Thu, 23 Oct 2008

Eleven Reasons Why a Global Recession Could Be Good For You!

Even with fears of the global economy sinking into a recession (and hopefully not depression), some great things can come of this. Assuming you can still hold down a job...that pays well...

1. Lower gasoline prices

A crappy economy drives down the demand for gasoline. This, in turn, can drive down price if there is excess supply on the market. Production costs are also going down as crude oil prices are dropping in expectation of weaker demand.

2. Lower airfare

Airlines are facing some of the lightest loads in years. Demand is way down, as people are uncertain about spending. This causes airlines to resort to heavy discounts to entice travelers. Coupled with lower jet fuel prices, they just might be able to afford them too. Expect the entire travel industry, from rental cars to hotels to be effected in a similar way.

3. Beef is too expensive....lobster 5 days a week anyone?

Along the Portland waterfront, seafood shops are selling lobsters for as cheap as $3.89 a pound, which is about the price of bologna at the deli counter.

4. Lower prices at restaurants

Restaurants right now are dying for your business, and some may actually face that fate if consumer spending remains sluggish. This might be a great time to check out that local 5 star venue.

5. Buy a house

While I would be a bit nervous buying a house in certain markets right now, one of the best opportunities available i think is taking advantage of those stuck within the crisis. While record cheap foreclosure auction prices might be the first place you'd look, you can also check out a thing called "loan conveyance". Find a fellow nearing foreclosure with a nice house you want and a reasonably termed loan. Quite a few loans can be "conveyed" to other parties, such as yourself. In turn, you will obtain all his equity, and he will be able to walk away without much of a scratch on his credit. It may sound slimy, but you may actually help a poor guy out.

6. Buy that luxury item/car/whatever you always wanted

When the economy stinks, people turn from luxuries to necessities faster than you can say (insert stupid faster-than-you-can-say cliche here). It usually makes little sense, as its not like their salary is based on the DOW index, but who cares. All those porsches are rotting on the lots, and that costs money. They might be so inclined to almost give it away in order to tick a sale up on the board.

7. Odd jobs, handyman work, babysitting

When people are out of work, or short on cash, they usually make themselves available for all sorts of jobs that they are skillful at. They will also likely work below normal rates. This may be a good time to get some work done on your house, have someone cut your lawn for a few bucks, or get away paying the sitter a little less.

8. Retail crazy-go-nuts sales

Some retail businesses, such as home improvement, get hit hard during recessions. Enjoy all the sales to stimulate customers to open up their wallets. This christmas may be one of the cheapest ones yet.

9. Some really GREAT entertainment coming your way

During nearly every recession, movies saw double digit growth in attendance. This is mainly because everybody is looking for a cheap night out. This drives the demand for more cool, big budget movies, because they know they'll get their money back.

Video games are also said to be recession proof (although not throughly tested yet), mainly because people are bored and depressed and like to get away from life..

10. People dumping their stuff

As people are strapped for cash, they will be quite liberal in dumping their trophies on craigslist and ebay for pennies on the dollar. Computers, TV's, video game consoles, you name it. If you know some friends strapped for cash, drop by their home and make an offer they can't refuse!

11. Cash "rotting" in a savings account

If you told someone 2 years ago that you were keeping large amounts of cash in a savings account as an investment, they would probably laugh at you. Probably not anymore though. With portfolios in the red and some banks still paying 3.5% interest (may change soon...), its not a bad idea. Infact, with all of the prices dropping above (sort of a deflation effect), the actual short term gain of having cash in hand could be in the double digits, as your buying power has suddenly increased.

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Thu, 15 May 2008

Green Paradox

Whats funnier than recycling by mail? Well, how about earning airline mileage for buying carbon offsets!

May 13, 2008, Austin, Texas - BeGreen, the carbon offsets division of Green Mountain Energy Company, announced their participation in the American Airlines AAdvantage® program. The exclusive offer provides eco-conscious AAdvantage members with the opportunity to earn miles while also reducing their impact on global warming through the purchase of carbon offset products and "green" gifts from BeGreen's online store.

Check out how you can have your cake and eat it too! Greenwash yourself today, take unessassary free flights later!

And for the record, I think buying carbon offsets are stupid.

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Thu, 13 Dec 2007

One Thousand Monkeys on One Thousand Typewriters

Can one thousand monkeys on one thousand typewriters eventually write a novel? For fun, I decided to put this to the test.

No--I did not fill a warehouse full of monkeys. I used the next best thing: /dev/random. This unix device, or file, can generate a limitless stream of random text and binary for your enjoyment. We are also making /dev/random do something it was not designed to do: produce non-random data.

Conclusion: They probably can't write a novel. But they can write a few words.

If you ever get bored in a shell, and have a lot of computational power at hand, you could try something like this:

cat /dev/random | strings | grep -i wtf\?
wtF?_HO
wtf?

Wow! now that was kinda creepy. Lets gather some statistics...

Use the 'tee' command and try to count just how much useless noise there was before our monkeys typed something of interest:

$ cat /dev/random | tee junk | strings | grep -i wtf\?
Wtf?'
^C
$ wc -c junk
330432512 junk
$

So there you have it. In 330 megabytes of sheer randomness, our monkeys finally asked "wtf?".

