I’ve talked about The Long Tail here before and reviewed it at Thatedeguy.
Since I received the book for free from the author and found it to be a very good read not only from a technology perspective, but also from a business standpoint, I’ve decided to share the wealth so to speak.
I’m giving the book away! For full rules and how to enter visit The Great Long Tail Giveaway.
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HSBC will now review it’s security procedures after a study shows that access to any of it’s online accounts can be acheived in less than nine attempts.
According to the research, it was possible with the help of a keylogger to access customer accounts in just nine attempts.
“Nine attempts suggests that HSBC’s system is not robust enough,” Michael Panhallurick, computer forensic manager at the Risk Advisory Group, told BBC News.
Not exactly good news for HSBC customers. Not entirely bad either. Unfortunately, publishing your HSBC balance along with other personal information makes you more likely to become a target of a attempt at just such an event.
Technorati Tags: HSBC, hacker, hacking, identity theft, keylogger, banking
The Federal Open Market Committee decided against raising the target rate for Federal Funds today.
Economic growth has moderated from its quite strong pace earlier this year, partly reflecting a gradual cooling of the housing market and the lagged effects of increases in interest rates and energy prices.
Readings on core inflation have been elevated in recent months, and the high levels of resource utilization and of the prices of energy and other commodities have the potential to sustain inflation pressures. However, inflation pressures seem likely to moderate over time, reflecting contained inflation expectations and the cumulative effects of monetary policy actions and other factors restraining aggregate demand.
Nonetheless, the Committee judges that some inflation risks remain. The extent and timing of any additional firming that may be needed to address these risks will depend on the evolution of the outlook for both inflation and economic growth, as implied by incoming information.
Based on the above press release, I’d say they’re a little less skitish on the housing market and inflation as a whole. Economist’s View has a really nice comparison with the this meeting and the last showing where changes were made to the release.
One interesting thing to note is that the vote was not unanimous. Jeffery Lacker dissented on the grounds that he wanted to raise the rate by .25 basis points. Greg Mankiw has an interesting bit on changing the current structure of the FMOC to a median vote. Read his post for better details, but I think it’s a great idea.
Technorati Tags: FMOC, federal reserve, rate, prime rate, federal funds rate, august FMOC
Next time we start complaining about the price we pay at the pump, we should remember this graph.
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Granted, it’s from 2005. I shouldn’t think that the ratio’s have changed any or that the descrepancies from the USA to any of the others is any different either. The biggest thing to notice is that the actual price before tax is relatively even. It’s the taxes that are different. So much for the price of gas being inflated due to taxes here in the U.S.
I think we sometimes forget ourselves and don’t remember that we aren’t the only ones paying outrageous prices for some of these things.
Technorati Tags: gas, gasoline, gas prices, gasoline prices, oil prices
Where was I? I would have jumped all over it in a second.
Appearantly, a keying error caused some shares of Google(GOOG) to trade at around $38 a share in the afterhours market on Thursday.
One investor who had recently bought
200 shares earlier last week at around $380, or about $76,000, only to discover from his broker he was suddenly sitting with a fast and damaging paper loss (at the quoted $38 a share) of about $68,400.
According to his broker, the man nearly had a heart attack. I would have too. Obviously, there will be some sort of inquiry into who fatfingered the price. Talk about your all time blunders. Horrible time to leave a trailing zero off.
Technorati Tags: GOOG, google, mistake, heart attack, investing
The GDP growth slowed in the second quarter. Down nearly 3 percent from it’s 5.6% growth in the first quarter.
“What does it all mean Basil?” - Austin Powers
The GDP is a “broad measure of the nation’s economic activity.” A lower percentage of growth means that there was less of an increase in the money changing hands in this nation. As I see it, this is almost surely a result of the higher gas prices we’ve been suffering through.
