The Frugalist

disclaimer: this comes from an email recently forwarded to me that I found very funny. I don’t know if the events actually happened or not but it’s still worth a read.

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared
the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,

‘If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we
would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.’

In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press
release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be
driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash…….  Twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, wasreliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single ‘This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation’ warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask ‘Are you sure?’ before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You’d have to press the ‘Start’ button to turn the engine off.

Too funny, but they forgot about buying a new garage every 3 years because the old one is no longer supported (except for a few obscure cases).

Laugh and Be Well!

~Ian

Facebook is redesigning the profile, but we will not see it until spring. Meanwhile here is my take on how it aught to be and I am keen to get your feedback.

First, here are a few points of contention I have with the current profiles.

• the new privacy settings are a good idea but not very usable - especially for those with many many ‘friends’
• we are in varying degrees of conflict about how much personal vs professional information to share, since we have an ‘all in one’ profile.
• those of us who wish to keep a more ‘professional’ business image are having to resist/ignore much of the ‘fun’ side of facebook - or having to keep our business contacts on LinkedIn instead.

As a facebook user here is what I want to do:

• First: my main profile should be ONLY for information I expect to share with all ‘contacts’ (aka friends)
• Each item on the main profile should be marked for it’s level of privacy (such as ’show to all’, ‘groups and friends’, ‘friends only’… etc.) - [much like it already is]
• I then want to organize my contacts (friends) into subgroups at my discretion (ex: social, religious, associates, employers, family.. etc). [note: this feature has recently been added]
• For each subgroup I want a ’subprofile’ that is information items added to the main profile for people in this subgroup (only).
• Each subprofile item should also be marked for privacy like the main profile items are.
• Members of multiple subgroups would see a merged profile: the main profle plus all of the appropriate items (as per privacy) from the subgroups.
• I must be able to view my own profile:

exactly as each subgroup would see it

as if viewed from different places (ex: for each of the privacy settings)

as any specific contact would see it

and be able to edit it ‘in place’ if need be

I personally think this would be much more intuitive for everyone and would provide reasonably granular control over profile information. My business associates, romantic interest, church and family could all see the information most relevant (or appropriate) for them.

Perhaps even your facebook apps could be added per subgroup (and privacy level) if you wanted to keep some things segregated. Mini feed and notes etc. could also be filtered according to the profile.

In the longer term I also think that a profile structure could become universal

• I only one profile/subprofile structure to maintain
• I want it to work across all my contacts - perhaps via OpenID, etc.
• I want it safe and secure - perhaps only on my own device(s)

So… that being said: What do YOU think?

This blog intends to suggest quality, alternative technologies that can save you time, money or stress.

There are thousands of open source communities around the world, each with hundreds (or thousands) of independent developers that pool their diverse talents and skills. The results are often very high quality projects that are free or almost free and that provide huge benefits over the more commonly known products.

There are also many more companies that are now following the ‘give it away’ business model in hopes of monetizing a small percentage of those users. This means that there are increasingly advanced business tools available on the cheap.

But you have a business to run. No time to waste downloading and trying out a bunch of stuff. Can’t someone who knows this stuff just tell you what’s cool?

YES! I can.

I currently run my own web services business and, as a small business manager myself, I am always looking for ways to cut costs and streamline my work. I participate in open source communities for many reasons, not the least being that for every day that I put in, I get back dozens or even hundreds of hours worth of quality work.

I’ve been in the computer field since the beginning of the 1980’s and unlike most small business owners it has actually been worth my time to investigate a lot of technologies. I’ve realized that my customers could benefit from this experience, so why not you too?

A few of the best technologies have gained popularity by word of mouth so you may have heard of them. Perhaps you weren’t sure if you should try them. You may even be using some of them already. I may start with some of the more obvious choices and then get onto the more obscure.

This industry is truly huge so admittedly I don’t know all of it, but I will share with you what I do know, in as concise a manner as I can.  Got a suggestion? Drop me a line.

It is my hope that you will add this blog to your news feed, at least for a while, to discover what applies to your situation.