July 2008 Archives
When I read about the housing bill bailout by Congress, I was ashamed. Ashamed that Congress would even bother with something like this. Why are they? It's an election year. And that is the ONLY reason.
Why? Let's take a look at how a mortgage works. The lender and lendee go into a contract. The lender says that these are the terms and the lendee signs off into that contract. Now while many lenders did not do due diligence to make sure the homeowner knew what they were getting into... hey, if you signed on the dotted line then you're also responsible. It takes two parties to make a loan happen, and because someone is fiscally irresponsible is no excuse for a bailout.
Just as it was wrong to bailout lenders that have taken a hit because they played the risk and instead of high capitalization, they lost on the risk. Fiscal responsibility is a just as it sounds. Responsibility in both business and/or signing on loans that you can actually afford. In the same breath, I can say that there is no way my business could survive if I took out a $500,000USD loan for operating expenditures when I fully well know that my profits don't even amount close to that amount. Thus, it's not fiscally responsible.
This bailout just shows that Congress is out to "buy" the votes instead of doing what they should be doing, which is not helping those that make bad judgment calls. There are plenty of people currently that do not live beyond their means. So why should the rest of these people pay in taxes for a bill that bails out those that continue to max out their credit limit and live in housing that doesn't reflect their incomes? It just shouldn't happen.
Saw this at Target recently.
And I have to say, somehow or another it's friggin' scary looking. Something about a ginger root with a face is just plain frightening. Like Alice in Wonderland freaky. I know that it's a root, but does it have to look like that? Ick.
What's even more strange is that I've seen something similar in the asian candies and you can figure that this type of cutesy ginger root figure would be in asian packaging, but when its origins is out of Aussieland, it's just baffling. In any case, if you're into crystallized ginger or want something a bit whacky to try, I suggest picking up a package. Just be forewarned that the Ginger People are coming.
User additions are no different in Solaris. The useradd command is what's used to do the addition (must be done as the root user).
The -g flag defines which group you're adding the user into, and the -d flag defines the user's home directory. Obviously the last part is the username that you're trying to add. Also, always remember to use the -m flag. This flag creates the user's initial directory structure from the skeleton directory, and gives it the right permissions. If you forget to do this, you'll have to do it manually.
# useradd -g users -m -d /home/export/username username
GTalk gadget has added group chat and having tried it recently, I have to say that it's pretty neat.
The web interface version is done in Adobe Flash, which makes the links that come up kind of annoying in browsers like Safari since you can't open the links in a new tab or what not. But otherwise, it's a decent chat room piece just like most decent rooms. You can invite anyone with a gmail account to join (specifically, Gtalk). There are a couple weird things that happen with at least Safari. Beeps occur sometimes out of the blue for each message, then they go away. Not really sure why that is, but it's definitely strange that it's intermittent.
Overall, it was a pretty nice experience although it'd be better if it was directly integrated into GTalk and Jabber, since that's what makes it so nice in AdiumX for chatting on AIM and Yahoo IM chatrooms.
PartyChat is a persistent chat room for GTalk. Basically what this means is that you can create a chatroom directly through the jabber client without having to mess with other things like web clients.
The bot itself does the entire conversation relay and if you exit from the client, you will still be joined to the last room when you relogin to your client unless you exit from the room itself (thus persistent). From what I can tell, it's basically just a relay bot similar to an eggdrop for IRC or what not.
It is open sourced so if you think you can do better, definitely take a shot at it. All you have to do is add the bot to your Jabber Client and feed it some commands and away you go. Kind of like SmarterChild actually.
Basically, the main character must choose a side to fight it out and depending on his choice will undoubtedly change the course of the world. Pretty usual, and the fights are actually pretty good if you watch the anime first. In fact, I would recommend not to watch the movie until you finish watching the anime itself since it wouldn't make as much sense otherwise.
The film itself is the exact same story but with a bit more focus on Kamui and less on the Dragons of Heaven and Dragons of Earth.
