It’s going to be a long weekend. I have a lot of stuff I need to do. On the other hand, I may be going to Jeff’s party and Pedernales Falls with Jody.
General
29
Sep 05
asides
A Miniature (Christo) Gate in Hot Pursuit of a Miniature Central Park
The Shining remixed as a comedy. Courtesy of Waxy.
indietits – a web comic involving tufted titmice
Sorry gotta go. Sound clips you play in the background to get off the phone. Courtesy of Chris of Cynical C.
Nevblog apes the million dollar webpage. $800 and up. Millions of people are kicking themselves about this idea.
28
Sep 05
Celebrating one year in business
I am proud to announce that my web hosting company, Duet Hosting, has been in business for over a year now. Since we have enjoyed a small amount of success (in other words, not losing money) I’ve decided to award some free stuff over the next week or so. Don’t miss out as it will probably be a first come, first serve deal.
Here’s a little cake I made in Illustrator. My first attempt at making anything. Hey, it’s not great, but it’s not bad either!
28
Sep 05
Cut them up now
Credit cards are not evil, but they’re darn close for the simple reason that they’re designed to encourage impulsive financial behavior. For example, I have a Mastercard that I rarely use and never keep a balance on. The starting credit limit was $1000 then it went to $1500 and then to $2000. What the heck? I carry a zero balance. Why would you raise my credit limit? Clearly, I don’t need the additional credit. But, what if I lost my mind one weekend and went out and bought a whole bunch of stuff I didn’t need? Everyone likes to spend money. That’s why raising your credit limit is like giving crack to a crack addict. Okay, if I asked for more credit, that would be a good reason to raise it. I’ve heard from people who said when they started paying down their credit card balance the credit card company raised their credit limit as if challenging them to spend more money they didn’t have. Something needs to change.
Overdue Credit Card Bills Hit Record High:
“Credit card companies are increasingly addicted to their fees,” said Daniel Ray, editor-in-chief at Bankrate.com, an online financial service. “Six years ago, all fees — including late fees — contributed only a minor portion to overall revenue. Today it accounts for more than 30 percent.”
About half of all credit problems stem from poor money management. Credit problems due to the loss of a job, sickness or divorce play less of a role, said personal finance expert Susan Tiffany, director of consumer publishing at the Credit Union National Association.
“That tells us people have some ability to do a better job. They are not completely helpless in the situation, and that’s good,” said Tiffany, whose trade group also is involved in efforts to improve people’s financial literacy.
Related reading: Talk Your Way Out of Credit Card Debt!
28
Sep 05
Untitled
Dog gets jiggy with Pokemon. Video courtesy of linkbunnies.
The truly hard-core roll their own iPods. DIY: Build your own portable MP3 player
List of songs whose title includes a phone number
Comprehensive gallery of movie posters from MST3K movies. Courtesy of poster wire.
How to find a human in various automated telephone systems.
28
Sep 05
Dumpster Score
When I got home today I noticed someone left some choice junk near the dumpster. I left the patio table and coffee maker, but I did liberate the Sharp Twin Energy Power 1100 10 amp upright vacuum cleaner, which retails for around $200 surprisingly. I also snagged an Epson Stylus Photo 780 inkjet printer, which is probably worth less than the vacuum if it works. In addition to electronic junk, I carried off a wooden chair that has a studded leather seat. I may not keep it as I don’t need a chair, but maybe it will end up as craigslist fodder.
The vacuum did require some serious attention. The accessory hose leading to the bag compartment was completely clogged with carpet fiber, pet hair, and carpet deodorizer. It looked like someone forgot to empty the bag and it just backed up. That seems like a lame reason to throw it away. I kept trying to fish out the debris with a coat hanger then I got smart and pushed a broom handle through the hose to clear it out. It gave me something to do while watching that Bob Dylan documentary on PBS. Now I have two vacuums. This is how I collect a lot of junk. I live like a survivor of the Great Depression.
27
Sep 05
My BaseCamp Review
Project management is tough when you’re running your own business and trying to keep track of several different projects at once. I’ve used Outlook and it’s task request and calendaring functionality, but after syncing with services like Plaxo and duping all my appointments and tasklists I wanted something web-based so it would be available anywhere exactly the same. No more dupes, no more redundancy and confusion.
Now, I’ve toyed with project management software and groupware before, mainly in the form of free options like dotProject, but everything I’ve tried like that is so cluttered. As tight-fisted as I am, I am more than willing to pay for something I’ll actually use like ClientExec, for example. Since I read the Signal VS. Noise blog, I was somewhat familiar with BaseCamp and decided to give it a try.
In short here’s the good and the bad.
The good:
- The interface is very slick, clean, and Ajaxy. There are some nice drag and drop features and the overall look and feel is very pleasant and user friendly. One thing that was bad about dotProject was that it was just so clunky looking. This often the problem when engineering types design things that people need to use.
- It’s easy to keep various projects and people separate. Right now I have five separate projects going and each project has a different arrangement of people who can access each one. I certainly don’t want them to be able to view every project, just the ones that allow them access to.
- Projects have their own syndicated RSS feeds. This allows you to keep an eye on what’s going on as people login and close out tasks. The feeds are password protected for your security.
- You can see when people last logged in to check their messages and task list.
The bad:
- For what it does (task management, project management) it’s too expensive. Free options like dotProject have tons more functionality and cost nothing. I would venture that this service is geared to those without their own webhosting yet to use some of the advanced features like file uploads requires offsite ftp access, so that isn’t a good argument. I can’t justify why it’s so expensive. It really possesses a limited range of application.
- The only data export option is to XML. I want to be able to export my tasks, milestones, and contacts to Outlook or CSV.
- You cannot copy file entries, tasks, or messages into other projects. This sucks.
Verdict
If my clients and partners actually end up using this regularly I will keep it. It’s that simple. I have a hunch that email will continue to be the primary method of communication and tracking. After all, if someone wants to check to see if something has been completed they’re more likely to just email or call and ask me versus checking my online task list and milestone calendar. As long as they keep adding features I’ll consider renewing, but I have until the end of October to make that decision.
Here’s a little hack if you want to upgrade to one of the business-level accounts. If you sign-up for the basic paid account ($12 a month) and then upgrade to a higher level of service, they won’t actually bill you for the upgrade until the first month has gone by. So you basically get a free account upgrade for a month. That’s worth $12 at the very least.
27
Sep 05
Untitled
Google Gets Own Birthday Wrong “lmaonade”!
A fascinating test of Google Page Rank I like to play around with Google’s search features, and one of the things I tried doing was entering a search query which would yeild all 8,168,684,336 pages. I came close; 7,180,000,000. What’s interesting (though not surprising) is how effective pagerank is in this situation. Check it out, and compare the results with Alexa read more | digg story
26
Sep 05
China clamps down on Internet speech
China clamps down on Internet speech. “”The state bans the spreading of any news with content that is against national security and public interest,” the official Xinhua news agency said in announcing the new rules, which took effect immediately.” The age old cycle of repression continues.
Nokia 3250 Smartphone Introduces Nokia XpressMusic “Nokia is introducing a new Series 60 smartphone, the Nokia 3250. The device comes with a design that allows changing the traditional phone keypad into dedicated music keys.” Much better than the lame-o Motorola Rockr.