tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-95138062024-03-13T13:16:31.963-07:00Jeremy Schneider's BlogJeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-50149912953511640622023-09-06T12:16:00.004-07:002023-09-06T12:16:27.570-07:00Advice-Only Financial Advisors<p> I'm proud to announce I've officially founded a new company! Nectarine, the marketplace for <a href="https://hellonectarine.com/">Advice-Only Financial Advisors</a>.</p><p>For the last few years I've been helping people learn about personal finance and investing. One of the most common and difficult questions I get is "how do I find a good financial advisor". The reality is for the last few years I didn't know. My answer would be that I would have to teach you the basics of investing to tell them apart, and by the time you know that, you likely don't need a financial advisor.</p><p>That's still true, but there are occasions where investors still reasonably want a professional's assistance. That's why we built <a href="https://hellonectarine.com/">Nectarine</a>! Vetted experts with the best business model and a matching service to find the perfect fit for you. Check it out!</p>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-74067361053596492222018-11-05T15:26:00.003-08:002018-11-05T22:32:56.341-08:00My 2018 Midterm Election Ballot Choices<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">My midterm election ballot has exactly SIXTY candidates, propositions and measures. I spent a couple dozen hours researching my choices, reading newspaper endorsements, video interviews, voting guides, etc. This is not a straight-ticket party ballot as I considered each position independently and voted for candidates from both parties and independents. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Some of the resources I found helpful:</span></span><br />
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<li><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://voterguide.sos.ca.gov/" style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">http://voterguide.sos.ca.gov/</a></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Government site. I think it’s the equivalent of what they mail out. I can’t find any local candidate stuff though.</span></li>
<li><a href="https://www.ballot.fyi/" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.ballot.fyi</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Fun/visual breakdown of the propositions. No candidate info</span></li>
<li><a href="https://elections.calmatters.org/2018/" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://elections.calmatters.org/2018</a>/</li>
<li><a href="https://sandiegofreepress.org/2018/10/san-diego-progressive-voter-guide-november-2018/" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://sandiegofreepress.org/2018/10/san-diego-progressive-voter-guide-november-2018/</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> A very partisan site that gives who progressives should vote for</span></li>
<li><a href="https://couragevoterguide.org/" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">https://couragevoterguide.org/</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> - A partisan site, but nice visual breakdown of how organizations are endorsing different ballot proposals. No info on any candidates</span></li>
<li><a href="https://votesaveamerica.com/ballot" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://votesaveamerica.com/ballot</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Really nice tech savvy way to get bite sized information on state and federal candidates and proposals. No local stuff</span></li>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Here's who I'm voting for and why:</span></span><br />
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Governor - John H. Cox vs Gavin Newsom</h5>
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Newsom is the current Lieutenant Governor. He has basically been lined up for this job for years (probably would have won 8 years ago if not for Jerry Brown). According to the LA times, six year CA resident Cox is "comically unqualified". In a 2007 presidential debate, Cox did say that gay rights could "open the floodgates to polygamy and bestiality" and that "transvestites" wanting to be teachers was a problem. Cox is against single payer health care, for repealing gas tax and vehicle registration fees. Hasn’t taken a position on net neutrality. Not sure I can really trust any of his positions… just talks about how California is a mess and how "help is on the way". Illinois snowbird who has a habit of running (and losing) for offices all over the place. There are things not to like about Newsom, but I just can't vote for Cox. LA times has a good article on it: <a href="http://www.latimes.com/la-ol-opinion-newsletter-gavin-newsom-governor-20181020-htmlstory.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.latimes.com/la-ol-opinion-newsletter-gavin-newsom-governor-20181020-htmlstory.html</a> <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Gavin Newsom</span></div>
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Lieutenant Governor - Ed Hernandez vs Eleni Kounalakis</h5>
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Eleni is no on prop 10. Ed is undecided on 10. The democratic party marching orders seem to be yes on 10, so I respect that Eleni is a no because it doesn’t seem like such a good idea. Eleni’s family spent $11M on campaign. Eleni seems to be more on the ball and smarter, former Ambassador under Obama. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Eleni Kounalakis</span></div>
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Secretary of State - Alex Padilla vs Mark P. Meuser</h5>
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Meuser seems to be a voting fraud conspiracy theorist without data to back it up. “Someone told me their dead grandpa voted” is not a good way to govern. Padilla talks about decentralization and paper trails. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Alex Padilla</span></div>
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Controller - Konstantinos Roditis vs Betty T. Yee</h5>
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LA Times gives a really good endorsement for Betty Yee. Particularly concerning is her opponent doesn’t know how the position works. <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-endorsement-yee-controller-20180913-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-endorsement-yee-controller-20180913-story.html</a> <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Betty Yee</span></div>
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Treasurer - Greg Conlon vs Fiona Ma</h5>
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Not sure… they both seem pretty good. I like Conlon’s push to reform CA’s pension system and remove the $800 fee for businesses. Ma seems to be qualified too. LA Times endorses Ma but not a super strong argument on this one: <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-fiona-ma-treasurer-endorsement-20180914-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-fiona-ma-treasurer-endorsement-20180914-story.html</a> Just found Conlon’s twitter. He’s an “early trump supporter” and has retweeted #MAGA bullshit. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Fiona Ma</span></div>
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Attorney General - Steven C Bailey vs Xavier Becerra</h5>
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Becerra is standing up against the Trump administration. Bailey is facing some ethics violation charges (although they do seem relatively minor and conceivably politically motivated). LA Times endorses Becerra. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Xavier Becerra</span></div>
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Insurance Commissioner - Ricardo Lara vs Steve Poizner</h5>
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Steve Poizner had the job in the past and appears to be more qualified and experienced. Republican turned independent trying to show that you can have an apolitical path to office. LA Times and San Diego UT endorses him.<a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-poizner-endorsement-20181003-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-poizner-endorsement-20181003-story.html</a> <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Steve Poizner</span></div>
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Member, State Board of Equalization 4th District - Mike Schaeffer vs Joel Anderson</h5>
