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

More Google usefulness...

Google now has an area for "Shared Stuff".

You need to add a bookmarklet to your toolbar and then you can share links through your Shared Stuff page. You can view other people's Shared Stuff. People can subscribe to your Shared Stuff in an RSS feed.

This kinda falls in line with my post about how I wish Google Reader allowed users to add comments to shared articles. This is close, except it is posted to your Shared Stuff page as opposed to your shared Google Reader feed.

There is currently a "Share" button in Google Video, but I'm sure they will expand it to other areas...

Re: The Secrets of Zach's Success

Because I can, instead of commenting, I will reply in a post.
As someone who also dabbles in the market, although not too much lately, I will agree and disagree with a few of Zach's points.

1. I completely agree with taking your money and running. I would agree that you cannot be greedy. Pick a return you want and stick with it. But, here is where my logic is a bit different...to make playing the stock market worthwhile, you need to have a better return on your investment than what the current high yield savings account/CoD/mutual fund would be. Basically, you need to beat your alternative investment. My USAA high-yield savings account last month was at 4.74% APR. So, if I don't make at least that in the market, there would be no point in me playing.

2. Losses are not for losers, mainly because the longer you wait for that stock to come back up, the less your return on your money over time. If you make that 1% after 3 months, then it totally wasn't worth it. So, set the amount (%) you are willing to lose and get out. If you hold a loser, you lose the potential to continue your strategy with other stocks (whatever that may be).

3. Research can definitely help. I lost a while back because I did not follow the research I did. I knew a drug company had a report about a clinical trial and I knew it potentially wasn't going to go well. I did not dump the stock the day before the report, like I should have, and it took a big dive. This also applies to earnings reports. The general consensus is to not hold over when a stock reports its earnings. Even if they have a positive earnings report, it still may not have a positive impact on the stock. Buy on rumor, sell on news.

4. Some say buy low sell high. Some say buy high sell higher. I'm not recommending either way, but like Zach said, pick a strategy and stick to it. In this sense, I disagree with picking up a stock after bad news, like Zach suggested. It may work if you're only looking for a 1% return. But, I would recommend NOT trying to pick a market bottom or top (or in this case stock bottom or top). If this was possible, then everyone would make money in the market, every time. But, unfortunately, everyone does not.

Personally, I use optionsxpress.com, which has fees, so it makes it harder to follow Zach's strategy due to the fixed costs of commissions. The more money you play with, the less impact commissions have on you return. The opposite is also true, hence my problem.

And perhaps I am a bit more conservative in my approach. When I was in high school, I played strictly options and did well. But, at that time the market was good. Now, when I play the short term, I tend to write covered calls to try and get a little more of a return.

Currently, I am following a long term strategy and haven't been doing anything short term. At some point, I really have to start paying attention.

Please do not take my advice too seriously, these are my opinions and my opinions alone. If you take my advice and do poorly in the market, I am not responsible.

The Secrets of My Success

I've been doing the online brokerage thing for a few months, and things are going suspiciously well. Thanks to Zecco and their comission free trades, I'm up 14.35% over 123 days (.336 years) on one account and 11.10% over 98 days (.268 years) on another. I've been "managing" (I use the term loosely) both accounts similarly, and both those numbers both extrapolate to 41-43% annual returns.

In a year marked with hedge fund and real estate misery, why are things going so well for me? I'm not asking this in the rhetorical-arrogant way, more the suspicious-waiting-for-the-other-shoe-to-drop way.

My basic assumptions going in. Theyre both gambling related. Stick to what you know.

1. Stocks are like roulette, but since things tend to go up, the odds are slightly in your favor instead of slightly against you.


2. The dice do have a memory, i.e. what happened before is indicative of what will happen in the future.

With these assumptions in mind, I present the Big Ern Rules for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Boat Filled Retirement:

1. Take the Money and Run - A) As soon as you see a 1-1.5% gain, slide in a stop or trailing stop order to protect your gains. B) As soon as your high flyer starts to level off, sell that mother. A 1 or 2% gain over a few days is awesome, especially with no fees.


2. Buy Good Companies on Bad Days - This goes against my bandwagoning instincts, but seeing headlines like "CostCo Stock Drops 4% Due to Heat" should get you fired up. The sun will come up. Probably tomorrow.


3. Don't Take Stock Picks from Anyone You Know - If the pick goes up, you become dependent, if it goes down you get bitter. Man is not an island, but the man who owns (or will own) an island doesn't need a hot pick from his cousin's neighbor's nephew.


4. Don't Do Any Research - Research is for the weak. Find a stock rating tool you like, and use it. What the hell is a P/E ratio anyways?


