Business as Usual

When we invaded Iraq we asked Pres. Bush if he would release the oil reserves to stabilize prices the way his father did when the Gulf War broke out in 1990. He said no. He said that would make us appear weak. So for the last five years we’ve tried to operate rather misguidedly under the presumption of “Business as Usual.” The problem is that as prices have gone up we have shifted the difference onto credit cards. The shell game that we used to think we were good at has gotten more and more difficult as we’ve done “0%” balance transfers from Peter to Paul and vice versa, all the while the paycheck we’ve used to finance the whole thing has gotten more and more watered down. This has happened despite whatever raises we’ve gotten, and those have been shrinking as well.

What should we have done? We should have realized that this is not the President Bush that we grew up with in the 1980s. Not opening the reserves was a signal that higher prices were coming and quicker than we thought. We hollered when the gas hit $2. We moaned when it hit $3 and now that it is at $4 most of us are cussing. Those of you who don’t suffer from acute potty mouth, you’re cussing too. You’re feeling the same stuff the rest of us are. You’re just more elegant about how you express it. We know what you really mean when you say “Fiddle Faddle!” And if you’re a Galactica nerd, you’re saying “FRAK!” But seriously we should have started shortening vacations, combining and consolidating trips, eating out less, all the stuff the budget nerds tell you you need to do.

Would being more mindful of our spending have hurt the economy? Not in the sense you might be thinking and certainly not in the manner it is now. A reduction then would have clued the business community of what was coming. I doubt it would have stopped any of these price hikes in fuel. The people who could have stopped this do not listen.

RFID Chips and the Tunnel Vision of Business

Business always seems overly eager to adopt new technologies without much apparent examination of what the wider implications are beyond their own compartment of use. Questions need to be asked that aren’t being asked by people in business and while they’re rushing to be the first to outfit their warehouses with this and by making purchases are enabling further development, they aren’t concerned with the larger ramifications of related items. A chip of limited capabilities might be useful to warehousing but a more advanced version from the same manufacturer, funded in part by purchases of the package tracking version might be used for something else.

Should such businesses be concerned? Yeah. While a book written in support of the technology for business might insist that the chips can’t be tracked by satellite, what if they could? But the satellite might not be necessary. What if something like a cell tower or an innocuous-looking signal transceiver pedestal was placed every few yards or blocks on roads? You might only need to be a few feet from the pedestal but the pedestal is wifi enabled and can communicate with a substation farther away, which gets to a central computer. There is a utility easement on all property. You don’t have control over that. One of those could be installed every other house and an entire neighborhood could be monitored with a dozen.

But of course the bar-coding is inefficient and technology has to advance.

Doesn’t it?

Car Ad with a Twist

Two guys are driving in a car. One is talking about saving money from whatever sale for the car was on. The other suggested he use the money he saved to pay down his credit card debt.

Thanks for finally starting to get it.

Now how about cutting back the bullshit financing traps like 72-96 month loans. Any vehicle should be priced so it can be paid for in 48 months. But that doesn’t do enough of a disservice to the consumer.

medhead.com - properties in the Mediterranean

I’m interested in moving abroad when I retire. I’m used to warmer climates, so I’ve been doing some web searches about some of the European countries that border the Mediterranean. I won’t be able to actually move for another ten years. I figure that is to my advantage since a good deal of planning is needed for a move like this. I speak Spanish and I am good at learning new languages. I know that for me French or Italian would be fairly easy to pick up. But let’s say I wanted to look at a Spanish property for rental. Instead of doing standard searches, which are too random, I can check out medhead.com. Since I’ll be living alone I and should not need a tremendous amount of space I was able to locate a 3BR apartment in Alhama De Murcia, Murcia, Spain for €54,780, which is about $80K. Of course the details would have to be worked out between the banks, mortgage and sales people. At the medhead.com website I used the search sidebar to look for properties by type, country and price. Based on my preferences it brought up 64 selections. The page for the property includes contact information for the listing agent as well as a way for me to leave my information for them to get in touch with me. medhead dot com accepts listings for properties as well. The website is fully translated into Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian and Danish. If you’re interested in owning, renting or taking a holiday, start your research here.

