Having given one side, I’ll now give the other.
Comcast has made a strong effort to fix the connectivity problems we have been having, and we are hoping at this point that they have been resolved. We also signed up for cable television service again, which I dropped a year ago (immediately after the Ohio State [...]
Archive for the ‘Commerce’ Category
Comcast >>> AT&T
Posted in Commerce on December 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Debt is real
Posted in Commerce on October 8, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Most people both own and owe: We have assets and we have debts.
An important distinction between the cash value of the two: Assets are speculative. Debts are real.
We can believe we know what our assets are worth, but their actual cash value is what someone will pay for them at the time we try to [...]
Too big to save?
Posted in Commerce, Politics on October 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
When enough financial institutions that are “too big to fail” totter at the same time, the government cannot save them all.
What worries me is the possibility that the federal government and Federal Reserve will sink $2 trillion, $3 trillion, $4 trillion into stabilizing the financial system and then simply run out of real money (as [...]
Why Warren Buffett can keep going
Posted in Commerce, Quotation on October 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Financial maneuvering is a form of endeavor favorable to old men: The financial brain, unlike brains adept in various other areas—for example, mathematics, physics, chess, and, quite possibly, armed bank robbery—apparently deteriorates very little, if at all, with passage of time, even in the eighth and ninth decades of life.
– John Brooks, “Spanish Privateer”, 1978
Con-doh!
Posted in Commerce, Portland on September 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The east side of Portland is littered with ugly two-story apartment buildings of early ’60s vintage. If you live in Portland, you know what I’m talking about: The long, low bricks; the rusted metal stairs; the fading pale paint; the ratty parking lot; the juniper bushes.
So some developer bought the interchangeable ugly apartment block at [...]
Today’s amazing fact
Posted in Commerce, History on September 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The rivalry between shoemakers Adidas and Puma is based on a Nazi family feud.
Who knew?
The virtue of simplicity
Posted in Commerce, Humor, Life, Philosophy on September 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In Book II (369a-372d) of the Republic, Socrates reasons step-by-step through what would be required to create a simple and harmonious city, one in which the citizens “will live in peace and good health, and when they die at a ripe old age, they will bequeath a similar life to their children” (372c-d).
Socrates then continues [...]
Craftwork and wage-earning
Posted in Commerce, Philosophy on August 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In Book I (345e-347a) of the Republic, Socrates distinguishes between one’s ability to succeed at a craft (to be a craftsman) and one’s ability to succeed in being paid (to be a wage-earner); and states that the two abilities should be considered in isolation from one another. One can be a craftsman without receiving a [...]
Retro handset
Posted in Commerce, Humor on August 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
OK, now, this is just awesome right here.
(H/t to Smashing Magazine.)
How to cancel ESPN Insider
Posted in Commerce, Sports on August 13, 2008 | 9 Comments »
To cancel ESPN Insider, call 1-888-549-3776. Have your account name and the personal information you gave them handy. They will refund the prorated amount of your unused subscription.
ESPN Insider: Beware
Posted in Commerce, Sports on August 11, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Update: Look here for updated information.
What good is it to have the right to cancel a subscription during a one-month trial period if the company gives you no way to cancel it?
I signed up for ESPN Insider a month ago. A week ago, I realized that, as someone who does not play fantasy football / [...]
Old money, Part 2
Posted in Commerce, History, Quotation on August 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I find these quotes from Bernstein fascinating because popular history books so often mention money, but so rarely describe what that money was.
[The eight-real "Spanish dollar"], which flooded the European currency markets in the sixteenth century, was approximately the same size and weight as the Bohemian thaler—from which the word “dollar” derives. (Since eight reales [...]
A Starbucks morning
Posted in Commerce on August 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This morning, my breakfast was a fruit smoothie that I bought at Starbucks.
Then I bought a large iced tea at Starbucks.
While I sipped the iced tea, I listened to a jazz compilation released by Hear Music, the music label created by Starbucks.
I appear to have been colonized.
(Here’s Hoofy and Boo’s take on Starbucks.)
Old money
Posted in Commerce, History, Quotation on July 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The basic unit of currency of the premodern world was remarkably constant: a small gold coin weighing approximately four grams—one-eighth of an ounce—and about the size of a present-day American dime, appearing in various times and places as the French livre, Florentine florin, Spanish or Venetian ducat, Portuguese cruzado, dinar of the Muslim world, Byzantine [...]
