Amazon Kindle - the Ultimate Personal Electronic Device?

Posted on April 13, 2008
Filed Under Technology | Leave a Comment

The new Kindle from Amazon is a pretty amazing piece of technology. It will without doubt revolutionize not just the way we read, but the means by which we access most all information in the future.

I’m looking over this thing and all sorts possibilities for other ways it might be used in the future spring to mind, but first we need to be able to get one. It looks like Amazon may have underestimated how the Kindle would take off, and are scrambling to scale up the numbers they turn out.

Right now it seems the demand is so phenomenally strong, they can’t make them fast enough. Look at this note on the Amazon site:

Due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is temporarily sold out. We are working hard to manufacture Kindles as quickly as possible and are prioritizing orders on a first come, first served basis. Please ORDER KINDLE NOW to reserve your place in line.

For those not yet familiar with Kindle, it’s a wireless, portable reading device with instant access to books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Whether at home, in the car, at the airport, or nearly anywhere, just think of a book and get it in less than a minute.

Learn about Kindle in this video…

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Here’s a partial list of features on the Amazon Kindle reader:

And this is just the first release. Just imagine what this device might one day become if they decide to integrate it with an internet browser, plus full audio, video, games, email, and phone.

The ultimate in connected portability!

We could get rid of every other portable device we have, including blackberry’s, cell phones, ipods, and dvd players. In fact, if you consider that the above list of activities represents probably 90% of what people use laptops for, the need to lug them around decreases substantially. 

Get more details or order one for yourself:
Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device


Europeans All Speaking One Language?

Posted on April 6, 2008
Filed Under Humor, Travel | Leave a Comment

I came across this post in Rick Steves travel blog and had to share it here. It’s about all of Europe being destined to share the same language, and though he says it’s been circulated in emails, I hadn’t seen it yet.

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English.”

In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c.” Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favor of “k.” This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f.” This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the fourth yer, people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v.”

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Chase What Matters - How to Stay in Debt for Life

Posted on April 3, 2008
Filed Under Credit Cards, Personal Finances | 1 Comment

Does anyone think credit card companies are their friend because they give you the “privilege” of having one of their cards. The reality is just the opposite for millions of folks tied to those never ending monthly payments.

Check out this commercial that tells us to “chase what matters”. The title just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy doesn’t it? Already we can envision the “important things in life”, and are reminded how “sacrifice is always worthwhile for the long-term good” not to mention the “things that really matter”.

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Well surprise, surprise, surprise. Turns out that “what matters” is that super widescreen HDTV, deluxe surround-sound, home theater system.

And then there’s Chase to the rescue, by reminding this guy, who’s already salivating all over himself, that he can indeed “have it all now”. All he has to do to see if there is the least little bit of room on that already maxed out card, is just “text Chase”, and poof, he’ll know his balance in an instant.

Wow, that’s a message we need more of. Let’s hear it for instant self-gratification. Just a couple more doses and this poor schmuck will be buried in debt up to his eyeballs. C’mon put your hands together for Chase, thank you very much.

When you take a look at this commercial, it’s fairly easy to see what the lender really thinks about you. In case it’s not clear, you are simply a cash-flow. The only thing they love about you is your steady monthly payment. And why not, they’re pretty much minting money, especially at the exorbitant rates being charged these days.

But wait they say, “we have to charge these higher rates to allow for our expected defaults”. No doubt that’s a partially true statement, but the real reason the default rates, and thus the interest rates, keep going up is largely due to people getting deeper in debt to the point they can’t keep up.

Combine that with extending credit to people who never should’ve had it in the first place, and you can be sure the rates will continue upward with ever-dizzying speed.

Can anyone say subprime mortgage disaster? Same song, different verse. 

Without even broaching the implications that what really “matters in life” is having cool electronics, this commercial violates so many principles of fiscal good sense it’s hard to list them all.

For one thing, it infers carrying a balance is normal and okay. Not even – go read this post on getting a super return on your money to see why credit card debt tops the list of foolishness. Next it shows us a guy living beyond his means with no clue about how much debt he’s already carrying, trying to figure a way to dig the hole even deeper.

The icing on the cake is the voice telling us to “decide what to spend based on our credit card balance“!

Helloooooooo, forget common sense, does anyone really think this even remotely resembles sound money management?

Have words like “budget” or “cashflow” been completely forgotten? For the millions of people wondering why they’re in debt, the answer is obviously a resounding yes! Why is it so difficult to understand that debt is simply spending that exceeds income, and that past that point we’re living beyond our means. Translation - losing ground.

But isn’t it comforting to know that you can just “text Chase” at any time, day or night, to see if that balance has dropped even a little, so you can push it right back to the max. Yeah, baby!

But hey, Chase is just trying to make a profit and return value for their shareholders – nothing wrong with that. No there’s not, but I’d like to see them act more responsibly and not exasperate the already huge debt problems of  millions who can’t figure out why they aren’t getting ahead.  

As an aside, here’s a way to actually make some money - stop paying Chase interest and buy their stock. Actually it’s JP Morgan stock since they own Chase. You may have heard of them – the guys who with a little help from the Federal Reserve, gobbled up Bear Sterns at fire-sale prices.

Pretty cool deal since the Fed will back about 30 billion dollars worth of the risk, and all that paper can’t be completely worthless. I’m guessing there’s enough there to make for a tidy profit, especially at a cents on the dollar purchase price for Bear.

And no, nothing said here should in any way be construed as investment advice, but for myself, with most bank stocks including JP’s finding ever lower lows due to the subprime mess, the current price plus the Bear deal make JP look increasingly attractive. Besides they even pay a decent dividend.

On the other hand, the fact that getting rid of credit card debt can nearly double the average return from stocks makes it a strategy that can definitely be taken to the bank – no pun intended.

One Step to an 18% Return on Your Money

Posted on April 2, 2008
Filed Under Credit Cards, Personal Finances, Saving Money | Leave a Comment

Most people know the historical performance of the stock market has resulted in stocks returning just over 10%. That number also includes dividends and assumes they’ve been reinvested along the way.

If you look across very many years, you also see that fund managers and stock pickers generally fail to beat the market. That means even the pros have trouble staying ahead of a plain old index fund.

Stock Market ROISo wouldn’t it be incredible to find a way to get a guaranteed 18% or better return on your money?

Well, if you’re one of the millions who carry a balance on their credit cards, and have an interest rate of 18% or more, you can achieve an 18% or better return by simply paying off your credit card balance and keeping it paid off.

Sounds too simple right? But it’s a fact. Most people will do better than 18% because most are paying higher rates, but even if the interest rate on your card is below 18%, you’ll still make a better return even if the rate is as low as 11%.

But few folks bother with the easy money. They continue to buy stocks either directly, or through various plans like 401k, 403b, IRA, etc. and get an average of 10%, while they pay 18% plus. Just to be clear, you’re losing 8% month in, and month out.

In fact with the market down as it’s been recently, they’re losing a lot more.

So, it’s a simple solution – don’t carry a balance on any credit card. Besides making a superior return, you don’t end up paying 20 times as much for purchases – but that’s another story.

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