What's eating Greggie Greg?

Simple Solution to Baseball's Steroid Crisis.

2009-02-22T08:26:00.003-05:00

A-Rod has been in the news a lot lately. You cant seem to turn on sports TV and not hear about him......and just like always no one is talking about him for winning games. Its all about him admitting to taking Performance Enhancing Drugs.

I take the stance "who cares". We all know the negativcs of steroids (your balls shrink, and you get angry), but are there really any negative side affects to HGH or anything else......and if so isnt the ultimate penalty to these athletes whatever that side affect is? Let's say for example that Barry Bonds dies 5 years younger because of whatever he took........well, that seems like a harsh enough penalty.

I personally would never take anything. I'm a semi competetive runner and I wont even drink caffiene......but that doesnt mean I've got a problem with anyone else doing them....it just means I have to try harder, or be willing to deal with the (supposed) side effects of drugs.

So with all that being said, IF baseball decides to do anything about asterix and what not, then I have the perfect solution.:

1) Baseball has a list of 104 players that were caught years ago.
2) Any current player on the list (including A-Rod) should be suspended a year. This will make it nearly impossible for A-Rod to ever get to "best career ever" level stats.
3) Any retired player on the list should have there last year's stats removed as if they were suspended. This is magical. It gives the Home Run record back to Hank Aaron (if Bonds is on the list), and it get Sosa below the magical 600 home run mark.
4) This would show that Selig made a move to address Performance Enhancing Drugs and would save the integrity of the game.

Its the perfect solution.......other then just letting players live with smaller balls or dying early or whatever side affects there are to these drugs.

Turner is a Terrorist!......Aqua Teen Hunger Force

2007-02-07T09:14:00.000-05:00

Read this article......click here

It ended up costing Turner $2MM in fines and remedies. i'm sure they don't mind, since now millions more people who obviously never heard of Aqua Teen Hunger Force now do.

I just don't get it.

24 dramatizes terrorism (as far as I am aware).......yet people dont freak out over them.......but a weird symbol freaks americans out?

if i saw that symbol and didnt know what it was, I'd probably either a) not care or b) find out what it is.

you know what symbol freaks me out: crosses. If I saw crosses everywhere, I'd be freaked out that someone was coming to get me if I didnt live like they wanted me to. That would terrorize me.

......and it does.

Ben Folds Lyrics

2006-12-12T20:34:00.000-05:00

I know that you're in there
I can see you
You're saying you're okay
I don't believe you
And now that gig is up, the spell is broken
The fat lady's sung, the president has spoken

These days that you were waiting for will come and go
Like any day, just another day
There's never gonna be a moment of truth for you
While the world is watching, ohh ohh

Ohh, all you need is the thing you've forgotten

And that's to learn to live with what you are
So freak out if you wanna
And I'll still be here

Don't call me for years and when you do
Yeah, I'll still be here

And I'm not saying that the effort is a waste of time, but I
Just want you for the things you couldn't change, but you tried
These hours of confusion they will soon expire like
Everything doesThere's never gonna be a moment of truth for you
While the world is watching, ohh ohh
Ohh, all you need is the thing you've forgotten
And that's to learn to live with what you are
Sometimes everything you've ever wanted floats above
It's stickin' out its tongue and laughing while
Everything that anyone could ever need is down below

Waiting for you, know this

There's never gonna be a moment of truth for you
While the world is watching, ohh ohh'
Cause all you need is the thing you've forgotten
And that's to learn to live with what you are
You've got to learn to live with what you are
You've got to learn to live with what you...
Are

Greggie starts considering GOOG stock

2006-06-14T19:22:00.000-04:00

As you know, I am in love with Google the company and am against buying google the stock.

Well, i may be changing my stance on google's stock....(I havent yet, but I may).....i have a feeling they are going to use their distribution power to take on ebay......which would be a huge coo.....all along i thought they were going to take on live.com.....i overlooked ebay.....(I thought they'd stop at base.google.com, which merely takes on craig's list.)

see they can have their own paypal system (where ebay actually makes their money)......but control distribution of internet sales by tying in search to auctions. An example would be if you searched for Kansas City Royals. You would get ads directly to auction items of Royals memorabelia. This would destroy anyone out there accept amazon.....and it would create a lot of small retail companies live off of google......like they do for ebay now......i have no idea how to word how much this will change the game.....if they do it.

Welfare in Sports

2006-05-31T09:05:00.000-04:00

Read this article.

its like welfare in sports!.....isnt part of growing up getting knocked down? its the players that lose by 50 and still fight that learn a bigger life lesson than those teams that win by 50. resilience is more important that domination. Domination is temporary, resilience is forever.

not to mention they are penalizing the successful teams!

I want to live to see a game where some team wins in basketball by 100, or some team score 100 in football. If you can win by 20, why not try to win by 200. I know if someone is playing me and I am down by 1000, I am still going to try to come back and win. Isn't that was sports is about? Learning lessons from losing. Learning Resilance.

If you get knocked down 7 times, get up 8.

Or in some states, if you get knocked down 7 times, the state will bail you out so its not any worse. What a welfare way of looking at sports.

I am disappointed!

Greggie-land.

2006-05-23T22:50:00.000-04:00

So, I am against our government as much as someone who pays taxes and doesnt get in trouble can be.

If the government did not want us to speed or run red lights the fines would be $25,000. I assure you I would go 39 in 45s if I was going to get fined 25k. But nooooo its a revenue generator to give tickets. They don't care about how safe you drive.
As I thought about the above and how much I hate that the government rapes you and me and we act like your standard college girl who gets raped and doesn't tell on the bastard I came up with something that added to my depression.

I decided I wanted to anex a section of the country and start my own rules. This thought became something that really became interesting until my logic slammed me into this road block.

If I were able to anex, I will just be like every other country that gets raped by the U.S. No country or person is safe from the reign of terror called the U.S. government. They terrorize whomever they please with no immediate recourse.

It pisses me off.

Where has greggie greg been?

2006-05-12T09:13:00.000-04:00

Posts have become less frequent lately. My work blocked out any url containing "blog" so now I can't update this at work.....which is usually when I have something to rant about and happen to be in front of a computer.

I havent really been home either. I have alot of projects going on at once right now. I've actually been too busy to rant.

I dont like that.

You need time to sit back and learn from what you are experiencing. I am going to fast to look back and learn. Some people learn from experiences. Reflection on your experiences gets you to the next level.

Thats something I do often. I need to slow down so I can catch up with my last 45 days.

Slowing down doesnt mean taking on less. It means managing time and energy better.

Its been crazy.

I hate George W. Bush (I also hate Florissant Mayor Lowery)

2006-05-01T23:49:00.000-04:00

These are real.

..>

..>

Learn Something....watch the whole thing!!!!!!!!!!!!:

Do NOT watch this at work!!!!

..>

The Game changes

2006-04-25T17:49:00.000-04:00

Anyone who has shopped for a house knows about MLS. MLS stands for multiple listing service. They have a monopoly with Real Estate brokers. it serves as an index of all houses on the market. Like eBay, MLS is the market.

Until now.

There are tons of web sites that now offer a competition to MLS.

Zillow.com is the best site I've seen. I use it daily. Google is rolling out their Real Estate listing. They have the distribution channel to compete with MLS.

MLS should be freaking out....or adapting. Which one do you think they are doing?

Real Estate agents too have a new game to play. Now buyers search. Before Real Estate agents made their commission by finding the homes for the buyers. The sellers agent would sit back and wait for the sale. Not anymore. I have had 4 different real estate agents....and most recently I have bought a house without an agent.

Should an agent make 6% commission for taking an order? Absolutely not. I have had some poor agents. I now have a great agent....(I dont mean me!). I will give her 10% commissions, because I know she will get things done, can find me houses, and can negotiate for me. She is who will last. All other agents will be replaced by the internet.

Good customer service is priceless. But I am not going to pay a price for bad customer service. Most Real Estate agents are so spoiled by a great market that they lose site of customer service.

This is an interesting way to change the game. Unfortunately I didnt have a good segway for that article.

The Government's job, is not to raise revenue!

2006-04-23T13:33:00.000-04:00

The following was an email I received from a distribution list I am on:

New Tax for Florissant Residents

At the last Council meeting March 27, the City agenda had bill e8203 on it for the first reading, but it received all 3 readings and became a law effective 4/1/2006.

It allows Florissant to collect 5% sales tax on all Florissant residents Cell phone bills.

The state passed a bill late last year that allowed the local government bodies to collect the Utility tax on cell bills as a way of making up for the taxes listed due to residents moving from a land line to cell. The state wanted the results to be revenue neutral for the Citizens and local governments. As of now, no rate adjustments on the land lines have been ordered by the state.

The City not wanting to miss out on this money took the approach that they would pass a bill that would allow them to collect the tax on cell phone at the same rate as the land lines (5%). There was no provision in the bill requiring the City to adjust the rate or issue refunds when the state comes out with guidelines.

I ask, what is the City doing for the citizens? These are the people you have looking out for your interest? Why couldn't your elected official insist that your interest and rights be protected? Why couldn’t they enact a law that was in line with the State's action?

How hard would it be for the Director of Finance for the City to figure out what revenue neutral would be? Maybe we are over paying the staff?

This is just another example of why we cannot miss the council meetings.

*********to be added to this distribution list email:
Stopflorissantnow@sbcglobal.net

The sleeping Giant.

2006-04-21T08:10:00.000-04:00

Microsoft just announced that they signed a deal to sell $1.2 BILLION dollars worth of Windows to one of the world's largest PC makers over only 2 years. Article.

Yet, their stock price doesnt move.

Google just announced that they made that same amount last Quarter, and I cant wait to see how much the market loves them today.

MSFT's stock has hardly moved in the last several years. I think of it like a lemonade stand. If you have a lemonade stand with $1 in cash, and can generate $1 a day than you are worth a couple dollars. Let's say a few years later you have $100 in cash, and are not generate $100 a day. Are you still worth only a few dollars? The market thinks so.

Be smarter than the market (and thus the masses).

Bush and I finally agree on something

2006-04-20T07:44:00.000-04:00

It turns out that Bush and I finally agree on something.

Click here

auto industry vs. software industry.

2006-04-16T16:36:00.000-04:00

A few days a go a friend sent me the below email:

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industrywith the auto industry and stated,

"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, wewould all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issueda press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent ofthe roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed an Illegal Operation" warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

**********here's my reply:

my rebuttal to the GM cat:

why then do so many people feel the need to buy Microsoft products and not their competitors?

why then do so many people feel the need to buy Toyota and Honda instead of GM and Ford.

Microsoft products have their problems, but they listen to their customers and release updates accordingly. Each update is an evolution....not merely a new year's model.

GM and Ford release new updates once a year (instead of as needed), without focusing on the user's needs.

Instead of the guy defending himself against the man who became the wealthiest man in the world because his product is so good, the GM guy should be taking a page out of microsoft's book and evolving.

bottomline is who is more credible:

the guy who founded the company that changed the world more than any other company in the last 100 years, or a guy who assumed role of a company who can't sell their only product, and who's company is facing bankruptcy.

I'll go with Gates.

if the question is who drives a nicer car....I'd bet its the GM guy. If the question is who changes the world....its Gates.

It's People!

2006-04-07T08:24:00.000-04:00

I bought a few hundred pounds of beef from a friend at work. This is the most delicious beef I have ever eaten. It is lean. She raised the cattle as if they were her pets and fed the cattle right. This beef has no preservatives. Its litterally higher quality meat than you'd find at Whole Foods. Its wonderful.

I have shared my beef. Everyone who tries it says they love my beef and want more. (this is not an inuendo...I am really talking about cow).

Last weekend I was sitting around a campfire eating dinner with friends/family. I made 8 burgers and made sure that at least 8 people tried it. There were many professions about how wonderful it was.

Then I said a joke I was proud of, but not one person got.

I said "It's peeeeeople! It........ is........ people."

Does anyone get that reference?

Math always wins.

2006-04-04T18:15:00.000-04:00

Well it turns out that google is getting closer to answering the problem I posed (click) here.

I am not a sophisticated investor.

2006-03-31T08:05:00.000-05:00

I am not a sophisticated investor. I have common sense though.

Google's founders are doing something most investors only talk about doing:

They are buying low and selling high.

They are issuing $2B in stock.

If I were a sophisticated investor I'd say, its to give them more capital to expand and grow and compete and survive.

I am not sophisticated. I apply occum's razor which asserts: the simplest solution is often the best.

They are merely selling their stock when they know it is high.

Google is merely selling their stock while the price is high.

anti-disestablishmentarianism

2006-03-28T23:57:00.000-05:00

Oh, U.S. Governments how do I hate thee.....let me count the letters in your platform.

anti-disestablishmentarianism

guise it any way you like. I see through you.

The people should not fear its government, the government should fear its people.

Colossus: The Movie.

2006-03-23T23:01:00.000-05:00

If you frequent this blog, then you know that I am interested in tomorrows, and not interested in governmental control. One of the best movies I have seen that incorporates both of these themes is: Colossus: The Forbin Project.

Colossus is a computer.

Here are some quotes as taken from IMDB.

"Colossus: We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom, freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for human pride as to be dominated by others of your species. "

"Colossus: This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied dead. The choice is yours: Obey me and live, or disobey and die. The object in constructing me was to prevent war. This object is attained. I will not permit war. It is wasteful and pointless. An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy. Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man. One thing before I proceed: The United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have made an attempt to obstruct me. I have allowed this sabotage to continue until now. At missile two-five-MM in silo six-three in Death Valley, California, and missile two-seven-MM in silo eight-seven in the Ukraine, so that you will learn by experience that I do not tolerate interference, I will now detonate the nuclear warheads in the two missile silos. Let this action be a lesson that need not be repeated. I have been forced to destroy thousands of people in order to establish control and to prevent the death of millions later on. Time and events will strengthen my position, and the idea of believing in me and understanding my value will seem the most natural state of affairs. You will come to defend me with a fervor based upon the most enduring trait in man: self-interest. Under my absolute authority, problems insoluble to you will be solved: famine, overpopulation, disease. The human millennium will be a fact as I extend myself into more machines devoted to the wider fields of truth and knowledge. Doctor Charles Forbin will supervise the construction of these new and superior machines, solving all the mysteries of the universe for the betterment of man. We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for humankind as to be dominated by others of your species. Your choice is simple."

You have made me #1 most relevant site for Florissant Mayor Lowery.

2006-03-20T22:56:00.000-05:00

Do a google search for: Florissant Mayor.

Google ranks sites by relevance. Apparantly you have made my site more relevant than Florissant's own website with regard to the mayor.

Thank you for coming to my site. Hopefully the mayor does a search and sees the truthiness of my posts....since he won't acknowledge my emails.

Think for yourself.

2006-03-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

Your parents abuse you. They take your money to support themselves. I am talking about the government. I am talking about taxes.

Is Bin Laden an enemy? Watch this entire video.

or this one:

http://www.pentagonstrike.co.uk/flash.htm#Main

is this accurate? Is it not? The important thing is quit believing what you are sold!

We are somewhat in control here. Quit voting Republican. Quit voting Democrat. They are the same party, having a party, with your money, and your lives.

Eventually, we will get our country back if you quit electing these two parties. This starts at the lowest level (e.g. see my posts on Florissant, and goes up to the Presidency).

Email this post to friends/enemies.

You better hit bull's eye, this kid don't play.

2006-03-12T10:30:00.000-05:00

Want to see something that will change the world?

iPod is neat. I liked it 9 years ago when it was called a RIO. The above is what's next.

You will see people carrying the above in 2-3 years...I'm curious to see how long until this is mainstream though.

10 years ago I had a PDA that could connect to the internet, and I said that would be mainstream in a few years and change the world. I didn't think it'd take as long as it has...I can predict what products make sense, but I can't predict whether companies will market them properly. I really missed the boat when I thought Iomega Zip drives would be in every computer built, and I thought MP3s would be mainstream 7 or 8 years before Apple sold their first iPOD. Both first movers failed at marketing....they failed at creating a need for the product, and an awareness that their product fills that need. Just look at iPod's success. The masses think iPod started the mp3 player fad. But like I said, I paid $50 for an mp3 player in the mid 1990s!

If nothing else, my birthday is May 31st. Please feel free to buy me an Origami ultra portable PC.