All in all, it was a pretty good series, although I have to say that the very first episode was entirely strange until you realize later on what it meant. Basically, it's supposed to be a primer for the series for those that haven't read the manga, but it really just gives away bits and pieces of the story. The only bad thing about it is that you don't know how each part fits in since that's all the dreamgazer for the Dragon of the Earth saw. For the most part, the entire storyline is pretty tragic and sad, but that's also to be expected from such apocalyptic fiction.
Personally, I still find that my favorite of this genre still is Ergo Proxy, but X definitely had a nice feel to it nonetheless.
This is another system administrative command that doesn't really change from linux.
If you take a look at the command passwd, it doesn't just change passwords. In fact, if you do:
passwd -e username
You will be shown the user's current shell, and be asked for a new shell. Most people just use the default one for the system which usually is either ksh or bash, but to each their own on what you like. There are also ways to actually change the shell itself through the .profile upon login but that's for another day.
I'm reminded today by my good friend Dave, that if your town or city is dependent on tourism, then one can't be choosy when times are tough. His example is based on Myrtle Beach, where times have hit it a bit rougher due to skyrocketing gas prices and such.
Yet, he says that there are those trying to get rid of May Bike weeks and some fuss over promoting to gay tourists. Beggars can't be choosers when times are tough. Truthfully, you shouldn't be choosy at all considering these are the same people that are willing to drop money for their entertainment and you being dependent on those coming in. If anything, if people don't want to deal with the crowds, then prominently advertise those weeks so that other tourists that don't want to deal with these things won't have to do so.
And if you live there and you're hating all the noise or fuss? Hey. I feel for you, living on the beach. Uhh. Not really. You chose to live in a tourism-based area so deal. If it wasn't for tourism, Myrtle Beach wouldn't have even half of the restaurants and entertainment that it does currently.
Photo Credit: (JimmyOKelly)
One of the things to get internet working in Solaris, is to edit the defaultrouter file. Usually it's one single line that has your gateway address in it.
So if you add this to /etc/defaultrouter, you should be up and running. One of the basic rookie mistakes is to not set this file and then hunt all over the place trying to figure out why networking doesn't work with the new box. Believe me. I've done it. It doesn't take much. So one of the first things to check is always make sure that there is an ip address in defaultrouter and make sure that it is actually your gateway.
Remember when there was the WordPress plugin for FriendFeed and how it imported your comments?
Well, it seems like there's the same that goes for Movable Type. What's neat about this is that it basically will repost the comments from FriendFeed directly into your blog as comments. This makes the conversation more worthwhile since you're able to read transactions that not only happened on the blog, but on FF without having to go track it down on FF. Perhaps a fluke, but at the time that this plugin actually was installed, I noticed a tremendous shift in MySQL queries to the blog. Not sure if this happens with others, but I would definitely keep an eye on it and report it to the author (Mark Carey) if it still exists.
You have got to admit that this is one of the most interesting designs of transportation. It's familiar since it's been seen in anime and games before but in actual reality? Never, until now.
Being able to achieve 0-60mph in three seconds and worn as an exoskeleton is definitely one of the most interesting ideas for a while considering most transportation are ones that you get into and on top of. Unfortunately, there's really not much in the likes of storage for this and thus makes the concept ... well, purely a concept. I'd still love to see this go down the freeway though. Strangely enough, you would think that to gain speed, you would have the the vehicle and person closer to the ground for less wind resistance. It'd be nice to see it in action. Regardless, this is one concept design that is neat in reality. Made by Yamaha.
GSM.
Yes, you got it. The infrastructure technology keeps me from ever adopting this phone regardless of how absolutely wonderful it is. And there's a good reason for it.
Having worked in the cellular industry for almost ten years, there is a tendency to understand how each technology is developed and how it performs under all sorts of environments. Alongside this, call quality and drop call rates are among the type of performance statistics that I have to see on a daily basis. And call me crazy when I say that if I buy a phone, call quality seems rather important to me outside of the gadgets arena.
GSM while adopted in more places in the world due to a more mature technology, is also older and has its issues being that it does time division multiplexing. While drop calls are determined by a number of issues, there have been many times that I have called friends with domestic GSM service (only two major carriers in the United States currently). These calls often can fail one way eg. where one person can hear but not speak or will have a lot of interference but no one can actually figure out what's wrong since the call remains up but it drops to a one-sided conversation.
