Another lesson in economics

Okay students, gather around, today we are going to learn about exchange rates and the "value" of the dollar (or loonie for us Canadians eh?) . I am pleased to have with us today, Jared Fleminhimer to tells us the story.

The History

Back in the "old days" we had a thing called "bartering". I owned a farm, my friend Josh was a fisterman, and Jed and Ned..well they built houses and barns for folks. So I'd give some of my milk and vegtiables to Josh and he'd give me some fish. I sold off a few of my cows to Ned for my new barn..and we all lived happily ever after.

'Course it was a lot of work back in those days moving my vegtables around and sometimes my crop did turn out so well, and people would get them from da neighbours hourse. I had to go weeks sometimes without any good fish, and it wasn't pretty. Some of the others did without fresh fruit and vegitables and they got the scurvy.

Then in came the Gold Rush, now anyone and everyone wanted those pretty yellow nuggets. I could ne'er figure out why. They weren't good for much, but I admit they looked pretty, and it if you had some you could trade it for something good like fish or blankets when you needed 'em so I guess they was handy thatta way.

But da gold was heavy and could not be easily carried around, a few of the smarter folks got together and made the nuggets into little round things they called coins. They were much easier to carry around, by now you could even go to da salloon and get urself a nice drink for a few of the shinny "coin" things

There was another problem too, shinny yellow nuggets starting getting harder and harder to find, there only seemed to be so many of them, and a few people had most of them and didn't seem to want to trade very often. Course there were other pretty gems and stuff that people traded now and again, but I couldn't remember the last time someone bartered anymore. I was staring to miss dem good ol' days.

[Okay class, as you may have guessed Mr Fleminhimer is getting 'up there' in years and has to go take a nap. Let's review what we have learned so far.]

In general "value" of an item (from the 'olden days) was determined by 2 factors:

1) The "need" for an item. The more a person needs (or thinks they need) an item, the more valualbe that item is. Blankets in the middle of winter are much more valuable then swimwear.

2) The "rarity" of an item. Items that can only be possessed by the few are often 'coveted' by others lacking the item.

Stay Tuned for Part 2, meanwhile you may be interested in this other economics lesson.

Review of the Coby 7 Inch Digital Picture Frame

Okay, I finally broke down and bought a digital picture frame. I found this one at Superstore for only $50.00 clearly the cheapest price yet for one of these frames and so far I am very happy with it

I have wanted one of these, since the first time I saw them, the ability to have my digital photos slideshow on a picture frame that is hanging on my wall. What a great concept !


Before purchasing, be sure to take a quick look at "Catching a Virus from a Photo Frame"





Pros:

Price: for only $50, compared to similar models which are almost double, this item is an easy steal.

Swapable Frames: The model I bought came with two interchangable frames. A standard black, and a nice maple looking finish. I use the maple one because it gives it a more "picture frame look" and less techie

Multiple Card Support: This unit has every kind of plugin card imaginable, SD, CF, USB Key, to name a few

Wall Mountable: Includes the little holes at the back to mount on the wall, or a stand to put it on a table or desk.

Handy Remote: The remote allows you to easily configure it, when mounted on a wall or at any distance to change the slideshow, pause, zoom, etc

Cons:

The unit is Widescreen, but my photos are not, so many of them have black bars on the left right side of the screen. I can zoom to remove these bars, but this makes the photo look a little squished

I could not figure out how to get the music and picture slideshow to play at the same time. I fear this is not possible, unless I make my own slideshow AVI instead. (It will play avi's as well as pictures)

The stand at the back allows you to put the item on your desk. However it tends to tilt upwards a bit, which makes the screen colors appear a bit weird. So wall mounted flat makes a much better picture.

Overall Rating: 3/5, A recommened buy !

Your ultimate gift registry

The Ultimate Wishlist is a simple, easy to use, facebook app, that let's you keep track of your favorite items. It is a gift registry that lets you share items you would like for any occasion, your upcoming wedding, having a new baby? or to remind your boyfriend of those "just because momenets".

Plus, invite you friends to use this app too. Then when an occasion comes around, you can be sure
you are buying that unique gift that they have longed for as well.

