tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-116762512012-01-22T16:01:26.481-05:00Issues that Jack Krupansky has stumbled across as he journeys deeper into the blogging jungleJack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.comBlogger7911100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-38956423049154959652012-01-18T10:39:00.001-05:002012-01-18T10:39:47.065-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Although the morons at Wikipedia have chosen to black out the English Wikipedia for the day in a mindless protest of the proposed Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA), you can still get to the text by using your browser's "View page source" right click menu option (that's in Google Chrome, other browsers have a similar feature.) The original wiki page is still there, but with a non-so-cute graphic applied over it. You may see the original page flash up before the graphic gets drawn. Unfortunately, you have to paw through raw HTML text to read the page, but the essential content is there.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>I suspect that the reason they are leaving the original page intact underneath the blackout image is to avoid screwing up their positioning in search engine results. The search engine web page crawlers will not "see" the blackout graphic, but will continue to see the underlying original wiki page, in much the same way that we can still see it with "View page source."</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Although the blackout graphic claims that SOPA "could fatally damage the free and open Internet", there is close to zero chance that SOPA would actually "kill" the "free and open" Internet. The operant word in their spurious claim is "could", meaning "in theory, at the extreme", but it is interesting that even the anti-SOPA crowd is careful to avoid falsely claiming that SOPA "would" kill the "free and open" Internet.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>The whole anti-SOPA/PIPA "movement" is simply a derivative of the anti-intellectual property movement.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Curiously, the SOPA page itself in the Wikipedia is not blacked out.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-3895642304915495965?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-36805200105939541382011-12-19T00:00:00.001-05:002011-12-19T00:00:34.944-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Just when I was starting to get into my finance blogging on a more frequent basis, now I have a lead on some "real" work, so I'll need to suspend a lot of my blogging until further notice while I pursue this work lead. Sorry about that.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-3680520010593954138?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-10276219329211968752011-11-13T15:31:00.000-05:002011-11-13T15:32:05.918-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>I want to start blogging more on <A href="http://finaxyz.blogspot.com/">my finance blog</A> and I am thinking that having a schedule might make sense in terms of reaching people who are paying attention to the financial markets during the day. Here's my tentative initial plan:</DIV> <OL> <LI>Late evening post (8 PM to 12 AM.) Not so much for the night birds, but to have something for the early birds the next day. A more thoughtful contemplation of what transpired during the day and response to late news. <LI>Early morning post (6 AM to 8:30 AM.) Not quite early enough for the hard-core early birds, but something early in the day for normal people. <LI>Late morning post (10:30 AM to noon.) Response to news of the morning. <LI>Mid-afternoon post (2 PM to 3:30 PM.) Response to news of the day. Before the stock market closes</LI></OL> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Whether I manage to do all of that remains to be seen, but at least I have a plan to work from.<BR></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-1027621932921196875?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-84541249761867937092011-11-09T15:54:00.001-05:002011-11-09T15:54:09.538-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Oh well, I guess I might as well go ahead and admit that I am one of the slowest guys on the Internet. I mean, five minutes ago I had not a clue what "ICYMI" meant. I got an email from a big-deal group in Washington and the subject line started out with "ICYMI –".</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Lucky for me, enlightenment was just a Google click away. The <A href="http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/ICYMI">acronyms section of "The Free Dictionary" web site has a page</A> that tells me that it stand for "In Case You Missed It." Ah... okay... yes, I had missed it, but now I know.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Hmmm... I wonder how long I have been missing it?</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">There is a <A href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ICYMI">Wiktionary page for ICYMI</A> that dates to October 2009. Technically, it is an "initialism."</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-8454124976186793709?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-48412007884950626252011-11-08T13:38:00.001-05:002011-11-08T13:38:26.083-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>There were actually a couple of short periods of time back in 2000 when I was technically a "millionaire", at least on paper (plus one time when a broker error made me a millionaire for a weekend!) But, as they say, "easy come, easy go." And back in 2005 I was doing so poorly financially that I actually filed for bankruptcy. Since November 30, 2005 (the day my bankruptcy was discharged) I have gradually been slowly climbing back up the lower rungs of the wealth ladder out of the pit of gloom, primarily through regular retirement contributions but also cutting spending and saving when possible, so that now I actually have a modest amount of "investments." I'm certainly not a millionaire or in the top 1% or even the top 10%, but I'm somewhere in the top 20% now. I won't disclose my exact "wealth", but it's very loosely north of $50,000 and south of $250,000, so lets pretend that it is $100,000 for the sake of argument and to have a nice round number. So, the question of the day is:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <DIV><EM>How can I become a millionaire?</EM></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>Seriously. It's a legitimate question. How likely I am to become a millionaire again is an open and essentially unanswerable question, but what options or paths to that end are available is a reasonable question.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Here are the practical paths that I have identified in just a few minutes today:</DIV> <OL> <LI>Buy a winning lottery ticket. Hey, sometimes it actually does payoff, but I won't bet on it. <LI>Marry a wealthy woman. Ditto. <LI>Start a successful business. Ditto, except that it actually still is a (semi-remote) possibility. <LI>Join a hot startup. Ditto, but a little more possible. (Seriously, send me leads on this!) <LI>A short string of wildly-successful option trades. Hey, I actually did this in 1998 and 1999, but... a long story... and not likely to be repeated. <LI>Invest in a hot stock that rises 40% a year for 7 years. Technically possible, but the odds remain long. <LI>Investments that rise 20% a year for 13 years. More doable, but still quite difficult. <LI>Investments that rise 15% a year for 17 years. On the fringe of being practical, but too long to wait. <LI>Investments that rise 10% a year for 24 years. Starting to sound within reach technically, but not within reach time-wise. <LI>Investments that rise 8% a year for 30 years. Great, something I might actually have a shot at achieving, but only if my goal is to leave a million in my will rather than enjoy it during retirement. <LI>Investments that rise 5% a year for 48 years. Ditto. I could reasonably expect to do this, but again not for my personal use. <LI>Investments that rise 4% a year for 59 years. That rate of return is reasonable and achievable for an average investor, but won't achieve the end goal within my expected lifetime.</LI></OL> <DIV>And then there is inflation, taxes, bad years, etc. And presuming that you have a reasonable income stream while your wealth is growing.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>And then there is a bigger pair of questions. Once you have accumulated $1 million:</DIV> <OL> <LI>How do you keep it? <LI>How can you live off of it in a sustainable manner?</LI></OL> <DIV>It may seem obvious that you save $1 million for retirement and then spend it all in retirement, but that is a risky expectation due to uncertainty about the future. Better to define an allocation of money that you will be spending and money that remains dedicated to further investment. That's a topic for future discussion. Here we're just concerned with getting to $1 million (ASAP) in the first place.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Where do I do from here? The only things I can say with certainty are that I will continue making my retirement contributions and hopefully see some compound returns over the years. I guess I can also safely say that unless I manage to achieve 20% annual returns I won't hit $1 million when I retire in 13 years. That is at least a good starting point for thinking about where I am, what I could achieve, and what my options are.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-4841200788495062625?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-29220892728166005872011-11-06T13:06:00.001-05:002011-11-06T13:06:22.312-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>On a typical Saturday I walk all around lower Manhattan (starting my walk from my apartment on East 50th Street), sometimes walking up Wall Street. Since 9/11 Wall Street has had limited access, but usually the sidewalks are open to pedestrian traffic and even the street itself is usually open to pedestrian traffic. Since the Occupy Wall Street movement moved into the neighborhood there have been the usual steel barricades to assure that people stay on the sidewalks. But, this past Saturday (11/5) I walked up Wall Street from the East River and around Water Street or Pearl Street even the side walk was closed with barricades and there were two police cars blocking the street.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Except, the police cars were an odd color of blue and had some strange-looking emblem on the doors. I figured maybe they were for some private security company since some of the banks on Wall Street have intensive security forces. There were no cops near the cars, so I walked up to examine the emblems and they did say "Police Department", but for the "City of Gotham." Ah... that explains it. I had seen some movie production trucks a block earlier. So, this had to be filming of the new "Dark Knight" sequel That had been rumored.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">I detoured towards the south of Wall Street and then parallel to Wall Street to get to Broad Street where the New York Stock Exchange is located. They also had Broad Street barricaded, but after a few minutes of looking around I noticed them open up the barricade on the east side of Broad Street and they were letting people through.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Walking north on Broad Street across from the stock exchange I noticed a lot of little piles of fluffy white stuff, which I presume was fake snow.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Crossing over Wall Street in front of the old Morgan bank building I saw a large stream of movie extras entering the building, many of whom were in full, heavy riot gear with body armor and assault rifles. Presumably they had just finished filming on the closed-off portion of Wall Street.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">I noticed that all of the usual steel barricades at the intersection of Broad and Wall were gone. I guess they just didn't fit into the movie screenplay. Ironic, that a movie shot with heavy security and street violence would want less security measures visible than what are normally on the street on a typical, uneventful day. Interesting how reality can be stranger than fiction – the old adage that <A href="http://isayjackkrup.blogspot.com/2009/02/difference-between-truth-and-fiction-is.html">truth can be stranger than fiction since fiction has to make sense</A>.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Just up Nassau Street a half-block (Nassau is the continuation of Broad Street but the name changes at Wall Street!) I saw a movie flyer taped to a pole which detailed access restrictions that day due to filming for "Magnus Rex", mentioning the use of simulated gunfire and assault rifles (and noting that this required careful coordination with NYPD). So, yes, this definitely was probably filming for the new Dark Knight sequel. And, once again, quite ironic how with all of the tenseness and quasi-violence of the nearby Occupy Wall Street encampment (two blocks north and one block west), they would have all of this fictional violence at the same time.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Is fiction mocking reality or is reality mocking fiction?</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">And, as expected, when I walked along the outside of Zucotti park it was nothing but a kind of calm buzziness not unlike any NYC park – except for the uncontrolled frenzy of the drummers and the spectators egging them on as they approached their 6 PM drumming curfew.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">AFAICT, the size of the Zucotti Park "movement" was about the same as in recent weeks. It hasn't managed to spill into surrounding areas and other nearby parks yet and is too packed for much more internal growth. In fact, the Manahatta Park at the East River end of Wall Street is still completely empty except for a few kids on skateboards and those little trick bicycles and with no apparent security guards or policemen to give them any grief. Who knows, maybe Manahatta is simply too far from the limelight of Broadway and the World Trade Center site, even if it is actually on Wall Street. There is also a reasonably large brand new park area across the street on the East River and adjacent to the ferry pier, very underutilized and completely devoid of any occupiers, but unlikely to draw the attention of anybody other than a lot of tourists and odd people like me.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR>-- Jack Krupansky</DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-2922089272816600587?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-1078173019119711972011-11-02T17:06:00.001-04:002011-11-02T17:06:42.756-04:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>I've followed the whole Occupy Wall Street movement with great interest over the past month, but it is time for me to hit the "ignore" button on them for the rest of the year (at least.) They've gotten repetitive and predictable and don't appear to be likely to do anything truly of long-term interest. Who knows, maybe they'll surprise me and somehow get their act together, but they simply don't appear to be on an upwards trend at this point, in terms of garnering significant additional deeply passionate support from the rest of the so-called 99% that is not already active in the movement. Yeah, sometimes the various unions (a small fraction of Americans all together) join in, but only halfheartedly, like with the so-called "General Strike" in Oakland right now. Sure, things could change at any moment, but I'll make that judgment on January 1, 2012 and determine then whether I can keep them on "ignore."</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>For now, I'll simply write off OWS as an offshoot of the anti-globalization movement. There's a little more to it than that, but that basically summarizes them quite well.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>FWIW, here's how I have been following the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement:</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>The <A href="http://www.adbusters.org/">Adbusters web site</A>. These are the guys/brains/puppet-masters behind the global "Occupy" movement. The "<EM>Culture Jammers HQ</EM>."</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>The <A href="http://occupywallst.org/">Occupy Wall Street web site</A>. The "official" web site for this "leaderless resistance movement."</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>The <A href="http://www.facebook.com/OccupyWallSt">Occupy Wall Street Facebook page</A>.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>The <A href="http://twitter.com/#!/OccupyWallStNYC">Occupy Wall Street Twitter feed</A>.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV><A href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;gl=us&amp;tbm=nws&amp;btnmeta_news_search=1&amp;q=%E2%80%9COccupy+Wall+Street.%E2%80%9D&amp;oq=%E2%80%9COccupy+Wall+Street.%E2%80%9D&amp;aq=f&amp;aqi=d1d-o1&amp;aql=&amp;gs_sm=e&amp;gs_upl=3377l3377l0l4857l1l1l0l0l0l0l92l92l1l1l0#ds=n&amp;pq=%E2%80%9Coccupy+wall+street.%E2%80%9D&amp;hl=en&amp;sugexp=kjrmc&amp;cp=19&amp;gs_id=6&amp;xhr=t&amp;q=Occupy+Wall+Street&amp;pf=p&amp;sclient=psy-ab&amp;safe=off&amp;gl=us&amp;tbm=nws&amp;source=hp&amp;oq=%E2%80%9COccupy+Wall+Street&amp;fp=4b46acdb570b9d1e">Google News for "Occupy Wall Street."</A></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR>On a typical Saturday on my normal schedule I walk all around lower Manhattan, including Union Square, Washington Square, Battery Park, Battery City Park, the World Trade Center Site, and sometimes Wall Street and even past Zucotti Park, so I am sure I will "notice" if the OWS movement actually does take off. And I regularly walk to, around, and through Central Park on various days of the week as well, so I'll certainly notice if OWS makes good on their "threat" to "occupy Central Park" as they have said they would.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">So, if the OWS movement does actually take off, I'll notice it first hand without having to waste another moment of my time reading about it on the Web.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-107817301911971197?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-46110792834676736192011-10-29T16:14:00.001-04:002011-10-29T16:14:09.780-04:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>After a reasonably long experimental use of Twitter, I went on a <A href="http://jackkonblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/im-taking-hiatus-from-twitter.html">hiatus from Twitter</A> about eighteen months ago since I felt it wasn't a very productive or profitable use of my time. So far, I haven't regretted that decision and had remained focused on real, billable work since then. But now I am once more back on the street looking for work, so now it seems reasonable to question whether anything has changed enough to warrant my return to <A href="http://twitter.com/#!/jackkrupansky">Twitter</A>. I'll give the question some thought over the next few weeks, although my current feeling is that Twitter would still be a relative waste of my limited time and resources.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Can anybody offer any personal experiences that show clearly that Twitter had a dramatically positive ROI for their efforts?</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-4611079283467673619?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-11369195635578597722011-03-06T19:04:00.001-05:002011-03-06T19:04:44.454-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Okay, I think after 18 experiments I am finally ready to declare <STRONG>Mission Accomplished</STRONG>.</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <DIV>One last block quote.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>That's all for now.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-1136919563557859772?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-86897192166922125672011-03-06T19:00:00.000-05:002011-03-06T19:01:41.139-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Experiment #17 seems successful, so two separate delete operations it is.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Try another list:</DIV> <OL> <LI><STRONG>Bold</STRONG> <LI><EM>Italics</EM> <LI><STRONG><EM>Bold italics</EM></STRONG> <LI>No formatting</LI></OL> <DIV>After the list.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Hmmm... Even with no newline after my signature line, it looks like lots of extra whitespace in the blog posts.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-8689719216692212567?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-2167554406476098452011-03-06T18:56:00.001-05:002011-03-06T18:56:20.689-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Okay, experiment #16 failed, back to tiny text, suggesting that deleting both the WLM "original message" header and the original message text in one operation causes tint text.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>In this experiment I deleted the same text, but in two separate delete operations.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>I started with the sent message for experiment #15.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-216755440647609845?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-28346158420463638362011-03-06T18:51:00.001-05:002011-03-06T18:51:55.143-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Experiment #15 looked fine.</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">&nbsp;</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">For this experiment I deleted all but the signature line in one operation.</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">This is supposed to be a block quote.</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Try some <EM>italics</EM> and <STRONG>bold</STRONG> formatting.</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">&nbsp;</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-2834615842046363836?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-12967026288359310352011-03-06T18:48:00.001-05:002011-03-06T18:48:07.022-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Experiment #14 was fine.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>For this experiment I started by forwarding my previous sent message. First deleted only the WLM "original message" header, then I deleted the original message text itself, then added this new text.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Add a short list for good measure.</DIV> <OL> <LI>X <LI>Y <LI>Z</LI></OL> <DIV>After the list. Note: I did not format the list as a numbered list until I had first typed the text of the first line after the list to assure that this line would have normal paragraph formatting.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>The end. I hope.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>One final experiment: I deleted the newline at the end of my signature line since it looks like some extra white space was showing up in the blog post.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-1296702628835931035?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-46112200890761386352011-03-06T18:41:00.001-05:002011-03-06T18:41:08.575-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Experiment #13 was fine other than that I forgot to add back my email link.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Deleted some text from a forward of my original sent message for experiment # 13. When I forward just a sent message, I first delete the "orginal message" header that WLM places before the original message text. I wonder if that messes up formatting for the first paragraph.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Now I add the un-numbered list:</DIV> <OL> <LI>A <LI>B <LI>C – add some <STRONG>bold</STRONG> and <EM>italics</EM> formatting.</LI></OL> <DIV>Line after the list.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-4611220089076138635?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-74324907212084728972011-03-06T18:37:00.001-05:002011-03-06T18:37:06.869-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Oops, experiment #11 was not completely successful – the first paragraph had tiny text for some unknown reason. And experiment #12 was a disaster because I deleted all text but the signature line and started over, but forgot to round-trip between Plain Text and Rich Text first.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>So, for this experiment I deleted all text but the signature line, went to plain text and then back to rich text, and then added this text.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Now I add the un-numbered list:</DIV> <OL> <LI>A <LI>B <LI>C – add some <STRONG>bold</STRONG> and <EM>italics</EM> formatting.