I really like the iPhone, and would probably get one of the iPhone 3Gs in a heartbeat if they (Apple) ever decide to start selling CDMA versions and look outside of the AT&T exclusive agreement. But with their current selection of a GSM carrier just drives me absolutely batty when it comes to voice calls. And let's face it. You buy a phone to talk on it, not to surf the web and write emails or update your FriendFeed. Well, maybe you do, but the rest of us don't.
Photo Credit: (elisfanclub)
With OpenX's latest beta and the upcoming release of 2.6, there's this fancy pants feature called "single page call".
This is definitely worth your while to use since this allows your sites that you're feeding the advertising from the OpenX server to make only one single call instead of multiple calls per page (depending on the number of zones). In this case, you make one single call and thus decreasing the load on the ad server, but also making the loading much quicker.
Definitely worthwhile to implement if you use OpenX.
Went to an opening weekend matinee and have to say that this was one of THE BEST movies of this year, if not in a while.
While there was the tragic death of Heath Ledge (Joker) months before the movie, there was little doubt that this movie was going to anything but spectacular. And I definitely wasn't disappointed. In fact, I was even more blown away by how much darker this film was and how it kept you on the edge of your seat the entire 152 minutes.
One of the few movies that I've been to in a while that received applause at the end, there definitely was a lot of chatter after the film. This was not only a peek into the mind of a psychopath, but also a peek into the mind of someone that was willing to self-sacrifice for the sake of something he loved, and how someone could rise so high to be torn back down to nothing.
While this movie was rated PG-13, I personally would not take a child of thirteen to this film. The entire movie is filled with the psychosis of the Joker and as dark as the entire film was, it should have been rated R. That being said, there were many little kids at the film and I'm not sure they understood how crazy the "Why so serious?" guy was.
Speaking of that, there was an entire viral marketing campaign to promote the movie also from whysoserious.com which was downplayed after the death of Ledger. From there you can see that there's thehahatimes.com, atasteofthetheatrical.com, and a few others. There's even a personality test to see if you can become you know who's henchman. There's also a bunch of websites that seem to be "defaced" by whomever this lunatic is that's doing it. There are also a number of listings with actual phone numbers to call. If you decide to dial those numbers, you'll get some pretty amusing things that are related to the film.
This movie was one of the best films and I'm definitely going to get it on Blu-ray when it comes out. Despite some differences to the comics regarding Harvey Dent, I think that the complexity and darkness of Batman was depicted very well in a believable realistic environment. And if you don't believe this review, then go watch the one from Spill which gave it a Better Than Sex review.
Photo Credit: (Gandalf)
If you're looking for a quick way to create icons for your Air applications, the Air Icon Generator is a great way to do it.
Air applications are basically things that are written with Adobe Air, which is something kind of like Flash. It allows you to create some of these pretty basic icons for the applications and get you started. All you have to give it is the background color, the text, and choose if you want the star shape or the square. Either one actually looks pretty decent for a quick application.
I can't translate a lot of the things from the blog, but as far as I can tell, this application does have some decent reviews of it and helps beginner Air developers along without having to hassle with icon generation.
If you're checking out FriendFeed lately, you'll notice that you can basically feed it all of your blogs and rss feeds along with all sorts of other social services. It's basically a one stop shop where people can comment and like or not like your feed.
Well, sometimes the conversation isn't heard back on the blog, if someone posts on the topic in FriendFeed. No big deal. FriendFeed Comments now consolidates those commentary back to the blog itself. This makes the conversation a lot more interactive and makes sure that you hear about your posts one way or another. This plugin itself is for WordPress and is compatible from version 2.3 to the latest and greatest.
Strangely enough, whenever I see Dennis Quaid with a serious face, it reminds me of Harrison Ford. Crazy isn't it. And in this, he's got that serious face the entire time. The movie itself is very interesting since it begins with a television producer's perspective while she's directing the entire scene from the news command center. Amusing enough, the station is called GNN, probably a spoof off of CNN.
