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Gary Secondino's Weblog
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Thursday, May 30, 2002
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Well what do you make of that? Hehe. Yesterday I commented that I liked John Robb's essay on the New Economy and I wanted more. Today on John's weblog is a second essay titled The New Economy II. I'm sure he didn't write it for me but it's good so I'll just say, thanks John.
 1:49:39 PM Google It! comment
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In April the S.F. Bay Area the median home price, was estimated at $530,000, up from slightly more than $507,000 in March and by far the highest in the country.
The area in the country with the biggest increase in home prices was Long Island, where the median price rose up 26.5 percent from a year before.
J.R. comments "This data answers the question: where are people going to put their money now that the stock market is in the tank (and is likely to stay there)? A quick look at the data indicates that a 5-7% sustainable increase is possible, given current wage growth, inflation, and interest rates. This may become the vehicle for a broad-based retirement plan for the nearly 70% of the workforce that own homes."
1:48:10 PM Google It! comment
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Last evening I watched a special report from Tom Brokaw about the high prices of brand name drugs in the US. I kept thinking, thank God I'm healthy. The drug companies are reaping huge amounts of profit from US citizens. On the surface, it's a capitalist society so where is the problem? That question along with a smarmy attitude was projected by some of the industry people interviewed. I think it's different in this circumstance as people often aren't given a choice. Why? Because the companies make superfluous small changes to existing drugs and re-patenting them over and over creating a very effective monopoly. The industry only talks about huge amounts of research dollars it spends (prove it) yet the US Government annually spends Billions of tax payers dollars on drug research which directly benefits the drug manufacturers. The drug companies need to change their ways and bring the retail prices down. All it will take is one company to turn this around. That company will gain the moral high ground and subsequent increased market share that goes with it.
I found another report on high prescription drug prices in the US here.
The AARP is joining a law suit against drug manufacturers saying the companies kept prices artificially high and thwarted competition from lower-priced generic drugs in violation of federal antitrust laws. If it turns out that in the US there is a drug manufacturing and distribution cartel then they deserve to be punished. Not the companies, the people who run the companies need the punishment. Read the story.
6:20:56 AM Google It! comment
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Wednesday, May 29, 2002
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John Robb writes about The New Economy in a guest Davenet. I like what he says but I want more. I keep going back to one of my touchstones. This interview with Peter Drucker keeps proving to me over and over what a true sage this man is.
6:15:07 PM Google It! comment
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After dropping 11 percent last year, the Internet ad industry is showing signs of strength again. As brands return to the Web, they're finding a vastly different landscape and a whole new set of rules.
Business 2.0
6:06:33 PM Google It! comment
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Together Spam and Virus emails make using email a most unpleasant experience. I'm honestly thinking of completely abandoning receiving email.
The percent of wanted email coming in has been steadily decreasing compared to unknown/unwanted email.
I have filters set up but I begrudge the time it takes away from other activities.
Keeping it simple has been my motto for a long time. It seems like adding more technology to alleviate this problem is a no win move. What do I lose by closing my inbox?
"Klez.H" is the most pervasive e-mail virus in cyberhistory
3:02:29 PM Google It! comment
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The New York state attorney general's office filed suit against bulk e-mailer MonsterHut Inc. yesterday, alleging that the company spammed consumers with 500 million e-mails and falsely claimed that consumers asked to receive those messages.
Computerworld
2:50:47 PM Google It! comment
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This old information just now being released (that's another story) should make Bush and his cronies happy. I don't see the problem changing anytime soon. What a time and money waste.
1:40:07 PM Google It! comment
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Wednesday, May 8, 2002
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On Dec. 20, 2001, a study by Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies showed that Massachusetts lost jobs at a faster pace in 2001 than almost any other state. High-tech positions paying above $78,000 suffered the most from cutbacks. The number of unemployed in Massachusetts rose 83.1 percent compared to December through October of 2000. The jump resulted in more than 140,000 unemployed. At the same time, Fleet Boston Financial Corp. announced it was cutting 700 additonal jobs, bringing total job cuts at the company to 1,750 since March of 2001.
10:20:12 AM Google It! comment
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Tuesday, May 7, 2002
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"Please join me in a moment of silence as we remember an old friend -- Mac OS 9,"
5:53:04 PM Google It! comment
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Survey: Opt-Out Is a Cop-Out. The public has plenty of complaints about a recently enacted law that requires customers to opt out to prevent financial institutions from sharing their data. But banks defend the new rules. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
iSay - This is news to me. Now I have to take action to stop distribution of my information. The BASTARDS! When I find who voted for this law you can be sure they will not get my vote. !@#$% assholes.
5:48:21 PM Google It! comment
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Monday, May 6, 2002
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A developing thread on slashdot:
brendano writes "I've been doing some research into the fascinating world of community networks and websites -- online places that can inform and connect people of a real-life community. They typically provide news, discussion forums, and email for local residents. There are some quite successful ones (such as the nonprofit Seattle Community Network or the Blacksburg Electronic Village), but also also ghost town-like failures that show how hard it is to get a community network/website rolling.
