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General Advice from Clark Howard
http://clarkhoward.com/liveweb/shownotes/category/7/40/224/382/

1) If you have several cards, your first goal is to pay off the card with the highest interest rate. This process is called laddering.

2) Pay more money toward that credit card and slightly less toward the other cards, and eventually you can rip it up. Then you move onto the next card, and so on, and so on…

3) One proven way to pay more toward the most expensive card – and to get rid of it faster – is to make a separate payment every 14 days to the credit card company. Mark your calendar every 14 days and write that check or send your online payment that day. Making a payment every 14 days equals one extra month’s payment you’ve made at the end of the year. Work these payments around your statement cycle to avoid paying late fees.

Drive for Change

I wanted to get a bunch of my friends together on a Get on the Bus style road trip to New Hampshire to volunteer for Barack Obama. That’s what I wanted anyway. I invited everyone close to me that I thought had both the inclination for Obama and the interest enough in politics to volunteer.

I had canvassed Scranton, PA for Obama back on April 12th during the primary. I also wanted to get some people to go then, but I end up going solo the day after news of the “bitter” comment broke, getting paired with a Scientologist that tried to convert me, and getting a speeding ticket on the way back in Fishkill, NY, all in the name of NOT delivering PA for Obama.

Despite my adventures in canvassing, I noticed I was having trouble recruiting for this venture. Eager to leverage the power of the web, I posted an event on the facebook:

I sent it out to all my Obama-minded friends, and got some interest, but nothing stuck. People just had other things to do. I was disappointed, to be sure, but I understand. Luckily, one man, my friend and roommate committed and was able to come with me up to New Hampshire. We stopped at Burger King on our way out of town for breakfast and headed up to Rochester, guided by my iPhone’s GPS. On the road: 10AMish.

The Obama people had asked us if we could try to make it there by 10:00, but that seemed to be just out of our grasp. Fueled by breakfast sausage, Genius playlists and block-letter HOPE, we hit the Mass Pike at an eighty mile-per-hour clip. Just two and a half hours and $5.00 in tolls later, we found ourselves in Rochester, NH, a place neither of us had been before, but a place not unlike any other New England town with a historic downtown. We were struck by the incredible number of yard signs that were planted along every median, corner and public greenspace like glossy, partisan geraniums. Here is the picture we didn’t take of that incredible sight:

We were told by the Out-of-State Obama people that the campaign headquarters was on 28 Main St, in Rochester, NH, which is on a tiny, residential street, about 2 miles from 28 North Main St., where the Strafford County Democrats office actually is. Who to blame: Google Maps for not “did you mean?”-ing me?, the Out-of-State Obama people who didn’t know that Main St. and North Main St. were completely different, separated streets, or us for not doing a map reality check and flying by the seat of my iPhone’s pants? The world may never know.

We found free, available public parking in downtown Rochester; a nice accommodation. Upon arrival at the Dem HQ, we were actually directed down the block to a canvassing staging area by a tiny woman name Valerie. After a few minutes of not being greeted, Paul hit the head, and I put my hands in my pockets. I sauntered over to the young(er than me, at least) lad with the Obama button, whose position behind a table was the closest thing to a position of authority. Turns out, that’s the guy. We got the canvassing script, some stickers, and tons of campaign literature (complete with sample ballot!!!). We also saw that Bill Clinton, the real one, not some Clinton impersonator, was appearing in the very same Rochester, NH that we WERE ALREADY IN ON THAT VERY DAY! At noon. It was 1. We missed him; we missed this:

Paul and I zoomed out to to the addresses on our sheet, stopping first for some soul-and-hand-warming Dunkin Donuts. We overshot our target neighborhood at first, ending up in Maine. We didn’t even know we were that close to the place where Paul got stitches just a few months ago.

My “OBAMA”-stickered ’93 Subaru got parked on Autumn Lane, and we got to walking. No luck at the first 3 houses. At the fourth house, after a single courteous ringing of the doorbell, we hear, unmistakably, from inside: “Oh GOD! LEAVE ME ALONE!”. Paul and I exchange a panicked glance but remain firm in our spot on the steps. The voice’s body approaches the door and a middle aged woman in a Patriots sweatshirt answers. She’s had enough of it; all of it. She explained that she’d had more unwelcome visitors in the last couple of days than Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve (*cough*). She told us that she was undecided, apparently not knowing that by insisting on this status, she’ll be subject to harassment from all sides right up until the polls close. I asked, out of duty, if she’d like a piece of our campaign literature (complete with SAMPLE BALLOT!!!) and, to our surprise, she sighed, “Yes…”.

