I have been a conservative as far back as I can remember. I believe that government is there to keep the country cohesive and enforce the mandates of the US Constitution. I don’t think that any one has the right for government gratuity and I believe strongly in the principles of the free market enterprise. It’s not a system free from corruption, but it does have a way of rooting these corrupt individuals out–as we are seeing today, although the government is doing their damnedest to keep them afloat.

Why then, as a staunch conservative, am I going to support an Obama Presidency? Why? Because he will be (is after Jan. 20th, 2009) the President of the United States. I did not vote for him, yet as an American he will be (is) my President. Just the same as the Senator of your state is your Senator, and the Congressman for your district is your Congressman. Just as President Bush has been EVERYONE’S President for the past 8 years.

In the work place, many of us have had bosses or project/team leaders that made decisions that we didn’t agree with. I’ve had it happen to me. I’ve expressed my opinion, but in the end, supported the decision although I believe it to be the wrong one. If it failed, I cleaned up the mess and re-iterated my original point in hopes that it won’t happen again. If it succeeded, then awesome and I’m perfectly willing to admit I was wrong. What I don’t believe anyone in their right mind will do, is spread rumors about that boss/team leader to try to discredit any other decision he may or may not make.

Sadly, this is exactly the situation of the past 4-8 years. I don’t know how many liberals I’ve heard say that Bush was “not their President”. And everyone has heard the people (with public voices) say that Bush and Cheney are responsible for killing people in Louisiana after Katrina and also allowed the 9/11 attacks to happen. They claim he illegally entered the Presidency, when even after the votes were independently recounted, it still made Bush the elected President. This is the worst of the worst way to handle an administration you don’t agree with. I believe this the most un-American stance. Yes, all those people who try to spread Bush rumors and claim he wasn’t their President, are un-American. Just like any conservative that I hear say that Obama will not be (is not) their President.

Sure conservatives feel a bit hurt. But we did not give up our voice. In fact, I would say we have a unique opportunity to have that voice be heard louder than it’s been the past few years. Both Bush (at least in the past 3 years or so) and McCain were not great conservative front men. We have not had a truely conservative power voice for a while, so let’s collectively become that voice.

I want Obama to know this, you have my support. This doesn’t mean that we blindly follow your every move. It does mean AS MY PRESIDENT, I want this (this, being my stance on the issue) out of your administration. I have to believe that you’ll carefully consider the options and truly decide what the best move for the country is. I can’t say, from what I’ve seen thus far, that I will agree with many of those decisions, I’ll do what I can to make the best out of it. And if it succeeds, then I will offer my sincere congratulations, but if it fails, I expect you to identify it as a failure and pursue those other options that were offered.

We—conservatives—still have a voice, but if we let that voice get muffled by those people that try to seed divisiveness, we’ll never be able to promote conservative policies. And if you participate in that, you’re just as bad as those people that have treated Bush the way they have, and fight against a making America greater than it already is.

I’m just saying…

©2008 Trae Blain. All Rights Reserved.

Vote!

I just wanted to let all my fellow Texans know that today’s the day to vote.  And remember, your time at the polls is paid time off by your employer:

§ 276.004. UNLAWFULLY PROHIBITING EMPLOYEE FROM
VOTING. (a) A person commits an offense if, with respect to
another person over whom the person has authority in the scope of
employment, the person knowingly:
(1) refuses to permit the other person to be absent
from work on election day for the purpose of attending the polls to
vote; or
(2) subjects or threatens to subject the other person
to a penalty for attending the polls on election day to vote.
(b) It is an exception to the application of this section
that the person's conduct occurs in connection with an election in
which the polls are open on election day for voting for two
consecutive hours outside of the voter's working hours.
(c) In this section, "penalty" means a loss or reduction of
wages or another benefit of employment.
(d) An offense under this section is a Class C misdemeanor.

That is Texas Election Code, Section 276.004.  So if your employer says you can’t get paid for your time, remind them it is a Class C misdemenor!  Get out and vote!

It really upsets me when people don’t vote. They often say that it’s because they don’t agree with either candidate. I find that garbage and extremely juvenile, as there is bond to be someone you can right in for the vote. Second, regardless if you disagree with the Presidential candidates, what about all the other people on that ballot? There were close to 25 people on my ballot, many of them seeking a vote.  If you don’t vote for president, then you should be there to vote for them. Also many places have propositions and bonds that need a vote, and you should express your opinion on those.

So get out there and vote!

I’m just saying…

©2008 Trae Blain. All Rights Reserved.

The Chinaman is not the Issue...

