You know, like learning how to play 32nd not fills on a 3pc drum kit.  5min.com has all sorts of great sub-5-minute tips & tricks, not only about learning instruments, but how to play chess, how to understand pot odds, or how to make a really bad presentation.

Note to self: time to hit the practice pads.

I was presented with an interesting site that rents out and mails videos direct to the customer, providing a postage-paid envelope for returning the video.  Sound familiar?  It's not Netflix, but AVNac.com, self-billed as "Aviation's video rental store."

What I find interesting about this service is that there are many markets that offer videos which Netflix does not cover.  Aviation is certainly a good example, where thousands of films are produced annually for training, but there are other groups that produce niche videos, including dance and music instruction. 

Bravo to AVNac for filling a void, but I wonder if it wouldn't be better to rent some of these products and view them online?  Seems like a better revenue model to me.

I came across a great "article" (is that the right term for an audio segment which is also available online?) on David Swensen.  Swensen manages Yale's endowment, and has managed success even during these trying bear markets, realizing an average annual return of 17.8 percent over the last 10 years.

David Swensen's book, Unconventional Success, has received complaints for being a very dry read.  That's unfortunate, because the message seems to be a good one:

• invest broadly in index funds (avoiding other mutual funds due to their built-in cost structure)
• rebalance your portfolio to match your goals as often as you can while still avoiding fees
• do it yourself, avoiding costs associated with account managers

Swenson suggests the following portfolio:

30% Domestic Equity (VTSMX, TINRX)
20% Real Estate (VGSIX, TCREX)
15% US T-Bonds (VFISX, TCTRX, VFITX, TIORX, VUSTX)
15% US Treasury Inflation Protected Securities "TIPS" (VIPSX, TCILX)
15% Foreign Developed Equity (VGTSX, TIERX)
5% Emerging Market Equity (VEIEX)

The only challenge (that I'm reviewing) is the above portfolio requires an initial investment of ~$60k, since the minimum buy in for VEIEX is $3,000.  Doing the math the rest of the way up yields a starting investment of $60k.

The folks at The Motley Fool agree in general terms.  They say, simply, "Buy an index fund."

I've started migrating all of the light bulbs in my house to CF from incandescent.  As an incandescent blows, in goes its CF equivalent.  About 3 months ago, I replaced all of the lights in my bathroom with CF.  The cost and energy saving made me warm in my heart.  The color, however made me look jaundiced. 

Unhappy with the perceived color, I looked around on the web today for a comparison of CFs.  Thankfully, Popular Mechanics ran an article in May 2007 on The Best Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs.

The punch line: N:Vision Soft White 19W (2700K) CFs are the winner in their roundup.  I'm going out today to pick up a bunch for bathroom #2.

Yeah, but what of the mercury used to generate the light?  Phoenix offers a great program for hazardous disposal (old paint, motor oil, etc) where you can bring these for proper disposal.  Ikea also offers a disposal program, and I expect Home Depot and Lowe's to offer them as well (if they don't already.)  If you want more information on mercury use in CFs, Popular Science also discussed this in a later article, Compact Fluorescent Bulbs and Mercury: Reality Check.

The Police are coming back through the US and will be stopping in Phoenix again.  [This is, my friends, a small miracle.  Despite Phoenix being the 5th most populous city in the US, many great acts refuse to make a stop here.  I digress...]  In an amazing lineup, Elvis Costello is "opening" for them, despite Elvis calling The Police "bloody dreadful."

Today, I purchased my tickets for the show through Ticketmaster.  The process is not the quickest, but that I can live with.  I start to get really steamed when I calculate that for every dollar I spent, Ticketmaster, the venue and/or the promoter made an additional $0.47 above and beyond the cost of my ticktes.  So here I sit, $80 worth of tickets costing me $115.25.

But here's what really chaps my hide: of the methods available to get your tickets, Ticketmaster charges $2.50 to deliver your tickets via email. 

For those of you not-so-technically-inclined, let me explain this to you.  It costs Ticketmaster first class postage to mail your tickets to you.  Today, that's $0.41.  They do not charge you a dime for that service.  Email, if you don't remember, is free.  The tools they use to make the tickets were long-ago paid for.  (Software to create bar codes and PDFs are relatively inexpensive; ~$1000 one time charge.)  So, can you tell me why they charge $2.50 for something that is essentially free?!

