We build awesome here.
No sooner had I finished writing yesterday’s post than did my Windows OS decide to punish me for the slander against its progenitor. I closed the window for my browser and my taskbar immediately exploded. It appears to have created a window and task bar item for every process and driver running. Nice.
I am sooooo wanting to switch to Mac/Linux.
I finally got sick of it. Microsoft does some things well but is increasingly finding that the substitutes do it way better. If I wasn’t tied to MS project for my job I’d be on a Mac right now (I may still but need to evaluate some cross over products).
Case in point: Hotmail.
I quit using hotmail about a year ago now, mainly because I got sick of constantly weeding through spam. I still use MSN messenger to keep in touch with certain people so I am able to easily keep tabs on the growing size of my inbox. I am proud to announce that it topped 1,000 emails yesterday, 95% of which are sure to be spam.
On the flip side, I have been using Gmail for the past year or so and can remember only having to report 3-4 items as spam.
As you can see, Gmail still gets a lot of spam – the difference is that it goes to my spam folder, not my inbox. Once again Microsoft has missed the boat.
Panic causes price rises. Period.
The basics of supply and demand dictate that when there is a shortage or percieved shortage of supply then demand rises. Likewise, when demand rises so does price. If a hurricane, in this case Ike, causes damage to oil refineries we will likely see a rise in prices. This is natural and expected as it creates scarcity.
Unfortunately, what is also natural and expected is that people will speculate as to the effects of events, lending a pesemistic weight to the equation. This negative slant causes people to try to “beat the rush”, causing a spike in demand. This spike in demand causes a shortage in supply, thus hiking up prices.
STOP SPECULATING THAT HURRICANES WILL CAUSE SHORTAGES! You are causing the price to rise for everyone. If you are really worried about such things stock up over time and/or well in advance.
This is my rant for the month.
