Jonathan Nation's shared items in Google Reader

Early adopters: transition to the new infrastructure for Google Apps accounts

2010-09-08T20:51:09Z

Shared by Jonathan Nation
This is both exciting and frustrating.

I want everything shifted over to my brand ( JonathanNation.com ).

I love being able to add more to my Google Apps account(s), but they are not ready for everything to be shifted.

Also, making this change looks like I am going to once again loose some data. We shall see what I do & where this goes.

Back in May we shared details about a big change so Google Apps accounts can start accessing dozens of Google services beyond the core suite of messaging and collaboration apps. This change will let users access many new services such as Blogger, Reader, Google Voice and calling-in-Gmail (US only), Picasa Web Albums, AdWords and iGoogle from their Google Apps accounts. This big improvement addresses 9 of the top 20 requests from customers in one fell swoop, so we’re thrilled that the new infrastructure is now open for early adopters! After accounts are transitioned to the new infrastructure, these customers will be able to tap into much more innovation happening all across Google, helping people be even more productive with a broader range of tools in the cloud.

Why just for “early adopters” you ask? We’re still working on a few important features, but after extensive testing we’ve found that what’s ready today is already tremendously valuable to many Standard, Premier and Education Edition customers. Here’s the functionality that early adopters won’t see before the new infrastructure is feature-complete:

Administrators do not yet have the ability to turn off access to any of these additional services as they can today for applications in the core suite.

A few applications are not compatible with the new infrastructure at this time including Google Health, PowerMeter, YouTube, Web History, Buzz and Profiles.

You should also be aware of two other details not specific to early adopters: support limitations and “conflicting accounts”. Additional applications beyond the core suite are not covered by Google Enterprise support or the 99.9% uptime guarantee. However, many services have self-service online help resources, and a subset (such as AdWords) offer enhanced support options. Finally, a small fraction of Google Apps users have created personal Google Accounts based on their organization’s Google Apps email addresses. Users in this situation will need to rename these “conflicting accounts” during the transition process, and we’ll help these users make the necessary changes.

So...if you understand the limitations and would like to transition users to the new infrastructure, sign in to the control panel. If you use the control panel in English and meet our other early adopter eligibility criteria, you’ll start seeing a notification in your dashboard in the next few days where you can get started. You can begin with a handful of pilot users, and then transition your whole organization once you’ve had a chance to kick the tires.

If any of the current limitations are problematic for you, or if your organization isn’t eligible yet, hang tight and keep an eye out here for the next phase of our roll-out. We’re excited to help you move to the new infrastructure too, and we’ll be ready for you soon! For more information, please explore our Help Center documentation for administrators and for end-users.

Posted by Denis Sosnovtsev, Product Manager

Keys of a good CEO – Fred’s Thoughts

2010-08-30T14:32:53Z

Fred Wilson is known in the tech world and venture capitalist world because he has been very involved in both for many years & posts lots of content on his personal website, or blog.

Today he has a great post in a series titled MBA Mondays about the role of a CEO.

It tells of the basic criteria that he evaluates CEOs on:

“A CEO does only three things. Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders. Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company. Makes sure there is always enough cash in the bank.”

I tried to shorten that and not lose any meaning, with no great success.

Any organization will falter or fail if someone does not fulfill those three tasks, and they really are keys to success.

Another way to look at it is:

promote where we are going – general direction
get the right people on the bus
make sure the bus does not run out of gas

As far as “all the other stuff that a CEO could do” … that is addressed in the post, and I agree.

Thanks to Fred Wilson for taking the time to share his thoughts to others.

The One With A New Member

2010-08-26T20:03:46Z

Shared by Jonathan Nation
Skillet talks about finding a new member at the 2:20 mark of this video (why I am sharing this).

The rest of the time is them being their laid back good selves.

The One With A New Member

See video.