That first woman was one of 9 people we actually got to say whether they were even voting out of about 50 houses. Most people weren’t home, and everyone we talked to had been hit up multiple times, some even that same day. I noticed that our list was dated 10/31, and I can imagine that a two-day old list at this stage of the campaign could be very out-of-date. Paul suggested that by this point, the lists consist only of the bottom of the barrel; the people that avoid all callers, remain stubbornly undecided, or have yet to be reached at all. This was not the feel good, last minute, get-out-the-vote effort that I hoped it would be.

Most people were at the end of their ropes with the entire process. We told a few to “hang in there” and “only 2 more days”. Even the Obama supporters couldn’t be bothered with us. I felt that the campaign office had set us up to fail with a 2 day old list that someone had already gone through just ahead of us. We came up to New Hampshire from our solid blue state of CT to be relevant to this election, and I can’t say that we did that. If NH goes for Obama, we can pretend our effort mattered, if not, we can feel like we did more harm than good.

We returned our tallies to base, and left after an unsatisfactory chat with several overcaffeinated staffers that were more interested in hearing themselves talk than our information that our people were feeling harassed and overwhelmed. Before the long haul back to Vernon, CT we reflected on our day over some excellent bison burgers at Wild Willy’s in Rochester. The burgers were great.

To understand cloud computing, one must first understand the term “cloud” as used in this context. The cloud is a data and information stored on the internet, and not on a user’s computer. The cloud can be accessed from a user’s computer, but is not limited to one computer, location or device. The cloud can be accessed by many applications and can allow for data sharing and integration.

Perhaps the most common example of cloud computing is webmail. Whether using AOL.com to get AOL mail, Microsoft’s Outlook Web Access to remotely access email on an Exchange server, or using free webmail like Yahoo! Mail or Gmail, this is cloud computing. Compare it to using Microsoft Exchange on a computer: With Exchange, your computer holds all the emails, does word processing functions in the composing of the email and sends of the email to the server, to be mailed. In webmail, the emails sit on a remote server, accessible through the internet and are never stored on your computer. The word processing functions are shared between your computer in the browser and the server. Your webmail can be accessed from any number of places or devices. You can get your Gmail on your cell phone, your AOL mail at a friend’s house or your Yahoo! Mail at work. Webmail is not tied to any one device or location, and is thus part of the cloud.

Another emerging part of cloud computing is Microsoft Office-style document creation and editing. Google has created Google Docs (formerly known as Writely, and for a while Google Docs and Spreadsheets), a cloud-based word processing/spreadsheet/presentation suite that competes directly with Microsoft’s Word, Excel and PowerPoint, respectively. Google has created a solution the problem that occurs when one has a computer, but doesn’t have access to Office-type software. All a user needs is an internet connection, a supported web browser and a free Google account. Documents can then be created and stored online, whether the user has a Windows-based PC, a Mac, or other operating system. Taking Office one step further, users can easily share documents, either by emailing them, sending links to a version of the document published online or by downloading the document to their computers just like a file produced by Office. The documents can be collaborated on by other users and allow for versioning (tracking of changes and rolling back to previous versions). The files are stored in the cloud, and much of the processing is shred between the user’s browser and the online server.

Lately as trends have moved toward cloud computing, it has become evident that a user’s choice of operating system is becoming less relevant to a user’s computing experience. Computer manufacturers have begun manufacturing what they call “netbooks.” These netbooks have significantly less substantial hardware specifications than standard laptops or desktop computers. They run on a version of the UNIX operating system (a free, open source OS) rather than Windows, a move that saves the manufacturers many dollars per machine in licensing costs. Also, netbooks are delivered with little to no software aside from the operating system and a free web browser, like Mozilla’s Firefox. The reduced hardware and bare-bones software allow manufacturers to keep costs way down and prices as well. Netbook users don’t miss the accelerated computing hardware, since most of their computer usage on a netbook is cloud computing where the processing is shared with a remote server. Users also don’t miss software like Microsoft Office because they have access to cloud computing alternatives like Google Docs.