5. Losses are for Losers - Never give up until a stock shows a gain. This is the one that worries me. Thus far even when things have dropped precipitously after I bought them (Level Three, Raytheon, Exelixis, Scholastic, even Apple once), I've held on and they eventually (a month or so) come back up to show a small profit. (Note - I'm still waiting on Exelixis and Scholastic.) As soon as you see that small profit, see Rule 1.

Here are (some of) the possible flaws in my genius:

1. Eventually one of the stocks I refuse to unload will clean me out. If I started this 8 years ago, I'd still be holding the Enron I bought at $90.


2. The last few months are an anomalous period and the guidelines I'm using will fail me over the long run.

I'd love to hear other reasons why I'll eventually end up living in a van down by the river.

Apple is up 2% today. Off I go...

When people take their jobs too seriously...

According to Boing Boing, an assistant managing editor of the Wall Street Journal was detained at a Kmart (who would have thought they'd still be in business?) and accused of stealing. Well, she was accused of putting more expensive shoes ($24.50) in a box for less expensive shoes ($16.50). After walking out the door, she was confronted by a security guard and led to a windowless room in the back of the store. They held her for an hour questioning her...
Here's a link to the original article: ARTICLE
Here's a link to an MP3 podcast interview: INTERVIEW

I have a few (obvious) questions....

1. What is an assistant managing editor doing shopping at Kmart?
I know titles can be misleading, but managing editor sounds impressive, so assistant managing editor sounds almost as impressive. Maybe she is a glorified administrative assistant, but it seems like she could afford at least Target, maybe even Ross, or definitely Marshall's.

2. What happened to giving people the benefit of the doubt?
I understand that $8 times a lot of people pulling this "ticket switching" type of stealing amounts to many lost green backs, but couldn't they have just asked her to pay the difference of her mistake? Did they think she was going to run to her car (with the rest of her family) and peel out of the parking lot? I'm sure she would have just paid the $8 plus tax and apologized for her error.

3. Coming back to the title of my post, did the rent-a-cop security guards really need to question and accuse her of stealing for an hour?
For $8, wouldn't a more valuable use of their time have been watching for other possible thefts? They wasted the company's money by being on the clock and questioning her unnecessarily, not to mention the potential loss of merchandise since they were understaffed in the loss prevention department.

I have worked in retail and understand loss prevention, but I think they went a bit overboard. Just like Eletronic Vagrant hates Wal-Mart, I will now hate and boycott Kmart. Their revenue just decreased a total of $0, because I never shop there, but I encourage all of you not to shop there also. I wonder if the domain kmart-sucks.com is available for purchase...

Werewolf Syndrome...

I realize this story is a week old (online), but I just saw this on TV. Apparently, there is a condition called hypertrichosis, "which causes [the] body to produce an abnormal amount of hair everywhere". So, hence the picture on the right side of this post. This picture doesn't do what I just saw on TV justice. He was much hairier, so he obviously shaved his face for this picture.

A bit more info...genetics:
"Genetic research has linked the condition to the X chromosome. That means if a woman carries the gene, she has a 50-50 chance of passing it on to her offspring, whether she has a boy or a girl. If a male carries the gene, 100 percent of his female children will be affected, but none of his sons."

A bit more on why it may have happened:
"We believe that this is a gene which was functioning a long time ago in the evolution of man when primates were becoming men,"..."as humans evolved, certain genes that were unnecessary for survival mutated and were turned off. Figuera believes that, in Danny's family, the gene for hypertrichosis was somehow accidentally turned back on."
So, evolution took a step backwards in this case...

If you want to read more about the hard lives of Danny (pictured) and his brother Larry, about how they started out in a cage featured in a freak show, about how they went from that to (and are currently in) a Mexican circus (is anyone shocked by this fact?), or about how Danny has children and a girlfriend who is down with his hairiness, go to the ABC News Article.

If they post video or I find any online, I will definitely post a link to it. Or please add a link in the comments if anyone finds video on it.

He really does look like a werewolf....

UPDATE: I found a video on YouTube, not from ABC, but on the same family.

Cruziero ta foda!

So, there is a kid named Kerlon who plays for a soccer team in Brazil who has patented what is called the seal dribble. Needless to say, he tried it at the end of a match recently. His team was winning....there were only a few minutes remaining....and he was playing against his intercity rivals.

BAD MOVE


The uproar that has ensued is sweeping through soccer-crazed Brazil. You can read about it here if you like. Or, if you can't read Portuguese, you can go here.