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They both seem really shitty. Schaeffer is a notorious slumlord, disbarred for fraud and involved in some taxi scandal, Anderson threatened to hit a female lobbyist… <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-joel-anderson-complaint-20180821-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-joel-anderson-complaint-20180821-story.html</a> <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1986-08-31/magazine/tm-14766_1_michael-schaefer" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://articles.latimes.com/1986-08-31/magazine/tm-14766_1_michael-schaefer</a> They're running for board of equalization which was recently stripped of its power. I'm not going to give either my vote. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Abstaining</span></div>
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US Senator - Dianne Feinstein vs Kevin De Leon</h5>
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De Leon seems a little amateurish… should probably stick with experience in Washington. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Dianne Feinstein</span></div>
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United States Representative 52nd District - Scott Peters vs Omar Qudrat</h5>
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I'm sure you know where you stand, but I can’t currently support republicans in national races. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Scott Peters</span></div>
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Member of the State Assembly 77th district - Brian Maienschein vs Sunda Gover</h5>
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Mainschein is the incumbent. Supports repealing the gas tax. Seems competent. Gover is a real estate agent with a degree in history. She seems fine too. This one seems pretty hotly contested. Gover has been sending me lots of lame negative ads on Maienschein. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Undecided but leaning Brian Maienschein</span></div>
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Associate Justice of the Supreme Court - Carol Corrigan, Leondra Kruger</h5>
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Corrigan dissented against marriage equality twice… but is gay herself? Seems like kind of pragmatic/logistical dissensions though (This should be a question for voters, not judges). LA Times gives a nice endorsement for both. Seems they're more known for competence than ideology which is a good thing on the court. “Retention votes support independent courts that make decisions based on the law and not on popular sentiment or political partisanship.” <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Yes on both</span></div>
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Fourteen Associate Justices, Court of Appeals - Joan Kathleen Irion, Judith L. Haller, Richard D. Huffman, Patricia D. Benke, Cynthia Aaron, William S. Dato, Patricia Guerrero, Douglas P. Miller, Richard T. Fields, Art W. Mckinster, Marsha G. Slough, David A. Thompson, Raymond J Ikola, Thomas M. Goethals</h5>
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So, apparently we have a “hybrid” judicial system where judges are appointed by elected officials then reconfirmed during the first gubernatorial election then every 12 years after that. Given the age of outrage and super partisanship of our times, I don’t really love the idea of voting up/down based on who nominated who. Some of these judges seem to be more ideological than others (in both directions) but I’d prefer judges to stick to judging impartially rather than amplifying their ideology to play to bases or whatever. I like the idea of having a vote as a type of emergency/ejection seat kinda thing, but in the face of gross negligence I think judges should be able to do their jobs without worrying about partisan pandering. I haven't found any gross negligence among these 14 so I’m voting yes on all. This is a really thoughtful breakdown on the individuals running and how you might vote if you wanted to be more proactive about getting ideology off the bench: <a href="http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2018/10/2018-vote-1-gregs-recommendations-on-judicial-races/" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2018/10/2018-vote-1-gregs-recommendations-on-judicial-races/</a> <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Yes on all</span></div>
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Judge of Superior Court no 37</h5>
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Kreep is a guy that seriously needs to get kicked off the bench. Questioned Obama’s birth in Hawaii, was subject to a rare “severe public censure” in 2017 by the state Commission on Judicial Performance for 29 charges that reflected “a pattern of misconduct that demonstrates a lack of judicial temperament,”.<a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/sd-matt-brower-gary-kreep-judge-20181009-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/sd-matt-brower-gary-kreep-judge-20181009-story.html</a> <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Matt Brower</span></div>
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Superintendent of Public Instruction - Marshall Tuck vs Tony K. Thurmond</h5>
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Both Tuck and Thurmond seem like good guys who agree on most stuff. The big difference seems to be their approach towards charter schools. I think I come down on Thurmond’s side who says they need more oversight on their spending. Also seems to be more supportive of equal pay in underfunded schools. <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-road-map-thurmond-tuck-schools-charters-unions-20181021-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-road-map-thurmond-tuck-schools-charters-unions-20181021-story.html</a> LA Times endorses him too: <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/endorsements/la-ed-endorsement-superintendent-public-instruction-20180423-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.latimes.com/opinion/endorsements/la-ed-endorsement-superintendent-public-instruction-20180423-story.html</a> <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Tony K. Thurmond</span></div>
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San Diego Community College District Member, Board of Trustees District A - Diane Hickman vs Maria Nieto Senour</h5>
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Senour has been doing the job well for almost 30 years. Not sure Hickman has a good enough platform to unseat her.<a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/sd-me-communitycolleges-election-20181005-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/sd-me-communitycolleges-election-20181005-story.html</a> <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Maria Nieto Senour</span></div>
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San Diego Community College District Member, Board of Trustees District C - Loren Seth Casuto vs Craig Milgrim</h5>
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Milgrim is the incumbent. Casuto wants to get costs down and transfer/graduation rates up. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Undecided</span></div>
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SDCC Board of Trustees, District E - David Alvarez vs Sean Elo</h5>
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Alvarez is on the city council and hitting his term limit. Seems to admit that he’s just doing this as a gap to another job. He does seem to present more of a plan with what he would want to do. Elo seems to be a competent go-getter who might stay at the job longer. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Undecided</span></div>
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San Diego Unified School District Member, Board of Education District B - Tom Keliinoi vs Kevin Richard Beiser</h5>
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<span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Undecided</span></div>
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San Diego Unified School District Member, Board of Education District C - Marcia Nordstrom vs Michael G McQuary</h5>
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<span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Undecided</span></div>
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Member, Board of Supervisors District No. 4 - Nathan Fletcher vs Bonnie Dumanis</h5>
