Friday, December 30, 2011
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Working my way up the best seller's list
The book, (ahem...shameless plug) is called Marking Time, A Guide to Russian Watch Collecting. Available from Amazon.com for the kindle.
See
Monday, December 05, 2011
Well, so much for that
Saturday, December 03, 2011
HTC Vivid! My first Droid phone
Just switched from an iPhone 3gs to the Vivid. This thing is very impressive. There is a learning curve but it isn't terribly hard. I've only had it for a few hours and I've already figured out how to blog with it.
First off, the screen is amazing. My middle aged eyes really appreciate the size. It is a lot larger than the iPhone screen. Then there is LTE. Wow! The Vivid is roughly 3 to 5 times faster online than my 3gs. My son has a 4s and it beats that too. AT&T just turned on LTE here in NYC and it really works quickly.
I was pleased to see that Otterbox has a Defender case for the Vivid. Like its iPhone counterpart, it really provides superior protection to the phone.
The droid app store has a large variety of applications to choose from. Most of my old iPhone favorites are all there.
To sum up, I am very impressed with this smartphone so far. Looks like a lot of useful fun to be had.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Nutshell iPhone/Otterbox case review
If you are like me, you want expensive stuff to really last. For my iPhone, that meant getting an Otterbox Defender. I always get a slightly nervous feeling when I see someone handling an iPhone without a case. It really doesn't take much of a mistake to destroy one. If you aren't familiar with Otterbox by the way, their cases are about the toughest thing going. Well worth a look.
The Otterbox Defender is a great case. You iPhone will survive a lot of situations that would demolish it otherwise. It does have one serious problem though. The included belt clip is junk. There is just no other way to say it. It is a hard plastic clip contraption that holds your phone by friction more than anything else. If you rely on the stock belt clip, your phone will fall out sooner or later. (The Defender will save it from damage mind you but but not from loss if you don't notice that it's gone) That's where Nutshell comes in. You know those thick leather holsters the police carry their guns in, think of that, but for a phone. Nutshell uses strong, high quality, leather and a very rigid reinforced steel belt clip. The interior of the case is felt lined and the Velcro tab secures the top quite effectively. Additionally, the interior side of the case is extra stiffened so that if your iPhone is inserted screen side in, there is almost no way to break your screen.
The example you see above has been worn daily for two years. It's picked up a few scuffs here and there but is otherwise functioning perfectly. In addition to snugly holding an iPhone/Otterbox combo, this case also works perfectly with the Mophie Juice Pack Air, at least on my 3GS.
The total price for this sort of protection will run you about $100. That sounds expensive to be sure but it really beats the expense and hassle of replacing a destroyed iPhone by a wide margin when you think about it. After two years of daily use in all sorts of conditions (NYC Subway every day, cycling all over the place, numerous vacations, and lots of roughhouse play with my kids) my iPhone doesn't have a scratch. That's the best recommendation I can make.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Nice day for a ride
Elizabeth is very excited about her new bike. Unlike her little kids bike, this one has handbrakes and three speeds. It's a real road bike and she's coming to realize that she can go much faster on this that she could on her old bike.
I'm very happy that she likes to go bicycling. So many kids nowadays just sit around all day doing nothing. It's nice to see her get out and about getting some exercise and enjoying a nice day in the park.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
It ain't looking good...
To pull out of this, we need to do something that quickly re-establishes confidence in the economy as a whole. I would suggest two simultaneous approaches.
First of all, instead of berating businesses, work with them. Pull the leadership of the Fortune 500 into a closed door meeting and pointedly tell them that you want them to hire 5 million people. Then throw it back to them by asking what they want from the government to make that happen. Some might want tax abatements, others exemption from regulation, others trade protection, whatever. Make the deal and make it happen and hold them to the hiring goal.
Secondly, stop the bleeding. Create a new system to address the consequences of layoffs. Empower the Department of Labor in the following fashion. Any employer contemplating an economic based layoff (disciplinary layoffs are, obviously, something entirely different) should have to confidentially inform the Department before any action is taken. Upon receipt of this notice, the Labor Department would have the power to pay the employer the value of the would-be laid off employees unemployment benefits. In return, the employer would only be able to reduce the employment hours of the affected workers to the break-even point. The layoff thus does not happen. To be sure, the employee is adversely effected. But these employees will still remain employees who have to get out of bed in the morning, put gas in their cars or get on the subway. They will not have to tell their families that they are unemployed. They will not have to tell a prospective new employer that they became unemployed. And, the cost to the treasury should be the same as it would have been had traditional unemployment benefits been paid out.
This isn't a perfect proposal. There is potential for abuses by many different parties. That being said, abuses can be prevented and dealt with by appropriate enforcement mechanisms. I increasingly believe that unless we change course economically though, our future is very bleak indeed.