My take:
1. Showing up professional athletes that would like nothing more than to break your shins is not a good idea.
2. Point number one is even more pertinent when you are about 5'7 and weigh about 130 pounds.
3. The seal dribble is possibly a career ending move every time it is completed. It will always end with the same thing, Kerlon screaming on the ground and someone getting a yellow card (at least) You can't really say that about any other play this side of the chop block unless you're Zach, and you think the Broncos linemen just happen to often fall down at the knees of opposing defensive linemen.
4. I really wish there would have been a microphone there to record what the defenders were screaming at him
5. I hate his team. The intercity rival, Clube Atletico Mineiro is the best team in the world.

Harvard bookstore throwing out students...

...for taking too many notes. They don't want them to learn?
The article (from Boing Boing) highlights how students are taking copious notes about the prices of books at the campus bookstore. Apparently, the nerds up at Harvard like to take notes before they even own the book....
But, seriously, if they write down the book info, such as the ISDN, they are being booted from the store because the Barnes and Noble run bookstore says the prices are its "intellectual property". I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone that it seems like a totally invalid claim.

Maybe if they lowered their prices, they wouldn't have students writing down the book information and then buying it online for cheaper, either new or used. College bookstores are a notorious rip off. I think I bought one book my second semester sophomore year and paid someone a few bucks to borrow some of the other ones.
The article highlights a website that shows the books for Harvard courses:
crimsonreading.org

Either way, half.com or Amazon work too.

Online Financial Tools

I've been putting off signing up for a one-size fits all online financial tool like Mint or Wesabe. Have any of you dummies used one of these and had noteworthy experiences?

I suppose there's always the security risks of putting all your financial information in one place, but once a sketchy Panamanian waiter takes your Amex out of site to settle your tab/order his new Segway Skateboard, why sweat the small stuff?

W&M grads theive from GMU...

I guess AV nerds still go to William and Mary, but they don't graduate and make enough money to buy their own stuff:
LINK

Not only did they steal from George Mason, but they may have also nicked equipment from Duke and Elon.

Does anyone know these guys?



Thanks to Brendan for the link.

TSA is terrible....

I shouldn't use broad generalizations, but since I travel almost every week, I really do think TSA airport security is terrible. I won't go in to my own personal experiences of lax and slow government employees, because this blog post takes the cake. I stole the photo for my post from that link. Basically the blogger (accidentally) carried box cutters onto an airplane. The photo sure looks like an airplane bathroom. I know photos can be doctored, but I don't doubt this actually happened.

In TSA's defense, a lot of the airport employees are part time, which minimizes their benefits, and they are the armpit of the organization. But still, they could attempt to use their brains here and there...

Also, Electronic Vagrant e-mailed this link out the other day concerning TSA, which I thought was interesting:
kiphawleyisanidiot.com


UPDATE: Here's a really, really long blog post about TSA ruining lives, LINK.

GodTube

After highlighting JewTube in a previous post, I feel it is only appropriate that I chronicle another YouTube clone:
GodTube

According to DownloadSquad , the site is "Basically whatever YouTube's got, but with a strange religious twist." The CEO of the site claims that "Jesus 2.0 is the wave of the future". GodTube had a 973% month on month growth in August. It had 3 million unique visitors. Basically, the audience of this blog, times about a million....give or take....

Link to the article:
LINK

Here is a sample video based on the popular Mac vs. PC commercial series:

Twitter can no longer be denied...

I've been trying to ignore it...pretend it didn't really exist...pretend I didn't really care....but I've been lying to myself.
This is a call for everyone to join Twitter.

Reasons to join:
1) Community Twitter - communities of like employment or like minds that are Twitter friends. An example would be Alley Insider. Alley Insider is an online blog about New York digital business. Through this website, you can join the Alley Insider Twitter community and keep up with others who care about issues that the website deals with.

2) Launchy and Twitter - Launchy is a Windows program that is meant to replace your start menu, much like Spotlight (or Quicksilver) on Mac OS X. The combination of these programs allows you to do the following:
Update Remember the Milk
Post to Google Calendar
Set SMS reminders
Twitter from Launchy - Link to the instructions

3) Follow blogs - An example is Download Squad, a site I've mentioned previously. You can "friend" the website on Twitter and follow along.
Link

4) I keep reading about people using Twitter who are older than me. That scares me and makes me think I'm missing out. Although I use Facebook, I was not in college when it became popular, so I'm not constantly on the site. So, when I read about people not younger than me using Twitter, it makes me think it could be useful.

Here is a beginner guide to Twitter.

I need some friends on Twitter. Here is the link to my twitter page:
LINK

Also, just like DownloadSquad, you can follow this blog on twitter at this link.

Happy twittering.

Yahoo! Mash?

Although I read about this a few day ago, I'm still flabbergasted that Yahoo! has created a social networking site, Yahoo! Mash. According to the review by Download Squad, Yahoo! Mash has similar features to MySpace and Facebook. They will even be opening up a 3rd party development platform (like Facebook did) in the next few months.
One interesting note from the review...friends can start pages for each other to invite them to join the service.