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Fletcher seems competent. Dumanis seems to have a relatively lengthy history of making bad decisions (prosecuting innocent black kids, taking illegal donations and writing recommendation for that illegal donor's son whom she never met) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_Dumanis#Controversies" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_Dumanis#Controversies</a> <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Nathan Fletcher</span></div>
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City of San Diego, Member City Council District No. 6 - Chris Cate vs Tommy Hough</h5>
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Cate is the incumbent. I've read a lot about both of them and Cate seems to be a smart guy who makes thoughtful decisions. Hough is a former radio personality who seems to bash Cate a lot but I don't see better ideas coming from him. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Chris Cate</span></div>
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Prop 1</h5>
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$4B in bonds to create more affordable housing… I’m for affordable housing, but against debt that is just paid by the taxpayer and benefits the wealthy who are buying the bonds. But it's relatively small (both debt and help). A good <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/sandiego/comments/9tms0o/there_are_60_candidates_propositions_and_measures/e8xqhem/" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">comment</a> below goes into more detail on why a "no" vote makes more sense here. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Undecided</span></div>
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Prop 2</h5>
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Let’s the “millionaire tax” already in place be used for housing for people with mental illness in addition to what it’s already been going for. Seems silly this needs to come to the voters. Easy yes. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Yes</span></div>
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Prop 3</h5>
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We just passed two propositions to do almost the exact same thing written by legislators. This seems to be here thanks to special interests who will benefit greatly from it. All the newspapers are endorsing a no.<a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/endorsements/sd-proposition-3-water-bond-20180911-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/endorsements/sd-proposition-3-water-bond-20180911-story.html</a> <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: No</span></div>
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Prop 4</h5>
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It’s basically a small amount of money that helps fund medical care for those in the greatest need. Every paper endorses this. <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-yes-on-proposition-4-20180925-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-yes-on-proposition-4-20180925-story.html</a> <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Yes</span></div>
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Prop 5</h5>
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Basically gives everyone over 55 keep their super low property taxes whenever they move. It is likely to increase houses for sale, pushing prices housing prices down. But at the cost of tax revenue… Newspapers are split. The big problem is it gives a tax break to people who move UP in house. So basically old rich property owners get to keep this crazy low tax rate. I don’t like the property tax laws in CA, but this isn’t the solution.<a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/endorsements/la-ed-proposition-5-real-estate-20181008-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.latimes.com/opinion/endorsements/la-ed-proposition-5-real-estate-20181008-story.html</a> <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: No</span></div>
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Prop 6</h5>
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Repeal the gas tax. I actually hate that we can only fund road and bridge infrastructure through a gas tax because it’s so regressive. (Poor people pay a huge percentage of income, while rich people pay almost nothing). But it seems like repealing this tax would be devastating for our economy/infrastructure. So I guess we have to vote “no” on this until something better comes along. <a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/sd-prop-6-gas-tax-california-20180920-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/sd-prop-6-gas-tax-california-20180920-story.html</a> <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: No</span></div>
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Prop 7</h5>
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Move to daylight savings time year round. (Meaning it stays light later in the winter). This would only happen if the federal congress lets us. This is an easy yes for me because I would much rather have light later. Studies seem to indicate it either mixed or saves lives from traffic accidents and the such. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Yes</span></div>
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Prop 8</h5>
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This is the really contentious dialysis clinic thing. It tries to impose “revenue limits” on dialysis clinics. It’s just such a stupid rule that would cause more red tape and big profitable clinics to jump through hoops and get richer in some other way. I’m a no as is every newspaper. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: No</span></div>
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Prop 10</h5>
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A “yes” vote basically will let all localities establish rent control if they want… Lots of democrats seem to be for it. It would push down housing prices and maybe make it less attractive to build. I’m going with no vote to prevent tons of different local rent control laws and keep the incentives on new construction. Eleni Kounalakis is against it and I respect her as well. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: No</span></div>
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Prop 11</h5>
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Some nonsense rule about EMTs. Prop 11 seems fine, but essentially is just paid for by some big ambulance company to try to bypass ongoing litigation on the subject with an outcome that just seems fine for everyone. Newspapers are generally for a yes, except SF. It seems fine, but I guess I fall on the side of "big companies shouldn't spend millions to get special interests in the ballot to try to subvert the normal legislative/judicial process" <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: No</span></div>
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Prop 12</h5>
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More space for animals. People generally think more space for animals is a good thing, but say the proposition is vague, possibly unconstitutional, expensive or impossible to enforce or should be legislated on the ballot, but by our elected officials. Prop 8 a few years ago seemed to help. I think we should keep voting in favor of animal rights. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Yes</span></div>
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San Diego County Measures A, C and D</h5>
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Kinda cryptic rules surrounding districts and voting. The UT gives a good endorsement of them all. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Yes on all three</span></div>
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San Diego County Measure B</h5>
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This feels like a gerrymandering attempt to give those in outlying area far more voting power than those who live in the city. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: No</span></div>
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San Diego Measures E & G</h5>
