My Lucky Pen

Moving Blog

2011-01-10T21:56:00.000-08:00

I'm going to try using myluckypen.tumblr.com to blog. Bookmark Me...

California to withhold a bigger chunk of paychecks -- latimes.com

2009-11-03T15:53:00.001-08:00

Take a look at your paycheck ... it will likely be 10% smaller if you live in California. Call it an interest-free loan on your earnings or an acceleration on tax collections. Either way, it just doesn't seem legit ...

California to withhold a bigger chunk of paychecks -- latimes.com

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Google Wave

2009-07-31T16:10:00.000-07:00

An abridged version of the presentation from Google I/O. I attended the conference but missed this part.

I'm still not sure what I think about using Wave's (perhaps I just like email and IM the way they are). Take a look at what my be the next generation of communication on the internet.

Back from Vacation

2009-07-28T12:00:00.001-07:00

Back from vacation and I'll be blogging later this week. Here's a little something from Donald Duck's vacation.

Get A Job!

2009-07-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

It's inevitable in this economy.

The weekly layoffs, the constant uncertainty, the building pressures everyone now feels in this recessive economy. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment this year has reached a staggering 9.7%. In relation, unemployment in 2009 has surpassed the 9.0% rate in 1975 and is now only eclipsed by the 10.8% rate in 1982. What's worse is that the trend continues to climb and economic analysts state that we may not see consistent employing anytime in the near future.

It hits close to home too. We all have friends, family and colleagues who have discussed their employment woes with you. Some have lost their job, others have survived layoffs only to be subjected to "layoff survivor sickness" characterized by depression, fear, anxiety and loss of motivation. Whether you've been in these situations or not, we've all been within earshot of the next unemployment story. This day and age, it's more of a norm than an exception.

But there's still hope. What can we do to combat the tireless business battle between the labor market and self preservation? Here's a few ways.

Target Industry Growth Opportunities
While many businesses are cutting costs and shedding employees, there are still industries that are looking for labor in a market chock-full of supply. Jack Welch said "The team with the best players wins" and in a market saturated with labor, businesses have a great opportunity to select prime players who can give their companies greater competitive advantages. So where are these industrial growth areas? Take a look at the Ameriprise financial article Where the jobs are: Opportunities for everyone to get some perspective on where you may land your next opportunity.

21st Century Marketing
The cold call interview or résumé in the mail is so 20th century. In this day, the Internet is king, providing many new avenues of promoting yourself to the world. One new avenue on the web is VisualCV.com, a service that provides résumé building tools with a rich splash of 21st century on your traditional résumé. The site is full of media options like pictures and video to complement your work experiences which give prospective employers a fuller perspective of who they are investing in. Want to see some examples? Why not check out the Presidents VisualCV to get some ideas of the service in action.

Band Together
Online social networking is nothing new to today's technophiles. Yet traditional workplace norms and cultural stigmas have held pre-Gen Y'ers back from socializing on the web. To get into the mainstream, LinkedIn.com provides a services that allow you to stay networked with your colleagues regardless of your working status. Once you've started using the service, you can stay connected with them while searching for career opportunities that are targeted to your work experience.

Banding together on LinkedIn isn't just about networking with people, but increasingly about referring and recommending them as well. Take some time to recommend your colleagues by posting a short blurb about your involved experiences. Also, ask them to return the favor by writing a recommendation for you on your profile. These short statements about you can go a long way when interested employers find and read through your profile.

One Last Measurement
An economic trend that I've always found interesting is the negative correlation between civilian unemployment and military recruiting rates. The basic trend shows that as civilian unemployment rises (or people lose their job) that the military recruiting rate increases. For example, in the 80's when the US unemployment was high (yikes! almost 11%), military manpower remained at constant, high levels. Then in the 90's during the dot com boom, military enlistments dramatically decreased (with exception to the Marine Corps) and civilian employment increased (or unemployment decreased) as people instead went to into the civilian workforce.

It's not too surprising to understand why. In the military, servicemen and servicewomen enjoy high levels of job security, and earn free family healthcare and housing. In fact, there are relatively no other jobs this day and age that provide that type of economic stability. Today, what makes the trend more interesting is that while the US is busy fighting two wars, the recruiting levels continues to increase which, is instead, a positive correlation between the two factors.

