Ideas
Online finance for home and business?
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008While going paperless, I thought it’d be nice to consolidate everything online. I’ve already pretty much eliminated Microsoft Office by using Google Docs - why not move my finances from Quicken and QuickBooks to an online solution?
Well there is no “Home and Business” edition of Quicken online, and the online version of QuickBooks only works […]
Turn your email newsletters into an RSS feed with GMail
Thursday, December 27th, 2007Several people I know subscribe to multiple email newsletters, but would prefer RSS because it’s more convenient and doesn’t clutter their inbox. Unfortunately, despite the Web 2.0 craze, a lot of good content still isn’t available via RSS. Such content providers should contact me right away to get started with RSS, but in case they […]
Creative Gift Ideas, a how-to guide
Thursday, November 29th, 2007I have hated holiday shopping for years for one simple reason: Pretty much everyone, myself included, already has what they want (e.g. an iPod) or they want something too expensive (e.g. a big screen TV).
My mother, on the other hand, loves holiday shopping; probably because she is so good at it. Since I can […]
Prosper(ing) So Far
Monday, September 17th, 2007I made my first Prosper loan back in February. I contributed $100 at 8.4% to a $4,000 loan to a couple of grad students looking to max-out their IRA. Though the loan term is three years, they finished paying me (and the other 47 contributors) back this month.
After making my first three loans and seeing […]
Human Computation
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007WARNING: The following post is very, very nerdy.
Luis von Ahn, inspired by the clever pornographers that defeated captchas, has come up with some amazingly simple and effective ways to get humans to analyze data that computers can’t… for free.
Next time you feel like playing Solitaire, why not play one of Luis von Ahn’s games?
A Personal Productivity Scaffold
Monday, July 23rd, 2007 Recently I began reading the Steve Pavlina blog after a friend recommended it.
Today I came across an article on how to create a personal productivity scaffold. What a great idea! After reading the article, I have implemented one myself as a way of keeping up with my accounting books which are always lagging behind. […]
Ideas to die for
Sunday, July 8th, 2007Dan Dennett talks about toxic memes and their virus-like ability to wipe out entire cultures. Dennett’s assertion that memes are, in some cases (communism, capitalism, Islam, Catholicism, and many more), essentially deadly parasites is an interesting perspective.
As interesting as Dennett’s ideas are, I tend to take a more simplistic view. While memes may be wiping […]
Is what you know about intelligence wrong?
Friday, May 25th, 2007I love the way the speaker, Jeff Hawkins, dismisses the “pit of metaphysical dualism” in this session at TED.
His general point about the proper definition of intelligence, reminds me that Google uses the approach of using “memory to make predictions” in it’s award winning translator. Interestingly, what is absent in this approach, and in Jeff’s […]