</LI></OL> <DIV>Line after the list.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- Jack Krupansky</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-7432490721208472897?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-42046921150049195402011-03-06T18:29:00.001-05:002011-03-06T18:29:18.301-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Experiment #11 was completely successful. I think the issue with numbered lists is that if you start a list and enter as a list and then tell WLM to un-number the blank entry after the last item, that messes up the font.</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">&nbsp;</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">So, in this test I will create a list without numbers and explicitly tell WLM to number the selected items. Hopefully that will leave the formatting for text after the list intact.</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">&nbsp;</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Three-item list:</DIV></DIV></DIV> <OL> <LI> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">A</DIV></DIV> <LI> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">B – and try some <STRONG>bold</STRONG> and <EM>italics</EM> formatting as well.</DIV></DIV> <LI> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">C</DIV></DIV></LI></OL> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">After the list. Is font size okay?</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">&nbsp;</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">I sure hope this works.</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">&nbsp;</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-4204692115004919540?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-33579647232213245212011-03-06T18:23:00.001-05:002011-03-06T18:23:44.635-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Experiment #10 worked quite well and all looks fine.</DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>For this experiment, I cut out the numbered list, created a new list of items (unnumbered), then selected them and told WLM to number them.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Now, here is a revised numbered list, numbered in WLM:</DIV> <OL> <LI>This is the new first item. <LI>This is the new second item. <LI>This is the new third item. <LI>This the the new fourth and last item.</LI></OL> <DIV>After the item list. Note: There were no extra blank lines before or after the list in WLM.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV align=center>Just trying a centered paragraph here.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Back to normal here.</DIV> <DIV>This sentence is a separate paragraph, but without an extra blank line before it.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-3357964723221324521?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-85417296527972942282011-03-06T18:16:00.001-05:002011-03-06T18:16:24.868-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Oops, in experiment #9 I mangled the list with an incorrect selection.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>For this experiment, I round-tripped between "Plain text" and "Rich text" to clear up all formatting issues and then selected the list items to turn them back into a list. Generally, I wouldn't want to do that because it also clears italics and bolding.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Now, here is a numbered list, numbered in WLM:</DIV> <OL> <LI>Item 1. <LI>Item 2. <LI>Item 3. <LI>Item 4. </LI></OL> <DIV>After the item list. Note: There were no extra blank lines before or after the list in WLM.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV align=center>Just trying a centered paragraph here.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Back to normal here.</DIV> <DIV>This sentence is a separate paragraph, but without an extra blank line before it.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-8541729652797294228?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-59072402926325461872011-03-06T18:10:00.001-05:002011-03-06T18:10:12.749-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Experiment #8 was mostly okay, except that it showed a problem I have seen before: after a numbered list, the font reverts to the tiny size problem.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Next, I'll send the same list, but use the "Clear Formatting" feature in WLM to remove formatting for the paragraphs after the list. Unlikely to help, but who knows. Actually, it changed more than just those selected paragraphs – it also changed the numbered list to a bullet list, so I changed it back to a numbered list. Now, lets see what happens.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Now, here is a numbered list, numbered in WLM:</DIV> <OL> <LI> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></DIV> <LI>Item 1. </LI></OL></DIV> <LI>Item 2. <LI>Item 3. <LI>Item 4. <OL></OL> <DIV>After the item list. Note: There were no extra blank lines before or after the list in WLM.</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <DIV>Just trying a centered paragraph here.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>Back to normal here.</DIV> <DIV>This sentence is a separate paragraph, but without an extra blank line before it.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></LI></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-5907240292632546187?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-34300756868897769642011-03-06T17:40:00.001-05:002011-03-06T17:40:05.070-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Experiment #7, block quote, seemed fine.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Now, here is a numbered list, numbered in WLM:</DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <OL> <LI>Item 1. <LI>Item 2. <LI>Item 3. <LI>Item 4.</LI></OL></DIV> <DIV>After the item list. Note: There were no extra blank lines before or after the list in WLM.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV align=center>Just trying a centered paragraph here.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Back to normal here.</DIV> <DIV>This sentence is a separate paragraph, but without an extra blank line before it.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-3430075686889776964?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-34178867208253883682011-03-06T17:31:00.001-05:002011-03-06T17:31:14.739-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Experiment #6 seemed fine, but when I went into HTML edit mode in the Blogger composition editor I saw TWELVE nested &lt;div&gt; levels! Very weird.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Now, back working with the experiment #3.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Just trying a block quote here, which is simply an indented paragraph in WLM:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <DIV>This is a block quote?</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Second line.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Last line of block quote.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>After the block quote.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-3417886720825388368?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-26673625822235678092011-03-06T17:03:00.000-05:002011-03-06T17:04:00.270-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Experiment #5 was a mistake – I hit "Send Later" which apparently sent my message immediately.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>Next experiment: Copy and Paste two paragraphs directly from my blog post to see how formatting is handled:</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: 17.475pt">But, when I go into the Blogger composition editor I see that it has a "Ltr" div and uses the Calibri font.</DIV> <DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: 17.475pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: 17.475pt">This experiment is simply to see if I can reproduce decent results twice in a row.</DIV> <DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: 17.475pt">&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-2667362582223567809?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-33665580497537252122011-03-06T16:57:00.001-05:002011-03-06T16:57:26.335-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Experiment #4 gave predictable decent results. Now, I am looking around to see if I can go into HTML edit mode in Windows Live Mail. I could in OE, which is how I fixed the line spacing for OE posts, but I haven't been able to find an HTML edit mode in WLM, so far.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-3366558049753725212?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-68491263524477772382011-03-06T16:51:00.001-05:002011-03-06T16:51:18.512-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Actually, experiment #3 gave reasonably decent results. The font and font size looked okay (or at least close enough) and the paragraph spacing seemed fine.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>But, when I go into the Blogger composition editor I see that it has a "Ltr" div and uses the Calibri font.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>This experiment is simply to see if I can reproduce decent results twice in a row.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6849126352447777238?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-75429833765139009052011-03-06T16:41:00.001-05:002011-03-06T16:41:33.507-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Second test gave poor results. Font was okay, but line breaks and <EM>some</EM> of the blank lines were messed up.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>For this experiment I took the same message and switched it to "Rich Text". I didn't change the font. I have extra blank lines to make it look right in the composition editor. And I added back the link for my name/email.</DIV> <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-7542983376513900905?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-34005180049428664782011-03-06T16:34:00.001-05:002011-03-06T16:34:17.947-05:00Okay, that first test failed, but in a predictable manner that illustrates <br>the font problem.<p>In this second test I switched to &quot;plain text&quot;. Just to see what happens. <br>Unfortunately, it loses all formatting, including hyperlinks.<p>I am curious to see what happens with the extra blank lines I added to make <br>the paragraph spacing look right in the composition editor.<p>-- Jack Krupansky<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-3400518004942866478?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-10974790161114977722011-03-06T16:14:00.001-05:002011-03-06T16:14:24.147-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <P>This is just a test post...</P> <P>I am trying to debug a font problem with my blogs. I post to all of my blogs by sending email from my PC. I had figured out how to set the font so that it would take on the default font for the blog back when I was sending from Microsoft Outlook Express on Windows XP, but since I upgraded to Windows Live Mail (successor to OE) on Windows 7, the font gets messed up. The worst part of it is that the font size becomes very tiny, almost unreadable, even though it looks fine in the email composition editor. Sure, I can manually correct the font in the Blogger composition editor, but that's extra work. So, now I am about to try some experiments to see if I can figure out some Windows Live Mail "magic" to fix these font problems. I will leave each of these posts unchanged for future reference about what does or doesn't work.</P> <P>So, let the tests begin...</P> <P>This initial post is a forward of a post that worked back in April 2010 on my old machine. In other words, this is what used to work before I upgraded in late May 2010.</P> <P>Is this too tiny to read?</P> <P>BTW, in WLM the mail composition editor says that this is 12-point Calibri. Actually, in OE is said that it was Times New Roman, the default, which worked with OE, probably because it did not set the font in the message since it was the default.</P> <P>Also, I have a "div" for each paragraph, set in OE, which has the effect of making each paragraph a "web-style" paragraph with a blank line after it, because that is the style used in the blogs.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-1097479016111497772?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-7908350648237709772011-02-20T15:23:00.000-05:002011-02-20T15:25:44.412-05:00<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Who exactly is rich these days? In other words, what criteria should we use to judge that someone is rich? In recent tax cut debates there seems to be a presumption that $250,000 of income is kind of the dividing line, but I don't quite buy it.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">To me, the primary criterion for judging someone as being rich should be that they can live a relatively affluent lifestyle <EM>without working</EM>. In other words being rich is not about income per se, but a question of <EM>wealth</EM>. If you have sufficient wealth that you can live your affluent lifestyle <EM>solely on investment income</EM> from your wealth, <EM>then</EM> I would say that you are rich. And that is <EM>after taxes</EM> and <EM>after inflation</EM>. And that also requires a two-to-one <EM>safety margin</EM> so that you need not worry about what the stock market is doing or the state of the economy on either a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or even annual basis.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Put another way, being rich means you <EM>never</EM> have to <EM>worry</EM> about money.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">That is what separates the <EM>rich</EM> from the <EM>middle class</EM> -- the latter have <EM>some money</EM> (unlike the poor or lower class who don't have enough money for the essentials of daily life), but are constantly <EM>worrying</EM> about it, frequently because they have chosen to live a level of affluence beyond their means (averaged over booms and busts.)</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">So, given that base definition, how much money (wealth) do you need to be considered rich?</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Even back in early August 2007, just before the first big crumble of the financial crisis, in <A href="http://finaxyz.blogspot.com/2007/08/who-wants-to-be-millionaire.html">Who wants to be a millionaire?</A> I suggested that $50 million in liquid investments was the magic number. At the beginning of April 2008, as the financial crisis was starting to rumble on the backburner with increasing fury, in <A href="http://finaxyz.blogspot.com/2008/04/are-you-wealthy.html">Are you wealthy?</A> I reconsidered but reaffirmed that $50 million number. And today, after further reconsideration and calculation I also reaffirm that $50 million number.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">I think it is reasonable to say an income of $250,000 (from your investments) is the rock-bottom low-end of being rich. Simply avoiding work is not enough, you need to afford some significant degree of affluence, so that you at least <EM>look rich</EM> (although you may make a tactical decision to "dress down" so that you do not appear to be rich even if you are.)</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">For purposes of discussion I will assume a very conservative investment style consistent with no worrying about how your investments are doing. To me, that means long-term Treasury bonds. You can choose other investments based on your own risk tolerance, but for the purposes of defining <EM>worry-free rich</EM>, Treasury bonds fit the bill.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">If you bought 30-year Treasury bonds at the most recent auction you got a yield of 4.75%. If you bought that same bond on the open market on Friday, the yield was 4.68%. For purposes of discussion, I'll presume that you buy only at the quarterly auctions.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Ignoring taxes and inflation for the moment, if you bought those 4.75% Treasuries, you would need $5.3 million of them to give you that $250,000 annual income. Unfortunately, taxes are not zero and inflation is not zero. Assuming the most recent annual headline inflation of 1.6%, that 4.75% becomes 3.15% and now you need $8 million for that same income level. I am presuming that you want that $250,000 income to "keep pace with inflation." There is no state or local income tax on Treasuries and I calculate the federal effective tax rate to be 27.05% using the 2010 federal tax tables. You may have deductions too, but let's start by being conservative. 4.75% minus 1.6% for inflation and 27.05% taxes gives us an effective yield of 2.30%, meaning that you would need Treasures in the amount of $10.9 million to give you that magical $250,000 annual income.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">But wait... didn't I say earlier that you needed $50 million and this calculation shows that $11 million will do it? The answer is a classic "Yes, but..."</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">It's all about assumptions.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">First of all, if you really want to be conservative, you need what Warren Buffett's mentor Ben Graham called a "<EM>margin of safety</EM>." There are all sorts of crazy things that can happen in the real world, let alone the worlds of economics and finance. So, I am going to insist that a <EM>two-to-one</EM> margin of safety be used to judge someone as being rich. This is an important factor if you want to be able to <EM>sleep at night</EM> and not have to worry about money. So, that $10.9 million would really be $21.8 million. But even that is still far short of $50 million.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Inflation may currently be 1.6%, but that is historically quite low and we have seen times when it was 3% or even 4% or on occasion higher. So, to be conservative, I would say it would be better to assume a 3% inflation rate.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Treasury yields can also fluctuate significantly, so to be conservative I will knock that 4.75% yield down to 4.25%, which is what it was in the preceding auction.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">So, assuming you want $250,000 per year, Treasury bonds yield 4.25%, inflation at 3%, and taxes at 27.05%, my calculation comes up with an effective yield of 0.91%, which translates into needed wealth of $27.4 million. Add in that two-to-one safety margin and you get $54.8 million, modestly more than my $50 million suggestion, but, lets just call it $50 million since we have been quite conservative in its assumptions.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Another assumption I made was that you need to live on <EM>income only</EM>, not liquidation of principal. Better to plan on leaving the $50 million as inheritance to family or charity rather that put the vagaries of fate in the financial markets into play and risk the potential for introducing worry into the lifestyle of the supposed "rich."</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">So where does that leave you if you don't have $50 million in liquid wealth (which includes me, by the way)? If you still need to work to earn your $250,000 a year or are only a <EM>mere millionaire</EM>, you are definitely <EM>well-off</EM> and <EM>upper-middle class</EM>, but I wouldn't call you rich or wealthy.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">AFAICT, "the rich" is mostly a term of partisan political disparagement and a tool for class warfare than an attempt at economic accuracy. Somehow, some liberal politicians have decreed that an income level of $250,000 defines "rich." It would be interesting to know who precisely started the "meme" of $250,000 of income meaning someone is "rich."</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">In any case, my number for "rich" is $50 million in liquid investments with an after-tax, after-inflation yield of 0.91%. Anything less than that and you are just <EM>pretending</EM> to be rich.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman">-- Jack Krupansky</FONT></P></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-790835064823770977?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-65717737785081137752010-09-26T13:38:00.001-04:002010-09-26T13:38:31.565-04:00<P>I was really looking forward to see the new Wall Street 2 movie ("Money Never Sleeps") and although it had quite a few good moments, overall it just wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped. Despite the severity of the recent financial crisis, the movie just didn't have the visceral punch that I though Oliver Stone would bring to this encore.</P> <P>Michael Douglas was great, but he was great in the original, so no new ground was broken there. "Jake" as his nominal protégé was okay, but not great. His girlfriend, Gordon's daughter was... well... <EM>pathetic</EM> (or more charitably I could say that this was great acting&nbsp;to portray&nbsp;a pathetic character)&nbsp;but maybe that was intentional to forcefully illustrate how "toxic" the cretins of Wall Street really are.</P> <P>The ending was quite lame, but maybe given the current cultural context Mr. Stone felt obligated not to leave people in a state of complete despair. That would be bad for ticket sales.</P> <P>On the positive side, the acting of Frank Langella and Eli Wallach as aging investment bankers was absolutely fantastic.</P> <P>As I noted, there were plenty of great individual scenes and lines&nbsp;such as you saw in the two trailers.</P> <P>Maybe the bottom line is that Mr. Stone did in fact portray the culture of Wall Street and its denizens as being irredeemably "toxic", although his lame ending inscrutably seemed to let them off the hook and even excuse illegal activity.</P> <P>There were a few scenes that reminded me of Wall Street activity that I <EM>hope</EM> the so-called Volcker Rule will eliminate or at least dramatically reduce, but only time will tell.</P> <P>Maybe that is ultimately the fatal flaw with this movie: there is too much in it that is borderline documentary and cuts painfully too close to the bone. At the end of the credits it reminds us that it is a work of fiction and that similarities to real people and places is... "unintentional." Yeah, right. Sure, they changed the names of the investment banks, but we all know who they were talking about.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6571773778508113775?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-90528344381052540772010-09-26T11:14:00.001-04:002010-09-26T11:14:56.392-04:00<P><EM>The New York Times</EM> article from Friday by Sewell Chan entitled "<A title="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/business/24debt.html&#10;CTRL + Click to follow link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/business/24debt.html">Small Gifts Sent to Ease U.S. Debt</A>" that quotes me about making contributions to pay down the public debt&nbsp;and has my picture has been translated into Portuguese on this Brazilian web&nbsp;called <A href="http://economia.ig.com.br/">Economia</A> with the translation entitled "<A title="http://economia.ig.com.br/para+pagar+divida+de+r+23+trilhoes+uma+doacao+de+r+554/n1237784215815.html&#10;CTRL + Click to follow link" href="http://economia.ig.com.br/para+pagar+divida+de+r+23+trilhoes+uma+doacao+de+r+554/n1237784215815.html">Para pagar dívida de R$ 23 trilhões, uma doação de R$ 554 - Crescem nos EUA as contribuições voluntárias para diminuir o rombo nas contas do governo, mas impacto sobre os débitos é mínimo</A>". My original quote in <EM>The New York Times</EM>:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM>"I get mixed reactions," said John W. Krupansky, 56, a software developer in Midtown Manhattan who started reading about economics during the dot-com crash a decade ago, and has blogged about his tax deductible gifts, nine so far, of $25 each. "Some people are annoyed; they think the right thing to do is complain about the debt, not actually do something about it. Other people are amused that anyone would waste their time to do such a thing."</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Translated into Portuguese:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM>"Ouço reações diversas", diz John W. Krupansky, de 56 anos, desenvolvedor de software no centro de Manhattan que começou a ler sobre a economia durante a crise das empresas pontocom, há uma década, e tem escrito em seu blog sobre suas doações - nove até agora, cada uma de US$ 25. "Algumas pessoas ficam irritadas. Elas pensam que a coisa certa a fazer é reclamar da dívida, e não fazer algo concreto sobre isso. Outras pessoas se divertem com a ideia de alguém perder seu tempo para fazer uma coisa dessas."