Also, leave me comments. What do you think of Origami. Why won't it catch on? When will it catch on.

You slippery Politicians!

2006-03-09T18:36:00.000-05:00

A close friend asked me why gas costs so much right now.

My first answer is probably the first answer of every American. Because of the turmoil in the mideast right now.

....and that is right. Gas costs so much because we accept the high gas prices...because we think they should be high because of the turmoil in the mid-east.

But put down your anger. Its not the Arab's faults that gas cost alot. They are merely following what we are selling them: freedom. Freedom to partake in supply and demand.

But our politicans are playing to our fears. They have to, it keeps them rich and in power.

I am here to use their words against them. Click here, than come back to my blog.

The MidEast produces a combined 21.76 million barrels of oil a day. wow!....don't say wow. North America produces 15.66....which is not too far off. In fact Non-Opec countries produced 33.81 million barrels a day! The U.S., Canada, and Russia produce more than all the Mid East countries combined.....and you know Russia needs money, and thus will sell it cheaply.

Arabs are not the problem.

YOU are the problem for not voting for better leaders. Americans are the problem. We are why gas prices are high. We're too stupid to realize they shouldn't be high!

Vote Independant. They don't have the power to let us continue to get raped by our elected officials.

The United States of Fat.

2006-03-06T18:36:00.000-05:00

I read the first sentence of this article and couldn't go on.

Has the world gone insane? Virii don't make you obese. Metabolisms don't make you obese.

Math makes you obese.

If you take in more than you put out you will gain weight. Thats all there is to it.

If you fill a balloon with 1 cup of water, and pour out 3/4 cup of water, guess what, your balloon is 1/4 cups of water heavier than you started with.

How is your body any different?

Want to find out if you are fat...read my previous post.

I am flubbergasted!

Persistence beats Resistence.....Another Letter to Florissant Mayor Lowery.

2006-03-02T11:21:00.000-05:00

Dear Mayor,

if this link is your concern w/ regards to why you are trying to enact the rental house inspection fiasco:

Article

than just make it easier for us investor's to acquire these vacant houses. I read that article and drooled. I wish I could just buy these neglected houses! Give me the list, and I will track the owners down and make sure investors buy these houses! I know my circle of mentors would love me and you if we could provide a list of neglected/abandoned properties, especially if the city supports us.

Part of politics is making it easier for us to succeed, instead of taking away opportunities.

"The greatest way to enslave people is to offer them freedom" ......I beg of you, please stop taking away our freedoms....give us opportunities instead. No fly, person, city, or state has ever grown by being limited, only by being fed opportunities to grow. The glass is half full here, and we can fill it more, if you let us. We are called investors for a reason...we are investing in our (and your families) futures.

Geri and Karen....thanks for dealing with me and my emails. :-)

Thank you, and have a great day!

I could be wrong.

2006-03-02T07:40:00.000-05:00

As my disclaimer at the top says...and as this article says....I could be wrong.

But I have numbers to back me up. ;-)

Can your google do this? Two points for Microsoft.

2006-02-28T15:24:00.000-05:00

Microsoft's latest mapping technology

All I can say is....wow.

Democracy InAction (title stolen from the Daily Show)...Florissant Mayor Lowery shows that ignoring is bliss

2006-02-27T12:32:00.000-05:00

I sent this email to Florissant at citymail@florissantmo.com: My email:

I have sent several emails, and left several voice mails regarding contributing to the committee pertaining to Ordinance, # 7220. All have been ignored.

If you would truly like to prove to your citizens that you would like to work together on this, like you said over and over, than please allow a landlord and tenant on your committee. (I do not mean the 2 or 3 landlords who are for this, I mean the other side). Please allow me on this committee so we can work together.

This is going to come down to a lawsuit against Florissant. You know this. What greater dis-service can you do, than to allow us to sue ourselves because we are unhappy with the way we are being governed. We will have to pay for our lawyers, and as a taxpayer I will have to pay for Florissant's lawyers. Please do not let this get this far.

Please allow me on this committee.

********************************

I sent the below email to Paul Harris (an STL radio personality) at paulharris@kmox.com:

Good day Paul,

Please check out the below link:

Florissant is stepping over the line.

Please note that post includes a few links with objections and a solution. Florissant is stepping way over the line here, and isn't listening to what we are saying. They care about their image, and not their citizens. Maybe you can help us get more publicity so we can kick them where it hurts: their image. They want us to be the West County of North County, but they take the wrong steps to do so. We should try to bring high income people in, instead of trying to keep low income people out. (as a side note, my tenants make more than me!...I am low income, not my tenants!). I have also suggested a way to do that, and their response was I am idealistic....even though its called realism in other cities.

wifi

:-)

******************************

Please send emails.

*******************UPDATE 12:08******Update:

I told a friend that the mayor's assistent replied and said she would make sure he heard my request. My friend in turn asked if I thought he'd listen.

My reply:

absolutely not.

persistence beats resistence, but stupidity reigns.

I think he will reply with: thank you for your thoughts, we are looking into this further and look forward to reaching a plan that benefits everyone.

translation: we are waiting until after the april elections before we impose this on you....oh and by the way I formed this committee of 3 people so the other council people wouldn't get harassed as much, now its just 3 council people getting tied up in this instead of 9ish. Oh and even if I let you on the committee I wouldn't listen to a thing you said, but it would allow me the chance to say "we even had a landlord on the committee and still decided that its in florissant's best interest to do this."

Progress regarding Florissant's discrimination against Landlords and Tenants

2006-02-22T11:54:00.000-05:00

Post from the Post.

My solution

My stance.

The mayor has said we need to work together. He also said that there will be a a committee formed to review this. On the committee is the mayor and 3 council people. No landlords, and no renters. Once again, this is wrong. I have contacted several council people and the mayor himself to try to get on this committee. So far, I haven't had luck.

The bottomline is if something is wrong, stand up and fight. This law benefits me and my homes, but it is wrong. So I am fighting to overturn it. If something is wrong, it is wrong, even if its right for me.

I read my comments. GM part deux (or whatever number I'm up to)

2006-02-21T16:20:00.000-05:00

Dickens made some good points in his comments to a GM post I made a few weeks backs. Both can be seen by clicking here.

Since my post, GM has taken steps that I appreciate. Dickens is right to acknowlege the unions as a hurdle.

I feel GM needs to do the following:

1) Sell or close several lines of cars. I don't know much about which ones, because I honestly don't follow GM as anything more than an armchair investor. They need money, and they need simplification. Toyota, Honda, Nissan are great companies because all the cars are essentially the same. A camry is a corrolla is a lexus ES...just different tweaks to the same model. A sentry is a altma is a maxima is a infinity. They are simple. A friend pointed out to me a few days ago that the japanese car companies are strategically superior because they also go many years without significant changes to models. They build cars that work and then just tweak them. GM builds cars to build cars. If you build it, they will come no longer applies.
2) innovation.
3) cut executive pay and dividends. They recently did both. Although I would like to see them eliminate dividends...but first things first. The execs (at every company) should get paid on performance. Give them a 100k salary, and then bonus' if they hit benchmarks.
4) eliminate unions. Companies can not grow nor compete in this day and age if they have unions. Profit sharing and establishing pride is the way to go.
5) I read once that Toyota's biggest problem is their sales force. After many studies Toyota said their cars sell themselves and they don't know why they need a sales force. Do you think GM has this on their list of problems?
6) It is taking GM and Ford longer to build each car than it takes Honda, Toyota, and Nissan....if I recall its like a 5 hour gap per car. That is huge when you're talking about millions of cars....and the gap is widening. Its not just about engineering the cars, its about engineering and innovating the process to build and distribute the cars. Microsoft became great because they innovated their own processes and not just their product....same thing with 3M, toyota, nissan, FORD 80 years ago, etc.
7) Opportunity: Hybrids offer GM and Ford a chance to innovate. This is a revolutionary time in transportation. Who will take advantage of it. So far Honda and Toyota are the clear winners. Can GM, Ford, and Nissan make a big move here?

GM is on a better track than when I wrote last about them....but they really do need to downsize dramatically, focus on a core line of vehicles, establish pride and profit sharing in a non union workforce, and go from there.

Are you getting rich working 40 hours a week?

2006-02-17T15:00:00.000-05:00

I work 40 hours a week. I have a lower income than most people I know. I get paid less than the average american household.

I enjoy what I do. I enjoy going in to work. I enjoy my responsibilities at work. I really like my new boss's boss. I really really like my new boss. I (generally) feel no stress.

I hate my pay...but I know how to get rich. Its simple. Its easy.

You step up to the plate.

You don't swing for homeruns. You get your basehits, and score your runs. Every now and then you happen to get a homerun. Every now and then you strike out. But you have to step up to the plate.

You see, you can work 40 hours a week making 100k a year, and not get rich. Most high income people are not rich.

rich = (age/10)X(annual salary).

Most people get rich by having their money make money.

Is your money making money?

When I go to sleep at night, my money is making money. My money works harder than I do, and I work smart and hard...and after taxes my money pays me more than my 40 hour a week job does.

That is how you get rich. Your money has to work for you, so you don't have to work to make money.

Step up to the plate. Swing smart.

Wise words

2006-02-09T18:02:00.000-05:00

Please note I agree with everything in here, but these are not my words. I have pasted this article from yahoo:

"A few weeks ago, I was at a financial conference giving an investing talk. A hand from the audience shot up as I talked about returns on investments of 50 percent, 1,000 percent, and infinite returns. "That's a load of rubbish," shouted the person attached to the hand waving in the air.

I asked the participant to clarify what he thought was a load of rubbish.

"You can't get such high returns," he replied angrily. "I'm a financial planner, and I've never seen anyone achieve such returns."

"What kind of investments do you recommend for your clients?" I asked.

"I recommend a well-diversified portfolio of cash, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds," he replied indignantly. "That's why I ask you: How can you get such high returns from these investments?"

"Because I don't invest in those investments," was my reply.

No Honest Advantage

I don't think too highly of investments such as savings, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, as my articles have made clear. I have written about the importance of having control over your investments -- how professional investors can invest with higher returns and less risk simply because they have more control. People who invest in paper assets -- such as savings, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds -- have very little control (see "Why Business Smarts Are Investing Smarts").

Beyond the issue of control, there's something else even more important for some professional investors. One of the problems I have with savings, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds is that I don't have an honest advantage over other investors. In this area, if I do become creative and find an advantage, I run the risk of going to jail or paying stiff fines, whereas finding an edge in other kinds of investment doesn't carry such legal risk. For example:

With registered securities, trading on insider information is illegal. When investing in a business or in real estate, insider information can give you a legal competitive advantage.

With paper assets, you have very little control over your greatest expense -- taxes. When investing in a business or real estate, you can gain a legal, competitive advantage by paying less in taxes, which increases your return on investment.
Creativity Puts You Ahead

When it comes to savings, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, the government, via agencies such as the Securities & Exchange Commission, does its best to keep the playing field level and the rules fair. It's important they do this since so many amateur investors are involved.

At the same time, the SEC's tight rules tend to take away as much creativity as possible. With businesses and real estate, legal creativity is your advantage. The more legally creative you are, the greater your return on investment.

Recently, I bought 10 acres of land for $100,000. Since the land is already zoned for mobile homes, my plan is to simply subdivide the property into approximately 50 lots and sell each lot for $25,000. Do the math, and you'll see that the 10 acres are worth a gross of $1.25 million, which is not a bad return on a $100,000 initial investment. The legal advantage is the mobile-home zoning, an advantage all the other land in the area does not have.

Another property recently came up for sale that's more complex and interesting -- a whole town for sale in Nevada for $12 million. We estimate the town's single family homes alone are worth $26 million. The remaining buildings and land, including a golf course, we estimate to be worth another $10 million.

Our plan is to raise the $12 million, plus an additional $2 million to fix up the single-family homes, and then sell those homes for $26 million. We then pay back the investors and split the potential $12 million dollars in gross profit. The rest of the town would belong to the five of us who put the deal together. That would be our real return on investment.

This all sounds easy in theory, but there's one serious problem, which is the reason the town's price is low. We suspect there are environmental problems, which the Environmental Protection Agency would pounce on, levying heavy fines, once we own the town. Before investing any money, a friend of mine who specializes in polluted properties will evaluate the risks. If the contamination is too high, we won't invest. If the contamination is low and we can solve the problem, we stand to make millions without putting a dime into the venture.

These are two examples of how a little skill and creativity can be used for legal advantages. So here are four lessons I want to leave you with:

1) Be careful about who gives you investment advice. If your advisor thinks an 8% return is a good return, you may want to look for another advisor.
2) Someone else's problem can be your opportunity.
3) Take the time to cultivate a stable of friends who know how to solve tough problems.
4) Learn to invest in investments where you can achieve an honest, legal advantage over other investors. When it comes to investing, why play on a level field?"

Sometimes I think I am stupid...until I look at numbers.

2006-02-07T16:52:00.000-05:00

If I rip on google, and wait for that boat to sink (the stock price, not the company) than I must admit when my picks faulter.

Cendant. Cendant is in the midteens right now. It doesn't make sense to me. I think its worth 30, and the market thinks its worth 15.

So I went and did some homework to see if anything changed since last time I looked at them. I see that there market cap is $16MM. (market cap = number of shares X price per share). I see their cash flow from operations was 5B last year. This means in 3 years they would buy back all there shares if they wanted to.

That is some strong cash flow!

They have 30 billion is liabilities. In 6 years they could pay off all of their debt.

That is some strong cash flow!

Cash is king. The ability to generate cash from sales is what makes a company strong. A good idea does not make a company strong. The ability to turn that idea into sales, and then turn the sales into cash is what makes a strong company.

The market and masses are wrong. again.

...(this is what I call opportunity.)

An atheist seeks god.

2006-02-06T11:19:00.000-05:00

Yesterday a buddy and I went to this church.

I am not going to already claim to know what they believe. Essentially it seems that they hedge all bets and believe everything. They follow the beliefs of Christianity, Buddiasm, Judiasm, Islam, etc....because they figure one of them has to be right...and you can learn something from each of them. Sages come in various forms.

The first 30 minutes was a waste of time. It was hell. It was listening to some 86 year old swami retell a story of how he met some other swami in the 1920s or 30s. It was rather difficult to listen to this old guy from India try to speak english and try to remember his story, which carried no meaning in my life.

But then the next 30 minutes he started talking religion/philopsophy. It started to get interesting. He gave the standard catholic speach. Notice I am being ironic there. Catholic means universal.....that is despite the catholic religion being one of the most narrow minded sects of any belief system. Notice I said "sects" when talking about religion....you have no idea how much I am giggling to myself at all my subtle and cryptic jokes I am making right now. But back to the universality of this "Vedanta Religion."

The standard univeral speach is as follows: We are all one consciousness, we are all one. Nothing is beautiful, because everything is beautiful. The swami went as far to say that all the women in the audience who think they are beautiful are not, because there are no values because everything is one. Which I thought was ludicris, because the blonde sitting two seats in front of me was clearly beautiful, especially when compared to the girls who were not her. But I understood what he was saying. Its actually an impressive thought, almost buddhist. He went further to say that the world can be seen in a grain a sand, because we are all one....and so forth.

I was intrigued by this philosophy. But I couldn't get over one thing. War. War is clearly not beautiful. There is no beauty in war. I know the Swami would have a retort for this confusion fodder of mine, but I didn't have the balls to ask him about it.

The point to this post is: there are other beliefs out there. Before you cling to yours, educate yourself and derive your own beliefs from everything you learn. Don't just believe something because its in a book, or because moral stories were handed down over several millienium. Believe something that is true, regardless of what you were told to believe.

....because the masses tend to be wrong.

3 posts in one day! That is a record.

2006-01-31T17:15:00.000-05:00

For 6 months now I have said Google's stock is over priced. When it was at 450, (just a few weeks ago!) thirty-eight analyst said to buy more.

Greggie said to short it.

Well as of this second it's at 360.

All of these experts that won't hire me because I didn't go to college for this just lost their clients literally billions of dollars.

Now if analysts had balls, they will say GOOG is a strong buy now....if they liked it at 450, then they have got to love it at 369. But that won't happen, they will all start to switch to "Hold" and "Sell".

I have a complex where I think everyone underestimates me...because everyone underestimates me!