But still, does the web really need another social networking site?

What we need (and I have read about) is a social networking site to combine social networking sites....

IBM protest in Second Life...

Second Life "is an Internet-based virtual world." Second Life users can "interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another."

Apparently IBM decreased salaries in Italy and employees aren't happy. So, what are these angry employees going to do? Naturally, they are going to protest at the IBM facilities in Second Life, where IBM has a large corporate campus and marketing site. If you click on the link to IBM, you may even see some avatars from Second Life.

So, will this actually be effective? I guess the huge advantage to this is that employees can potentially strike while they are at work (being paid). I would think the problem with striking is that the money the employees lose in the immediate term for not working takes a while to make up with the (potential) wage increase obtained due to the strike.
Although, apparently there is an Italian strike. During this type of strike, employees come to work and do their jobs, but don't do any more than the minimum. So, perhaps this Second Life strike can be classified as an Italian (or work-to-rule) strike.

Either way, does IBM even care if computer generated beings that represent real people are striking in a virtual world?

Cat video...

Since I don't have anything to post about at the moment, you can watch one of my cats attack a fork. This is the semi-obese cat, thanks to over-feeding by ACOM. He talked about doing it right after we got them and he hasn't stopped since. But, it backfired because she lays on his lap like there is no tomorrow...



Notice the other cat in the background laying in an amazon box...she loves cardboard...

Big Ern's "John" Lockes of the Week

A being "conscious of pleasure and pain, capable of happiness or misery, and so is concerned for itself," would never bet Joey Harrington on the road. We live (if we didn't put the kidney transplant money on the Falcons), and hopefully we learn.

We've also learned that, while no one is perfect, 50% doesn't cut it (unless you're the one taking the bets). Hence the 3 pick serving size from here on out.

This weeks picks:

• Seattle (-3) @ Arizona
• Chicago (-13) vs. Kansas City
• Dallas (-4) @ Miami

Next week's lesson: The folly of picking road favorites in the NFL.

50 Cent vs. Kanye West

On our way to Williamsburg, I listened to the new 50 Cent and Kanye West CD's, "Curtis" and "Graduation", respectively.

Curtis is the typical 50 "I think I'm John Gotti AKA Teflon Don" Cent rap album. Why do I draw the conclusion that he thinks he is the Teflon Don? Maybe because he (or his associates) say it at least once a song. Perhaps because "Don" is an easy word to think of rhymes for....john, megatron, ron, con, Ghost Recon, don (rappers love to two end lines with the same word).
Maybe it was because I had a negative attitude going into my first listen with this CD or maybe it was because I listened to it second, but I didn't care for many of the songs. In true 50 Cent fashion, there are several titles having to do with guns and killing: "My Gun Go Off", "I'll Still Kill", "Fully Loaded Clip", "Curtis 187", and possibly "Fire". In his defense, I typically don't like a rap CD in its entirety.
The one thing 50 has going for him is choosing to feature Justin Timberlake on the song "Ayo Technology". If you listen to pop/hip-hop radio, you have probably heard this song and you may also know it is about pornography. Besides that last point, it has a good beat and features JT, all qualities of a great song. (I also liked the song, "Follow My Lead" featuring Robin Thicke)

Graduation is a typical Kanye CD full of good beats, making fun of college, and relevant and irrelevant samples. Like I previously implied, I listened to this CD first. Songs that weren't the best:
Barry Bonds - featuring Lil Wayne - maybe its because I'm just not a fan of many of the Lil folks.
Drunk and Hot Girls - featuring Mos Def - I like Mos Def, but this song is terrible...
Then there are the songs you might recognize from the radio: "Stronger" and "Can't Tell Me Nothing". I enjoyed them.

Did anyone notice both CD's have hits with what I will call electronica in the background? "Stronger" on Graduation and "Ayo Technology" on Curtis (although in Ayo Technology, it sounds more like he sampled background music from a nintendo game)

Kanye makes a reference to not winning some awards, but winning the award for having the most "Chedda" (please see definition #1).

As a side note, what the media hyped record sale contests doesn't report is the rest of what 50 Cent said. According to an article by the LA Times, 50 Cent already has 12 songs recorded for his next album (which he is still under contract to Interscope Records to release), "Before I Self Destruct". He also predicted that Kanye's CD will have a sharp decline in sales in the second week. I assume 50 thinks he will surpass Kanye's sales in the second week.

We shall see what happens...

Prince = RIAA

According to Ars Technica, Prince is suing YouTube, eBay, and The Pirate Bay.