This, my dear friends, is highway robbery and just another reason why the music industry is collapsing under it's own weight.  Hangers-on and companies with nominal value-add are squeezing every last dime out of the consumer.  And they wonder why music is being pirated?

My mother is the official photographer at all events.  She takes out her (not-so) trusty $50 point-and-shoot and snaps off a few shots whenever more than one of us are together at any given event.  I love my mom, but it's a running joke with my siblings that none of us have ever seen any of those photos. 

If you're in a similar situation, I urge you to take time at least once a year to have a sitting with a professional photographer.  There's no cutting corners on this one.  Because my wife is a wedding florist, we have the opportunity to virtually interview dozens of photographers a year.  Many are Johnny-come-latelies who never amount to much, but some are very talented artists who rise above and shine brightly.

If you're in the Phoenix area, I strongly urge you to contact Melissa Jill for a sitting.  If you're planning a special event, she should be on your short list of photographers.  She has a great eye and uses her tools very effectively to get the most out of the time and place.  My wife, my son and I spent an hour with her the other day and I couldn't be happier, even though I haven't yet seen all of the results.

Bravo, Melissa.  You've got talent.

http://www.MelissaJill.com
http://www.MelissaJill.net

Bravo to Microsoft for streaming their keynotes and their session presentations on their website at http://visitmix.com/2008/.  I would love for Apple to also stream their presentations.  Currently I rely on blogs such as Engadget or Gizmodo to distill those presentations for me.  This is a disservice to both me and Apple.  

I was intensely geeked out by streming the live video of Scott Guthrie's keynote on my phone while at lunch today.  The experience was amazingly and surprisingly good. 

Sorry for anyone paying attention, but I had a bit of a DNS issue.  My server was maintaining its own DNS records and the host changed the way they forwarded records.  My site went *poof* and disappeared.

With a wave of my hand, I bring back mattbirmingham.com

The video I offer here is a great way to break down the argument of whether or not "Global Warming" is a reality.  Actually, it smartly shifts the entire argument to "What happens if we don't do anything about it?"

If you hate the message, do nothing.  If you enjoy it, pass it along.  If you fall somewhere in between, I present the following suggestions:

• Research your candidates both locally and federally
• Don't believe everything you see, hear, and/or read
• Vote in your local primary and general elections or, if you're a follower in the Paradox of voting,
• Contact your elected representative and give them a piece of your mind

Now that Mark Zuckerberg has seen the evil of Facebook's ways, you can now opt-out of Beacon's spying (as far as we know.)  The process is simple, despite it not being so obvious. 

1. Log in to Facebook.com
2. Click on "privacy" in the top right
   
3. You will now be on your "Privacy Overview" page.  Click on "External Websites" or the "Edit Settings" link to its right
   
4. Check the checkbox and hit "Save"
    

You know you're relatively* free from auto-Beaconing when the image next to Edit Settings changes from this

to this

Finally, it's a good idea to log out of Facebook when you're done with it.  That's a good rule for any site that you don't want prying eyes on.

* Note that on the External Websites profile page, Facebook warns you that,

Please note that these settings only affect notifications on Facebook. You will still be notified on affiliate websites when they send stories to Facebook. You will be able to decline individual stories at that time.

FYI, Beacon still creeps me out.

About 2 weeks ago, I was asked to answer a survey about a recent shopping trip I made to the Apple store.  Given that part of my company does this kind of work, I'm willing to participate in these surveys, provided they're not too long and that the survey I'm answering doesn't become invalid by my association with a survey company.

It was a relatively innocuous survey, asking me how the staff treated me, what would get me to shop at Apple more regularly, and if I had any suggestions.  This was all fairly common for a post-shopping survey.  As usual, the end of the survey asked if I could be contacted by Apple for further information.  Not expecting to hear anything further, I said yes and provided my cell number.

On Sunday afternoon, my cell rang and it was the store manager from the store I shop at.  There are two remarkable items to note about this call.  The first is that the manager didn't call me for more detail per se, but just to thank me for the information, as "Apple is very interested in making their stores a better place to shop, and are taking these surveys very seriously."  The other interesting bit was that we spoke for the better part of 20 minutes about my experience and the answers I provided. 