What this means is that although there is potential and inherit dangers by enlisting in the military, the current recession motivates people to a greater extent to enlist than in a normalized economy. In fact, military recruiting today continues to thrive in the weak economy and as a result fosters a civilian/military business employment cycle that can be forecasted with relative certainty.

An interesting trend indeed.

Until next time.

Celebs' Favorite Places on Google Maps

2009-07-15T23:29:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting on SFGate.com yesterday where Google has enhanced their mapping service to display celebrities favorite destination spots around the world. Gavin Newson presented his favorite spots as part of the rollout of Google's new project and selected a handful of places in San Francisco (his pin resembles the Golden Gate bridge) to display. This new service is designed to target businesses to increase interest in their products by soliciting celebrity "endorsements" of sorts.

Some other interesting celebs who took part in the project were former Vice President Al Gore who likes to hang in the Maldives, an island off the coast of India. Among places, professional skateboarder Tony Hawk likes to go Alyeska, noted as the "best" heli-skiing destination in the world. Tony even spent time with Google to record video of his favorite places and can be watched on the map itself. Kerri Walsh, the professional Volleyball player (and former Archbishop Mitty Alum) has many places in the USA she likes, but also likes the Hanalei Surf Board House in Hawaii.

Take a look for yourself at http://www.google.com/help/maps/favoriteplaces

Friends, Joey and a Ghost!

2009-07-13T22:23:00.000-07:00

Let me set the premise of this story up properly.

This weekend we were playing Taboo up in Clear Lake with our friends. Taboo is a game where one person tries to get you to say a specific word without using a certain set of unusable terms on a card. It was a great time. Part way through the game someone was working on trying to get the guys to say a term and an episode of Friends popped into my mind when I hollered out "A Ghost!" Some of us laughed hysterically, others were confused. I couldn't explain it at the time because you just had to understand the reference. Take a look at the video below and you'll get it.

For the rest of the weekend someone would randomly holler out "A Ghost!" when the situation suited. Try it with your friends ... It's a blast!

Memorable Moments from Jackson Tribute

2009-07-08T23:23:00.001-07:00

Passing along some memorable moments in video.

Provoking. Heartbreaking. Inspiring.

Courtesy NBC and Hulu

Arrh! The Economics of Piracy

2009-07-07T21:47:00.000-07:00

Ahoy! I couldn't resist retelling this tale about the high seas.

Remember back in April when the Captain Richard Phillips on the Maersk Alabama was taken captive by Somali Pirates and the US Navy choreographed a daunting rescue, unseen before on public television? The whole story captivated us for it's brief period of popularity and then faded off into the sunset. Surfacing some time afterward were interesting side stories about the phenomenon of Piracy and its untold truths. One in particular that grabbed my interest centered around the economics of Piracy and how it can be a profitable business for those looking for high stakes rewards on the high seas.

Pirates Have Timesheets
NPR's Planet Money has run a few stories about Pirating and how, in comparison to other investments, can show profitable returns. The first podcast aired on 4/22/09 entitled "Pirates Have Timesheets" (Listen or Read). The most captivating element of the broadcast was the fine balancing act between the Somali Pirate's business acumen versus their primitive boorishness that is modern Piracy. The story has all the elements of a business case study, ripe with classic examples of investment, risk and rewards. There is the occasional surprise however when you run into the crudeness of Pirate strategies which awaken you into the reality of who you are really trying to do business with. It's quite entertaining.

So You Want To Be A Pirate
Ready to run your own crew? If you are, here are a few important Pirate tips you'll hear about, which you should take with you to Davey Jones' Locker:

Finding Capital Financing for your to train your new Pirate recruits
Creating a Business Plan to determine which ship to attack (Americans and Europeans are "worth" the most)
Rounding up your professional Pirate negotiator (Customer Servicing to "be polite" and how to include employee incentives)
How to ensure your Pirate business phone card always has calling card minutes
Filling out and retaining your Pirate timecard for submission
Faxing and transferring the money (actually ... how to drop millions into the ocean and have your Pirate crew fight hand-t0-hand for 30 hours over their booty).
Profit sharing based on your Pirate Job Description (from financier to basic security).
When you've been paid off, how to get a ride home from the ship you just hijacked

There's so many business/pirate elements in juxtaposition that it's hard to fathom.