The secondary viewpoint is with a Secret Service agent's perspective, then rewinds and plays another perspective but adds a little more time to it, and keeps doing that from different perspectives until you finally get most of the storyline. That's when they throw you to the action and chase scenes.
While I'm not sure what sort of code names Secret Service now gives to designate the President, there were names like Eagle, and POTUS (President of the United States) thrown around by the secret agents. I assume that it actually changes for protection of the President in real life, but it was definitely interesting to see movie depictions of how they perform.
The movie itself shows that while things could ultimately go wrong sometimes, there's always someone out there that is doing the right thing and helping "save the world". One of those, be glad that there are people out there doing so, type of things. Thomas Barnes (Quaid) was one of those people. Strangely enough, during the entire film I wondered if Barnes actually had a family or not. This makes a big difference to heroes that put everything on the line since those that are willing to take more risks (aka. James Bond effect) usually do not have a family and thus no emotional ties.
Either way, the entire antiterrorism summit covered from different "vantage points" was a different style of movie and definitely kept you on the edge of your seat the entire time. Definitely recommended.
I recently used iBackup as a freeware alternative to Time Machine, since I haven't had time to go and get a Time Capsule yet. And boy does it work. You can backup pretty much everything as long as you can mount the drive, regardless of if it's locally or on the network. You can't burn to DVD but it's definitely totally worthwhile for a network backup.
What's interesting is that you can schedule it and select what you want backed up. The bad thing is that it does create a copy of everything first, and then sends it over, so you have to have the extra space involved in actually doing a mirror copy. Outside of that, it took me somewhere around a couple hours to do a full scale backup which isn't too bad considering I was doing everything else under the sun while this was going on.
Definitely worthwhile for your MacOSX system if you're looking for something that allows you to select the files that you need to be backed up. Again, it doesn't do burn to divisible DVDs, but it works very well for network backups.
It looks like SCO has finally dug itself into a hole. Ordered to pay for attorney fees plus interest and probably will put a stop on the SVRX agreement with Sun Microsystems since they were found have unjustly held onto royalties that were owed to Novell.
What's more interesting is that while SCO is reviewing the findings and will probably appeal and push for a jury ruling, this hasn't broken them out of the IBM case yet. Which means that the other hammer hasn't fallen. Fun times for SCO. Fun times.
Sometimes, newer isn't always better. In fact, there are many people that regret being first adopters since the new version of an application sometimes drives away to a new trend in an effort to either bring in a different type of customer, or if they had a change in development staff.
Either way, sometimes you just don't want that newer version and want to replace it with the older one. But can't find that install anymore? You might be in luck. OldApps.com and OldVersion.com both deal in older versions of the materials. Unfortunately, most of the applications are actually shareware or freeware, but there are a couple applications out there that are paid installs (there are not many that are installable anymore without a DVD). Obviously you'd need the serials for these applications (the non-free ones) but it's still a great resource to track down that one application that you just can't live without. Buggy or not.
It's definitely interesting when I see this question come up. "What is 3G?"
Surprisingly, if you read most of the commentary, not only do mainstream media not get what 3G actually stands for, but a lot of the general populace isn't acquainted with telecom terminology (nor should they be). Strangely enough, this has actually been marketed but hasn't been conveyed very well.
3G itself is actually third generation, but not with the iPhone, of which many believe. It actually has to do with the network infrastructure. 3G networks are under a certain standard that require high speed internet and the ability to do video telephony. This allows you to do extra services that previously you could not do on a 2G network. Each technology layer is obviously overlayed on top of the older one, so most users don't realize that the features they want actually drop in under one of these technology realms.
For example? HSDPA is 3G. So is EVDO (rev0. and revA). 2G is mainly any digital standard, from CDMA, to GSM to iDEN. So from a big picture perspective, you can see that there carriers will offer more and more with each new generation of technology. The technologies that just increase speed, but not services do not count as actual generation changes (such as WiMAX which is pre-4G).
Fun stuff eh? Things I get to deal with every day in the telecommunications industry.