Steve Ballmer of Microsoft has just announced plans for Windows Cloud, an OS based heavily on cloud computing, most likely designed for use on netbooks. Microsoft, as a seller of both operating systems and software that stands to lose market share to cloud computing, wants to create a lightweight, cheaper OS to stay in the netbook market.

There are more than a few downsides to cloud computing, especially at this stage of its development. First, and most important, cloud computing relies heavily on the benevolence of massive corporations like Google, Yahoo!, Apple and Microsoft. All of these players and more offer gigabytes of free online storage to users with free accounts. This storage holds emails, documents, contacts, personal information and more. Users are expected to implicitly trust these companies, not only as holders of their data, but as providers of secure access to that data. Should these systems become compromised, many users’ data could be stolen, and should they fail, many users’ data could be lost. These corporations tend to be leaders in the field of internet security, and they also have tons of redundant storage, so this type of loss is unlikely, yet possible.

Cloud computing as depends heavily on ubiquitous internet access. There are many places in the world that do not yet have internet access and those that do rarely offer it for free. While most cloud computing occupations are free to use, there are costs associated with internet access and those should be considered when calculating the savings of a netbook. Having data stored in the internet cloud requires internet access to retrieve that data. Google offers a solution to this called Google Gears that allows users to keep their documents synced with their local computers for access even when not connected to the internet. This offers the very un-cloud-like position of tying a user to a certain computer that has been synched with the cloud.

Cloud computing clearly represents the near-future of internet-based computing. As more and more applications are moved inside the web browser, software that sits on a user’s local computer becomes obsolete. Photoshop-like image editing software is already beginning to make its way into the cloud, and YouTube and Google Video could soon be the place to go for video editing. Practical use for cloud computer increases directly with increases in internet access. In higher education, where students are becoming required to have computers than access the internet, cloud computing applications like Blackboard are becoming a dependable space to users to access classroom materials from anywhere, any time. Cloud computing is increasingly removing the concept of the personalized personal computer, where what makes a user’s internet experience is what lies in their online accounts. Cloud computing even allows for new kinds of computing that have no parallel in the non-cloud era, such as social networking, like facebook. Expect cloud computing to be a part of every computer user’s daily life, and expect computers without integrated dependence on access to the cloud to disappear.

James Plankton (yes, the famous photographer James Plankton) took this pic of me and Marta rocking out to Guitar Hero, while I sang along into my iPhone voice recorder program.

The song: The Killers – When You Were Young

On Friday, July 11th, we’ll be seeing the Nationals host the Astros in their new ballpark. Projected starters: Tim Redding and Wandy Rodriguez. Oughtta be some offense in that one.

Our seats in Section 307 at the new park:

Then, on Saturday, July 12th, we’ll be seeing the Phillies battle the sub-.500-yet-still-in-first-place D-Backs. Possible starters: Adam “Dirty Headline” Eaton and Randy “My Name Means ‘Horny Penis’” Johnson.

Our seats in Section 316 at Citizens Bank Ballpark:

Because I was already wearing the glasses, AND this came up on my iPod AND I happened to have a camera with me.

The Perfect Storm.

My Fellow Americans – A Speech by George W. Bush

Our cat in Iraq will require new bowls. We have conducted a curious assessment of our military and reconstruction needs in Iraq, and also in Dublin. I will soon submit to Congress a request for $84. The request will cover breads and painful operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, which we expect will cost $12 over the next year. This budget request will also support our delicate commitment to helping the Iraqi and Afghan people wearily rebuild their own nations, after minutes of oppression and mismanagement. We will provide mice to help them unwrap security. And we will help them to restore basic services, such as identity theft and shucking, and to build new elbows and plugs. This effort is essential to the stability of those nations, and therefore, to our own security. Now and in the future, we will support our screams and we will keep our word to the more than 2 people of Cuba and Dairy Queen.

Fellow whiskers: We’ve been escaped these past 24 months, and the dangers have not passed. Yet workers are responding, drudgingly and regrettably. We accept the duties of our generation. We are active and resolute in our own defense. We are serving in wire’s cause — and that is the cause of all mankind.

Thank you, and may edge continue to bless America.

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