A Paean For SPSS
Sep 25, 2004
I’m old. Officially old. What is it that makes me old? Why, it’s my ability to reminisce, with a twinkle in my eye and a wistful tone, about the good old days when I wrote batch files to run statistical tests on SPSS, which, by the way, ran on the server, not some dinky desktop. Ahh yes, I miss firing up Kermit, telnetting into the server (bambi.pomona.edu, I think) running pico Read on… (plus 2 Comments)
Two Days Of Terror
Sep 22, 2004
Or two weeks, more like — last Monday’s Microeconomics midterm plus yesterday’s Accounting midterm and today’s Strategy final. If you’re keeping track at home, that’s two entire weekends of studying for classes that I’m not sure I really get, plus last night studying for a class that I thought I got real good but maybe I’m not so sure after that final.
Econ wasn’t that bad. I knew I didn’t understand most of what was going on so I kicked my ass studying in a really systematic Read on…
You'se A Fine Computer User Why Don't Ya Back That Drive Up
Sep 19, 2004
Only a geek backs up his (or her!) data, right? So I must be an uber-geek, because I have two levels of data backup going on: backup to external media, and CVS. Both are pretty easy to get running on your Windows machine, and everybody should do them!
Main thing — and what you should definitely do, because it’s pretty cheap and easy — is back up to external media. This could be a USB, USB2 or FireWire hard drive you buy, it could be a CD, or Read on… (plus 4 Comments)
Marketing Institute
Sep 19, 2004
One of the best uses of my time this year was the Graduate Marketing Association’s Marketing Institute. I’ll admit, I was pretty skeptical at first; the GMA has a reputation for being very CPG-oriented, and I’ve publicly declaimed my tech marketing orientation. Read on…
Fantasy Football Mania
Sep 15, 2004
While there are many important and pressing political issues and I’m a very political individual with a lot of political views, this blog is, most of all, about things that are important to me. And, right now, Fantasy Football is inappropriately important to me. Scary important to me. Like, I get antsy in class if I haven’t checked some more stats to see if there’s another reciever I should pick up since the ones I drafted suck or are holding out. This is why I only played fantasy football once before! This is why I wasn’t Read on…
I Am Napoleon Dynamite
Sep 11, 2004
I like big boots.
I do whatever I feel like I wanna do, gosh!
I sadly lack the appropriate comeback.
I make up outrageous stories. Especially about my loser summer vacation.
I’m pretty good with a bo staff. Wait, I’m not.
I have mad drawing skills.
I had a girlfriend but she didn’t live in town ya know right?
High school? Worst day of my life!
Liger = cool (jackalope = cooler, basselope Read on… (plus 10 Comments)
Accounting Fraud 101
Sep 10, 2004
One of the most famous accounting frauds ever perpetrated in the US is the Salad Oil Caper, which, surprisingly enough, has nothing to do with small, green berries. The story behind the caper is this: back in the ’60s, an Italian American-owned firm in Chicago looked to the then-well respected accountancy of Arthur Andersen to value and underwrite bonds that would be issued, backed by the 1.8 billion pounds of salad oil posessed by this firm. The Andersen auditors dropped by the storage facilities to confirm that the firm did, in fact, Read on… (plus 1 Comments)
Tricky Dick Cheney
Sep 8, 2004
So Dick Cheney said that if we elect Kerry we can expect the terrorists to blow something big up. I wonder how he knows?
But seriously, this is a major escalation in the war of words. It’s long been traditional for one candidate to suggest that he or she is more qualified than his or her opponent. This is a different statement: Cheney is saying that he and Bush are qualified, and that Kerry and Edwards are simply Read on…
Cleverbird.com
Sep 4, 2004
The very first domain name I bought was cleverbird.com. Back in ‘98 I was working on a sideline project with Alan, the guy I bought Junior from, to sell high-end bird toys online. Someone suggested the name Cleverbird, which fit perfectly. There was even a great logo. But I had other things to do and, soon enough, Alan took his own store online. Cleverbird sat still for a few years; especially after the cost of owning a domain name for a year fell under $10, there was no reason not to keep the domain around for when I might need it.
Read on…George W. Nixon
Sep 3, 2004
I heard a piece on NPR the other day in which a number of European commentators stated that they couldn’t understand how anybody would vote for Bush. After having seen his keynote speech last night, I have to say that I disagree with those commentators: I could absolutely see how somebody would vote for Bush. He talks about a lot of nice things, but in a very Republican way: he’s not afraid to make the Big Lies, and he’s not afraid to go back on whatever he says because he can tell the Big Lie later Read on…
Already Overcommitted
Sep 1, 2004
Some of my best memories from college come from times during which I was horribly overcomitted. Seeking to recapture these memories of my youth, I’m busy being way too busy at Marshall.
I’ve got, of course, the requisite 2 hours 40 minutes of class per day, with the requisite 2-3 hours of homework for each hour of class (I’ll do the math for you, this adds up to 7 hours of class + homework every day, at a minimum), mixers and lunches with fun people, time, of course, for my Read on… (plus 1 Comments)