The Follow-Up Report
After the original report, there was a buzz about the economics of Piracy. It was such a new and curiosity piquing topic that a follow up was done with the same shipping company. In fact, the most puzzling and unbelievable thing was new relationship that was built between Gullestrup and Mr Ali (Listen or Read). Where one was once the victim and the other the negotiator, both now have a strong relationship between them that they continue to cultivate. It really is just a business to them.

A Few Other Thoughts
The real differences in this economic model lie in the details. The Pirate's have the funding, business plan, investment and operations just as any other business has. One major difference with this model is the excessive risk premium which is expected by their stakeholders. Anyone knows that financing a Pirate enterprise is on the risky end of any market. This type of risk is something that is typified by risky equity investments or low grade (rated) bonds where unnatural returns on investment are demanded. As you'll here in the audio, you just can't get these returns on Wall Street that these Pirate financier's are getting in such a short period of time.

Further, the Somali Pirates believe that they are protecting their waters (a la the US Coast Guard). Hard to believe because no one is attacking them or their country, yet this is partially their motivation. There is some weight in the argument that pollution and dumping in their economic zones, (exclusive or special) is occurring. But these Pirate attacks are extending out into international (uncharted) waters so the entire argument doesn't fully stand up.

Hope you enjoy the trip!

For some last minute fun ... head over to PirateGlossary.com to get some updated Pirate terms to share with y'er folk. Also, some Pirates of Caribbean bloopers is in order as well. It's so cool to blog about Pirates :)

Streaming MJ's Memorial Service

2009-07-06T18:04:00.000-07:00

Just announced ... video service provider hulu.com will be streaming the Michael Jackson Memorial service live on their website. Clicking on the link will directly open the feed on your browser. Some of the announced performers will be Mariah Carey, Usher and Stevie Wonder. The memorial will run from from the Staples Center on June 7th, 2009 at 12:55PM ET / 9:55AM PT.

Is Texting While Driving Enforceable?

2009-07-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

Although there is a law out to enforce those who text while driving, it seems like it's almost unenforceable law. I've seen many a person tinkering with their phones while driving and have inevitably used mine on the road when needed.

Interestingly, the SJ Mercury is reporting the same issue. In the article "Texting tickets are few because violations are hard to spot" they report that although traffic citations for talking on your phone is high at 200,000 tickets issued, only a few hundred have been issued since the law went into effect on January 1st.

It's not hard to understand why. Traffic cops say they have a hard time verifying that people are actually texting instead of doing something else in their car. That definitely wasn't the case however for this Kettering, Ohio woman who was cited for talking on her cell phone while breastfeeding (way too much multitasking here).

But is this all hypocrisy? On the freeways, I've seen Police speed along in their cars, cutting through traffic as well as talking on their cell phones. Apparently not as cops are allowed to use their cell phones while driving regardless of how civilian law is enforced.

There is necessary concern however. Take a look at the clip below to see a teenage girls perspective on texting while driving. An interesting comment she made was "I don't feel afraid that I'm going to get into a car accident while texting because ... I'm a good texter." Shouldn't she had said ... good driver? She's got all the excuses for her minor "accidents".

Sesame Street Turns 40

2009-07-05T22:31:00.000-07:00

You know them as icons of your youth. Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch and the bunch. Yes, this year, Sesame Street the long running children's program on Public Broadcasting turns 40 years old.

I found out about the anniversary when watching the Capital 4th of July celebration where the Sesame Street gang sang along with Natasha Bedingfield on stage. It's impressive to think that the show was running when I was a kid and it remained on TV on Saturday mornings when my sisters grew up as well. The show was simple. Spelling and arithmetic in the song form. I even experienced diversity by learning simple Spanish phrases from the colorful characters.

