Villager With Wheel Crew...

Here we are, last weekend, at Electronic Vagrant's Hawaiian luau themed east coast wedding celebration...



From left: EV, ACOM, Zach, Elroy

Re: Get Rich With Big Ern

For a better way to track Zach's investment progress, I suggest he sign up for one of two (or both) sites that allows people to track investments online:
Cake
Covestor

Please refer to my previous post for more info.

I signed up for both, but Covestor was the only one I could (manually, they did it) import my portfolio into. I have 5 invites to Covestor if anyone wants one, otherwise, I submitted my e-mail and received an invite the next day.
If you'd like to track my investments on Covestor (you have to sign up and have your portfolio imported first): tarfelroy

Another cool thing about Covestor, if Zach used it, is the option to add Blog Widgets. So, Zach can add widgets that highlight the stocks he just bought. Or, to prove to us he is a credible investor, he could have added a widget with his investment record.
Two examples of widgets (stocks I actually own):



Obviously, one I am doing well on and the other I am not. I am long on both of these stocks and with my current strategy, will sell them in about 3 months (gain or loss).

I'm not blogging about investment advice in this post, just adding my suggestions about how to effectively communicate investments and track investment history. Good luck, happy investing.

DISCLAIMER: If Covestor turns evil, steals all your info and your money, don't blame me.

Get Rich with Big Ern

At this point, I assume you've read The Secrets of My Success and committed the fool-proof rules to memory. Considering the hot hot heat that post generated, I'm going to blog my next few stock transactions and watch the praise/bile roll in.

Today's number one stunner is AT&T (NYSE:T). I bought in at 42.25 a few minutes ago, after it dropped $0.58 this morning. Classic example of "good company on a bad day". (I hope.)

Remember kids, we're only in this for the short haul (1-2% gain, hopefully next week). So, if you haven't signed up for Zecco and their commision-free trades, I would do that. Immediately.

Also, if I'm violating SEC rules by saying "buy this, it's going to go up". I hope someone will let me know before they kick in Nate's door and put him (and his cats) in Gitmo.

In the name of disclosure (and evaluating my wicked good judgement), right now I am holding:

• American Software, Inc. (AMSWA)


• AT&T (T)


• Exelexis (EXEL)


• Scholastic (SCHL)

Good luck, hopefully I'll see you at the boat showroom.

The Urinal Paradox

Like many of you, I work in a nondescript office, in a nondescript job. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that the big issues of the day might not be geopolitics or negotiating a 30 million dollar order of sprockets. Well, I've come to you my fellow readers to help resolve the big office issue of the day. Who am I kidding, I'll be lucky if I get one or two of my fellow VwW bloggers to respond.



I will start by saying there is an unwritten man code that defines how we use the restroom. Some of you may have played this game before. It is a good summary of the decisions we must make every time we enter the restroom. This leads to the problem I have. The restroom has a three urinal setup with the little urinal dividers which are great for that extra privacy. The first two urinals are ordinary, but the third one is kid sized.

That leaves the question:
Does it make me any less manly if I use the kid urinal if someone is occupying the preferred urinal #1 location?
Do the mini-walls make it okay for me to crowd #1 and use full size #2 because we already have a personal space divider?

Also, if by chance the building manager is reading this, please put scales in the bathroom. Betting on poop size really makes the day go by faster.

Dwight, you ignorant slut!

This is a friendly reminder that tonight, 9pm ET/8pm CT, is the season premiere of the greatest show on television.

I know, I may have to defend myself against a few raving lunatics who say that The Wire, 24, House, or Entourage takes the cake (or in Zach's case: The View), but I stand firm.

See you in Scranton.

Todoist is the Truth

Over the last month or so, I've played with a few online productivity/task list tools (Tracks, GTDTracks, Vitalist) and they all have come up a little short for me.

I've used Todoist for the last 2 weeks or so and, like Jordan Bratman, I don't think I'm going to do much better than this.

A few of the things I like about it:

Clean Interface
After hiding the info page with one click, all you see are your tasks, projects, and a minmalist search window. No clutter on the screen.

Dates/Times
Maybe the coolest feature. Tired of clicking around in Outlook, setting a deadline for something that has to be done tomorrow by noon? I'm not going to check (it takes too long), but I'd guess it takes at least 12 clicks in several different date, time, scheduling boxes. In todoist you just type "tomorrow @ 12", "friday @ 12", or even "tom @ 12". Schedule recurring tasks by putting an "every" or "ev" in front of the date. I defy you to set up a recurring task in any other system with fewer key strokes than "ev 15" (Every 15th of the month) or "ev mon" (every Monday).