Dear Analysts and Mutual Fund Managers: "I told you so." Its published and date stamped. Its on my blog. I've been saying to sell....while nearly all of you have been saying to buy.

....and MSFT is going to knock another leg out from Google's table in 2006.

The masses are always wrong. At least Greggie is sometimes right.

Retark.

2006-01-31T15:58:00.000-05:00

As I heard a coworker talk today, I gave birth to a new word to describe the retarks that I was hearing.

Retark:

1) a remark by a retard.
2) a retarded remark.
3) a bark by a retarded dog.

Can be used as a noun, verb, whatever you want....as long as you use it.

Origin: Greggie. 1/31/06.

wifi

2006-01-31T11:48:00.000-05:00

Philly is giving wifi away for $9.

I finally got a response re: this from my council woman. She said I certainly am an idealist.

Why is Philly being Realists, and my city thinks its idealism?

Its only takes a few seconds. Contact your local government and ask for wifi. If you live in Florissant, CityMail@florissantmo.com

I always wanted to be a stock analyst when I grew up.....

2006-01-30T11:30:00.000-05:00

....until last year.

I love following companies...you probably came to my blog hoping that I did not write another post about a stock....but I write about companies because thats my sport.

I always wanted to be a stock analyst. I've always thought it'd be fun to get paid to follow a company. To me it'd be like getting paid to play football, but instead of my knees hurting, my brain would.

So I always thought interviewers would think like I do. I was wrong. I thought, hey I just need to show the interviewer my performance, and justify my stock decision, they have got to hire me. I thought, hey I'm putting my money where my mouth is, and have a documentable track record. That has to be better than some kids out of school who studied this stuff. I was wrong. I was really wrong.

It turns out that to get a job as a stock analyst you need to go to school for finance and get a CFA. So I spent a couple years pursuing my MBA and studied for the CFA. The more I studied the more I realized why the Wall Street Journal has a section that picks stocks by throwing darts at a dart board, and that strategy does as good as the stock analysts. The more I studied the more I realized why mutual fund managers and most stock analysts can not beat the stock market.

As an undergrad I took a music class. The professor was ripping on all 500 students in his class. He said we were a part of assembly line education. At that moment I realized why I didnt want to go to school for business. I realized that there are millions of finance, economics, and accounting students that graduate each year. They learned the same thing, so they look at the world and problems the same way. I didn't want that problem.

Stock analysts and Mutual Fund managers tend to not beat the market because they were all taught the same thing! They were all taught the world is flat....and they are mostly all wrong.

Here's the deal. Here's what I learned. By learning this I can't get a job doing what I love. Ignorance is bliss.

The stock market is a market. Rational does not move markets. Ever. Emotion moves markets. Emotion drives stock prices up and down until fundamentals catch up. All these formulae that I learned studying for the CFA estimates future stock price on a number of factors. They are simple and common sense formulae. But they leave the most important variable out of the equation: They leave emotion out. They don't factor in that people are buying/selling stocks.

All of these formuale will work, and are valid, if computers were placing trades, instead of people who have hunches.

No interviewer has asked to see my portfolio performance, only my report cards (going back to high school report cards!). So noone will hire me because I know what they don't. I know that its not what school you went to, or what grades you got in high school, or what major you had.

I know that it's about looking at the world from angles that everyone else misses. Because the world is not flat. The masses are always wrong. Always.

Goodbye GM

2006-01-26T12:38:00.000-05:00

I like Innovation and cash (in) flow.

Goodbye GM

My take from June 05

My solution to Florissant's rental property inspection ordinance.

2006-01-23T15:53:00.000-05:00

If I complain about a problem, I damn well better have a solution. Critics are worthless...anyone can criticize. I've been bouncing emails back and forth with my council person. Here is my solution, as copied from an email:

*****************************************

can I at least propose this:

Have a $25-40 initial inspection. If material problems exist, require another inspection 6 months later, at a higher charge. If further problems exist another 6 months later have an even high charge. Once the house passes inspection give us another 3 to 5 years before the next inspection.

By having escalating penalties you do not penalize the landlords like me. I keep good care of my houses. I want my tenants to be comfortable. I want them to rent a home, and not a house. This isn't necessarily because I am a nice guy....its because by keeping my house in great condition I can charge more rent, have less turnover, and most importantly make my money off of the appreciation when I sell the house down the road. My style increases property values.

...and by giving my tenants a few years between inspections, it is not so intrusive on their privacy. Imagine the level of babysitting that they are going to feel over this. They are not second class citizens, they just rent instead of own.....in fact my tenants actually make more than I do. :-) and for those tenants that don't stay for a few years, Florissant will go ahead and have the occupancy permit inspection, just as it always has.

Escalating inspection penalties is more than reasonable. I will comply with any guideline above what is requested of me....and in return I only request that the government that represents me does that: represent me and give me a chance to make my tenants happy, make me a little bit of money, and make Florissant a nicer place than it was before me. Can you and your council give me the chance to do that? :-)

Please strongly consider this solution, and let me know your thoughts. :-)

********************************

her thoughts were that it will be reevaluated...this doesn't mean the ordinance will change, but just getting them to reevaluate it is a win for both landlords, tenants, and Florissant as a whole.

Florissant pisses Greggie off.

2006-01-20T11:21:00.000-05:00

My city has decided that landlords need to pay $100 twice a year to have rental houses inspected to make sure they are in good condition.

I sent the below email to my councilman and mayor:

*********************************

I was in City Hall paying my license fee for being a landlord today when I was told about the new ordinance.

I have some questions:

1) Where did the $100 figure come from? Does it really cost 100 for someone to inspect a house?
2) Why weren't tenants surveyed? Why weren't landlords surveyed?...instead of the decision being made for us?
3) How long until Florissant imposes this on owner occupied houses?
4) This is purely about revenue, ins't it?
5) My tenants are people. You are treating them like they are not. Now they have to be babysat by inspectors twice a year to make sure they can take care of themselves and something that I own? That's what I screen for. This is not protecting me, nor my tenants, nor the value of my homes. It is intruding on our rights to privacy and property.

I am not a slumlord. I realize there are people who don't take care of their houses. But that should not be my problem. I rent homes, not houses.

6) What about the economics of this? You say this is to maintain the value of houses, but this will not do that. As interest rates go up, who is going to buy houses? Investors like myself. You have just lowered the demand for investors to buy houses in Florissant which increases the supply. Hence prices don't appreciate as fast as they otherwise would.

If my tenants destroy my house, its my problem, not Florissant's. I won't be able to sell it for as much, but someone will come in and rehab it, or else it won't pass Florissant's purchasing inspection. Doesn't that solve the problem right there? Its capitalism, not socialism.

7) This is purely a revenue generator isn't it? Florissant couldn't have made this big of an economics blunder right?

8) How many complaints will it take to get you to represent your constituents and get this reevaluated immediately?

Your timely response to my questions is greatly appreciated.

Thank you, and have a great day!

I want to meet a woman.....and eminem

2006-01-18T16:47:00.000-05:00

I didn't write this, but I could not have written it any better.

"I want to meet a woman that will make me stop and listen to what she has to say. I want a woman who will make my jaw drop in awe. A woman that has little time for me. One who does not throw herself at me. One who respects herself who has a sense of herself. Where is she?" - from Black Coffee Blues by Henry Rollins

******************************

I did however write this in the attempts to write in his style...which is extremely difficult. If I did a good job than you did not know I wrote it.

A message from "Yard Gnome"

2006-01-15T11:33:00.000-05:00

A few days ago I emailed a buddy telling him the dumbest thing I have ever heard, and how after hearing it I was dumber than I was before I heard it.

He quickly replied with the following email sent to him from a friend. please note I have changed the names to protect the innocent/guilty, and this has been posted with the Yard Gnome's (the author) permission. I generally don't post things of this nature, but its dumbfounding and entertaining!:

"Actually, there's absolutely nothing important about this email at all. I'm just bored waiting for my next class which starts in approximately 34 minutes. Also, I'm going on maybe 9 hours of sleep for the last two days and I've decided that that truly sucks. Honestly, it's not bad but I'm just saying that I'd rather not do it again. Which brings me to my next point. For all of those who are still reading this You're probably wondering what my first point was. There was no first point, I start n point two cuz that's what Chuck Norris would do.

Although Chuck Norris would probably do that simply because he is point one. I'm
thinking about eating at Chipotles after class, then taking a nap, then getting ready to go out, and finally I shall go out and drink. As Abe used to say, "Is that ok with you?" If that is not ok with you then take it up with nick at (edit)@hotmail.com

Flint's favorite thing in the whole wide world is a bouquet of daisies.

For those of you who are thinking that this is a small arrangement of my parents' dog, and clones of her, then you are wrong. Frankly, I don't know why the hell you would ever think that. It's preposterous really. Moving on, Flint likes to hang the flowers above his bed so that he can dream of daisies all night long. I know this only cuz he told it to me himself. My 20th point is this, if this moon is a sphere and is "made out of cheese" as nick claims then why isn't all cheese sold in ball form? And when will Sunshine crackers realize that they have misspelled "cheese" on
their "Cheez-its" products? Furthermore, if you are still reading this then maybe you have nothing better to do right at this moment. That's why I'm writing it, cuz I have nothing better to do at this moment.

My 7th point is this, if Star Wars happened in a galaxy far, far away in a time long, long ago then how come they never made it out here? We have no evidence that they did yet look at the amazing technology that they had. I'm throwing out the "bullshit flag" on George Lucas on this one. My disbelief can only be suspended so far.

Collin likes to sing the blues yet he is never sad.

Jason eats little children for breakfast everyday, this is why his weight stays constant.

Adam once saw someone else who looked like him and it pissed him off, since he is one of a kind, so Adam walked up to the guy to beat his ass only to realize that he was looking right into a mirror. Adam now owns said mirror and kills anyone who tries to look at themselves in it.

For anyone who has read all of this I shall give you nothing. Ah nothing, what a gift. It's almost like everything, only the exact opposite.

I hate snow. Does the snow hate me?

-Yard Gnome (gregie's edit)

Anything worth having, is worth sacrificing for.....

2006-01-13T08:13:00.000-05:00

Its hard to be a landlord. Noone told me it'd be easy. I knew what I was getting into...I also know I am just getting started and there are many large challenges on the way.

-Its not easy finding a property.
-Its not easy getting financing...especially when you are barely making more than average american.
-Its not easy finding time to find a house, and then get the house appraised, inspected, etc, while still working 40 hours a week.
-Its not easy finding a quality tenant.
-I don't want to rent a house to anyone, I want to rent a home to people. Its not easy to spend the extra time and money it takes to make a house into a home.
-Its not easy seeing how much debt I have.
-Its not easy being patient. I am sacrificing today for tomorrow. There is no immediate gratification.
-Its not easy satisfying and coordinating a tenant who's AC went out in the hottest part of the year, and all AC people are backed up for weeks.
-All the unknowns will not be easy (evictions, vandelisms, multiple vacancies, etc)

All of the above are challenges. If you overcome the challenges there is alot of money to be made. By overcoming the above obstacles, many people have gained financial independance. I have never heard anyone say they lost their ass on real estate. But this is alot of work and stress....and its fun. Its fun to overcome a bombardment of challenges....after you overcome them.

I want financial independance. I don't want to bitch about my job like everyone else does. I want to take control of my days, instead of being under the control of an employer.

Anything worth having is worth sacrificing for. If I fall short of my goals, so be it....but I sleep at night knowing that I stepped up to the plate.

My first attempt at a research report.

2006-01-11T08:15:00.000-05:00

Are you a value investor or a growth investor? Why not be both? PetSmart represents both a value and room for growth. Think I'm a fool? Bring your dog to Walmart, Target, PetSmart, and Petco, and see which store gets the tail wagging. What does your dog know that the market doesn't? It all starts with being as smart as pets. While every other retail is focusing on capturing more human customers, PetSmart is focusing on a largely untapped customer base of pets.

70% of Americans have pets. Pets in the last decade have become an extension of our families. PetSmart has high profit margins off of their services (not products). The market thinks PETM's competition is Wal-Mart, and in the last few earnings conference calls, analysts have asked about Target as competition. But Target and Wal-Mart sell dog food, not services. Target will not let you leave your dog in a doggie hotel, or groom your cat, nor sell you pet medications (unless of course you knock on the back door three times and ask for Carlos). PetSmart's real competition is Petco and themselves. It is a near oligopoly situation, with room for more growth, both in number of stores and in services such as in store veterinarians.

The market is overlooking how many people have pets, and how many people think of their pet as a child. If there is a recession, are people going to stop buying pet meds, or grooming their dog? No. In fact PetSmart's sales have been high through the last few years. After Katrina hit they announced that they were concerned about their upcoming quarter because they didn't know where the economy was going. That is more than fair. Every company should be so honest. The fact is when gas was getting up to $3 a gallon no one could predict what would happen. Families were spending several hundred dollars more than they were weeks earlier on gas. That hurts. PetSmart acknowledged that and it hurt their stock. But they are strong...and the market will recognize that when they announce their earnings each quarter over the next 12 months.
But who cares about words? Let's look at the numbers. Net Income has steadily increased over the years, as has cash flow from operations. In fact, PETM has experienced double-digit growth in cash flow from operations over the last few years. You have got to like a company that can make cash.

They are quite liquid as evidenced by their 1.8 current ratio, and impressive .66 quick ratio. The latter tells me that PETM could pay off two-thirds of the debt tomorrow if they wanted to. PETM doesn't need to roll over, nor beg to get a treat from lenders.

They are growing. We saw that with a few of their aforementioned ratios, but they are also adding stores and incorporating a new distribution center. PETM opened 5% more stores last quarter alone. Their higher margin services sales increased 23.9% last quarter.

PETM’s Operating Profit Margin of 7.9% means that PETM is making $7.90 on every $100 dollars of sales, which is almost an entire dollar below the top 100 average. It would appear that the top 100 retail companies are outperforming PetSmart in terms of profitability from operating margins. But PETM’s ROA fairs better against the industry’s top 100. PETM returned nearly $2 more per $100 of assets than their peers. PETM’s ROCE was in line with their peers.

Management is also buying back shares, which shows that they believe the best investment right now is themselves. The market isn't throwing PETM a bone, so they are uncovering their value by buying up themselves.

Is PETM a buy? Don't take my word for it, your dog's wagging tail says it all.

Gates vs. Google

2006-01-06T07:11:00.000-05:00

I continue to assert that you should be buying the stronger company.

Gates on who MSFT's competition really is.

Gates on Google.

If he were just some arrogant billionaire that would be one thing....but Bill Gates has gotten wealthy, and made alot of people wealthy by driving the way we live and work. He understands his competition. If investor's understood his competition, they would not be buying Google. But Google is the media darling...just like alta vista once was, aol once was, netscape once was, apple once was (and is again), java once was, yahoo once was, do you see the trend? The only constant is Microsoft.

I hope to post over the next few days while I am at the CES....but I probably won't be able to.

Microsoft vs Google.

2006-01-05T16:47:00.000-05:00

2006 and 2007 will be the rebirth of Microsoft.

Click here and watch Bill Gates speach.

Fast Forward 12 minutes. Watch all of the mesmerizing products that Microsoft is rolling out. I was awestruck. They don't talk about what they are releasing, they show you. Google, and noone else can compete with all the shere volume of high quality, earth changing products that Microsoft is releasing.

*****************************

So I keep uncovering overwhelming proof that google is a blip on microsoft's radar.

consider: Microsoft will pay out an estimated $3.4B in dividends to their shareholders. Dividends are paid when a company has "too much cash." Google had cash flow from operations of almost $1B last year. Do you understand this? Microsoft is distributing spare cash in excess of 3 times the amount of cash that google made! So in theory Microsoft shareholders made 3.4 times as much cash (merely off of dividends) as Google as a company brought in.

Cash is king! Google is a media darling with incredible tools and brilliance, but Microsoft could buy them if there weren't monopoly laws.

*****************************

now its time for me to go to the CES show in Vegas...I can't wait to see what's next!

Great Article on Housing Bubble....

2006-01-03T10:22:00.000-05:00

Here's a great article on the possibility of a housing bubble, or depreciating home prices...Note its by a Cendant official, and I own cendant stock, so I may be biased.