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Whichever gets more votes wins. If neither gets 50%, they both fail. Basically two options for mission valley stadium land. Kinda undecided but the UT gives a mediocre endorsement for no on both:<a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/endorsements/sd-soccercity-sdsu-west-endorsement-20181017-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/endorsements/sd-soccercity-sdsu-west-endorsement-20181017-story.html</a> Personally it seems like E would be a nice place for public use and better money for the city. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/u/dr_nick750" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">/u/dr_nick750</a>has a really good argument <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/sandiego/comments/9tms0o/there_are_60_candidates_propositions_and_measures/e8yexza/" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a> in support of either E or G, but I think E would be the best for everyone. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Yes on E, No on G</span></div>
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San Diego Measures J, K, M & N</h5>
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These seem pretty straightforward and positive with not much controversy. The UT gives a good endorsement of all.<a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/sd-san-diego-measure-j-k-m-n-20181016-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/sd-san-diego-measure-j-k-m-n-20181016-story.html</a> <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Yes on all</span></div>
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San Diego Measure L</h5>
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Vote to lock city council members and mayor’s pay based on judges and other state employees. The UT actually says to vote no, but I think that’s insane. Our elected officials have crazy low salaries ($74K/year for city council… less than tons of other government employees). They keep voting to keep it low to avoid political blowback from opponents. But that artificially low salary just keeps good honest people from being able to afford to run, or encourages corrupt people to get kickbacks. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Yes</span></div>
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San Diego Measure H</h5>
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The UT gives a confusing dissent. One one hand they say term limits are bad because it means less experienced people are in office who can eff it up. But then they say the people want SHORTER term limits (one or two) whereas the measure suggest a 3 term limit. I actually think 3 terms (12 years) is a pretty good way to keep new blood and avoid stagnation… but plenty long enough to have experienced people. And in the UT’s article they say only 12% of people want a 3 term limit, but they don’t add up the percentages to show 89% want SOME term limits. <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px;">My vote: Yes</span></div>
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San Diego Measure YY</h5>
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Higher property taxes for school money. The UT says no because schools aren’t that good at spending their money. But even the examples they give seem pretty weak. All of the world’s problems fundamentally come down to education. I vote for better funded schools. <a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/sd-san-diego-school-bond-yy-20181019-story.html" style="color: #0079d3; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/sd-san-diego-school-bond-yy-20181019-story.html</a> <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">My vote: Yes</span></div>
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Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-45358751475813102862014-05-11T11:30:00.001-07:002014-05-11T11:30:17.156-07:00Rails: translation missing: en.hello_worldI've just been tearing my hair out for the last hour or two trying to get the simplest "hello world" application working with internationalization (i18n) on my rails app. No matter what I did, I kept getting the "translation missing" message. I tried tweaking the load paths, changing how it was called, everything. My "out of the box" en.yml file looked like this:<br />
<br />
<code><br />
# Sample localization file for English. Add more files in this directory for other locales.<br />
# See https://github.com/svenfuchs/rails-i18n/tree/master/rails%2Flocale for starting points.<br />
<br />
en:<br />
hello: "Hello world"<br />
<br />
en:<br />
time:<br />
formats:<br />
w3c: "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S+00:00"<br />
</code><br />
<br />
After killing myself, it turns out having two "en:" in that file was causing it to quietly break. Apparently .yml files are notorious for quietly breaking. Changing it to the following fixed it:<br />
<br />
<code><br />
# Sample localization file for English. Add more files in this directory for other locales.<br />
# See https://github.com/svenfuchs/rails-i18n/tree/master/rails%2Flocale for starting points.<br />
<br />
en:<br />
hello: "Hello world"<br />
<br />
time:<br />
formats:<br />
w3c: "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S+00:00"<br />
</code><br />
<br />
fml. Hopefully this helps.Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-86936572104073931432013-12-12T17:09:00.003-08:002013-12-12T17:09:16.183-08:00Is It Gluten-Free?If you liked our last 24 hour project, <a href="http://www.whatsthatcharge.com/">What's That Charge?!</a> You're going to also like our newest one: <a href="http://www.isglutenfree.com/">Is Gluten-Free?!</a> Google is the user interface, and Is Gluten-Free is there to help you quickly figure out if whatever you're about to stuff into your face hole is gluten-free or not.Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-33462613855485585652013-11-07T12:59:00.003-08:002013-11-07T12:59:59.783-08:00How old are NFL players?I was wondering how old are NFL players. Or, how old am I compared to NFL players, so I downloaded all of the NFL rosters as of 11/7/2013 and charted the ages! Here are some stats:<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Youngest: <b>21 (23 players)</b></div>
<div>
Oldest: <b>40 (Adam Vinatieri)</b></div>
<div>
Average: <b>26.1</b></div>
<div>
Median: <b>25</b></div>
<div>
25th Percentile: <b>24</b></div>
<div>
75th Percentile: <b>28</b></div>
<div>
95th Percentile: <b>32</b></div>
<div>
99th Percentile: <b>36</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
So basically, if you're over 30, you're older than 85% of the NFL. If you're over 40, well. You're not in the NFL. Here's the frequency distribution chart of ages:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIHQN1A5qc3jypAKTlH3x5SQN74NPSE5EWi2qL0pA_CaT66e5zeEiS5zgoMbj95uLvJ9hFvG8YfGxHvNKLX3Dz3lMbUCiIOi-yVW_XJXWYRNQq_pUALvkRiVuRmZXqM7Yo215L/s1600/NflPlayersAgesChart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIHQN1A5qc3jypAKTlH3x5SQN74NPSE5EWi2qL0pA_CaT66e5zeEiS5zgoMbj95uLvJ9hFvG8YfGxHvNKLX3Dz3lMbUCiIOi-yVW_XJXWYRNQq_pUALvkRiVuRmZXqM7Yo215L/s1600/NflPlayersAgesChart.png" /></a></div>
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Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-30073197698076548872012-03-15T23:12:00.001-07:002012-03-15T23:12:16.323-07:00Newest 24 hour idea: What's That Charge?!Dan and I just launched our newest "24 hour" idea, <a href="http://www.whatsthatcharge.com/">What's That Charge?!</a> You know how sometimes you see <a href="http://www.whatsthatcharge.com/">strange or cryptic looking charges on your credit card statement</a>? I often google them to see what the heck it is, but there doesn't seem to be a site out there that indexes these charges. That's where What's That Charge?! Comes in. The user interface is google. Just google the strange charges that come up on your statement, and hopefully What's That Charge?! comes up in the results and has your answer for you!Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-64613898006900665252011-10-19T19:34:00.000-07:002011-10-19T19:34:11.618-07:00Fine Lines StudiosThose interested in <a href="http://www.finelinesstudios.com/">permanent makeup in San Diego</a> should check out <a href="http://www.finelinesstudios.com/">Fine Lines Studios</a>! My friend Karey runs it and she does a fantastic job! :)Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-51239466004915046602011-10-14T10:25:00.000-07:002011-10-14T10:25:33.031-07:00Super Wok Pacific Beach, San Diego Chinese Food Take OutI just wanted to give a shout out to my favorite <a href="http://www.superwokpb.com/">chinese restaurant in Pacific Beach</a>! Check out the new website for <a href="http://www.superwokpb.com/">Super Wok</a>!Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-86164219258735119122011-01-31T11:18:00.000-08:002011-01-31T11:24:54.364-08:00Web Listings, Inc. is a SCAMThese things really piss me off: I just got a letter in the mail that looks identical to an invoice from "Web Listings, Inc." It is actually a solicitation to try to get me to transfer a domain to them. Transferring a domain should cost around $10, but they are charging $85.<div>