Contexts
If you're practicing your GTD mantra, or just sorting things out, you can add contexts to your tasks by simply adding "@home", "@work", etc... to the task description. Unlike GTDTracks and Vitalist you can add multiple contexts to tasks you can get done either at home or in the car, or wherever.

Prioritization
Similar to adding contexts, adding priorities is simple. "!p1" makes the task a top level priority, "!p2" a second level priority, and so on. There are 4 levels, each color coded.

Keyboard Shortcuts
Along with dates, the keyboard shortcuts are what really make Todoist stand out. Adding tasks, promoting and demoting tasks and projects, sorting, and much more can be done with shortcuts.

Launchy/iGoogle/Integration
Adding the Todoist DLL to your Launchy program folder allows you to add tasks to todoist using Launchy. 'Nuf said. I haven't used the iGoogle widget yet, but I imagine it works wonderfully. A Firefox extension for g-mail lets you send e-mails directly to your task list. And so on. There are Quicksilver and Mac Dashboard plug-ins and widgets, but, like Pony Parties (definately not linking to that, look it up yourself), I won't admit to knowing anything about how they work.

Chaining
I haven't done much chaining (a la Seinfeld), but it is equally easy to implement.

Price
It's $3 per month for the premium level. That gets you SSL, reminders (MSN, Jabber, Twitter, chaining, and other labeling capabilities. You probably spend at least $3/month on plastic silverware, replacement earring backs, and contraception. Todoist is more important than any of those things. Just think how quick it will be to type "[Ctrl-A] Go to planned parenthood, take care of it [Tab] tom @ 8".

What's Missing

There is not (or I have not found) iCal or RSS functionality.

Anyways, I've enjoyed using it, sign up, get your act together, then comment and tell me how smart I am.

Social Networking Aggregation...

I previous posted on social networking aggregation, so to follow up, I present Fuser. Fuser (which is still in beta) aggregates Facebook, MySpace and e-mail (pop and imap) all in one place. If you use both social networks and have an e-mail account or two, you can view them all in one central location.
You can reply within Fuser. You can view which social network friends communicate the most on your "leaderboard". It is free and may be useful to you. Check it out.

Here's a link to the story on TechCrunch:
LINK

Pet Obesity...

I know this news isn't really new, but there is a growing weight problem...in pets. This CNN article highlights that in 2005, 60% of pets were overweight. Compare this to 66% of humans who were overweight in 2004.
Do you see a correlation? I know I'm not the first to point this out.

According to the article, pet owners are sensitive about the weight problem of their pets. If you call their pets fat, they might get mad.

And go figure, extra weight leads to health problems!
Under the section entitled, "Why so fat?", money quote:
"As with humans, excessive portions are a main cause of the weight problem."

Kinda like how ACOM feeds our cats...he just pours as much food as possible into the bowl, like he is going on a trip and won't be back for a few days. He is secretly (or not so secretly) trying to fatten them up.

The article then talks about ways to slim your pet's weight down:
Increase Exercise
Control Portions
Control Quality

Seeing as how all of this advice could be applied to humans, I wonder if people with overweight pets who are overweight themselves apply the above tactics and also lose weight. Although, changing your dog or cat's food does not necessarily imply you start eating better.

How to know if your pets are fat:
1) Run your hands across the chest of the dog or cat. You should always be able to feel their ribs but not see them. There should never be a layer of fat over the ribs.
2) Look at the standing dog or cat from a bird's eye view. They should have what looks like a waist that tucks in right in front of the hips.

How to know if you are fat:
Same as the above, except apply it to your body.



As a side note on human obesity, I think the Body Mass Index (BMI) is somewhat garbage. It doesn't take into account a person's shape. I know that may sound ridiculous, but according to the chart below, I am overweight (and teetering towards obese). I am 5'4" and about 165 pounds. But, I am by no means almost obese. According to the CDC, "BMI is used because, for most people, it correlates with their amount of body fat."


Definition of overweight and obese, which correlates to the chart:

An adult who has a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight.
An adult who has a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.


The map at the top of the post shows the percentage of obese people in each state. It was taken from a study done earlier this year.

Wanted: Slightly Curved Wall and Insane Friends

Stolen from Sports Illustrated this morning, I found a wonderful article about the world's craziest sports. Knowing a few of our readers, I know you're probably asking yourself, "how can I set up some of these competitions at my school/home/church?" Well, I have no idea, but I'm game to try almost any of them.

I'm thinking that a cross between the Eton Wall game and Buzkashi would be a riot. I'm even looking into a corporate sponsor.

Finally the lawyers come through...

Harvard lawyers have denounced the Harvard bookstore's pratices of throwing students out and calling the cops on them.

Its about time. Link to the article:
LINK

Change our blog name to villager with (one) wheel(ed) self-balancing skateboard?