Now, this is a store manager who surely is dealing with all sorts of consumer related issues on a busy shopping day (in the last year, I've never been to this store on the weekend without it teeming with potential and actual buyers).  That he called me was a small miracle, but that he actually talked to me was a little more than that.

We talked about my particular issues with the store (not using stantions at the checkout queue, and none closer to my house/work) and my experiences in the store.  I noted that on one trip, my wife and I specifically visited the store to inspect iLife '08 to help us understand if we need to upgrade.  The sales reps were particularly useless.  Sure, iLife had just been introduced the day before, but I expected to be able to roll in to the Apple store and have all of my questions answered by anyone dressed in black.

What the manager said at this point was particularly interesting.  He claimed that because Apple keeps so much information about new products secret, people walking in to the stores often have more information about the product than the store employees do.  He particularly pointed out this being a problem with the release of the iPhone and iLife, in that Apple did not provide any advance training for their sales staff.

His candor shocked me, but not as much as the obvious issue with being overly secretive.  Joe Consumer really needs help from the technically advanced sales staff at these kinds of stores, or else he's going to - at best - be confused about the product, and - at worst - have a bad experience with a product and never purchase it.  Case in point: my wife and I did not upgrade to iLife '08 as the sales staff was unable to provide us with a convincing argument for the cost.

Bravo to Apple for taking the time to understand their customers a little better.  Boos to Apple for being insanely secretive with their products.  In my opinion, Walt Mossberg shouldn't have more information about or experience with a product than the staff in charge with selling it.

Although Instructables has many great articles on carving pumpkins, it's sometimes hard to determine from the snapshot who is the best or, for that matter, even knows what they're talking about.  Well, if you're willing to shell out $18, you can get 3 shows from Terri Hardin (Ghostbusters, Disney, Universal Studios) at Fugu.com on how to get some amazing results from your giant gourd. 

ExtremePumpkins.com also has lots of ideas, tips and tricks.  I first found that site about a year ago when I came across the "Kerosene Soaked Toilet Paper" video.

On a related note, MyScienceProject.org performed a fun little experiment on how to keep your jack-o'-lantern looking scary as long as possible.  I won't spoil the surprise ending, but I will tell you that smearing white glue all over your pumpkin isn't a good idea for a preservative.

I've been running Vista as my main dev box for about 12 weeks now, and I couldn't be happier that SP1 is going to be rolling out soon.  In my opinion, it can't get here soon enough.  Vista, in my opinion, is just not mother-in-law-proof.  For the record, my laptop is rated as an overall 4.5 "experience index" (on a 1 to 5.9 scale)**, which is not too shabby.  A 4.5 (with 5.9 video scores) allows me to see all of the glassy UI Vista effects.  For argument's sake, I'm going to ignore my personal beef(s) with developing on Vista, and will discuss general interaction I've had with the OS.

Last week I had all sorts of slowdown issues that required me to download Process Monitor to chase down a rogue process that was eating my HDD I/O.  What was that process?  Windows Defender.  Defender decided to run a full HDD scan in the middle of the afternoon, despite the schedule being set to run in the middle of the night.  The result?  My laptop came to a screeching halt, barely allowing me to get at Task Manager to perform emergency shutdowns of my freshly edited VS code.  Awesome.

Then there was this kicker: I played IT-guy for my niece.  She was having issues with her relatively new, relatively fast Compaq/HP notebook, and when I took a peek at it I noticed how much crapware was installed.  Seemed like the perfect example for an FDISK with a fresh XP install.  So, as that computer was being wiped, I was using my Vista box to download all the latest drivers.  I thought this would be a time-saver, as the plan was to download it all, then burn it to a CD.  Boy was I wrong.  Downloads worked like a champ, but when I went to burn the CD (using the internal Vista DVD/CD burner), this is what Vista calculated:

No, I am not kidding.  No, I did not Photoshop this image.  17 items.  578 MB.  This wasn't the first "best guess", but rather 3 or 4 excruciating minutes into the 578 MB copy.  Let's do some math, shall we?  32,996 days = 2,850,854,400 seconds. 578MB/2.85B seconds = 0.20 bytes/second = 1.62 bits/second.