Canon EOS 60D: 18 megapixels and 1080p video flexes its articulating screen this September

2010-08-26T15:46:58Z

Shared by Jonathan Nation
Every time I look at DSLRs I look for the screen to flip out like this one done. This is the second this week I've seen.

One of the best things about my Point-and-shoot camera is the screen being able to adjust & able to shoot from practically any direction.

Well, what do we have here? Last we heard about the Canon EOS 60D it was just a twinkle in our articulating screen of a peripheral vision. And now it's official -- my, how times have changed. Here's what we know about the 50D successor (with definite nods to the Rebel T2i's feature set): the 18-megapixel DSLR has a single DIGIC 4 processor and boasts 1080p H.264 video with an in-camera movie editing feature, manual audio level control, a "flexible" (read: articulating) 3-inch LCD screen, an ISO range of 100-6,400 purported to be expandable to 12,800, and support for processing RAW images from within the camera itself. Look for the little photo shooter to hit retail at the end of September for just a dollar under $1,100 body only, or $1,400 with a bundled 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom lens. You know the drill: pics below, press release and video after the break.

Gallery: Canon 60D press shots

Continue reading Canon EOS 60D: 18 megapixels and 1080p video flexes its articulating screen this September

Canon EOS 60D: 18 megapixels and 1080p video flexes its articulating screen this September originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Niche Site Duel 003 – How to Setup a Niche Site: Before You Add Content

2010-08-25T18:11:15Z

Shared by Jonathan Nation
This is a good post - I posted my thoughts here: http://nation.fm/e3e5k6

There are hundreds of different ways to setup a niche website – you know this, but I’ll outline my process for you below because it’s easy to follow and it doesn’t require much know-how. If you have anything to add, I’m sure the people here who are unfamiliar with this process will appreciate your insight in the comment section.

1. Setting Up The Blog

For my niche site challenge, I’ll be using a WordPress blog with a domain and hosting from Bluehost.com.

In the past, niche sites were almost always static sites, and blogs were just a way to keep your friends informed about the shenanigans from last weekend’s party. They weren’t given much in terms of priority and ranking in Google’s search engine algorithm.

Now, as I’m sure you’ll know, blogs can rank high – really high.

Why?

Well, I don’t know the exact answer, but it’s probably because blogs have a better site structure and coding, promote conversation and interaction, and are usually straight to the point containing the most important, relevant keywords.

Whatever the case may be, this works in our favor because a blog is really easy to setup, and you don’t need to know anything about html, css or any of that stuff to get started.

There are many blogging platforms out there you could choose from, such as Blogger, Typepad & Moveable Type, however WordPress is the most popular. All of my websites, even static websites, are run on the WordPress platform.

Please note that there’s a WordPress.com and a WordPress.org.

The .com is where you can setup your blog for free. You don’t need to pay for anything, and you can have a blog up and running in no time. However, your website name will always have the word “wordpress” in it, such as smartpassiveincome.wordpress.com, which decreases it’s authority in the search engines. Also, you are limited to what you can do with your wordpress hosted site.

The .org is where you can download WordPress to put on your own hosted domain. There is an installation process that can hold some people back, which is why I recommend using a hosting service like Bluehost.com because you can get your domain and hosting cheap, and simply click one button to install WordPress on your site. It literally takes 4 minutes (I know because I timed it), and you can watch this YouTube video if you’re looking for step by step instructions about how to set that up.

2. Plugins

For the rest of this tutorial, I won’t be going step by step through how to install plugins, how to install a theme, etc. Most of that is self-explanatory within the wordpress control panel itself, but if you do have any specific questions please don’t hesitate to ask here in the comment section, or just contact me privately instead.

As far as plugins are concerned, I install the following 4 plugins immediately after WordPress is loaded:

All in One SEO Pack
Google XML Sitemaps
Easy Privacy Policy
Google Analyticator

Then, I configure each of the ones that need configuring:

All in One SEO Pack

This plugin is the most important plugin you can install because from it, the search engines will look for information about your site. The plugin overrides all of your normal wordpress settings for your blog title, tagline, etc.