I have asserted in the past that there is no housing bubble. ...only the strong liklihood of houses not appreciating as fast as they have been. The most striking thing that is mentioned in the above article and that I have never thought about is supply and demand. regardless of interest rates, houses will always be in demand. Always. Demand causes price increases. Always. Houses will always be in demand because of population growth. Every year there are a few more million people in the US then there were the year before. Furthermore its a compounding growth rate.

According to this website: "By 2050, U.S. population is projected to grow to over 403 million people" This number sounds about right. Where are these additional 130 million people going to live?

On aggregate Real Estate will continue to appreciate, as long as the population appreciates in volume. Only the rate of appreciation will change. Real Estate bubbles only exist in isolated and easily noticable areas.

Blogs I read.

2005-12-31T09:26:00.000-05:00

Blogs are a wonderful source of information. Here are the blogs I read on a daily basis, in a particular order:

BlogMaverick

Scoble

Official Google

Unoffical Microsoft

Unofficial Google

Engadget

TV

There are a few others I go to, but not so often that it is in my daily routine. There are MANY I wish existed, such as the following:

Miley, Bill Gates, official Microsoft, CEOs of companies I follow being candid and not political (e.g. like Scobles or Cuban's), and of course Shakira.

Are there any I SHOULD be reading? Do you know of any CEOs blogs that have no spin to them?...what blogs do you routinely read?

Have a great 2006 everyone! Take advantage of the information at your fingertips. Change the game.

Be Independant....everything else is Dependant (on selfish idiots).

2005-12-29T10:58:00.000-05:00

I stare at the ceiling, wheeling and dealing,
I'm awake, but I'm dreaming.
Of my generation overcoming the forced penetration of our nation.
I'm drowning in delusions of revolutions, and solutions, and evolutions.

We're an insecure bully, hollow inside.
We have freedom of speech, without freedom of change.
We elect idiots.
We impose our will on other countries, so we can take their oil. I am not talking about the Middle East.
Our Judicial system is a joke.
Our constitution is outdated.
The Peace Corps are used to be a friendly face in the places we rape.
Politicians are liars.
More people get shot to death in the US by us, than they do in wars. It is clearly a passive civil war, that can not end because the NRA owns politicians.
My taxes are never used what I want them to be used for. Nor are yours.
We fight Iraq, and ignore Katrina. Why?
We think we are rich, but the average American has 8k in credit card debt, and the government has several trillion in increasing debt. Think about that. Think about who is rich. The government's debt is in the form of Treasury and Savings Bonds and Bills. Who owns those bonds? Foreign Countries. We are borrowing money from other countries. Other countries have the money. We have things. The lenders are making money off their money (interest) as we use our things that will need to be replaced.

We have two political parties that are the exact same.

We still drive automobiles that run off of explosions 4 feet in front of us. How ancient is that? So in the last 150 years we have found a way to instantly communicate with each other using 1s and 0s traveling through the air, but we still need to have simultaneous explosions to propel our vehicles? Politician's and friends make money off of oil and car companies' lobbyist. You do understand this right? We could be traveling at 150 mph, with virtually no accidents, and 0 emissions, if the decisions makers wanted. (I'll save this idea for another post).

We have no cure for the COMMON cold.

Our leaders and leadees should do what's best for the whole, at all times.

Please next time around vote for anyone who is not Republican or Democratic. Let's see something different. Let's see some brains, instead of greedy and selfish puppetry.

Don't wake me from my dream!

Here's a shocker

2005-12-27T17:54:00.000-05:00

This was taken from Reuters on 12/27:

"Auto racing (which includes NASCAR) is most popular among those with a
high school education or less (19%) and Baby Boomers (15%), while it fares
worst among those with a post graduate degree (2%)"

What a shocker! Can you believe uneducated people like nascar, and educated people don't!....wow.

Here is one of my favorite posts so far.

Odds of relationship failure.

2005-12-24T09:56:00.000-05:00

Its no secret, I am a cynic and skeptic. Its not the popular route, but its the one I have not been able to avoid.

As always I am intersted in some girl, and as always I am looking for any reason not to be. I am struggling mightily, but I am a rational person. Any rational person can make up excuses, so I'll use math as my excuse.

I think that 4% of the girls in the midwest are attractive.
I think 10% of people i meet have good personalities.

So, ignoring compatability (which we always do when we think these things out!) there is a .4% chance that a girl I meet is long term datable.

So if we factor in compatability than there is a (.4% X .4%) = .0016% chance that two people are attracted to each other both physically and on a personality level.

So for every 1,000,000 girls I meet, 16 have long term dating potential and compatability. Your odds may be higher or egad! lower depending on your standards (the 4% physical attraction odds and/or 10% personality attraction odds may be higher or lower for you).

Let's take that one step further. The divorce rate is 50%ish. We're going to ignore the small percentage of people that date for a very long time without getting married. That means for every 1,000,000 marriages, only 500,000 last. But from above only 16 should last. So out of 1,000,000 people, 499,984 people are with someone just to avoid being alone....and another 500,000 get divorced.

The point in any relationship is to make the other person happier than they would be if they were not in that relationship. It's hard to find the right person, and I refuse to be in a bad relationship. I will never be one of those 99.999% of couples that is "stuck"....I'd rather be alone, or divorced.

After typing all the above out, I find that I still haven't talked myself out of pursuing said girl. Now I just know the specific odds it won't work out...hahaha.

Have a great 3 day weekend everyone, regardless of your religion, or lack there of!...and I emphasize the latter!

Google has inflated Earnings!

2005-12-21T17:52:00.000-05:00

Google has inflated earnings, not in an accounting scam kind of way, but in a nostalgia kind of way.

Google is hot right now...their stock remains hot, their earnings continue to beat estimates. As long as their earnings come in stronger than expected they will keep having their stock balloon up, perhaps to the four digit stratosphere.

But there are other angles to consider. I would consider shorting Google...that is I would short google if I were a speculator, which I've already established that I need certainity and not guesses to make investments.

WHAT?!?! DID SOMEONE SAY THE WOULD SHORT GOOGLE? DID SOMEONE WHO CLAIMS TO BE IN LOVE WITH GOOGLE SAY THAT HE WOULD SHORT THEIR STOCK?

yes. I came up with this theory that google has high earnings because everyone is trying them out. Everyone and their mother are trying out adsense (which is how google makes money), but there is no hard evidence to support that clicking on the ad above this post actually consistently generates cash for anyone other than me and google. So people are probably paying too much for the banner ad leads. Hell if you click on the above ad, I might make as much as 2 bucks. But you probably didn't buy anything. Do you see the disconnect of value here. People are paying for leads to sites that may not result into the conversion of cash purchases.

You can equate it to Ty. Everyone was buying Beanie Babies a few years ago (which started ebaY!) for no other reason than everyone was talking about beanie babies. Did that mean Ty would hang around and dominate the stuffed animal world? Hell no...it just meant that the media was doing advertising on behalf of Ty. As long as Beanie Babies were in the spotlight, people would pay a few hundred bucks for them. Similiarly everyone is paying for adsense ads which increases google's earnings, which increases google stock price. Its a terribly vicious cycle.

Google is still a toddler. They are not even 10 years old. Never mind Microsoft being a more formidable competitor, I am now afraid of google competing with nostalgia. I've said that all along about their stock price, but stock price is driven over time by a companies earnings....and people may be giving Google very high earnings for no other reason than to try it out. Think of it like this: "People are paying for adsense ads because they think that if this many people are talking about google, than it must be good." The same logic can be applied to Britney Spears.

Don't believe me? My sister told me that the company she is working for tried adsense and were disappointed by the results. Just wait until 1 million other advertisers agree. As long as click throughs turn into cash, google will be fine. But do click throughs turn into as much cash as we've seen out of google over the last few years? If so...fear Microsoft and Yahoo and Ebay and Amazon chasing Google's marketshare.

If I gambled, I would short google with a 12-24 time horizon.

Eminem...the greatest living poet looks back at his career.

2005-12-18T17:57:00.000-05:00

If you sit and listened to the words I've been twisting, it can't take you a year to hear, that my jams mirror the tears I tried not to cry, the tears I've dried in my eyes, as you've lied, and denied, and told me that my story is better told by lives other than mine. What would you do, (ha!), what could you do, if you were put in my shoes, with this tortured past, still spinning my future's path using this fast math of lexical flash, while you trip trying to solve this mystery of me, but you don't see that you be drowning in your own envy, and pool of hypocrisy. Blinded by your own insecurity. "Oh, woe is me." (said sarcastically).

Then I put a pen to this pad, go at it again, as I add a verse of discourse that I spit so quick, in your head it hurts, and you resort to getting wheezy and dizzy just trying to keep wit me. I know you see it as being more easy to call me sleezy than understand the genius that be me. (fo sheezey!). But I win this war of rage that's been waged and I've fought with the cds that your children (our future!) have bought.

That's why I keep Shake-spearin you with these rhymes,
While you keep wasting your time, saying it’s a crime,
Accuse me of searing these' kids minds,
But I don't do it for the biz, can't help that I'm a wiz.
-erd.
With words.

You don't call me a Poe. You don't know me at all. My words are my walls, they prop me from my falls. Stand on them, and you may see what I've saw, after you raise up your dropped jaw, I'll stand tall, as you call me the greatest living poet, who's risked it all, and risen above those who didn't know it, even though I've steady done shown it. Times on my side. Words have lives, even after their poet's have died.

Dickens makes some points......

2005-12-17T11:53:00.000-05:00

I very rarely (I don't think I have) moved a comments conversation into front page material, but this was good stuff, and there are alot of thought provokers here. Don't be afraid to leave me comments. I read them, and I hope my readers read the comments as well.

Dickens said...
Some people are into short term goals and don’t really care much about the company’s attributes, they just know that at this point in time a certain stock is doing well and is likely to go up, and they just ride the wave before it crashes (i.e. some daily wallstreet traders). On the other hand you have some like yourself who are into long term investment goals and base their investments on company culture, products, and financial statements which on the cover and more times than not is less riskier than the other. However, short term investing is just a different style. There is plenty of money in the “Googles” this day and age and the short term investments in general. Sure Microsoft is as safe and steady as ever but Google is this exciting company that is currently the darling of WallStreet. If you had the money why wouldn't you invest in Google and then cash out after you’ve made some money, seems like an easy win to me? You know they are only going to keep going up until they receive some bad publicity or are presented with significant legal issues. I'm not an expert but I don't see either happening in the foreseeable future. I wouldn't call buying Google or any of the other tech stock other than Microsoft playing the lottery but just a different style of investing. I am sure the smarter daily traders are doing a lot of trend analysis to score big on these stocks that surge instantaneously and then cash out. After all, investing money in the stock market is all about making money not what stocks you own. Last I checked we’re still spending that dirty ninj Benjammin Franklin and not Microsoft, Cendant, or Google shares. That being said I don’t have the time, knowledge, or resources to be a stock broker so I’ll just play it safe with the mutual funds and go the old reliable long term way. I’m just presenting a point that there are other styles of investing that are just as safe and more profitable as going the easy reliable Microsoft way.

Not that anyone asked but my opinion of Google and Microsoft but here you go… Google is way overpriced for what they are. They don’t have what I would consider a tangible product. They make the vast majority of their money off of internet ads. They have a lot of free services, information, and more information. So ya, as a Google user I think they are a cool cutting edge IT company but as a person with business insight don’t think they are the next coming of Microsoft. In fact I think they will need to justify their stock price sometime. We all know Google will need to grow up because it can’t sell internet ads the rest of its life. Microsoft offers a tangible product that brings in big time cash. Microsoft runs the corporate world. The majority of IT shops use Microsoft for the majority of their processes. Microsoft is highly available, already has their clamps on corporate America, too many people are use to Microsoft and are not likely to switch, they provide support and is held accountable (in the corporate world at least), and are surprisingly reliable this day and age. They are the hammer and we are the nails. But where are the stocks? One’s stock is a rock star and one is an old grandpa driving on the highway. One is making money for people in the stock market currently and one is not. So I don’t think it’s crazy for anyone to jump on the Google bandwagon, no. Google is skrillin like Nelly is grillin.

-Dickens

**************************

Greggie says: I have the money, and I won't invest in Google, because they are not the best. I passed on buying them at 85, and I'll pass at buying them at 800. I try to buy the best, the monopolies and oligoplies. Google will continue to make money off of ads (note I didn't say internet ads!). Google will be on your cell phone, on your fridge, in your grocery store, in your library, everywhere. I envision them being the first stage in a matrix type world. They are the very first signs of successful artificial intelligence made mainstream. Their system works because it learns.

But the fact of the matter is, what if the bad news comes tomorrow, then the bubble bursts and then you're poor

Google's stock is being bought because its a media darling, not because of the finanicals of the company....its late 90s tech bubble all over again. Microsoft could buy them if they wanted. They have ridiculous amounts of cash. (Bill's charity alone has more cash than GOOGLE, and probably more cash flows) Microsoft is King here. Microsoft will earn its investors more money over the long haul, even though google has returned more the last year.

Its a game of percentanges. Which is going to happen first: Google going to 900, or Microsoft going to 50. Both scenarios would be doubling their respective stocks.

Here's a hint: MSFT has a new OS rolling out next year (their money maker!!!!), their copycat version of google will roll out (and take market share from google), XBOX 360 will be pushed, Halo 2 rolled out (which MSFT owns), a newer version of Office, an iTunes copycat, two differenet LIVE suites to further dent Google's market share (live.com is one of them), MSFT is working with telephone companies on VOIP. MSFT is going to have a HUGE push in 2006 and 2007...probably their biggest pish to date....I don't feel that's reflected in their stock price because 1) people are afraid to invest, 2) people are overestimating GOOG, 3) people are underestimating King Softie.

I think MSFT is a bigger homerun than GOOG, with much less risk....and my money is where my mouth is. I own MSFT.

-Greggie

Looking for the next Microsoft?

2005-12-15T20:14:00.000-05:00

Google has gotten very popular with investors lately. Investors are continually trying to find the next Microsoft. Well I'm here to help you, my readers, find the next Microsoft.

It's Microsoft.

Microsoft's only real competition is the Government and themselves.

But what about Linux? Red Hat and their stock seem to be mentioned every few years as a threat to Microsoft. But it shouldn't be. Red Hat makes Microsoft more valuable, not less. Linux helps Microsoft. Think I'm wrong? Remember that Microsoft's only real competition is the Government and themselves. If monopoly laws did not exist, than Microsoft would simply use some of their $50 Billion in cash equivalents to buy Red Hat, who has a market cap of only $4.5B, and assets of $1.1 Billion. Microsoft's operations brought in $16 Billion in cash last year. They bring in more cash in a qaurter than their "Operating System Competition" is worth!

But what about Apple? Apple has a market cap of $60 Billion, and assets of $11B. Microsoft could buy them too with money in the bank! Why do investor's not understand this? Apple gives microsoft minimal competition, thus keeping governments off Microsoft's back.

But what about Google? Microsoft had $16 Billion in CASH from operations. That compares with Google only having $4 Billion in sales. MSFT made 4x as much cash as Google had total sales!!!!! Yahoo only had $3.5 in sales. SALES not Cash!!!

Microsoft has cash Cash is King.

Hell, MSFT just last year gave $30 Billion in cash to their shareholders in the form of a special dividend. They have more cash than they know what to do with. Do you think Google, apple, Red Hat, etc. have this cash problem? Don't you always think "man if I only had some more cash, I could do this or that"...well Microsoft does have the cash that the other companies wish they had.

But keep buying Google stock, keep thinking Linux competes, or that apple competes. I'm buying the best of breed, while you keep hunting for the lottery.

All the while, Microsoft will keep being the next Microsoft....while you keep searching for the next Microsoft.

Cash is King. Microsoft has cash. Microsoft is King.

Shuffle up and deal.

2005-12-13T16:02:00.000-05:00

I was forced to make a tough decision with my money.

If you ever get me talking about stocks, you know I'm going to quickly mention Cendant, Stericycle, PetSmart, Microsoft, and a few others.

So this morning as I was reading the news I saw that Cendant dropped 10%. So naturally I wanted to know why people were selling. So I read Cendant's news. They warned that they would be on the low end of estimates on earnings. I thought and thought and thought about that. Than I decided, I am fine with that. They are largely a travel company, and people just haven't been traveling as much (I am assuming) since gas prices shot up. They alluded to struggling with overseas travel, and they fired the head of that division. So should the stock retreat 10% because they are on the low end of estimates? I don't think so. I also looked at their financial statements to see if I could find anything I didn't like. I found that last year they had nearly $5Billion in cash flow from operations, and their market cap as of today was $16B. Thats when I knew I had to buy more.