The most memorable skit I can remember was Grover's "Near and Far" episode where Grover runs back and forth, dictating his position relative to the screen. There wasn't much to it, but I remember laughing at Grover's frustration and eventual on screen collapse. It was very humorous ... well at least as a child.

We're Moving!

2009-07-02T23:24:00.001-07:00

We're moving ... domain names! Please update your bookmarks and links to http://www.myluckypen.net

I found it more convenient to access (as well as manage) a site with a normal domain name. Over the next few days some features may not work unless you're using the new URL. Let me know if you notice any problems.

Tornados!

2009-07-02T00:04:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can't ... not ... watch ...

These guys are nuts to be going after these tornadoes. It's spooky seeing all the debris floating around in the air as they go in reverse. Take a look in full screen HD if you can (also mute cause they're pretty annoying).

I'll take earthquakes any day!

Link: http://www.hulu.com/watch/80716/atmospheric-pressure-twister-insanity-hd

Michael Jackson and the Internet

2009-06-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

The most interesting thing that Michael Jackson took with him on his journey to the other side ... was the Internet.

I'll probably never forget where I was when the King of Pop passed away. I was sitting in a lecture on Inventory Management at SJSU when my iPhone started buzzing. Looking down, I noticed a CNN News Alert which, to my surprise, stated that Michael Jackson had gone into cardiac arrest. Quickly, I went to the accompanying mobile link to read the background on what was going on. It was true, Jackson had suffered cardiac arrest but nothing regarding his passing had yet posted. So, like any techno-savvy affectionado I did what was required of me ... I tweeted this news up to Twitter to share amongst those who may have not heard yet. This however, was just the beginning.

Around 3:00pm, a colleague turned to me and said "Did you hear that Michael Jackson died?" No way! I turned to my iPhone and what I experienced was the last real power that was Michael Jackson.

I quickly hit some major news outlets mobile site's, Google News, CNN, MSNBC. Each site began loading but after about 30 seconds, my request timed out and stopped. Google News actually behaved a little different. The site displayed a "We're Sorry" page, believing that I was sending malicious requests to it. I moved onto other sources. Drudge Report was the first sighting where I could actually confirm that the world did believe that MJ was gone. The front page read "The King is Dead" in big red fonts. However, after following their story, I found myself on the front page of TMZ stating "Michael Jackson Dies." Amazingly, I had found myself looking at the first reports of MJ's death from a celebrity gossip column. A short time after, the major news outlets began confirming and reporting the news and the Internet itself seemed to recover.

As I looked back over the event, the biggest thought I had besides MJ's death was "How could one man's death bring down the enter Internet?" In the days after, I read a few interesting comments about the event. On the radio, I heard that after his death, MJ's sales on Amazon.com went up a staggering 700% from it's normal sales. His music sales soared on iTunes and Amazon to gain the top positions. It was almost eery to see that his untimely death was the most powerful promotional tool he had since the 80's.

On Google's official blog, they reported that searches for Michael Jackson had "skyrocketed" on the news to "Volcanic" levels as labeled by their Google Trends service. The trends service had already had piqued interest of Farrah Fawcett, Harrison Ford and Jeff Goldblum's death (Harrison Ford and Jeff Goldblum was a hoax that was quickly snuffed).

The Internet site Slashdot.org reported that many sites including Twitter, CNN, MSNBC, AO L and Yahoo could not keep up with the traffic and the geographic monitoring tool, Keynote, reported major latencies. What's most impressive however was how Google itself thought that the raw searches of Michael Jackson from various points was a mass attack on it's systems and attempted to protect itself, while every other service was inundated and crashed. It appeared that news of his death had people scrambling to verify authenticity of the reports as it had seemed just so unreal. The Internet had quite frankly met it's match, and the King of Pop had been declared the winner. Amazing.

No one can argue Michael Jackson's legendary pop icon status and global appeal. I can still remember studying his dance moves (take a look at the video at the end) to take out to the dance floors when I was in high school and in similar ways, we all have our MJ connections that will allow us to remember him. The way news of MJ went across the Internet was revolutionary and showed that one single event can cause a demand that even the most powerful Internet services could not handle. It was quite spectacular to experience MJ's influence just one more time, even it was just on my phone. In the end, "The Thriller" delivered one last time.