How many of us have either skipped or cut short our summer travel plans because the cost of gas has risen? Maybe you kept that vacation money in your savings account instead of injecting it into the economy. Maybe you kept it in the suitcase buried in your backyard.
Another side effect of the lower growth is that the Fed might be a little more hesitant to raise the prime rate again. That means steadier interest rates and possibly a rush on lending. Which in turn will put more money out there to be spent and keep the growth going.
Technorati Tags: GDP, Fed, Interest rates, rates, vacation, gas prices
Everybody remembers who Ken is right? He’s the guy that was the Jeopardy champion for nearly the entire year in 2004.
Recently, a parade was held in which a group created a rather large 40″X40″X45″ replica of his head. After the parade was over, they gave it to Ken. He’s moving a pretty decent distance and has decided that he doesn’t want to move the head. So, like any smart person does, he’s listed it on eBay.
Here’s the Auction! 100% of the proceeds go to the American Cancer Society.
Technorati Tags: ken jennings, ebay, foam head, jeopardy
In an interview with FORTUNE Magazine, Warren Buffett announced that he plans on beginning to give away his fortune. Beginning next month, he will begin giving away stock in Berkshire Hathaway worth a reported $37 Billion dollars.
Buffett has pledged to gradually give 85% of his Berkshire stock to five foundations. A dominant five-sixths of the shares will go to the world’s largest philanthropic organization, the $30 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose principals are close friends of Buffett’s (a connection that began in 1991, when a mutual friend introduced Buffett and Bill Gates).
Previously, he had announced that the money would be disperced upon his death, but he has appearantly had a change of heart. Personally, I would want to see some of the good it did rather than just assume that it did good after my death. Perhaps that is what Warren is thinking of as well.
The first question that pops into my head is if he’s doing it early to get himself out of the top of the list of world’s richest people. He’ll still be worth quite a bit over the years as the money trickles into these other organizations, but it will certainly make him start dropping.
Technorati Tags: warren buffet, berkshire hathaway, gates, gates foundation, buffett
Amazon has recently opened up it’s beta of Amazon Grocery to the public and as any online shop-aholic would, I went over and kicked the tires.
First things first, don’t expect to purchase your produce, meat, or anything that spoils quickly. That’s not what it’s about. You can buy just about anythings else. Somehow, Pampers has become a grocery item. I haven’t figured that out yet, but there it is. Like any other section of Amazon, the Grocery section has a popular list. Top of that list? Kraft EasyMac Cups(Well, after you sort through the Pampers). A pretty good deal at a little less than $1 a cup.
If you’re planning to buy from Amazon, you should be prepared to buy in bulk. Everything is in bulk. Those easymac cups? 12 at a time. Kool-Aid? 72 at a time. All one flavor.
If you have a family of 3-5 or more, or you buy all your dry goods 6-12 months at a time, Amazon Grocery could be your new best friend. At the moment, it would seem that the shipping benefits of Amazon Prime and Super Saver shipping are in use, so anything over $25 gets free super saver shipping. Sure beats driving to Sam’s or Costco.
Technorati Tags: Amazon, Amazon Grocery, Grocery, Kraft, Kool-aid, shipping
Ebay Inc. announced that it will be starting a program called “eBay AdContext” at eBay live this weekend. The new program will allow website owners to have ad units similar to those by Google Adsense and Yahoo Publisher Network on their site in exchange for a share of any resulting sales. That share could end up in the 40% to 70% range.
This could be great news for those of us that sell on eBay. The extra exposure could be phenomenal and could allow for greater sell rates and selling prices. Any little boost to my bottom line would certainly be good. There wasn’t any word on whether the sellers would incur extra fees from the appearance and sale of their products through eBay AdContext, but I would certainly think they would need to pass that on a little.
As a publisher here at A Penny Saved, it could make a little extra padding for the bottom line a second way. As long as it doesn’t violate the Terms of Service of the other ad systems that are in place currently, you just might see some eBay ads soon.
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