I read Wil’s blog from time to time and enjoyed his answers to some questions posed by the Slashdot crowd.
Slashdot | Wil Wheaton Strikes Back
I admire Wil for doing what he has done with his blog.? It takes
alot of talent and drive to write, and is something I respect.
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Housing Bubble (WSJ) over the past 12 months or so. These theories try to draw conclusions based on the technology bubble bust of 1999-2000.
However, there are some key differences between assets. People, on a whole, treat their homes better than some vogue tech stock would ever treat an investor’s dollar.
During the period of the Internet Boom (1996-2000), people threw their extra, disposable income into mutual funds and the latest, hottest “IPO of the Week” tech stock. Some put more than just their “extra” income, and their pain was proportionally worse due to the level of risk they
assumed. Things seem as they should. Basically, people who grew up with Apple, Microsoft and Cisco tried to become them.
Alas, few did.
At first glance, the “housing bubble” seems to have a lot of similarities with the Internet Boom and bust. As the article referenced above states:
all assets are not alike.
People’s homes do not equal vaporware or vapor economics. When someone invested in a tech company, that money was spent on human resources, capital equipment and, yes, marketing. Common sense dictates that human resources only stay around as long as they are paid. Capital equipment depreciates, some very quickly. (Especially Sun servers.. Check EBay). And, Marketing…
Something I rarely hear people mention in the same breath as “Internet Boom” is the “Marketing Boom”.
During the latter part of the boom, I spent about 12 months in Seattle. Everyone seemed busy and bustling with ideas. It was fun and a rush.
As a consultant for various start-ups involving technology, we hustled from investor meeting to client pitch. A few of these shotgun meetings were with some top tier marketing firms around the Seattle area. These were the folks that, if they were savvy, cashing the checks from a wide choice of naive Internet start-ups.
Bottom line is, the so-called assets of technology companies were always based on the hope of valuable intellectual property and were a house of cards.
However, people spend hours working around the house, paying attention to the minutest of details. As anyone who has tried to avoid the SUV’s in a Lowe’s parking lot on a Saturday afternoon can attest, American’s love to spend money on their homes.
Taking a glance at the stock tickers of Home Depot, Lowes and other big-box home improvement big box stores confirms this trend. People aren’t investing in risky, vaporous services or products…but they are investing in their homes.. Spending money to improve their living space, in the case they don’t have the money later to spend on such luxuries.
At least, that’s my hope. My hope is that when interest rates do rise, and they will have to rise at some point, people will reduce the money they spend on frivolous house upgrades and be able continue to make their now considerably higher mortgage payments. Time will tell.
As someone who was in the thick of the Internet boom/bust period, does all of this alleviate my concerns that the real estate market will suffer the same fate as technology did in late 2000? Somewhat, but with the recent oil price spikes and volatility on the stock market, other factors are at play here that weren’t around in 1996-2000.
Technorati Tags: politics, technology
Personally, I think this is why they released the hardware SO early..
To work the bugs out of the software protection (i.e. OS X should only
run on Apple hardware).
My bet?? Some hacker group somewhere has already cracked and
hacked how this works.? If they are smart, they’d wait until Apple
ships its first batch of intel based hardware before released details
or tools..
Think Secret - A first look at Apple’s Intel Mac (with photos)]]>
13 Steps to Successful Blogging - Self SEO
This Wall Street Journal On-line articles talks about how marketing companies are now using Blogs as focus groups. This data is gathered by robots and then probably sifted through by humans. Humans who get paid to read blog material, all day.
Wait…they get paid?!? Has your company begin to use blogs in their marketing? If so, how?
I found a new Gadget blog. We all love gadget blogs, right? I mean, what in the world is better than a great Gadget and Gizmo blog? Any know of any other good Gadget style blogs?
Seriously, this is simply bigger government based on some fuzzy definition of morality.? When will we just admit it:
American’s like PORN
(Not me of course…but..well..all of you..*ahem*)
To the tune of over $10 BILLION per year.? That’s with a B, folks..
Anyway, Happy No-Porn Day!
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created better technology called Avalanche and that BitTorrent spreads SpyWare.
Um, hello dumbasses.? Any download platform would spread
SpyWare.? BitTorrent is no more evil than a web browser visiting a
website.? Plain and simple FUD.
Second, Microsoft’s product is nothing more than pulled-directly-from-the-ass vaporware.
Sometimes even blind squirrels find a nut, and Dvorak finds one here.
Column from PC Magazine: The Scheme to Discredit BitTorrent
More coverage on SlashDot.? Bram Cohen’s response.
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See, this little blog of mine has roots all the way back to 1996, when
I ran a mailing list containing (mostly) friends called Gun
Geeks.? Anyway, someone posted this little quiz to the
list..? Me, being the enthusiastic and bored programming geek I am
sometimes, put the test up on the Internet via PHP.?
To the best of my knowledge, this is one of the first on-line Sleaze
Test quizzes that ever existed on the Internet.? I kinda missed it,
so I recoded it this weekend.? At last look, over 150,000 people
had taken the first Sleaze Test between 1996-2001 (or so).
Give it a try.? If at least 5 people post their scores in the
discussion forums, I might be compelled to release my rather unseemly
high score.
Rumor and Musings - Sleaze test]]>
Construction will probably begin by the end of this decade.
Indy-area transit plan picks up speed]]>
Vonage is doing lately, I would think it would be the
industry leader right now.
But, this little software application that could seems to have momentum
right now.? Have you given Skype a try yet?? I regularly use
if for 3-way conference calls with business associates, with very rare
interruptions.? The quality is better than cellular and comparable
to Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS).?
After a year of using my Vonage VOIP device now and then, Skype certainly seems to have better quality.
Light Reading - Networking the Telecom Industry]]>
Traffic around Washington and
Illinois streets has been mucked up for some time, and it’ll be nice to
have things return to normal.
New hotel aims for the 5 stars
However, this is a gorgeous building and will do alot to raise the status of downtown Indianapolis.
This brought to mind several projects currently underdevelopment in
Indianapolis.? I’m positive I’ve forgotten some, but here’s my
list:
All of this begs the question.
Wake up Indianapolis 
, the
traffic is not going to get any better.? Especially with all of
these new people moving into the downtown area, along with the added
Airport traffic adding to an already clogged system of
Interstates.? Light-rail between the Airport, downtown, Fishers,
and spurs to Greenwood, Plainfield, Zionsville and Carmel make more sense now than ever.?
Not only that, but a more regional wide system should be thought
out.? A faster rail-based system linking regional cities and metro
areas would be a way to unite the Midwest into a more cohesive unit of
economic and cultural community.? Similar to what the Northeast or
California has done.
A rapid transit system linking Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Cincinnati,
Louisville and Indianapolis will make more sense as gas prices continue
to increase.? Perhaps a hybrid system of passenger and cargo cars
on a frequent schedule would provide the level of service people
expect.?
Indianapolis is in the unique position to be the Hub of this new
“super-region”.? The question remains, does Indiana have the
leaders to seize this vision and make it happen?
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