</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>-- <A title="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com&#10;CTRL + Click to follow link" href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-9052834438105254077?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-18454062685166712062010-09-24T01:52:00.000-04:002010-09-24T01:53:01.442-04:00<P>Huh, <A title="http://finaxyz.blogspot.com/2010/09/made-my-ninth-payment-to-pay-down.html&#10;CTRL + Click to follow link" href="http://finaxyz.blogspot.com/2010/09/made-my-ninth-payment-to-pay-down.html">my meager efforts to take responsibility for paying down the public debt</A> have gotten me a little attention... in <EM>The New York Times</EM> of all places! Today they are running an article by Sewell Chan entitled "<A href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/business/24debt.html">Small Gifts Sent to Ease U.S. Debt</A>" that actually quotes me:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM>"I get mixed reactions," said John W. Krupansky, 56, a software developer in Midtown Manhattan who started reading about economics during the dot-com crash a decade ago, and has blogged about his tax deductible gifts, nine so far, of $25 each. "Some people are annoyed; they think the right thing to do is complain about the debt, not actually do something about it. Other people are amused that anyone would waste their time to do such a thing."</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>And they even ran my picture.</P> <P>-- <A title="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com&#10;CTRL + Click to follow link" href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-1845406268516671206?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-79793022580055438782010-04-15T11:47:00.000-04:002010-04-15T11:48:18.603-04:00<P>Two days ago I decided to take an indefinite&nbsp;<A href="http://jackkonblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/im-taking-hiatus-from-twitter.html">hiatus from Twitter</A>. 48 hours later, it still feels like the right thing to do. No regrets, so far.</P> <P>Sure, on occasion a thought pops into my head and I feel an urge to reach for Twitter, but it's only a momentary urge and quickly dissipates. Sure, Twittering <EM>can</EM> be fun, but it is also quite mindless, definitely unproductive, and usually a complete waste of my time and adds <EM>no value</EM> to my life.</P> <P>Rather than twittering because I can, I find myself being more deliberate in thinking about how I spend my time.</P> <P>I will&nbsp;post again in a week or so about how the de-twittering of my life has progressed.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-7979302258005543878?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-35628575444997860332010-04-13T10:24:00.000-04:002010-04-13T10:25:16.028-04:00<P>Twitter is certainly an interesting phenomenon, but it also has its annoyances. This morning I saw a brief mention of Twitter considering ads. No real surprise there, but it got me thinking. By writing tweets, I am providing Twitter with <EM>content <STRONG>for free</STRONG></EM>. I am basically working for Twitter with zero compensation. So what do I really get out of the deal? Twitter does help to promote blog posts (but does not give any actual Google juice) and does provide an "outlet" for excess energy, but that is about it. Maybe once in a blue moon somebody actually connects with somebody in a valuable way, but that is the exception rather than the rule. In short, the answer to the question "What value do I get from Twitter?" is <STRONG><EM>not much at all and certainly nothing comparable to the effort invested</EM></STRONG>.</P> <P>Twitter is still a young phenomenon and evolving over time, so maybe a few months or a few years from now Twitter will actually, finally have some features that deliver significant value to me. But for new, Twitter is, well, I hate to say this, but, <STRONG><EM>a complete waste of my time</EM></STRONG>. I would not say that all of my time in Twitter has been wasted since it has been an interesting experiment with a new technology, but I have definitely reached well beyond the point of <EM>diminishing returns</EM>.</P> <P>So, to be clear, I do not consider my time spent with Twitter a <EM>complete</EM> waste of time, but simply that the <EM>marginal value</EM> has been too small, for me, personally.</P> <P>Twitter may have <EM>great value</EM> for some people, but I am not one of them.</P> <P>Besides, I now have some real, billable&nbsp;work to do, so Twitter really is <STRONG><EM>an unnecessary and unproductive&nbsp;distraction</EM></STRONG>, for me.</P> <P>And, there have been any number of times where I could have posted a more valuable blog post, but took the lazy route of a simple tweet instead. My loss.</P> <P>BTW, I have over 3,000 tweets, so it is not as if I haven't given Twitter a chance to prove itself.</P> <P>I am not sure how long my hiatus will last. Could be a few months, or maybe a year or more, or maybe just a few weeks. Three to six months would be my preliminary estimate. I may check in on occasion just to see if I have been missing anything. The bottom line is that I'll stay away from Twitter as long as it continues to show <EM>very little promise</EM> of adding any <EM>significant value</EM> to my life. So, my hiatus could in fact be extended to infinity.</P> <P>My hiatus will also give me some extra time to contemplate my experiences with Tweeter and maybe even distill them down to realize what value, if any, they have for me.</P> <P>If anybody really does see a true <EM>breakthrough</EM> in Twitter that really would add <EM>dramatic value</EM> to my life, please send me an email message about it.</P> <P>Now, it is time for my to go tweet my final tweet and then get back to <EM>real</EM> work.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-3562857544499786033?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-64474599573042383362010-03-10T16:25:00.001-05:002010-03-10T16:25:53.567-05:00<P>I <A href="http://finaxyz.blogspot.com/2010/03/try-checkingfindercom-for-2-4-apy-high.html">posted on Monday</A>&nbsp;about <A href="http://www.checkingfinder.com/">CheckingFinder.com</A>&nbsp;for finding community banks offering FDIC-insured&nbsp;high-interest checking (2-4%)&nbsp;and just this morning I took the plunge and opened a new bank checking account through their web site for a community bank in Texas. I still need in get the bank's welcome kit in the mail and send back the signature card and other documents, but within a few weeks I should be on my way to earning 3.51% APY on a bank checking account. What could be more exciting (in banking)?</P> <P>I did see a bank offering 4.09% on Monday, but they were no longer listed this morning. 3.51% APY was the highest listed rate for my zip code this morning. Still, this is a fantastic rate compared to just about anything else available.</P> <P>First I had to call the <A href="http://www.checkingfinder.com/">CheckingFinder.com</A> customer service number to clarify exactly what qualified as an "automatic payment". I make several payments each month by ACH debit from the web sites of my electric company, telephone/Internet provider, and credit card, but they are all "manual", so I wasn't sure if they qualified. Customer service picked up quite promptly and indicated that each bank had its own quirky rules, so it would be best to speak directly to the individual bank. I had already selected my preferred bank from their list and customer service gave me that bank's direct number. The bank picked up promptly, redirected my call and quickly answered my question, stating clearly that to get the special rate I needed "one ACH debit or credit" each month. Many consumers see ACH debits as part of "automatic bill payment" and only&nbsp;overly-cautious people such as me want to manually check my bill before it gets paid.</P> <P>That so-called "automatic payment" was the worrisome "qualification" for me, but now I know that it is a no-brainer. There were three other specific <EM>qualifications</EM> for this particular bank (which many of the listed banks also had) in order to get the juicy 3.51% APY rate:</P> <UL> <LI>Minimum of 12 debit-card purchases <EM>each month</EM> (does not include ATM withdrawals). No minimum, so breakfast, lunch, snacks, fast food, etc. easily satisfy this requirement without impinging on my desire to use my 2% cashback credit card for larger purchases.</LI> <LI>Must agree to receive e-statements rather than paper statements. No problem.</LI> <LI>Must sign on to the online banking web site at least <EM>once a month</EM>. No problem since I believe in checking my credit card and other financial accounts at least one if not twice a week.</LI> <LI>And that requirement for at least one ACH debit or credit each month.</LI></UL> <P>Note: Some&nbsp;of the <A href="http://www.checkingfinder.com/">CheckingFinder.com</A>&nbsp;banks also have a bill-pay requirement, but this bank did not.</P> <P>The sign-up process requested my current bank checking routing and account number so that the initial funding can be done via an ACH debit. This funding will not actually occur until after the bank receives the signed signature card and other sign-up documents needed to satisfy government regulations. My chosen bank bad a $100 minimum initial deposit. I chose $250 for the sign-up deposit. I intend to put a moderate pile of cash in the account to earn that 3.51% APY ASAP, but I want to see that the account gets all set up and working as advertised before committing more cash.</P> <P>The sign-up process also asks a serious questions about your financial history similar to those you see when requesting your credit history to verify your identity. Usually not a problem, but having a copy of your credit history handy couldn't hurt. Some people claim to have had difficulty signing up due to questions about things they had forgotten or gotten confused about.</P> <P>The bank is <A href="https://www.hcsb.com/index.html">HCSB</A> in Plainview, Texas. They have been around since 1934, formerly operating as "Hill Country State Bank."</P> <P>Some other info on the account:</P> <UL> <LI>3.51% APY applies to the first $25,000.</LI> <LI>Rate is 1.51% APY on balance above $25,000. Still quite decent compared to... most other banks.</LI> <LI>Rate is 0.05% APY if qualifications are not met in a given month. Still better than Fidelity. Some listed banks have base rates of 0.1% or even 0.2%, but I have no intentions of ever being in a position to get that rate.</LI> <LI>No minumum balance.</LI> <LI>No monthly fees.</LI> <LI>Unlimited checks. [Note: I forgot to ask whether the check order is free or not.]</LI> <LI>Refund of ATM feeds up to $20 per month.</LI></UL> <P>So, now, I am just impatiently waiting for the paperwork to arrive via pony express.</P> <P>In practice, the way I will use this account is in tandem with my local TD Bank account. I will deposit checks in TD Bank and then ACH transfer the bulk of the cash to HCSB. I'll write checks against HCSB. I'll keep a modest balance in TD Bank for "just in case" contingencies. I think I'll use HCSB for ATM withdrawals, but I could use TD as well.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6447459957304238336?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-52251469878730281462010-03-07T22:51:00.000-05:002010-03-07T22:52:45.704-05:00<P>I&nbsp;just finished&nbsp;reading an essay on <EM>Edge</EM> by noted computer scientist David Gelernter entitled "<A href="http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge313.html">Time to Start Taking the Internet Seriously</A>" which basically argues for his concept of <EM>lifestreams</EM> as a better model for publishing and accessing information than today's <EM>web</EM> model. Rather that organizing information in a <EM>spatial</EM> form, he recommends that we think about and organize information along the <EM>time</EM> dimension. As he puts it:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM>The Internet's future is not Web 2.0 or 200.0 but the post-Web, where time instead of space is the organizing principle&nbsp;-- instead of many stained-glass windows, instead of information laid out in space, like vegetables at a market&nbsp;-- the Net will be many streams of information flowing through time. The Cybersphere as a whole equals every stream in the Internet blended together: the whole world telling its own story.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>He proceeds to describe the nature of the problem and how lifestreams will address it:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM>13. The traditional web site is static, but the Internet specializes in flowing, changing information. The "velocity of information" is important&nbsp;-- not just the facts but their rate and direction of flow. Today's typical website is like a stained glass window, many small panels leaded together. There is no good way to change stained glass, and no one expects it to change. So it's not surprising that the Internet is now being overtaken by a different kind of cyberstructure.</EM></P> <P><EM>14. The structure called a cyberstream or lifestream is better suited to the Internet than a conventional website because it shows information-in-motion, a rushing flow of fresh information instead of a stagnant pool.</EM></P> <P><EM>15. Every month, more and more information surges through the Cybersphere in lifestreams — some called blogs, "feeds," "activity streams," "event streams," Twitter streams. All these streams are specialized examples of the cyberstructure we called a lifestream in the mid-1990s: a stream made of all sorts of digital documents, arranged by time of creation or arrival, changing in realtime; a stream you can focus and thus turn into a different stream; a stream with a past, present and future. The future flows through the present into the past at the speed of time.</EM></P> <P><EM>16. Your own information&nbsp;-- all your communications, documents, photos, videos&nbsp;-- including "cross network" information&nbsp;-- phone calls, voice messages, text messages&nbsp;-- will be stored in a lifestream in the Cloud.</EM></P> <P><EM>17. There is no clear way to blend two standard websites together, but it's obvious how to blend two streams. You simply shuffle them together like two decks of cards, maintaining time-order&nbsp;-- putting the earlier document first. Blending is important because we must be able to add and subtract in the Cybersphere. We add streams together by blending them. Because it's easy to blend any group of streams, it's easy to integrate stream-structured sites so we can treat the group as a unit, not as many separate points of activity; and integration is important to solving the information overload problem. We subtract streams by searching or focusing. Searching a stream for "snow" means that I subtract every stream-element that doesn't deal with snow. Subtracting the "not snow" stream from the mainstream yields a "snow" stream. Blending streams and searching them are the addition and subtraction of the new Cybersphere.</EM></P> <P><EM>18. Nearly all flowing, changing information on the Internet will move through streams. You will be able to gather and blend together all the streams that interest you. Streams of world news or news about your friends, streams that describe prices or auctions or new findings in any field, or traffic, weather, markets&nbsp;-- they will all be gathered and blended into one stream. Then your own personal lifestream will be added. The result is your mainstream: different from all others; a fast-moving river of all the digital information you care about.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>In short:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM>To accomplish this, we merely need to turn the whole Cybersphere on its side, so that time instead of space is the main axis.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>There is much more to his model for information in the "<EM>Cybersphere</EM>", but time-based lifestreams are&nbsp;his core starting point.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@BaseTechnology.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-5225146987873028146?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-60635378766485935562010-02-01T13:31:00.000-05:002010-02-01T13:45:04.350-05:00<P>It is less than&nbsp;eight weeks until the annual <A href="http://www.entconnect.org/"><STRONG>Entrepreneurial Connections (EntConnect)</STRONG> conference</A>, from Thursday, March 25, 2010 through Sunday, March 28, 2010. Traditionally the conference consists primarily of a reunion of former readers of <STRONG><EM>Midnight Engineering</EM></STRONG> magazine and a few newbies who have gotten suckered into trying it out, but each year we try to figure out new ways to attract fresh blood.</P> <P>Check out the <A href="http://www.entconnect.org/">conference Web page</A> for an idea of what the conference was like last year. Hopefully the page will be updated very soon for the details for this year. I do know that the hotel rate has jumped from $79 to $89, despite the fact that we are still only in the early stages of a prolonged economic recover from a dep recession. It will be held at a different hotel, the <STRONG>Crowne Plaza Downtown Denver</STRONG>, which is actually in downtown Denver. We hope to have a notable keynote speaker, but as usual the primary focus will be sessions led by your fellow entrepeneurs.</P> <P>Here is my traditional 30-second elevator pitch blurb for the converence:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM>Whether you are an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business or simply need a good excuse to go skiing in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the </EM><A href="http://www.entconnect.org/"><EM><STRONG>Entrepreneurial Connections</STRONG> conference (<STRONG>EntConnect</STRONG>)</EM></A><EM> may be just the conference you have been waiting for. Targeted primarily at engineers (hardware, software, and other)&nbsp;and others with a strong technical interest, it is more of a loosely-structured "unconference", with plenty of opportunities for a relatively small group of participants (15 to 40) to network or even give their own presentations on a very wide range of topics from technology, business strategy, intellectual property and legal issues, accounting issues, finance, marketing, sales, and even selling your business.&nbsp;With plenty of time to ski or otherwise enjoy the mountains and Denver area (great time to visit Boulder or Colorado Springs as well), the conference is&nbsp;a great&nbsp;opportunity to "learn and share" and otherwise&nbsp;have an "out of box" experience. Participants and speakers range over the full spectrum from wannabes and newcomers to successful young entrepreneurs and seasoned veterans. The conference is an excellent opportunity to meet up with former readers (and possibly even the publisher)&nbsp;of <STRONG>Midnight Engineering</STRONG> magazine as well. The conference runs from Thursday, March 25, 2010&nbsp;through Sunday, March 28, 2010.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Visit the <A href="http://www.entconnect.org/">official conference Web site</A>, <A href="http://www.entconnect.org/">EntConnect.org</A>.</P> <P>I have been attending the conference since it first started in 1992 as <A href="http://www.opixia.com/EntEng/ME-SKI-92.htm">ME SKI '92</A>&nbsp;and then&nbsp;evolved into&nbsp;ENTCON and then Entrepreneurial Connections or EntConnect.</P> <P>I actually have not even started planning my trip. I need to decide whether to come in on Thursday or Friday and leave on Sunday evening or Monday. In the back of my head I have even contemplated taking the time to take the train, but that's not a high probability, yet.</P> <P>For a little nostalgia, check out the <A href="http://www.opixia.com/EntEng/ME-SKI-92.htm">original ME SKI '92 conference announcement</A>.</P> <P>Oh, and please feel free to join the <A href="http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/midnightengineers/">Midnight Engineers Yahoo discussion forum</A>.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6063537876648593556?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-52172306951603745302010-02-01T13:20:00.000-05:002010-02-01T13:33:18.411-05:00<P>It is less than&nbsp;eight weeks until the annual <A href="http://www.entconnect.org/"><STRONG>Entrepreneurial Connections (EntConnect)</STRONG> conference</A>, from Thursday, March 25, 2010 through Sunday, March 28, 2010. Traditionally the conference consists primarily of a reunion of former readers of <STRONG><EM>Midnight Engineering</EM></STRONG> magazine and a few newbies who have gotten suckered into trying it out, but each year we try to figure out new ways to attract fresh blood.</P> <P>Check out the <A href="http://www.entconnect.org/">conference Web page</A> for an idea of what the conference was like last year. Hopefully the page will be updated very soon for the details for this year. I do know that the hotel rate has jumped from $79 to $89, despite the fact that we are still only in the early stages of a prolonged economic recover from a dep recession. It will be held at a different hotel, the <STRONG>Crowne Plaza Downtown Denver</STRONG>, which is actually in downtown Denver. We hope to have a notable keynote speaker, but as usual the primary focus will be sessions led by your fellow entrepeneurs.</P> <P>Here is my traditional 30-second elevator pitch blurb for the converence:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM>Whether you are an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business or simply need a good excuse to go skiing in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the </EM><A href="http://www.entconnect.org/"><EM><STRONG>Entrepreneurial Connections</STRONG> conference (<STRONG>EntConnect</STRONG>)</EM></A><EM> may be just the conference you have been waiting for. Targeted primarily at engineers (hardware, software, and other)&nbsp;and others with a strong technical interest, it is more of a loosely-structured "unconference", with plenty of opportunities for a relatively small group of participants (15 to 40) to network or even give their own presentations on a very wide range of topics from technology, business strategy, intellectual property and legal issues, accounting issues, finance, marketing, sales, and even selling your business.&nbsp;With plenty of time to ski or otherwise enjoy the mountains and Denver area (great time to visit Boulder or Colorado Springs as well), the conference is&nbsp;a great&nbsp;opportunity to "learn and share" and otherwise&nbsp;have an "out of box" experience. Participants and speakers range over the full spectrum from wannabes and newcomers to successful young entrepreneurs and seasoned veterans. The conference is an excellent opportunity to meet up with former readers (and possibly even the publisher)&nbsp;of <STRONG>Midnight Engineering</STRONG> magazine as well. The conference runs from Thursday, March 25, 2010&nbsp;through Sunday, March 28, 2010.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Visit the <A href="http://www.entconnect.org/">official conference Web site</A>, <A href="http://www.entconnect.org/">EntConnect.org</A>.</P> <P>I have been attending the conference since it first started in 1992 as <A href="http://www.opixia.com/EntEng/ME-SKI-92.htm">ME SKI '92</A>&nbsp;and then&nbsp;evolved into&nbsp;ENTCON and then Entrepreneurial Connections or EntConnect.</P> <P>I actually have not even started planning my trip. I need to decide whether to come in on Thursday or Friday and leave on Sunday evening or Monday. In the back of my head I have even contemplated taking the time to take the train, but that's not a high probability, yet.</P> <P>For a little nostalgia, check out the <A href="http://www.opixia.com/EntEng/ME-SKI-92.htm">original ME SKI '92 conference announcement</A>.</P> <P>Oh, and please feel free to join the <A href="http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/midnightengineers/">Midnight Engineers Yahoo discussion forum</A>.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-5217230695160374530?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-51225158023961148412010-01-26T15:01:00.001-05:002010-01-26T15:01:59.081-05:00<P>Everybody is whining and complaining about the ballooning debt of the U.S. government, but who is actually <EM>doing anything</EM> about it? Well, for starters, <EM><STRONG>ME</STRONG></EM>! Yes, that's right, I, Jack Krupansky, just did something to <EM>reduce</EM> the U.S. government debt. Really. No kidding. I actually paid down a small slice of this debt. Granted, it was a rather small slice, but a slice nonetheless. Okay, sure, it was only $20, but the point is that <STRONG><EM>at least I am one of the very few people willing to stand up and DO something about the problem</EM></STRONG>, rather than be one of the <EM>whiners and complainers</EM> who refuse to acknowledge that it is <EM>their</EM> debt and <EM>their problem</EM>, not just the fault of mindless politicians in Washington, D.C. After all, every politician ultimately answers to voters and most of the so-called <EM>wasteful spending</EM> of the U.S. government is simply politicians responding to the demands of their consistituents (voters.)