Myrie Advancing
March 26, 2009 – 2:37 am by adminPlumbing, electrical and half of the bricking done at Mr. Myrie’s house. Shouldn’t be long now.
Gallery
Executive Order - Stem Cell Research
March 17, 2009 – 9:14 pm by T.S. AllenOn March 9, 2009, President Obama overturned Bush’s 2001 legislation banning government funding of new lines of embryonic stem cell research. The reversal holds great promise for medical research in finding treatments of degenerative and debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, Multiple Sclerosis, leukemia, lymphoma, juvenile diabetes, arthritis, and especially cancer. In addition, stem cell research has the potential to one-day assist in the rejuvenation of damaged organs and tissues such as spinal cord injuries, immune system malady, and genetic disorders. However, before we delve into the political perspective for government funding, let us first understand stem cells and the controversy surrounding stem cell research. (more…)
Active Solar - Solar Electric Systems
March 5, 2009 – 9:10 pm by T.S. AllenIf you’ve ever owned or rented for some time, you know that energy prices are not going down and in fact are poised to continue to rise. Today’s cost of electricity is expected to double in the near future. This is due to our dwindling reserves of energy and the worldwide increase in demand. With the world’s populations ever increasing and technology being offered in more places, energy demand is at its all time high. Our insistence for energy is insatiable. In supporting our current lifestyles, we have taken irreparably from Mother Nature leaving behind an enormous carbon footprint; a footprint resulting in environmental crises such as acid rain, CO2 emissions, smog, and global warming. In addition, our vast energy use indirectly contributes to social and political ramifications as well - military presence in the Middle East, government subsidies to power companies, and our uncaring wasteful use of energy. We Americans simply take our energy needs for granted. America is only ¼ the entire population of the world, yet consumes ¾ of its resources. Inversely, that means that the rest of the world (three times our population) is sharing merely one-third of the resources we greedily exploit. To boot, Americans alone consume 25% of the entire world’s oil, again three times more than any nation alone. Unless we eliminate our need for petroleum, it is inevitable our children will have to return to the gulf in order to protect the lifestyle we have become so accustomed to. So what can we do? (more…)
Stimulus Plan - Government Spending Has Worked Before
March 2, 2009 – 11:07 pm by admin
Paul Abrahms has written an interesting article on the Huffington Post about the results of previous large government spending programs most notably the government spending spree known as the “New Deal”. While many pundits are screaming that government spending never works, this article references historical statistical evidence proving that massive government spending does in fact work. The questions we should be asking is not “does government spending work?” but rather we should be asking “where should we spend the money, and how much should we spend?”.
Ignore the Pundits
Obama’s Stimulus Plan - Socialism in Disguise?
February 18, 2009 – 5:14 pm by T.S. Allen
Less than a month in the oval office and President Obama has already pushed for the stimulus package stating “the only thing to fear is the insufficiency of fear.” By request to have a bipartisan stimulus plan in play as quickly as possible, the Senate recently passed a $825 billion economic-rescue package last week, while the House had passed a $819 billion package back in late January. That’s nearly a trillion dollars! The two bills are similar and overlap in many ways (about 90%), but there will be some tough negotiations on finalizing the remaining 10% still in disagreement. Both versions mix various methods of spending and tax breaks. The House relies more heavily on spending through government agencies while the Senate cries for more payroll and corporate tax breaks. Yet both packages make requests for so much to be given to this organization and so much to that entity, it is not explicitly clear how the money will be spent once it’s approved. While some would surely be intended for tax relief and some given to specific assisting agencies, most of the money would be filtered to the federal, state, and local bureaucratic channels through standard in-place distribution channels. I direly hope this is not a ploy in which the administration is using apocalyptic fear to promote long-term changes within our country. I mean whatever happened to the $700 billion from the previous bailout package approved by Bush? If that was supposed to “fix” things, then why do we need nearly a trillion more? How about next quarter? Would we need yet another $800 billion? It seems that the obvious item to be stimulated is the national debt which currently sits at $10 trillion as of Sep 2008 (of which the Bush administration was responsible for $4.3 trillion - lowered taxes on the super rich cost $2.7 trillion, invaded Iraq at $600 billion, and deregulated or rather bailed out Wall Street for nearly $1 trillion). (more…)
Twitter?? What is so hard about making money?
February 17, 2009 – 5:00 pm by admin
Twitter Gone Bad
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090215/ap_on_hi_te/tec_whither_twitter
Can Twitter CEO Evan Williams really not figure out what his company’s flagship product is good for? He was quoted in the above linked article on Yahoo as saying ”We have enough traffic on our Web site that we could put ads on there and maybe we could make enough to pay our bills, but that’s not the most interesting thing we can do.”