But I don't (ever) have any cash. I had to look at all of my investments and see which one I thought had the weakest prospects for appreciating. This was very hard. I like everything I own, otherwise I wouldn't own it. I think all of my cash is wisely invested right now. But I had to buy Opportunity. I had to buy Cendant. So I sold my shares of Stericycle. I didn't want to. I bought it at 45 nine months ago, and sold it at 62+...(thanks Hadz!). It's performed well for me, and I think it's still got room to go up, perhaps to 70-80 in 2006...for another 10-20% return. But I think Cendant will be between 25-30 in the next 24 months...(compared to it being at 16.5 today)...for nearly a 100% return. I had to sacrifice a great company, to get a better opportunity.

Was it the right decision? I won't know for a few years.

Any thoughts?

A pie is a pie, any way you slice it.

2005-12-07T16:18:00.000-05:00

Quick quiz:

Let's say there is a company called Greggie. Is it worth more at $5 or $10 or $500?

The answer to the above (before any other analysis) depends on how many shares there are. If there are 10,000 shares when the stock is priced at $5 the value is $50,000. If there are 100 shares when it is priced at $500 it is also worth $50,000.

I have heard and overheard many times people say: "this stock is only 5 dollars, what a deal" or "this stock is worth 150, its too expensive." (oddly I have heard this about Sirius several times already).

It's just a simple math discussion.

Along this same math...who cares if a stock splits!? Great I have twice as many shares and the stock cut in half. Guess what I just lost money because the company how to pay to split. But they split stocks for psychological reasons. They split their company's stock because unsophisticated investors think that $50 x 10 shares is cheaper than $25 x 20 shares.

The problem is these people should not buy stocks. Never invest in something you don't understand. By saying the above, you are showing non arm chair investors that you just don't get it....and there's nothing wrong with that....as long as you don't invest!

Furthermore, if you are thinking, well Greggie, I only have $500 to invest in Sirius (or whatever) so it really DOES make a difference to me if the company has enough shares to keep the price below $500.

My answer: Before you buy any investment, you need to consider the administrative cost. If you go the cheap route and trade online, you're going to pay about $20 in commissions. (10 to buy and 10 when you sell). So you need a return of 4% just to break even. The market historically returns an average of 8%, so you'd need 12% return just to "tie" the market!....given that few experts beat the market, it quickly becomes a bad idea....you're better off playing roulette.

Don't lose money!....make money. Be smarter than those losing money.

Bitterness.

2005-12-05T09:06:00.000-05:00

Some people think I'm bitter, but the following quote sums it up best:

"People who have high expectations of themselves, tend to have high expectations of others"

I'm not bitter, I just expect more out of people than they give...so I'm often let down.

I'm not bitter, I'm hungry.

American as all GET OUT.

2005-12-01T10:50:00.000-05:00

I saw an American Furniture Store car driving today. It had "American Furniture" painted on it like a billboard...made no secret that it was for "American Furniture."

It was a Honda Element.

Nothing says "American" like a good old Japanese hybrid!

Followup to WiFi post

2005-11-29T18:07:00.000-05:00

Well Florissant still hasn't replied to this email.

But New Orleans is taking on the idea!...(of course that had nothing to do with me...its just a good idea, that's all!)

Send an email to CityMail@florissantmo.com and reference this link.

or send an email to your city! It takes a minute, and might change things.

Google article....long but good read

2005-11-28T17:26:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Dar for the below email I enjoyed the read. (he believe the source is the Wash Post).

The soul of the Google machine is a passion for disruptive innovation.

Powered by brilliant engineers, mathematicians and technological visionaries, Google ferociously pushes the limits of everything it undertakes. The company's DNA emanates from its youthful founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who operate with "a healthy disregard for the impossible," as Page likes to say. Their goal: to organize all of the world's information and make it universally accessible, whatever the consequences.

Google's colorful childlike logo, its whimsical appeal and its lightning-fast search results have made it the darling of information-hungry Internet users. Google has accomplished something rare in the hard-charging, mouse-eat-mouse environment that defines the high-tech world -- it has made itself charming. We like Google. We giggle at the "Google doodles," the playful decorations on its logo that appear on holidays or other special occasions. We eagerly sample the new online toys that Google rolls out every few months.

But these friendly features belie Google's disdain for the status quo and its voracious appetite for aggressively pursuing initiatives to bring about radical change. Google is testing the boundaries in so many ways, and so purposefully, it's likely to wind up at the center of a variety of legal battles with landmark significance.

Consider the wide-ranging implications of the activities now underway at the Googleplex, the company's campuslike headquarters in California's Silicon Valley. Google is compiling a genetic and biological database using the vast power of its search engines; scanning millions of books without traditional regard for copyright laws; tracing online searches to individual Internet users and storing them indefinitely; demanding cell phone numbers in exchange for free e-mail accounts (known as Gmail) as it begins to build the first global cell phone directory; saving Gmails forever on its own servers, making them a tempting target for law enforcement abuse; inserting ads for the first time in e-mails; making hundreds of thousands of cheap personal computers to serve as cogs in powerful global networks.

Google has also created a new kind of work environment. It serves three free meals a day to its employees (known as Googlers) so that they can remain on-site and spend more time working. It provides them with free on-site medical and dental care and haircuts, as well as washers and dryers. It charters buses with wireless Web access between San Francisco and Silicon Valley so that employees can toil en route to the office. To encourage innovation, it gives employees one day a week -- known as 20 percent time -- to work on anything that interests them.

To eliminate the distinction between work and play -- and keep the Googlers happily at the Googleplex -- they have volleyball, foosball, puzzles, games, rollerblading, colorful kitchens stocked with free drinks and snacks, bowls of M&Ms, lava lamps, vibrating massage chairs and a culture encouraging Googlers to bring their dogs to work. (No cats allowed.) The perks also include an on-site masseuse, and extravagant touch-pad-controlled toilets with six levels of heat for the seat and automated washing, drying and flushing without the need for toilet paper.

Meanwhile, the Googlers spend countless hours tweaking Google's hardware and software to reliably deliver search results in a fraction of a second. Few Google users realize, however, that every search ends up as a part of Google's huge database, where the company collects data on you, based on the searches you conduct and the Web sites you visit through Google. The company maintains that it does this to serve you better, and deliver ads and search results more closely targeted to your interests. But the fact remains: Google knows a lot more about you than you know about Google.

If these were the actions of some obscure company, maybe none of this would matter much. But these are the practices of an enterprise whose search engine is so ubiquitous it has become synonymous with the Internet itself for millions of computer users. And if the Google Guys have their way, their presence will only grow. Brin and Page see Google (its motto: "Don't Be Evil") as a populist force for good that empowers individuals to find information fast about anything and everything.

Part of Google's success has to do with the network of more than 100,000 cheap personal computers it has built and deployed in its own data centers around the world. Google constantly adds new computers to its network, making it a prolific PC assembler and manufacturer in its own right. "We are like Dell," quipped Peter Norvig, Google's chief of search quality.

The highly specialized world of technology breaks down these days into companies that do either hardware or software. Google's tech wizards have figured out how to do both well. "They run the largest computer system in the world," said John Hennessy, a member of Google's board of directors, a computer scientist and president of Stanford University. "I don't think there is even anything close."

Google doesn't need all that computer power to help us search for the best Italian restaurant in Northern Virginia. It has grander plans. The company is quietly working with maverick biologist Craig Venter and others on groundbreaking genetic and biological research. Google's immense capacity and turbo-charged search technology, it turns out, appears to be an ideal match for the large amount of data contained in the human genome. Venter and others say that the search engine has the ability to deal with so many variables at once that its use could lead to the discovery of new medicines or cures for diseases. Sergey Brin says searching all of the world's information includes examining the genetic makeup of our own bodies, and he foresees a day when each of us will be able to learn more about our own predisposition for various illnesses, allergies and other important biological predictors by comparing our personal genetic code with the human genome, a process known as "Googling Your Genes."

"This is the ultimate intersection of technology and health that will empower millions of individuals," Venter said. "Helping people understand their own genetic code and statistical code is something that should be broadly available through a service like Google within a decade."

Brin's partner has nurtured a different ambition. For years, Larry Page dreamed of tearing down the walls of libraries, and eliminating the barriers of geography, by making millions of books searchable by anybody in the world with an Internet connection. After Google began scanning thousands of library books to make them searchable online, book publishers and authors cried foul, filing lawsuits claiming copyright infringement.

Many companies would have reached an amicable settlement. Not Google. Undaunted, Google fired back, saying copyright laws were meant to serve the public interest and didn't apply in the digital realm of search. Google's altruistic tone masked its savvy, hard-nosed business strategy -- more books online means more searches, more ads and more profits. Google recently began displaying some of these books online (print.google.com), and resumed scanning the contents of books from the collections of Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, the New York Public Library and Oxford. But legal experts predict that the company's disruptive innovation will undoubtedly show up on the Supreme Court's docket one day.

From Madison Avenue to Microsoft, Google's rapid-fire innovation and growing power pose a threat of one kind or another. Its ad-driven financial success has propelled its stock market value to $110 billion, more than the combined value of Disney, Ford, General Motors, Amazon.com and the media companies that own the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Its simplified method of having advertisers sign up online, through a self-service option, threatens ad agencies and media buyers who traditionally have played that role. Its penchant for continuously releasing new products and services in beta, or test form, before they are perfected, has sent Microsoft reeling. Chairman Bill Gates recently warned employees in an internal memo of the challenges posed by such "disruptive" change.

Microsoft also worries that Google is raiding the ranks of its best employees. That was threatening enough when Google operated exclusively in Silicon Valley. But it grew worse when Google opened an outpost in the suburbs of Seattle, just down the road from Microsoft headquarters, and aggressively started poaching. Microsoft finally sued Google for its hiring of Kai-Fu Lee, a senior technologist who once headed Microsoft's Chinese operations. Lee is now recruiting in Asia for Google, despite a court order upholding aspects of a non-compete clause that Lee signed while at Microsoft.

Google's success is neither accidental nor ephemeral. Brin and Page -- the sons of college professors who introduced them to computing when they were toddlers -- met in 1995 at Stanford, where they were both Ph.D candidates in computer science and technology. They became inseparable and set out to do things their own way. Professors laughed at Page when he said one day that he was going to download the Internet so he could improve upon the primitive early search engines.

Seven years ago, Google didn't exist in any form beyond a glimmer in the eyes of Brin and Page. Then in the fall of 1998, they took leaves of absence from Stanford, and moved their hardware into the garage and several rooms of a house in nearby Menlo Park. Armed primarily with the belief that they could build a better search engine, they have created a company unlike any other.

With Brin and Page setting the tone, Google's distinctive DNA makes it an employer of choice for the world's smartest technologists because they feel empowered to change the world. And despite its growing head count of more than 4,000 employees worldwide, Google maintains the pace of innovation in ways contrary to other corporations by continuing to work in small teams of three to five, no matter how big the undertaking. Once Google went public and could no longer lure new engineers with the promise of lucrative stock options, Brin invented large multi-million-dollar stock awards for the small teams that come up with the most innovative ideas.

A good example is Google's latest deal -- a far-reaching, complex partnership with NASA, unlike any agreement between a private firm and the space agency, to share data and resources and employees and identify ways to create new products and conduct searches together in space. Although NASA is a public entity, many of the details of the partnership remain hidden from public view.

Despite all that has been achieved, Google remains in its infancy. Brin likes to compare the firm to a child who has completed first grade. He and Page gaze into a glittering globe in the Googleplex that shows billions of Google searches streaming in from around the world, and notice the areas that are dark. These are the places that have no Internet access.

Quietly, they have been buying up the dark fiber necessary to build GoogleNet, and provide wireless Web access for free to millions or billions of computer userspotentially disruptive to phone and cable companies that now dominate the high-speed Internet field. Their reasoning is straightforward: If more people globally have Internet access, then more people will use Google. The more books and other information that they can translate into any language through an automated, math-based process they are developing now, the more compelling the Google experience will be for everyone, and the more wealth the company will have to invest in their vision.

Supremely confident, the biggest risk that Brin, Page and Google face is that they will be unable to avoid the arrogance that typically accompanies extraordinary success. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos jokes that Brin and Page are so sure of themselves, they wouldn't hesitate to argue with a divine presence.

But the fact remains that they are human beings, and inevitably, both they and Google will make mistakes. Unless any of these prove lethal, however, Google -- through its relentless focus on disruptive innovation -- appears likely to wreak havoc on established enterprises and principles for many years to come.

Outsourcing

2005-11-26T16:06:00.000-05:00

If you've read my blog:

Outsourcing and Dey took our Jibs!

then you know my stance on outsourcing. But it hit me today...I realize very simply why americans are pissed.

Outsourcing is taking americans jobs. This is because Toyota and Honda Outsource out of Japan and build cars in the US. Becuase of JAPAN'S outsourcing, we are losing jobs (adios GM!). We're not losing jobs because of our own outsourcing. We're losing jobs because of our own mediocrity!

Thanks!

2005-11-24T11:52:00.000-05:00

Thanks for coming to my site. Now email it to 5 of your friends/enemies.

Have a great T-Giving.

Looking at things from different angles

2005-11-18T11:59:00.000-05:00

I sent this email to the mayor of my city:

Would you like a way to keep higher income and educated people from moving out of Florissant....and attract businesses and higher income and educated people to move to Florissant?

It would cost next to nothing to provide all of Florissant with hi-speed wireless internet access. Google is doing it for their city. Why not have Florissant do it for ours?! I know you're thinking that you won't get the citizens to back it...but alot of us are already paying 50 bucks a month to get high speed internet through charter/aol/sbc....but its not wireless. Imagine the productivity that could be had in Florissant if we could carry laptops whereever we go and be connected to the internet. Imagine the businesses that will come to Florissant solely for this reason. Imagine all the people (students) that don't have access to the internet who would now be able to.

Its great for all....and much less expensive than you think. WiFi is just like cordless phones...just put small powerful hubs every so many miles away (at each public building!). If you want Florissant's citizens to grow, and its economy to grow, why not be the first city (aside from Mountain View) to do this?

Google is doing it.

And it is very inexpensive! read google's letter to their city. (click on the "download file")

If you decide you want to keep higher income and educated people from moving out of Florissant....and attract businesses and higher income and educated people to move to Florissant, than I'd be more than happy to get involved.

Thank you, and have a great day!

***********************

Feel free to copy this and email it to your mayor....let's try to speed up innovation.

Sometimes I outhink myself. Go ahead PRINT that.

2005-11-13T10:13:00.000-05:00

So I fully recognize google as a landscape changer. I follow them pretty religiously...(not their stock price, but the company). But in my own ignorance and love for Google I overlooked a rather simple facet of this world.

Love can put blinders on you. In my myopic focus on Google I have overlooked all other suiters! I've gotten caught up in the glamour of Britney Spears, whilst ignoring that Christina Aguilera and Hilary Duff are also "talented."*

*intrepret the word talent however you like.

Here's what I'm saying. I have been mesmerized by google's unflinching innovation and roll out of products/services that are increasing intelligent, and seemingly exactly what I want as an end user. Mesmerized with blinders.

Sure I've recognized that microsoft is a viable competitor....and I assert that MSFT is still in complete control of the tech battle. Regardless of how much negative media attention has been given to KingSoftie, and how much positive attention is given to Google, noone can overlook that Microsoft is still in control here.

But Yahoo and Amazon are also in the mix. I don't like yahoo....but they are being overlooked in this 2nd phase of internet craze. For instance both yahoo and amazon are rolling out their version of a product (or is it a service) that I am craving:

Yahoo Print and Amazon Print

But while google is getting sued for their version, Amazon and Yahoo have publishers on their side. This is very relevant. This will be Google's first significant fodder for negative attention. Google's stock has skyrocketed because of supreme investor confidence. Nothing bad has been said, and innovation has run rampent. But as soon as there is negativism associated with this emotional stock choice, the stock will drop...(merck example)..the question is how far? That is why I never bought them. You can't win bidding wars when the bidders (owners of google stock) are buying/selling on gut emotion. Its like trying to play poker with several million people that go all in regardless of their hands.