&nbsp;Maybe my one small contribution to paying down the debt won't really make <EM>any</EM> difference to any of those&nbsp;whiners and complainers, but for me it is a matter of principle. I consciously choose <EM>action</EM> rather than the inaction of the whiners and complainers.</P> <P>If you have <EM>any</EM> sense of principle, you too can pay down a slice of the U.S. government debt yourself at <A href="https://www.pay.gov/paygov/forms/formInstance.html?agencyFormId=23779454">Pay.gov</A>. You can pay via credit card or ACH transfer from a bank account.</P> <P>So do the right thing and show all those whiners and complainers how mindless and spineless they really are. PAY DOWN THE DEBT! And that has to start at the grass roots with us individuals&nbsp;before politicians will ever pick up the lead.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-5122515802396114841?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-341679956615019812010-01-01T18:23:00.001-05:002010-01-01T18:23:26.813-05:00<P>That's the new hot phrase these days, referring to the past ten years as "<STRONG><EM>The Lost Decade</EM></STRONG>." All I can say is that it certainly was that for me personally.</P> <P>Early 2000 was still the peak of the dot-com boom. Even as late as July 2000 the financial picture (for me) was looking very good. But, from late July onwards&nbsp;it was all downhill for me, for the rest of the entire decade. Definitely it was a "Lost Decade" for me. Actually, my decline bottomed by the end of 2005, but my recovery since then certainly has not compensated for the decline earlier in the decade.</P> <P>In 2000 I was officially "semi-retired" (as of&nbsp;spring&nbsp;1999)&nbsp;and comfortably living off of my profits from the boom. But by the middle of 2002 it was painfully clear that my semi-retirement was coming to an end too quickly.</P> <P>I had always figured that in my worst case scenario I would simply go "back to work". I started making inquiries in mid-2002, but was surprised to find... nothing. Well, it wasn't a complete surprise, after all, technology companies had been laying off people in droves for two straight years. As a freelance consultant and contractor my forte was the "extra" projects that management wanted to do that their in-house staff were too busy to do. But by 2002, "extra" projects were "gone with the wind" as management struggled to even get approval for projects for a bare-bones staff.</P> <P>Still, I figured that the "drought" was temporary and eventually things would loosen up. Well, I was in fact correct about that, but my timing was a bit off. From the middle of 2002, it was not until the middle of 2004 that I was getting some serious work.</P> <P>By late 2002 I had exhausted all of my retirement savings and started to lean on credit cards for all of my expenses. In early 2003 I remember saying to myself that the odds are that I will find something within the next six months. Nope, it didn't happen.</P> <P>By late 2003 I had exhausted even my credit cards and I missed a couple of rent payments in early 2004.</P> <P>Finally, I borrowed some money from my parents (yeah, I know). I did that for a few months, paying only my rent, minimal expenses, and a token payment on my mountain of credit card debt.</P> <P>Then, magically, in April 2004 I was finally able to line up some part-time work. It wasn't enough to pay my credit card bills, but enough to pay rent and expenses and at least token payments on the credit cards.</P> <P>Unfortunately, that work in the spring and summer of 2004 paid only a portion as I worked and most of the income was deferred until October 2004. That was a lot of months of delinquent payments and accounts starting to go to collections.</P> <P>Then when I received all of that deferred pay in October 2004 I had a field day, coming back up to "current" on must of my debt.</P> <P>Alas, that work in summer 2004 came to an end and I ended up moving to Colorado for some part-time work out there. Actually, I had been offered a full-time position in August but turned it down since I was still a diehard freelancer at heart.</P> <P>I was actually starting to make a little headway in late 2004 and early 2005, with some extra hours for awhile. But, by April 2005 the prospect of enough hours to keep up with my mountain of credit card debt on part-time work was looking very, very grim.</P> <P>So, in May 2005, as it became clear that I was going to be working only part-time for the indefinite future and that would not permit me to keep my head above water with that credit card debt, I finally bit the bullet and started looking into bankruptcy. I talked with my accountant, and he agreed that I really had no other choice.</P> <P>So, in June 2005&nbsp;I met with a bankruptcy attorney recommended by my accountant and got the ball rolling. My paperwork was officially filed in August and my Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy was officially discharged at the end of November 2005.</P> <P>Alas, I had made one big blunder in October 2004 when I got that mountain of income. I was too aggressive at catching up with back credit card payments and neglected to put aside money for my estimated taxes. That was a very bad move because all of the credit card debt was discharged in bankruptcy, but recent taxes are not. I was already on an IRS installment plan for taxes due in 2003. None of that was discharged in bankruptcy. So, I entered 2006 without the credit card debt, but with only part-time work and this tax debt.</P> <P>I managed to limp along for the first couple of months of 2006, but then I got notice that my client no longer needed my services by the end of March. Ouch.</P> <P>I frantically looked around and was once again coming up empty. Double-ouch.</P> <P>Finally, in the middle of April 2006&nbsp;I responded to a Microsoft ad on Craigslist. I wasn't terribly thrilled at the prospect of giving up my freelance status, but full-time employee definitely trumps many months of no work. I started work at Microsoft out in Redmond in the middle of May 2006. Luckily, I had started a modest savings plan the minute I was out of bankruptcy, which just barely covered my expenses until I got my first paycheck from Microsoft.</P> <P>I only lasted at Microsoft until early 2008, about 22 months, but I kept my expenses down and saved a huge chunk of my paycheck in retirement contributions, the employee stock purchase plan, and additional savings. By early 2008 I had even paid off the remainder of my back taxes, finally getting my head completely above water.</P> <P>I wasn't doing terribly well at Microsoft anyway (mediocre performance reviews and little prospect of much improvement in my career outlook there), when a freelance opportunity popped up in February 2008 with an open-source software startup with a guy I had worked with back in 1998&nbsp;before the dot-com boom really took off. I had wanted to do the freelance work as "moonlighting" on the side, but management at Microsoft said "No." I said goodbye. I guess that is testament to how improved my financial situation had gotten. Personally, I would have preferred to stay at Microsoft for at least five years and it was great working with a lot of really smart people, but I just had not figured out how to deal with a lot of management and organizational turmoil that was out of my control.</P> <P>Not that the road has been so wonderful since. I did okay until September 2008 when my client read the writing on the wall and cut my hours to... zero. I did a little more work, but even that dried up my November 2008. I went from then until September 2009 with no work. Zero.&nbsp;I spent a lot of time checking&nbsp;and responding to&nbsp;job listings, but no luck. Besides, I just knew that somehow the whole "crisis" would eventually resolve itself and work would flow again. I was right about that, but once again my timing was off. Luckily, I had enough savings to cover that entire period, and more. I had learned something from those hard lessons earlier in "<EM><STRONG>My Lost Decade</STRONG></EM>."</P> <P>My old client finally had some work for me in September. The hours vary from month to month, but have averaged half-time. The good news is that with absolutely zero debt, half-time is actually very workable for me.</P> <P>Going forward, I have work for the next couple of weeks and then I may go back into a slow period, waiting for the next assignment to materialize. Once again, the good news is that I am prepared for that with savings from those times when the "good" money was flowing in. And, lucky for me, the economy is finally in "recovery" mode.</P> <P>I am certainly not back to the financial "health" that I had in early 2000, but I am clearly recovered from my financial gloom of the fall of 2003 through the fall of 2005 (two, whole, very long, very gloomy&nbsp;years, and 2002 was rather gloomy as well.)</P> <P>In truth, my situation has improved steadily (well, with some big bumps) for the past four years, so I would not call those four years as "lost" per se. Still, my financial situation has not recovered to where I was in late 2001 and early 2002 or even back in 1998, so I really do still have to say that my past four years were a part of "<EM><STRONG>My Lost Decade</STRONG></EM>."</P> <P>The coming decade? Hah! I have no clue. I did not have a clue at the start of the last decade either.</P> <P>On the non-career, non-financial side, the past ten years have been much better for me. I have done a lot more reading (mostly online), done a lot of writing online (my web sites, in addition to blogs), spent a lot of time poking around Washington, D.C., especially before and after 9/11, and been involved in a couple of philosophy discussion groups. So, I am definitely much better prepared for whatever the world has to throw at me. I am still quite "fragile" on the financial side, but on the non-financial side I feel much more confident.</P> <P>On the negative side, both of my parents died in this decade, as well as five of my uncles, so I am definitely entering the new decade as "my" decade, with many fewer of the "older" generation to blame for what happens in the world, or to lean on for moral support in tough times.</P> <P>New Year's resolutions? Hah! That's way down on my priority list. Maybe by the end of the year (or decade) I'll get to it.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-34167995661501981?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-56027609454510079532009-12-08T14:06:00.000-05:002009-12-08T14:07:08.186-05:00<P>For future reference, if you ever run into laptop overheating problems and don't have a good solution, the solution that has worked for me with my Toshiba&nbsp;notebook PC&nbsp;is the <STRONG><EM><A href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NWIOM6?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=finaxyz-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B000NWIOM6">Belkin Laptop Cooling Stand</A></EM></STRONG>. I bought mine for $29 at BestBuy, but you can get it for $19 on Amazon:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P align=center><A href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NWIOM6?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=finaxyz-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B000NWIOM6"><IMG border=0 hspace=0 alt="" align=baseline src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41I-vRtvnCL._SL500_AA280_.jpg"></A></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>(Note: The Amazon product title refers to it as a "<A href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NWIOM6?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=finaxyz-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B000NWIOM6">Belkin F5L001 Laptop Cooling Pad</A>", but the detailed description makes clear that it is a "Cooling Stand", meaning mainly that it <EM>does</EM> have a powerful, built-in, USB-powered&nbsp;fan.)</P> <P>It adds space under your laptop, has a big cooling fan (USB-powered), and gives your laptop a more ergonomic angle (two choices). It is noisier than an overheating laptop, but it works a lot better than an overheated laptop.</P> <P>It keeps most of the bottom of the laptop cool to the touch, which is as much as you could hope for. It virtually eliminates the need for the fan inside your notebook computer to run at all.</P> <P>I almost tried a "cooling pad", but I went for broke to solve my problem. A cooling pad may be fine for some problems and may be better for people who travel a lot and do not want the bulky "stand".</P> <P>Incidentally, when I traveled last time I had no overheating problem with my notebook PC on the hotel desk. Maybe the hard Formica and construction of the desk and better air flow in the hotel room avoided the problem. So, you may not need the cooling stand when you go on the road even if you need it in your home "office."</P> <P>For reference, some coming symptoms of laptop overheating:</P> <UL> <LI>Keyboard "dies"</LI> <LI>Hard drive "dies"</LI> <LI>Some keyboard keys "die" or there are "phantom" repeating&nbsp;keystrokes.</LI> <LI>System slows down and maybe the screen dims</LI></UL> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-5602760945451007953?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-54895874678222027072009-10-26T07:36:00.001-04:002009-10-26T07:36:33.612-04:00<P>Yesterday morning <A href="http://jackkonblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-isnt-white-house-web-site-and-blog.html">I complained that the White House Web site still did not have any mention of a supposed "national emergency" statement that Pres. Obama had supposedly issued Friday night</A>. Here's an update...</P> <P>The White House did finally put up a blog post at 1:48 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. This still supports my claim that the White House is quite a laggard with using all of the whiz-bang Internet technologies, but at least something is there now.</P> <P>But there is still no sign of the <EM>signed</EM>&nbsp;statement itself on the White House Web site, not in the "<A href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-and-releases">Statements and Releases</A>" section and not in the "<A href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions">Presidential Actions</A>" sections.</P> <P>The <A href="http://www.hhs.gov/">HHS Web site</A> also still seems silent on the matter.</P> <P>The <A href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/10/25/president-obama-signs-emergency-declaration-h1n1-flu">White House blog post</A> ("<A href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/10/25/president-obama-signs-emergency-declaration-h1n1-flu">President Obama Signs Emergency Declaration for H1N1 Flu</A>") does in fact link to a news release on <A href="http://www.flu.gov/">Flu.gov</A> entitled "<A href="http://www.flu.gov/professional/federal/h1n1emergency10242009.html">October 24, 2009 - President Obama Signs Emergency Declaration for H1N1 Flu</A>". But still no hint of the an actual "<EM>Stafford Act Declaration or National Emergencies act Declaration</EM>" as required by "<EM>Section 1135 of the Social Security Act</EM>."</P> <P>Hmmm... that news release on Flu.gov is dated October, 24, 2009, which was Saturday. But I checked Flu.gov Sunday morning. How did I miss that? Whether it was actually there on Sunday morning I cannot say with any certainty, but I will note that the site has separate "Blog" and "News Room" sections on the main Web page&nbsp;and the latter is "below the fold" so that you have to manually page down to see it. It is quite possible, and I would say likely, that the "news" story was actually there and that with all of the noise on that main Web page I failed to page down far enough to see it. Still, if this really was such a big deal "national emergency declaration", why was it <EM>buried</EM> so far down on the Web page.</P> <P>If anything, this tends to confirm my conjecture that the so-called "emergency declaration" was much more a formality, required by law to waive certain annoying health regulations, rather than the actual&nbsp;"emergency" claimed by the media at the time.</P> <P>In any case, the lack of a posting of the actual "declaration" that was "signed" by the president is still somewhat disturbing. And the tardiness in a posting on the general topic by the White House is still rather disconcerting.</P> <P>In my view, anything important for the president to "sign" should be posted and noted (subject to the usual national security and secrecy concerns.)</P> <P>I won't go so far as to suggest that the president use Twitter every time he signs a document ("Signed the blah blah blah &lt;link&gt;"), but... maybe I should and maybe he should?</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-5489587467822202707?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-67863151173241616692009-10-25T06:43:00.001-04:002009-10-25T06:43:44.582-04:00<P>Gee, I thought the Internet and Web were supposed to be mainstream technologies, especially with government,&nbsp;and that the Obama administration was supposed to "get it" about all of the new Internet and Web technologies. If so, then why isn't the latest "statement" about the so-called "H1N1 swine flu national&nbsp;emergency" on the White House Web site?</P> <P>Maybe somebody "forgot" that the Internet and Web are open "24x7".</P> <P>Maybe one of my readers knows somebody at the White House and can alert them to that... <EM>obvious</EM>... fact.</P> <P>According to <A href="http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN24139386">a Reuters article</A>, "<EM>Obama signed the statement on Friday night.</EM>" That was <EM>Friday</EM>. It is now <EM>Sunday</EM>. Why the big delay? And the statement is <EM>still not</EM> on the Web site.</P> <P>The White House Web site does have <A href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-and-releases">a dedicated section for "<EM>Statements and Releases</EM>"</A>. Why an <EM>emergency</EM> statement would not be posted there is rather baffling.</P> <P>Oh, and by the way,&nbsp;the CDC Web site does not have the statement either.</P> <P>An article <A href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/24/MNFP1AAB4V.DTL&amp;tsp=1">on the <EM>San Francisco Chronicle</EM> Web site</A> says that "<EM>The declaration</EM>" was "<EM>announced Saturday</EM>" and "<EM>allows <STRONG>U.S. Health and Human Services</STRONG> Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to waive certain regulations or speed up the regulatory process if health providers are inundated with swine flu patients.</EM>"</P> <P>Well, I just checked, and <A href="http://www.hhs.gov/">the HHS Web Site</A> has no notice of this "<EM>declaration</EM>" either.</P> <P>I even checked <A href="http://www.flu.gov/">the "government flu Web site", flu.gov</A>. No sign of any "<EM>declaration</EM>" or hint of an <EM>"emergency."</EM></P> <P>Helloooo... wake up somebody.</P> <P>Or... maybe this so-called "emergency" is not really an... <EM>emergency</EM>.</P> <P>Remember the good old days when an <EM>emergency</EM> was was an... <EM>emergency</EM>?</P> <P>And if this is not really an <EM>emergency</EM>, why is the media reporting it as an... <EM>emergency</EM>?</P> <P>What is wrong with this picture?</P> <P>As I write this, the headline "<EM>Obama declares swine flu emergency</EM>" is the <EM>top</EM> headline on <EM>Google News</EM>.</P> <P>Obviously there is a major <EM>disconnect</EM> somewhere along the line here.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6786315117324161669?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-45453123439197239562009-09-03T17:22:00.000-04:002009-09-03T17:23:05.383-04:00<P>When I went out for my usual lunch-time walk today the workmen had already patched up the sidewalk shed across the street from my apartment building. This morning <A href="http://isayjackkrup.blogspot.com/2009/09/why-is-there-fireman-with-ax-outside-my.html">it got "crumpled" by an errant delivery truck and they had to close my street</A>. Now it is all fixed up.&nbsp;Not quite as good as new, but "good enough" for the sidewalk to be opened again. Life goes on as if nothing had happened.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-4545312343919723956?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-91891905609657404102009-09-03T10:36:00.001-04:002009-09-03T10:36:54.575-04:00<P>As I approached the front door of my apartment building to go out for my morning walk today&nbsp;I noticed a NYFD fireman standing outside our door with an ax in his hand. A bit out of the usual, even for my neighborhood. I peered out the door and saw a couple of fire trucks and police cars and saw that my street was closed to vehicular traffic. There were a couple other firemen standing nearby with big prybars in their hands.&nbsp;Attention was focused directly across the street from my apartment building, but I could see&nbsp;no evidence of any fire, not even any fire hoses or water. Mostly everybody was just standing around looking at a truck parked across the street. And it did not appear to be on fire.</P> <P>Everybody seemed rather relaxed.</P> <P>I saw a few other pedestrians on the sidewalk, so I ventured out. I walked down the sidewalk (eastward)&nbsp;a short distance to get a better angle on the truck. It was your typical large box delivery truck that is so common in NYC. From an angle I could see that it's right front wheel was a foot or two&nbsp;up on the curb, there was some broken glass on the sidewalk, and... one of the scaffolding supports for the sidewalk "shed" in front of that building had been pushed out of vertical by at least a foot or two&nbsp;and the "shed" above it was sagging down. There was no actual collapse or debris (other than the broken glass that was probably from the truck) or any apparent injuries. There were no ambulances around.</P> <P>In NYC a "sidewalk shed" is bascially a temporary roof above the sidewalk in front of a building to protect pedestrians from any falling debris while workers work on the facade of a building. This temporary roof is supported by scaffolding that rests on the sidewalk. In this case workers are chiseling and grinding out old mortar between the brickwork and re-mortaring the brick. Workers are on a platform daggling from ropes suspended from the roof, so there is no additional scaffolding above the "shed" that could collapse. There is usually some amount of tools and building materials and debris resting on top of the shed, so a collapse could be a moderate danger to pedestrians, but not life-threatening to workers as with a typical scaffolding that goes higher up the facade of a building.</P> <P>Just yesterday morning I walked under that exact location of the shed where the support is now damaged.</P> <P>No clue as to how or why the delivery truck was up on the sidewalk. It is not uncommon for vehicles to ride up on the curb a little bit to simplify parking.</P> <P>My building is at 135 E 50TH ST, just east of Lexington Avenue.</P> <P>The incident is just outside the service entrance for the W hotel, but I am not sure whether that portion of the building is actually part of the hotel. It could be, but maybe not.</P> <P>Sorry that I don't have any juicy pictures, but I do not have a camera or even a cellphone with a camera.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-9189190560965740410?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-83257475006401558142009-09-03T10:30:00.001-04:002009-09-03T10:30:45.439-04:00<P>As I approached the front door of my apartment building to go out for my morning walk today&nbsp;I noticed a NYFD fireman standing outside our door with an ax in his hand. A bit out of the usual, even for my neighborhood. I peered out the door and saw a couple of fire trucks and police cars and saw that my street was closed to vehicular traffic. Attention was focused directly across the street from my apartment building, but I could see&nbsp;no evidence of any fire, not even any fire hoses or water. Mostly everybody was just standing around looking at a truck parked across the street. And it did not appear to be on fire.</P> <P>Everybody seemed rather relaxed.</P> <P>I saw a few other pedestrians on the sidewalk, so I ventured out. I walked down the sidewalk (eastward)&nbsp;a short distance to get a better angle on the truck. It was your typical large box delivery truck that is so common in NYC. From an angle I could see that it's right front wheel was a foot or two&nbsp;up on the curb, there was some broken glass on the sidewalk, and... one of the scaffolding supports for the sidewalk "shed" in front of that building had been pushed out of vertical by at least a foot or two&nbsp;and the "shed" above it was sagging down. There was no actual collapse or debris (other than the broken glass that was probably from the truck) or any apparent injuries. There were no ambulances around.