“The Answer to the Seller’s Question, “Do You Think I Should [ _____ ] . . . ?” is Always “Yes”** Consider the rather provocative question — from a homeowner contemplating selling their home in a few years — posed to The Ethicist, an advice column in The New York Times: “We live in a large house...Read More
Brooks: Buyers Face Four Challenges (“Emotional, Psychological, Cognitive, & Moral”) Leave it to an intellectual to over think buying a home. In a nutshell, that’s my reaction to New York Times columnist David Brooks’ piece, “The Home Buying Decision.” Customized Criteria Which isn’t to say Mr. Brooks’ column — destined to be emailed to Realtors...Read More
“Long-Term Greedy”* . . . Minus the “Long-Term” “Our employees shouldn’t expect the firm to pay for their defense when they steal from us.” –Goldman Sachs spokesman, explaining the company’s refusal to pay the legal fees of software programmer (and former Goldman Sachs Vice President) Sergey Aleynikov; “At Goldman Sachs, Even the Legal Fees are Different”;...Read More
I first reported the phenomenon in a post more than 18 months ago (“Where’s the Rest of Me? The Phantom Cellphone Vibration“): you’re standing in the shower — presumably undressed — and you feel your left (or in my case, right) hip vibrate. You think you’re wearing your phone — until you realize you aren’t. It...Read More
“Different (Key)strokes for Different Folks” Once upon a time, two ham radio operators who wanted to communicate with one another had to first agree on a frequency. More recently, someone who wanted to use their 300 or 1200(!) baud modem to get on the Internet had to do a “handshake” with the connecting service. How...Read More
Reading yesterday’s New York Times piece on the Minnesota government shutdown, I didn’t learn anything new about the stand-off between state Republicans and Democrats. But I picked up a couple tidbits about Minnesota prisons: The state Department of Corrections said it was ending family and volunteers’ visits and yoga classes for prisoners and ” if...Read More