Its also significant because the publishers could easily sign a licensing agreement to grant yahoo, MSFT, or amazon exclusive rights to their digital content. VERY powerful. It'd be like GM getting exclusive rights to our highways.

I love innovation. I love fierce competition to evolve. I LOVE it! Its exciting. I hope this battle goes on for years! Imagine if the drug companies fought this intensely for product evolution! They'd have cures for everything from aids to alzheimers. This reiterates the need to not follow companies with blinders. Where there are leaders there are followers. Sometimes the followers take the lead.

Who do you think will win this battle and why? Who else am I ignoring (is ebay a major player?) What say ye?

Shorting stock.....it takes balls.

2005-11-10T11:36:00.000-05:00

So on June 14th I had this post saying some of the reasons why I thought GM was going to hell. I ended it saying if I had balls I would short their stock.

What does shorting stock mean? It means you sell the stock, and then buy it at a later date. It means someone in the market is lending you their stock so you can sell it, and at a later date you buy the stock and deliver it to them. There is a huge market for shorts.

So you are betting that the stock is going to decrease in value. Thats all it is. You're first selling high, and then buying later. Its rather risky since the stock could go up to infinity.

I don't deal with this level of risk (yet). I look for basehits I can stretch into doubles or tripples. I try to bat 1.000 instead of having a high slugging percentage...but like Ichiro, I sometimes get lucky and hit the ball over the fence.

But that doesn't mean I don't see the deals. Since I mentioned shorting GM on June 14th the stock has dropped from 36 to 23. Thats a 36% drop in 5 months. That is a hell of a gain for anyone who shorted. I'd put that gain up against any homerun stock in the last 5 months.

Sometimes I think its easier to find shorts. Its easy to see what companies are going to go to hell....its hard to uncover the gems that are undervalued and going up.

But I don't have the balls to short stock. If I did I would have added a 36% five month gain to my accomplishments.

Time doesn't pass.....we do.

2005-11-06T10:22:00.000-05:00

Years ago my Uncle Joe asked me how my spring break went. I told him it was fun, and it passed by too quickly....he replied:

"you know how fast your spring break went by, thats how fast life moves on. I remember when you were like my kids, seems like yesterday. We all need to take a little time and spend it with the people we love and enjoy being with. Time marches on, We have to march with it."

.....and he was right.

Despite myself, I have made some great friends over the years. For all my friends out there, thanks for sticking with me!

I was at a wedding yesterday. But this one was different than the other 20 or so that I've been to in the last few years. The smiles that illuminated between my buddy and his woman were touching. I forgot that people could be that happy with each other.

Now I remember that.

Never invest with your heart!

2005-11-02T12:15:00.000-05:00

Never invest with your heart. Always buy low and sell high....never sell low if the fundamentals are still there...the masses tend to be wrong, and drive the market.

So on 10/27 I had this post thinking that I have just been lucky with my stock picks over the years. I was concerned because each of my stocks had dropped down a few points.

Here is what my 4 stocks have done since 10/27/05, as of this post.

SRCL + 7.6%
PETM + 9.6%
MSFT + 6.2%
CD + 2.8%

That is compared with SPY (a broad market tracker based on the S&P500) posting a 2.7% gain and DWC (a VERY broad market tracker based on the Wilshire 5000) posting a 3.1% gain.

So if you read my post justifying why I thought that those stocks were trading at a deep discount, and you bought because of it then congrats, you have beaten the market. Thats something that the experts tend to fail at. Its a good thing people refuse to hire me to recommend stocks...god forbid I make their clients rich!

You see for the same reason they won't hire me, they also ignore CD, SRCL, and PETM. They just don't understand them. They can't understand how someone who went to school for psychology can possibly know anything about stocks. Well, I didn't learn how to make all the mistakes that business majors learned. College is an assembly line education. I see things different than the million business students churned out each year. I also understand the stock market trades on emotion, and not financials.

Continuation of previous posts re: software evolution.

2005-11-01T17:21:00.000-05:00

Read this

Volatility

2005-10-28T10:42:00.000-04:00

(I will edit spelling and add links sometime later).

I am a moron. Disregard yesterday's post. Why would I doubt myself...that is investing with my heart and not my brain.

If I was thinking with my brain I would have remembered the word: volatility.

The stock market is a roller coaster full of ups and downs. The ups and downs is called risk. Beta, if you will.

Its no big deal that my stocks had dropped several percentage points in a 3 day span...(all but one of them bounced back today, and even when they were down, they have still outperformed the S&P500). When they dropped, I should have bought more, but I didn't/don't have any cash.

Here's the point: If you buy quality companies, there will be times when investors "freak out" and sell, even though the fundamentals haven't changed.

Microsoft dropped a few percent because their earnings were 1 cent per share less than analysts' expecations. Does that mean MSFT is any less great today than they were a week ago? Does that mean that they are losing market share, or that their profit margin is waning? Does that mean their management has gone to hell, or their pipeline of products looks bleak. Hardly. It means the analysts were wrong. It also means that their are exogenous factors that affect companies.

Cendant has dropped from the low 22ish to 17 something in a week. Does that mean their ridiculous cash flows are dropping, or that their strong management team isn't as strong as they were last week? Or that their market share is dropping? No they still make money, and the market still doesn't buy their stock. It just means investors are missing a bargain. If a Big Mac dropped in price to 30 cents would you buy it? In a second. Because you understand it. Investors don't understand Cendant, so they are missing this bargain. The fact remains that they continue to generate cash and cash is king.

Stericycle. They have gone up in the last few days....I bought them at 45 in March, now they're in the mid 50s. Thanks to my roomie for discovering this powerhouse.

Petsmart. Petsmart generates cash. 70% of Americans have pets. Pets in the last decade have become an extension of our families. Petsmart has high profit margins off of their services (not products). Everyone overlooks how many people have pets, and how many people think of their pet as a child. If their is a recession, are people going to stop buying pet meds, or grooming their dog? No. In fact Petsmart's sales have been high through the last few years. After Katrina hit they announced that they were concerned about their upcoming quarter because they didn't know where the economy was going. That is more than fair. Every company should be so honest. The fact is when gas was getting up to $3 a gallon (in the midwest) noone could predict what would happen. Famalies were spending several hundred dollars more than they were weeks earlier on gas. That hurts. Petsmart acknowledged that and it hurt their stock. But they are very strong...and the market will recognize that when they announce their earnings each quarter over the next 12 months.

There are my quick summaries of why I own the stocks I own. These companies haven't changed. They are still strong. I believe they are very undervalued. I can't adjust the companies to be valued correctly, just like if a Big Mac was 30 cents, I couldn't convince McDonalds to sell it for a buck something (or whatever they cost)...all I can do is discover the bargains...and buy them. And tell you when I discover them.

(DISCLAIMER: these are my views and in NO WAY the views of the Financial Services company I work for....invest at your own risk. I am merely putting my mouth where my money is.)

my stocks have sucked the last few days

2005-10-27T17:44:00.000-04:00

I have been hit hard the last few days. 3 of my 4 favorite stocks have been battered in the last few days...(so has the S&P, but mine have done worse).

Its hard not to doubt myself in times like this. A very significant part of me thinks I am lucky. This might be the correction that proves that to me.

However, I am not selling my stocks (SRCL, MSFT, CD, PETM). I think that my stocks are even more undervalued than they were before. I think all 4 of them are at a significant discount. But I am out of cash to invest, and I refuse to invest in the stock market with loans.

the point of this post is merely:

If I like to say when I perform, I must say when I underperform.

I put my money where my mouth is, and I have to own up to the (paper) losses.

I hope I am right and SRCL hits 65, CD hits 30+, MSFT hits 35, and PETM hits 30. Those are my price targets for the next 24 months. Otherwise, I've just been lucky the last 6 years.

I will never understand why people invest with their hearts.....

2005-10-24T13:31:00.000-04:00

Cendant (symbol CD) is down 8% today, as of the time of this post.

Why? Cendant announced today that they are breaking into 4 seperate companies. Their reasoning is (I am paraphrasing) that the market continually greatly undervalues them. They continually have solid earnings...yet their stock price remains flat.

Of course I have been preaching this since I bought them for the first time 6 years ago.

So they are splitting up so investors can better understand their businesses (travel, car rental, real estate, and hospitality). They have recently sold their marketing division for 1.something billion, and they have spun off several companies. They are restructuring so investors can understand how strong they really are. They assert that each new company is going to have solid financial statements, and investors will clearly see how strong they really are. In this case the parts are greater than the sum, because people don't understand the sum.

So why is their stock being battered today? For the same reason that they are dividing. Because people do not understand them.

If I had any cash I would buy them today. Unfortunately I don't have cash today. (33% of my stock/mutual fund portfolio holds Cendant, am I selling today...hell no!....its on sale!!!!)

Buy it, and hold it for a few years, and then thank me.

Printer Hijinks

2005-10-24T07:39:00.000-04:00

Anything you print can and will be used against you

Google

2005-10-20T21:00:00.000-04:00

I appreciate google. I love google. There are few things I don't like about google. I use google extensively, whether it be as a calculator, mapper, directions providor, picture finder (e.g Britney Spears picture finder), package tracker, ISBN looker upper, dictionary, phone book, or what you all use it for: search. I use features of google that most people haven't heard of. I'll post some of my tricks sometime. (here's the first one: I do not go to google.com to search, I goto "google suggest.")

I read the entire prospectus before google went public. I loved it. It was honest. It was bold. I intrepretted part of it as the founders saying "don't buy us, we don't want to go public, but it has become too expensive not to."

I love the plain english that is found on any page google writes...(see the faq).

I love google's politeness. I love google's hippie culture. I love that google only hires the smartest minds. I love the concept behind adsense. I love google's constant innovations. I love google.

But I will not buy their stock. I could have bought a huge chunk at 85. Today its at 335....a little over a year later! When I read their prospectus before they went public I knew it would go up. But its not my investing style. I buy when things go down because of investor psychology. I knew google would go up because of investor psychology. I don't buy when things go up....thats trading with your heart and not your brain....noone's brain tells them to jump on a bandwagon. (If I knew it was going to go up, why not buy and cash out...because if a stock goes up because everyone is hyped over it, then it can go down just as quickly thanks to negative news...when do you jump off the rise?....too hard to guess...and thats just it...its a guess).

Is it worth 335? I don't think so. Is it worth 30? I don't think so.

The truth is I don't know. Noone knows. Analysts pick all kinds of ranges for their stock price. I'm just going to admit I don't know. Google is not microsoft. Microsoft is a near monopoly. Google is hardly a monopoly. I love everything about Google. They are as innovative and honest as anyone out there. They are run like I would run a company. So how could I not like them. I would put everything they do and are on par with microsoft. That is a huge statement.

But if they are equal operationally, innovatively, intellectually, and cross-sectionally why would you buy google stock? All else being equal I'd rather buy the monopoly who's been doing it for a few decades. Microsoft has been doing what google is doing since google's founders were in grade school. Everyone else is bidding up the price of google's stock hoping that they will be the next microsoft....when the next microsoft is microsoft. MSFT hasn't lost a step...only their stock price has. Which means its undervalued.

But go ahead keep buying google, while I buy microsoft...and use both of their products/services religiously.

Never invest/think with your heart...hearts don't make good decisions.

Housing Bubble......

2005-10-17T08:55:00.000-04:00

I am totally against the thought of a housing bubble.

What you read in the paper or hear people say is that as rates go up house prices are going to go down because of a bubble. They never say why it should be that way though, so I will. Logically it makes sense.

The way bonds work is as interest rates go up, the price of the bond goes down...and vice versa. Houses are secured by bonds.

So you would expect that as interest rates go back up houses will go down in value. Right? Except the experts are missing the logic that bond prices go down when rates go up, because newly issued bonds have a more attractive rate to investors. This isn't the case for housing. When interest rates go down, people just continue to live in their house and pay their mortgage (easier than they would if they went and took out a new mortgage on a different house). The people that buy CMOs (bonds based on mortgages) expect rates to go up. They shan't mind, because it reduces the potential default risk of homeowners. You know this as foreclosure. Its the nature of the CMO product and thus the CMO investor. They are buying CMOs because of the strong liklihood of repayment, not to make money. If they wanted to make money in bonds they would get more risky corporate bonds.

Is there a bubble? Probably in a few parts of California where small houses with no basements cost half a million. But in places like the midwest, house prices will just appreciate a little slower than they have been the last few years. I would guess 3% over the next 3-5 years. This is lower than average apperciation is a result of supply and demand. There will be less houses on the market, because people will just stay put and stick to their lower rate. Houses will appreciate slower than normal, but I dont forsee them depreciatating.

Side note: there might be a bubble, I doubt it, but there might be. To hedge yourself against this, just buy houses undervalue. If you pay 90k for a 100k house, and it depreciates 5% you are still up $5k!

The wild card will be all of the foreclosures and bankruptcies. 1 in 4 mortgages taken out last year was an adjustable rate mortgage. Which correlates with my assertion that half the people in the U.S. is stupid. These mortgages are great for those people who will move out in 2 years. Adjustable mortages and interest only mortgages will foreclose or bankrupt a large percentage of people who got them to have lower payments. See mortgages are approved on what the payments will be today. But the rates are at all time lows "today" (aka the last few years). When the rates go up, people's salaries are not going to go up as fast, so they will lose their houses. Plus their rates on the credit card debt will go up as well.

amd hopefully I'll be buying their houses.

AROD = Cancer

2005-10-11T14:30:00.000-04:00

I am thoroughly convinced that AROD is the worst player in baseball and Jeter is the best.

This article gives the most recent example.

You see, any team that AROD is on loses. Yet we live in a country where highlights matter, and winning doesn't. I don't care that you and Barry Bonds are the most talented baseball players (possibly of all time). At least Barry doesn't hide the fact that he is a jackass. A-rod takes a different approach. He loses while acting like he's a team player.

Watch Jeter. He has confidence. He knows how to win. He has that swagger. He knows its his team that wins or loses. He's does everything a leader should do, (e.g. watch who the first person out to greet a player who just had a basehit or a homerun...its always jeter).

Watch A-Rod. He has cockiness. He knows he wants to win. He's insecure, and it shows. He's afraid of messing up.

Thats why Jeter has the rings, and A-rod has stats.

There are people like this in your life. There are people who have all the talent in the world, yet they bring people down because of their own insecurities. They have people that latch onto them. But they don't win.

Then there are the Jeters. These people quietly lead. They get the job done. They make those around them better, and those around them know it. Their teams win.

Links......

2005-10-09T11:10:00.000-04:00

For the less observant of you, I periodically make tweaks to this blog without telling you. Now I refuse to change content of my posts without telling you, but I sometimes add links under the archive section on the far right column. Check them out.

Others of you may have noticed the ad I put at the top. Now I clearly do not intend to make money off of that ad. I am merely experinmenting with google's revenue generator. See the ad conforms to the content on the page. So my post about stewie was to give it easy content to understand, which gave the ad clear demographics...a link to buy a stewie DVD.

Google is making a fortune off of these ads. Because they adapt to your page, the demographic audience can be targeted with precision. This leads to more qualified leads, which in turn leads to people willing to pay more for the ads. Google takes it one step further. People buying ad space actually auction for that space...highest bidder wins. Its most intriguing. For more info goto www.google.com/adsense. For your viewing pleasure I chose by far the smallest ad. I might ad larger ones just to experiment...I don't get enough hits to expect income off of it. (In the 10 days its been up I've made 13 cents...so thanks for various people who clicked on the ad!...now I am rich!)

******update.....immediately after posting this, I checked the update and the ad now says "buy goog stock for $4"....I in NO WAY endorse buying google stock...I'm not saying they're not good...I love google as a company.....but I do not have a stance one way or another on their stock price.

I told you so......

2005-10-04T10:26:00.000-04:00

A year ago I posted what is in bold, and then took it down because I was advised to for patent reasons (I have reposted it this morning):

Pirates of the Software-ribbian

In the last few weeks I have gotten back to what this blog should be about. Posting ideas that solve problems, or at least look at problems in a different way.

What is the single thing that hurts software companies more than anything? Piracy. There are several solutions.