</div><div>You can tear off the little bottom portion, fill in the "Amount Paid" and return it in their envelope (not pre-paid, unfortunately) to "pay your bill. There is ONE LINE (which I'm sure they need to include to be barely in compliance with the law) that says "This is not a bill...", but they obviously exist solely on misinformed, busy people who don't understand domain names and think this is a real invoice from a generic sounding company they have done business with before. </div><div>
</div><div>Transferring a domain to them is a TERRIBLE idea. If you're reading this and you've already paid, do NOT go through with the registration. Keep your domain with a reputable registrar or you'll probably be paying $85 every year instead of $10 and I'm sure you'll have a huge headache if you ever try to transfer away.</div><div>
</div><div>Anyway, these guys are theives as far as I'm concerned. Hopefully a spam bot is reading this and can e-mail them at: <a href="mailto:info@web-listings.net">info@web-listings.net</a></div><div>
</div><div>
</div>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-62992648330937388582010-11-15T23:31:00.000-08:002010-11-16T00:07:17.745-08:00BMI is Bullshit! (BMI of pro athletes)I was cruising reddit today and saw a comment where a redditor was a bit disappointed that according to his BMI, he was (just barely) classified as "overweight". For those who don't know, BMI stands for Body Mass Index and is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index">stupid formula</a> that divides your weight by your height squared.<div>
</div><div>BMI MIGHT have some value when determining the health of a very large population, but for an individual it is totally useless and probably dangerous! To make my point, I replied to the comment that most professional athletes would be considered OBESE according to their BMI. That got me thinking about what a pro athlete's BMI would actually be. Luckily for me, heights and weights of athletes are readily available on their rosters, so I went to work!</div><div>
</div><div>I studied the Detroit teams, because they have a team in every major sport and it's my home town!</div><div>
</div><div><div>BMI defines the following categories:</div><div><ul><li>Underweight = Under 18.5</li><li>Normal weight = 18.5–24.9</li><li>Overweight = 25–29.9</li><li>Obesity = 30 or greater</li></ul></div></div><div>Overall, there are 115 pro athletes on Detroit rosters. Their total average BMI is <b>28.3! </b>Yep... the average Detroit pro athlete is overweight and approaching obese!</div><div>
</div><div>The number of athletes by category is:</div><div><ul><li>Underweight: 0 (0.0%)</li><li>Normal: 24 (20.9%)</li><li>Overweight: 64 (55.7%)</li><li>Obese: 27 (23.5%)</li></ul><div>The Lions had the highest BMI with an average of 31.2 (Obese) and 49.1% of their team falling in the obese category. Only one player was "normal" (cornerback Chris Houston at 5'11, 178 with a BMI of 24.8) and quarterback Matt Stafford snuck in JUST under obese at 6'2, 232 with a BMI of 29.8. <a href="http://www.stilettosetsports.com/wp-content/uploads/matt-stafford-muscles1.jpg">Here's a photo</a> of what an almost-obese person looks like.</div></div><div>
</div><div>Next fattest were the Red Wings at 27.2 (overweight), then the Tigers at 27.0 (overweight) and finally the Pistons got into the normal range just under the wire at 24.6.</div><div>
</div><div>At any rate, unless you think that 80% of pro athletes are overweight and need to lose weight, then it's probably time to realize that BMI is total bullshit!</div><div>
</div><div>Of course the REASON it's bullshit is that it doesn't take into account musculature, fitness, strength, endurance or any other reasonable measure of health or fitness. </div><div>
</div><div>For the same reasons, I think weight is a terrible measure of fitness! Screw the scale. </div><div>
</div><div>If you want a better measure of fitness, may I suggest:</div><div><ul><li>Mile time</li><li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MGljX4bbps">Burpees</a> in 20 minutes</li><li>The mirror (not so easily measurable)</li></ul><div>Seriously. Run a mile or do burpees for 20 minutes and see if you can improve THAT number. If you can improve one of those two by 20% the mirror test will improve considerably! Don't obsess over the scale... it just leads to yo-yo dieting and a slowed metabolism. Obsess over your burpees in 20 minutes score and you'll get fit!</div></div>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-85588625725896865662010-05-17T00:47:00.000-07:002010-05-17T00:55:39.562-07:00Netgear XAV101 Powerline Networking - Syncing or adding a deviceI just wrestled with adding a 3rd Netgear XAV101 powerline networking device to my network. The main problem is that the documenation is blatantly wrong. To press the security or factory reset buttons, <b>you do NOT hold them down. You just click them once.</b> I kept getting stuck in the stage with two green lights on (first and third) implying the device was not paired correctly.<div>
</div><div>The steps I followed to get everything working with a custom private key:<div><ol><li>Go to each unit in your network and click the "factory reset" button once.</li><li>Once everything is reset go to device #1 and press the "security" button once, then go to device #2 and press the security button once. </li><li>Wait two minutes. (I think you have to pair 2 devices before you can add a third)</li><li>To add the 3rd (or 4th or 5th) device. Click the "factory reset" button (why not?) and wait a few seconds. </li><li>Press the security button on device #3, then press the security button on device #2. That should pair #3 to the first two.</li></ol><div>The Netgear documentation says you need to hold these buttons down for two or 10 seconds. When we did that, it seemed to make sure that nothing happened whatsoever!</div></div></div>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-26334680315757924082010-01-21T17:04:00.000-08:002010-01-28T12:05:36.104-08:00TempGetStateItemExclusive3 called repeatedly - SQL Server requests timing out from ASP.NET<div><b>UPDATE 1/28/10: </b>Ok, so the solution I provide below, isn't actually the fix. The SQL Agent being off was actually a side-effect of restarting the SQL Server. Turning it back on certainly helped things, but we still have seen this blocking issue since this fix was in. I currently have a <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2156876/sql-server-requests-time-out-as-tempgetstateitemexclusive-is-getting-called-conti">question</a> into stack overflow about this.</div><div>
<hr />
</div>I just spent the last couple days trying to track down an issue with SQL performance where there seemed to be a blocking or hanging issue causing SQL requests to timeout. Doing a <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sql+profiler">profiler</a> trace, I found a stored procedure called TempGetStateItemExclusive3 (TempGetStateItemExclusive in older versions) getting called over and over seemingly grinding the server to a halt.<div>
</div><div>It turns out, the issue was with the ASP.NET Session State stored in SQL Server. Lots of internet searches didn't turn up much. There is an <a href="http://kbalertz.com/312112/Session-Saved-Session-State.aspx">old bug</a> in .NET 1.0 that had to do with serialization of objects. I also found a <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939866/">promising looking hot fix</a> that seems to address this exact issue (but it wasn't our solution).</div><div>
</div><div>Our problem ended up being that the ASPStateTempSessions table (stored in either tempdb or ASPState) was growing out of control because no old sessions were ever deleted. Looking up session data then became uber-slow causing ASP.NET to timeout waiting for the session (at which point it tries again, amplifying the problem). You can check how many active session rows you have by doing a simple query like this:</div><div>
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"> select COUNT(*) from ASPStateTempSessions </span></div><div>
</div><div>The cause for this out of control growth was that our <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=sql+server+agent">SQL Server Agent</a> was turned of for some reason, so old sessions were never cleaned up.</div><div>
