Scott Adcox

Doing More With Less Since 1972

Author: Scott (Page 41 of 80)

I’m reading– May 24th through June 9th

June 13, 2011 / / 2 Comments

Make your secondary Google Voice number permanent – Perfect solution for a a reasonable price. I don’t want to give up my old number for old contacts, but only give out my Google Voice number for new contacts.

The 5 Switches of Manliness: Challenge – Part II of this series. Dead on so far.

Texas movie theater makes an example (and a PSA) of a texter – Awsum. This should be rinsed and repeated for pretty much every venue except for phone booths.

Millionaires versus The Aspirationals – I’ll see your $10 wine and raise you a light beer in a can.

TN columnist: No athletics for home-schooled kids – Public school services (classes, athletics, etc.) should be a la carte.

Desmos Interactive Education – Saw this from TechCruch Disrupt. Coupled with Kahn Academy…strong!

The 5 Switches of Manliness: Physicality – Hells yeah.

End Of The Food Pyramid

June 2, 2011 / / 2 Comments

The newly designed visual that tells us what we should be eating is going to be revealed today. That’s probably a good thing, since no one was paying to much attention to the Food Pyramid as the chart below shows.

Since Al Gore has taught us that correlation and causation are interchangeable, it makes sense to blame the jump in obesity starting in the early 80s on Atari. I’m not sure what George W. Bush was doing during that time, but there’s probably plenty of blame for him too.

Of course, the real reason for the jump in obesity is that people consume more calories than they burn. They don’t exercise and don’t pay attention to the food pyramid, or any other reasonable recommendations. You know, they’d rather just eat stuff like this.

It probably would have made more sense to ditch the Food Pyramid for a Food White Castle, Food Pizza Hut, or some other more modern structure that people do want to acknowledge.

Just brainstorming.

June 1, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Shrimp and grits inspired by a Throwdown–the best of both recipes. My boredom with food was temporarily paused. The Missus cooks good groceries.

Getting Ready To Bite On An E-Reader?

May 24, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I’ve been looking at (wanting) a Kindle for a while. But, I’m cheap. And I know the prices are going to keep dropping. Besides, it’s not like I haven’t been reading just because I don’t have a Kindle yet. I just keep having to go to the library, reserve books online, pay late fees, etc. Several things have happened recently that have me (almost) ready to buy, but the sum of these things makes me think I should wait it out just a little bit longer.

There’s speculation that Amazon is going to have two Android powered tablets out by Christmas for under $500. That means they’ll be motivated to empty out some of their lower end Kindles between now and then. They’ve already started to do so with the $114 6″ Kindle with ads for a screen saver.

This seems like the best choice for me…if I was going to buy yesterday. I’m really wanting the e-ink display instead of the LCD the tablets will have, and it doesn’t matter to me if it’s a touch screen or not. I just want something easy to look at with long batter life. Also, I don’t care if it’s 3G or not. I’m home most of the time, and I’m sure I can load it up with plenty of stuff to keep me entertained in the event I’m away for a few days, so Wi-Fi connection is fine with me. The screen size is actually perfect. I currently use the Kindle app on my phone, and my two biggest complaints with it are that the screen size is small and the display. A bigger screen would be nicer to look at, but the 6″ screen is about right for lugging around the house and holding without being cumbersome.

Barnes & Noble announced its own 6″ Nook today, priced exactly the same as the 6″ ad-free Kindle. It’s not a Nook color; it’s black and white e-ink. But unlike the Kindle, it’s running Android 2.1 and has a full touch screen. It also features a two month batter life. Sounds like a nice little device. It’ s not the one I want to buy though…I want to see what kind of pressure this puts on Amazon to lower their price even further, especially considering what they have coming later this year.

For the kicker, there was a rumor a while back that Amazon was considering giving a free Kindle to all of its Prime customers. That’s what I hope actually happens. I’m all about free. Now would seem like the perfect time. I could imagine one scenario where they do this sooner rather than later as a “reward” for existing Prime customers. Another possibility would be to not only give current Prime customers a free Kindle, but also send one out to new customers around October/November. This would be a great way to get rid of existing inventory while putting the device in the hands of people who don’t yet have one to entice them to request/purchase the newer devices as gifts. Wouldn’t hurt to entice people to try out Prime right around Christmas and have their gifts shipped (and purchased) through Amazon.

I think the end game here is control of the market itself. Readers are eventually going to be available for next to nothing either way.

Self Directed Effort, Google Music vs. iTunes, and…Bowling!