Photo Credit: (SANOKAME)
Been trying out Alert Thingy and so far, it's not bad I must say although there are a few things I like and dislike.
First, the pros. I like the fact that FriendFeed has a client that runs on MacOSX, Windows, and sorta linux (Adobe Air is alpha stage for linux). The alerts are similar to Growl notification which is interesting, but also a nuisance too. You can also interact with Flickr and Twitter, which is actually very useful in that regards.
The cons? The nuisance of Growl-like notification. As far as I can tell, you can't turn it off. And Adobe Air. While Adobe Air allows easy multiplatforming, it also is overhead that I don't need. Either way though, it's not too shabby and it's nice to actually have a client for FriendFeed instead of just the website itself. I'd love a native client, but right now this will do.
It's interesting that after I had announced that 2.6 was out when the WP dev team released it, and had upgraded the couple of blogs I manage over to 2.6, that there hasn't been much talk about it, at least not in my circles.
And I also don't see huge changes that are just super impressive. So far, there is group editing where it's more like wikis in the fact that it keeps track of changes, and Google Gears support which allows some caching, and a bookmarklet that allows you to post from anywhere.
Kinda neat is the images addition where you can add captions, SSL support in the core, and just more in general moves towards better usability. And they invalidated my buddy, TD's plugin, by rolling in word count! Sorry buddy.
All in all, it didn't take but thirty seconds to upgrade since I have the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin. The ease of use is definitely one of the key features of WP.
UPDATE (7/16): My bad. I checked out the word count integration in WP2.6, and all it is right now is a "word count". TD's plugin itself does an entire breakdown not only on posts, but all of the posts each author does, a ranking system, and a whole lot more.
I personally wouldn't put really heavy things in this bag, but on a day trip for shopping or what not, it beats carrying plastic or paper bags around. The Kiva Key Chain Pack
In Solaris, partitioning is a little different that linux. Everything is divided into slices, and there is a total of eight slices per partition. Each partition pertains to a disk.
So to access the partition menu, you type the format command, and after selecting the disk you want to view, you would type partition at the format prompt:
format> partition
PARTITION MENU:
0 - change `0' partition
1 - change `1' partition
2 - change `2' partition
3 - change `3' partition
4 - change `4' partition
5 - change `5' partition
6 - change `6' partition
7 - change `7' partition
select - select a predefined table
modify - modify a predefined partition table
name - name the current table
print - display the current table
label - write partition map and label to the disk
!
quit
From here, you would only need to type print, to print the partition slices.
partition> print
Current partition table (original):
Total disk cylinders available: 3361 + 2 (reserved cylinders)
Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks
0 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
1 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
2 backup wu 0-3360 1.12GB (3361/0/0) 2352700
3 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
4 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
5 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
6 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
7 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
And there you have it. In slice 2 of that particular disk, you have 1.12GB set up. This doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't extra space on the disk partition that isn't being used, it just means that only 1.12GB has been set for slice 2 and nothing else for the rest. When you begin to set slices, you can actually see how much there is left.
You have to see it to believe it, but this guy is crazy. Texting, while lying down on a motorcycle. I'm not exactly sure how he's keeping his throttle going at a regular pace since it's motorcycles have a turn throttle that's operated by the right hand, but it's still nuts. Crazy nuts.
Beware of racking up the debt. If you think that you're out to beat the system, think again, especially if you're thinking about even leaving your loved ones a little something.
Creditors will try to clear the debt through funds appropriated from estate or property. Outside of joined debt, and rarely, they even have the option to have existing family members pay for the debt. The only actual forgiven debt is when the deceased had nothing of value at all, and left nothing.
In any case, it's a really scary thought that people can on a rare case, directly inherit debt. Even more so, when it's indirectly. It also goes to show that financial responsibility is something that everyone should think about and always be aware of. The unexpected doesn't just affect your loved ones on an emotional level, but it could also take its toll financially.
Scary. Very scary thought. I'd also be curious to think of how creditors stop this from happening. It's not that you could predict "death" itself, but more so on if they quit loaning high risk individuals whom are racking up a lot of bills, or if they believe they can truly collect the money later on. I'm sure there are mathematical models out there for this just as insurance is based on mathematical models.