</P> <P>In NYC a "sidewalk shed" is bascially a temporary roof above the sidewalk in front of a building to protect pedestrians from any falling debris while workers work on the facade of a building. This temporary roof is supported by scaffolding that rests on the sidewalk. In this case workers are chiseling and grinding out old mortar between the brickwork and re-mortaring the brick. Workers are on a platform daggling from ropes suspended from the roof, so there is no additional scaffolding above the "shed" that could collapse. There is usually some amount of tools and building materials and debris resting on top of the shed, so a collapse could be a moderate danger to pedestrians, but not life-threatening to workers as with a typical scaffolding that goes higher up the facade of a building.</P> <P>Just yesterday morning I walked under that exact location of the shed where the support is now damaged.</P> <P>No clue as to how or why the delivery truck was up on the sidewalk. It is not uncommon for vehicles to ride up on the curb a little bit to simplify parking.</P> <P>My building is at 135 E 50TH ST, just east of Lexington Avenue.</P> <P>The incident is just outside the service entrance for the W hotel, but I am not sure whether that portion of the building is actually part of the hotel. It could be, but maybe not.</P> <P>Sorry that I don't have any juicy pictures, but I do not have a camera or even a cellphone with a camera.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-8325747500640155814?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-72035822809067628522009-09-01T11:20:00.000-04:002009-09-01T11:25:03.099-04:00<P>I continue to use Google Chrome as my <EM>main</EM> browser, but not as my <EM>default</EM> browser since there are still too many sites that it cannot display properly. The latest I have ancountered is that <A href="http://fedex.com/">FedEx.com</A> is not always displayed properly. It seems to have the same problem as GoogleFinance where the first time is fine, but if I visit the site again in a new browser tab the map of the world is not shown and you cannot select a country. In addition to the world map being absolutely blank (white), the dropdown list of countries is simply not there to select from.</P> <P>As a workaround, I can close Chrome, restart Chrome, browse to <A href="http://fedex.com/">FedEx.com</A> and the world map and dropdown list are once again properly displayed.</P> <P><EM>Sometimes</EM> I actually can re-visit the web site and it displays properly. I am not sure what condition controls whether display of some web sites is always messed up the second time around versus only sometimes being messed up.</P> <P>Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE 8)&nbsp;and Firefox display this page properly.</P> <P>I am running Google Chrome version 2.0.172.43. Should be the latest.</P> <P>Overall, I&nbsp;remain reasonably content with Chrome.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-7203582280906762852?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-60352870754641831762009-09-01T08:09:00.000-04:002009-09-01T08:10:13.609-04:00<P>There is an interesting article from <EM>Wired</EM> by&nbsp;Robert Capps entitled "<A href="http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-09/ff_goodenough">The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine</A>" which expresses a concept that I have believed in... forever. Actually, I haven't finished reading the article yet, but just the first page was "good enough" for me to judge that the author was talking about one of my core philosophies about technology, products, and services.</P> <P>My own&nbsp;philosophy of "good enough"&nbsp;explains why I remain a diehard PC owner and user. Is the Mac better? Maybe, in some ways. Is the Mac superior enough to justify its price tag? To me: No way. To put it simply: To me, the PC is <STRONG><EM>good enough</EM></STRONG>.</P> <P>To me, <STRONG><EM>good enough</EM></STRONG> is... <EM>good enough</EM>. Why pay extra for what you do not really need?</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6035287075464183176?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-15220781125106684202009-08-17T20:25:00.000-04:002009-08-17T20:26:07.315-04:00<P>Just in case you cannot access the <A href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3200:">"official" text of the H.R. 3200</A> House Energy and Commerce Committee health care reform bill at the Library of Congress Thomas web site, you can find it here:</P> <UL> <LI><A href="http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090714/aahca.pdf">House Energy and Commerce Committee web site</A></LI> <LI><A href="http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&amp;docid=f:h3200ih.txt.pdf">Government Printing Office web site</A></LI> <LI><A href="http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3200/text">Open Congress web site</A></LI></UL> <P>The official name of the bill ("Act")&nbsp;is "<EM><STRONG>America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009</STRONG></EM>."</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-1522078112510668420?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-54592040190647728182009-08-06T12:42:00.000-04:002009-08-06T12:43:09.184-04:00<P>Twitter seems to still be back, at least at this moment.</P> <P>BTW, here is <A href="http://twitter.com/JackKrupansky">my personal tweetstream for JackKrupansky</A>.</P> <P>Twitter's status blog&nbsp;(at <A href="http://status.twitter.com/">Status.Twitter.com</A>)&nbsp;still says:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM><STRONG>Update</STRONG>: the site is back up, but we are continuing to defend and recover from this attack.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Anyway, as I said in my previous posts... time for my usual midday walk up to Central Park. Really!</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-5459204019064772818?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-85328813082858309402009-08-06T12:30:00.001-04:002009-08-06T12:30:58.068-04:00<P>Twitter is still down... sort of... mostly.</P> <P>I hit refresh a minute ago and <EM><STRONG>Twitter came up just fine!</STRONG></EM></P> <P>I tried to tweet but something happened.</P> <P>Another refresh and... nothing.</P> <P>Twitter's status blog&nbsp;(at <A href="http://status.twitter.com/">Status.Twitter.com</A>)&nbsp;still says:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM><STRONG>Update</STRONG>: the site is back up, but we are continuing to defend and recover from this attack.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Anyway... time for my usual midday walk up to Central Park.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-8532881308285830940?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-47166105667327066692009-08-06T11:45:00.000-04:002009-08-06T11:46:04.040-04:00<P>I am still unable to access Twitter and Twitter's status blog&nbsp;(at <A href="http://status.twitter.com/">Status.Twitter.com</A>) still says:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM><STRONG>Update</STRONG>: the site is back up, but we are continuing to defend and recover from this attack.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>But at least <A href="http://istwitterdown.com/">IsTwitterDown.com</A>&nbsp;is now saying "<STRONG><EM>No</EM></STRONG>" in black letters in the middle of the page.</P> <P>That's a tiny bit of progress.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-4716610566732706669?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-2072104294584147592009-08-06T11:20:00.001-04:002009-08-06T11:20:54.804-04:00<P>If Twitter was up, here is what I would have Tweeted:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM>Posted on "Unemployment insurance claims modestly improved, an ongoing green shoot". </EM><A href="http://bit.ly/P1VY3"><EM>http://bit.ly/P1VY3</EM></A></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-207210429458414759?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-86250039900468840222009-08-06T11:14:00.001-04:002009-08-06T11:14:24.946-04:00<P>Twitter's status blog&nbsp;(at <A href="http://status.twitter.com/">Status.Twitter.com</A>) has an update that says:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM><STRONG>Update</STRONG>: the site is back up, but we are continuing to defend and recover from this attack.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>But as far as I can tell, Twitter is still <STRONG><EM>down</EM></STRONG>.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-8625003990046884022?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-81639811109024773112009-08-06T10:55:00.000-04:002009-08-06T10:56:39.348-04:00<P>Even if Twitter itself is down, you can still check status at <A href="http://status.twitter.com/">Status.Twitter.com</A>.</P> <P>I just checked and this is what I found:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM><STRONG>Site is down<BR></STRONG>1 hour ago</EM></P> <P><EM>We are determining the cause and will provide an update shortly.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>One hour ago? Shortly? Hmmm... this is a <EM>major</EM> outage. And they still do not know the real cause. Good grief.</P> <P>Hey, at least Google Blogger is super reliable these days. Interesting... the Twitter guys are the guys who originally developed Blogger. Maybe that is the solution to these outages: Sell out to Google.</P> <P>Stop the presses... I just hit Refresh one last time and now Twitter Status is saying:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM><STRONG>Ongoing denial-of-service attack<BR></STRONG>3 minutes ago</EM></P> <P><EM>We are defending against a denial-of-service attack, and will update status again shortly.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Wow, a heavy duty DOS. Could it be the Eye-ranians or the North Koreans?</P> <P>They also updated the previous notice to include an update:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM><STRONG>Update</STRONG>: we are defending against a denial-of-service attack.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-8163981110902477311?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-68930008513821194922009-08-06T10:39:00.001-04:002009-08-06T10:39:56.921-04:00<P>I begin to suspect that <A href="http://twitter.com/">Twitter</A> is down when the <EM>Update</EM> button fails to post a new tweet promptly.</P> <P>I become more suspicious when browser <EM>Refresh/Reload</EM> fails to load the Twitter web page.</P> <P>My suspicion is mostly confirmed when <A href="http://bit.ly">Bit.ly</A> has a notification at the top of the page:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM>Twitter is currently experiencing some API issues. Posting may be unavailable.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Finally I go to <A href="http://istwitterdown.com/">IsTwitterDown.com</A>&nbsp;and it says "<STRONG><EM>yes</EM></STRONG>" in red letters in the middle of the page.</P> <P>Twitter is still down.</P> <P>How long has it been down? Answer: <STRONG><EM>Too long.</EM></STRONG></P> <P>How long is that? Long enough for me to complete <EM>three</EM> old-fashioned blog posts!</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6893000851382119492?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-78007648022046890132009-08-06T10:31:00.000-04:002009-08-06T10:32:06.591-04:00<P>Coming up with a precise, accurate, flexible&nbsp;and understandable definition of <EM>Blogging</EM> has been problematic, but I think I now have the answer:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM><STRONG>Blogging</STRONG>: What you do when Twitter is down.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-7800764802204689013?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-57467506151446942482009-08-06T10:27:00.000-04:002009-08-06T10:28:45.161-04:00<P>Why on earth is Twitter down again? They have experienced outages before, so shouldn't they have learned from them and fixed the problems that are causing outages? Or is the problem the fact that they are so dependent on Amazon, Google, and other flaky "service" companies? Maybe it is time that they build their own <EM>infrastructure</EM>. Maybe being in the infamous San Francisco Bay Area is an infrastructure <EM>negative</EM> rather than a plus. If they want to have offices in the Bay Area, fine, but locate <EM>all</EM> infrastructure where service providers are more reliable and they have more <EM>control</EM>. They have plenty of money, so is this a sign of <EM>negligent management</EM>, or what?</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-5746750615144694248?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-54036057711379513562009-08-05T17:25:00.000-04:002009-08-05T17:26:01.232-04:00<P>I continue to use Google Chrome as my <EM>main</EM> browser, but not as my <EM>default</EM> browser since there are still too many sites that it cannot display properly. The latest I have ancountered is the <A href="http://www.newscorp.com/"><EM>News Corp.</EM> web site home page</A>, where it displays the News Corp. press releases and business unit news columns way off to the right side and off the screen, rather than in the main news box where they belong.</P> <P>Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE 8)&nbsp;and Firefox display this page properly.</P> <P>I am running Google Chrome version 2.0.172.39. Should be the latest.</P> <P>Overall, I&nbsp;remain reasonably content with Chrome.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-5403605771137951356?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-75978221380459144372009-08-03T19:58:00.000-04:002009-08-03T19:59:32.133-04:00<P>Sometimes I actually like to read email spam because the claims are so hilarious. Today was the first time I had ever gotten a pitch for the "<STRONG><EM>The </EM>Cool Surge<EM> eco-friendly air cooler</EM></STRONG>":</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM>The Cool Surge(R) eco-friendly air cooler blasts out ice cooled air, but uses about 96% less electricity than a typical window air conditioner. That way, you can stay cool for just pennies a day.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Sounds great! Of course, 96% less electricity seems a bit too good to be true.</P> <P>So, I cut and pasted the first part of the sentence and googled it and quickly spotted <A href="http://censys.org/blog/?p=987">a blog post that points out</A>:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM>So essentially <STRONG>what the machine does is blow air over an icepack that you freeze in your freezer</STRONG>. This is nothing but an attempt to bilk poor people and people on fixed incomes out of money. They hope to take advantage of the ever rising energy prices to blind people to the laughable nature of any sort of cooling claims. You can buy a cheap window fan (that at least partial vents the heat from the fan) for 30 $$$ at a hardware store&nbsp; and a freeze pack or 2 at your local grocery store for under 5 $$$. They want 300 $$$ PLUS shipping for their unit. What a joke. If you have ever taken your lunch to work with an ice pack in it, you know how well your cooler has to be insulated to make it work well. Try that in a house.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>That's great. They were so careful to say "<EM>ice cooled air</EM>", expecting (correctly) that most people (including me) would read that as "<EM>ice <STRONG>cold</STRONG> air</EM>." Of course, no sane person would want to feel 32-degree air anyway.</P> <P>Here is the description from the <A href="http://www.coolsurge.com/index.cfm">Cool Surge web site</A>:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM>The Cool Surge portable air cooler is a work of engineering genius from the China coast so advanced that no windows, vents or freon are required. It's as easy to use as a baby's vaporizer and even includes two sets of the reusable glacier ice blocks. That gives you a total of eight hours of extra cooling power. It uses the same electricity as a light bulb, yet it blasts out ice cooled air. The hi-efficiency motor cools the air around the unit so you'll instantly feel cool and refreshed. The 3 cooling levels and auto shut off timer put all the comfort controls at your fingertips. It's so impressive that all transactions less shipping are backed by a full year limited warranty and a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>It does sound so "eco-friendly" with its "<EM>reusable glacier ice blocks</EM>."</P> <P>Now, be careful to read the fine print... "<EM>gives you a total of eight hours of extra cooling power</EM>." But what if it is hot more than <EM>eight</EM> hours?&nbsp;Hmmm... 24 divided by eight is three, meaning you would need <EM>three</EM> of these units or <EM>six</EM> sets of those "<EM>reusable glacier ice blocks</EM>" if you live in a climate where you need A/C 24/7 to survive all day, plus the <EM>freezer</EM> capacity for all of those "<EM>reusable glacier ice blocks</EM>."</P> <P>The <A href="http://www.coolsurge.com/faqs.cfm">FAQ</A> is "useful":</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><STRONG><EM>HOW DOES THE COOL SURGE WORK?</EM></STRONG></P> <P><EM>It is a work of engineering genius that blasts out ice cooled air but only uses the same electricity as a 60 watt light bulb on the standard setting.</EM></P> <P><EM>It's as easy to use as a baby's vaporizer and even includes the extra cooling power of 4 reusable glacier ice blocks. The glacier packs last 4-6 hours and are freezable and reusable.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Gee, that's a very helpful answer!</P> <P>Here's another very important question and the "useful" answer:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><STRONG><EM>HOW MUCH WILL THE COOL SURGE COOL A ROOM?</EM></STRONG></P> <P><EM>It depends on several factors including the size of the room, the humidity level, the room temperature on any given day, what type of windows, is the sun shining right into the room, how high the ceilings are...</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Those are <EM>their</EM> ellipses. Actually, honestly, they did given the technically correct <EM>engineer's</EM> answer (and we know their engineer(s) was a "genius"): <EM>It all depends</EM>. No sane engineer would ever claim otherwise. If they had marketing answer this question they would say "<EM>A lot!</EM>". And the sales team would helpfully and cheerfully respond "<EM>All of it!</EM>"</P> <P>Here's the real catch... At a cost of $356, that is $176 more than I paid for my window air conditioner. $176 will buy me a lot of electricity. And of course they do not alert you to the fact that you have to pay the cost of electricity for your freezer to "reuse" those "<EM>reusable glacier ice blocks</EM>." Unless... if you live in a place where the winters are very cold and you have an <EM>ice house</EM>, you could buy and freeze a zillion of those "<EM>reusable glacier ice blocks</EM>" and not pay a dime for freezing them.</P> <P>The spam I got offered to sell me the Cool Surge for a $119 discount or $297 discount for two units that are "<EM>nearly perfect</EM>." The email says:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <P><EM>These units have minor, hard-to-find imperfections that keep us from selling them at regular prices, but they function perfectly saving you a ton compared to A.C. costs.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>One other little nit to pick...&nbsp;a of the primary function and value of A/C is to <EM>remove humidity</EM> so that you <EM>feel</EM> cooler than if the humidty were higher. The Cool Surge has no such capability, other than the small amount of condensation that might form on the "<EM>reusable glacier ice blocks</EM>". After all, if it did remove humidity to the extent that a window A/C does you would end up with a large puddle of water on the floor or have to frequently drain a pan to accumulate the water.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-7597822138045914437?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-6143700216580033512009-07-17T12:00:00.000-04:002009-07-17T12:01:13.514-04:00<P>One of the top <A href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%22IE6%20Must%20Die%22">Trending Topics in Twitter is "IE6 Must Die"</A>. Superficially, the <A href="http://mashable.com/2009/07/16/ie6-must-die/">arguments in favor of retiring this old browser</A> are quite reasonable, but in a deeper sense the arguments are really <EM><STRONG>a pile of crap</STRONG></EM>.</P> <P>I believe in <EM>natural</EM> evolution. IE6 will <EM>eventually</EM> die off of its own accord as <EM>users</EM> abandon it over time. The very idea that <EM>developers</EM> and <EM>vendors</EM> seek to&nbsp;<EM>force</EM> IE 6 <EM>users</EM>&nbsp;to upgrade&nbsp;merely to <EM>primarily</EM>&nbsp;benefit developers and venders is simply <EM>morally indefensible</EM>.</P> <P>The very first and most important principal that <EM>everyone</EM> should keep in mind is that <EM>users</EM> want <EM>simpler</EM> applications and web sites, <EM>not</EM> more <EM>complicated </EM>applications and web sites. Developers and vendors may certainly have a <EM>vested</EM> interest in producing ever-more sophisticated and complicated applications and web sites, but that is <EM>not</EM> an indicator of the interests or <EM>needs</EM>&nbsp;of <EM>users</EM>.&nbsp;<EM>Any</EM> IE6 user can easily and freely use Windows Update to upgrade to IE 7 or even IE 8, <EM>if</EM> they really want to gain access to more sophisticated features. The very fact that many users are <EM>choosing</EM> not to update is a good indicator that they are <EM>not</EM> interested in more <EM>complicated</EM> applications and web sites.</P> <P>Developers and vendors may <EM>think</EM> (fantasize) that users really need all of this extra sophistication and <EM>complication</EM>, but a <EM>neutral observer</EM> will likely find that they are mistaken. <EM>Users</EM> want <STRONG>simplicity</STRONG>!</P> <P>I'm not opposed to innovation, but if developers and vendors really feel that they can produce a <EM>dramatically superior user experience</EM> with more modern browsers, then they should <EM>go for it</EM>, provided that they also continue to provide a <EM>decent</EM> experience for more average and normal&nbsp;users. If developers and vendors find that the extra expense of maintaining two distinct user experiences is too high, then guess what... a neutral observer is likely to find that the "perceived" benefits in the minds of the developers and vendors are probably <EM>not there</EM> in the real world of <EM>real users</EM>.</P> <P>There <EM>will</EM> come a time, maybe two or three years down the road, especially after the economic recovery becomes much stronger and&nbsp;<EM>users choose</EM> to upgrade to Windows 7 and IE 8 (or beyond) when IE6 <EM>will</EM> effectively have <EM>died off</EM>. Until then, developers should <EM>behave themselves</EM> and treat <EM>users</EM> with a lot more respect than they are doing today with this irresponsible "IE6 Must Die" campaign.</P> <P>Even simple-minded Twitter has a web site that is already way too complicated for its nominally simple purpose. Message to all developers and vendors: <STRONG><EM>Keep it simple!!!</EM></STRONG></P> <P>To be clear, <EM>users</EM> are not the <EM>property</EM> of developers and vendors to <EM>abuse</EM> as they see fit. Even "evil" Microsoft knows that! It is certainly in Microsoft's interests to upgrade users to IE 7 or 8, but even Microsoft knows that they have to have at least <EM>some</EM> sensitivity to the needs of their markets.</P> <P>There is a simple way to characterize the mentaility behind this whole "IE6 Must Die" "movement": <EM>unbridled arrogance</EM>.</P> <P>Let me assure everyone that <EM><STRONG>IE6 Will Die</STRONG></EM> (<EM>eventually</EM>), but that day is still a distance off into the future. Let's wait for Windows 7 general deployment and for IE 8 to become the common version of IE, and maybe then IE6 will be a lot closer to <EM>falling</EM> (naturally, of its own accord) off the radar screens of developers and vendors.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-614370021658003351?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-67675888948870863312009-07-09T10:59:00.001-04:002009-07-09T10:59:36.839-04:00<P>I had not been doing much with <EM><A href="http://www.facebook.com">Facebook</A></EM>, but since I was <A href="http://semanticabyss.blogspot.com/2009/07/whats-my-name-who-am-i.html">pondering issues with names</A>, I decided to go in and see what I had used for my name when I had claimed my Facebook profile (whenever that was, maybe a couple of years ago.)