As you know from my previous niche site duel entry, I’ve decided my research led me to tackle the Security Guard Training niche, and pick up security guard training hq dot com. The exact match .com domain was not available, but it was for sale for $35,000.

Ugh, no thanks.

HQ on the end sounds kind of cool anyways for this niche, since headquarters is a term used in the industry already.

Moving on, it’s important that I properly setup my All in One SEO Pack plugin to be optimized for my niche.

Side note: I’ll do my best not to use the domain name I purchased, or even mention my niche so as not to skew any of the search engine results and numbers. It’s going to be impossible for me to keep my niche site 100% clean of non-related visitors and some incoming links, but that’s the price I pay when being totally transparent and sharing everything with you in this challenge. I hope that makes sense!

Here’s what I have:

Home Title: This is the title that will be shown at the top of your browser on your homepage and in the bright blue letters on the Google Search Engine Results Page (SERPs). I have included my keyword twice for more oomph (title and then tagline), but you have to be careful here because using your keyword too much will penalize your site.

I like to use the rule of 2 max. 2 max in your title, and 2 max in your description.

Home Description: This is the paragraph that gets shown underneath your blue link on the SERPs. Many people don’t use this plugin and fail to set this up, which leaves their description totally weird looking, sometimes containing random excerpts from their websites.

Be descriptive here, and be sure to include your primary keyphrase once again. I also used a secondary keyword that is related to the industry (protection services) as well here, just to give it a little bit more relevance to the

Both of the above (title and description) are what people see in the SERPs, so you can have more of an impact (i.e. get more traffic) by not only optimizing for keywords, but optimizing to catch people’s attention too. Sometimes, a #3 ranking site will have more traffic than a #2, simply because the copy is better.

My copy changes from time to time, so what you see in Google now may be different than what you see above.

Home Keywords: Keywords in the meta data (background of your site) are less important nowadays. The weight has been taken heavily off of them since a lot of people would just insert unrelated keywords into their meta data and rank for keywords they shouldn’t. Still, you should put in your primary keyphrase first, followed by any secondary keyphrases related to your niche which you know are being searched for.

Google XML Sitemaps

This super important plugin helps create a certain file that is used by Google’s bots that crawl your site and it’s content, for proper indexing in their system.

Once you activate it, it’s ready to go – you don’t need to do anything further.

Easy Privacy Policy

This is a cool plugin that automatically creates a page on your blog that suits the needs of Google as far as a privacy policy on your site goes. Sites without them get docked, which is why you see them on most high ranking sites. You can see mine at the bottom of my blog here too.

The plugin will put a link to your privacy policy in the navigation of your blog. For those of you who don’t want that there, you can use a plugin called Exclude Pages to stop it from showing up there. I usually do this and link to it manually within the footer.php file.

Not totally necessary – just something I like to do.

Google Analyticator

This plugin helps me hook up my site to my Google Analytics account so that I can see all of the traffic and keyword data I need to see right on my wordpress Admin panel. There are a bunch of advanced options that go along with it, but I don’t mess around with that stuff at this point.

Before setting up this plugin, you’ll need a Google Analytics account. Then, follow the instructions on the plugin settings page to get everything configured properly.

3. The Theme

The theme of your website (the look of it, which can easily be swapped for another look), is really easy to setup.

I’ve changed the theme on this blog (Smart Passive Income) 4 or 5 times before I finally ended up with one I liked, but what’s nice is that there are a million and one themes available to you (both free and paid), so there’s bound to be one that suits your needs.

For my niche site, I found an awesome free theme, SimpleFolio that works for what I’m trying to do at the moment. It has a number of features that a lot of paid themes include, which is cool.

It’s not a theme, however, that you can get in WordPress’ free theme directory. So, you’ll have to visit the link above, download the zip file, extract it, and plop the folder into the …wp-content/themes/ folder in your site. Then, it will show up as a theme you have installed on your blog, and all you have to do is activate it to make it live.

