A Hybrid Economy: Globally Local - 06/27/2009
We’re on the edge of a big change. I can feel it. Capitalism, as it is inherently designed, has taken the Global Economy to the extreme and the Universe, as it has been designed, is about to push the pendulum the other direction to restore the equilibrium. The past few decades we’ve been living in the moment without much thought to the past or future. Progressively making everything faster and cheaper on exponential scales. The Internet just accelerated things like a shot of nitrous into an already turbocharged, fuel injected engine of producing and consuming. While everyone has been enjoying the ride, nobody thought much about checking how much gas was in the tank. "

The Capitalism Conflict - 10/11/2008
Money, originally uploaded by Thomas Hawk. Just thinking aloud here. The measurement of money coming into a business versus how much money the business spends (expenses/revenue) is simply expressed as the Efficiency Ratio. A 1.0 ratio is bad because it means you aren’t making any profit. I would estimate most small businesses probably hover between 0.65 and 0.85 because they simply don’t have the resources to monitor and optimize every aspect of their operation. Mega-corporations, on the other hand, have a staggering amount of "

My Podcasting Pipeline - 10/09/2008
I just spent a lot of time getting my first video podcast out the door. (To be honest, I’m still pushing it out the door and writing this article while I wait!) I just wanted to make some notes on what I learned and hopefully save someone else a lot of time in the process. I think a lot of the information here can be applied to audio podcasts as well. Also, I’m sure there’s better ways to do things and I’d love to hear any tips you may have! First off, is the software and services I’m using: QuickTime Pro. Yeah, I know. But go ahead and buy it. It’s easily the best $30 I’ve spent on software all year. iMovie. I’m still resolving my love/hate relationship with it. At the end of the day, it was free, already installed, and gets the job done. But I’m still kicking around getting "

Atalaya Castle - 09/29/2008
Exactly one year ago today, I took Tracy on our first date. I picked her up at 11am to attend the Annual Atalaya Arts & Crafts Festival at the Atalaya Castle. Our date didn’t end until 3am. We just couldn’t stop talking and we didn’t want to leave each other. We’ve been extremely close ever since. This year, we attended the festival again along with my parents as a way of honoring our 1 year anniversary. Since the festival appeared to be mostly the same, I took a little extra time to look at the castle itself and understand it’s history. Perhaps it’s just the mushy mood I’m in today, but the little bit I lea"

Be Your Own Reporter - 09/19/2008
Photo, originally uploaded by dsalgado. Against my better judgment, I got into a political conversation with someone online tonight that I knew held opposite ideas from me. I have been roped in by these guys before and I just wind up so angry and frustrated. Life’s too short, you know? So I’ve just avoided the conflict altogether. It turns out he actually listened to me and, in return, I actually listened to him. We both had our facts right, we just held different opinions on what we think could resolve this mess we’re in. The conversation drifted off into more pleasant things. Shortly afterward, I saw the trailer for "

Too Nice? - 08/04/2008
Cujo, originally uploaded by chefranden. I have a hard time saying no to people. I know that this stems from a combination of a deep desire for people to like me and avoiding conflict. Plus I tend to trust people all too easily. I don’t think I’m really gullible. But I do tend to give people the benefit of the doubt most of the time. If my gut tells me you’re a decent enough person to deal with, you’re probably in a great position to screw me over. I know as I’ve gotten older I’ve become more outspoken and stand up for myself. But I really don’t want to be the guy that flys off handle to get his way. I don&#"

A Better FriendFeed Bookmarklet - 07/04/2008
I like the FriendFeed Bookmarklet for sharing links to my stream. I try to select an image to along with the link just to add some visual appeal. The problem with the bookmarklet that FriendFeed provides is it doesn’t handle linked images very well. It looks like the code tried to, but when you click on a linked image, the browser tries to follow the link. So I made a modified version of the bookmarklet that disables the links on the page you’re sharing so you can click on the images. The only downside is the links won’t come back until you reload the page.

Early Defector - 06/29/2008
I’m admittedly a cautious early adopter. I don’t jump on everything that comes my way, but I tend to try things before most of my friends. As I get older and less bullshit tolerant, I’m becoming an early defector. I had mentioned previously how I was moving away from Twitter primarily using FriendFeed. The above graphic shows how I’m using various technologies to do that.

Digital Disparate Conversations - 06/16/2008
End of Semester Bulletin Board, originally uploaded by fredthechicken. 6 months ago, I had an inspired idea to turn my homepage into an aggregation of my online shenanigans. 2 months ago, I was in full Twitter mode and I was really enjoying the new experience. MySpace gave me the initial social experience of seeing what people are up to and interacting with them. Twitter essentially stripped that experience to the conversation. "

Perspiration and Inspiration - 05/18/2008
I’m feeling another big change coming on with Blast Off Inc. This one isn’t quite as cut and dried as the last time I decided to go full time with software contracting. It’s a bit cliché, but it’s really becoming hard to want to work on the stuff I’m getting paid to do and suddenly I’ve found myself incredibly inspired to work on my own ideas. But isn’t the point of this whole “Screw The Man” thing that I can work on whatever I want? I suppose I should catch you up with the current situation. Big Client hired Blast Off to do Xbox 360 development over a year ago. It started out as a 6 month