I’m not an educated internet analyst but as an objective observer, I think if Yahoo! would step back and look at their decline in America and alter their strategy then they can easily be back on top in minimal time.

I don’t think I know more than Jerry Yang, but I think there comes a time when your product has moved past your vision and new blood needs to enter and reinvigorate your original vision. This can be easily done by looking at your products, cut your lows and bring synergy to your highs.  Look at the things you are doing right, then look at your competitors and move away from the current business model to something more on par with the businesses that have taken up the current market share.  Here’s Yahoo’s key (in my opinion) products that need a second look.

Yahoo! Mail.

Yahoo! Mail is great, honestly.  They have done a spectacular job of merging function and fashion and Yahoo! Mail is currently one of the best webmail products available right now.  It doesn’t mean it goes without flaws though. The current major flaw is what it offers. Competitors offer free POP/IMAP access. This is allowing small businesses to use products like Gmail and others as their email address. They are starting with these free ones then after building a web presence they keep the interface but uses a custom address (Gmail for Domains). Yahoo!, since they own Zimbra, is uniquely positioned to surpass the competitors in function. But they currently cripple their best asset, forcing payment on basic features, and don’t seem to want to move into new areas. Yahoo! is the best positioned entity to have the most powerful webmail, POP/IMAP, syncing, etc. client available but they will not pursue it.

Yahoo! Calendar.

Yahoo! was drastically behind until recently. The new calendar system puts them close to par with the various competitors. They did a smart thing by seamlessly integrating the calendar into Yahoo! Mail, and have created the interface that allows for synergy between Mail and Calendar. This makes you feel you are in the same place regardless of product. They also integrated a ToDo list that is excellent piece that many web-calendars lack. They can take this a step further though, as before, by giving small businesses the desire to use their product over others. This is simple (Zimbra already has the capability) by allowing 2-way syncing of calendar and todo lists to products like Outlook and mobile devices (ie Blackberry, WinMo, iPhone). Small businesses are the key because when you can use a product to do business, personal use is more attractive.

Yahoo! Homepage/MyYahoo!

The homepage and MyYahoo pages need some drastic overhauling. Yahoo! has tried to set themselves apart from the homepage market (iGoogle, NetVibes, Pageflakes, and Windows Live) as the pretty one. They have many different ways to make this thing look but functionality is heavily lost. It’s time to simplify and open up. What do I mean? First, simplify. Sterilize the entire system and go to a simpler function. Just do a modular based system, then start adding your pretty colors. Second, open up. Open the system up for a “standards compliant” widgeting system, like Apache’s. Allow people that have provided widgets to other services to place them on yours and you’ll become the one-stop-shop for getting what you want on your homepage. As it stands it’s a mess, and doesn’t keep people at Yahoo!

Flickr.

There is not much that needs to be changed with Flickr. It is the definitive photo storing and sharing site available. Yahoo! might like to emphasize it’s ownership though. Flickr is a great brand to have, but many people don’t know Yahoo! owns it. Yahoo! shouldn’t let their brand be diluted in one of their best products.

Delicious.

Again, a great acquisition, but again Yahoo! has decided to let their brand be diluted in a spectacular product. Let the world know you own this, then drop the Yahoo! Bookmarks brand and concentrate on this one.

Widgets.

Yahoo! Widgets is superior to both Google Desktop and Windows Sidebar. But they don’t integrate a desktop search function, which is why Google Desktop is popular. With Microsoft Desktop Search, adding a desktop search function is not necessary, but I’m surprised they haven’t pushed this product to PC users more often. There has not been much advertisement of this, and they should do more.

Maps.

At some point you just have to cut your losses. Google and Microsoft has done so much with their mapping service, that it might be time you put those developers to better use elsewhere.

Briefcase.

Complete revamp. The ability to have your files on any PC/Mac, anywhere. Any I’m not talking about this Web interface (although it needs to stick around), I mean giving you the ability to sync your files where ever you are. Take Dropbox and Microsoft’s Live Mesh, for example. That is what these service’s do. So you take the Yahoo! Briefcase product, give everyone 2-5gb or so of space and have it so when they turn on their computer all the files they updated from a different computer are automatically synced up and ready to use.

Buzz.

When you get it right, you get it right. Who ever is in charge of Yahoo! Buzz should be given the helm of the company, (well maybe not but you can’t deny this was well done). I can’t say it is currently better that Digg, but it’s much better than the competition, including Mixx, Reddit, and Propeller. They’ve been able to give a healthy mix of Politics, News, Sports, etc; where other sites seem to be over run with political news only. Good work on this one, Yahoo!