</P> <P>I had in fact claimed <EM>Jack Krupansky</EM> as my name in Facebook. No surprise there. That is how most people know me.</P> <P>But the more I thought about it, I decided that I needed some way to <EM>also</EM> be findable as <EM>John W. Krupansky</EM>.</P> <P>I browsed through all of the options and settings and found where <EM>Jack Krupansky</EM> was set as my "<STRONG>real name</STRONG>." Hmmm... <EM>real</EM> name. I hadn't paid attention before.</P> <P>While I was thinking about whether to change my "real" name in Facebook to <EM>John William Krupansky</EM>, I browsed some more and notice that Facebook also had an optional&nbsp;"<STRONG>Full Alternate Name</STRONG>." I went ahead and entered <EM>John William Krupansky</EM> as my <EM>full alternate name</EM>. Done.</P> <P>Oops... I thought about it for a few more seconds and realized that I had my names backwards. I should have used <EM>John William Krupansky</EM> as my <EM>real</EM> name and <EM>Jack Krupansky</EM> as my full <EM>alternate</EM> name. That actually makes more sense. Done.</P> <P>I would be more comfortable with just my middle initial when my name is used in general and then show the full spelling if someone looks at my profile, but Facebook does not give my any such option.</P> <P>Unfortunately, the entire Facebook UI refers to me as <EM>John</EM> rather than <EM>Jack</EM>. Too bad they don't recognize formal and nick names and let you pick whether to default to formal or nick names. Actually, I'd rather have Facebook refer to me as <EM>Mr. Krupansky</EM>, just to make it clear what a subservient role the software real has. Facebook <EM>serves</EM> me. Facebook is not my <EM>friend</EM>.</P> <P>Now that I have done all of this I realize another issue... <EM><STRONG>findability in Google</STRONG></EM>. My primary interest is professional in nature, so I would prefer that other professionals be able to find me as they know me, which is <EM>Jack Krupansky</EM>. But, by using <EM>John William Krupansky</EM> as my Facebook "real" name, my professional name on Facebook&nbsp;is not directly findable. Now I am thinking that I should set my "real" name to <EM>Jack Krupansky</EM> and my "alternate" name to <EM>John William Krupansky</EM>. But I'll think about this for more than a few seconds before changing it. Thinking... Done thinking. Changed. So, now my Facebook "real" name is back to <EM>Jack Krupansky</EM> and my "alternate" name is <EM>John William Krupansky</EM>. Logically that is backwards, but practically it should work better.</P> <P>My Facebook profile is <A href="http://www.facebook.com/jack.krupansky">here</A>: <A href="http://www.facebook.com/jack.krupansky">http://www.facebook.com/jack.krupansky</A>.</P> <P>Now, I need to&nbsp;go in and make sure I have <EM>LinkedIn</EM> set in a similar manner, if possible.</P> <P>Twitter? Now there's a lost cause. Maybe they'll let me set my name properly when they figure out what they want to do in life.</P> <P>Oh, and while I was at it, I found an <EM>Ivan Krupansky</EM> over in Slovakia to add as a friend. And he has a friend <EM>Jakub Krupansky</EM> (with an acute accent over the "y", which I do not know how to enter in an emailed blog post) who I also added as a friend. Whether either of them is even a distant relative is unknown. Do we really have the <EM>same</EM> last name if one uses a diacritical mark?</P> <P>Now, I need to think some more about a sensible model for formal and informal names in the <EM>Semantic Web</EM>. It will be awhile before I get to the stage of addressing cultural difference in how names are used. That is all the more reason to <EM>strip</EM> the textual representations of names out of Semantic Web data and use a URI to reference the person rather than a culturally-dependent textual representation.</P> <P>I need to take a look at the <A href="http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/">FOAF (Friend Of A Friend) vocabulary specification</A> to at least use that as a starting reference point for name handling in the Semantic Web. Ditto for the <A href="http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/">Dublin Core Metadata Element Set</A>. I do not think either will get me very far, but I at least need to cover those bases.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6767588894887086331?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-62621239738122739212009-05-20T18:14:00.001-04:002009-05-20T18:14:43.813-04:00<P>I was sitting in front of my Toshiba notebook PC about a month ago&nbsp;and then suddenly, out of the blue, with no activity on my part:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>WTF?! Where are all of those extra&nbsp;"T" keystrokes coming from?</P> <P>First, I blew into the keyboard and ran a card between and under the keys to clean out any dust or debris. That worked! For a while.</P> <P>But the problem kept popping up on occasion&nbsp;and eventually that did not fix it.</P> <P>I popped the "T" key cap and made sure everything was clean there. That usually worked.</P> <P>Sometimes I simply power cycled the machine. That usually fixed the problem, at least for a while.</P> <P><EM>[I know, I know... the right solution is to get a Mac!!]</EM></P> <P>On occasion the "T" key would actually die. A reboot seemed to fix that as well.</P> <P>I started to wonder if maybe the phantom "T" key strokes were due to a virus. Hard to say.</P> <P>Odd, but only the "T" key has this problem.</P> <P>I am not sure why, but just the other day the thought occurred to me that <EM>heating</EM> may be the problem. Sure enough, every time I see the problem and then fan and blow on the keyboard for about ten to fifteen seconds and&nbsp;within a minute the problem stops, at least for a while. This is my current "best practice" workaround for the problem. I do in fact believe it is a heating problem.</P> <P>I also tried putting something under the side edges of the notebook to leave more space underneath for air flow, but that does not cure the problem.</P> <P>I have A/C on sometimes, but my apartment is not unusually warm right now in any case.</P> <P>One possibility is that there are simply four years of dirt and grime accumulated inside the machine (there is a fan) and around the keys&nbsp;that causes the overheating. Maybe I'll look into a professional cleaning.</P> <P>Or maybe some component has simply aged and is more heat sensitive now.</P> <P>Or maybe four years of typing has simply beaten the keyboard (and some component) to a pulp.</P> <P>Another possible cause is that with many Google Chrome tabs open&nbsp;I occasionally run into a low memory condition and this has a side effect that the processor and disk start working overtime, like solid, always on, and maybe that is causing extra heating. I do notice that the fan is running at high speed more often.</P> <P>One possible solution might simply be to buy a new keyboard. That may in fact "fix" the problem for the short-term.</P> <P>My machine will be four years old in just under a month, so I am due for an upgrade anyway. I might just use this runaway phantom "T" key problem as my excuse. Alas, I had been hoping to wait for Windows 7 to be pre-installed on a new machine. I will still shoot for that, maybe in the fall or the holiday season or next January.</P> <P>I just <A href="http://entengr.blogspot.com/2009/05/is-there-dog-on-end-of-your-leash.html">checked my old blog posts</A> and curiously my previous Toshiba notebook PC also started getting "finicky" just short of its fourth birthday. Probably a coincidence. Hmmm...</P> <P>I have the Toshiba Satellite M55-S325.</P> <P>Other than the "T" key problem, it works great, although I could definitely use a faster machine and more memory. I am still running Windows XP, but upgraded to SP3.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6262123973812273921?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-30183350777873934172009-05-11T10:02:00.000-04:002009-05-11T10:04:18.607-04:00<P>I use the Google Chrome web browser for most of my web browsing, but still not as my default browser since I continue to run into web pages that it cannot handle. The latest is that just this morning I found that Chrome cannot handle the <A href="http://www.aarp.org/memtools3">AARP membership renewal web page</A>.&nbsp;Chrome displays the form to enter data, but fails to display the button to process the form. This page works fine in both Microsoft Internet Explorer and in Firefox.</P> <P>I am running Google Chrome version 1.0.154.65.</P> <P>I suppose it should not surprise me that the "kids" at Google never noticed this!</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-3018335077787393417?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-72671961345177617962009-05-08T19:38:00.001-04:002009-05-08T19:38:45.534-04:00<P>Hello, Twitter, where are you?? Twitter currently reminds me of a small bird I found yesterday in front of the 45th Street entrance to the MetLife building: lying on the ground, semi-lifeless, twitching, neither dead nor alive. Sad.</P> <P>Anyway, if Twitter were alive right now (and when it eventually does come back to life), here is what I would be tweeting:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>ECRI Weekly Leading Index rises sharply suggesting that an end to the U.S. recession is now in clear sight. </EM><A href="http://tinyurl.com/pgot9p"><EM>http://tinyurl.com/pgot9p</EM></A></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>As far as the bird, I crouched down to examine it and a security guard came by and gently picked it up and moved it off to the side so nobody would step on it. He suggested that it flew into the glass.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-7267196134517761796?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-74123920601683993802009-04-20T19:15:00.001-04:002009-04-20T19:15:52.789-04:00<P>All of a sudden today I was unable to properly view the <A href="http://www.bloomberg.com/">Bloomberg web site</A> in Google Chrome, but it would display properly in Microsoft Internet Explorer. I hit reload a few times and closed and restarted the browser, but nothing worked.</P> <P>Then I remembered that I had seen this problem before and "fixed" it by disabling Chrome's <EM>DNS pre-fetching</EM>. I had disabled that feature quite some time ago, so I was baffled as to what was wrong now.</P> <P>Just to be sure, I went into the "Under the Hood" tab of Google Chrome Options and sure enough the DNS pre-fetching feature was once again <EM>enabled</EM>! I turned it off (again!) and now the Bloomberg web site works fine.</P> <P>I know that I did not turn that feature back on, so maybe an automated update automatically turned it back on as a "service" to us "dumb" users. Maybe Google thought that they had fixed the problem and forced the feature back on. Maybe. Who knows.</P> <P>I am running Chrome version 1.0.154.53 on Windows XP SP3.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-7412392060168399380?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-27078343313375531742009-04-20T18:26:00.000-04:002009-04-20T18:27:10.586-04:00<P>With so many places to go and so many things to see and do on the Web, it is getting almost impossible to keep up with the proliferation of interesting information out there. We need some help.&nbsp;A hefty productivity boost is simply not good enough. We need a lot of help. Browser add-ons, better search engines,&nbsp;and filtering tools are simply not enough. Unfortunately, the next few years holds more of the same.</P> <P>But, longer term we should finally start to see credible advances in <EM>software agent technology</EM> which help to extend our own minds so that we can engage in <EM>virtual browsing</EM> and have a <EM>virtual presence</EM> on the Web so that we can effectively reach and touch a far broader, deeper, and richer lode of information than we can with personal browsing and our personal presence.</P> <P>Twitter asks us what we are doing right now, but our online activity and presence with the aid of software agents&nbsp;will be a thousand or ten thousand or even a million or ten million times greater than we can personally achieve today. What&nbsp;are each of us interested in? How about <EM>everything</EM>?! Why not?</P> <P>The gradual evolution of the W3C conception of the <EM>Semantic Web</EM> will eventually reach a critical mass where even relatively dumb software agents can finally appear to behave in a relatively intelligent manner that begins to approximate our own personal activity and personal presence on the Web.</P> <P>It may take another five to ten years, but the long march in that direction is well underway.</P> <P>The biggest obstacle right now is not the intelligence of an individual software agent per se, but the need to encode a rich enough density of information in the Semantic Web so that we can realistically develop intelligent software agents that can work with that data. We will also need an infrastructure that mediates between the actual data and the agents.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-2707834331337553174?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-78534904486201756342009-04-19T07:41:00.000-04:002009-04-19T07:43:10.868-04:00<P>I discovered that I cannot use Google Chrome to view the DOJ "torture" memos that were released a few days ago. I get a "109" error for each of them and then the browser tab is simply an empty white document&nbsp;and inactive. But... I can view them successfully in Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, so there is no problem with the PDF viewer per se. This suggests that Google has some issue with how they integrated the Adobe PDF reader/viewer.</P> <P>The exact error message:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM><STRONG>Adobe Reader</STRONG></EM></P> <P><EM>There was an error processing a page. There was a problem reading this document (109).</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I am using Google Chrome version 1.0.154.53, running under Windows XP SP3 on a Toshiba notebook PC.</P> <P>Now, (unfortunately) back to IE. Talk about torture!</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-7853490448620175634?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-69304188860743573212009-04-14T10:35:00.001-04:002009-04-14T10:35:49.525-04:00<P>I was doing my usual Sunday afternoon browsing of the "New Arrivals" table at Barnes &amp; Noble near Lincoln Center here in New York City and spent a few minutes leafing though <EM><A href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470458429/finaxyz-20">Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time</A></EM> by Joel Comm&nbsp;"with" Ken Burge. Alas, although I am by no means an expert in Twitter (only 425 "tweet" updates to date), I did not notice anything that I did not already know. Maybe if I read the book carefully I would stumble upon a few tips that would be of value to me, but I don't have the patience to read books that carefully these days.</P> <P>My attitude is that if page one does not blow me away, then the book is not for me. I also scan the table of contents and skip to at least half a dozen or more random pages to see if anything does leap out at me. After all of that, either the book made an impression or not. For me, <EM>Twitter Power</EM> did not. I am willing to concede that it may be a great intro for the uninformed, but for a book with "Power" in the title, I expect more, much more.</P> <P>As far as giving the insight to "dominate&nbsp;your market", I would have to classify myself as a skeptic on that score.</P> <P>If any readers out that did glean valuable insight from the book, please let me know what I may have missed!</P> <P align=center><A href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470458429/finaxyz-20"><IMG alt="" hspace=0 src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41LzFTGXx1L._AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg" align=baseline border=0></A></P> <P>My apologies for not providing a better summary of the book, but by all means browse through it and decide for yourself whether it offers you any advice of value.</P> <P>Note: I do get a tiny commission from Amazon if you buy a book after clicking on the cover images or link above that redirect to Amazon. Thanks!</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6930418886074357321?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-28997728926022300942009-04-13T11:30:00.000-04:002009-04-13T11:31:16.497-04:00<P>In order to facilitate the development of <EM>open garden social networks</EM> it is necessary to have a safe place for consumers to place their personal data, not just where it can be stored and accessed, but also to control access and to provide a reliable digital identity. Many years ago I thought up a scheme I called a <EM><A href="http://opixia.com/BaseTechnology/data_union.htm">data union</A></EM>, kind of a cross between a data bank and a credit union, which would provide exactly that form of reliable and safe storage for a consumer's personal data. I finally wrote up a <A href="http://opixia.com/BaseTechnology/data_union.htm">rough, summary description back in 2005</A>, but I have not yet pursued the concept any further.</P> <P>The intention is not so much to store a consumer's <EM>bulk</EM> data such as documents, photos, media, etc., but simply to store and control the <EM>attribute</EM> information that might be needed for online transactions and promotion of products and services, such as name, address, phone numbers, social security number, age and birth date, gender, interests, and whatever. The intention was to give the consumer great control over exactly what personal information is available to whomever.</P> <P>It would be a natural extension to have a <EM>data union safety deposit box</EM>, which would be a modest amount of digital storage, maybe in the megabytes or a "few" gigabytes, sufficient for documents, valuable images, etc., but not intended for full-blown personal storage.</P> <P>A&nbsp;data union would be an ideal repository for online digital identity credentials, or at least as a digital identity validation service. For example, the consumer could approve an entity with which they are willing to transact and then the consumer could provide a transaction code to that entity which the data union could verify.</P> <P>A data union would enable the consumer to be as open and visible and transparent&nbsp;or as closed and hidden and secretive as they wish.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-2899772892602230094?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-9220795915284014112009-04-13T08:06:00.001-04:002009-04-13T08:06:20.823-04:00<P>I am noticing that my spam traffic has slowed down, again. I have my email accounts set to simply tag all spam and then I manually delete it. I wonder if "the authorities" are being increasingly successful at cracking down on spammers, or whether the economy is getting them down, or whether they realize that I am a useless target for their pleas for clicks. Whatever. Or maybe they just took off the Easter weekend. In any case, I am enjoying the sight of a relatively clean email in-box in the morning. I had only 7 spam email messages from 11:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m. That is a very poor showing by the spammers.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-922079591528401411?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-76475442578153270302009-04-12T20:31:00.000-04:002009-04-12T20:32:55.876-04:00<P>I am truly tired of social networking sites that are <EM>walled gardens</EM>, requiring some form of <EM>registration</EM> and holding my personal data <EM>hostage</EM> by maintaining it behind the walls of the "walled garden." What is the alternative? Is there an alternative? No, there is no alternative currently, but in the longer term we can hope that developers and entrepreneurs will recognize that <EM>open garden networks</EM> have distinct advantages over walled gardens.</P> <P>The esence of an <EM>open garden social network</EM> is that users maintain their data wherever they want as long as it can be crawled by whatever sites wish to aggregate that data. Since the data is maintained publicly, it can easily be shared by more than one <EM>social networking aggregator</EM>.</P> <P>The immediate technical obstacles are that: 1)&nbsp;the average consumer has no obvious public location to store their data and 2) we do not have a technology and public infrastructure in place for consumers to "sign" their personal data to associate it with their digital identity.</P> <P>Who knows, maybe <EM>open garden social networking</EM> will take off in another five or ten years.</P> <P>One of the key benefits of <EM>open garden personal data</EM> is that it will open up vast new opportunities for innovation in <EM>open garden social media</EM> since each innovator can piggyback on the existing (in the future)&nbsp;public <EM>open garden infrastructure</EM> rather than need to go through the time and expense of reinventing the wheel unnecessarily for each new social networking aggregator site.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-7647544257815327030?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-87182943935312206432009-04-12T19:37:00.001-04:002009-04-12T19:37:47.890-04:00<P>My <A href="http://jackkonblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/twitter-lost-some-of-my-tweets-again.html">one-week boycott of Twitter due to data mis-management</A>&nbsp;will be coming to an end later this evening. The good news is that <A href="http://status.twitter.com/post/93501130/working-through-some-errors-this-morning">Twitter at least acknowledges the problem of "lost tweets"</A>. The bad news is that <A href="http://status.twitter.com/post/94970050/were-working-to-resolve-an-issue-with-some-missing">as of Friday Twitter was still seeing the problem</A>. The okay-but-not-great news is that the tweets are only lost temporarily, but eventually are restored. Whatever. My boycott is nominally over (in a few hours)&nbsp;and I am willing to give Twitter the benefit of the doubt over these... "growing pains" and see what the future brings.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-8718294393531220643?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-29007962703346127542009-04-11T07:49:00.001-04:002009-04-11T07:49:56.559-04:00<P>I never was able to comprehend the "wisdom" of eBay buying Skype, other than for the founders and investors to cash out of Skype, so now I am excited to hear that there is an effort underway to separate Skype from eBay. That should re-energize Skype to innovate much more rapidly. An article in <EM>The New York Times</EM> by Brad Stone entitled "<A href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/technology/companies/11skype.html?th&amp;emc=th">European Duo Seeks to Buy Skype Back From EBay</A>" summarizes current efforts to "free" Skype from eBay.</P> <P>Who knows, Skype might even be a much more organic partner for Twitter than even Google.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-2900796270334612754?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-56098269434875794272009-04-08T18:58:00.001-04:002009-04-08T18:58:24.009-04:00<P>I have not played with it very much, but check out the <A href="http://www.neoformix.com/Projects/TwitterSpectrum/TwitterSpectrum.html">Twitter Spectrum</A>&nbsp;visual analyzer from <A href="http://www.neoformix.com">Neoformix</A>, which visually shows you term ranking relative to two topics referenced in Twitter tweets. Read the <A href="http://www.neoformix.com/2008/TwitterSpectrum.html">Twitter Spectrum blog post</A> as well.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-5609826943487579427?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-27866829871320445322009-04-08T16:24:00.001-04:002009-04-08T16:24:45.377-04:00<P>I just made an <A href="http://isayjackkrup.blogspot.com/2009/04/cafe-philo-in-new-york-city-this-week.html">innocuous blog post about an upcoming philosophy discussion</A> and it quickly got a comment that I am calling "the comment from hell", which is a very long rant that starts with:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>The vast majority of website operators don't have the guts to allow this post, anything like it, any searchable lines, or links. They have been deleted more than 90% of the time. The vast majority of syndicated talk radio hosts are screening their calls and won't allow this topic. The vast majority of callers don't have a clue. We are in big trouble. The truth is so Earth shattering, that no public figure has the guts to acknowledge it. Very few have the guts to allow a statement anything like this in their forum. The truth is being suppressed. We are in much more serious trouble than we have been told by any public figure. Don't be fooled by fluctuating economic indicators or short term market stability. The entire foundation of our economy is crumbling. Get ready people. Get your affairs in order. Get your households in order. Get your communities in order. Be prepared. This is no 'correction'. This is no ordinary recession. This won't be just another Great Depression. This will be much worse. Save this post now before it gets deleted.