Rackspace Partner

Just signed up as a Rackspace Partner.  We've been happy with their servers, and now we can offer them to other people.  Full-scale managed/dedicated servers and hosting.

http://www.ayamba.com/hosting.html

Pizza Delivery Via Facebook - WSJ.com

Great article, particularly these paragraphs:

Rick Hendrie, senior vice president of marketing with Uno Chicago Grill, says the pictures have another effect: People ordering online tend to buy more food. "They order with their eyes. Over the phone, you go with a default order," Mr. Hendrie says. It's a sentiment echoed by Papa John's, where online sales are about 10% higher than orders placed over the phone or by walk-ins.

Mr. Hendrie and others also note that orders placed online tend to be more accurate. As one tester noted, "It's sometimes hard for the pizza place to hear the difference between pepperoni and green pepper when you're talking on the phone."

http://sec.online.wsj.com/article/SB122955636646916031.html?mod=most_viewed_leisure24

The One Thing You Need to Know Before You Donate to Charity | Tactical Philanthropy

A concise article that seems to speak to our discovery team methods.

http://tacticalphilanthropy.com/2008/12/the-one-thing-you-need-to-know-before-you-donate-to-charity

GETDATE in SQL SSIS Packages

Using things like SQL GETDATE() functions in SSIS Packages doesn't work (similar issue in user-defined functions).  It will always use the date value that was present when you first save the package, which is not very useful.  For example:

SELECT orders FROM TABLE WHERE orderdate >= DATEADD(m,-1, GETDATE())

would get you orders from the last month.  However, to make that work in an SSIS Package, here's a simple fix, though probably not the best from a performance standpoint:

Create a view names something like ExportDate with a function like this:

SELECT     GETDATE() AS DT

Then, update your query to be:

SELECT orders FROM TABLE WHERE orderdate >= DATEADD(m,-1, (SELECT DT FROM dbo.vwECR_ExportDate))

The view will update when it's queried, so you're all set.

And no, apparently you can't edit SSIS packages you've saved to the server, at least not with SQL Management Studio.

.Orgs vs Orgies

"46 percent of women and 30 percent of men “would rather swear-off sex for two weeks than give up the Net.”"

Which would you choose?

When the Internet beats sex - THE WEEK
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/91641/3/When_the_Internet_beats_sex

Auto Bailout Pork

We get votes the old fashioned way - we buy 'em.  For example, in this ridiculous Detroit Big Three bailout going around now, one House vote was purchased by putting a provision for pay raises for federal judges.  Excuse me?  What does that have to do with the automakers?  Can't we just debate a bill based on it's own merits, and either vote for or against it?  Do we really have to fill them all with pork to get anything done?  Or is it because without the pork, none of the bills would pass, because everybody knows they're just government crap...

Adobe Edge: An introduction to PureMVC for Adobe Flash and Flex

http://www.adobe.com/newsletters/edge/december2008/articles/article6/index.html?trackingid=EFBLD

Ben Stein - Change? To Washington? Ha!

Analysis (biased, probably) of Obama's choice of Geithner to replace
Paulson. And that it in no ways resembles "change".

http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/yourlife/126180

Paul Brest: Strategic Philanthropy in Tough Times

A good article that speaks to the effectiveness of giving through SVP - at least that's how I read "this may be a good time, especially for small foundations, to consider the possibility of riding the coattails of trusted foundations or other organizations rather than doing their grantmaking in house"

And more importantly, the overall non-profit shakeout: "we need to ensure that the best organizations -- those that are delivering real outcomes -- weather the storm. We're not going to be able to salvage them from the bottom of the sea after the storm is over. On the other hand, we shouldn't use precious assets to keep poorly managed organizations afloat either."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-brest/strategic-philanthropy-in_b_148309.html

Drinking water for fishing?

Seriously?  We pump potable water into a little lake so people can fish?  You gotta be kidding.  Who thinks this stuff up?

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081208/news_1m8chollas.html

Endowments getting hammered

Think this is a problem?

"In California, the public pension fund CalPERS says state, local and county governments may have to chip in as much as an additional 4 percent beginning in mid-2010 to cover its pension losses. Its total assets had fallen from $260 billion last fiscal year to just $178 billion on Dec. 1."

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081204/news_1b4endow.html

Black Swan Events

No idea the source on this, but interesting stock market analysis:

There have been 14,284 trading days since January 1, 1950.  On 33 of those days, the market fell 4% or more.  On 35 of those days, the market rallied 4% or more.  So there have been 68 moves out of 14,284, showing such days are very rare occurring just 0.4% of the time.  Leming goes on to point out that 28 of those 68 rare events occurred over the last three months.  That's a whopping 41% of all these very rare (Black Swan??) events since September. 

How many trillions?

You may think it's only $700 billion here, $800 billion there, but there's been a whole lot more going on behind the scenes...

Bloomberg 11/24/2008:

U.S. Pledges Top $7.7 Trillion to Ease Frozen Credit

The U.S. government is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers after guaranteeing $306 billion of Citigroup Inc. debt yesterday. The pledges, amounting to half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up 15 months ago.
...
It’s nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office figures. It could pay off more than half the country’s mortgages.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=an3k2rZMNgDw&

Poodle-dog bush

Apparently this plant likes growing after the fires, and has properties similar to poison oak.

http://www.calflora.net/bloomingplants/poodledogbush.html

FEMA Trailers Making Children Sick

Our government is awesome... hope someday they can save me, too.  Course, this is really just one example of how theoretically minor levels of chemicals actually do have a health effect.  I sure hope they find a cure to cancer, cause I think my generation is guaranteed to get it.  Growing up on tupperware was just the beginning...

http://www.grist.org/news/2008/11/25/trailer/