Monday, December 29, 2008

GPs tracking

As with every new technology we've yet to work out the socially acceptable uses of GPS tracking. It's just like, say, cell phones. Sure, they're great to use but it's taken a decade since they became common for us to work out when it is or is not acceptable to use them. My local bar for example very much frowns on people using them inside. You want to take a call, go outside.

Very much the same thing will happen with GPS tracking: we haven't done it yet because the technology and the questions it throws up are all too new for us. Obviously it's great that truck owners can keep an eye on their fleet. That Fed Ex knows where drivers are. We can also see that GPS tracking can be used to keep track of the teenager's car. But that last one, we're not sure yet whether it's going to become entirely socially acceptable.

I'd say that it might, that it simply becomes commonplace, as normal as aiding the teenager in learning to drive. But it might not.

But where will the boundaries be? Will GPS tracking become common amongst people who think their parter is cheating on them? I'm sure that some people will try it, it's just that I'm wondering whether they will be thought to be odd or normal?

One thing I am sure of. Asthe technology matures it will be possible to do it to people, not just vehicles. And that won't become socially acceptable.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Those keyless locks

This is one of the bright new ideas that's come up in recent years, a keyless lock. Well, actually, there have beena number of different technologies used over the years to try and give us a keyless lock. Like, for example, the one that uses a plastic card to open the lock. But that isn't when you really think about it, a keyless lock at all. All we've done is replace the metal key and tumblers with a digital key and digital tumblers.

Now the technology has taken the next step and we really do have a keyless lock. You need nothing at all to open it but just yourself, extremely useful for those like me who continually forget keys (whether of metal or cards!).

What happens is that you record your fingerprint and it becomes your fingerprint placed upon the sensor that opens the lock.

It's the sort of thing which is undoubtedly going to become much more common....although I do wonder just a touch about whether this is going to lead to a spate of thieves cutting off fingers?

Friday, December 19, 2008

Repairing your credit

One of the things we all need to know is how to manage credit repair. OK, well, maybe not all of us, there might be a few lucky souls who get through the next couple of years without needing credit repair help but I don't think it's likely to be me or you.

Even in the good times it's easy enough to get carried away with the spending....when the bad times arrive of course we don't have the income we thought we would have and the debt burden can become crushing. But it's still not necessary to despair!

There are things you can do to help yourself deal with these problems. The first and most obvious is to make sure that any spare cash you do have is used to pay down the highest interest rate debt first. That means that when you've managed to pay off that one debt then you've got more to pay off others...

But of course there's much more to it all than just that so I would suggest that you have a look at what a credit repair company can do to help you. Just click through the link to get there.

Rural houses and the mail

As regular readers will know we've been sorting out a house down here for some time now. We've got most of one side of it done, my new office is just being completed as I write and then we've got one more bit to go before we're done.

But one of the things about being out here in the sticks is that we don't get a mail delivery to the house. Of course. So we need to find ourselves a mail box (or is it mailbox?).

Now, where should I go to try and find one of those? Out where we are there isn't going to be a store that sells them, that's for sure. Aha! onto the Web and look for mailboxes. And what do you think I've found? Yes, a site dedicated to all the different sorts of mail boxes I could possibly desire. And all at the best prices and ready for fast delivery.

If I could just say thanks to Sir Tim Berners Leee here for making this possible?

Monday, December 15, 2008

Auto Insurance

OK, so we all know that we've got to have auto insurance before we go out driving on hte roads, right? Even if we're in a State that says you don't in fact have to have it there's no point in trying to be stupid about it and driving without at least third party insurance. But whre is it that you can go find out about California auto insurance quotes? Where can you get a look at a standard California auto insurance policy?

Well, actually, if you click through those links you'll find a great deal more information on both of those things. Plus qwhat the standard California auto insurance coverage is.

Well worth doing in fact for those are the three things you really need....well, if you're looking to buy auto insurance in California of course. That's pretty much the starting point of it all. But assume that you are. Then you want to know what are the general and specific terms of coverage, what's going to be in hte policy and then where you can get quotes for such insurance.

All of which is available through those links.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Entrepreneurship

There's always a certain confusion about exactly what is entrepreneurship and what is an entrepreneur.

To an economist the answer is easy enough, even if the answer has only recently been arrived at. There used to be thought to be only three factors of production. Land, labour and capital. These would in some mysterious manner organise themselves so as to be efficient in their production.

The way we now think of it is that there is a fourth factor of production. That's the entrepreneur. The dreamer, thinker, risk taker, who roganises the other three and thus makes them more efficient....if he's to be successful and he'll be unsuccessful if he makes them less productive.

Now if you want to know more about all of these things, in detail rather than the rather broad brush approach I've used, might I suggest you click through any of the links, to learn more about how to be a young entrepreneur and young entrepreneurship in general as well?

Sunday, December 07, 2008

To catch a falling knife

It's been said that trying to call the bottom of a financial market is to try catching a falling knife. Terribly impressive if you can do it but highly likely to cause great damage.

However, there are times when we might want to try doing this: like now. Are we at the beginning of a recession? In which case financial assets are absurdly cheap. Or are we at the beginning of a depression, in which case they might be about the right price? No one really knows as yet....however, there is something we do know about how we should approach investing if and when we think the time is right.

We should be using a online broker to do our stock trading. The thing that usually kills the efforts of the individual investor is not lack of knowledge: the professionals don't often pay for themselves. No, rather, what really kills is the costs of moving in and out of a position. That's what online trading allows you to cut, the costs of doing that, of buying and or selling a specific stock or bond.

So, remember, when you decide you do want to try catching that falling knife, do it online.