Computers & Technology

If The Price of Gas Matters to Your Family Budget, You Are Doing It Wrong

December 23, 2011 By Joshua Kennon 1 Comment

Inflation-Adjusted Gasoline Prices Copyright Thinkstock

The Lesson: It is not the cost of a gallon of gasoline that counts. It is the inflation-adjusted cost of a mile driven that matters. As I read the Chicago Tribune, I came across an Associated Press article called Gas Takes Its Biggest Bite Out of Family Budget In 30 Years. That piece states: When holiday travel is over, the typical American household will have spent $4,155 filling up this year, a record. That is 8.4 percent of what the median family takes in, the highest share since … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Computers & Technology, Cool Stuff

Mail Bag: Why Did You Switch Your Company to Mac from Windows?

October 5, 2011 By Joshua Kennon Leave a Comment

Note: Reports announce that Steve Jobs just died at the moment I was about the publish this. Update: Turns out the reports were true. I wrote about it here. Here's a technology question from a reader who wants to know why we switched headquarters for Kennon & Green to Mac from Windows. Josh, I notice a lot of your background seems to be in tech and IT. At least the laymen's version of it since I get the impression you were self-taught when you started your first online business. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Computers & Technology, Mail Bag

The Site Is Now Being Replicated on Amazon Web Services’ Cloudfront and S3

July 28, 2011 By Joshua Kennon Leave a Comment

As the site continues to grow, one of the things that is going to be important is the speed at which it loads. Six months ago, I moved to a virtual private server at the time we rolled out design upgrades, expanded comment features including email notification, the online membership services (which still have yet to be developed but the technology is in place), and a host of other upgrades. Last night, the site began cacheing itself to Amazon Cloudfront and S3. Long story short, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Announcements, Computers & Technology

The Fortune 500+ Web App Rules

May 5, 2011 By Joshua Kennon 2 Comments

Fortune 1000 and Fortune 500 Web App Food Companies

This morning, I bought an annual subscription to the Fortune 500+ web app, which cost only $9 for the year. You can use it to sort and filter the 1000 companies in the Fortune list, viewing by sector or industry, profit margins, return on assets, return on equity, sales, absolute profits, and more. It's really well done except the inability to print. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Accounting & Finance, Computers & Technology, Stocks

The Luxeed U7 Keyboards with LED Backlights Arrived And Are Really Cool

April 22, 2011 By Joshua Kennon Leave a Comment

The Luxeed U7 keyboards with the LED backlights that can be individually programmed finally arrived! They are awesome. I took out my iPhone and grabbed a few pictures as we played around with the settings. The only thing I don't like is they tend to have a downward slope and I prefer a very shallow key press but these are a bit deeper. I'll adjust. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Computers & Technology, Cool Stuff

We Bought Two New Luxeed LED U7 Colored Keyboards for the Office

April 19, 2011 By Joshua Kennon Leave a Comment

Long story short: Last night, Aaron and I watched Tron:Legacy and that made me want a new keyboard. I almost bought the Tron keyboard until I came across the Luxeed LED U7 colored keyboard line. Each individual key can be programmed to display patterns, respond to behavior, fit into a color scheme, etc. I couldn't decide if I wanted the white clear Luxeed U7 or the black opaque Luxeed U7. My solution was to just buy both. I can decide later. You can even do cool javascript and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Computers & Technology, Cool Stuff

Writing from a 3G iPad 2 in the Car as Aaron Orders McDonald’s Shakes

March 30, 2011 By Joshua Kennon Leave a Comment

This post is actually being written in the car on my new 3G iPad 2. I installed the Wordpress app, integrated it with the site, and am now able to see your comments and submissions, edit posts, and more all from anywhere that gets a cellular signal. In fact, the last round of comment replies all came from the iPad using the Wordpress App and my newest About.com article, which I am going to post later today, was written on it as well. This thing rocks for productivity. If I had a long … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Computers & Technology

The Banking Industry Is Changing

March 27, 2011 By Joshua Kennon Leave a Comment

This afternoon, the family came over for dinner and I was in my home study reading the U.S. Bancorp annual report for 2010. One of the pages was talking about the company's technology initiatives. Since I keep a handful of small deposit accounts there to handle my day-to-day needs, I downloaded the iPhone app, setup the access codes and security questions, went through a verification process, and finally designated my existing phone as an authorized device. I then took a check that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Computers & Technology

Roambi Is My New Favorite Business Tool

March 25, 2011 By Joshua Kennon Leave a Comment

I am crazy about Roambi. Strike that. I'm nuts about Roambi. Since it is possible you don't even know what Roambi is, I should probably backup for a minute. What Is Roambi? Roambi is a data analytics tool that allows you to put data into spreadsheet format and then transform it into a "Roambi". This file is interactive and allows you to manipulate, scale, screen, and visualize data to make better decisions about your business, life, investments, or whatever else you are studying. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Computers & Technology

We Bought Four New iPad 2′s Today

March 20, 2011 By Joshua Kennon Leave a Comment

Update: We ended up getting word of a shipment of iPad 2's, canceling this order, staying in a hotel, and camping out before sunrise to get ours on March 23rd / March 24th. Read more about that adventure here ... If God gave the 10 Commandments today, he would have handed Moses a shiny new iPad, not a couple of stone tablets. That is the conclusion I came to today. Yes, I gave in an upgraded to the iPad 2 even though I had wondered if the upgrade would be worth it. But then I held one in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Computers & Technology