2:22:11 PM Google It! comment
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John Robb has a good idea on community reporting and communication using Radio. It also sells a lot of Radio licenses.
2:08:01 PM Google It! comment
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Friday, May 3, 2002
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According to this document the March unemployment rate in Massachusetts is 4.8% or 158,900 people. If true then Mass. is below the national average. I've not been able to find what the marging of error is or how the state derives its numbers. An out of work friend called today and said the Mass unemployment numbers really are 9.7% according to a DETMA employee. That would mean closer to 317,900 people are out of work in Mass.
At the bottom of this DETMA News Release we find a note:
NOTE: Effective with the release of the March 2002 estimates, the historical Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) series has been revised for calendar year 1999 The local area unemployment statistics for April will be released on Tuesday, May 21, 2002 (See 1/18/02 Media Advisory, annual schedule, for complete listing of release dates.) Detailed labor market information is available at DET[base ']s website: www.detma.org. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics cautions that a new methodology used in the 2001 benchmarking process resulted in a discontinuity between the December 2001 and January 2002 estimates. For Massachusetts the artifact of this methodology has caused an obvious discontinuity between the December 2001 and January 2002 raw totals in the estimated number of people in the Massachusetts labor force
6:04:46 PM Google It! comment
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The US Employment Situation
The unemployment rate rose to 6.0 percent in April, and payroll employment was little changed (+43,000), the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Employment rose in the services industry but fell in construction. Job losses in manufacturing continued to moderate.
Unemployment (Household Survey Data)
In April, the number of unemployed persons rose by 483,000 to 8.6 million, after seasonal adjustment. The unemployment rate increased by 0.3 percentage point to 6.0 percent. Since its recent low of 3.9 percent in October 2000, the jobless rate has increased by 2.1 percentage points, and the number of unemployed persons has risen by 3.1 million.
The unemployment rate for adult women rose by 0.4 percentage point over the month, and the rate for adult men edged up. Both rates were 5.4 percent in April. The jobless rate for whites increased by 0.3 percentage point to 5.3 percent. The jobless rates of the other major worker groups--teenagers (16.8 percent), blacks (11.2 percent), and Hispanics (7.9 percent)--showed little change in April.
The number of persons unemployed for 27 weeks and over rose by 161,000 in April. This measure has more than doubled since it began trending upward a year and a half ago.
Reliability of the estimates
Statistics based on the household and establishment surveys are subject to both sampling and nonsampling error. When a sample rather than the entire population is surveyed, there is a chance that the sample estimates may differ from the "true" population values they represent.
For example, the confidence interval for the monthly change in total employment from the household survey is on the order of plus or minus 292,000. (ARGG!)
The US BLS Employment Situation Table Of Contents
A text file of the entire report is available via FTP here
A PDF file of the entire report is available here
2:52:04 PM Google It! comment
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Thursday, May 2, 2002
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A retired Roman Catholic priest at the heart of a sex abuse scandal has been arrested in San Diego, CA, and new pedophile priest allegations emerge in Hong Kong.
BBC News: world
2:19:16 PM Google It! comment
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Wednesday, May 1, 2002
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Autobytel Inc. signed a marketing/fulfillment deal with automotive classified ad marketplace AutoTrader.com.
The deal means that AutoTrader.com's new car shoppers will have the option to request competitive, no-haggle prices through Irvine, Calif.-based Autobytel's Autoweb.com dealer network.
12:21:55 PM Google It! comment
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Online classifieds might not be the most glamorous segment of Internet advertising, but the sector is poised to be one of the engines of growth in a rebounding market, according to a new study by Jupiter Media Metrix .
According to the New York-based researcher, spending on online classified advertising grew 38 percent from 2001, rising to $1.2 billion this year. By 2007, that figure will almost double to $2.3 billion -- making it the Web ad industry's fastest-growing segment.
Jupiter attributes much of this growth to marketers' increasing shift of offline ad dollars to the Internet -- as illustrated by the 15 percent drop in traditional classified spending from 2001 to 2002.
11:49:12 AM Google It! comment
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Some Internet users have recently received an e-mail message from a dead friend. Others have been subscribed to obscure mailing lists. Some have lost their Internet access after being accused of spamming, and still others have received e-mailed pornography from a priest.
Wired
11:05:17 AM Google It! comment
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The completely out of touch with reality Catholic Cardinal Law and his equally clueless attorneys have submitted papers to the court which claim that a six year old boy molestation victim and his parents ''negligence'' contributed to the alleged abuse.
I haven't said anything to this point but this claim tips the scale and I will not be silent any more. The Catholic church, their attorneys, and Cardinal Law are all wrong. There is no escaping that these children are the victims of preditory pedophiles. Cardinal Law and the "we are above human law" attitude is part of the problem. I'm convinced that Cardinal Law must be dismissed as a start. The Catholic clergy must be held accountable to the law of the land as a next step. The parishoners must have a much larger voice in the American Catholic Church for another step. Free advice, take it or leave it.
10:36:39 AM Google It! comment
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Looking to see if the image links have moved back to the default. (Not Webstir.com)
8:22:01 AM Google It! comment
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