42nd Street Photo of New York

I’ve been using Panasonic cameras for a couple of years now. I own two. The DMC-LZ7 is a 7MP/6x Optical Zoom point and shoot that I carry with me all the time. I have an account on Flickr and tend to take spur of the moment photographs. My other Panasonic digital camera is the DMC-FZ20. It is a 5MP/12x Optical Zoom camera. What I like about it is that I am able to attach filters to it and converter lenses. I have been considering upgrading my cameras, especially the larger format one. I think the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18K from 42nd Street Photo is the best direct upgrade for that camera. I don’t know if my teleconverter lens will work with it, but it looks like a good step up from what I have. 42nd Street Photo is located in New York. In addition to digital camera and memory cards you can get camcorders, digital recorders, DVD players, treadmills, iPods and other MP3 players and accessories as well as GPS units. They ship nationwide as well as internationally. There is live customer support and order tracking on their website. Check them out at 42photo dot com.

Working with Real Estate Agents

When I was a property manager the owner hired a real estate agent to get the properties MLS listed. That was a lot of work and working with her was one of the bright spots of the time I was doing that job. You can do all the research and handle your own transaction and you should have a good understanding of the process but unless you are going to buy and sell your home several times throughout your life it makes sense to let a realtor handle the job of listing your property. I also know someone who is a real estate investor and she had a real estate agent handle the sale of her house. She said she was unable to be objective since it had been her home.

VistaPrint: Rubber Stamps

Rubber Stamps do not last forever. The blanket (rubber portion with the embossed negative image) is good for several thousand impressions. After that it is time to place another order. With a self-inking stamp the mechanism usually goes long before the blanket. Eventually you’ll need a replacement. If you use custom stamps heavily you’ll want to work with a vendor who can give you good quality at a good price with a quick turn-around. Have a look at VistaPrint. They’ve served millions of customers. They can create custom stamps with any message you required. Get the heavy duty stamp for the office and one of the pocket stamps to carry in your messenger bag. You can use one of their templates or review the specs for the product you want and create your own design to upload. Right now you can get 25% off rubber stamps at checkout. Just enter the coupon code ‘Stamp25′. In addition to stamps, VistaPrint can meet all your printing needs. They offer a full line including letterhead, brochures and other items for business, promotional imprint products, post cards, invitations, thank you cards and other products for special events. In addition to printing they can design the products for you, or give you the specs to create your own artwork. You can get free samples at vistaprint dot com.

Apartment Finder - Austin

Maybe you grabbed a copy of the Apartment Finder magazine a few days ago on your way out of the grocery store. You may have seen the display in the front of a restaurant. You may have visited a few places already but you’re still not sure and you’d really like to do your homework before you go talk to someone. Austin Apartments are easier to find using a dedicated search engine like apartmentfinder dot com. You give it a zip code, number of beds and baths and a price range and it’ll bring up the listings along with an interactive map showing where each is located. Then if that’s too broad you can refine the search. You may want to know if there is a fitness center or if pets are allowed. Each listing will tell you office hours and contact information. You get a list of features and amenities as well as the name of the management company. You’ll get directions, a view of the floor plans and you can look at a brochure online and see photos of units. You may want to set up an account to save listings you’d like to come back to after you’ve visited a few locations. Have a look at their website at austin.apartmentfinder.com

My many offices

I think I am going to add the line to my new business cards “OFFICES WHEREVER THERE IS FREE WIFI” I am in Freebirds right now writing this post. I may be in Schlotzsky’s on Thursday during lunch to do some more blogging. I have broadband at home but I am finding that I need to get some more posting done sometime during the evening as well.

Office Furniture

The company I work for is part of a large corporation and every department does buys office supplies and office furniture from the catalog of one of the major “OfficeShack” chains…you know, with the red logo. I guess the discount is pretty good. The selection is okay. But if you are running a home-based business or are a corporate manager who can pick vendors, it might be better to buy your office furniture from a company that specializes in that. You might find their pricing to be competitive, especially on discontinued items.