Chris Goodrich

Blaming Alan Greenspan for this current credit crunch is like trying to blame your parents for not teaching you not to kill somebody.

I don’t care how you spin it but Alan Greenspan, nor any other single person, is the cause for this crisis.  Remember briefly that the number 1 goal of the Federal Reserve system is to direct the monetary policy of the United States.  The goal is to stabilize the value of our currency by increasing or decreasing the United States money supply.

To assume that the Federal Reserve, or any of it’s past or present governors, is solely responsible for the ups and downs of our economy is preposterous.  The very thing that has caused this crisis is something that is very hard to control; greed.  In the free market capitalistic society that we live in, greed seems to be the foundation for most of our decisions.

This crisis was caused by our collective greed.  Greed from Wall Street investors looking for even greater returns, greed from homeowners thinking they could live a life better than they can afford, greed from credit card companies in seeking high interest rates on people who would never be able to repay.  We all have a part in causing this crisis.

In the 95 years of existence, the Federal Reserve has consistently changed it’s policies in how to best regulate the money supply.  The Federal Reserve has been around long enough to have seen many of these crises.  It is during a crisis that we find new and better ways to smooth out these ups and downs.  In all of this finger pointing of who caused this crisis, I have yet to hear anyone propose a solution that would guarantee this from happening again.  And until that solution comes along, the Federal Reserve is the system we have that has gotten us through the past 95 years of downturns.

If you follow me on Twitter you will know that I have been not so patiently awaiting the arrival of my Dell Inspiron Mini 9.  I placed my order on September 16 hoping for a ship date of September 30, however I was quickly disappointed when I received my order confirmation with an October 7 ship date.

One of two things happened this week:  either the computer God’s were watching over me, or I am forever convinced that the customer-service-by-twitter model works as I have voiced my frustrations quite vocally on Twitter.  Either way, I thank whoever was watching over me and my sanity by shipping me my Dell Inspiron Mini 9 two full weeks early.  I had paid for overnight shipping when I placed my order, so I was quite happy to see the little box waiting for me when I got home from work today.

Without further digression, here are some shots I took while unboxing this little tiger.

I’m surprised I was patient enough to take the pictures.

This little laptop is actually smaller than I had expected.  It isn’t a bad thing, in fact it actually is quite remarkable that this tiny thing can do everything that it does.

I actually really like what Dell has done with the charger for this thing.  It is quite a wall-wart of a charger, however it lacks the brick in the middle of the cable that is quite common among laptop chargers.

The biggest problem I had before ordering this thing was that I had a hard time visualizing the size.  There are plenty of pictures around on the internet, but I still couldn’t get a good enough grasp to visualize how little this thing would be.

The boot-up process started to worry me a little bit, as it took longer than I had expected.  The first boot takes you through the required windows setup screens where you select the computer name, time zone, etc. and the first few screens advanced quite slowly.  After finally getting through the setup process, I was presented with the obligatory Dell setup.

I was quite annoyed at the factory setup.  It seemed like it took the machine 5 minutes to actually load up all of the applications that were isntalled by default.  Before I took this screenshot I changed the visual settings for best performance to remove the standard Windows XP resource hogging visuals.  I wanted this computer for utility, not for aesthetics.

The computer booted with 13 items in the system tray, which I quickly used the MSCONFIG command and removed everything from startup.  I want to be able to control what runs and when, so nothing boots in my system tray.  I also took the liberty to remove some services as well.  I didn’t want to use Dell’s trial version of the anti-virus, so I removed all of it’s services from startup.

My initial fear over the limited resources of this machine were erased rather quickly.  After I performed the clean-up and setup the machine the way I wanted, everything has run smoothly.  Here is my desktop after I cleaned things up a bit.

No more useless processes using up vital resources.  A very basic desktop, but it provides me with the very basic functions that I need to use.