Maybe not, but someone made a one wheeled self-balancing skateboard at Arizona State University. I felt it was appropriate to post on it due to the (sorta) similarity to our blog name....minus the villager part...ok, minus pretty much everything by the word wheel....

Link to the article:
LINK

GoogleFight

I love Google, but this site isn't actually associated with Google. googlefight.com merely uses Google search and compares the results of two criteria that the user enters. There is a quick stick figure fight and then it shows the results of both words or phrases to proclaim a winner.

For example, between this blog and a blog we link to (Through the Eyes of RWPACE), we won.
Between another blog we link to, (Frank M Owen), we lost big time.

I read about this site on a few different blogs and thought it would be a quick time waster...enjoy!

Harvard Bookstore ridiculousness continues...

In a previous post, I highlighted how the Harvard bookstore was kicking students out for writing down textbooks ISBNs in the store.
Apparently, they have taken it one step further. Now, they are calling the cops on students instead. Seriously?

According to the article, the two officers let the students continue to copy down ISBNs for two and a half hours before the students left on the own. The Cambridge Police Department said it removed three of four males, but that hasn't been confirmed by any of the students collecting data.

Where are the Harvard Law School students to bring the bookstore back to earth?

Link to the summary in Boing Boing:
LINK

So You Think You've Got It Rough?

At least you don't work in an Indian chromite mine.

I'm a big fan of this National Geographic photo set of the 10 Most Polluted Place on Earth. It's reassuring to see most of these mines being worked by children. That kind of smog can really play hell on an older person's lungs.

Female "Ninjas" Rob Gas Station...

Thanks to the watchful eyes of our friend, Nino Brown, I was informed of this article detailing a robbery by sword point.
Yes, as the title of the post says, two women, dressed up as "ninjas", one carrying a sword and one carrying a dagger, held up a Richland Township (PA) gas station. I assume this happened on Friday night since the article was posted on Saturday morning. Although I don't doubt the validity of this statement, the police chief was quoted as saying, "Swords, daggers could be used to seriously harm victims, so this is a very serious crime." But, you have to admit the whole concept is comical.

The "ninjas" tied up the clerk and stole cash, cigarettes, and lottery tickets.
Now, I'm not sure how the lottery system tracks its tickets, but it would seem that if they were smart, they would know exactly which tickets are at which stores. Perhaps there is a range of ticket numbers for each store. If this were the case, I'm not sure how the so called "ninjas" are going to use the tickets. I guess they could have friends use them, but it would seem like someone would get caught. Maybe the ticket tracking isn't that involved...
Also, cigarettes? Ninjas shouldn't smoke. They need to be in excellent physical condition to be sneaking around and killing people all the time (apparently, this clerk was very lucky). Someone should tell them that cigarettes will just slow them down...

The owner of the bar across the street is quoted at the end of the article:
"It's shocking. Things like that just don't happen out here. I just can't believe it happened."
What a dumb quote for an article. Like we hear about "ninjas" robbing convenient stores in other parts of the country. It doesn't happen out there? People usually don't dress up as ninjas and rob stores anywhere else in the country either....

For more information on how ninjas actually behave, please refer to the ultimate internet source for ninja Q&A, askaninja.com.

The Secrets of Other People's Success....

Or the not so secret secrets?
I'm not even sure if that makes sense....

Along the lines of Zach's hotly debated post about investing, in Fred Wilson's A VC blog, there was a post discussing online social/web financial services. The post mentioned Mint (which Zach and I both signed up for and have started playing around with), Wesabe, Geezeo, and Buxfer.
He also highlights two social/web financial services sites that track your online brokerage accounts, Cake and Covestor. Then, you can share your trades with others as well as see what other people are doing in the market. I'm assuming there are people who share their trades to the public and others who require you to be in their network to see their activity. Just a guess.

Either way, it is an interesting idea. Here is the link to the original post: A VC

I think I might sign up for one or both and check it out....

UPDATE: Covestor requires you to apply (which I did) and Cake doesn't support my brokerage yet (optionsXpress). So, I guess I'm on hold for these accounts...

Big Ern's "Full Nelson" Locks of the Week

The full nelson is probably what your girl friend/mistress has you in because we (we're losing money together now, you and I are a "we") lack the courage to bet any underdogs in a league where they're 17-12-3 this season.

We all like betting favorites, after all, they're supposed to win. Unfortunately, they won't win us our 92' yachts.

Therefore, it's time to grow a pair. The week 3 edition of "Locks" features all underdogs:

• Detroit +5 @ Philadelphia
• New York Giants +4 @ Washington
• Dallas +3 @ Bears
  

Record last week: 1-2
Record this year: 2-3