The article goes on to highlight how a few months ago, Prince actually gave his latest CD away for FREE (in the UK), which then boosted his ticket sales for a 21 night tour in London. What costs more, a ticket to a Prince concert or a Prince CD?

I'm sure that Prince fans would much rather watch low quality video of Prince on YouTube than see him in concert. Not to mention the fact that he probably doesn't have much of a case against YouTube. As long as they comply with take down notices, they are in the clear.

And he seriously thinks he's going to sue The Pirate Bay? Not only have they basically said every four letter word to governments that try to shut them down, they have been trying to buy an island (their first attempt failed) and create their own country, just to get around copyright laws. Somehow, I doubt they care what Prince thinks and probably have a few choice words for him.

Good luck, Prince. I'm sure its worth all the hassle and I'm sure you don't already have enough money.

The Birthday Paradox

Suppose you are sitting in a classroom with 40 people (including yourself). Now suppose a gunman held a .45 caliber to your head and asked you this question: What are the chances two people in this room have their birthdays on the same day? If you answered 11% which would probably be the safest guess, you would get your head blown off. The actual answer is closer to 90%. In a room of 30 students that probability is still 71%. This chart breaks down the group size to get an approximate probability.



This mathmatical probability problem was proposed in 1939 by Richard von Mises. The implications of this problem are far reaching. You and your friends can systematically take hundreds of dollars off of pre-schoolers to college students by posing this question and then taking the appropriate position. Math is on your side.

Update from (hopefully) a future Olympic Torch Bearer...

As it turns out, there are two glitches in the system:

1) Voting only works with Internet Explorer. Firefox, Safari, I'm sorry. The Beijing Olympics don't like you.

2) It seems that you can vote ONCE EVERY DAY. This may be a glitch, or they may have just not listed that you can do it. Either way, this means you can vote a lot more times.

THANK YOU for those who have voted already. And a BIG thank you if you vote again, and again, and again...

Here's the webpage again:
Link

Thanks,
Matt Scranton

JewTube?

Did anyone know that a site called JewTube even exists?
Well, according to Download Squad, Google does and is suing the Jewish version of YouTube to protect their trademark.

Here is a link to a sample video on JewTube:
Nation's Biggest Jewish Singles Event - 3,000 Jewish Singles

Money quote from the video:
"Jews gone wild." (as said by a middle aged Jewish man who is clearly NOT going wild...)

Conspiracy Theories...

Seeing as how this week had the 6th anniversary of 9/11, I think we would be remiss if we didn't mention it. I was also prompted by a friend (who's blog we link to), who IMed me this link earlier today:
9/11 Mystery Plane

For those of you who don't want to watch the video (3 minutes), CNN highlights the presence of a plane that looks very similar to an E4 flying over the White House right after AA 77 hit the Pentagon. E4's are "specially built to serve as a survivable mobile command post" for people like say, the President. This plane prompted conspiracy theorists to propose that the attack was orchestrated by the senior leadership of this country. I know Bush went to Yale and got a C average, but there is no way he would be smart enough to pull that off. Condoleezza or others are another story...

I'm not saying I agree with the theory or any of the other conspiracy theories, but I did watch Loose Change, which is about 90 minutes long and highlights the main arguments for the 9/11 conspiracy theories. If you are looking for something to do on a Saturday morning and have an open mind, it brings up some interesting points. Without the open mind, you will probably just be angry.

Once again, I'm not saying I agree with the theories, but for once I figured I would try to have all the links in a post relate to the same topic.....

Coming in From the Cold

It's been years since I've had a professional sports team. In fact, 19 years. Settling down to watch my beloved Broncos, an excited (and only slightly balding) 7-year old Zach thrilled as Elway & Co. went up 10 nothing. I think we all know what happened then.

In the years that followed, like a girl with a gropey step-father, I had a series of torrid flings with whatever team seemed coolest at the time. My time with Young's 49ers and Brady's Patriots was fun while it lasted, but ultimately unrewarding.

However, despite my troubled youth there are things I just won't do. Watching the 2007 season opener, I found myself thinking, "Maybe Peyton Manning isn't so bad. The Colts look awesome this year." Then, like a drunk girl watching the second (and third, and fourth) frat guy enter the darkened room, I asked myself "What am I doing with my life?" I had my bandwagoneer moment of clarity, put back on my metaphoric shirt, and stepped back from the brink. This isn't how I want to live my life.

And so, it is with great pleasure that I re-dedicate myself to the Denver Broncos. To cut-blocking, thin air, and the fantasy football chaos of platooned running backs. To the inevitable shakiness of Jay Cutler, the dreaded corny commentator banter about the altitude, and, just as surely, occasional dissappointment.

