Zappos Is a Service Company…

… that happens to sell shoes. It says so — right there on their home page. But you'd think it was just hype until you read an amazing customer story like this.

Portraits in Nirvana

Perhaps it started with that Nirvana album cover… but underwater pictures of babies seem to have captured our imagination. Now there's a company that specializes in these ethereal portraits. Urchin Rock, a UK-based agency, seems to go all-out to accommodate parents in their quest for unique portraits.

What with the baby culture we have here, in Utah, I wonder if this wouldn't be a super idea for some enterprising local photographer.

Geeking the Fed

An explanation of recent Federal Reserve Bank actions that even I can understand.

Renting, Buying, & Bull(pucky)

I haven't been a renter for eight years.

I purchased my first home (a condo), in Provo Utah and subsidized my mortgage with income from renting out my spare bedrooms to BYU students. It was a good purchase and I value what I learned from the experience about paying bills on-time and fiscal health in general… when I sold it, I made paper profit — it sold for more than I bought it for — but lost on the back-end until I factored-in the off-sets from rental income. I was stunned. I had paid more on my mortgage than I had gained in appreciation. Somewhere along the line, I made the common error of thinking that paper profit was the end goal… and believing the myth that buying is always better than renting.

If you're in the market to buy, or if you're in the mood for a reality check, you'll enjoy this amazing calculator from The New York Times, which lets you compare the true costs of renting versus buying. You may be surprised.

As much as I love owning my home, I am a firm opponent of the idea that renters are "just throwing their money away". It's false on its face for the many buyers without the credit to get a good interest rate and those who plan on selling within a few years... but worse, it ignores the value that housing — regardless of whether it's in a rental or not — offers. There's value in having a roof over your head, just ask a homeless person. And unless you own your home outright, you pay for that privilege.

So why the kerfuffle? Three reasons, really: mortgages are big money, home ownership is part (and parcel?) of the American Dream™, and home-buyers are seen as better citizens by all levels of government.

UPDATE: Another article on the problem with the idea that buying is absolutely the best idea for everyone… this time from Get Rich Slowly.

Power to the People

So it looks like local start-up Politic2.0 is launching its next-generation political site this morning with an event they're billing as ConventionNext. Should be interesting to see how it works...

This is what I got in an e-mail from Daniel Holsinger, Politic2.0's president and founder:

Politic 2.0 will host its first ConventionNEXT -- a forum for bloggers to interact with politicians.We have had a tremendous response from the local Utah political community. Congressman Chris Cannon is extremely excited to interact with bloggers. Off-site participants will be able view real time streaming video of the event and ask/vote questions.

1) Please Register at ConventionNext at Politic2.0
2) Apple's video/media player is required for streaming video.

The Agenda

8:50-9:00

Technology Overview, Introductions by Randall Bennett, VP Community

9:00-9:15

Congressman Chris Cannon remarks

9:15-10:15

Questions & Answers with Congressman facilitated by Daniel Holsinger, President/Founder of Politic2.0 Submitted Questions will be voted up/down by on-site/off-site participants (in real time). An alpha version of the question/voting system can be seen at conventionnext.politic20.com after 8:00PM Tuesday night.

( Our interactive question process uses a system like digg.com )

Daniel Holsinger, President of Politic 2.0 will moderate the questions from the voting system, working the questions from the top down. The system will continue to be live and as he finishes each topic, and he'll continue to ask questions from the top.

While this is going on, two other things will be happening:

The bloggers in the room and those paying attention on the net will be encouraged to write blog entries on each of the topics Congressman Cannon is addressing (instead of one big blog entry about the whole thing, although they can do that if they want).

These posts will be automatically discovered by TagJungle and reported to Politic20, causing them to automatically show up on Politic20.com under the topic that is being blogged about. Participants will also be strongly encouraged to participate in rating, writing and commenting on the Politic20 wiki pages about the event.

The event pages on Politic20 will have two columns; the left column will be the wiki side, showing sections for ratings, reviews, comments, discussions, etc. The right column will show the most recent blog posts that are relevant to the topic of the page you are on. TagJungle will also be harvesting links from all blog posts and will be providing Politic20 with lists of the most popular video, audio, documents and urls related to the topic you are viewing. These lists will be displayed above the blog posts from TagJungle.

10:15-10:30

Wrap-up and networking

10:30-11:00

Finish-up blog posts, talk with other bloggers, talk with us about Politic2.0, etc.

Find a Penny...