My circa-1980 Commodore 64 had a 14.4kbps modem that was 8,878 times faster than that.  You know what?  It felt like it.  I could nearly see the electrons moving. 

[**Note to Microsoft: fire the idiot that determined a 1.0 to 5.9 scale.  1 to 5.9??  What the heck?  Was this built by the same joker that decided 0 to 158 1/3 is a good passer rating?]

I sat up in bed this morning with a brilliant (read: retire-in-three-years) idea:

"A web site that allows you to exchange your unused gift cards for cash or another card!" I shouted out loud.

Quickly, I ran to my GoDaddy account and typed as if I was racing someone around the world for the same domain name...

"GiftCardTrader.com" I shouted.
"Taken.  Drats.  How about GiftCardExchange.com?!"
Uh oh.  0 for 2.

That last one sounded like a winner, but after visiting GiftCardTrader.com and finding nothing, I thought, just hoped, "maybe this hasn't been done!"  If GiftCardExchange.com wasn't taken, I might be on to something.

Whoops.  Damn.

Well, looks like in October of 2005, someone in the Midwest had the same idea and went live with what looks to be a great service, CardAvenue.com.  If you're like me and have a stack of cards that are to stores you have little interest in (really, who needs 3 gift cards to Red Lobster?), then give this service a whirl and let me know how it goes.

After all, it was my idea.

Now that the first software-only hack for unlocking the iPhone is in the wild, I have to wonder how Apple privately is  handling all of this.  Publicly, they have stated that they are neutral on the idea of 3rd-party applications, which basically applies to this software-only hack.  But I pose the question: if you could stop this hack from working, would you?

Arguments for blocking the hack

The money

The people at Apple most likely gnashing their teeth are the accountants, and Peter Oppenheimer most specifically.  Rumor has it that Apple has an agreement with ATT which earns Apple $3USD/mo for each iPhone subscriber, and $11USD/mo for each new (to ATT) iPhone subscriber.  Given that Apple just recently sold it's 1 millionth iPhone, and the ATT subscription agreement is for 2 years, simple and conservative math yields a 2 year income to Apple of $3MM/mo for the next two years, or $72M USD over the next two years.

$72MM is a fair amount of money, but more than just the end number, its a recurring revenue stream which is the holy grail for sustaining any business, large or small.  iTunes, for example, doesn't make a dime on the download of the client software, but rather earns money on each and every song purchased; every day; every month; for as long as iTunes is the dominant player in the legal online music download space.  Now that is a killer application.  And that is exactly why iTunes is constantly battling the likes of Hymn and SharpMusique. 

User experience

The phone I use is a 3 year old handset running an unbridled version of Windows Mobile 2003.  Behind closed doors, you could certainly get Microsoft to admit that WM2003 has significant flaws, the most glaring is that it doesn't tell how much battery life is available on the main screen.  For the first six months with this phone, I would gamble taking the handset on an overnight without having a charger available, as it's a bit of a battery hog to boot.  The only available option to this problem was to purchase a 3rd party tool that displays the battery information right on the screen. 

The solution is elegant and provides better feedback from the phone, but it also has it's issues.  At it's root, the solution significantly alters the UI and the experience I have with the phone.  For someone like Apple, who worked so hard to create a specific experience, this might just be the reason to extinguish the hack. 

For example, one of the iPhone's five main sales points was visual voicemail.  With the hack (and service with someone other than ATT), this feature is gone.  Additionally, Steve Jobs specifically mentioned his concern to having 3rd party applications on the iPhone in a NY Times article, for fear that you load "three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn't work anymore." 

This hack should be driving the industrial designers in Cupertino completely batty.

Arguments for leaving the hack alone

Market share

I propose that a sexy piece of hardware, such as this, or the XBox 360 will have an inherent market regardless of the functionality or price.  If it can be hacked, I would suggest that you're going to get a perceptible bump in sales directly proportional to the ease of the hack implementation.  Engadget describes how a hackable system (XBox 360) can lead to tangential sales (DVD+/-R), but I would argue that Microsoft also saw a bump in sales.  Was it a 50% bump?  Not likely, but even a single percentage bump in sales would be welcome in such a competitive marketplace.