If you purchase a premium theme from a site like WooThemes, you’ll have to use the same method to get it onto your site.

Here’s a screenshot of my niche site up and running with the SimpleFolio theme:

You can see some of the content on there already, and in fact as I write this post, I see that my page has actually already been indexed by Google. Not ranked, just indexed, which means they know it’s there. I’ll go over how that happened in the next post.

Right now, the look of the theme isn’t actually that important, since no one is going to visit the site until it’s on the first page of Google, which is my top priority. What’s important now is that the content I publish is categorized, tagged and optimized for my keyphrase, and that I’m sending backlinks to the site (again, I will discuss this process in a later post).

Monetization?

Many people have been asking me what my plan for monetization is, since I’m not starting with a product keyword as I normally do. This is something that I thought about before deciding to tackle this niche, which is something everyone doing niche sites should think about before they start building a site.

There are training manuals available that I could be an affiliate for, but I’m looking more toward the online training courses that are required as part of the process to become a security guard. There are a bunch of them, and I’ll have to contact the site owners to work out a deal of some sorts (which is exactly what I did with my site at GreenExamAcademy), but that won’t happen until I have some leverage and traffic in this niche. Until then, I will probably and strategically sprinkle the site with adsense, since I know the cost-per-click is rather high, at $2.32 per click.

Again, I started GreenExamAcademy.com the same way, using Adsense, and what’s cool is that I can actually see what ads are popping up on my site and contact those companies directly for advertising and affiliate opportunities.

Niche Site Content

For the purposes of this challenge, I’m writing all of the content myself.

You can (and in some cases, probably should) hire and outsource people to create the content for you, but I like to write, and since this is a topic I’m actually interested about (since it came from my 777 passions-problems-fears niche selection method), I know I’ll be able to produce content that people are looking for.

Because I know nothing about this niche, I’m in the same shoes as those who will actually use my site. Because of this, I think I’ll know exactly what people want to know and how to present it to them.

I’ll talk more about what I do with the content in one of the next Niche Site Duel posts, but just to give you an idea about how I come up with the content, I simply create a list of questions, concerns and topics that I could possibly write about and go from there.

Some come from common sense, some are based on further related keyword research, and some are generated from research with competing websites.

Cool Resource: You can use this Keyword Questions Tool to find out what types of questions people are typing into search engines related to your niche. I wouldn’t look too hard at the numbers next to the questions, but you can get some good ideas about what kind of content people want to know about. Here’s a screenshot below:

Based off all that, here is a screenshot of a Google Doc that has a few of the posts that I will be researching and writing about:

So Far, I’ve Spent…

Setting up the domain and hosting, the WordPress blog, configuring the plugins and uploading the theme took a total of about 1 hour.

Doing the research required for the content topics for the site, maybe another 1 hour or so.

Each blog post I’ve written so far (shown in red in the screenshot above), has taken about 30 minutes to 1 hour each, so maybe a total of 4 additional hours.

Total Hours = 6 hours.

I could stop with the blog posts I’ve already written and just work on building backlinks, but I really want to go hardcore in this niche which is why you’re seeing a lot more than 4 or 5 blog posts, and why some of them aren’t totally related to the training aspect of this industry. I want the site to look natural (which it will be), because that’s what works best.

As far as cost, all I have paid for up to this point was the domain and hosting package, which runs at $6.95 a month from Bluehost.

Total Cost = $6.95.

Not bad!

Anyways, this post is rather long, so I’ll finish up and get back to work. Remember, it’s all about working hard now, so you can reap the benefits later.

Tyrone, my challenger in this duel, has selected his niche, but I think he may be switching it up too because of some further research done on his initial selection. I’ll do my best to link to his updates as much as I can. It’s difficult to coordinate perfectly because of our time zone difference (he’s in Austrailia, I’m in California), but we are trying to coordinate everything for you as much as possible.

Thanks again for your support, and I wish you all the best. Cheers!