I have been a fan of abolishing the penny for several years. It costs more to mint than it's worth… it's seldom-used… and it makes the lives of people who use cash frequently (something I wish we all did a little more — but that's another post) unnecessarily more burdensome. But there have always been hurdles in dispatching with the 1¢ peice. Dropping the penny from circulation effectively (albeit on very small scale) raises the prices of everything for the poor of our nation — who disproportionately pay for things in cash. And then there's our nation's love affair with Abe Lincoln, whose face adorns the penny — which pretty much guarantees the coin's future.

So I was pleased earlier this week to read in the New York Times of a proposal put forth by Mr Velde of the Chicago Fed (PDF): keep the penny, but make it worth 5¢, then stop minting the nickel. Voila! We keep Abe in circulation, so there's little need for Illinois' federal delegation to get in a snit; the penny is now worth more than it costs to mint (a good thing™); and all the pennies out there are suddenly worth 5¢ — negating the "cost" of rounding prices that the poor would otherwise incur.

Brilliant.

Now... if only we could get a legislator to move on it.

Shake on It? Of Course!

My good friend Devin Thorpe of Thorpe Capital Group writes this morning about venture capitalist Brad Feld who:

joins Donald Trump in what I view as being a small, but growing trend to avoid a very traditional greeting among friends, business associates, church goers and others....and I had to comment. I mean, really, why wouldn't you shake hands?

1) You could be one of those megalomaniacs who refuses to participate in social norms to display their dominance ( like dogs try to do when they're humping your leg ). In which case, well, I don't want to do business with you.

Or ( and, perhaps, "and" )

2) You're afraid of "germs"... and you think that not shaking hands is going to keep you safe. Which tells me two things: you're given to flights of ill-informed fancy... and you think you can exercise unnatural control over your surroundings. Neither thing bodes well for you, and I still don't want to do business with you.

You see, I am not biophobic (a softer term for afraid of germs — because "germs" is a loaded word) by any stretch of the imagination. I understand that of the billions of microbes that inhabit the same space I do, only a rare few are in the least bit interested in me — and of those, only a tiny fraction are out to do me harm. The human race evolved to deal with microbes and infections, and I'm not about to short-circuit the system of bio-feedback attempting to un-plug from it. We need microbes, and people who fear them — people like Feld, Trump, and a few other noteworthy nutjobs — are living in a world that doesn't exist. And if they're comfortable with one fiction, who knows what other fictions they enjoy... contract fictions? milestone fictions? banking fictions?

Wanna do business with me?

Let's shake on it.

A History of House Valuations

Oh. This does not look good at all.

A Joke about Consultants...

From my mission president.

: )

So I sent out my yearly update e-mail, and this was the first year that I had my (former) mission president's e-mail... so I included him and his wife. A few days later I get an e-mail back: "What a lovely letter... who is this?". I reply with enough information for him to remember me, and he invites me to dinner.

We weren't really close during the mission, and we haven't had reason to speak in 10 or so years... but I respect the man and the mantle he wore (with aplomb, mind you) immensely. So I was both intrigued and a little worried... especially about how I would respond to any "why aren't you married, yet, Elder" questions. But last night's dinner was delightful, and the conversation never went anywhere near my marital status... so I counted it a success.

And then I get an e-mail from him this morning, and I now count the evening a resounding success:

Hi Brother! Was good to break bread with you yesterday. Both [my wife] and I felt good to have had you here along with [our other dinner guest]. As I was going through some files today I ran into something I thought you would get a kick out of.

Here it is:

A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Broni suit, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the shepherd, "If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?"

The shepherd looked at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looked at his peacefully-grazing flock and calmly answered "Sure."

The yuppie parked his car, whipped out his notebook and connected it to a cell phone, then he surfed to a NASA page on the internet where he called up a GPS satellite navigation system, scanned the area, and then opened up a database and an Excel spreadsheet with complex formulas. He sent an e-mail on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes received a response.

Finally he prints out a 150 page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized printer then turns to the shepherd and says, "You have exactly 1,586 sheep."

"That is correct; take one of the sheep." said the shepherd. He watches the young man select one of the animals and bundle it into his car. Then the shepherd says: "If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will give me back my sheep?"

"Okay... Why not." answered the young man.

"Clearly, you are a consultant." said the shepherd.

"That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required" answers the shepherd. "You turned up here although nobody called you. You want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked, and you know jack about my business...

Now give me back my dog."

I don't know about you... but I think that that's a great joke!