Voted Down

In 2005 our investment club manager e-mailed us asking for our opinions on how to invest the money the group had been collecting. I wrote what I felt was the best suggestion I could have made at the time. Below is a copy of the e-mail I wrote our investment club along with Chris’s wrong and inaccurate response.

Now, Back in November 2005 when this e-mail was written Apple’s stock price reach a high of $69.34. Today, Apple’s stock price is valued over $180. Now for thoughts keeping score, this means that Apple’s market value of $158 billion is now four times that of rival PC Macker Dell’s $38 billion.

Whats that Chris? I can’t here you. Cat got your tongue?

 

Cognitive Surplus

This is why Google Reader is so awesome. Because people like my friend Kanske, can read about (or in this case watch) a cool story on cognitive surplus, and share it out so friends on his contact list can learn about it too. 

That is exactly how I came across a post by Jeremy Zawodny on “Explaining the Cognitive Surplus” that had a very cool video of Clay Shirky‘s talk on Cognitive Surplus at the Web 2.0 Expo last week. I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did. It’s a real eye opener in explaining that watching T.V. should no longer be the default spare time activity.
 

 

Dreamworks And Paramount Are Pretty Cool

Dreamworks and ParamountThe people at Dreamworks and Paramount are pretty darn cool. (Expect for Michael Bay when he is making a Transformers movie) I recently had a couple of questions about “The Kite Runner” movie. I wanted to ask about a song I could not find on the sound track as well as find out what font was used in the opening credits of the movie.

Not knowing who best to ask these question, I ended up going to the kite runner website and e-mailing the contact address they had. I wrote out a very polite e-mail asking if someone could tell me about a particular song I could not find on the official soundtrack to the movie. Also if someone could tell me how to find the font that is used in the opening credits. I wrote out this e-mail completely expecting it to get lost in someone spam or trash folder.

Within a few hours I got a response back to my surprise. I was asked some more detailed question about the song and the font to help the people at Dreamworks and Paramount find answers my questions.

After a few days of correspondence they where able to tell me where I could find the song that was in the movie. Score one for me! (It actually was on the sound track. The part they used in the movie was on the second half of the very last song. I just didn’t listen to that song all the way through I guess.)

The Kite Runner FontBut as the week went on, no one was able to tell me anything about the font used in the opening credits of the movie. They were able tell me about every other other font used on the DVD cover and in the movie but I was not able to find out anything about the font used in the opening credits. I am left to think it might have been a custom font made specifically for the movie.

But the thing that impresses me most is how several people from Dreamworks and Paramount did not hesitate to help me out one bit. They really went out of their way to e-mail me and help me answer my questions.

If anyone out there in the cloud happens to know what font this is, please shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment.

A City On Diesel: The First Weekend

Life styles for both Hannah and Myself (as well as most of Juneau Alaska) has take a big change this weekend. We are running as few electric devices as we can. The lights in our apartment are rarely on. We have candles to light the way for the most part. Everything we own that could be plugged into a surge protector has been plugged into one. We did this because when where not using anything we can just flip the off switch to ensure nothing is drawing any electrical power. We have unplugged everything else. Lights, gaming consoles, computers, and even the microwave.

The two of us went out shopping this weekend for groceries only to find that almost every store in town has at least half of their lights turned off. I am sure there are safety concerns that prevent them from turning off more then that.

At night the town is darker then I have ever seen it. Most building lights are turned off. It’s just dark and spooky almost.

I have been trying to keep on top of the local news paper website (Juneau Empire) to keep informed on what is going on. I feel like it might be a slow week for action. But will see.

A City On Diesel. The Story Continues

The City of Juneau has asked the state of Alaska for $25 million in relief funds.

The Juneau city government shifted into response gear Thursday by declaring the loss of its hydroelectricity a “disaster,” then asking the state for aid to cover a nearly instantaneous 500 percent rate hike.

At a special meeting, the Juneau Assembly unanimously approved the disaster resolution, asking the state for $25 million in relief funds to offset electricity rates for 90 days.

This just gets better and better. Hannah and I have been been living int he dark at our place. The heat has been turned down ten degrees. We are using candles to see our way around most of the time at home. I hope that the city gets this state aid we can go back to living like normal again.

The towers, built in known avalanche terrain by the Army Corps of Engineers, had no specialized structural engineering to reduce avalanche damage, AEL&P Engineer Scott Willis said.

“We’ll probably have to rebuild five towers,” he said. The last tower AEL&P replaced on that line cost about $1.1 million.