WHAT!!! Is he seriously running a company that was just offered $500 million in a buyout bid from Facebook and he can’t figure out how to make money or worse he doesn’t even know if running ads would pay the bills or not?!?!?! He has got to do the accounting!! He has to know or at least is supposed to know how much revenue the ads would bring in with a reasonable amount of certainty. If they haven’t done the math yet then they need to spend some of those buckets of venture capital money to hire a friggin accountant!! His only job as CEO is to make MONEY! IF he can’t or won’t try to at least do the due diligence then fire his ass.
The only thing I can figure is that he must be just so used to spending other peoples money that he is literally not in the least bit concerned about whether or not he makes a profit on this next venture. If he doesn’t know or he is unsure whether or not running ads will make money then they are pretty much guaranteed to LOSE money. His statement here is ridiculous and if he had my $500 million that they just raised in venture capital, I’d be freaking out right about now.
The simple fact of the matter is, it is so simple to make money with Twitter. Once they can their idiot CEO, their future business model can and should be summed up in one word, SPAM. I am not speaking of the canned meat variety but instead I mean the unwanted messages variety. Of course of course I don’t propose that they actually break the laws and start spamming people’s cellphones and e-mail in-boxes with Viagra ads, but I do propose that they simply use their registered user base to send out mass mailings. That is where they will make all of their money.
Spam today has become a beautiful art form of double opted-in mailing lists of tastefully crafted ads from thousands of reputable companies. I get a lot of Spam, but I actually get almost as much ‘legitimate’ mailings from companies that at one time or another I have done business with in the past or one at least one of their ’strategic’ partners. I get newsletters, special offers, monthly sales announcements, loyal customers discounts and new product announcements on a daily basis. Did Williams seriously not consider this option?
In fact Twitter doesnt’ even have to manage the ads individually. They can simply place a limit on corporate accounts. For instance, if you run a company, and have oh say more then 10o followers, then you have to pay a flat fee every month or every time you send a message. Maybe the fee goes up the larger your following. Seems simple right. I hope I’m not the only one who has thought if this.
On a side note, why is Facebook even concerned about buying Twitter? They are torching 50 gallon drums of cash daily themselves. If they want instant messaging to cellphones and inboxes they should simply just implement a Twitter style instant message system on Facebook. The code should be easy to write, and Facebook’s subscriber base is much larger then Twitter’s. They could easily obsolete Twitter within a year!
There is one common bond between these two CEOs though. Neither one has yet been required to make a profit. What is their motivation to do so? There is none. Everyone involved with these companies have already made their millions, and if their venture fails, then they are already set for life. They only people loosing are the investors. Why should these inexperienced CEOs worry about making the company profitable? They won’t. It is human nature. Until someone forces their hand, they will just continue to burn through the investors’ cash.
Here is my advice to the investors in Facebook and Twitter. Force management’s hand. Tell them to make a profit or else no more money. Then follow through, don’t give them a penny. Make them go to the bank and borrow billions at junk bond rates to fund their loosing proposition. Then, when they loose those millions and comeback on their knees, with their hands out and crying and bleeding from every poked orifice, then wait them out some more. Give them enough to eat and pay the light bill, and leave them on the hook for the rest. Then and only then will these companies start to make money. To everyone else wanting to invest in Facebook or Twitter, wait until they’ve crashed and then wait until they are on their way back up the ladder before throwing any money their way. These CEOs obviously haven’t learned the most important lesson in business, “It’s always about the money”.
Crossfit V-Day Games 2009
February 15, 2009 – 5:46 pm by adminSmart Homes was a small sponsor and small part of the Crossfit V-Day games this year. Hosted by the Matrix Gym and the Huntsville Crossfit affiliate in South East Huntsville, the Crossfit games was two days of torture, pain, sacrifice, welcome and deserved accolades for a few and an adrenaline rush for all. Smart Homes LLC. was proud to be a sponsor of and a competitor in this year’s games. The official website for the V-Day games is at http://cfhsvgames.com/.
I’ve posted the pictures I took of the games here. If you would like the full resolution pics just e-mail me at danielbyrne@smarthomesllc.net and I will find a way to get them to you.
Sorry, but I didn’t take time to filter out the bad pictures from the good ones, and yes I meant to blur the images a bit to show action. I may have overdone it. Sorry again…
I saw many other people running around with cameras as well. If you need a place to post the pics, send me a reduced size version of the pics you would like posted and I will post them here. Alternatively, if you have a blog or a flickr site on which you will post your own pictures, then send me the link to your blog, and I’ll post the link here as well.
Thanks,
Daniel Byrne, Competitor #51
