Author (#1)December 2007 Archives

Pioneer replaced by Onkyo

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Pioneer%20SX-750.jpgAfter 30 years of playing LPs, cassettes, CDs, MP3s and a lot of rock and roll on the FM, the Pioneer SX-750 receiver became unusable. A loud buzz developed, I could not find someone to repair it, so we bought a new received , an Onkyo TX 8222. Onkyo%20TX%208222.JPG

When I bought it, I spent a lot of time trying to choose the best one. This time there wasn't many choices. At Best Buy, there was one receiver to choose from -- take it or leave it. The Onkyo may not have as high quality or last as long as the Pioneer, but I may not be able to notice the difference anymore. See Not worrying about what you can't hear

horse barn near Hendersonville Nov 2007.jpg

When I was growing up in Hendersonville, there were lots of big farms along Gallatin Road. Now most of them are gone and are now shopping centers or subdivisions. This is one of the best of the remaining farms. I've always loved that old stone horse barn. I'm not sure how much longer it will be there.

Stamps too pretty to use

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This sheet of stamps is causing me problems. I hate to use it to pay bills or routine use. I hate using it at all. I'm sure the electric company doesn't care. It's call Nature of America: Alpine Tundra, and is the ninth in the series showing animals and plants in America

To use the stamps then I had to make this deal: Here's the USPS image and part of the description of the stamps.

To illustrate the diversity of species associated with alpine tundra, artist John D. Dawson depicted more than 24 animal and plant species in his beautiful acrylic painting. The scene itself is imaginary: Such a dense grouping of plants and animals was necessary to illustrate as many species as possible on the stamp pane. Even so, all of the species could be encountered on the alpine tundra of Rocky Mountain National Park; all were recommended by scientists.

America%20Alpine%20Tundra.jpg

The change to more efficient bulbs has some claiming that Congress has now banned incandescent light bulbs. But they only banned inefficient incandescent bulbs in 2012. According to NY Times No Joke, Bulb Change Is Challenge for U.S. there are more efficient bulbs on the way.

Other highlights of the article:
* compact fluorescents have a mercury problem that could grow as use of them increases.
* LEDs may be offer the best hope. Their life span is 50,000 hours while incandescents is 1,000 hours and compact fluorescents is 6,000 hours. One problems is that they do not deliver the white light of the other bulbs.

NY Times: Entrepreneurial Journalism in the Facebook Age -- If journalists worry about their future value as the online world grows, they should think of themselves as journalist entrepreneurs. For those who can develop and market their content, it could be a very lucrative time.

This is almost unbelievable. Sydney Morning Herald: In Japan, cellular storytelling is all the rage

Remarkably, half of Japan's top-10 selling works of fiction in the first six months of the year were composed the same way - on the tiny handset of a mobile phone. They sold an average of 400,000 copies. By August, the president of Goma Books, Masayoshi Yoshino, was declaring in a manifesto that he was determined "to establish this not simply as a fad, but as a new kind of culture".

It's a targeted audience

Usually they are written by first-time writers, using one-name pseudonyms, for an audience of young female readers - who, in Japan especially, consult their mobile phones so regularly that the habit could be mistaken for a tic. The stories traverse teen romance, sex, drugs and other adolescent terrain in a succession of clipped one-liners, emoticons and spaces (used to show that a character is thinking), all of which can be read easily on a mobile phone interface. Scene and character development are notably missing.

The struggles of an entrepreneur

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Charlotte Business Journal: Struggling for a dream: Launching a franchised business is an increasingly popular path to entrepreneurship. But as Jeff and Bridget Larkin have found, success carries a high price -- if it comes at all.
A look at the struggle this couple is having with their franchise restaurants. It's not negative on franchising. It does show that it's long, hard work that may take awhile to pay off. Should be required reading for all entrepreneur wannabes.

Advice from Stephen Covey on how to get along with your boss.

Empathize

Think of your boss’s challenges, problems, concerns, and future plans–this is empathy. With empathy and anticipation you can act independently of your boss to deal with concerns and discover opportunities and underlying threats.

By acting independently and keeping your boss’s needs in mind (or the company’s needs) you are, in effect, leading.

CompUSA closing its stores

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The 103 stores are closing after the holidays reports USA Today. Hate to see them go. I spent a lot of time and money browsing and shopping there. Usually store closings are a good time to pick up some bargains, but these days I have a short list. Others felt differently about CompUSA -- TechCrunch: CompUSA Goes Into The DeadPool. Good:

Some of my worst retail memories are of moments spent at CompUSA. Bad prices. Bad selection. Customer anti-service. Don’t even think about returns.

Several journalists I know worry about their continuing fall in their value as so much of what they do is being marginalized by online news sources, bloggers and all the demons under the bed. But Saul Hansell, writing in the Bits blog on the NY Times says this may be a time of great opportunity for journalists who can act entrepreneurial, putting together project and content that can easily be sold or monetized through advertising. Writing in "Entrepreneurial Journalism in the Facebook Age", Hansell writes:


Even if those numbers were wildly optimistic, the fact remains that in today’s world you simply don’t need to be hired by a publishing company with ad salesmen, layout artists, and printing presses to get your ideas into the world.

He was doing so well until he then wrote:


It seems to be a great time to be starting out in journalism. Just don’t ask advice from anyone who has been in the business for more than five years.