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>And it ends with:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>1% CLUB PIGS: My right to remain anonymous is protected by federal law. If this right is violated, I will sue everyone involved and give 99% of the reward directly to my less fortunate fellow citizens. The rest, I will use to print up more copies of this document. DEAL WITH IT.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>When pasted into a Word document it is 30 pages long! With a good number of spelling errors</P> <P>Sure I could easily delete it, but I find it amusing.</P> <P>I did a Google search for "<EM>The vast majority of website operators don't have the guts</EM>" and get 132 hits, so I am not the first and only target for this rant.</P> <P>I am curious what the motive is for posting such a long rant as a comment. After all, most people will simply ignore it.</P> <P>Anybody have any clues as to what "the comment from hell" is really all about? It certainly did not relate to my post that it appeared on.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-2786682987132044532?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-58791832330499262472009-04-08T10:36:00.001-04:002009-04-08T10:36:55.984-04:00<P>Are you overwhelmed by Twitter and tweeting? Maybe microblogging is too much for you. If so, give nanoblogging a shot and check out <A href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeLZCy-_m3s">Flutter</A>. "Flaps" are limited to 26 characters (vs. 140-character tweets in Twitter.)</P> <P><EM>Warning: This is </EM>supposed<EM> to be a joke!</EM></P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-5879183233049926247?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-21332820708742947032009-04-06T19:38:00.001-04:002009-04-06T19:38:47.479-04:00<P>Earlier today I noticed that somebody I was following on Twitter had their avatar picture changed back to the default brown square with "o_O" in it. I wondered why "they" did that. Just now, I noticed that <EM>my</EM> avatar is now the same brown square with "o_O" in it. WTF?!?!</P> <P>Hey Twitter, what is going on?</P> <P>I also noticed that one of the Twitter developers had the same problem.</P> <P>Now, can somebody tell me what the "proper" term for this is, is it a "TwitFU"?</P> <P>Feel free to follow me on Twitter: <A href="http://twitter.com/JackKrupansky">Jack Krupansky on Twitter</A>.</P> <P>But, please note that my week-long boycott of Twitter is still underway.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-2133282070874294703?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-3693330941449526592009-04-06T17:30:00.000-04:002009-04-06T17:31:06.250-04:00<P>Just a few hours ago Twitter finally acknowledged that they have a problem with lost tweets. As per the <A href="http://status.twitter.com/post/93501130/working-through-some-errors-this-morning">Twitter Status blog</A>:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM><STRONG>Working through some errors this morning</STRONG> 4 hours ago</EM></P> <P><EM>We're contending with an elevated number of error pages this morning. Site latency has also been a problem. We're working through both issues now.</EM></P> <P><EM><STRONG>Update:</STRONG> Some users may notice tweets missing in their timelines.&nbsp; These tweets have NOT been lost. We are working to correct the problem.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Note: You can <A href="http://status.twitter.com/">sign up to receive Twitter status by email</A>.</P> <P>My boycott of Twitter (no new tweets of any substance) continues, for the rest of the week.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-369333094144952659?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-46025214562142573822009-04-06T08:24:00.001-04:002009-04-06T08:24:34.761-04:00<P>I just checked and Twittered appears to have restored my seven tweets that disappeared last night. No clue what happened. I suppose I do need to reconsider my boycott of Twitter, but I am not completely inclined to trust Twitter again with my "work" so soon after a screw-up on this nature and nature on their part. We'll see. Besides, I had decided to invest more of my Twitter-related time in doing higher-quality blogging. At least that does raise the question of what exactly constitutes high-value in Twitter.</P> <P>Oops... almost forgot (again) to point you to <A href="http://twitter.com/JackKrupansky">my Twitter "channel"</A>: <A href="http://twitter.com/JackKrupansky">Jack Krupansky on Twitter</A>.</P> <P>Actually, you can always find my Twitter URL on the right side of this blog where it shows as:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="WORD-SPACING: 0px; FONT: 13px/18px 'Trebuchet MS'; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; COLOR: rgb(102,102,102); TEXT-INDENT: 0px; WHITE-SPACE: normal; LETTER-SPACING: normal; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; TEXT-ALIGN: left; orphans: 2; widows: 2; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0"><A style="COLOR: rgb(204,102,51)" href="http://www.twitter.com/jackkrupansky"><IMG style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px" alt="View Jack Krupansky on Twitter" src="http://assets0.twitter.com/images/twitter_logo_125x29.png" border=0></A></SPAN></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Feel free to "follow" me on Twitter... regardless of whether I decide to re-invest significant time "tweeting" after my boycott.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-4602521456214257382?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-9633415265585858252009-04-06T00:09:00.001-04:002009-04-06T00:09:31.338-04:00<P>For the record, I am suffering from a little bit of "Twitter withdrawal" as I get started with my week-long boycott of Twitter for their data <EM>mis</EM>-management which lost a bunch of my recent tweets. Maybe this is actually a good thing since it indicates that there is <EM>some</EM> value to micro-blogging.</P> <P>Also, I do have to figure out whether my boycott is strictly limited to refraining from new tweets or from viewing the tweets of others. I definitely have a "hard" boycott of the former, but more of a "soft" boycott for the latter.</P> <P>And then there is the issue of whether experimentation with alternative front-end clients for Twitter would violate my boycott. Hmmm... who knows... we'll see.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-963341526558585825?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-12573238953683377602009-04-06T00:00:00.001-04:002009-04-06T00:00:44.309-04:00<P>No sooner had I tweeted on Twitter that I was "officially" boycotting Twitter for a week (in terms of no new tweets), when I tried to go to Twitter.com to see if I could figure out what was broken and I was suddenly unable to go to the main web site. Just like that. I am able to get to the <A href="http://blog.twitter.com/">Twitter blog</A>, but not to the <A href="http://twitter.com/home">main web site</A>.</P> <P>WTF?!</P> <P>Oops... I just checked and the main <A href="http://twitter.com/home">Twitter.com web site</A> is once more accessible. Still, there seemed to be some sort of outage there for a spell.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-1257323895368337760?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-68012521803765932912009-04-05T23:33:00.001-04:002009-04-05T23:33:15.182-04:00<P>I made five high-quality tweets with Twitter over the past few hours and now suddenly they are all GONE! Disappeared!&nbsp;Poof! Simply vanished. WTF?! This is simply unacceptable.</P> <P>In truth, I have been concerned for some time about how to preserve my "investment" in usage of Twitter. This includes tweets whose primary purpose is to capture links with relevant summary descriptions.&nbsp;I need a Twitter front-end client that logs my tweets in a non-Twitter form so that my work is not subject to the vagaries of Twitter's data "management."</P> <P>Maybe all I need is a non-Twitter "blog" that consists simply of tweets and the front-end client would send new tweets to both the blog and to Twitter itself. The client could also read my Twitter feed and simply re-tweet any lost tweets.</P> <P>Such a client may already exist.</P> <P>For the record, this is the third or fourth time I have successfully posted tweets and then refreshed and seen them vanish.</P> <P>This is so frustrating that I am thinking about boycotting Twitter for awhile to protest the data <EM>mis</EM>-management.</P> <P>I would note that Blogger was equally inept, if not more so, even three years ago. Maybe we need to be a bit more patient of (and <EM>less</EM> dependent on) Twitter while it is still in its "youth." Meanwhile, I'll focus on doing any "real" work in my blogs and Twitter will simply an after-thought until I sense that they are getting their act together.</P> <P>I will tweet this post and than go off the Twitter "grid" for a week -- that's how frustrating this loss (coupled with prior losses)&nbsp;is!</P> <P>I will endeavor to blog more about my recent Twitter experiences and thoughts for the future of micro-blogging in this blog.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6801252180376593291?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-1479162856801933452009-03-21T08:13:00.001-04:002009-03-21T08:13:55.087-04:00<P>As part of their new interest-based advertising program, <A href="https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=113771&amp;sourceid=aso&amp;subid=ww-ww-et-asui&amp;medium=link">Google is reminding us AdSense publishers to update our privacy policies</A>, telling us that "<EM>Visitation information from publisher sites will be used to create user interest categories, delivering more relevant ads and improving monetization for publishers over time.</EM>" Privacy policy? I have never had any formal, published privacy policy for any of my web sites, primarily since my sites are static and do not actively collect any data. But, technically, <EM>some</EM> data is gathered behind the scenes, primarily logging of page views. Also, I do have some pages with a Google search box to search my web sites and Google may or may not "collect" user usage data for those searches&nbsp;unbeknownst to me.&nbsp;I suppose I need a policy for any email that people might send me, but that is more of an email policy rather than a policy of the web site. I probably should have a policy for blog comments as well.</P> <P>My overall personal policy is that I <EM>never</EM> do anything with any user data (including email), other than to respond directly to the user.</P> <P>Out of curiosity, what is the "default" policy under controlling law if no policy is displayed? Is it maximal respect for user privacy (what I do)&nbsp;or is it maximal use of user data?</P> <P>Simple question: If one has a blog on Google Blogger, where it is Google that is controlling most user data, what privacy policy is needed to cover user page views and comments, especially where we bloggers cannot even know exactly what Google may be doing behind the scenes? Given that it is superficially absolutely clear that user comments on blogs are visible and accessible to the world, what privacy does the user retain? Maybe reuse and copying, but there is probably some controlling law there as well.</P> <P>Hmmm... what if the user types in their own copyright notice in their comment text? And then what if Google ignores it -- who is violating what then??</P> <P>As far as email, if a user sends an unsolicited email to me, what privacy obligations do I have to obey or even disclose? My personal email policy is that any email is a private communication and requires explicit permission to be forwarded or published elsewhere.</P> <P>I do have to admit that on occasion I will excerpt from an email message or comment anonymously, but I do so in a way that does not violate privacy.</P> <P>All of this said, I suppose I should formalize a privacy policy, maybe roughly what I have&nbsp;written in this blog post and just put links to it on my blogs and home pages of my web sites.</P> <P>Or, maybe there is a generic privacy policy analogous to my personal policy so that I do not need to personalize it.</P> <P>Please comment on the privacy policies that you use or would prefer. And... be sure to explicitly state whether I have permission to "steal" your policy!</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-147916285680193345?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-108877045302472522009-03-13T17:18:00.001-04:002009-03-13T17:18:49.059-04:00<P>My mother passed away suddenly Thursday evening. That puts me in the "club" of those who have lost both parents.</P> <P>My blogging (and Twittering) will probably be rather light or even non-existent over the next week or so as I deal with a variety of arrangements.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-10887704530247252?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-84836832950333422782009-03-11T18:53:00.000-04:002009-03-11T18:54:09.489-04:00<P>The thought of using Twitter to give you an SEO and SEM boost is appealing, but not so clear cut. Yes, you can place links in Twitter tweets, but since Twitter using the "nofollow" attribute, Google will not count such "tweet links" as inbound links to your own web pages.</P> <P>That is the bad news.</P> <P>The good news is that Twitter tweets <EM>are</EM> a good way to <EM>drive traffic </EM>to your web pages. After all, the whole point of achieving a high placement in Google search results is to get users to click and navigate to your web pages.</P> <P>Twitter has a <EM>search</EM> feature where people can enter keywords to search for tweets, so be sure that your tweets are rich with the keywords that are likely to be used by your target market. As far as I know, the search results are strictly chronologically ordered, so there is no Google-style SEO to do other than to use lots of keywords.</P> <P>As far as the issue of Twitter using TinyURL links, that is a non-issue due to Twitter using "nofollow".</P> <P>I do not have any great clarity as to whether the existence of any of your URLs at TinyURL.com actually gives your URLs <EM>some</EM> SEO boost. I suspect it might, but it is hard to say for sure. I suppose it can't hurt to enter your important web page URLs&nbsp;into TinyURL.com, treating it as if it were another form of web directory.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-8483683295033342278?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-67755543011668534312009-03-10T20:07:00.000-04:002009-03-10T20:10:50.086-04:00<P>I have occasionally experienced a problem in Google Chrome where it would simply not load some web pages, leaving them blank, white. Hitting Reload would not help. You needed to shutdown Chrome, run Microsoft Internet Explorer, and then restart Chrome to make the problem go away. That is too much of a pain.</P> <P>The problem seems to be some bug in Chrome's network I/O stack.</P> <P>There is another workaround... simply disable the <EM><STRONG>DNS pre-fetching feature</STRONG></EM> in Chrome.</P> <P>I had refrained from doing that because the DNS pre-fetching feature is there explicitly to speed up loading of web pages, part of the main reason I was using Chrome.</P> <P>But, today, I ran into the blank page problem so many times that I finally bit the bullet and turned the DNS pre-fetching feature off. That made the problem go away.</P> <P>But guess what that did to page load performance?</P> <P>No... it actually made it <STRONG><EM>FASTER!!!</EM></STRONG> Go figure.</P> <P>In any case, here is what you do:</P> <OL> <LI>Bring up the Chrome "Tools" menu by clicking on the little wrench icon.</LI> <LI>Click on the "Options" menu item.</LI> <LI>Click on the "Under the Hood" Chrome Options tab.</LI> <LI>Click on the "Use DNS pre-fetching to improve page load performance" check box. Make sure there is no little green checkmark in the box -- if there is, click it again to make the checkmark go away.</LI> <LI>Click on the Close Button.</LI> <LI>Click on the Reload icon (circular arrow), and <EM>PRESTO! the page should load promptly</EM>.</LI></OL> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6775554301166853431?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-63951396944402934682009-03-09T20:24:00.000-04:002009-03-09T20:25:21.723-04:00<P>The White House has an "okay"&nbsp;web site for the stimulus package, <A href="http://www.recovery.gov">www.recovery.gov</A>, but it needs a blog and they need to&nbsp;exploit Twitter. I sent them the following suggestion:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>The web site needs a blog and Twitter feeds to provide us with more timely information.</EM></P> <P><EM>See the NY Fed site for Twitter examples:<BR></EM><A href="http://www.newyorkfed.org/"><EM>http://www.newyorkfed.org/</EM></A><BR><A href="http://twitter.com/NYFed_news"><EM>http://twitter.com/NYFed_news</EM></A><BR><A href="http://twitter.com/NYFed_data"><EM>http://twitter.com/NYFed_data</EM></A></P> <P><EM>Thanks.</EM></P> <P><EM>-- Jack Krupansky</EM></P> <P><EM></EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>They do have a blog on the main White House web site, so it is not an unnatural request.</P> <P>Somehow, I find it amusing that the New York Federal Reserve Bank is on Twitter!</P> <P>In any case, I at least gave them some useful feedback. Have you??</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Finaxyz.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6395139694440293468?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-35954143301143035972009-03-05T16:09:00.001-05:002009-03-05T16:09:34.747-05:00<P>This is mostly a note to myself to look further into something called <STRONG><EM><A href="http://tipjoy.com/">tipjoy</A></EM></STRONG>, a new web site for online contributions and payments. As the web site says:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>simple social payments for great people, causes &amp; content</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P dir=ltr>Their <EM>About us</EM> page says:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P dir=ltr><EM>Tipjoy is a simple, social payments service which makes it easy for people to earn money from and give money to great people, causes and content. Our office is in Arlington, Massachusetts.</EM></P> <P dir=ltr><EM>Tipjoy's <A href="http://tipjoys2cents.blogspot.com/2008/09/announcing-series-financing-lead-by.html">Series A funding is lead by Betaworks</A>. We were a part of <A href="http://www.ycombinator.com/">Y Combinator's</A> Winter 2008 funding cycle.</EM></P> <P dir=ltr><EM>Have suggestions for us? Please send us <A href="http://tipjoy.com/feedback">feedback</A> or email us directly at </EM><A href="mailto:founders@tipjoy.com"><EM>founders@tipjoy.com</EM></A></P> <P dir=ltr><EM>Keep track of our progress on our <A href="http://tipjoys2cents.blogspot.com/">blog</A> and by following us on <A href="http://twitter.com/tipjoy"><A href="http://twitter.com/tipjoy">http://twitter.com/tipjoy</A></A></EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P dir=ltr>They have some form of integration with Twitter as well as being easy to use from a blog or web site.</P> <P dir=ltr>Looks interesting. Maybe an alternative to mediocre AdSense.</P> <P dir=ltr>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-3595414330114303597?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-43486621336276678692009-03-02T12:13:00.000-05:002009-03-02T12:15:11.355-05:00<P>My AdSense click-through rate (CTR) for the month of February 2009 was... OOPS! Sorry, but Google has forbidden me from disclosing my click-through rate. As per the <A href="https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms">AdSense Terms and Conditions</A>:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>7.&nbsp; Confidentiality. <STRONG>You agree not to disclose</STRONG> Google Confidential Information without Google's prior written consent. "Google Confidential Information" includes without limitation: (a) all Google software, technology, programming, specifications, materials, guidelines and documentation relating to the Program; (b) <STRONG>click-through rates or other statistics relating to Property performance in the Program provided to You by Google</STRONG>; and (c) any other information designated in writing by Google as "Confidential" or an equivalent designation. However, You may accurately disclose the amount of Google's gross payments to You pursuant to the Program. Google Confidential Information does not include information that has become publicly known through no breach by You or Google, or information that has been (i) independently developed without access to Google Confidential Information, as evidenced in writing; (ii) rightfully received by You from a third party; or (iii) required to be disclosed by law or by a governmental authority.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I can tell you that my net income from Google AdSense for the five months from September 2008 through January 2009 were a whopping $100.27, a whole $20 per month (simple average.) The T&amp;C permit this disclosure (from above):</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>However, <STRONG>You may accurately disclose the amount of Google's gross payments to You</STRONG> pursuant to the Program.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Technically, I probably cannot tell you&nbsp;my earnings for the month of February 2009 or any other individual month since Google granted the right to disclose only "<STRONG><EM>gross payments to You</EM></STRONG>" and there was no "payment" for February. But, you would be able to disclose payment for each month provided that your net earnings for the month were not less than $100, the minimum payment. Also, technically, you would not be permitted to even disclose that monthly earnings until the day when the payment is actually made and legally constitutes "a payment to You."</P> <P>The T&amp;C also proscribe me from disclosing my total page impressions and number of clicks.</P> <P>In theory, I would be permitted to give you page impressions if I had independent analytics to determine that number, but since all of my blogs are on Blogger, I do not have any analytics available to me. I suppose I could put a "site counter" on my blogs.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-4348662133627667869?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-33889708712876215922009-03-02T12:08:00.000-05:002009-03-02T12:12:14.507-05:00<P>My AdSense click-through rate (CTR) for the month of February 2009 was... OOPS! Sorry, but Google has forbidden me from disclosing my click-through rate. As per the <A href="https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms">AdSense Terms and Conditions</A>:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>7.&nbsp; Confidentiality. <STRONG>You agree not to disclose</STRONG> Google Confidential Information without Google's prior written consent. "Google Confidential Information" includes without limitation: (a) all Google software, technology, programming, specifications, materials, guidelines and documentation relating to the Program; (b) <STRONG>click-through rates or other statistics relating to Property performance in the Program provided to You by Google</STRONG>; and (c) any other information designated in writing by Google as "Confidential" or an equivalent designation. However, You may accurately disclose the amount of Google's gross payments to You pursuant to the Program. Google Confidential Information does not include information that has become publicly known through no breach by You or Google, or information that has been (i) independently developed without access to Google Confidential Information, as evidenced in writing; (ii) rightfully received by You from a third party; or (iii) required to be disclosed by law or by a governmental authority.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I can tell you that my net income from Google AdSense for the five months from September 2008 through January 2009 were a whopping $100.27, a whole $20 per month (simple average.) The T&amp;C permit this disclosure (from above):</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>However, <STRONG>You may accurately disclose the amount of Google's gross payments to You</STRONG> pursuant to the Program.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Technically, I probably cannot tell you&nbsp;my earnings for the month of February 2009 or any other individual month since Google granted the right to disclose only "<STRONG><EM>gross payments to You</EM></STRONG>" and there was no "payment" for February. But, you would be able to disclose payment for each month provided that your net earnings for the month were not less than $100, the minimum payment. Also, technically, you would not be permitted to even disclose that monthly earnings until the day when the payment is actually made and legally constitutes "a payment to You."