kiper, Jr. of all people. Now this is no slight against Mel Kiper, Jr., mind you, but for the last thirty or so years, he has done next to nothing except pick apart the draft. He barely goes outside. Understandably, on draft day, he is surely an imposing force. But for Keyshawn Johnson to be intimdiated by a guy like Mel Kiper? That's almost impossible to fathom. Yet he is. Last year, perhaps - it was his first year at the desk. But it happened again. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he didn't make it back for a third year. Regardless, this year Keyshawn decided if he couldn't out-talk Kiper, he'd out-dress him. It apparently worked.

Read "Keyshawn Wins Best-Dressed Award (Really)" »

I generally like things being made available online. Sure, I have issues with putting data online, because when my connection goes out - and it will go out - I like to be able to get to it. But providing the option to get at things online is a nice feature. Making it so that they have to be retrieved online just blows. It really blows.

One of the hats that I wear in my life as a computer consultant has to do with networks - and when I'm wearing that hat, it means that I have to deal with Microsoft products. This really doesn't mean that I am a Microsoft hater, because a lot of what they do is decent. But some days they do nothing other than make my life miserable. Take eOpen, for example.

Read "Microsoft eOpen Sucks" »

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of overpriced fundraisers. Just look at the Girl Scouts. I mean I'll eat some cookies and all, but the way they sell those overpriced boxes of heaven is just ridiculous. Why don't they just ask for the money? I don't mean to pick on the girl scouts. Really. They aren't alone.

When I was a kid, I came home with all sorts of things from school that I dutifully schlepped around the neighborhood, thinking that I was doing everyone a monumental service. Was it really so bad? Probably. These days, our kids bring home all sorts of overpriced crap, then they are made to feel bad when the teacher announces that they can't have a pizza party until everyone turns in a purchase.

The other day I received a phone call from the firefighters, not wanting to miss out.

Read "Firefighters Sell You Tickets You Won't Use" »

A few months back, I profiled the Elite Stock-Market Advisory of Scott S. Fraser, and how I thought it was a remarkably bad investment. As of today, there is a single stock that has actually moved higher from that group, but I have now been chosen as the lucky recipient of another advisory, so I thought I would see if Scott is doing any better.

The first thing I noticed is there is a featured stock - but there isn't a basket. What's even more interesting is that with the exception of one of the stocks from the last group being pointed out as a winner, not a single one is even mentioned in this group. For less than a year later, that's a warning sign in my book. As to the details, let's take a deeper look and see what we can learn.

Read "Scott S. Fraser Gives Me More Stock Picks" »

It strikes me as I'm driving down the road (listening to the radio) that perhaps things have gone a bit far when it comes to licensing. Now don't get me wrong, I understand that people want to protect their property - whether it is intellectual property, such as software, or actual property, such as a brand in which they have invested or even a trademark.

But maybe - just maybe - things are a little out of hand when someone isn't allowed to say the name of the local football team or the big game that they play at the end of the year without writing out a check to someone. That's ridiculous. It's not like they don't know who they are talking about. I mean I understand wanting to protect your investment and all, but come on people!

Read "Licensing Gone Awry" »

Exactly six years ago today, our country underwent one of the most gut-wrenching moments in its existence. Nineteen people hijacked four airplanes were hijacked. Two of the planes crashed into - and eventually toppled - the world trade centers in New York City. One crashed into the Pentagon in Washington. The fourth crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. At this writing, 2974 deaths were directly attributed to the attacks.

It is an easy leap to attribute a huge number of additional deaths to this, as the United States sent a military force to Afghanistan and Iraq. It's quite possible that those tallies will never be accurate, but the numbers are certainly much, much higher - both on our side and on theirs. Whether right o wrong, a number of lives have been lost.

What is interesting to me is that one of the issues with those planes is that the hijackers knew how to turn off the emergency locator beacon in the planes, so that their exact location could not be found. It seem that if you are going to hijack a plane, this would be a really, really good idea. Hijack the plane, and turn off the signal so that no one can find you. Is it hard to do? I don't think so.

Read "Maybe we Should Hide the Emergeny Locator Beacon" »

With the primaries just a bit over two weeks away, I thought it important to mention a lesson that I learned slightly after the last election: The importance of timely material. More specifically the importance of the timely arrival of material.

If you're like myself and millions of others out there, as an election draws near, you are very likely bombarded by mailings and phone calls to tell you to vote for someone - or, perhaps, to not vote for someone. There's a very likely chance that you simply deposit the mail in the trash (or, if you're a good neighbor, in the recycle bin) without ever looking at it. This is generally what I do.

But one piece of mail caught my attention after the last election, and I thought it worth mentioning. I think that just about everyone will find it interesting.

Read "The Importance of Timing on Election Day" »

Though it has been established that many people - and specifically those in Charlotte - do not read what they are signing before they sign it, many of you may well be wondering - and rightfully so - where that leaves things. What will happen if the transit tax is revoked?

First and foremost, everyone purchasing something in Mecklenburg County will save a bit of money with every purchase. That's the good news. And it's probably the end of the good news, especially if you're a resident of the county. Why? Because we've already been told that if the tax is repealed that it will be replaced by higher property taxes. The fact that the citizens don't want the tax - and by extension, the transit plan - is completely irrelevant. The council will do what they want. They showed us that with the arena, and they're going to do it again. Are you used to it yet? I'm not either - so let's see what else we can find out.

Read "More on Charlotte's Light Rail and Streetcar Number 85" »

Obviously, there are those of you out there (I'm talking about the people who actually care what the American Community Survey may represent) who do read before they sign. But these days, when buying a house requires a lawyer because of the monstrous stack of documents that would take you months to read through, and even applying for a credit card can require hours of reading if you really read every single word, do you read everything before you put your name on the dotted line?

Apparently there is a significant percentage of people here in Charlotte who don't (I suspect that there are plenty in other places too).

For those who haven't been paying attention, it's recently been verified that the petition to force a referendum to repeal the transit tax (enacted in 1998) has 48,000 valid signatures, which means a November vote on the issue is likely. So why is it an issue if people pay attention to what they are signing? Because it seems that those who asked for people to sign the petition didn't actually tell folks what they were signing, and many of those who did sign didn't bother to read. But it's also apparent that many of the people who voted for the original tax in 1998 did so based on what they were told, rather than reading the fine print as well, so the proverbial knife can cut both ways.

Read "Do You Read Before You Sign?" »

Every few minutes, I receive an email telling me how I'm about to miss out on the latest stock market darling if I don't act fast enough. I think that many of us do. But I also get something really similar in the mail every couple of weeks. One of these that I received earlier this year was Scott S. Fraser's Elite Stock Market Advisory. Dated "3rd Week - January 2007", I figured I'd hang onto it, and see just how well old Scott did with his picks. I mean if he did well, maybe I ought to pay a little more attention not only to him, but to those email messages as well.

So now it's a little more than six months after I received this letter, and I figured that it's worth checking back in to see how things have fared over time. Sure, it's possible that a short-term ride would have done well, but I'm more of a buy-and-hold investor anyway, as I never have time to check in every few minutes. While it's definitely possible that we may need to check back in after an even longer waiting period, as six months may not be a good measuring stick, it's a decent estimate, just to see what's happening. Ready? Here we go!

Read "Scams Can Come in Snail Mail Too" »