My initial areas of concern was the keyboard, mouse, and screen size  I wasn’t sure if it would be usable for the fast typing of notes and other things (read: facebook) that I normally do while sitting in class.  Here are my initial reactions to my concerns.  It will take at least a week of class-time use to know for sure if this tiny laptop can handle the rigorous strain of constant facebook use (er, I mean note taking).

Keyboard

My inital concerns over the keyboard was it’s size.  If the keyboard was too small to use as a normal keyboard, there is no way I would be able to use this regularly.  I was concerned that the keyboard was too small and would require a hunt and peck style of typing, which would drastically reduce my typing speed and accuracy.  Not to mention that I could type just as fast on my iPhone and therefore would have no use for the Dell Mini.

So far, my concerns have been completely unfounded.  My only major issue has been the movement of the question mark and apostrophe keys.  I constantly am pressing the enter key and then realizing that the apostrophe has been moved.  After a little bit of use, it’s pretty easy to get used to the compact keyboard.  It’s awkward at first just as the iPhone typing was, but I was typing my full speed within about 15 minutes of use (as long as I didn’t have to use an apostrophe).

Mouse

I had seen pictures of the track pad on this thing, but I wasn’t sure if it would be usable for me because it is quite a bit smaller than my Powerbook G4’s track pad.

The mouse is definitely better than I expected, however, still not what I am used to.  I have a USB mouse that I am using currently, and as soon as I find my bluetooth mouse I will be using that regularly.

Screen Size

I am used to using twin 22” monitors on my desktop and a 12” monitor on my Powerbook G4, so I wasn’t sure how I would adjust to the smaller screen size.

I am very impressed with the screen resolution.  The quality is good, and although things are much smaller than they are on my twin 22’s, it’s definitely a change that isn’t hard to get used to.

When I originally boot this little thing up, I had an issue with the default resolution being set to 800x600, which made the screen look terrible.  I quickly changed the resolution to the more appropriate 1024x600 and it now looks better than I expected.

My Setup

Since making the changes to remove the unnecessary Dell software, I have since installed Google Chrome, Firefox 3, and Pidgin.  I have run all 3 quite a bit to test them out and they all operate as expected.  Chrome works very nicely on the Dell Mini because of it’s simplified interface.  I haven’t had any major issues in my testing so far.

After bringing this thing home, I quickly realized the decreasing size of the mobile devices that I own.

From bottom to top:  17” Widescreen HP Laptop, 12” Powerbook G4, Dell Inspiron Mini 9, and of course the iPhone 3G.

The bottom laptop is on it’s last leg, and the Powerbook G4 has seen happier days, but I am attempting to preserve it’s life as long as possible because I love that thing.

Conclusion

I purchased the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 to replace my Powerbook G4 as my everyday “commuting” laptop - the one that goes with me everywhere.  So far, in my limited testing, the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 has exceeded my expectations.  I happy with how usable the keyboard is, and am satisfied with the resources that this thing has.  I upgraded the RAM to the 1GB option, because I wanted to maximize my resources.  I get very frustrated with lag, so I was more than willin to pay the nominal fee.

that we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally.

Christopher J. Dodd

All of these new Microsoft Ads are beginning to cause an epic internal struggle for me.

Most recently, Microsoft released an ad that proclaims by many different types of people that “I’m a PC.”  These ads are in direct response to Apple’s brilliant ads that proclaim “Hi, I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC…”

You may be asking yourself why this might be causing an internal struggle for me?  Well, like our Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, I don’t come from a single side of this segregation.  I am both a Mac and a PC.  Can this even be true?

Why must we constantly attempt to segregate our society and try to classify people by any type of characteristic?  Please don’t judge me for my platform preference, I am just as human as you are.  Can’t I just be Chris, Chris who is not defined by his platform preferences?

In the (slightly modified) words of Sen. Barack Obama during the 2004 Democratic National Convention:

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us — the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of “anything goes.” Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America. There is not a Mac America and a PC America — there’s the United States of America.

And in the (slightly modified) words of our forefathers:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty the pursuit of their favorite platform.