</div><div>The fix was to turn the SQL Server Agent back on and make sure the ASPState_Job_DeleteExpiredSessions job is running. We also had to turn on the "SQL Server Agent (MSSQLSERVER)" in the Services section of Windows and make sure the Startup Type is automatic. Our session count is now hovering around 1500 (but I suspect this number would vary vastly based on traffic, the important thing is to make sure it doesn't grow out of control).</div><div>
</div><div>Hopefully this helps someone out there, or at least gives you some ideas for ways to track down the problem!</div><div>
</div><div>
</div>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-22286645840690406152009-11-20T13:19:00.000-08:002009-11-20T14:45:28.652-08:00Hyperfit USA ReviewI've been working out at <a href="http://www.hyperfitusa.com/">Hyperfit USA</a> in Ann Arbor, MI for over a year now and I've been meaning to share my thoughts about it, so here it goes!<div>
</div><div><b>First, some background about me</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>I was always an active kid but certainly no savant at sports, and eventually found my athletic "home" on the track team in high school. I had a successful high school career and continued running in college at the University of Michigan and was a pretty decent college runner. My one remaining claim to fame is that I still hold a U of M school record in the 600m dash (1:17.33 for anyone who knows what a good 600 time is). I also ran 46.8 and 1:49.8 in the 400 and 800. I was actually even <a href="http://www2.iaaf.org/Results/lists/2001/Indoor/G/M/600.html">ranked 4th in the world</a> in the 600 in 2001 (but admittedly, it's not a world champs event so fewer people run it)</div><div>
</div><div><b>After college</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>It's a weird time for a lot of people because almost all of the structure that school or college provided evaporates. I wasn't quite good enough to kid myself into thinking I should be training for a post-collegiate track career so my motivation to train at a high level kind of died. There were quite a few years there where I didn't do much of anything, fitness wise. I did still run a bit recreationally, doing a 5k here and there, but nothing serious. I may not have known it, but I was in pretty terrible shape. Here's a picture of me which has to be near my wimpiest:</div><div>
</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2649/3677459691_8de2112670.jpg"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2649/3677459691_8de2112670.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px; " /></a></div><div>
</div><div><b>Getting back into it</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>One day, I got struck with some inspiration to get into shape. I used to think "in shape" meant the ability to jog a 4:30 mile or run sub 50 in the 400 after being woken up in the middle of the night. But even looking back at college, I wasn't "totally fit", I was just fast at running. So, I bought a weight set on craigslist and started doing bench press in my basement. I was getting back into shape! (Or so I thought)</div><div>
</div><div><b>What's Hyperfit?</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>Fast forward a couple years, and I had been getting more serious about fitness, working out at a gym at least a few times a week, mixed in with running, hill repeats, etc. I started hearing from a few different friends about this CrossFit thing and my roommate started working out at Hyperfit. Since I had been working out, I think we'd both admit that I was in better shape than him, but after hearing what was going on at Hyperfit I knew he was closing the gap fast, so I had to get in on that. I e-mailed Doug, and set up my first intro session!</div><div>
</div><div><b>Some Reservations</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>I originally had some reservations about working out at Hyperfit... I wanted to workout like <b><i>I </i></b>liked to work out. In my case, that meant focusing on my "glamour" muscles to make my body look as good as possible (and ignoring the "core" and legs, because who cares?). At some point, in my aged wisdom though, I decided that I would just get into incredible shape, then whatever my body looks like would be the way it should look.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Pukey Pukey</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>The "intro WOD (workout of the day)" is as follows: Row 500 meters, do 40 air squats, 30 situps, 20 pushups, 10 pullups in succession, as fast as you can. I had been working out and was a college athlete, so figured I could blow this workout away. I even cheated a little by training for it before I got there. Well, the workout basically blew me away. I think my time was around 6 minutes and I was JUST shy of puking for about 30 minutes afterwards. THAT sure brought back memories. When I got to the pullups, I was trashed. At the gym, with tons of rest, I could rip of 10 pullups no problem, but after doing all that other stuff I could barely reach up to hold on to the bar. The workout made a mockery of me! </div><div>
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">So what makes Hyperfit different?</span></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>A lot of things:</div><div><ul><li><b>Group based workouts:</b> You can't just show up to the gym and piss around on machines for half an hour then walk out. You show up to scheduled workouts and are forced to work your ass off because everyone else is working their ass off doing the exact same measurable workout and you don't want to look like a pansy. (Not looking like a pansy was my motivation through most of my 10 years of competitive running)</li><li><b>Total body fitness: </b>Everything at Hyperfit is designed around total fitness. I have yet to do bench press or bicep curls here. (Although my chest and biceps are stronger than they've ever been). Instead more total body complex exercises are performed, like push ups, pullups, olympic lifts, rowing, kettlebell swings, wall balls, rope climbing, running, various barbell and dumbbell exercises and more (if you don't know what those are, don't worry). My "core" is stronger than it's ever been and it gives me a lot of confidence in day to day life and athletic activities!</li><li><b>Randomization: </b>The workout you do each day is set when you get there and is always (much) different than what you did last time you came. Any fitness expert will tell you one of the keys to improving strength and endurance is to "surprise" your body and your muscles with something different. If you go to the gym and do the same thing every day you're only getting a tiny percent of the benefit out of it that you should be. This doesn't happen at Hyperfit.</li><li><b>Experts: </b>Personal trainers are expensive. Hyperfit's "group based" workouts offer the best of both worlds. You have expert trainers there who know you by name, teaching you the moves, assigning the workouts and encouraging you to work your ass off, but the cost is shared among all of the members.</li><li><b>Measurable: </b>While you never do the same workout twice in a row, there are a set of "benchmark" workouts that we do a lot. They're all measurable (usually time, reps or weight based) so you can look at how you're improving over time. Tracking your performance is key to improvement or you end up just not caring and plateauing quickly.</li><li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>Photos and Video: </b>Pretty much every workout is photographed and video taped by the trainer running it. It's fun to ego-surf the photos and videos, plus gives you a chance to take a look at your form on the various exercises. </span></b></li><li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "></span>It's for everybody: </b>When I mention Hyperfit to friends, the most common objection I get is "but that must be for crazy good athletes". No, crazy good athletes are already in great shape, YOU are the one that needs Hyperfit. Everything at hyperfit is scaled. That means stronger members may be doing shoulder presses with 180lbs, but new members can scale the weight down to a PVC pipe if that's where they are at. Everything scales: pushups, pullups, weights, reps, etc. In fact, I highly recommend checking your ego at the door your first few months and going VERY light on the weights or you might end up VERY sore like I did. Hyperfit is certainly embraced by current and former athletes, but I think it's the out-of-shape non-athlete that really needs it, because you get a window into what workout out is REALLY supposed to be like while you get into the shape of your life!</li><li><b>Results! </b>The bottom line is that the combination of the things above equal results. If you're going to the gym and doing the "elliptical" for 60 minutes while you read a magazine, you're quite literally wasting your time. At Hyperfit, you can do in 5 minutes what 60 minutes of the elliptical can't touch.</li></ul><div><div><b>Now What?</b></div><div>