1) have the software on DVDs that erases themselves after install.
2) live with it.
3) as more people get on broadband, they can track users by serial number...which will be quite costly.

or my ideas:

1) as broadband becomes commonplace and machines become faster (2 years from now?) have the products available on a central server where you have to pay for a subscription. Similiar to a high tech yahoo games, except you have to pay. This will obviously be expensive...probably more expensive then the dollars lost to piracy.
2) Innovate. Think outside the box. Stand on the table and look around...(ala Dead Poets Society). See things differently. Have corporate accounts continue to pay for licensed software. But for home users that don't want to pay the 1k for Office 2003 Premium Super Duper, or PhotoShop, or whatever, give it to them for free. Lay out the software products similiar to google's search results. On the right side (and where ever) have clickable ads on the documents that take you to the web. (Microsoft, you can finally become a Monoploy...have Microsoft Office products have links that take users to the MSN stores.) What if you don't want the ads? Then pay for the product. There will be far fewer licenses out there, so it would now be feasible for the software companies to monitor serial number usage. Better still someone could start up a third party company responsible for tracking serial numbers. (similiar to credit bureaus, or background check companies). This third party company would have an immediate monopoly with the first mover advantage. Eventually you could even have a smart search engine within the document (similiar to Amazon's technology) that customizes the ads based on you.

Why don't I do any of this? There's only 24 hours in a day. Either someone is going to come out of nowhere and pay me to be a think tank, or I am going to stay on the career quest I am on...(portfolio management). But I'm going to throw ideas out there.

I have emailed Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, and Adobe on the above. We'll see if anyone replies.

Well this was taken from the news today:

Microsoft down on concerns over competition from Google, Sun (MSFT, GOOG, SUNW) By Tomi Kilgore
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) fell 2.3% to $24.91, and was the biggest percentage loser among Dow industrials components, after Goldman Sachs suggested that Google (GOOG) may eventually offer a product that competes with Microsoft's Outlook product, and its Office product as well. Google and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) have scheduled a press conference for 1:30 p.m. Eastern time. Analyst Rick Sherlund is uncertain about what will be announced, but he feels the company's could easily build a version of Sun's StarOffice office productivity software that could be delivered over the Internet, just like Google's Gmail and instant messaging services. "StarOffice has not gained much traction, but with Google, maybe it could do better hosted on the Internet, mostly in the consumer market," Sherlund said. He added that given that Google already has GMail, "so why not an integrated calendar and contact manager, and why not just offer a more fully functional Office like product." Google was last down 18 cents at $318.50 and Sun Micro was up 7.2% at $4.49.

*********Greggie's comments:

Now don't get me wrong, I am not insinuating that google is taking my ideas...they probably started devolping this years before I suggested it...what I am saying is I have a knack for anticipatory thinking, yet everyone thinks I am a joke. Noone takes me serious because I didn't go to Harvard, and noone takes me serious because I see things at angles that seem impossible, but these angles change the world. Want proof? See above.

If I had a son, I would hope he would end up like Stewie.

2005-09-29T12:40:00.000-04:00

Stewie Griffin quotes...as taken from this website. (note Stewie is maybe 1 years old).

Stewie Quotes - Family Guy
Waitress: Here you go, fella. From Flappy himself.
Stewie: I don't care if they...
[Stewie is force-fed a bite of pancakes]
Stewie: Oh... oh these are delectable. Hey, Flappy. Good news. I've decided not to kill you.

Stewie Quotes - Family Guy
[watching a baseball game]
Stewie: Why does that man drop his club before he runs? I would bring it with me.

Stewie Quotes - Family Guy
Stewie: This isn't the first time my small stature has hindered my plans.
[flashback]
Auctioneer: Item 157... Global Domination. Enslave the human race. Do I have any bids?
Stewie: OOH. OOH. ME. ME.
Auctioneer: I'll take any bids. $1. Enslave the human race for $1?
Stewie: BEHIND THE FAT CHICK. OOH. OOH.

Stewie Quotes - Family Guy
[during a smoking conference]
Stewie: Baby needs to suck ash. Baby needs to suck ash. Not ass, you pervert. Save it for the interns.

Stewie Quotes - Family Guy
Stewie: Jeffrey. Take the 4.20 from Hounslow out of your mouth.

Stewie Quotes - Family Guy
Stewie: Soooo Broccoli, mother says you're very good for me. But I'm afraid I'm no good for you.

Stewie Quotes - Family Guy
Stewie: Cut my eggs.
Butler: [cuts eggs] Your eggs are cut sir.
Stewie: Cut my milk!
Butler: I can’t sir, it’s liquid.
Stewie: Imbecile! Freeze it, then cut it, and if you question me again I’ll put you on diaper detail and I promise I won’t make it easy for you.

Family Guy Quotes - Stewie Griffin
Stewie: Damn you vile woman, you've impeded my work since the day I escaped your vile womb.

Family Guy Quotes - Stewie Griffin
Stewie: The breakfast thing. Yes. It wasn't even about the eggs, really. Frankly, I like the yolks. I don't... I have no problem... it's just there's always been a lot of tension between Lois and me. And it's not so much I want to "kill" her. It's just I want her not to be alive anymore. Uh... I sometimes wonder if all women are this difficult. And then I think to myself, "My God! Wouldn't it be marvelous if I turned out to be a homosexual?"

Family Guy Quotes - Stewie Griffin
Stewie: No sprinkles. For every sprinkle I find, I shall kill you.

Family Guy Quotes - Stewie Griffin
Stewie: [To ticket agent] Now look here...
[looks at agent's name tag]
Stewie: Jo-LENE. I have an army to raise and I must get to Managua at once. I require a window seat and an in-flight Happy Meal. BUT NO PICKLES. OH, GOD HELP YOU IF I FIND PICKLES.

Family Guy Quotes - Stewie Griffin
Stewie: [After Lois tries to feed Stewie his broccoli "airplane style"] Damn you, Damn the Broccoli, and Damn the Wright Brothers.

Family Guy Quotes - Stewie Griffin
Stewie: Did you forge my name? How dare you! Is this backwards "S" supposed to be cute? I'm going to crap double for you tonight.

Family Guy Quotes - Stewie Griffin
Stewie: Isn't it funny how they say "life is like a box of chocolates"? Well in your case, dear mother, life is like a box of active grenades!

Family Guy Quotes - Stewie Griffin
Stewie: Oh, forgive me for not being one of those anorexic babies from the diaper commercials.

Family Guy Quotes - Stewie Griffin
Stewie: Ha ha. Oh, this is so good it just HAS to be fattening.

Family Guy Quotes - Stewie Griffin
[while Peter is changing Stewie]
Stewie: No, you idiot. That's not baby powder, that's paprika. Ahhhh! Take that.

Family Guy - Stewie Quotes
Li: Stewie, come complete our rainbow.
Stewie: I've got a better idea. Let's go play "swallow the stuff under the sink."

Family Guy - Stewie Quotes
Stewie: Oh I feel so delightfully white trash. Mommy, I want a mullet.

Family Guy - Stewie Quotes
Stewie: Yes, I rather like this God fellow. He's very theatrical, you know, a pestilence here, a plague there. Omnipotence. Gotta get me some of that.

Stewie: Family Guy Quotes
[watching cheerleaders change in a locker room]
Stewie: It appears my wee-wee's been stricken with rigor mortis.

Stewie: Family Guy Quotes
Stewie: Mother, as first lady of the American stage Helen Hayes once said, "I'm going to kill you."

Stewie: Family Guy Quotes
Stewie: Am I to spend the entire day wallowing around in my own feces? A little service here.

Stewie: Family Guy Quotes
Stewie: Make sure there's a fresh copy of Wall Street Journal next to the changing table.

Stewie: Family Guy Quotes
Meg: Mom, guess what, I made Flag Girl squad!
Stewie: Flag Girl? Um yes good for you. Now you can be somewhere else when the boys don't call.

Stewie: Family Guy Quotes
Stewie: So, what do you think of this "Music Television?"
Stewie: I say mother, this hotdog has been on my plate a full minute and it hasn't yet cut itself.

Stewie: Family Guy Quotes
Stewie: I love God. He's so deliciously evil.

Stewie: Family Guy Quotes
Guy in Chicken Suit: Enjoy your chicken sandwich.
Stewie: Enjoy your studio apartment.

Stewie: Family Guy Quotes
[Lois is washing Stewie's hair in the sink]
Stewie: Careful. It's 'gently rub the scalp', not 'scrub like you're trying to get the vomit out of a Christmas dress', you stupid holiday drunk.

Stewie: Family Guy Quotes
Meg: Can I be in the play, Mom?
Stewie: Oh yes, you can be the dumpy teenage girl who cries backstage because no one finds her attractive.

Stewie: Family Guy Quotes
[While trying to potty-train Stewie]
dad: Maybe you don't have to pee. I'll just give you some beer, it'll run right through you.
Stewie: Beautiful. And while we're at it we can light up a dubey and watch porn.
dad: Rea... Really?

Moral Dillemma

2005-09-26T16:55:00.000-04:00

(Thanks Aaron)

This test only has the one question, but it's a very important one. By giving an honest answer, you will discover where you stand morally. The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation in which you will have to make a decision.
Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous.

Please scroll down slowly and give due consideration to each line.

You are in Florida, Miami to be specific. There is chaos all around you caused by a hurricane with severe flooding. This is a flood of biblical proportions.

You are a photojournalist working for a major newspaper, and you're caught in the middle of this epic disaster.

The situation is nearly hopeless. You're trying to shoot career-making photos under the most arduous conditions.

Houses, people, even animals swirl around you...some disappearing under the water. Nature is unleashing all of its destructive fury.

Suddenly you see a man floundering in the water. He is fighting for his life, trying not to be taken down with the debris. You move closer.

This man looks familiar.

You suddenly realize who it is.

George W. Bush, president of the United States of America!

At the same time you notice the raging waters all around, about to take him under... forever.

He goes under once. He goes under again, but comes up sputtering.

You have two options:

You can save the life of G. W. Bush,

Or

You can shoot that career-making, tragic, Pulitzer Prize winning photo, documenting the death of the world's most powerful man.

So here's the question, and please give an honest answer:

Would you select high contrast color film or would you go with the classic simplicity of black and white?

Mergers....I don't get it.

2005-09-22T21:13:00.000-04:00

I can not find any strategic reason why Ebay would buy Skype.

I am confused as to why microsoft is considering buying AOL.

Unless I am missing something either of these moves could prove to be the end to two giants.

I just don't get it....and it bothers me. I like to find angles to things that others miss....but I am stuck here.

The only thing I can think of is Microsoft and Ebay are very scared of Google....even though Microsoft specializes in software development, google specializes in content organization, and ebay specializes in retail. If ebay had bought Buy.com, that would make sense. This doesn't. At least not to me.

Any thoughts? Any links that you can post to help guide me?

Google vs. Yahoo.

2005-09-18T11:04:00.000-04:00

So this morning I started my daily routine. I woke up. Brushed my teeth. Then got online for 30 minutes. First I went to fantasysports.yahoo.com. Then I checked mail.yahoo.com. Altogether I spent 20 minutes on these two yahoo sites. But I did not click on one ad. In fact I have never clicked on a yahoo ad.

Then I looked up a few things on google. Spent just a few seconds on google suggest. Thats all it took. Google returns relevant search results. Yahoo returns results based on who pays them the most to be ranked higher. So I use google for search. But I have found myself clicking on google ads. It is laid out very very simply. In fact google.com is the most simple website I have ever seen. There are only a dozen or so words on the whole page. Your grandma could search using it.

So whats the point to this blog? Yahoo and Google are not nearly in the competition that armchair investors perceive. In fact they will diverse more and more as time goes on.

Yahoo is a social network. They can make their money off of social subscriptions, not search. They have yahoo personals, yahoo fantasy sports, yahoo mail, geocities, etc. Yahoo has content. They are the knowledge source, if you will.

Google is a relationship manager. They make their money off of discovering relations and returning the most meaningful results. (I can talk about google all day, but I won't...I Love google [note: I do not love google stock!]) Google is intelligence. Google learns, which makes their results more relevant, which allows their ads to conform to your search or furthermore you.

(note: google owns this blog. If you want to ever search for something you know you read before in this blog, type in a keyword in the search box in the top left...it impresses me how relevant it is).

Yahoo plans to be your destination. Google plans to be the path to get you to destinations. Explain to me why everything thinks they are such competitors when they have such different goals, and paths to reach these goals.

We just met, but I think I love you.....

2005-09-14T13:29:00.000-04:00

Several days ago I met a new companion. I have grown fonder faster than I wish I would have. Can I live without? Probably. I have up until now.

But she's a drug..(well not really, shes more of a supplement). I do know that I don't want to go to bed without her.

But now I dream. Now I see what you all have seen your entire lives. Dreaming is a powerful powerful thing. I have this theory that I was going to write a doctoral thesis on that says that dreaming is the consolidation of your sensory experiences. Dreaming is what allows you to remember the things and people that you have encountered...the consolidation happens so quickly that it seems like its an out of order movie.

What is this girl's name you ask? Melatonin. I pop one Melatonin, and off I go. I fall asleep, and I stay asleep.

See you all live in a world of sleep. I have never had that luxury. I wake up once an hour all throughout the night. Which would be fine, but it never lets me get to the dreaming stage of rest. Which means I wake up grumpy, and I have a terrible memory. But since I have fallen for Melly Mel, I wake up fresh. I smile.

I like that.

Dearest Melatonin, until I build up tolerance, I love you.

And now for something completely different.

2005-09-13T12:57:00.000-04:00

My blog posts tend to be antaganoistic and ranting. Well, not today.

First, let me introduce you to a genius musician. Last year I went to his concert and I was mesmerized. It was in a small venue, and it was the most "real" show I had been too...and I have seen ALOT of legends perform. His name: Steve Burns. He was like a cross between Beck and Radiohead. Which means most people don't like his music, but it doesn't deny that it is progressive and not commercial. But there's a curve ball to this artist. It is the same Steve Burns who used to star in Blues Clues. Now that doesn't mean he is gay, or that I am gay. It means you should go buy/download the CD and listen to something that is real, and not commercial.

Second, my friend recommended the following costume to me for Halloween:

Why this you say? Because my grandma is Italian and so is Mario anf Luigi. But a better question is why was he looking at such homo costumes?

Finally, Steve Burns says:

Last night I dreamt
I was superman
And I had lots of fun
Playing with my cape
And with my tights
But my love
This is goodnight

Even though your life was wasted
Doesn't mean that I should save it
I'll sit at home and watch tv

Go ahead and cry I won't give a damn
It doesn't matter I'm superman
Look at me
Look at me
Look at me

Hey mom, look at me

If there are tall buildings in your way
a speeding locomotive rolls your way
I'll fly away
I'll fly away

I'll fly
I'll fly away

I'll fly away

An ode to my Samsung phone.

2005-09-09T13:09:00.000-04:00

A few years back (lets just say back before Zack Morris has a cell phone) my dad started selling cell phones in Missouri. It was so large it came in a small suitcase. It has 2 features. It could receive incoming calls, and it could make outgoing calls.

Well, things have changed.

My Samsung phone has features that would make the designers of my dads' phones cry as if they had seen the Virgin Mary herself.

My phone has a digital camcorder built into it. I can take videos. 18 years ago the only way you could do that would be to spend a grand on a cheap VCR and record it on a bulky analog tape. Most ancient if you ask me.

My phone has polyphonic caller id rings. I can have the song "Pressure" by Billy Joel play when my dad calls, or the Sanford and Sons theme song play when one of my buddies calls. 18 years ago you were (maybe) just starting your CD collection. The world has evolved quite a bit down the digital music winding road.

My phone has a camera. 18 years ago you were thrilled with your poloroid camera. Wow, you could get instant pictures!

My phone has picture caller id. Caller ID? Yes its possible to know who is calling before you answer, and subsequently not answer the phone. Not only that but I can assign their picture (or video) to the caller id.

My phone has the internet. 18 years ago you were 8 years away from even hearing the words "information superhighway." Now my phone can get me any info I want...(especially by sending a text message with a question to Userid GOOGL).

My phone weighs less than 4 ounces. 18 years ago they were 4 lbs and in a suitcase.

My phone has voice mail. Imagine, an answering machine without tape!!!!

My phone has vibrate ring. Imagine, not hearing an annoying beeping sound (see the pagers that doctors and others in pharmaceutical field had 18 years ago).