May 23, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Is bowling becoming too easy? – Yep. I just read an entire six page article on bowling. I didn’t know about 90% of the information here. Now I know.

Self directed effort is the best kind

Are you addicted to a taskmaster, to someone else’s to do list, to short term external rewards that sell your long-term plans short? If no one is watching, are you helpless, just a web surfing, time wasting couch potato? Who owns the extra work you do now that you’re being directed?

Apple Has Keys To The Cloud Music Kingdom – Agreed. The beauty of Lala was that it worked without uploading. Long term though, the labels are still doomed. They will only matter for older tracks; you know…the good stuff. Oh…wait…

How good is Google’s Instant Mix? – Just the fact that it has a “WTF Score” makes this worth skimming.

Libertarianism and Selfishness – It’s important to note that libertarianism != objectivism.

Reading of Excerpts at Tucson School Board Meeting – Please refrain from reading the profanity in the public school text books in school board meetings. KThanksBye.

Man Attempts To Swim The Atlantic. Fails.

May 13, 2011 / / 0 Comments

If you’re going to dream, dream big. Any idiot can run from the cops or get involved in a car chase with them. It takes a special person to attempt to swim from them.

“He just took off, and he got a good head start,” DeMorat said. “He was in a foot chase for a few blocks. Then he ran straight into the water.”

Usually, the mugshot section is the best feature on the FloridaToday website, but the stories behind the violations are pretty boring. Today the tables have turned.

Greatest Spits From The Last Few Days

May 10, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Google’s cloud music service. Request an invite to the beta. 20k tracks stored for free isn’t a bad place to start!

Shit My Students Write – Best new (to me) website I’ve run across in a while

Apple Trumps Google as Most Valuable Brand – Shocked Coca-Cola doesn’t trump both. The carbonate sugar water industry is much more stable than technology. Do you think it’s even within the realm of possibility that someone could knock KO from its perch? Can you say the same for Google and Apple?

Here’s my most successful tweet recently:

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/sadcox/statuses/67615378800513024″]

Celebration standout wins 100, 400 at 3A state track meet – My buddy Ryan’s little brother.

Online Poker Caused Osama Bin Laden’s Destruction? – A little out there, but you never know.

What’s high school for? – This is the best post on education I’ve ever read. Seriously.

Password Manager Last Pass Possibly Hacked – Let thy password algorithm reside only in thy head.

Long Overdue Link Dump

May 2, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I’ve been crazy busy with work for the past few weeks, and a lot has happened. Obviously, I haven’t been reading very much, but here’s a small sample.

An Outsider’s Guide to a Triathlon – Love Todd’s approach.

Justice is Not an Excuse for Jubilation – Pretty much how I feel about it all.

Gas Pump Activism – This. Is. Awsum.

Surprise! Woman finds 7-foot gator in bathroom – Had to read this just to make sure she didn’t find it in my bathroom. Of course, I’d be just as concerned about this woman wandering into the house as I would the gator.

Apocalypse later: what happens the day after we hit the debt ceiling – The horror. The horror.

Higher Education: The Next Asset Bubble? – If you consider college to be an investment, it’s reasonable to calculate your ROI before investing, right?

Social Media for Small Businesses: 6 Effective Strategies – Great tips here for one man shows!

Online Poker Legal Now (in D.C.) – I bet (haha) it won’t take long until this ripples out.

Running Like Epictetus

April 28, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Awesome post over on The Logic of Long Distance on stoic running.

Finally, and this point is probably hardest to grasp, you are responsible for you.  Not your shoes, not your watch, not anything else.  Those are tools, to be used with the requisite understanding, but they do not take away your responsibility to yourself.

I’d maybe even take this a step further. I think some of the best long distance running a fella can do takes place when there is no watch, HRM, or iPod involved at all. Just run and figure it out. Pay attention to what’s going on, and let what you’ve learned about yourself dictate what you are doing at that moment. Get rid of the gadgets that are telling you what you should be doing. Get rid of the external influences that may push you to do more than you should or hold you back from doing what you could. Instead, just do what you feel like you should do.

We’re talking about distance here, right? If you’re running any kind of distance it’s because you’ve worked up to it, so you should have learned something along the way. And you can  keep learning as you go.

I miss running long.

Great American Royal Weddings

April 27, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I’m so excited about this upcoming royal wedding. Really…seriously. I am. It just got me thinking about the great weddings in history of American Royalty.

Jesse Ventura’s commentary in the first video is classic:

  • “Do the rings go on fingers or in noses?”
  • “Looks like two carp in the Mississippi River going after the same piece of corn”


Uncle Elmer’s Wedding by TSteck160

And of course, who could forget this sequence that changed history and ushered in the McMahon/Helmsley era.