Avatars.

I know I’m going to get some flack for this, but no one has yet to produce an adequate custom avatar system. Yahoo! has a nice avatar system, but everyone’s avatar tends to look like a brother or sister to everyone elses. I like avatars, I think it is a great way to distinguish yourself when you don’t have a photo of which you are proud. But you need complete custimization for this to work. Nintendo has gotten close with their Mii service, it allows a level of custimization that you can’t seem to find anywhere else. Where’s the web equivalent?

So there, by taking the current wealth of…we’ll call it intelectual property…that Yahoo! has, why is it falling into financial ruin? My opinion is that Yang has yet to look at all his services and create a system around those services. He has taken Yahoo! and let services piggy back on the name, which has served to dilute the brand and cause the Yahoo! name to sink into obscurity. It’s time to wrap your services into a “one company” approach so that when people use those hot services, they know Yahoo! is behind it and that’s why it’s strong.

photo credit

©2008 Trae Blain. All Rights Reserved.

Lifestream!  Check it out at the top of the site.  I’m trying it out.  Let’s say it’s a beta, but it should publish all my events on the wide wide world of the interweb.  I’d rather have FriendFeed control the updates than this self-hosted solution, but I have to figure out how to make that happen.  Enjoy!!

©2008 Trae Blain. All Rights Reserved.

Tag...You're It!

Yup, I got tagged…normally I would be like: “Oh man, did I get tagged? I must have missed that one, well dang it I guess it would make no sense to do anything now, sorry. Maybe next time…” then my voice would trail off.  But I figure I’ll go ahead and humor a few people.

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. Slowly moving out of my Country Music stage.
2. Playing around with an old Compaq 386 for grins. Windows 3.11 baby!
3. Becoming to good a friend with a girl I would have rather dated.
4. Cruising in my 1986 Chrysler Fifth Avenue, gray with a blue top.
5. Probably working through my 7th or 8th ankle sprain.

5 things on my to do list today:

1. Finish this list in a timely manner.
2. Get a presentation ready for work.
3. Present said presentation.
4. Retrofit a design that was never intended to be used for what it’s wanted to be used.
5. Find some time to read.

5 snacks I love:

1. Popcorn
2. Flaming Hot Munchies
3. KFC Snackers
4. Brownies
5. Something healthy, because I feel you should have at least one.

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:

1. Loose my debt.
2. Give a chunk to my church.
3. Invest.
4. Fix up the house.
5. Travel with the wife (because that would be her number 1)

5 places I’ve lived:

1. Dallas, Texas
2. Another place, Texas
3. Another place, Texas
4. Another place, Texas
5. Sorry, didn’t feel like putting every place I lived out there in a one stop shop.

5 jobs I’ve had:

1. Mechanical Engineer
2. Lab Technician in college
3. Resident Assistant for my dormitory
4. Computer Technician
5. Landscape Grunt (basically mowed lawns and installed sprinkler systems)

5 people I (completely optionally, not big deal if you don’t want to, I’m not going to be upset if you don’t, I’m just saying) tag:

1. Michael
2. Kevin
3. Kevin
4. Leslie
5. Abby

©2008 Trae Blain. All Rights Reserved.

1. Shawshank Redemption

Andy Dufresne is wrongfully sent to prison for killing his wife and her lover. So not only is he wrongfully sent to prison, his wife was cheating on him. While there, the Sisters–a group of homosexuals–assault him on a number of occasions. Andy then gets thrown into a money laundering scheme by the warden of the prison.  When he threatens to expose the warden, he gets thrown into solitary confinement for longer than any of the prisoners can remember anyone being put into solitary.  After digging through a thick concrete wall with a rock hammer, Andy has to crawl on his belly through 500 yards of sewage from the prison.  Now and escaped prisoner, Andy has to hide in Mexico from the authorities.

I don’t know about you but even with the credit crunch my life is much better than Andy’s.

2. Red Dawn

In a world, where the Soviet Union and Soviet Cuba invade the continental United States, five teenagers engage in a struggle for freedom. Life isn’t all the bad.  At least your small town in Colorado wasn’t invaded by Soviet paratroopers forcing you to create a small band of teenagers–called the Wolverines–to fight against the communist forces. After meeting up with Lt. Col. Tanner, the Wolverines get more organized and cause the Soviets to kill innocent civilians to try to get them to stop. The Soviets then counter attack causing the death of a Wolverine and Tanner. When the Soviets then kill 50% of the female fighters and the Wolverines are forced to kill a traitorous member, they are force to fine a free safe haven and hope the Americans can drive out the communists. You life is probably better than fighting back an invading communist force.

