Category — Uncategorized

A friend sent me a link to this article in Popular Mechanics on network neutrality. For anyone who uses the internet (probably all of you since you’re reading this online) net neutrality is an important topic to pay attention to. What net neutrality boils down to is whether a cable provider has the right to control the bandwidth you pay for, and control your actions online.

From the article:

Stepping back, underlying the issue of net neutrality is a more fundamental policy question: Is Internet service a public utility? If the answer is yes, then many people would assume that it should be subject to robust yet flexible regulation on par with what exists for water, natural gas, telephone and electrical service.

I tend to agree with the idea that internet service is a public utility versus a luxury good. Over the past decade internet use has become a standard way to access bank accounts, search for information, and find news. Many politicians believe in an “ownership society” where the average American invests for themselves or finds information on healthcare themselves. The internet is by far the easiest, quickest, and most efficient means for people to do this. Add to that the difficulty for many to switch internet providers and you have an example of a natural monopoly, which is a classic case of when government intervention is necessary.

If it came down to a company managing your bandwidth, would it be unreasonable for them to manage what websites you visit? Here is another possibility:

If internet providers are given the leeway to control how bandwidth is distributed, could certain companies pay to have there websites given special treatment? If you want to use higher bandwidth services such as youtube, would you have to pay for it? I realize this is a bit of a landslide argument, but given today’s financial problems I think it’s wrong to assume that companies will do what’s best for everyone.

This is something that everyone should pay attention to, and vote accordingly. The article in Popular Mechanics is a good place to start reading. Wikipedia has a good article on net neutrality if you’re interested in reading more. As always if you have something to add, leave a comment!

While Netflix has been offering watch instantly movies for a while now, I have noticed that they are offering many television shows, most noticeably Heroes Season 3, on the watch instantly feature. It seems that any show on NBC or CBS is offered the day after it airs. This is very cool for people like us who don’t pay for cable but still like to get a lazy television fix in every now and then. It also helps that I have an old PC hooked up to our television.

Turning off the cable television is a great way to save money, and this is one more tool to help occupy your free time when you want to be lazy.

So I realize many of you probably hate me already for starting off this post by saying that high prices are a good thing, but hear me out for a second.

Think about the benefits of higher prices. High prices cause people to rethink there commute, either by carpooling or taking public transportation. Less people driving means less slow moving traffic, less chance of an accident, and less pollution.

It also means we are more likely to see innovation in the automotive world. The internal combustion engine has been around for 100 years, and it’s time we find something better and more efficient. Electricity comes to mind as an obvious choice as ethanol was simply a terrible idea. Wired magazine’s feature article lays out Shai Agassi’s electric car plans, something that I think could help build momentum for the electric motor. Basically he is going to start the battery and electric supply business so that the car manufactures can simply build cars. Could it work? I hope so.

One year ago Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics, wrote that the gas tax should be increased. I would be curious to know if he still feels that way. While I don’t enjoy spending an ever increasing amount of money on gasoline, I do realize that oil consumption and peak oil are something we need to take very seriously. So many things come from petroleum, it’s almost stupid to waste it on driving when there are alternatives available.

Next time you’re at the pump, wincing in pain as the price on the pump goes up and up, try to look on the bright side. And maybe hope that changes come around soon.

So Diebold has finally admitted that their machines are faulty and have had problems losing votes for 10 years. Why is this not raising a ton of red flags around the country? In a country founded on democracy and voting I don’t understand why people are not up in arms about this.

Thanks to Wise Bread for pointing me towards the Engadget link.

Postings on this blog have been slow lately due to a lack of motivation, writer’s block, and being caught up with other things. For the most part our finances have been on autopilot thanks to automatic bill payments. But due to an unfortunate turn of events (that we saw coming) my wife is now unemployed. In about a week she should receive her last paycheck, and we will be a one income family in the not-so-cheap San Francisco Bay Area.

Are we worried?

Not really. For the past year and a half or so we have been slowly changing the way we live and the way we view money. We no longer lust after fancy cars or go shopping at the mall when we’re bored. We have much better control over our spending. We still have money leaks to shore up, but overall we’re in much better shape than we were at the start of this project.

For our debt reduction goals, we will pay off my wife’s credit card and her student loan with her last paycheck. I balance transferred a majority of my credit card balance onto a 0% card, and the remaining amount will be paid off by the end of September as well. We will have paid off a little over twenty four thousand dollars by the end of the month. It’s a little crazy thinking about that and what we could have done with that money if we didn’t have to pay off past expenses. But, we put ourselves into this situation, and now we’re working our way out. On the bright side I feel like we will be much better off in the long run for going through this experience. The things we value have changed greatly, and the way we spend money in the future will be changed greatly thanks to what we’re going through now.

Even though we are going down to one income we shouldn’t have too much of a problem with our expenses. We should still be able to keep up with paying down our debt, although it will go much more slowly than it has in the past. If everything goes well, we will be able to pay my student loan off by the end of the year, which leaves us with one credit card balance at 0% interest, not too bad. The major area we need to work on is our budgeting, especially for food. I will have to get some ideas on budgeting for a future post.

So that’s where we are. I will try to get on here more often since writing is free, and free entertainment is good.

I read an interesting article yesterday regarding password security. It’s worth taking a look at. I’m not sure if this is something that everyone should be worried about, but it does raise some concern over what information you allow to be available over the internet.

Courtesy of http://cagle.com/

I didn’t want to go an entire week without posting something, so I thought I would provide a little entertainment with a personal finance twist.

Here is the video for Cake’s song “Rock ‘n Roll Lifestyle”

The video is a little weird, but I love the song. And just remember “Excess ain’t rebellion.”Rock on.

There is an article at NBC5 in Dallas, Texas about a man who retrofitted a used car bought from a junkyard with an electric motor. The car cost $4,750 to build, including the car itself and the electric motor. It gets 300 miles per charge and only costs $7 to charge. Not bad.

It really makes you wonder why our government is pushing crap fuels like ethanol, or grilling the oil industry on high prices instead of subsidizing production of electric cars and pushing for a true solution to the problem. If some dude in Texas can build a decent car in his garage out of spare parts don’t you think Honda or Ford could build something awesome?

I watched a movie a while back called ‘Who Killed The Electric Car’ about the history of GM’s electric car the EV1. The basic premise was there was not enough profit to make the electric car, and that diversions like ethanol and hybrid cars kept the status quo alive for everyone who profits from oil sales.

Here is the movie, courtesy of google:

If you have an hour and a half to spare it’s a pretty interesting documentary. Mel Gibson is even featured in the movie as a former EV1 owner. If you’re short on time you can jump to the end to find the conclusions on why electric cars are no longer around.

I remember when I lived in San Diego there was a target near our apartment that had designated electric car parking complete with recharging stations. Too bad electric cars don’t actually exist other than home brew cars and boutique cars like the Tesla. Maybe one day people will make the choices necessary to really bring about change. Until then I don’t think fuel prices are going lower.

This is just a quick post for my friends from the Marine Corps.

The Consumerist has a post up regarding Progressive Auto Insurance and veterans. They point out that Progressive might be charging higher rates to veterans based on recent military service. I assume that they wouldn’t mind charging higher rates for active military members as well.

Just something to look out for if you have insurance with Progressive, or are thinking about getting insurance with them. Also don’t forget that you can cancel your insurance and switch companies at anytime, you are never locked in.