Photo Credit: (iandavid)
Wrong. You can actually turn it completely off with the msconfig command. When you go to msconfig, there's a checkbox under the BOOT.INI called /NOGUIBOOT. If you check that box, then there won't be that overlay Windows XP screen anymore.
Now the question is... why would you want to? No clue. It doesn't make it boot any faster, but maybe you're just sick of seeing the logo pop up. Either way, it's different and it can be done.
One of the most basic things about Solaris are the services just like the linux daemons. To list all the services that are active, do:
# svcs
If you add the -a flag, then it'll list all services that are enabled and disabled. If you use the -x flag, it'll actually breakdown the services.
If you need to enable a service, you do:
# svcadm enable service
Where service is the name of the service. Obviously disabling would be:
# svcadm disable service
If you're looking for some hosting, it might be worth your while to take a look at Dreamhost.
While much of it is pre-paid service, signing up as a new member from LUX can you get $50.00USD off your price with the PROMO Code of LUX00001. What's interesting about Dreamhost services is that for a shared hosting account, it's one of the few that allows a shell access alongside very good bandwidth and disk space. One of the few more configurable type systems where it allows the administrator almost as much access as a VPS, except you're limited to shared processing power.
They also have services such as a scalable cloud where you can guarantee CPU cycles alongside memory. Not only is it an affordable hosting provider, but it gives geeks what they want. The entire system is built upon a Debian linux system which should be fancied by many linux fans. Either way, it's worth your while to take a look, especially if you're sick of your current host or just have had no luck in getting any results.
In Solaris, you can set up a software RAID-5 if you have enough of the drives. Here's a quick howto:
First you would find the drive designations. Take for example:
c0t2d0s7 c0t3d0s7 c1t4d0s7 c1t5d0s7 c1t6d0s7 c1t7d0s7
At the prompt, you would add them to the database with the metadb command:
#metadb -a -f c0t2d0s7 c0t3d0s7 c1t4d0s7 c1t5d0s7 c1t6d0s7 c1t7d0s7
To check if they were added, you would get the information from the metadb command:
#metadb -i
To add all of the drives into a RAID volume, assign a number to your raid. You can use pretty much any digit but most people use single digits since they don't have that many RAID volumes. I've used d9 in the example:
#metainit d9 c0t2d0s7 c0t3d0s7 c1t4d0s7 c1t5d0s7 c1t6d0s7 c1t7d0s7
Then you just wait as it initializes the volume. To check the status of the RAID volume, you use the metastat command:
#metastat d9
Finally the last thing you have to do is create a file system on the RAID volume:
#newfs -i 8192 /dev/md/rdsk/d9
Obviously this system would need to be mounted after the filesystem is in place, so you make a directory, mount the volume, and set the vfstab.
#mkdir /db9
#mount -F ufs /dev/md/dsk/d9 /db9
In vfstab add the line:
/dev/md/dsk/d9 /dev/md/rdsk/d9 /db9 ufs 2 yes -
And there you go. Your very own software RAID-5 on a Solaris box.
The latest thing that the G8 conference talked about was anti-piracy measures. And apparently they want to enact the international agreement that would give the right to inspect all portable devices such as music players, phones, or laptops for illegal downloads.
While this is more likely to be about customs officials actually being able to intercept shipments of counterfeit goods (of which they already can as far as I know), there is an eerie feeling that there will be some overzealous screener that will take into their own hands a misinterpretation of this agreement.
Here's the deal. The chance of actually having a scan of your device is probably fairly unlikely due to the fact that there is no way to actually prove ownership. On top of that, it would increase the times at customs checkpoints by ten-fold. I don't think there are many people that don't bring music players for transpacific or transatlantic trips anymore.