3. Schindler’s List

Holocaust…I don’t even have to go into detail on this one. Honestly.

4. Kill Bill

Shot and left for dead–while pregnant–on her wedding day, “The Bride” wakes up only to find herself comatosed and an orderly selling sexual access to her while asleep.  The Bride emerges on a streak of revenge.  Finding one woman and killing her in front of her child. Then having to cut off a lawyers arms to lure out another person responsible for her assumed death, she kills numerous other guys and finally the woman who she was after.  Also finding out that you did have a child and she is in the hands of her sworn enemy, but one true love. Finally she finds someone close to her enemy, then gets shot in the chest with rock salt and buried alive in someone else’s grave. Clawing her way out she rips out a woman’s eye and sets off to find her enemy, Bill. Finally The Bride kills Bill and exacts her revenge.

Just remember, being in a coma and having to face death on a daily basis in order to pull off a revenge scheme is not as bad as your current problems.

5. Cast Away

When his FedEx plan goes down on an island in the middle of no where, Tom has to spend the next 2 hours of the moving boring people to death acting like he’s trying to survive…all the while not saying very much.  So on an island Chuck has to learn to fend for himself by getting food, befriending a volleyball, and doing at-home dental work. Finally he builds a make-shift boat and finds his way to a cruise ship and gets back home to find his wife married to another man and mother to this other guys children. Then he heads to Texas to give an artist her package, instead of delivering it to where it was mailed to…way to go FedEx!

So I’m sure you have some roof over your head in a populated area, or at least you are not forced to watch this movie and when you do it’s by some sick desire for pain. You can hit the Stop button.

Remember, life ain’t so bad…I’m just saying…

©2008 Trae Blain. All Rights Reserved.

Scared of Foreclosure? Try Buying a House you can Afford.

Ok, I will stop posting political posts soon.  I know these can be boring, but there are a few things happening right now that really tick me off.

I read one of the greatest articles in a long time.  It was from Peter Schiff–oddly enough he was an adviser to former presidential candidate Ron Paul.  Let me preface this, Peter Schiff (like Ron Paul) has some very out there ideas.  I don’t necessarily agree with his opinion on many issues, but on this particular issue he’s dead on.

Peter says that there was a clear message from the $700bb bailout and both presidential candidates desire to renegotiate people’s interest and principle so they can pay for the house they can’t afford.   That message is this: Just stop paying your mortgage. Here’s what Peter says:

…the government’s landmark $700 billion bailout package has an important message for you: stop making your mortgage payments . . . immediately. Furthermore, if you believe that with some planning and sacrifice you may be able to meet your mortgage obligations, the government’s message is clear: relax, don’t bother.

Politicians hate foreclosures.   When there is an influx of foreclosures, constituents tend to believe it was their congressman’s/senator’s/insert-your-elected-official-here’s fault.  So these elected official feel they need to fix things in order to gain their constituent’s vote.  So what they are doing is flooding in massive amounts of money in order to take foreclosure off the table.  Banks need to take foreclosures in order to make as much of the principle out as possible.  Foreclosures aren’t the enemy here, they let the banks keep from taking the massive losses that close them down.  But a foreclosure is terrible PR for a politician.

The message says just stop paying and stay where you are at and after a few months/years of payment free living, someone from the government is going to call you to figure out how to adjust your loan so that you can actually pay your loan.  Buying loans is a Catch-22 for the government.  If they buy too low it will bankrupt the institutions they have just set precedence for in bailing out.  If they buy too high, they will not make anymore and will bankrupt out government.  Right now our government officials are banking on hope.  They hope that if they sit on these loans long enough, the value of the house will exceed the inflation they’ve caused by this, then they hope they can then liquidate them.

I’m sorry but I’m not hopeful that the government can wish their way into prosperity.

I’m just saying…

Source

©2008 Trae Blain. All Rights Reserved.

Think about it...

So I was thinking about my sudden lack of useless knowledge.   I used to be filled with random knowledge that I could use to stump my friends, etc.  But lately I’ve found that my stores of that useless knowledge have dwindled lately.  They aren’t gone, just can’t remember most of them.  So I pulled a few up and figured I’d share.

