My recent thoughts turned to airline security last night after learning of the flight coming in to Detroit in which a man tried to blow up the plane. (link and link, though I’m sure there’s thousands more now).
I’ve never subscribed to the theory that our US airport security did all that much in terms of preventing [...]

Posted in Business, Ideas, Society, Travel 3 Comments »

I’ve been working with a couple local people on developing a short term plan for them to get in to or move around in the web development job space, and I was wondering if there’s a need for something perhaps sightly more formal in the Raleigh area.  Here’s my initial sketch…
Weekly classes (probably Saturday morning) [...]

Posted in Business, Development, Job, Society, Software, Web 4 Comments »

I stumbled on an article recently about the government’s plan to change its cookie policy.  There wasn’t a whole lot in the article other than that the new federal CIO Vivek Kundra has proposed that federal websites be allowed to use persistent cookies to track visitors.
It’s *about time*.  Give me, the tech savvy end user, [...]

Posted in Business, Society, Web No Comments »

I’m finding that I will likely end up purchasing a new phone – with a contract/agreement – in the next week or so.  I’m fighting the urge to consider myself ‘caving in’, and have ended up thinking about it differently.  If I end up needing to pay an early termination fee, I just won’t care.  [...]

Posted in Society No Comments »

So – I’m all set to buy a used Palm Pre from someone off Craigslist.  I got the ESN and called to verify that it was ‘clean’ – didn’t want to buy it then find out if was stolen or something that prevented it from being activated.  “ESN is fine” I was told.  So I [...]

Posted in Society 3 Comments »

So, Best Buy is dropping the price to $99 for a Palm Pre with a 2 year contract.  As much as I want to get one, I still don’t want to get tied in to a contract – I may buy a used Pre from someone later (I want GSM if possible, not CDMA).
I wonder [...]

Posted in Apple, Society 5 Comments »

I had the opportunity to listen in to bits of an Amway recruitment pitch at Panera today.  I was in a jam and needed long term net access while on the road, and Panera turned out to be the best option.  So, I’m sitting there and 3 people came to the table next to me.  [...]

Posted in Society 2 Comments »

Just found this interesting tidbit from the Washington Post:
Arkansas is one of half a dozen states that still exclude non-believers from public office. Article 19 Section 1 of the 1874 Arkansas Constitution states that “No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor [...]

Posted in Religion, Society 4 Comments »

I’ve been hearing radio ads for gold for some time now.  The basic premise and message is something like
The dollar is going down the tubes.  It’s lost 40% of its value in the last few years, and we’ll be facing massive inflation soon.  You need to own GOLD!  Buy our GOLD COINS NOW!
What do [...]

Posted in Finance, Social, Society 3 Comments »

Just read a piece from Clay Shirky on micropayments.  He makes a couple of good observations, but seems to fail on this one:
People are not paying for music on ITMS because we have decided that fee-per-track is the model we prefer, but because there is no market in which commercial alternatives can be explored.
I think [...]

Posted in Business, Society, Web 2 Comments »