So, the question arises of how to achieve FCM?  Let's play with a few numbers, say for example to sustain a lifestyle of $50,000 per year.  Before taxes, one would have to make income of $70,000.  (I'm estimating a tax rate of 30%)  Now we have to look at the interest rate earned on the investments.  Now if one was lucky enough to score an investment like TVFQX five years ago, the return would be 51.78% per year, then one would only have to have a nest egg of a little less than $140,000 to start!!  Quite a small starting nest egg.  If one were to go for a more proven fund, say FMAGX then the annual returns would be 20.45, however, this lower return would require a starting nest egg of $350,000. 

Anyway, based on this hypothesizing, I've decided to add a $ page on the navigation to add the ability to play with the numbers I've started with.  I don't really think that anyone wants to condemn themselves to living on $50,000 per year for many, many years and call it financial independence.  It's not up there yet, it's on the coming soon list. =)

I notice Amazon has changed their navigation.  The three high stack of tabs was an eyesore.  Did you also notice that they are no longer Earth's Largest Bookstore?  They now say: We have Earth's Biggest Selection^TM of products, including free electronic greeting cards, online auctions, and millions of books, CDs, videos, DVDs, toys and games, and electronics.  So much for books, even their search is clouded by the rest of their products.  Are they trying to change their business plan to eBay?  I just want a bookstore to buy books online, not the rest of what they think I need.  I don't think it's any wonder why their stock price is plummeting, the company had a goal at first and dominated well.  Now it's trying to become a portal.  One of the best aspects of the web is the ability to find sites that specialize and you don't have to worry about companies trying to cross-sell you or fill your screen full of useless items that they decide to impose on you instead of you choosing.  One year ago, I would go to Amazon and they would have books that I considered buying on their first page.  Now I'm staring at new car and hip-hop ads.  If they know anything about my zip code, it's that people don't buy cars here.

So, since I really just purchase technical books, I recommend Bookpool.com.  Their discounts are huge and they have all the books I want.  I do go to Amazon for reference on opinions on books, but usually buy on Bookpool.

While I'm writing this, I'm watching Walking With Dinosaurs  on DVD and I've gotta say, I wasn't expecting much, but I'm damn amazed at the reality of what they've created.  Even the camaraman appears to fall when the Allosaurs are fighting.  The special effects of the comet colliding with Earth are at least as good as say....Twister.  I wonder =) ...if the Earth goes through another hot period like the past where vegetation can grow that large, does that mean that food will be generally more plentiful and that herbivores will grow larger?  If that's the case then won't carnivores do the same?  It's just amazing at the size that some dinosaurs were.

The bar code above is a linear Code 39.  This is an older standard being replaced by Code 128.  Anyway, I tend to overlearn stupid shit like that, so if you are following the links you share my mania. =)  I've included the Code 39 font I found on the site for your pleasure and a link to other shareware bar code fonts.

So it's been a while since I last posted but coincidentally Transmeta has made the news again!!  This time an investor is slamming them.  Okay, okay, it's pretty clear that Toshiba is politicking it's way out of a power sucking product, but it's also clear that simply having a low-power CPU isn't going to help battery life that much.  Transmeta has a long way to go before they are going to threaten Intel or AMD for market share.  Oh yes, as if we couldn't predict that the snazzy codemorphing  chip company wasn't out to turn a quick buck, they have filed for IPO.

The smaller font isn't an accident, it's the new style since I end up typing 3 or 4 paragraphs every update I figured I'd better tighten it up.  I plan to enhance the header this weekend and hopefully throw up a quick chess page.  I'm just dreading drawing the board in Photoshop...the boards not that tough, I just don't want to create all the pieces.  Ugh!  Hopefully I can find someone else's work to leach from.  

Looks like someone finally bit on the Transmeta chip. Sony may have found the way to increase sales on its low end Vaio....by riding on the coattails of Transmeta's fame. Who is in turn riding on the coattails of Linus Torvalds' fame. That particular Vaio has a battery life of 1-2 hours and the Transmeta chip is supposed to increase the life up to 90 minutes. Wow! I mean...ah shit, who cares? That Particular Vaio is 10x6 inches, maddeningly small. I'd rather use my Palm that has a battery life of 1 month and you can tap out 82 words per minute.

I love having my own corner of the web to pontificate. The above is part of a larger issue of the viability of Transmeta itself. Everyone has already heard me pound the pulpit about their demise or buyout, so I don't need to go into much detail here. I just wanted to show that after one year of having a product, now they are finally getting one in a notebook and on the shelf! Moment of truth, baby! They may even sell a few, but without that pretty Intel Inside sticker or even the more and more recognized AMD label, few people will buy it. I think we're all a bit tired of being guinea pigs for chipmakers and most people will sit back and wait and see on this one. This equates to low sales. Bad, bad, bad. Even with the heavy name of Torvalds behind the company and the nifty buzzword of codemorphing, the company has a long road ahead.

The latest work tool that has come into my possession is the Motorola V8160! Woo hoo! So far this phone looks like it is the best of the best, dual band, dual mode, WAP enabled microphone. All I need are a few hacks to be able to change the ring to something dogs don't run from and it'll be perfect!

Two new symbols, one for a chess page and the other for the wireless page. I'm sure the latter one will be filled with rants like:

• The U.S. is not behind Europe in the wireless space.
• Nobody wants full-motion streaming video over their cell phone.
• G3 (a stupid propaganda buzzword) isn't coming next year
• Marketing on a cell phone will fail.
• WAP is a dying standard if it ever was a standard.

Who wants to target the European market for wireless anyway? Where are the advertisers making money? The people using their cell phones for web browsing aren't on any demographic we've seen yet. Do retailers really want to have to negotiate with every single phone company's <venom>portal</venom> to allow access to their wireless sites?

I get aggravated in four year cycles now. My mind can only handle so much political partisan spam. Just like today, I always wonder why the "statistics" shown on major news channels always depict a close race. I think the one I just saw was Gore 52% and Bush 48%. I really find it hard to believe that this can be true every election. I guess it wouldn't be exciting news if every statistic you saw was Gore 93% and Bush 7%.

Why don't you see news about Don Rogers, Joe Bellis, Howard Phillips, Denny Lane, Ralph Nader, Harry Browne, John Hagelin, Earl Dodge, Pat Buchanan, Dave McReynolds, James Harris, Bradford Lyttle, Monica Moorehead, or all the other candidates for presidency?

On a tip from Fleche, I toned down the navbar colors to orange instead of white. I like it. =) I think the site needs one more color and I'll be happy with a theme.