---------------------
As always, I just wanted to thank you for subscribing. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your online success!

Become a Fan of the Smart Passive Income Blog on Facebook and join the conversation!

Thank you so much!

Niche Site Duel 003 – How to Setup a Niche Site: Before You Add Content

Inventing Merit Badge

2010-08-24T21:37:58Z

Today a copy of Scouting (magazine) came in & as I was flipping thought I pick up on this article titled “Mother of Inventing” in the What’s New area. (article not online yet)

It tells the story of how there use to be an Inventing MB – that 10 scouts earned before it went away.

Inventing MB is back and this time the Scouts don’t have to “apply for and receive a U.S. patent on an invention.”

Looking though the requirements, there is some basic knowledge, but what interests me are things like:

Choose a commercially available product that you have used on an overnight camping trip with your troop. Make recommendations for improving the product, and make a sketch that shows your recommendations.
Build a working prototype of the item you invented for requirement 6*. Test and evaluate the invention – [including] cost, usefulness, marketability, appearance, and function. Describe how your original vision and expectations for your invention are similar or dissimilar to the prototype you built.
Participate with a club or team (robotics team, science club, or engineering club) that builds a useful item.

I am thrilled that the Boy Scouts of America is working towards helping those involved in scouting to go though the process of solving problems in the world around them.

Women Only Self Defense Seminar September 4th, 2010 in Nashville

2010-08-18T13:35:05Z

Offered by Nashville Krav Maga Instructor Chris Hollingsworth.

This Seminar will offer Reality Based ‘TRULY’ No-Nonsense Self-Defense in a safe envrionment to train and learn. Learn basic and some advanced self-defense techinques. Learn concepts of self preservation including how not to be a victim, situational awareness and using your intuition. More…

To Register – Call Chris at (615) 509-8470

017 Virtual Assistant Podcast – Turning Customer Service Over To Your VA

2010-08-17T18:33:14Z

Shared by Jonathan Nation
I generally like the Virtual Assistant Podcast, but this one is a must listen for anyone with influence on an organization.

Turning Customer Service Over To Your VA

Right Click Here To Download MP3

In this episode, I have the privilege of talking with Aaron Dragushan. Aaron is an entrepreneur that creates web applications who has successfully delegated all his customer service work to a virtual assistant.

Evil teen Bieber finds revenge is a dish best served on Twitter

2010-08-16T19:28:45Z

Shared by Jonathan Nation
LOL, it's the modern "for a good time call XXX-XXX-XXX" on the bathroom wall.

Saturday night, from the depths of his subterranean cave, teen idol Justin Bieber took revenge on someone (who seems to be a minor so we're not going to bother naming names) who had allegedly hacked the Twitter account of the star's childhood friend. How best to get back at someone who has wronged you in your world 2.0? By Tweeting their phone number to your four and a half million followers, of course! We've seen this nerd fleeing throngs of girls on a Segway in the past -- which made him seem rather cool in our eyes -- but now we must ask ourselves... is Justin Bieber as innocent as he appears to be? Either way, nice burn.

Evil teen Bieber finds revenge is a dish best served on Twitter originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Switched | Gawker | Email this | Comments

Exploration and the risk of failure

2010-08-12T09:26:00Z

People seem to be in one of two categories:

Those who seek stability, affiliation, work worth doing and the assurance it (whatever it is) will be okay.
Those who explore, need to know that failure is an option and quest to make a dent in the universe.

You can be in either category, the world needs and rewards both. But pick a brand and a job and a posture that matches your category, or you'll fail, and be miserable until you do.

Hint: there is no category of: "does risky exploration, never fails."