</div><div>Now a bit over a year of working out at Hyperfit and I did the "intro wod" the other day in 4:06 blowing through each exercise with zero rest. (taking 30%+ off your time is a lot). Yesterday I did 150 pushups and 150 pullups (5 of each, every minute on the minute for 30 minutes, a workout I couldn't have dreamed of doing a couple years go). I'm also having a lot of fun! It's nice to get out and see people after a long day of staring at a screen. Despite not focusing on my "glamour" muscles, I'm pretty sure my body looks better than it ever has. Here are a couple more recent photos taken at Hyperfit:</div>
<p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerschneid/2861451231/" title="IMG_9305 by jerschneid, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3106/2861451231_bd445c911e.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="IMG_9305" /></a>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerschneid/2861451441/" title="IMG_9368 by jerschneid, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2268/2861451441_6139cfb3d5.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="IMG_9368" /></a>
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</div>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-36171380749011653362009-09-07T10:22:00.000-07:002009-09-07T10:53:00.747-07:00"Lens error, restart camera" - PowerShot SD750<p><b>Problem:</b> My camera's lens (PowerShot SD750) recently stopped retracting after probably getting some sand in the mechanism from the beach. It would give the dreaded "Lens error, restart camera" warning message. I read everything I could, but nothing I did fixed it. I went as far as taking the camera apart, tiny screws and all before I finally chickened out and put it back together.</p>
<p><b>Options:</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Try cleaning it. I tried, but nothing worked</li>
<li>Buy a new one... pricey and feeding our "throw away" mentality</li>
<li>Sell the broken one used on ebay for 80ish bucks and buy a working used one on ebay for 150ish bucks. Probably my best answer but still 70ish bucks and a lot of hassle</li>
<li>Get it fixed. Canon, apparently, charges $200 (more than the cost of the camera). I called local shops and they said they just send the camera to canon</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Solution:</b> Well, DURING my shopping on ebay for a used camera, I found a <a href="http://myworld.ebay.com/lildaver/">guy selling the repair for "Lens error, restart camera" for $64</a>. He had excellent feedback (a lot of which looked like it was for this repair service). So I gave it a go. I'd rather have my own camera back anyway. So I shipped it and VERY quickly he got it and shipped it back. Within a few days. I got it, turned it on and "LENS ERROR, RESTART CAMERA". Ugh... I was a little discouraged, but he seemed responsive so I wasn't too worried. But it turned out that there was just some moisture or something on the lens and I cleaned that off and it's been working perfectly ever since!</p>
<p><b>Summary:</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://myworld.ebay.com/lildaver/">Guy who fixes "Lens error, restart camera" for $64</a></li>
<li><a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180396006750#ht_1790wt_1178">The auction I bought</a></li>
</ul>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-18580996796362419122009-05-04T09:06:00.000-07:002012-09-17T10:58:14.686-07:00CUSTOMER SERVICE WATER ANN ARBOR MI<p>Another weird looking item on my credit card statement, this one with no phone number:</p><blockquote><a href="http://www.whatsthatcharge.com/CUSTOMER-SERVICE-WATER-ANN-ARBOR-MI"><br />
CUSTOMER SERVICE WATER ANN ARBOR MI</a></blockquote><p>It actually was referring to a parking ticket I paid at city hall. Very descriptive.</p><p>Maybe there needs to be a website for users to report these.</p><p><b>Update:</b> A better place to look up unknown charges is on <a href="http://www.whatsthatcharge.com/">What's That Charge?!</a></p>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-91538246796956717562009-04-24T15:49:00.000-07:002009-04-24T15:54:37.590-07:00SQL Server full text search returns no results, won't index new rows (Error '0x80040e09')<p>So... I just spent the last hour or two pulling my hair out trying to figure out why none of the full-text searches were working on a specific table of my database. (SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced Features). Here's what I learned.</p>
<p><strong>Problem:</strong> SQL Server full-text search will not index new rows after a certain date. After dropping and rebuilding the index all full-text searches return NO results on that table. When this happened, it was only happening on one specific table and all other tables were acting normally. I eventually dug way down into the SQL full text error log and found an error like this: "Error '0x80040e09' occurred during full-text"... This happened after switching to a new database server.</p>
<p><strong>Solution:</strong> Reboot the server. (Are you kidding me?)</p>
<p>Hope this saves someone an hour or two.</p>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-6626830668277280332009-04-20T13:16:00.000-07:002009-04-20T13:17:49.075-07:00SuperSimpleStorageService.comThose looking for a high-volume, low-cost, totally useless hosted storage solution should check out Amazon S3's newest non-competitor:
<a href="http://www.supersimplestorageservice.com/">S4, SuperSimpleStorageService.com</a>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-63527331015994820832009-04-20T13:15:00.000-07:002009-04-20T13:16:12.711-07:00MAPDEMOGMAPDEMOG is <a href="http://www.dyngeometry.com/">DynamicGeometry</a>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-7730146266022740032009-01-25T14:17:00.000-08:002009-01-25T14:29:31.553-08:00Back in Lima, heading home tomorrow!<p>Jess and I made it back to Lima this morning after a 15 hour bus ride. Jess is getting on a plane tonight and I get on a plane tomorrow night at around 11. We had a great day in Arequipa yesterday and did get to go white water rafting! The boat almost flipped and when it did, Jess and I were 2 of the 3 people that sucessfully did not fall out of the boat!
</p>
<p>Today we hung out on the beach in the hot, hot sun, and I'm hoping that my sunscreen did its work! I am TOO worn out from the sun to try to monkey with pictures, but I'll upload them all when I get back on Tuesday!
</p>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-24073615895978336752009-01-23T12:48:00.000-08:002009-01-23T13:06:41.030-08:00Made it to Arequipa!We made it to Arequipa safe and sound! Today we're just hanging out and checking out the city. Tomorrow, we're going white water rafting, then getting an overnight bus back to Lima for Jess' flight home!
<p>
I've finally got my camera cord so I was able to upload a few images!
<p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerschneid/3220295459/" title="Peru 2009 031 by jerschneid, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3109/3220295459_e4521be6e7.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Peru 2009 031" /></a>
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The beginning of our 4 day trek, riding bikes down a big mountain in the rain! We ran into a river flowing over the road... We had to load our bikes back onto our van which was able to drive over the water which was at least 8 inches deep or so and flowing fast!
<p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerschneid/3220300081/" title="Peru 2009 038 by jerschneid, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3500/3220300081_c5767e9eb1.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Peru 2009 038" /></a><br />
Posing in front of another river on the bike tour
<p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerschneid/3220303243/" title="Peru 2009 129 by jerschneid, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3449/3220303243_e3ccb18e30.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Peru 2009 129" /></a><br />
Jess and I during our 13 mile hike on the 2nd day of our 4 day bike/hike/Machu Picchu trek! Jess is doing something new with her hair... can you spot it?
