http://www.mcdonaldland.info A magical discussion of software, economics, and other assorted theories. Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:25:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en For the first time ever, pee-wee football players, an entire team to be exact, has been signed to the NFL. In a questionable move late Saturday evening, Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio opted to cut his entire team and instead sign, "The Marauders", a pop-warner team from the ... http://www.mcdonaldland.info/2009/10/11/pop-warner-players-signed-to-nfl-disaster-ensues/ There is something I am working on that I need a term or short phrase for and I am at a total loss. Some of you are much more creative than I am so I figured I'd post for help. If I end up using your term I'll give you ... http://www.mcdonaldland.info/2009/08/02/i-need-some-help/ I couldn't find a good example of a Ruby on Rails Paypal Website Payments Standard implementation that I could open the hood and dig around in. The majority of the ones I found were partially implemented, geared at Website Payments Pro ($30/month), or were commercial products. So I decided to ... http://www.mcdonaldland.info/2009/05/22/ruby-on-rails-with-paypal/ Many companies have the concept of "A", "B", and "C" players, although GE's Jack Welch made this famous in one of his books. The reason there is no classification for a "D" player is because companies should ultimately get rid of anyone not performing to the expectations of, at the ... http://www.mcdonaldland.info/2009/04/24/culture-for-the-a-players/ Sam was out on a fishing trip with his three buddies and was many miles out to sea. At some point during the trip one of the guys, we'll call him John, pulled out a shotgun and started "skeet" shooting empty beer cans. Sam didn't think it is a good ... http://www.mcdonaldland.info/2009/03/05/i-didnt-do-it/ All companies should strive to empower their employees. This simply means that all employees should feel that they have the ability to make decisions on behalf of the company. Toyota, for example, gives every employee the ability to stop the assembly line at any time, for any reason. Stopping the ... http://www.mcdonaldland.info/2009/02/06/reducing-empowerment-101/ I had someone that I reported up to at one time that explained the career cycle as a series of steps. The basic idea is that you spend some time at a given level, you learn and assimilate, then you move up to the next step and the process repeats ... http://www.mcdonaldland.info/2009/01/28/slants-and-steps/ The final Consumer Price Index (CPI) data is out for 2008 and we can now analyze the total inflation throughout 2008 and the projected impact of this on our economy. Let's start with the numbers. Average month to month change in 2008:   National CPI Southeast CPI National ? Southeast ? 12/2007 210.036 203.457     01/2008 211.080 204.510 1.044 1.053 02/2008 211.693 205.060 0.613 0.550 03/2008 213.528 206.676 1.835 1.616 04/2008 214.823 208.085 1.295 1.409 05/2008 216.632 210.006 1.809 1.921 06/2008 218.815 212.324 2.183 2.318 07/2008 219.964 213.304 1.149 0.980 08/2008 219.086 212.387 (0.878) (0.917) 09/2008 218.783 212.650 (0.303) 0.263 10/2008 216.573 210.108 (2.210) (2.542) 11/2008 212.426 205.559 (4.148) (4.549) 12/2008 210.228 203.501 (2.197) (2.058) Average 0.016 0.004 The inflation so far for 2008: Southeast ... http://www.mcdonaldland.info/2009/01/19/2008-cpi-and-inflation-and-analysis/ The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, by Alan Greenspan I like economics. I like finance. I like business. I (somewhat) like politics. So why wouldn't I like this book? I'll tell you why: the content is interesting but the delivery put me to sleep. This book weighed in ... http://www.mcdonaldland.info/2008/12/12/book-review-the-age-of-turbulence-adventures-in-a-new-world/ If you schedule a lunch meeting with people in your office you should supply lunch. Some situations are unavoidable and thus exempt, such as meetings with people in different time zones. However, if the meeting is all local, supply food. http://www.mcdonaldland.info/2008/12/10/lunch-meetings/