Therefore I must vote YES on Prop 546841:  The constitutional ban on divisive operating system advertisements.

Let us be who we are; whether that be a Mac, a PC, or what about Linux?  Can you please not judge me for my platform preference.

Hilariously funny, but yet so true.

sarahschneider:

You can’t spell ‘complain’ without ‘Palin.’

Disclaimer: I am not here to argue whether Senator Barack Obama has executive experience or not because, in my opinion, it is a moot point.

I don’t care whether or not our new president has executive experience. In fact, I would rather vote for a candidate who specifically lacks any of this executive experience as it merely represents the same-old Washington politics that Americans are so tired of.

Over the past week as I am commuting to work or school, I am listening to Sen. Barack Obama’s book entitled Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. As I listen to the eloquent words flowing from his mouth, I am beginning to realize that Sen. Barack Obama’s lack of executive experience is what drives me to support his campaign. I don’t want a president who knows how to institute top-down change. I want a president who knows how to inspire regular people to bring about their own change.

Political reporters have often referred to his time as a Community Organizer in Chicago, but I have never completely understood what a Community Organizer does until now. His experience as Community Organizer is the chief piece of experience that qualifies him for President of the United States of America. As a Community Organizer, he worked to organize communities of people to bring about necessary positive change.

Gone are the days of top-down leadership where we have a president with vast executive experience and who acts merely as an authoritarian voice for the country. We need a change far greater than the policies of George W. Bush, we need a change of mindset, a change of attitude, a change that allows ordinary people to believe in possibilities beyond their current dispair, a change that allows the American Dream to become reality rather than just a dream, a change that represents a new generation of politics, a change that only Senator Barack Obama can bring about.

Many business news sources have been reporting that the dollar has been gaining strength against other foreign currencies.  The dollar has gained about 5% against the euro and as much as 7% against the yen.  Although this will provide a long-run benefit, it may actually be detrimental to our economy in the short-run.

The academic definition of a recession is:  two or more consequitive quarters of negative growth in gross domestic product (GDP).

Look for a second at the equation that defines GDP: (foregive me for the simplified version here)

GDP = Consumption + Net Exports where Net Exports = Exports - Imports

The value of the dollar has a major influence on Net Exports.  When the dollar is weak, it attracts exports.  The weakness of the dollar means that foreign nations can purchase goods for much cheaper if they purchase them from the United States.

For example:  Say there is a widget that can be purchased in both Europe and the United States that costs 100 Euros and $125 United States Dollars.  The current exchange rate is 1 Euro for every $1.4691 United States Dollars.  This means that someone from Europe can purchase the product from the United States for about 85 Euros, a 15% savings.

Currently our economic growth is led by strong exports because of our weak dollar.  In the past year, we have seen very little growth in consumption, but higher levels of growth in net exports.

However, if the dollar strengthens, we are fronted with the possiblity of losing the only real economic growth we have left, which could end the debate over the United States recession of 2008.

Unless you have lived under a rock for the past year, you will be well aware that the U.S. economy has been under tremendous pressure.  The media and academics have been bantering about recession or no-recession, but does it matter?  There is an old saying that a wise man once told me about the difference between a depression and a recession.

“A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, a depression is when you lose yours.”

This statement could not be any more realistic with today’s markets and struggling economy.  Forget about the academic definition of recession and just look around and you will quickly notice that our economy is not what it was just one year ago.

What is the difference if we are in a recession or not?  Is our economy struggling?  If so, then let’s worry less about declaring the recession and worry more about fixing the recession.

There seems to be a disturbing trend that is occuring with Apple’s App-Store; name changes.

1. BoxOffice became Now Playing
2. PageOnce became iOnce
3. MPG became AccuFuel
   

Have the developers forgotten about the importance of branding?  The developers want as wide distribution of their application as possible, to either make money on app sales or to distribute ads.  Either way, you can’t build brand loyalty by changing the brand name.