<p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerschneid/3220307753/" title="Peru 2009 248 by jerschneid, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3119/3220307753_2f9a8163ec.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Peru 2009 248" /></a>
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Day four of our hike in front of Machu Picchu! Pictures definitely don´t do this place justice!Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-16405542503923508302009-01-22T11:17:00.000-08:002009-01-22T11:27:36.257-08:00Back in Cusco, heading to Arequipa tonight!<p>We successfully finished our mini-trek and it was a blast! Our last day we got up at FOUR AM (I think I mentioned that last time) to hike up the Machu Picchu mountain. Other than the early hour it was really awesome. Machu Picchu is really unbelievable. In short, it's this huge Incan city made of rock and was abandoned only about 500 years ago! The Incans were living there and building this incredible city in the Mountains when they got word that the Spanish were coming to kill them and destroy their cities and build nice churches on top of the wreckage.</p>
<p>I think Machu Picchu get so much attention because it was one of the few Incan cities that avoided that fate. Scholars think it was because the Incans, in anticipation of the Spanish coming, burned down their own city (leaving only the rock walls, pottery and other non-burnables) and hid all the paths to the city. They did this so the Spanish couldn't follow the paths and use the city as a camp for their men.</p>
<p>ANYWAY, it was great. I have awesome photos, but unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera cord with me today, so they'll have to wait for another day. Tonight we're getting on an overnight bus at 9pm to arive in Arequipa tomorrow morning. We're hopefully going to do some fun stuff, like white water rafting! Then only a couple more days 'til Jess flies home on the 25th and I fly home on the 26th!</p>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-13878045562239647822009-01-20T18:43:00.000-08:002009-01-20T19:07:04.527-08:00On a 4 day, 3 night trek, Going to Machu Picchu tomorrow!Sorry for the posting delay! After I arrived in Lima, we got up the next morning and hopped on a plane to Cusco which is the biggest city that acts as a staging ground for trips to Machu Picchu. When we got into Cusco we booked a 4 day/3 night trek that ends at Machu Picchu, which will be tomorrow!
<br><br>
That trip started at 8am the next day and we've had no Internet access until now. There is a world famous "Inca Trail" that is a multi-day hike to Machu Picchu but that is really pricey and generally requires 6-9 months advanced booking. SO: Our trip takes us on the <i>OTHER</i> Inca trail. Which is just as awesome, as far as I know, but less expensive... and easier to book.
<br><br>
The first day, we drove in vans to the top of a mountain... I think around 4,000 meters? Well, it was way too snowy and sleety and cold up there, so we drove closer to 3,000 meters (I'm making most of these numbers up) and they let us off and we BIKED DOWN on bicycles they provided. It was really fun. It was never too steep. It was cold and raining at the top, but by the bottom it was probably 80 degrees and sunny. It took a long time for the whole bike... probably 4 or 5 hours? One girl fell off her bike and sliced open her arm, but luckily one of the 12 people on our trip is a medical student from Argentina and SHE did the stiches to help the girl!
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The NEXT two days were long hikes... 13 miles and 10 miles or something like that. We ended up at some awesome natural hot springs buried in the mountains last night. The trails are incredibly cool and incredibly rural. We passed a lot of native Peruvians and it's amazing to think how our lives would be different if we lived in these tiny huts seemingly hundreds of miles from civilazation. Despite being hard to imagine how different our lives would be, we've tried and here's what we came up with:
<ul>
<li>We would watch fewer YouTube videos</li>
<li>We would go on more hikes</li>
<li>We wouldn't care as much about Obama being president</li>
<li>Fewer facebook friends</li>
<li>We would have more pet dogs and cats (they're everwhere)</li>
<li>We wouldn't care as much about who will be the next American Idol</li>
<li>We would care way more about who will be the next Peruvian Idol</li>
</ul>
<p>
So tonight, we're crashing in Aguas Calientes, and tomorrow at FOUR AM we are hiking up 1600 steps to Machu Picchu. (Apparently in South America they have a four AM in addition to the more traditional four PM)
</p>
<p>I didn't bring my camera cord on this mini-trek, so this is all for now! Hopefully I'll have pictures later</p>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-2159420508330550732009-01-17T09:25:00.001-08:002009-01-17T09:28:12.671-08:00Arrived in Lima, Peru! Heading to CuscoI have officially arrived in Lima and successfully found Jessica, making the most difficult portion of my trip complete! It was a fairly uneventful travel. A guy from the hostel even came to the airport with a sign that said my name to pick me up and take me back! Pretty lucky. I´m kind of a big wig around here. Jessica also missed a boycott of some sort that shut down all busses between Ecuador and Peru. That would have left us stranded in different countries, EXCEPT the boycott luckily started a day after she got through!
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We´re headed to Cusco which is the city closest to Machu Picchu, which we´ll hopefully see in the next day or two!Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-15330566846548282502008-12-19T15:35:00.000-08:002008-12-19T15:39:53.623-08:00Simple way to Draw a Circle with Google MapsThe Google Maps API doesn't provide a "draw circle" function for free, so you're left to your own devices to draw an approximation of a circle using the GPolyline object.<br /><br />
Here's a really basic circle drawing example adapted from the more complex example below. My simple example:<br /><br />
<a href="http://www.herculessolutions.com/GoogleMapsSimpleCircle.htm">http://www.herculessolutions.com/GoogleMapsSimpleCircle.htm</a>
<br /><br />
The more complex example with dragable points and more:<br /><br />
<a href="http://maps.huge.info/dragcircle2.htm">http://maps.huge.info/dragcircle2.htm</a>Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9513806.post-2187171855480314592008-04-24T10:50:00.000-07:002008-04-24T14:05:27.930-07:00How does ChaCha make money?I just found out about <a href="http://www.chacha.com">ChaCha.com</a> and had one pressing question: "How does ChaCha generate revenue?". Well, I dutifully texted that question into ChaCha and got this response:
<br /><br />
<blockquote>
ChaCha earns revenue from advertising on its website and through its strategic partnerships. Please text more questions to answer! http://chacha.com/u/theyxbp3
</blockquote>
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I don't see any advertising on their site, so I guess I don't really buy that answer. I think the real answer is, "ChaCha doesn't generate revenue yet, but hopefully we will some day, somehow". Or maybe they're funded by phone companies for some reason?Jeremy Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06548367362072602257noreply@blogger.com5