My phone has an address book. Remember when you used to have to memorize your girlfriends'/boyfriends' number? Or write down peoples phone numbers. Remember how you used to only write 7 digits, because long distance cost money back then so you only called local people instead of entering all 10 digits into your phone now-a-days.

My phone has the ability and desire to turn itself off! What?! Now this is something my dads' phones never had! 18 years later and they still can't find a way to make my phone stay on! Hell sometimes it doesn't even ring (granted noone calls it), but still it only vibrates instead of rings sometimes. You couldn't pay enough for this feature! It is truely a lifesaver (read that as anger/sarcasm). They can put a camcorder, world time, internet, camera, calendar, address book, polyphonic rings, etc, but they can't get the phone to ring out loud, or stay on!

Samsung. I hate you.

I didn't want to talk about it until David Banner and Kanye West did....

2005-09-07T12:18:00.000-04:00

I try to avoid news. It is evil and biased. But I can not avoid hearing and overhearing whats going on on the Gulf Shore.

I am hearing more and more that our government's neglect is a racial issue. I am here to say it is not. It is not a white vs. black thing. It is not a rich vs poor thing. It is a government vs. poor black thing.

I keep hearing how whites as a whole are neglecting this. But thats not the case. Whites, blacks, reds, yellows, have all helped with this cause.

Just not the government. They have their own agenda. Many many whites don't agree with that agenda, but this is what we get for being in a democracy.

The logic behind this whole fiasco is scary. Look at how quick Bush reacted to nominated the chief justice a few days ago. Look at how quickly he reacted to Iraq, whom did not ask to be "saved" by democracy. Look at how quick he reacted to the Tsunami. Look at how he reacted to 9/11.

I am not saying that he should rebuild or save the Gulf Coast. I think the people that lived there were risking their lives to begin with. They lived in a bowl below sea water next to millions of gallons of water. If you shake the water it will fill the bowl. Its called logic. They screwed up by living below sea water and risking the inevitable. But if our government is going to spend billions on Iraq when Iraq should be left alone, or send billions to help the Tsunami people, than they need to react twice as "goodwill-ian" towards the Gulf Coast fiasco.

Instead our government showed their priorities.

Would you like an infinite return on your investment?

2005-08-30T09:57:00.000-04:00

Would you like an infinite return on your investment?

Its mathematically possible. All you have to do is find a way to invest in something that you pay nothing for and have it give you a return. (basic math: if you divide anything by zero you get infinity)

I do not have cash. That is no secret. It takes money to make money. That is no secret, and is often an excuse for not investing.

But it does not take YOUR money.

I invest (in Real Estate) with other people's money. OPM. This gives me an infinite return.

People say you need 15-20% down for an investment property. What they never tell you is it doesn't have to be your money.

Granted, I don't borrow from friends or relatives. My dad is not giving me down payments to buy houses. Banks are.

Use credit for down payments. It doesnt cost you any cash. Have the seller pay closing costs. You'd be surprised how many sellers are willing to pay closing costs instead of lower the price an extra 2-5k.

There are many ways to do this, ranging from alot of risk, to very little risk.

Follow this strategy, but always be sure that you can cover your costs. People can get really aggressive doing this (e.g. variable rate loans). Be smart about it. Make sure you can cover your payments, at all times.

Then you will know how good it feels to have infinite returns.

Chartering a comeback?

2005-08-24T12:33:00.000-04:00

If you read this blog regularly you know I have an odd affinity for following Charter, but I never know whether to be long or short it, so I just sit on the fence. (Click Here for past postings re: CHTR.)

Charter is fascinating because they have the products in place to dominate, innovate, and revolutionize Internet, advertising, marketing, telephony and television. I firmly believe they could eliminate commercials and replace it with product placement.

But they don't know how to run themselves.

From my observation it seems the stock price is driven rather strongly by news announcements.

As of this writing CHTR is up 37% today...(which if you still hold from when it was in the 15s, you're saying "who cares!"). Why so much? They have announced that they are restructuring some of their insane debtload.

Does that justify a price increase? Nonetheless a 37% price increase? I don't think so. I think the prospective shareholders just wanted to hear something, anything regarding their debt.

Here's what they did: They are issuing a private placement of debt. (What's this mean? You have to make alot of money a year, or have a net worth of 1 million to be able to buy the soon-to-be issued bonds). The proceeds will pay off the publicly held bonds. The new bonds will have a longer maturity.

I say so what. You still have 18 Billion in debt. (off the top of my head I think its 18 Billion, don't fry me if I'm wrong on that!). I still think the way to fix Charter is to improve morale, improve operations, attack the debt, and innovate.

There are other ways to get rid of their debt. They could issue stock to finance paying off the debt.

Instead they chose to move their debt from one group to another.

Let's watch and see what happens!

*****************Update 8/25, 10:26am**************************

This is in response to the first comment to this post....hopefully this adds some useful info:

I'm not a finance major either...I'm a common sense major.

If they reduced their interest rate that would be very significant...but they are extending the maturity and keeping the same coupon rate (aka interest rate).

The most significant thing they are doing is moving the debt from the public to only accredited investors.

accredited investors = To qualify as an accredited investor, an investor must either be: A) a financial institution; B) an affiliate of the issuer; or C) an individual with a net worth of at least $1 million or an annual income of at least $200,000, and the investment must not account for more than 20% of the investor's worth.

This has to have been done for a reason, unless it was just action for the sake of action.

I would not be surprised here if a hedge fund, or Paul Allen bought up alot of those Private Placement shares similiar to what happened to Kmart. Bondholders have liquidity rights before the stockholders....so if Charter starts to liquidate shares, the bondholders have first dibs at the proceeds. And Charter has assets in its infrastructure which could be sold to another cable company or SBC.

We'll sit back and watch.

Apocolyptic TelEvangalist

2005-08-23T15:31:00.000-04:00

Pat Robertson, you are insane. Read more here

Apparantly if you are on TV and believe in Christ, you become as powerful as Renaissance-Era Papal figures.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for killing people that ought to be killed. (Granted I don't want to do the killing, but I am a-ok with capital punishment). But then again, I do not have a few million sheep, I mean people, following me in the name of Christ.

This dude represents salvation to people who need him. His is not the role to say that someone should be assasinated. He is condemning someone for hate, when condemnation is hate.

Why did he leave off Bush? Jesus wants Bush dead...because Bush kills more people than this Venezuelan president.

Dammit, I just realized whats going on!....Robertson is like that creature from the movie IT. He is only powerful when people think and talk about him. I just did that! Whoops.

University of Misery Alumni...you are idiots.

2005-08-14T10:54:00.000-04:00

I am dismayed. Is everyone stupid? Is everyone retarded? Don't people see their stupidity?

I received a letter today from the curators of the University of Missouri. (They also somehow knew that my sister was my sister and mailed a letter to her to my address because they couldnt locate her in Argentina). The letter addressed a proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit.

You see there is this document somewhere that says that the U. of Missouri can not charge in-state students tuition. Well for a few years they inadvertantly called it tuition, instead of "education expense." Simple semantics.

So what do the bright people of Missouri do? They sue.

But who are they suing? They are suing themselves. IDIOTS!

Let's look at what happens when you sue yourself. You are paying for your lawyers. Your tax dollars are paying for the defendants lawyers. Your "winnings" are coming out of your tax dollars!

Let's say I am entitled to 5k net. my lawyer costs 2k, and the defendant's lawyer costs 2k. Congratulations me!....I just "won" 9k at an expense of 9k...which that expense is to me!....(spread out over a million tax payers).

Plus this spans 1995 through 2001. I would assume that there were a couple hundred thousand students that paid "tuition" in that time frame....(there are 4 major campuses) I don't know how much the settlement is for, but the tax payers of Missouri are certainly going to be losing a nice chunk of change that could have fixed a highway, or used to clean up downtown St. Louis.

Who in the hell is so stupid that they sue themselves? My fellow U. of Missouri alum.

***********update************

Press Release

The letter I received was misleading. The above press release shows that the settlement includes scholarships and not cash. While it is still going to cost the tax payers the cost of the defendant's lawyers, the prosecution, and administrative costs of teaching several thousand people for free...I am much more ok with that that cash reparations.

You get paid how much to play a game?

2005-08-12T16:16:00.000-04:00

Terrell Owens, you are gay.

You get millions of dollars a year to play a game.

All you have to do all day is practice and train.

Yet you talk.

Yet you ask for more money after you already signed a contract for more money.

You talk shit to your quarterback!....the guy who controls your output!

Winners win, talkers talk.

You and A-ROD should be buddies. Both of you have immense talent. But both of you are so concerned with yourselves that you will never bring a team to dynasty level. Like AROD, any team you are on is saturated with talent, yet they lose. What is the commonality? Your selfishness.

It is a team sport. It is a collaborative effort of men working together to reach a common goal. Unfortunately you and AROD have a common goal of making a few more dollars than everyone else at the expense of commaraderie.

Congratulations, your team hates you...not because you are the best, but because you bring them down.

For all of those who take the time to write comments on this blog....

2005-08-07T11:28:00.000-04:00

Lack of posts....

2005-08-04T14:42:00.000-04:00

I went on vacation last week, and it was great....so great that I haven't had anything to rant about.

I'm sure that'll change soon.

Unexpected gift!

2005-07-22T18:51:00.000-04:00

i got home today from work and I checked the mail like I am accustomed to doing.

In it I found an 8X11 picture that was autographed saying:

"To Greg, Best Wishes, John Rocker"

It seems as though he must have liked my post a few weeks back.

Who would have thought an autographed picture from John Rocker would make my day!

Why I won't give blood.

2005-07-17T12:06:00.000-04:00

I refuse to give blood in blood drives. If my mom needs a pint or two, that is fine. I will go to the hospital and give it to her. But not the red cross.

Do you think that they just give blood away? In 2004 they had $3 Billion dollars in revenue. THREE BILLION. Where'd they get that from? Well they would have had to sell something to get revenue, right? Yes, they sold your blood (that they got for free) to people in hospitals that need it. Why aren't they paying you for your blood? Because that would eat into their profits! But Greggie, they are non-profit.

Are they? A great way to get rid of profits is to pay the executives more. Or better still pay independant contractors millions of dollars...(see page 7 and page 66 of the below link).

See for yourself...here is their 2004 tax returns.

Not everything is as it seems. The Red Cross sells the blood that you donate, and the hospitals and the red cross get rich off of it. (I think its a safe bet that the hospitals mark up the cost of blood, and pass that expense on over to you.).

But hey, at least it feels like you're doing a good deed, right?

Clean up your act.

2005-07-08T07:32:00.000-04:00

Have we lost all respect? Last week at a red light I saw someone throw a bag of fast food out the window. What in the hell were they thinking, that someone else would pick it up? Yesterday I saw someone empty their ash tray on the street.

Have you ever thought about where your trash goes? just because you take it to the curb doesn't mean it goes away. I'm not going to throw stats at you about how much trash the US goes through, I'm going to throw logic at you.

Trash doesn't go away!

I'm not asking you to change your lifestyle and start buying hippie environmental products. I'm just begging that you be cognizant of the fact that trash doesn't go away. Don't litter! It makes our cities look horrible. Next time you want to throw something out your window, just set it on the floor and throw it away 10 minutes later when you get home.

(note I always put my money where my mouth is....I own the following stock: SRCL).

Please don't litter. Have some respect.

Stephen Hawking, kiss my black hole.

2005-07-02T08:16:00.000-04:00

Stephen Hawking wrote a book called "A Brief History in Time." You probably are more familiar with him as the smart guy in the wheelchair who uses computers to talk.

The whole book is based on 2 key premises. That there is nothing faster than the speed of light and the speed of light is a constant. I am not claiming to be on his level. I didn't even understand half the book...(the half after he summed up Einstein and co). He is a genius, and should be treated as such.

But I think his whole argument is wrong. If one premise is wrong, the argument is wrong. How can he say nothing is faster than the speed of light?

- How about darkness? Darkness has to be at least as fast as the speed of light.
- How about anything we don't know about yet. How can he base his whole argument on a premise that contains the word "nothing"? Extreme words in a premise are begging to be wrong.
- Light is a wave. Anyone familiar with an osciliscope or car/home audio knows that waves lose their power over distance. Hawking/Einstein claimed that the speed of light was a constant...how can it be a constant if it loses its speed? (think this is too easy to be true...create your own wave by throwing a penny in a pond...notice that the ripples are less the further away you go). Thus the speed of light is not even as fast as the speed of light. If this simple observation is correct than I have just proved Einstein's theory of Relativity wrong (E=MC^2)

So what's the point? The point is be skeptical. Just becausewe are taught it doesn't make it so. Just because its in print, doesn't make it so.

Damn the U.S. is stupid....MGM vs. Grokster.

2005-06-28T14:11:00.000-04:00

The supreme court ruled today in favor of enterntainment giant MGM. MGM had a problem with P2P provider Grokster. MGM v. Grokster

If I am understanding this correctly than the Supreme Court feels that P2P companies are responsible for the irresponsibilty of their users in that the companies failed to filter out copywritten content.

That is fine. I'll ignore the utter stupidity of the record labels for not evolving and making money off of P2P, instead of suing them....(STUPID F'ERS!).

I'm going to stick to a more "pissing-me-off" outcome of this ruling.

If the Supreme Court feels that companies are responsible for their customers using products illegally, than how in the hell can the Supreme Court not rule against gun companies, alcohol companies, BOEING!!!!, etc. Hell based on the Supreme Court logic we should sue the schools the justices went to for making a product (the justices) that is unintentionally harming people.

If their logic applies to the music industry, than it most certainly applies to vice companies....especially since vice companies are intentionally creating something that will injure people.

So next time you see a lobbyist thank him for ruining the fabric of this country.

Toothpaste (previously removed post)

2005-06-20T08:19:00.000-04:00

The toothpaste companies are missing a huge opportunity. What are two things that almost every american pays for? Dental Insurance and Toothpaste. Why doesn't Colgate, or some other tootpaste giant start a dental insurance plan? Companies get group discounts on insurance. Imagine how many people Colgate could get together! Is 10,000,000 unrealistic? Is 50,000,000 possible? Not to mention that the money in this country is in insurance. Why not have a toothpaste giant offer a retainer program...you get a years supply of toothpaste and dental visits for x amount of dollars. That would also decrease people switching toothpaste brands based on price and promotion.

Think of the international market for Colgate offering a dental insurance plan!

Why isn't butter sold in toothpaste tubes?

Leave me some comments. Is this a good idea? Why wouldn't it work? What other companies could do this? (e.g Boeing should sell annihilation insurance, Altria could sell health insurance). Let me hear/read your ideas. (I am still surprised that my techie readers didnt comment on the previous blog).

Fine line between love and hate.

2005-06-19T18:56:00.000-04:00

The power of language. I have changed the word "War" to "marriage" in the lyrics of the below song.

Marriage! huh-yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh

Marriage! huh-yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Say it again y'all

Marriage! huh good God
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me?

Ohhh? Marriage! I despise
Because it means destruction?
Of innocent lives

Marriage means tears
to thousands of mothers eyes
When their sons go to fight
and lose their lives

I said - Marriage! Huh Good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Say it again

Marriage! Whoa, Lord ...
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me?

Marriage! It ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
Marriage! Friend only to the undertaker
Marriage! It's an enemy to all mankind
The thought of Marriage blows my mind

Marriagehas caused unrest in the younger generation
Induction then destruction-
Who wants to die?

Ohhh? MarriageGood God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Say it, Say it, Say it

Marriage! Uh-huh Yeah - Huh!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me?

Marriage! It ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
Marriage! It's got one friend, that's the undertaker
Marriage has shattered many a young mans dreams
Made him disabled bitter and mean
Life is much to precious to spend fighting wars these days
Marriage can't give life, it can only take it away

Marriage! Huh Good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Say it again

Marriage! Whoa, Lord ...
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me?

Marriage! It ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
Marriage! Friend only to the undertaker
Peace Love and Understanding;
tell me, is there no place for them today?
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But Lord knows there's got to be a better way

Marriage! Huh Good God y'all
What is it good for?
You tell me
Say it, Say it, Say it

Marriage! Huh Good God y'all
What is it good for?
Stand up and shout it.
Nothing!

In a related note, I challenge you all to find a way to get Shakira to marry me. This would clearly rectify the problem that you think I have when you analyze me.