Motorola Droid 2 (and R2-D2 edition!) finally official: Android 2.2, Swype, $200 on contract

2010-08-10T14:30:00Z

All together now: "Finally!" At long last, the leaks are being plugged by none other than Verizon itself, who today confirmed that the Droid 2 is more than just a figment of everyone's imagination. Shortly after hamstringing the Froyo update for the original Droid, Big Red is tossing a tempting upgrade all up in your grille, as the Droid 2 ships with Android 2.2, mobile hotspot (a $20 / month add-on), Flash Player 10.1 and a revised QWERTY keyboard. It also ships with Swype pre-installed, though we'd prefer Swiftkey thrown in for good measure. You already know the specs by now -- a 3.7-inch multitouch display, 5 megapixel camera, DLNA streaming, 8GB of onboard memory and a 8GB microSD card -- but what you haven't known is the on sale date. VZW is putting this gem up for pre-sale tomorrow at $199.99 on a 2-year contract, with in-store availability locked for Thursday.

In other news, that R2-D2 edition Droid 2 we told you about last month is legit, and we're having a hard time containing our excitement just dreaming about the design. Said phone will be available online only in September, and it'll ship with "exclusive Star Wars content and external hardware designed to look like the trusty Droid from the film saga." We're guessing these will sell out in no time flat, but there's no price being divulged just yet. Oh, and if you're wondering how on Earth you're going to swing this upgrade, Verizon's allowing any customer with a contract ending by December 31, 2010 to upgrade now (to any other smartphone, including the Droid 2) sans penalty. Sheesh guys, you shouldn't have!

Update: The R2-D2 edition portal has gone live. And yes, if you click this link, you will hear R2-D2 say "Droid!" Too bad there aren't any images of the handset, though. Thanks, Eric!

Gallery: Motorola Droid 2 on Verizon Wireless

Continue reading Motorola Droid 2 (and R2-D2 edition!) finally official: Android 2.2, Swype, $200 on contract

Motorola Droid 2 (and R2-D2 edition!) finally official: Android 2.2, Swype, $200 on contract originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Aug 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Droid Does, Verizon Wireless, R2-D2 Edition | Email this | Comments

Unplaned Winderness Break – Jeff Manion

2010-08-06T15:54:46Z

Shared by Jonathan Nation
#wcagls in the second day. My notes at www.nation.fm/gls2010 , with this on the land between being the first of this day.

Jeff Manion

The Land Between

The land between is a period of wondering in the wilderness; a time without a clear end point – or – seemingly lack of progress.

“For now”

A common phrase is when asked about your live, you have a “for now” as a part of your explanation.

While in The Land Between – look for:

- a new, better & bigger vision

- a lesson to learn

- a skill to grow

- a habbit to break

- an error to correct

- transformational growth within yourself

Many times out journy in the land between is needed because we are not ready got the new land of plenty.

- a better understanding of the world beyond youself

this is not automatic

It takes work & at times, being intentional about it

Fight against complaining (remember counting your blessings – in a spreadsheet – Jim Collins)

The land between is a difficult time, but a natural time & a time where you have major choices, especally in the attitude you choose.

The land between is a good time to explore your faith, how you see the world, the relationships you choose & priorities.

There is more to life then just go … go … go.

[Summit Reports]

Tention for Success – Andy Stanley

2010-08-06T01:12:42Z

Shared by Jonathan Nation
This was my favorite session of the day ( @ #wcagls ) It just happens it was the last & the two others that were potentially my favs were inhibited by car troubles (causing me to get there late) and a headache (that was related to a storm system coming tough our area).

I plan on going back thought all of the notes from today (found here: www.Nation.fm/gls2010 ) and adding a little more and working on formatting.

Andy Stanley

The Upside of Tension

Myth: if you are a great leader (or org) you solve all your problems and are tension free.

Truth – great leaders leverage tension & problems to be a growth engine.

I. Every org has problems that shouldn’t be solved and tension that shouldn’t be resolved.

The third option is to manage problems or tensions.

If you “resolve” some tensions, you will create new tension.

If you “solve” a problem incorrectly, there will be more problems & barriers to progress.

Progress depends not on the resolution of those tensions but on the successful management of those tensions.