I just wish John could have seen this.

-Comments as to what replica jersey I should order are welcome.

The Mystery War

Taking a break from Olympic torches, Football and Tor, the most interesting thing that has happened in the last few days is the mysterious war between Israel and Syria. These two countries hate each other, yet Syria has responded meekly at best to their mortal enemy bombing them. (Is it bad that I wanted to type frenemy just then? I don't think I've ever used that word before.) Anyway, back on track, guesses abound as to what Israel just destroyed.
North Korean nuclear technology?
Hizbollah arms destined for Lebanon?
Baby seals?

Maybe they were just pissed because Bill Belichick was stealing their defensive signals.....

Implications of Patriots cheating on Fantasy Football results in Week 1

L.T. may have a good point when asked about the Patriots cheating scandal. He reiterated the often used phrase: If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. There may be some merit to this phrase but lets be serious for one moment, the Pats didn't need to cheat against the Jets. They could have spotted them 10 points and put their mothers in for the o and d-line and still won by a healthy margin. Thats not even the point of my rambling. What everyone really wants to know are the implications this has for the Fantasy Football squad in Week 1.


Lets assume that Belichick doesn't get suspended and the Pats don't lose any picks. Instead they have to forfeit that game. Does this mean that all Patriot stats are now voided and they receive no points. I sure hope so. I lost my big Fantasy league at the hands of Tom Brady. I would like nothing more than to see 0 pts by his name instead of 30 and a 'W' next to my team name for week 1 instead of a 'L'.

This seems a bit harsh. Its not the Fantasy owners fault or even Tom Brady's fault. However there are inherent risks to everything. As far as Fant. Football is concerned, there are injury risks, starting-role risks, natural disaster risks among others. This cheating was simply another form of risk that is caught after the fact and must be retroactively corrected. When Oklahoma was found in violation of rules during their 2005 8-4 season, they were stripped of all 8 wins (they have since appealed this). The same should happen for the Patriots' first game.

Big Ern's Psychic Visions

After channeling Muad'dib this morning, I have pierced the veils of time and seen President Bush's speech tonight. You heard it hear first:

• The surge is working! Woot! Progress is being made on most many some three two of the 18 benchmarks for success set by Congress in the spring.



• 9/11, Saddam Hussein. 9/11, Saddam Hussein.



• Even though I've constantly lied to you been honestly wrong about everything mistakes have been made, the totally independent General Petraus reported to Congress this week that everything I've been telling you is correct.



• Success is being acheived as such a dizzying rate we would be irresponsible to pull out before planting the seed of success deep within Iraq's fertile crescent. To do otherwise would be to waste it on the stomach of cowardly defeat.



• We may reduce troop levels in the Spring of 2008. This has nothing to do with completely running out of troops.



• These successes are comprable to past, glorious victories over the Nazis Viet-Cong the aliens from Independence Day very poor, angry people with guns.



• There are only two alternatives: leaving troops there forever, or fitting your wife and daughter for a burka.



• I look forward to reporting even more good news sometime after November 2008.

New idea on voting for Matt for torch bearer....

I give all credit on this idea to Electronic Vagrant.
He proposed using Tor (download page) to vote for Matt to be torch bearer. Now, yes, this takes a bit of effort. But, if you were thinking about using Tor to do some simple anonymous browsing, then download it anyway and vote for Matt.
Since Matt said it logs IP addresses, this would be a way to get around that.

Two other options:
1) You can download Tor and then use a Firefox extension called Tor button to turn Tor off and on in Firefox. Although more people have viewed this page with IE 6 or 7, I know that many of you use Firefox (and I highly encourage it).
2) You can download a portable (you can run it off a USB key) version of Firefox that is integrated with Tor, called TorPark. Just download, extract and run it. This also means you can put it on your work computer because you don't have to install anything (in case you don't have the permissions).

And don't forget to vote for Matt.

P.S. Remember to use Tor wisely, aka, don't start logging into websites with all of your personal info. I'll be monitoring your traffic on my Tor node.

50 Cent on his way to retirement...

According to an article just to me e-mailed by Electronic Vagrant, looks like Kanye West has outsold 50 Cent by over 100,000 CD's. Great news for those of us who want 50 Cent to retire.
In 50's defense, he does want to go by Curtis Jackson now and get into movies. And as my future wife pointed out, he did have such cult classics as "In Da Club" and "Candy Shop".
And don't feel sorry for 50. If you haven't heard, he made a cool $400 million thanks to Coke buying Glaceau.

But, I'm glad to see all of you listened and went out and bought Kanye's CD. My new marching orders are to keep hiding 50's CD in other places in stores. I don't expect you to buy more than one Kanye CD...that's just asking too much....