Wedding of Test & Stephanie McMahon by marshal99

If you didn’t get teary-eyed watching those two videos, I got two words for ya…

Ron Paul Running!

April 26, 2011 / / 2 Comments

Just like last time, I still think he has no chance of winning. But just like last time, he will have the ability to shift the debate towards more libertarian ideas.

The big difference this time around is that Gary Johnson is also running. So instead of being the only libertarian voice in the mainstream debate, there will now be two voices–one a little more extreme than the other. Just an idea here, but maybe Trump is to Palin as Paul is to Johnson.

I do think people are going to be paying more attention this time around when Ron Paul somehow finds a way to tie every single debate question back to the Federal Reserve. You have to give him credit for staying on message. But I think people may be more drawn to Gary Johnson. Not because he’s saying anything that much different than Ron Paul, but because of the way he says it.

Save Your Own Football Season!

April 23, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Remember paper football? It’s that game we played in middle school where we’d fold paper into a triangle and bump it back and forth across the table until part of the “ball” was over the edge of the table but not falling off. That game curbed much violence at lunch time.

Now you can get one of these table top kits and play for real…as real as paper football gets.  They even come with the logos of your favorite NFL teams. I know. What a shocker.

I know what you are thinking…”Can’t I just play with the paper football app on my iPhone?”, “What about the risk of paper cuts?”, “What if I’m not able to reach up to the fast food window to get my dinner because I’m sore from playing paper football?”

These are all legitimate concerns, but there’s no other way to get the thrill of paper football without throwing all caution to the wind and jumping into the game.

Possible uses:

  • Team building money at work purchases one for your office. You can run tournaments at lunch time.
  • Share the joys of paper football with your children. This way, you won’t have to go outside or move your body too much, but can still claim quality sports time.
  • Drinking game at what used to be a Super Bowl party. Loser has to do a shot when he gets scored on and has to stay at the table.
  • Perfect gift for someone who is committed to sitting in a chair every Sunday from August to December no matter what.

Don’t be surprised to find many athletes from the professional leagues turning to paper football to stay sharp during the lockout.

How To Remove Dead Christmas Palms

April 19, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Unusually cold winters here for the past two years have caused many a palm tree to perish. If you need to remove dead trees and replace them with something more cold hearty, I’ve built up some experience in the past couple of months, and there are two basic methods I’ve used.

Method 1 works best for single trees or small doubles/triples. Since the root ball on palms is relatively small and the soil they grow in is relatively soft, you shouldn’t have much trouble digging around the root ball and exposing the top part. It’s not too difficult to chop through the outer roots as you dig, and you’ll have the tree rocking back and forth in the hole in no time. There will be lots of dirt/sand attached to the root ball, so to make it lighter you can take a hose and blast as much soil off as you can. Test it out every now and then to see how heavy it is and if you can drag it out of the hole. I was able to do this by myself with some effort, but if you have someone to assist you it shouldn’t be too much trouble.

Method 2 works best for bigger trees or multiples. You’ll need the same basic tools as in Method 1, but you’ll additionally need a cooler with some beer in it. After following the directions I outlined above, you are going to realize that even if you get the whole root ball exposed and cleaned of soil, there’s no way you’ll ever be able to get it out of that giant hole on your own. Sit down and drink a couple of beers while you wonder what the hell you’ve gotten yourself into. While sitting there, look as pathetic and helpless as you can. It may take a while, but eventually one of your neighbors will drive by in an F-150 (or equivalent) and offer to come over with a heavy duty tow strap and yank it out of the hole for you. Make sure you offer him one of the beers out of the cooler.

Hope that helps. Bottom line–use the tools you have available to you. You’ll have more success if included in those tools are a mind that’s weak and a back that’s strong.

Personal Finance, Government Style

April 14, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Wait…let me get this straight. Using this approach, if a person is facing extreme debt with collectors calling, cars and houses on the verge of being repo’d and foreclosed, and maxed out credit cards, these are the steps they should take to fix the problem:

  1. Ask for higher limits on their cards
  2. Demand a raise from their employer (at gunpoint if necessary)
  3. Create a plan to spend the extra money from the raise and the newly available credit to raise their kids’ allowances, trade-in for a new car that gets better gas mileage (no need for cost analysis, right?), and buy some new clothes to interview for jobs that pay a much higher salary. They’ll get these interviews by leveraging the great references the current employer they just held up at gunpoint gave them.
Sounds like a solid plan.
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