</P> <P>The T&amp;C also proscribe me from disclosing my total page impressions and number of clicks.</P> <P>In theory, I would be permitted to give you page impressions if I had independent analytics to determine that number, but since all of my blogs are on Blogger, I do not have any analytics available to me. I suppose I could put a "site counter" on my blogs.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-3388970871287621592?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-90964200650196419332009-03-02T11:03:00.000-05:002009-03-02T11:05:35.602-05:00<P>The fact that Apple seems to be doing quite well with its App Store makes me wonder whether, say, Twitter could also do well with a comparable store for add-ons for use with Twitter.</P> <P>In other words, which is the cart and which is the horse (or chicken and egg if you wish), the iPhone as a "platform" or Twitter as a platform?</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-9096420065019641933?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-56890151616359126302009-03-01T07:38:00.000-05:002009-03-01T07:40:12.917-05:00<P>The recent uproar over the read-aloud feature of the new Amazon Kindle book reading device has raised some fascinating questions related to the definition and interpretation of the concepts of a <EM>performance</EM> and a <EM>derivative work</EM>, as well as the concept of <EM>licensed use</EM>. I would add that this dispute also raises the issue of the role and status of <EM>software agents</EM>.</P> <P>An article in <EM>Ars Technica</EM> by Julian Sanchez entitled "<A href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/kindles-and-creative-machines-blur-boundaries-of-copyright.ars/2">Kindles and "creative machines" blur boundaries of copyright</A>" does a decent jobs of covering both the pros and cons and legal nuances of the "rights" for electronically reading a book aloud.</P> <P>I have read a lot of the pro and con arguments, but I am not prepared to utter a definitive position at this time.</P> <P>I would note that there is a "special" context for the&nbsp;entire debate: the ongoing "culture war" between the traditional world view of people, places, and things and the so-called "digital" world view, whether it be online with the Web or interactive within a computer system. Clearly there are parallels between the real and "virtual" worlds, but also there are differences. Rational people will recognize and respect the parallels even as they recognize and respect the differences. Alas, there is a point of view that insists that the virtual worlds (online and interactive) should not be constrained in any way by the real-world world view.</P> <P>The simple truth is that the real and virtual worlds can in fact coexist separately, but the problem comes when we try to blend the two worlds and pass artifacts between them. Then, the separateness breaks down. The Kindle is a great example, with real-world books being "passed" into the digital world and then the act of electronically reading them aloud passing back from the digital world to the real world.</P> <P>It is also interesting to note that many books are now actually created in the virtual world (word processing, storage, transmission, digital printing) even if not intended specifically as so-called e-books, so that physical books themselves in fact typically originated in a virtual world. Clearly the conception of the book occurs in the mind of the author and the editors, but the actual "assembly" of all of the fragments from the minds of authors and editors into the image of the book occurs in the virtual world.</P> <P>In any case, my interest is in the role of <EM>software agents</EM>. A software agent is a computer program which possesses the quality of <EM>agency</EM> or acting for another entity. The Kindle read-aloud feature is clearly a software agent. Now, the issue is <EM>whose</EM> agent is it. The consumer? Amazon? The book author? The publisher?</P> <P>The superficially simple question is who "owns" the software agent.</P> <P>We speak of "buying" books, even e-books, but although the consumer does in fact "buy" the physical manifestation, they are in fact only licensing the "use" of the intellectual property embodied in that physical representation. You do in fact "own" the ones and zeros of the e-book or the paper and ink of the meatspace book, but you do not own all uses except as covered by the license that you agreed to at the time of&nbsp;acquisition&nbsp;of the bits. Clearly not everyone likes or agrees with that model, but a license is a contract and there are laws related to contracts. Clearly there are also disputes about what the contract actually covers or what provisions are enforceable. That is why we have courts.</P> <P>So, the consumer owns the bits of the read-aloud software agent, and the consumer may have some amount of control over the behavior of that software agent, but ownership and interaction are not the same thing.</P> <P>I would suggest that the read-aloud software agent still belongs to Amazon since it remains a <EM>component</EM> of the Kindle product. A Kindle reading a book aloud is not the same as a parent reading a book to a child or a teacher reading to a class (or the reading in the movie <EM>The Reader</EM>), in particular because it is Amazon's agent that is doing the reading.</P> <P>An interesting variation would be an open source or public domain version of Kindle as downloadable software for the PC, or software with features different from Kindle for that matter. Who "owns" any software agents embedded in that software? Whose agent is doing the performance? Whose agent is creating derivative works? To me, the immediate answer is who retains the intellectual property rights to the agent. In the Kindle case, Amazon is not attempting to transfer all rights. Even if they did, there is the same question as with file-sharing software, whether there is some lingering implied liability that goes along even when ownership is transferred.</P> <P>Another open issue would be software agents which completely generate content from scratch dynamically, not from some input such as an e-book data stream. Who owns that content? I would suggest that the superficial answer is that the owner of the agent owns "created" (non-derivative)&nbsp;content, except as they may have licensed transfer of ownership of such content.</P> <P>Another issue is whether a "stream" can be considered a representation. I would think so. One could also consider it a performance of an implied representation. Whether each increment of data in the stream is stored may not be particularly relevant. The stream has most of the "effect" of a full representation.</P> <P>Another issue is trying to discover the <EM>intent</EM> or <EM>spirit</EM>&nbsp;of the law as opposed to the exact <EM>letter</EM> of the law. Sure, there are plenty of loopholes and gotchas that do in fact matter when in a courtroom, but ultimately I would think that it is the intentions that matter the most to society. Unless, you are a proponent of a "free" digital world that is unencumbered by any constraints of the real world and seeks to exploit loopholes simply because "they are there."</P> <P>In any case, my point is not to settle the matter, but to raise the issues of performances and creation of derivative works in the realm of software agents, both for developers of software agent technology and those who seek to deploy it. And we have this issue of what lingering liability tail connects software agents and their creators.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-5689015161635912630?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-74595576776463581552009-02-27T11:58:00.000-05:002009-02-27T12:00:49.273-05:00<P>One of the qualities of being a professional is your judgment. Sometimes facts are precisely black and white, but frequently we have little choice but to deal with shades of gray. That is where&nbsp;our judgment comes into play. I try very hard to be very clear about whether I know something is a demonstrable fact or not. Sometimes I simply do not have facts sufficient to prove that a claim is definitively true or false, but I do have enough sense and experience to judge whether a claim is more likely to be true or more likely to be false. The question is how to indicate that I am making such a judgment call. In the past, I have commonly said that I "suspect" that a claim is true or false, but now I am wondering if "suspicion" has the right tone for professional judgment. Maybe the word "hunch" conveys essentially the same meaning, but with more of a professional tone. I suspect that to be the case. Oops! Make that I have a <EM>hunch</EM> that is the case. The dictionary definition of suspicion suggests doubt and "suspecting something wrong", with an implication of negativity, while hunch means "a strong intuitive meaning." The last thing I want to do to encourage people to read my writing is to come across with a negative tone.</P> <P>So, I have a hunch that I should go with hunch.</P> <P>We'll see how that sounds.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-7459557677646358155?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-88310064503670180312009-02-26T16:32:00.000-05:002009-02-26T16:34:27.542-05:00<P>Okay, you are using Twitter and everything is great. But, you keep hearing mention of the term "<EM>public timeline</EM>" (or, less properly,&nbsp;"<EM>public time line</EM>"), but where is it? How do you find it?</P> <P>Easy: Click on "<STRONG>Everyone</STRONG>" on the menu on the right side of the Twitter page. Done. Now you are seeing <EM>all</EM> of the tweets made by every Twitter user, in real-time. Yeah, that is a lot, but it is a great way to get a feel for what is going on.</P> <P>Then, once you are totally overloaded by the public timeline, get back to your own "personal timeline", click on "<STRONG>Home</STRONG>". It is all that simple.</P> <P>Sometimes, people mistakenly refer to their personal timeline as being their public timeline, but there is only one public timeline and it is for everyone.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-8831006450367018031?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-3629489472125528072009-02-25T11:07:00.000-05:002009-02-25T11:09:18.359-05:00<P>Everybody knows that only "amateur" bloggers use Blogger and host their blogs on Google's blogspot.com, or so I thought that&nbsp;everybody knew. But is it really true? Honestly, I have no idea. Nonetheless, Dharmesh Shah has a Hubspot blog post entitled "<A href="http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/46/Why-Your-Business-Blog-Shouldn-t-Be-On-BlogSpot-com.aspx">Why Your Business Blog Shouldn't Be On BlogSpot.com</A>" which offers four top reasons why your business should not be on blogspot.com:</P> <OL> <LI>Google Doesn't Need The Help</LI> <LI>Domain Lock-In</LI> <LI>Transferring Data Is Unreasonably Hard</LI> <LI>Mediocre Feature-Set</LI></OL> <P>Read his post for the details.</P> <P>Meanwhile, all of my blogs are hosted on Blogger, blogspot.com. Most of them are strictly "business" in terms of content and purpose, but with none of them getting more than 50 page views a day or 300 page views total across all of my blogs and Web sites, I cannot honestly say that they constitute a real, thriving business. So, there is no pressing need for me or anybody else in a similar position to contemplate a move to other than Blogger and blogspot.com.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-362948947212552807?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-27487669670644752952009-02-24T09:56:00.000-05:002009-02-24T09:58:11.792-05:00<P>How annoying. You expect Google Maps to be accurate, but then one of the few times where I know exactly what's where, Google has it wrong. I typed in "map 22 James St., New York, NY", the location of a fire in Chinatown. I was curious if it was anywhere near any place I had walked. It turns out it was. It was just two blocks from Catherine Street, which I tend to walk down on my Saturday walks around lower Manhattan. Catherine Street ends at South Street near the East River. Actually, where really happens is that Catherine Street technically ends at Cherry Street and the last two blocks are called Catherine Slip, because in "the old days" there was a slip for sailing ships to dock&nbsp;there. Yahoo Maps in fact has Catherine Slip labeled correctly. Google Maps does not, and instead labels the driveway through an adjacent housing complex as being Catherine Slip. I do not think that driveway has a name. I suppose I should not be surprised that the kids at Google are clueless as to why a street would be called a slip. There are a number of "slip" streets on the East River of Lower Manhattan, and Google does have a bunch of them properly labeled.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-2748766967064475295?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-30078446670746149762009-02-23T17:05:00.000-05:002009-02-23T17:07:34.721-05:00<P><A href="http://tinyurl.com/">TinyURL</A> is nice because it shortens long, unreadable, untypeable URLs to short, readable, URLs that can easily be retyped (if necessary) or pasted into an application such as email or Twitter or blog posts. Twitter especially needs them since <EM>tweets</EM> are limited to 140 characters.&nbsp;The downside of&nbsp; tiny URLs is that you, the user,&nbsp;cannot tell where they are going to take you and many people are hesitant to click on any link unless they know exactly where it will take them.</P> <P>For example, how comfortable are you at clicking on the following link?</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><A href="http://tinyurl.com/ba2h2z">http://tinyurl.com/ba2h2z</A></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>It sure looks scary. In fact, that link merely goes directly to this blog, but you would never know it. That sucks.</P> <P>Unless... you know about the <EM>preview mode</EM> feature of <A href="http://tinyurl.com/">TinyURL.com</A>&nbsp;which you can enable to automatically catch any attempt to open a tiny URL and displays&nbsp;the TinyURL <EM>preview</EM>&nbsp;Web page that shows the user exactly where the tiny URL wants to take them. The user can then opt to actually go to where the tiny URL wants to go or ignore it and go on to whatever else they wish to do.</P> <P>Note, preview mode is a setting that <EM>the user</EM> will have to set. You, the author of the email, tweet, or blog post cannot force preview mode to be enabled for your reader, the user.</P> <P>So, here is what your users (or you as a user) need to do...</P> <P>To enable preview mode, go to the <A href="http://tinyurl.com/">TinyURL.com</A>&nbsp;Web site, click on the "<EM><STRONG>Preview Feature</STRONG></EM>" link in the menu on the left side of the page. This will display the <STRONG>Preview</STRONG> page which will tell you the current setting for the preview mode flag (which is stored as a browser cookie.) This page will initially say "<EM><STRONG>You currently have the preview feature disabled.</STRONG></EM>" That means preview mode is turned off.&nbsp;There will be a link below that message that says "<A href="http://tinyurl.com/preview.php?enable=1">Click here to <B>enable</B> previews.</A>" Go ahead and click that link, either on the TinyURL.com Web site, or right here in this blog post. The Web page will refresh and display the message "<EM><STRONG>You currently have the preview feature enabled.</STRONG></EM>" That means preview mode is now turned on.</P> <P>Then, whenever you click on a tiny URL, in email or Twitter or a blog post&nbsp;or any other app that can follow a Web link, you will be taken to the <A href="http://tinyurl.com/preview.php">TinyURL.com <EM>Preview</EM> page</A> that will display the messages "<STRONG><EM>Preview of TinyURL.com/...</EM></STRONG>" and "<EM>This TinyURL redirects to:</EM>" followed by the full URL associated with the tiny URL. Below those messages you will see a link that says "<EM><STRONG>Proceed to this site.</STRONG></EM>" Click on that link and then you will be taken directly to the Web page for that full-length URL. Or, you can go back to what you were doing or go on to something else.</P> <P>TinyURL preview mode keeps you safe and worry-free about where tiny URLs might take you. </P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-3007844667074614976?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-40989330387869745452009-02-23T11:37:00.000-05:002009-02-23T11:39:14.680-05:00<P>I just ran into a LinkedIn bug. I sent out a connection invitation this morning and soon received the email message that says "<EM>Congratulations! You and&nbsp;</EM>so-and-so<EM> are now connected. ... View </EM>so-and-so<EM>'s profile to...</EM>" So, I clinked the link to view <EM>so-and-so</EM>'s profile and I immediately notice that there is a "<EM>How you're connected to </EM>so-and-so" panel on the right side of the page that says that I have to go through other connections to get to<EM> so-and-so</EM> and that I am a 3rd-degree connection. In other words, the Web portion of LinkedIn does not know what the email side just told me. Obviously they have a database update synchronization problem. Sigh. Silly me, I thought we were in the 21st century. I wonder how I got that crazy idea!</P> <P>Now, this could simply be some sort of operational "service" disruption, but even then it suggests a design flaw: the email should not have gone out or at least not said that you "are now connected" when that was not exactly true. Maybe they simply need to add some text to say that the connection will be made in "a few minutes." Or, beef up their computing "cloud" and fix the logic error.</P> <P>I just refreshed the profile page for <EM>so-and-so</EM>&nbsp;and it still said that I was am only a 3rd-degree connection. I then went to my own page, clicked on connections, saw that <EM>so-and-so</EM> was now on my list, clicked on <EM>so-and-so</EM>'s name and I still saw the same profile page suggesting I was still only a 3rd-degree connection. I hit refresh again, and now <EM>finally</EM> LinkedIn shows that we are connected.</P> <P>That may have taken about five minutes or more. LinkedIn may be experiencing load issues, but that is no excuse for invalid logic (stating that something is a fact when it is not yet a fact.)</P> <P>Another possibility is that Google Chrome was not refeshing the page properly when requested, but I would say that is much less likely.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-4098933038786974545?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-67026055639255727272009-02-16T20:19:00.000-05:002009-02-16T20:21:07.257-05:00<P>Believe it or not, I was once quoted in <EM>The Christian Science Monitor</EM>. I was just doing a search (using Microsoft Live Search) for references to my name and "global warming" and one of the results was a <A href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0425/p02s01-usju.html">2002 article about the Microsoft antitrust trial in Washington, D.C., which I attended</A>. Old memories. Nothing to do with global warming though. There was probably a link to an article on global warming in a sidebar of "Most Viewed" articles the last time that page was crawled by Microsoft's search engine.</P> <P>Oddly, Google will not find that CSM page with a similar search. Yahoo finds in fine.</P> <P>The problem may be that the CSM site does not have a valid robot.txt file. Microsoft and Yahoo probably continue to crawl, but maybe Google is being conservative and assuming that an invalid robot.txt file should be considered an exclusion. But, Google does index other pages on the CSM Web site.&nbsp;Interesting problem.</P> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6702605563925572727?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11676251.post-68237386745964338042009-02-16T11:35:00.000-05:002009-02-16T11:37:11.702-05:00<P>I was just doing a little reading and stumbled across a document that discussed <A href="http://www.tinaja.com/glib/paradigm.pdf">paradigm shifts of technology</A>. Not that the concept is new or mysterious, but I was curious what the technical definition really is. More importantly, I was interested in the application of the concept to technology, commerce, and society in the context of the Internet, Web, Web x.0/social-computing, and how people will earn a living in the future (or even next week) in the New Economy.</P> <P>The Merriam-Webster online dictionary does not define the term <EM>paradigm shift</EM>, but does offer a reasonable definition for <EM>paradigm</EM>:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>a philosophical and theoretical framework of a scientific school or discipline within which theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them are formulated ; </EM>broadly :<EM> a philosophical or theoretical framework of any kind</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>The Wikipedia was far less useful than it usually is. It does have a reasonable explanation for paradigm shifts in science or even social science, but was not so helpful regarding technology and money in the New Economy. The <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shift">lead for Paradigm shift merely says</A>:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>Paradigm shift (sometimes known as extraordinary science or revolutionary science) is the term first used by Thomas Kuhn in his influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) to describe a change in basic assumptions within the ruling theory of science. It is in contrast to his idea of normal science.</EM></P> <P><EM>It has since become widely applied to many other realms of human experience as well even though Kuhn himself restricted the use of the term to the hard sciences. According to Kuhn, "A paradigm is what members of a scientific community, and they alone, share." (The Essential Tension, 1997). Unlike a normal scientist, Kuhn held, "a student in the humanities has constantly before him a number of competing and incommensurable solutions to these problems, solutions that he must ultimately examine for himself." (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions). Once a paradigm shift is complete, a scientist cannot, for example, posit the possibility that miasma causes disease or that ether carries light. In contrast, a critic in Humanities can choose to adopt a 19th century theory of poetics, for instance, or interpret economic behaviour from a Marxist perspective.</EM></P> <P><EM>Thus, paradigms, in the sense that Kuhn used them, do not exist in Humanities or social sciences. Nonetheless, the term has been adopted since the 1960s and applied in non-scientific contexts.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>There is very little mention of technology paradigms. The closest is an odd section entitled "<EM><STRONG>As marketing speak</STRONG></EM>":</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>In the later part of the 1990s, 'paradigm shift' emerged as a buzzword, popularized as marketing speak and appearing more frequently in print and publication. In his book, Mind The Gaffe, author Larry Trask advises readers to refrain from using it, and to use caution when reading anything that contains the phrase. It is referred to in several articles and books as abused and overused to the point of becoming meaningless.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Granted, I agree that the term is overused, but I find it is still applicable and in that original scientific sense.</P> <P>I find it amusingly noteworthy that the Wikipedia article does not even mention the paradigm shift from books, encyclopedias, and libaries to the Wikipedia itself. Missed that one.</P> <P>I will offer my own brief definition:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>A <STRONG>paradigm</STRONG> is a combination of a worldview and a collection of rules for operating in the context of that worldview. Opportunities are available and success can be achieved&nbsp;when individuals and organizations acknowledge the worldview and&nbsp;follow&nbsp;its rules.</EM></P> <P><EM>A <STRONG>paradigm shift</STRONG> is a relatively abrupt change that brings about a relatively radically new worldview with new rules, such that opportunities are accessible and success can be achieved only to the extent that individuals and organizations adapt their thinking to the new worldview and adapt their behavior&nbsp;to follow its new rules.</EM></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>-- <A href="mailto:Jack@Opixia.com">Jack Krupansky</A></P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11676251-6823738674596433804?l=jackkonblog.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jack Krupanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17254264642831755180noreply@blogger.com0