In regards to the burden of proof, I give you this example; many people rip their entire music library on CD and legal downloads to their portable music device. I personally have over 4000+ songs (all legit) and I know people that have more. How customs will be able to prove that is beyond me if I'm going in and out of the country. If there is a misinterpretation of this however, the more likely thing would be confiscation. And you know that will face the wrath of at the very least business people that go on flights if not the citizens of G8 countries. Without very strict rules on how the procedures are and what is and isn't allowed, the only thing we can hope for is that this doesn't happen.
Photo Credit: (Will Lion)
Wuss? Hey. I'm just getting in touch with my feminine side. Most women like that. In any case, this movie was very touching since right at the beginning you'll find that Gerard Butler's character, Gerry, passes away from a brain tumor. Yet, he mysteriously keeps sending his wife, Holly, letters in the mail on little things to do so that she can remember him, but also move on with her life.
In helping her with the grief, he has two of her good friends and herself go to Ireland for a trip where she meets one of Gerry's old band mates. From there on out it's a story of remembrance along with grief and the time spent in one's memory.
All in all, P.S. I Love You
On second thought, your pet might not like the movie. Then just give that throw a chance.
Maybe it's just me, but this BusinessWeek article defines everything I've ever said about how analysts are just out to swing the markets for whatever silly reason.
My real annoyance? In six months, an analyst went from an eight billion dollar figure to a five hundred million price tag for the handset division. While this analyst claims that it's due to market share sliding and stock price drops, I actually have another idea behind it: they [or he] don't know anything about it.
I find it absolutely fascinating that analysts can come up with outrageous numbers and prices and the stock market just listens and changes the stock price without any solid facts. It also makes me go back and review some thoughts I've had on analysts in the past.
Do I have thoughts on why Motorola is trying to sell or not sell the handset division and why the stock price has dropped in the recent times? Sure. Every employee does and we all have some insight. But that's between the company, the management team, and its employees. The point being that the analysts make their judgments seemingly out of the blue and with outrageous extremes (note the $500 million to $8 billion range) and shareholders just sit silently and watch? It's a tragedy.
It just goes to show that before you open your mouth as an analyst, you better have some pretty solid numbers to back up your statements. While in no way, shape, or form do I personally feel that Motorola was never worth $8 billion for just the handset division, but it's also a bit higher than just $500 million. Like my opinion is worth anything to the shareholders though. They'd rather listen to some guy that probably wouldn't know the difference between CDMA and GSM.
Disclaimer: While the author is an employee of Motorola, these opinions are solely the opinions of the author and do not reflect the opinions of the corporation.
iFlickr is a nifty little plugin by Photopreneur, that allows you to scour the images on Flickr and look for Creative Commons licensed photographs.
From there, those photographs are then used in your blog post, but not without given rightful attribution underneath the picture and in accordance to the Creative Commons licensing. It basically removes a step from actually having to copy and paste links and thus making it pretty useful. As far as I can tell, this doesn't allow you to choose between different types of CC licenses so if you're looking for Commercial use, you might still be out of luck.
Paid internships.
A lot of businesses don't like to think of it as another expense. So why bother? Just think about it. What's the difference between a new hire for an entry level position and an intern? Not a whole lot if there's going to be OJT (on the job training). Yet, an entry level position requires months of training before they're ready to actually roll with the big dogs.
If you break it down purely by a cost perspective, a paid intern is worth your while. You spend the same amount of time in training, but they also acquire experience. You're paying less money in salary but getting similar output of work. In fact, there really isn't too much that you could lose out.... is there?
Outside of the fact that the intern might not want to come back and work for you after being trained, that would be your only risk. And there are ways to minimize that risk. For instance, offer a 401k package that only starts after the second internship, or one that can only be continued on with if or when they come back to the company. Offer benefits that no one else can offer or ways to incite loyalty. It's not like you wouldn't have to put up incentives against your competitors for an employee anyway, so why not catch them young?
In the end, a paid intern is worth the risk and the wait. Financially, you're saving on salary for the same training for someone that will be fully deployable right when they're ready to join the workforce on a full time basis. You garner loyalty to your brand and company and allow your current employees to polish their skills in also showing someone the ropes.
And I don't think anyone would disagree with me on the fact that it's good to get paid.
Photo Credit: (Somewhat Frank)