Riggs 2.0

The Great Use for Life...

....is to spend it on something that will outlast it.

- William James

(Couldn't resist...love that one.)

Gmail Down - Alert the Media

So the Olympics are in full swing, there is a war in Iraq, one of the most important elections in the history of the Western Hemisphere is about to take place, Russia just invaded it's neighbor, there is a global financial crisis, they just found water on Mars, and my Gmail went down today for a couple hours. 

Which of these stories should make the front page?

Yep - you guessed it. 

My Gmail went down for a couple of hours today, and it was front page news.

It sounded a little strange and out of place to me, until I really thought about how unbelievably critical sites like Gmail, Facebook, and the Internet as a whole are to our lives.  The sheer volume of attachments, pictures, correspondence, and contacts that are in the sky, completely out of our control just boggles my mind sometimes.

 

Greatest Website Intro of All Time

I'm not sure there's even a close second.

Check out Toronto company One Method's intro to their company.

I'll be back to blogging when I pick my jaw off the floor.

The S.S. Mike Tyson

Gotta love government contractors.

Specifically Naval ones.

Even more specifically, Naval ones that push their projects through US Congress under false, misleading, or just plain dumb pretenses.

Case in point: at what point in the building of a $5 billion dollar aircraft carrier should it occur to you that you may want to give the defense systems a whirl, and see if they actually work?

I don't think we've seen anything so strong, yet so unable to take a punch since Tyson.

Put This Where the Sun Don't Shine

Actually, that's WHEN the sun don't shine. 

Looks like MIT researchers have made a major breakthrough in the field of solar energy, and are saying it has the potential to make massive impacts on the way we live.   

The breakthrough?

Being able to store energy when the sun isn't shining.

(Now why didn't I think of that?)

The Rise of the Insomniac

Just had a funny email exchange with a partner in Germany.

Him:   What are you doing replying to my email right now?  It's 10pm your time.
Me:    I'm still working.  Why are you even awake right now?
Him:   Globalization.  Me too.

Can I get a ruling on that?  I found that hilarious.

Bueller?

Tara Reid, Cuba Gooding, The Global Credit Crisis, and Musical Chairs

The title will make perfect sense when you take the most important 20 minutes of your week and read this article immediately.  The only way out of an economic slump is to understand how it happened in the first place, and this transcript from a show called This American Life will shed more light on what happened, what's happening, and what's going to happen with the sub prime financial meltdown, than any dinner party or episode of Mad Money ever will.  Just an awesome piece of reporting.

When you read the article and see how it was all just people lending other people's money to people who couldn't afford to borrow it, then selling those loans up the chain to people further and further away from the poor people borrowing them - it just feels like it was one giant game of musical chairs, or hot potato.  Whoever was left without a chair when the music stopped is just out of luck.

It just goes to show that money literally isn't real until someone says you don't have any.

I'm still an eternal optimist though, and feel after reading this transcript that I just simply see the world more a little more clearly now.  And my relationship to money is just plain different now at 30 than it was at 20.  Not that I have a ton of it, but I think I finally get how much of a theory money really is now. 

And I've got plans for what to do with that know how...

Do you?

The Old 80 / 20 Rule - Alive and Well

We've all heard of the "80/20 rule" (or Pareto Principle, if you want to get all snooty about it.)

This basically states that for many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.  Well here's a chart that suggests at least in the financial world - most of the effects happen 20% of the time.





















Thought that was kind of interesting....

It's also proof that we need a 4 day weekend...:)

I'm shorting Mondays and Fridays from here on in.


 

Hollywood and Net Neutrality

This may sound dramatic, but I honestly think the Net Neutrality debate is one of the most important issues we face as a generation, right up there with that whole "global warming" thing. 

Maybe I'll feel differently when a giant iceburg is literally melting on my doorstep, but if you asked me on some days, I really don't see the point of saving the planet if we're not going to make the most of our time here.  So anytime I see, hear, read, or think that something is getting in the way of our general advancement as a civilization, I get really sad - plain and simple.

Like anything else though, a cause really isn't a cause until Hollywood gets involved, and Net Neutrality advocates can rest assured that the profile of this argument may be on the rise.  That's right everyone - Hollywood is pissed, and it just sent Justine Bateman to Capitol Hill to speak for all of us who think the net shouldn't be a toll road.

As frustrated as I am with the process, and while it may take a cycle of getting it wrong before we realize how to do it right - I am convinced that "simple and open" will win over "closed and difficult" in the end. 

I have to believe that, or else I'm just going to sit on my porch and wait for the iceburg.

Anyway, I encourage you all to familiarize yourselves with this debate, pick up a cyber picket sign, and join the fight to keep ourselves moving forward as a society of innovators.

(And Hollywood, proud of you for stepping up here, but come on.  Would it have killed you to send Clooney?)

The ROI of Going Green

This one goes out to all you tree hugger / capitalist crossovers. 

Interesting post from Tim Ferris on how to use self interest to save the planet.

.....

(Light reading tonight, folks - just got back from Vegas, where the only thing in MY self interest right now is a pillow.)