I hacked my original XBox.  I didn't do it to copy software, but rather to run all of the great 3rd party software developed for the hack, such as MAME.  As a matter of fact, that hack was the primary reason I purchased the XBox versus another game box.

The petri dish of 3rd party applications

One of the largest complaints leading up to the launch of the iPhone was that it lacked the ability to run 3rd party applications on the handset.  Although Jobs is worried about 3rd party apps, he's not entirely against the idea either.  In my opinion, he shouldn't be.  The Palm used to be the undisputed champion of the handset market not because it was sexy, but because it had the largest number of 3rd party developers writing software for the OS.  Heck, this was exactly how Microsoft beat Apple in the personal computer business of the '80s and '90s.

Although Jobs thinks Safari is an acceptable sandbox to write all of the applications to run on the iPhone, that idea is flawed in that it inherently allows application portability, which the Palm OS applications didn't.  In other words, if Microsoft can (finally??) get a handset and OS to the market that is stable and has a web client that doesn't suck, all of those web-based apps will suddenly and transparently work on that handset as well.  Facebook?  Check.  YouTube?  Check.  NYTimes?  Check.  How about a portable iTunes client? 

What this hack (more specifically, the underpinnings of the hack) allows is the ability for the millions of creative minds to do more in months with the iPhone than the thousands of Apple developers could do in years.  Specifically, all those disenfranchised Palm OS developers can now find a new OS to start porting their previously hot-selling application to.  It's a win-win solution for Apple.

My name is Matt Birmingham.  I've been working with computers professionally since 1986, and unprofessionally since I first laid hands on a Commodore VIC-20.  I currently work for New Amsterdam Consulting, Inc, as the lead application architect and general do-everything-guy.  I am a Microsoft Certified Solution Engineer and hold a degree from Arizona State University as a Computer Systems Engineer.

I have worked with both private and public companies helping them leverage investments by integrating legacy systems with cutting edge technologies.  These companies have ranged from 5-employee not-for-profits to Fortune 100 companies with $30B USD in annual profits. 

Before New Amsterdam Consulting, I worked as an independent contractor, and as a consultant for mid-sized consulting firm where I lived through the entire dot-com bubble, beginning to end.  Previously I worked in the IT departments of a national hotel chain and a major US airline.

I love the idea of being a "jack-of-all-trades." Robert A. Heinlein put it best in Time Enough for Love:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. 

I had to look up what "conn a ship" meant so I think I qualify as more of a jack-of-some-trades. That said, I do have some first-hand knowledge of being a

• Musician I have been playing the drums since 1981, and only got descent after seven years.  I have appeared on three recorded CDs, and currently play with The Calamities.  I have heard many good jokes about drummers, this being my favorite: "What do you call the guy that hangs out back stage with musicians?  A drummer."  I'm convinced Dave Weckyl has a third arm.
• Photographer  I am the unofficial photographer for my wife's wedding floral business.  I would very much like to drop a few thousand on a nice medium format Mamiya and photo-document the world.  Speaking of which...
• Traveler  I have traveled to six countries, and hope to one day retire to a nice flat near the Louvre with my wife and a small dog or two.  I have visited 15 states in the US, driven through six others, and lived in two.  I've been to six of the 50 places the BBC says I need to see before I die, and am disappointed that visiting Michelangelo's David wasn't on the list.  6 of 50... hmmm... I better find my passport.
• Cook  I've never worked an hour in a professional kitchen, but that doesn't stop my obsession with Alton Brown, finding secret recipes, and collecting all of the gadgets I can't live without.   I have, at one time, used 5 of the 6 burners on my 36" duel-fuel Kitchen-Aid range.  I can make: a mean pizza, pad thai, a high-roast chicken with potatoes that you would kill for, the tastiest grilled brats and corn you've ever had, and cinnamon buns that nearly made Cinnabon entirely leave the greater Phoenix area.
• Adoptive parent  If you or anyone you know is pregnant, and is confused about whether or not to keep the child, please have them contact a local adoption agency.  Adoption is a real opportunity, and for some parents, the only way to have a family.

I have other passions that I admit having little first-hand knowledge of, but that doesn't stop me from loving: the NFL, MLB, lacrosse, and road cycling (in no particular order), general aviation, and roadsters. 

If you've read this far, you're obsessing.  Go read a good book.