Madoff ... 150 years!

2009-06-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

Holy cow ... this guy received quite the punishment. As Planet Money reports, Madoff's sentence was 1 day for every $1.2 million worth of fraud. The map you see is of his "disruption zone" (wsj.com). Those New Yorkers must be celebrating.

How this guy got away with this is amazing. Especially when a "Ponzi Scheme" was named after the guy (Charles Ponzi) who had done the same thing 90 years ago. Apparently it didn't take that long to forget.

Golf Anyone?

2009-06-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday Everyone!

I've told a few people about this but I thought I'd share it out to those who'd like to hit a few golf balls from their keyboard. World Golf Tournament is a pretty cool site that allows you to hit some golf balls on some very nice looking courses and it's all for free. All you need is a bit of patience and a quick mouse trigger finger to get going. See you on the green!!

Don't be a Baboon!

2009-06-24T23:47:00.001-07:00

Just when you think you've got it all figured out ... someone calls you an ape. Well, not literally, but in the context of fragile situations (in this case the economy) Bob Sutton relates the behavior of Baboon's with behavior in the workplace. Take a quick read through his article "Beware the Baboon Boss" to get an idea of how your boss is observed in unpredictable situations. Bob describes that apes will "glance obsessively toward the group leader" to look for telltale signs of warning or actions. Every 20 seconds ... no wonder monkey business is around.

I first heard of Bob's research on HBR's IdeaCast (podcast) on "How to be a Good Boss in a Bad Economy" and found the relationship intriguing. In the interview, Bob discusses his premise, the Toxic Tandem, as a double whammy where managers hole themselves up and self preserve while, in tandem, subordinates look to them feverishly for information about the unpredictable environments they find themselves in. When in this state, hypersensitivity of subordinates needs to be focused on to dispel any myths or rumors to ease uncertainty among rank and file.

The partial article "How to Be a Good Boss in a Bad Economy" can also be found here. Have fun!

The Age of Wal-Mart

2009-06-24T22:54:00.000-07:00

For a company so revered by business schools as the example of efficient capitalism and the envy of top companies in the Fortune 500 why does it seem like Wal-Mart emphasizes loyalty and integrity in such a double-standard. Historically, Sam Walton's vision was strategically focused on rural areas to provide everyday low prices ... but at what costs? The former top executives live by Sam Walton's strategy and continue to drive down costs to provide proper living prices for these areas.

But has Sam Walton's strategy stood the test of time? Should Wal-Mart continue to operate in the same fashion that he set, or is it time to adjust it's focus towards better corporate social responsibilities in 2009? Take a look at CNBC's in-depth focus on Wal-Mart's business ... do you agree with it's costs and benefits?

A New Look

2009-06-18T22:58:00.001-07:00

If you think you've hit the wrong blog ... don't be fooled. I've finally settled on a decent looking one for my Web 2.0 tastes. I'm still working out some of the functionality like subscribing to the feeds, search, and other nuances.

Head over to btemplates.com for some new looks to add to your own blog.

Let me know what you think in the comments. Schwing!

Jeopardy ... SNL Style

2009-06-17T23:16:00.000-07:00

LOL! Just in case you missed it. Sharing it out to all my SNL Jeopardy fans.

"We meet again Trebek"

The Information Search (aka How-To, How-To)

2009-06-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting discussion with a colleague the other day about a Podcast that I was listening to on NPR called Planet Money. The discussion centered around the topic of an entrepreneur who had, to date, been unpaid for their services from a major commercial mall who was going through bankruptcy protection. The interesting aspect of the conflict was that the entrepreneur was only owed $200 dollars and her occupation ... a clown.

Now, the basis of this story doesn't center around this particular story (although if you want to hear it, click on "Hear Fears of a Clown") but rather around how he could subscribe and listen to Podcasts in general. I thought about the question for a moment and it dawned on me that there was something bigger than listening to a Podcast that was the issue ... I just couldn't put my finger on.