Google Reader shared comments...

If you don't use Google Reader or RSS feeds to have news/info delivered to you, you should start.

One of the many features I love is the ability to share things that you read. You can actually have multiple shared feeds, but otherwise your shared feed can be view by anyone. For example, the link to my shared feed. You can also subscribe to someone's personal feed in an RSS Reader.

Apparently, Google Reader is thinking about adding the ability to make comments on shared posts. I think this is a great idea. TechCrunch does not. I know that the only people who actually read my feed, mainly because few people have it, are my mother and sometimes my future wife. My mother subscribes to it in her RSS reader (she prefers Thunderbird). I would love to be able to add stupid or insightful comments to things that I share. I might even just have a shared feed directed right to the blog, make comments on the shared posts and eliminate the use of the blogger interface. Only if Google makes it happen...

As a side note, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking on the subscribe to at the bottom of the page, or if copied it correctly, by clicking here.

More Energy Discussion

Energy Discussion

This is a novel idea advocated by those wacky Euros. You'll have to read through the discussion, but essentially they're using excess power from wind farms to store water in Norwegian reservoirs. Then, when they need power, they drain the water from the reservoirs and get the hydroelectric power. Can't get much cleaner than that (other than the whole building dams thing).

The Economist has been doing a lot of articles on energy lately. I think we're going to see a lot of new nuclear plants built in the next 10 or 20 years. If we could only get Keanu Reeves to tell us how he mastered cold fusion in the movie Chain Reaction.....

Help Matt Scranton become an Olympic Torchbearer

Friends,

I've applied to become a torchbearer for the upcoming 2008 Olympics. Part of the initial decision is based on how many votes you get online, which means, I NEED YOUR HELP!!

You can vote one time per ISP number, which means go to the university library and vote on different computers. Go to Internet cafes and vote. Vote on your home computer, work computer. Leave comments too to get more attention!

100 people make it to the final round, so this is a goal within reach. That is a lot of people and you can help me be one of them!

Facebook Group Link:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11778765028

Here is the website to vote for me:
http://pub1.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/torch/members.shtml?mid=36

The main website with all the other applicants is here:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/torch_page.html

I would really love your help, it will only take 30 seconds.

Thanks,
Matt Scranton

Nate = Buffoon, Al Gore = Sex Bomb

Re: the earlier post about stupid burning oil and replanting trees article I have two things to say:

1. Al Gore's position has never been that biofuels, electric cars, or hydrogen fuel cell powered sex toys are the one and complete answer to Global Warming. His position is that we need to shift our energy consumption to renewable fuel sources and begin an earnest, culture- and world-wide discussion about the cataclysmic wall we're probably accelerating towards.
2. Ethanol is stupid. It is the strange love-child of the corn industry (the nice people who ensure high fructose corn syrup is in everything) and environmentalists desperate to do something productive during this 8-year clusterfark (clusterbomb if you live in Basra).

Anyways, Gore is awesome. I would have his baby if it were biologically feasible (and if he would just answer one of my letters).

why.i.hate.dc

Those aren't my words!
Its another blog.
Since I live outside of D.C., I can appreciate this type of commentary, even though I don't often ride the bus.

Also, I like this person's blog theme...hating on D.C. Reminds me of a Craigslist Rant and Rave.

We need a theme....

WARNING: Inappropriate language for small children and the elderly.

Al Gore can shove it...

According to this report, burning oil and replanting trees is better than using biofuels.
According to Electronic Vagrant's favorite website, biofuel is defined as "liquid or gas transportation fuel derived from biomass". Like E85 that GM advertises? As of 2006, more than half of the E85 pumps are in Minnesota. Helpful for the little over 5.1 million people who live there. Not so helpful for the rest of the 297 million people....(A little math thanks to the U.S. Census website)

So, I assume this doesn't include electricity? I don't know how it all works. But, concerning low-emission vehicles, it is actually illegal to buy "Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle" in all but eight states. Is this type of car better than biofuel? Is this considered biofuel? Should we use oil to run these cars?

In summary, the government doesn't want you to buy better than hybrid vehicles. Some scientists don't want you to use biofuels.
I wonder what Al Gore's tree hugging position is....


UPDATE: Read the comments for intelligent discussion from others and more stupidity/ignorance from me.

Ice cave photography...

For those of you into photography or appreciate ice:
Here are some pictures of ice caves...

This link was taken from a mental_floss blog post.

Tor and other such "anonymous" networks...

Depending on your level of computer/internet savvy (and/or corporate firewall), you may or may not know about (or use) Tor (The Onion Router) or other such "anonymous" networks (I2P is another). It is one way to surf anonymously and usually bypass corporate firewalls. Unfortunately, the basis of the Tor network is other Tor users who host Tor nodes (how many times can I use Tor in one sentence?).