So here you are, 10 things you should know (but don’t have to):

1. The dot on top of the letter “i” is called a tittle.
2. Lying back and slowly lifting your legs will keep you from sinking in quicksand.
3. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified Kosher.
4. Celery has a “negative” calorie value.  The body burns more calories digesting the celery than the celery puts into the body.
5. Ketchup was once sold as a medicine.  Said to cure anything from athlete’s foot to baldness.
6. McDonalds make (at least at one time) approximately 40% of their profits off of Happy Meal sales.
7. A rat and a giraffe can last longer without water than a camel.
8. A female ferret has a strong chance of dieing of anemia if she goes into heat and does not mate.
9. A person from the country of Nauru is called a Nauruan; this is the only palindromic nationality.
10. The sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” uses every letter of the English alphabet.

So there.  I am mostly sure these are true, unlike those emails floating around claiming the Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper and Heinz had 57 different types of pickles.

For all your useless information joys, check out unnecessaryknowledge.com.

©2008 Trae Blain. All Rights Reserved.

Let's Get it On!

Granted, I’m bias.  I believe an Obama presidency would be an absolute terrible move for the country.  But in full disclosure, I also belive that a McCain presidency is probably not the best move for the country either. Yet, I’ll still vote for him.

But right now, the McCain camp is identifying Obama’s connection to the unapologetic terrorist William Ayers.  The problem I’ve found is that Obama has not been completely transparent about this connection and it’s causing problems.  Some people are telling me that all the information is out there and Barak has been open about it, but I beg to differ.

Questions still linger as to how much influence did Ayers (and wife Dohrn for that matter) have on him.  It’s been revealed that Ayers had a dinner party that essisially launched his political career, but how much more is there?  His community organization was under Ayers’s same group, and Obama attended Columbia at the same time Ayers was a professor there.  There is so much you can say is pure specualtion in all of this, and this is why I believe Obama is trying to sweep this under the rug.  Trying to hide what’s going on, maybe Ayers is solely responcible for getting Obama into politics, but I’m not dumb, I know that he could have made his own decisions along the way.  But I think it’s more dangerous for Obama to let people speculate than to answer the questions directly and get it out in the open then let it die like everything does.  Letting people speculate allows for this to drag on longer than it should.  That is a mistake.

Obama has combated this with saying that McCain was connected to Charles Keating that lead to the Savings and Loan scandal of the 80s to early 90s.  Here’s where I find a direct distinction.  McCain spend the better part of 1.5 years answering questions openly.  He was also cleared by the investigation of all inpropriety and simply told that he and Senator John Glenn excercised “poor judgement”.  McCain’s been vetted on the Keating connection and now admits it was one of the worst mistakes of his life.  Like with what I said with Obama, I believe people make mistakes and they learn from then so just as IF Obama associated himself early on with Ayers and has since cut ties, McCain was associated with Keating and has since cut ties.

The problem I find with the Keating Economics site (sponsored by Obama), is that John McCain was the sole Republican in the Keating Five.  Four Democrats helped make up the people.  So if we attribute Keating Economics on the same logic that Obama uses, then Democrats are responsible for the Savings and Loan scandal.  Just a side note, he seems to be completely ok with John Glenn although he was also part of the Keating Five.  Senator’s Riegle and DeConcini have also endorsed Obama.  It’s a weak counter that shouldn’t have been used.

What Obama should have done is answer the concerns directly, released his transcripts, etc.  Things like this would have “cleared” his name.  If what Obama is saying now is completely true, then there should be no sign that Ayers influenced Obama’s beliefs, that their community organizing link was purely coincidental, and that his time at Sidley & Austin was not influenced by Dohrn.  Being open would stop these speculations and silence the nay-sayers.  Even if it costs him this election, I believe it’s something he can bounce back from and could make an even better run at it in four years.

I’m just saying…

©2008 Trae Blain. All Rights Reserved.

This was an amazing find.  I’ve always liked email signatures.  I enjoy getting one from somebody that allows me to see some additional informaion about them that’s useful.  Problem is, I’ve slowly moved away from email clients because Gmail’s webmail experience is just too good.  So I was stuck with Gmail’s plain text signature.  Until now…

WiseStamp has developed a Firefox extension (yes you should be using Firefox), that allow for a fairly robust signature.  And it works with Gmail, Yahoo!Mail, Hotmail, and AOL Mail.  That’s the big ones, and it’s only a matter of time before most major webmail services are being used.

Early Signature with WiseStamp

As you can see, my 5 minute signature looks fairly nice, with loads of great information, and that’s not even my final one. I’ll spend a little more time on my final one, but this shows the concept.  Here’s what their creators have done with the signatures that you can use for inspiration:

Wisestamp Signature Examples

You can find Wisestamp here: http://www.wisestamp.com/

[via Lifehacker]

©2008 Trae Blain. All Rights Reserved.