II. To distinguish between problems to solve and tensions to manage, ask the following:

A. Does this problem or tension keep resurfacing?

B. Are there mature advocates for both sides?

C. Are the two sides really interdependent?

III. The role of leadership is to leverage the tension to the benefit of the org.

A. Identify the tension to be managed in your org.

B. Create termonology.

If there are two options & two opinions – it becomes win-loose. This is where a third term is needed.

C. Inform your core team.

D. Continually give value to both sides.

E. Don’t weigh in too heavily based on your persional biases.

Understand the up side of the opposite side.

Understand the down side of your side.

F. Don’t allow strong personalities to rule the day.

I need passionate people who will champion their side, but are also mature enough to understand the tension & bigger picture.

G. Don’t think in terms of balance. Think rythem.

As a leader, never try to be “fair”.

Conclusion:

As a leader, one of the most valuable things you can do for your org is differentiatw between tensions your org will always need to manage vs. problems that need to be solved.

[Summit Reports]

Posting from The Leadership Summit

2010-08-05T12:49:47Z

Over the next two days, I’ll be listening to many people speak on leadership, Jim Collins this morning is the one I am most excited about.

My plan is to post during the summit, but this will be my first time – so we shall see how this goes.

I’ll be carrying my droid, armed with the wordpress app – an app I’ve not used a lot, but expect to make it work and provide some of the insights I find during these days.

[Summit Reports]

The Ten Cannots

2010-08-04T20:51:06Z

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

These statements are generally what I understand and why I vote the way I vote & promote both independence & interdependence.

These quotations are sometimes refereed to as Lincoln’s 10 “Cannots” – but it is wildly understood that where the spirit is what Lincoln believed, it is not what he said. These were written in 1916 by William J. H. Boetcker [wikipedia]

Thanks to John “Hollywood” for sending me a reminder of this.

Is Verizon lying about the Droid’s capabilities?

2010-08-03T21:23:02Z

Shared by Jonathan Nation
I want this out there more to point out that Verizon might be less then truthful and I want them to be.

The other side of this is that there will be apps to turn on the stuff if Verizon is intentionally/officially banning it.

Yesterday, Verizon made it clear that while the original Droid would be getting Android 2.2, it would not be getting one of Android 2.2′s most coveted features: WiFi HotSpot. In other words, you wouldn’t be able to flip a switch and turn your Droid into a little 3G-powered router for all of your friends to leach off on the commute home.

The reason for this feature’s absence, said Verizon, was that “the Droid.. doesn’t have [the] hardware to support a Mobile Hotspot”. That’s fair, right? Missing hardware is missing hardware; as I put it in the first post, you just can’t make chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips.

Then I thought about it. What hardware, exactly, was it missing? WiFi receiver? Check. WiFi transmitter? Check. A 3G chipset, a fairly powerful CPU to handle the routing, and a reasonably sized battery? Checks across the board. That’s when it struck me: not only could the Droid totally handle Mobile Hotspot, but I’d seen it handling Mobile Hotspot before.

OUR COMPLICATED TAX SYSTEM

2010-08-03T13:38:29Z

There is a backlog, a waiting list, for people trying to give up their American citizenship and get the hell out of dodge. The reason? Taxes. Our system is so complicated and messy and burdensome that people are simply giving up. Particularly people with wealth, as the more they earn, the more complicated and burdensome the IRS becomes.

At the US Embassy in London, there is a waiting list that none of the officials likes to discuss. On the list are Americans hoping to give up their citizenship, as they seek shelter from the Internal Revenue Service ...

The backlog at the US Embassy, where no appointments are available until February, stems from a rise in the number of American expatriates living in the UK who have been seeking to escape paying US tax on their worldwide income and capital gains since the simplification of US tax laws in 2008 ...

A few advantages are gained by forfeiting US citizenship, accountants say. Chief among them is that doing so widens one's investment choices. "It removes the possibility of a super-complicated life of having to juggle two different tax systems," says Alex Jones, a director at Deloitte, the professional services firm.