You can check out the Ulimate Wishlist facebook app here -> http://apps.facebook.com/ultimatewishlist/

Or add it to your facebook with this link: Add To My Facebook

Do you own your own website/estore? Why not provide others with the ability to add your items
to their own wishlist. Integration is simple!

Just add the following code to your items template at whatever spot seems easiest (we recommend adding it near the price of the item for maximum effectivness)

<A TARGET=_NEW HREF="http://www.bwebcentral.com/wishlist/wishadditem.php&url={YOURADDR}&ProductName=My%20Cool%20Product&Price=$10.00"><img src="http://www.bwebcentral.com/wishlist/wishlist.png" border="0" /></a>

Remember to replace the url, price, and product name with information from your database and you're all set to Go !

10 Ways to Remain Unhappy at your job

Flickr Image By: wadem

It seems funny, but many folks out there work hard at being unhappy and dis-satisified in there job. Here's how to do it

1) Admit you are powerless to control anything -> Convince yourself that your ideas are not listened to by anyone, and that you may as well talk to a wall as talk to your boss about changes you would like to see.

2) Complain about collegues and/or your boss to other collegues. If you have a problem with someones behaviour, tell someone who has no power to do anything about it.

3) Work in a silo. Never has for help or advice on anything. Always try to do all the tasks yourself. Do not see if anyone has done the task before.

4) Never improve on anything (just do the status quo). If it's done that way then don't try to change it. It must be that way for a reson..right?

5) Never take responsiblity for your mistakes. When you mess up, blame it on someone else. Perhaps your computer or internet connection caused the problem, or say you never recieved that email.

6) Try to always look busy by staying disorganized. Make sure there are lots of papers and post it notes all over your desk. Pile up large todo lists in various places around your desk/office. Grumble a lot about how much work you have to do.

7) Never miss an oppertunity to give unsolicited advice to others when you see they are doing something different then how you think it should be done

8) Only do exactly what you job requirement states. Never go outside of what you are "paid" to do. After all someone else is paid to do those things and why should you do someone else's work right?

9) Always look down whereever you go, never look anyone you work with in the eyes (unless maybe it is to complain about someone else). Be sure to have a stressed and angry look on your face. One way to do this is to keep remembering times in the past when you felt the company let you down. Don't let go of these old memories, use them to maintain a constant upset attitude.

10) Keep a carefull record of a everything your company is doing wrong, and why others ideas won't sucessed. Don't tell anyone else about this list, unless you want to point out and say "I told you so" to someone when an idea doesn't quite work out as expected.

..Well there you go - Enjoy your unhappiness

Related Reading:

The Danger of Being Pro-active

The danger of being proactive

Proactivity is a buzzword term tossed around quite often in the business world. The orginal notion of proactivity is that of taking personal responsibility for your actions. This concept has been modified from the orginal intent. It is often identified as the opposite of reactivity. It is currently thought to be about reducing risk by anticipating and solving problems before they occur.

I recently had the oppertunity to learn how being proactive can have some very negative consequences. Several weeks ago I posted a video, "What's the Worst tha can happen?" This turned out to be a very viral video. I recieved lots of comments on the video, including several people who spotted the logic 'error' referencing Pascals Wager. After looking at this and googling it, I still did not realize the far reaching consequences of this argument until just the other day.

It all became clear while watching a video by the BBC called "The Power of Nightmares". It is a rather long series, but what caught my attention was in Part 3. A concept called the Precautionary Principle. It then dawned on me this is the same concept that was explained in this video above . Mainly:

If you want to get action, without evidence, simply have people imagine the worst possible consequence of not acting, and show that doing nothing may lead to worse consequences then taking action. This is a shift from a scientific (evidence based appoach) which breaks down to the statement "action without evidence is justified"

So a truely proactive approach is action taken based on evidence and not fear. It is a leadership skill to look forward with postive energy, assess the risk and create an action plan to mitigate it.

Remember the adatage, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". This is what tends to happen when we implement our proactivity acitivies from fear and not from evidence.

How this applies to proactivity??

[ Link to Man's Search for Meaning]



http://excerpts.contentreserve.com/FormatType-25/0887-1/063301-MansSearchForMeaning.wma