The underlying question wasn't about the Podcast but rather about how can we access something (whether online or not) when I have no idea how to get it. The notion that he had was "I know podcasts exists, but how do I get to them?" For most individuals, the Podcast story could likely have been substituted with any other idea that has come up in casual conversations and have piqued interested. For example "How to solve a Rubik's cube", "Where's that Homer Simpson soundboard" or in this case "How to subscribe to a Podcast". The information was out there, in mass amounts I might add, so why was this seemingly simple question, something that appeared to be difficult?

Confused, I began mulling the reasoning behind it ...

Was it that he wasn't familiar with what a Podcast is? (Podcasts on Wikipedia)
Maybe it was because he wanted some insight into the value of a Podcast? ("Opinion Leaders" in Marketing)
Possibly, the steps on how to get a Podcast is confusing?

In the end however, I settled on the fact that it's quite possible that people, who are interested in this information don't know the method required to get from point A (where they are sitting blankly in front of your computer terminal) to point B (listening to your podcast). It turns out that "How-to", how too-ing something is something of a skill.

Most of us nowadays just Google something as our entry point when we desire this information. But this action in itself is clearly not the preferred method of research. Some of us prefer to contact your opinion leader of choice, some prefer to look it up in books, while others desire other methods. Granted, this may be a generational difference between Gen X, Y and Boomers. The web search however, is probably one of the most used entry-points into rational information gathering. So much so now, that there is a website dedicated to doing this for you. Don't believe me? Take a look at the video ...

... let's try it with our Podcast example, click on this link. So now we have some results, and generally, the top hits are where we want to be. After clicking on that link, I see that NPR has a subscription link there to iTunes, and once I've clicked there, I find that iTunes opens and I can confirm the subscription there.

Amazingly, this entire process took only 3 clicks from beginning to end. So this begs the question, was it really that I knew how to do this any better than anyone else? Not necessarily. I've been asked things many times where the first thought in my mind was No, I don't know the answer ... quickly followed by ... but I can Google it and find out ... and therein lies the mystery to how we rationally problem solve in this era of on-demand information.

Anyway, back to the clown. On a follow up Podcast, it turns out the clown still hasn't been paid. It mostly had to do with the ranking that she fell into when creditors demanded assets back from the mall. As you can guess, she was low on the list. Geez ... just pay the clown.

Mobile Phone Bloggin'

2009-06-16T12:18:00.001-07:00

Well, I think I've set this up correctly. If you're reading this then
apparently I know what I'm doing.

For those of you that use blogger.com and want to blog while on the
run, you can set up your account with a secret word in the email
postings. It is fairly simple (I did it while listening to my Finance
instructor (blog for another day :P )). There's also a way to send a
picture to have it post to your blog. I'll figure that one out at some
point.

Halfway finished with midterms and getting closer to summer! w00t!

Listen To My Heartbeat

2009-06-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

Today, I finally had the chance to hear the baby's heartbeat. How cool! It's good to hear from the little one.

I also was able to record the heartbeat on my phone and upload it here. The loud noise you hear at the beginning is the baby kicking and then the heartbeat gets louder. Finally, a little bit of feedback from the little one.

A Flatter World ...

2009-06-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I had the chance to watch a video in my Business Management class from NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman on his "World is Flat" ideas. Now, globalization is a novel but something that is far from a recent event. His ideas however took the omniscient view of globalization and distilled it down into Globalization 3.0 where individuals drive worldly changes. Friedman realizes that this Globalization version grew up while he was sleeping and essentially leveled the playing field with other countries.

Frankly, the levels of convergence (the computer, application interoperability, outsourcing, offshoring, open sourcing, insourcing and informing) that Friedman discusses is eerie at times, especially in moments where he replaces the age old adage of "eat all your food because there are starving people in the world" with "eat and get smart because there are people out there that will get your job." I thought his presentation was well represented and opened my eyes to many of the changes I had not thought of. Another takeaway I had was the great role that technology has played in leveling the playing field and in the future ... it will only get flatter as technology creates opportunities that are equal across the world.

I don't know how familiar everyone is with Friedman's view but I was taken by surprise. I ended up picking up his World is Flat book and plan on reading the details behind his thoughts. I've also posted a video of his presentation at MIT for those that want to take a look. Enjoy!