You can also try using base64 or uuencode to make /dev/random generate alphabetical characters to increase the odds..

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Mon, 28 May 2007

ARCO Commercial: Underground City in 1991

Back in the 1970's, ARCO painted a pretty grim picture for life in the year 1991. You remember 1991? When everyone was forced to go live in the underground city? It didn't really end up happening, and we owe a world of thanks to ARCO Petroleum for saving our way of life above the surface.

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Wed, 18 Apr 2007

Recycling is Good for the Environment

So, you just bought that kick ass boombox from Walmart. Stereo sound. CD player. Volume nob. And you sprung for that extra tone control.

After unboxing your electronic wonder, you overhear Al Gore the television ranting on about the environment and something about carbon footprints.

You feel guilty about all the packaging material, and how your great-great-great grandchildren will hate you if you simply throw it into the trash. Why not recycle that polystyrene foam that protected your stereo on its twenty day journey from china, across rough pacific seas, and eventually to your home!

You decide to recycle this packaging.

After some searching on your favorite meta-search engine, you come across a great foam recycling site.

This website features all sorts of great locations to recycle your foam.

Clicking on your state, Washington, you learn that you can now recycle without leaving your own home!

Wow! Recycling, BY MAIL! Send it to Crofton, Maryland!

This is really great news! You go to the UPS website and request delivery of packing materials (a box). You also buy a pre-paid shipping label. It was expensive, but its for the environment, right? Being green doesn't come cheap.

Day 2

Some UPS guy shows up with a box at your door. He mentions you were the only delivery in your neighborhood for the day, and had to drive about 10 miles out of his way to visit you. This is okay though.

You mention that you don't really have time to pack up the foam you are going to send out for recycling, so he should come back tomorrow.

Day 3

The doorbell rings. You quickly stuff the EPS foam into the box, tape it up with some duct tape, and slap on the little label you printed off yesterday. Oh crap, did you accidently check the "Overnight Early A.M." box?!? You did. No wonder it was so expensive! Darn, you wanted to send it ground. Maybe next time you will be more careful.

The UPS guy has been waiting at your door for a few minutes now, you can hear his truck running in the distance. But he doesn't mind. He has all day. Nobody needed UPS in your neighborhood today either.

You hand the box to the UPS guy.

He mentions the box is extremely light for the size. You mention that you are recycling foam. The UPS guy says, "Oh, right. Foam. Got it.". He carries your package off onto his truck, and you never see it again.

Your package takes the most expedited path using large UPS jets on its 2800 mile journey across the United States. Your foam arrives in Crofton, where its...recycled.

At least, you can sleep at ease, knowing the Earth is going to be okay. Doesn't it feel good to recycle?

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Mon, 18 Dec 2006

Personal air purifier starts fire on aircraft

There is nothing better than fresh air, and you just can't beat a battery powered air purification device that hangs around your neck. But before you order one from your favorite catalog of the sky and jump on the next flight out of town, be careful and read instructions! Or you could just catch the plane on fire

DESCRIPTION
  CONTINENTAL AIRLINES COA1065, A BOEING 737-800 ACFT, DIVERTED TO COLORADO 
  SPRINGS DUE TO A FIRE IN THE CABIN CAUSED BY A PERSONAL BATTERY-OPERATED 
  AIR PURIFIER WHICH CAUGHT THE SEAT ON FIRE, FOUR FLIGHT ATTENDANTS AND ONE 
  PASSENGER WERE TRANSPORTED TO THE HOSPITAL FOR SMOKE INHALATION, COLORADO 
  SPRINGS, CO

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Sat, 16 Dec 2006

Comcast Saves the Day

Three comcast vans came by earlier today and chained this item to a utility pole. They are now powering part of the comcast network with a generator they bought at lowes:

I was going to get the bolt cutters out, but i chickened out at the last minute. It would have been nice to have some heat in the house.

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Fri, 03 Nov 2006

Free Packing Materials

I just received a pre-paid sim off ebay in the US Mail today, wrapped in a strange silver bubble letter-type package. I looked inside and spied DHL red and yellow.

In addition to my SIM, the guy threw in a cellphone booster for free -- "a $19.95 value". Thats one expensive sticker. Maybe i'll put it on my cell phone for good luck, it sure looked all high tech.

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Tue, 20 Sep 2005

Floride in your water is good for you!

Today, everybody drinks bottled water...nonfluorinated bottled water that is! This has since caused a rapid increase in tooth decay, dentists report.

So that gives me two choices: Continue to drink bottled water as my teeth rot out of my mouth, or drink water that tastes like it came out of a public pool. Hmmm...

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Wed, 14 Sep 2005

Cat Bio-Diesel?

Some German inventor claims to have made bio diesel from old tires, weeds, and dead cats. One cat makes 2.5L of fuel (?!)

I don't know whats more disturbing about this link - The fact he's using cats to power his car, or the illfully targeted Google ads at the bottom.

Apparently, making bio-diesel out of cats is not uncommon Germany. The practice is already outlawed.

For those of you who want the details this link describes the process...and yes..it also involves a catalytic converter.

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