"Being American presents you with a very particular and peculiar set of problems from a tax perspective and over the next few years, it could get worse for the wealthy," he adds.

Imagine if just half of these people decided to stay in the United States. Imagine what their money could do in terms of investment, jobs, and spending. Instead we are losing them to places where their wealth will not be seen as a detriment to society. There is a well-researched solution that I guarantee you would not only keep all of these people, but would encourage even more people to come to the United States. That is the FairTax. All of those evil rich people who spend money, all of those evil corporations who create jobs, all of those middle class families who aren't getting their full paychecks because of our imperial tax system ... imagine not only retaining but attracting MORE of these people. That is a tax system that would re-energize this nation. Perhaps Barack Obama and the Democrats should take note.

Why America is Great by Rubio

2010-08-02T15:03:29Z

Unscripted and from the heart – this speech was delivered in 2008 when Marco Rubio had been elected to the US House and was leaving the Florida Legislator.

I really like a lot of what he says here.

I bet if you listen through the point where he reads from a JF Kennedy speech, you will listen though to the end.

[found here]

Towards or Away

2010-07-29T23:53:04Z

You are sitting on a boat in the middle of an ocean.

You are moving.

You might not feel it – but you are moving. You are drifting.

Drifting is a terrible way to go anywhere, being intentional is much better and more fulfilling.

There are two ends of a spectrum people use when setting out into the vast ocean of life:
- drift – “God will take me there!!!”
- rowing – row the sailboat as fast and as hard as you can

Neither of those are good.

The best option is to sail the sailboat, where there is a role to play, but also the understanding that you do not create or control the wind.

With that …

there are two fundamental directions one can go:

Towards & Away

They look very similar, the boat is primarily moving forward, but the two directions cause dramatically different decisions.

You can sail towards an island, country, port, or just out to sea.

- vs -

You sailing away from your past, a harbor you want to leave, enemies …

And

You could be doing both at the same time, but what drives your decisions overall is always towards or away .

Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where we must flee from the instance, event, people, circumstances, etc.

That is just life.

However,

There is a major difference between moving away from the fire and moving away from every piece of wood because it could be a flame

or never stopping your car by avoiding all red lights, stop signs, and traffic. You can get somewhere, but you waste a lot by running away all the time from something that needs not be avoided that aggressively.

The more productive way to live your life [or run a business] is to move towards something.

Solving a major problem
Learning a new skill
Helping a group to be able to feed themselves
Making the society better for success
Acquiring an item
Earning an award

All visions people have for themselves, desires that lead to action.

In the business world it is the difference between basing major decisions on a P&L (Profit & Loss Statement from the past month/quarter/week) or basing your major decisions on the budget.

A budget is your stated goals – what you are moving towards. A P&L, what happened in the past, is important
especially when developing a budget, or plan, but the first question needs to be “where are we going & why?” not “what has happened?”

Ask yourself ….

Do I mostly make decisions based on where I want to go or where I want to get away from?

Where do you want to go now?

Droid 2 manual leaks, teaches you everything you need to know about a phone you don't have

2010-07-29T19:57:00Z

You know the drill: blurry shots of phone get leaked... user's manual gets leaked... excited would-be buyers voraciously consume manual's contents... phone finally gets released. Indeed, that's precisely the same well-trodden path the upcoming Droid 2 is taking, so if you're looking at getting this thing in the next few weeks, you might want to start skimming the documentation so there aren't any embarrassing newbie missteps in your first few moments of ownership. As Droid Life notes, we've got more confirmation here that the phone will be running the same skin as the Droid X, complete with the Swype-enabled (and presumably multitouch-enabled) soft keyboard for those times when you're too lazy to pull out the physical keyboard. We can't imagine what else could possibly leak at this point -- so hey, Verizon, can we recommend you go ahead and get this show on the road?

Droid 2 manual leaks, teaches you everything you need to know about a phone you don't have originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Droid Life | Email this | Comments