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I'm not sure if I'm going to report much on American Idol this year. I think I'll leave that up to my wife if she decides she wants to comment. However, I do have to point out that you can buy Chris Daughtry's songs on iTunes now. He's recording under the name Daughtry. I just downloaded the song It's Not Over. I recommend it if you were a Chris Daughtry fan at all.
If you have iTunes installed, the following button will take you right to the song:
Enjoy.
HDTV has taken me a long time. There are quite a few reasons to hang back on this one. First and foremost for me was simply that I had a TV that worked. Next, HDTVs have been expensive. Then there's been the problem of programming. There hasn't been much HD broadcast -- so where in the world would I get a broadcast signal that took advantage of the capabilities of the TV?
Well, a couple of things have changed. First, my TV broke last week. Second, the prices have come down somewhat on the HDTVs (but honestly it's still pretty insane). Finally, my cable provider, Cox, now has a pretty nice lineup of HD channels including all of the major networks, a couple of ESPN channels and Discovery HD. I was able to trade in my Cox DVR for a Cox HD DVR so I can view, record and playback my HD progams. Yay!
This weekend was the first that I actually had a chance to sit down and really watch the new TV. Wow. Honestly you have to see it to believe it, but I couldn't stop talking about the picture. It's unbelievably crisp and bright. We got the Mitsubishi WD-65731 65" 1080p DLP HDTV from Best Buy. I highly recommend looking at this TV. The brightness and contrast are similar to a plasma TV, but the cost is much lower than a plasma. I was a little underwhelmed with the service at Best Buy, but the TV itself is fantastic.
Last night I got to watch the first 2 hours of the new season of 24 in HD. I was nearly in tears during most of the show for happiness. It's that good.
I'm working on a project right now and I need some help with translation. The translation task will be very small, but it would help me out a lot. I need native speakers of French, German and Japanese who are also fluent in English.
If you know someone who might want to help, have them email me or respond to this post. Thanks!
Last year I wrote a couple of notes (see How Much Do You Earn) about ING Direct. I was excited about ING Direct then as it was finally a savings account that has a great interest rate, is easy to setup and use and doesn't require any minimum balances. It's a great account.
Today I got an email from ING Direct describing a new account they call Electric Orange. I'd call it the Finally-it's-here Checking Account, but my name isn't quite so catchy. The Electric Orange account is a checking account that earns interest. If you're my age, you may remember when other banks had some interest-bearing checking accounts, but those days have been gone for a while (or the accounts have to have high balances to earn interest).
Here's the overview: First you need to have a savings account at ING Direct (I'm not sure if that's always going to be the case, but it appears to be that way right now). Once you have your savings account, you can add an Electric Orange account. You get a debit card for purchases and ATM withdrawals; you can have them cut checks for you or do e-pay on your regular bills; you can transfer money into your account from other bank accounts or you can set up direct deposit for your paycheck. Basically it's a checking account without a paper checkbook, but you can do everything you would do with a paper checkbook. Plus it currently pays a minimum of 3.0% interest on your balance. It pays up to 5.3% interest based on your account balance.
As far as I'm concerned this is the only bank to be seriously looking at right now. I'm going to see if there is any reason why I can't use Electric Orange as my primary checking and I'll follow up.
If you're starting college, you had better read this book. If you're sending kids to college, you had better read this book. If you're in business, you had definitely better read this book. Why? Because The World is Flat is a no-nonsense, no-holds-barred discussion of the economics and politics of the world as it looks today and how it's going to look tomorrow. Are you ready for globalization? Really? Do you even know what's happening right now?
I thought I had a pretty good perspective of outsourcing and globalization before I read this book. Heck, I work online with people all over the world all of the time. I thought I knew a little something about globalization because my first book was sold in at least a half dozen languages. Well, I learned that I didn't know very much about globalization and outsourcing -- and I learned that I have a lot more to learn.
Did you know that HP in the US won a 150 billion dollar contract from an Indian bank to help them upgrade their IT infrastructure? Did you even read that question? Yes, I said that a bank in India outsourced a 150 billion dollar project to a company in the United States. Have you ever considered that outsourcing could work in that direction?
Did you know that some McDonald's locations have outsourced their drive-through order processing to a single location in Colorado? Yep, if you drive through at McDonald's in some locations, the person taking your order is actually in a call center in Colorado. Did you know that those McDonald's are faster and more accurate in their order management?
Technology is flattening the world -- and it's happening faster and faster every day. This is a huge book -- 608 pages, but every page provided me with something poignant to consider in my life and in my business. If it sounds like a little bit to much to bite off, you might consider listening to it on audiobook (I did) and take it in while you're driving. Again, I recommend this book to everyone. And as always, let me know what you think!
I realize that I didn't write an end-of-the-year recap post. I also did not write a first-day-of-the-year resolution post. I took almost two weeks off and didn't write anything. That was a very nice thing.
I'm glad to be back, though. There's a lot to discuss this year and I'm not completely sure how I'm going to tackle it. I am planning to make some minor format changes to my blog. I've got a lot to do in the next couple of weeks, though, so I suspect things will change little during that time.
I have a large number of movies to discuss and I have one new book I can review. I'm planning to do some top ten lists soon (best books read, best movies seen, etc.) and I have some general information to share.
I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and New Year and I look forward to this year and its challenges and opportunities. Thanks for continuing to read!
