If you live on the web, or work on the web, or both, you know you need bookmarking. Yes, I know that google is the ultimate reason why you wouldn’t. After all, why bookmark if it’s all already stored in google. But even google results aren’t quite *that* personal. And bookmarking is a productivity device. [...]
ROW Spotlight: Kiva – You Can Microlend
December 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Have you heard about Kiva? Kiva is a free web site that lets you provide micro-loans (in amounts of $25) to impoverished entrepreneurs needing investment to make their businesses thrive. The entire loan amount goes to the entrepreneur and is facilitated through Kiva’s partnership with local micro-lending organziations in each country. The micro-lending organization collects [...]
What’s Wrong With Discounts?
December 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I’m not a believer in discounts, unless they are part of a marketing campaign. Half-hazard discounts, just because someone asks for one, force you to work harder for less pay to justify your normal price. And you’re not giving them a reason for the discount, so what does that say about what you were going [...]
No Mortgage for Freelancers?
December 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Your local NPR or public radio station “The Take Away” is running talk about how freelancers are treated unreasonably (I’d say prejudicially) for mortgage loan applications vs. job holders. Got an offer letter or a couple of pay stubs from a job? You’re on the fast track for refinance or a new mortgage. Freelancer? They [...]
Action Items: The Joys of Slicing Cheese
December 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
A colleague and I are constructing a new type of organization, and at times at the outset I felt overwhelmed and a bit paralyzed. It comes with having an enormous vault of ideas, and a need for speed, while needing also to quickly put up an infrastructure (in this case a marketing infrastructure) that is [...]
Prices: To List or Not to List?
December 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Personally, I rarely publish prices for services, because I think it encourages price shopping, and creates a climate where I can’t add value, and so I can’t compete. That’s bad for the client, because they always get nickel and dimed with mediocrity. With pure price shopping, I’m competing even with unscrupulous and dishonest service providers [...]
Mount Olympus is No More
December 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
When I was a kid, it was very clear what my parents and parents’ parents expected of me. Acquisition. After WWII, words like “security”, “stability”, and “financial independence” seemed so important. But then, you had to give up your financial independence for a mortgage, stake your stability on a job, and trust your security to [...]
The 2-minute Resignation Letter
December 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Here it is, time to write another resignation letter for a family member. This is sort of my role in our family. The reasons for leaving are employer incompetence, but naturally I reach for the most tiny, most dull, most trivial format there is. Yes, I’d like to say, “you people are tards who are [...]
Blog vs. Debt
December 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment
A Song of Strength
November 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The activity of our souls is all-consuming, and the work of our hands comes from that source, like fire from a furnace. It’s like picking up the Wall Street Journal – it’s got some of everything, because everything matters. The full-length caveman video for Three Doors Down: “Let Me Be Myself” was designated the offical [...]
1-Click Refurbish Your Business PC
November 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment
As we talked about in an earlier post, you can’t afford technology slow-downs (let alone melt-downs) with the equipment you use for work. There are three tools that are superb for keeping it lean, mean, and screaming faster than the day you bought it. What all of these do is clean your registry which, if [...]
Backing up in a Blaze of Boring
November 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I’ve tried nearly all of them, and settled on Backblaze. Jungle Drive: I found it impossible to set up. Too many separate logins and setting up the connection between the software and the storage servers, albeit rock solid amazon servers, threw several hurdles at me. After a couple of hours, including forum entries, I gave [...]
Today Only: Business Phone Under $25 – SIM ready – No Contract
November 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I’ve reviewed this phone before, and now it’s available cheaper than ever (information courtesy of edealinfo.com): Motorola F3 Slim Unlocked GSM Basic Phone » only $23.99 One Day Only J&R is carrying this Unlocked Cell Phone for $23.99 This item receives Free Shipping Final Price: $23.99 + Free Shipping
Technology: The Sword between Personal and Corporate Life
November 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The contrast is startling. Average of 5mb/sec internet connections in the US – average of 60mb/sec in Japan [source] for about $25/month. South Korea, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal… basically most countries that might deserve the term “wired” have faster, better internet.The US, birthplace of the personal computer and the internet, now ranks 28th in [...]
Freedom Wears a Watchcap
November 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Sell more than you save
November 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The Unseen Light
November 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Designated Theme Video
November 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment
[This video] has been chosen as the official theme video of the Rules of Work blog. Steve Pruneau added the following: It taps into everything you ever thought, felt and said about not “fitting in” when employed by a company. This video makes me think about… People who are smart but don’t do well in a [...]
Fear, Loathing, Escaping the Cube
November 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment
So when I first started building my business, I took a ‘day’ job. It was partly fear. It was. It’s hard to turn down a steady paycheck, healthcare, and the lascivious knowledge that somehow society supports your decision, where they seem to be bewildered by people who break away from corporate life. It wasn’t a [...]
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