In simple terms, although your internet traffic may be anonymous to the web sites you are visiting, anything you transmit to those sites (logins/passwords/personal info) can be captured by the computers that are making you anonymous.
The reason I highlight this is because recently, a security expert captured lots of usernames and passwords by operating tor nodes. Here's the link to the article from Ars Technica:
Link

The security expert released the info he captured to the public and of course his site was immediately taken down. But, it's back up and here's the link to his recent blog post about the incident:
Link

So, the point is, always be careful of such "anonymous" networks and proxies. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then read at least the first article and learn something.


And as a bonus feature, here are a few tips on how to bypass corporate firewalls (there are many posts on the net about this, but I will summarize a few):
1. Use Google Translator (translate a page from english to english)
2. Use a site like anonymouse.org (not secure)
3. Run your own SSH server (if I know you, you can use mine)

Daily T-shirts...

I'm still struggling to catch up with my feeds, but I just read that Woot! has a spin-off site dedicated to T-shirts. Apparently, some T-shirts are designed by the folks at American Apparel, but some are designed by Woot! staff. Also, each week the Woot! community can submit designs which are then voted on by people who have previously purchase something at Woot!. The top three designs are sold on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Kinda a cool idea....

I like the original Woot!, although I don't always follow, because they sell random stuff on the cheap. Looking at the T-shirt blog, I'm bummed I missed out on buying this T-shirt:



Here's a little summary blurb from the website:
"America’s most sensational fashion sensation! Oh, wait, we were thinking of those rubber wiffle-slippers everybody wears now. Shirt.Woot, on the other hand, is a web site that applies the Woot model to selling t-shirts: a new one every day at midnight Central time, sold cheap. The difference is, these aren’t somebody else’s leftovers. Woot tees feature exclusive, original designs that you can’t get anywhere else (hence the terms “exclusive” and “original”)."

Japanese Pee-Powered Batteries

A Japanese company, Aqua Power Systems, is now offering batteries that can be recharged by... wait for it... peeing on them.

Insert joke here...

My big question: what is the best way to do this? Clearly you need to remove them from your remote control first, but where do you place the batteries while you, ahem, recharge them? The sink?

Link

The New England Patriots are cheaters...

They are considered by man NFL analysts as the dynasty of the early 00's. They consistently make the playoffs. Do they really have to cheat?

Tom Brady was already named the world's best dressed man in early August by Esquire magazine. Isn't that enough to win?

Or is his coach's terrible cut off inside out sweatshirt style cancel out his wonderful dressing skills?

Either way, Patriots are cheaters.

Or this could be the problem with hip-hop today...

Kanye West had an outburst backstage at the VMA's.

I like Kanye. He's from the Chi...(that would be Chicago for all of you who are unawares)

But, doesn't he make enough money? I know he is a male and males typically need encouragement/vindication that what they are doing is the right thing. But, does he really need an award from the same network (Viacom) that produces such shows as "The Hills" and 3 different types of shows based on Flavor Flav?
Yes, I realize a lot of his fan base probably watches those shows, but it doesn't mean he has to acknowledge that.

I know, its all for the hype. Tomorrow is the big day. I still expect everyone to buy Kanye's CD and hide 50 Cent's CDs in different parts of the store so other people can't find it to buy...

Twitter comic...

Ok, so I haven't posted on Twitter yet, but if you went to the website, you may find this amusing:

The problem with music today...

Is apparently being solved by Rick Rubin. If you've never heard of Rick Rubin, you've probably never listened to music.

Anyway, I was trying to catch up on some of my feeds and came across this post from the blog
A VC. It highlights an article recently written about Rick Rubin being made the co-President of Columbia Records.

Points I liked from the article:
Kids mostly steal music but don't consider it stealing.
MySpace is over.
Facebook is cool now but probably over soon.

I think it all leads the way to Twitter, Pownce, and similar social networking sites. If you aren't aware of these sites, I have a post in the works that I will hopefully complete soon.

Here's a link to the original article:
Link

The problem with hip-hop music today...

Clearly, there is a problem with rap/hip-hop today. Mainly, it sucks.
As a side note, Tuesday could mark a big day in hip-hop history. If you haven't heard, 50 Cent will retire if Kanye West sells more CD's than he does. Both CD's come out on Tuesday, so buy Kanye West's CD....
Personally, I doubt 50 Cent will actually retire or retire for that long (ala Jay-Z).

But, regardless, hip-hop would be much better if artists followed this simple formula.

I'd also like to direct you to figure 4-A on that same page and also comment #7 for a thorough analysis of figure 4-A.