Tony K's Blog

I am a really big fan of well thought out, logical arguments. Two writers whose work I really admire are Andrew Tobias and Bob Lewis. They write on different subjects in general, but I am a big fan of them both. I first learned about Andrew Tobias through his book "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need." That was back in the mid-80s. After a decade of stagflation, shady commodities deals, and my first experience in the job market, Tobias shed a lot of light on my view of the economic and financial world. Much or most of what he wrote in the book was simple common sense, but there's a lot of it, and if nothing else, it will validate your financial astuteness. His insights to markets are still valid 25 years later. The other writer, Bob Lewis , writes for InfoWorld magazine and has his own IT consulting service. His main topics are directly related to IT workers and executives, but the lessons apply equal well to almost any other field. is columns have given me pow...

I saw something on the internet recently that showed a really direct correlation between the average IQ of a state and their voting preference in the 2004 election. I followed up to try to understand where the data came from. I couldn't find any reliable source data in 20 minutes or so of searching, so I thought I would do my own thing. I went to the US Government Census website, pulled off median family income by state from the 2000 Census and compared that to the percent voting for Kerry. It came up with a correlation of 0.53. You can see on the chart that there is quite a bit of scatter in the data. However, when you put that on a table sorted and color coded it is more impressive. Higher income correlates pretty well with Kerry voters. What does that mean though? I'm tempted to say that there is a correlation between education and income, therefore smarter people tend to vote Kerry, but there are probably a lot of holes in that argument. In any case, follow the link a...

A strange scene is unfolding in Richmond, CA on San Francisco Bay tonight. A tribe of Indians (Native Americans), those nature loving stewards of our planet, are trying to open a casino on some vacant wetlands. ChevronTexaco, an integrated oil company, those rapers and pillagers of our planet, are opposing them because they want to build a nature preserve. Go figure.

It was an eventful, and in some ways surprising election. Although I am completely against the actions taken by Bush in Iraq, I do see a silver lining with some other aspects. Economy - The economy seems to be on the road to improving. It is partly because of the world record deficits, which Kerry would not have been able to stem either. I did not consider economy a key issue in this election, although I am pro-trade. Social Issues and Environment - Bush is a throwback to a nasty era of cronyism. Where the rich get richer and help other rich get even richer by extracting benefits from the common weal, while the poor get poorer and work together to make ends meet. Although inherently unfair, it is actually probably good for us from a competitive standpoint. It will reduce costs of production. Longer term, the retirement of the baby boomers and the health care issues are going to be huge. Foreign Relations - I see no silver lining here, except maybe that the whole world now has extremely...

My name is Tony and I am a Macaholic. I own a few shares of Apple stock and have been a Mac User and owner since I bought my Mac Plus in about 1986 or so. I have reviewed software, supported computers, worked with user groups, and am an advanced user of most of the standard programs. There is little doubt in my mind that even since the first days of the Lisa, Macs have represented not only a better product, but also a better value. When Macs first came out they were not cheap, but the beauty of them is that they came in a single package with just about everything you needed. PCs on the other hand were much cheaper, but... If you actually wanted to use them you were stuck with plunking down a whole lot more money to get up to the same capability of a Mac. This holds true today too. I'll write more about Macs later.

In the first two debates, I thought that Kerry blew Bush away purely on better arguments. A lot of people focused on Bush's facial expressions; I didn't even notice them. Tonight I watched though. He generally seemed to have control over himself. As far as the answers that they gave go, I tended to like Kerry's answers better, but didn't see any real knockout punches as in the first two debates. W said he prays a lot. I somehow don't buy it. He said, "I never want to impose my religion on anyone else." I almost vomited. Bush tried a few jokes and they were really lame. I just heard that Bush did in fact say that he wasn't worried about Osama bin Laden. Call this one a draw.

Several really important points: Sanctions:Bush said that the sanctions weren't working because Hussein had still been in power. Kerry made the right point that in fact, the sanctions worked. Hussein had no WMDs and, by the way, the sanctions were not intended to take him out of power. Huge score for Kerry in my book. Environment: Bush talked aout how the air is cleaner today than it was 4 years ago. That may be true, but it is despite his efforts, not because of them. He has relaxed standards on air and water pollution drastically. Abortions: The other really telling part was during their discussion about partial birth abortions. Bush said and repeated, Kerry voted against it There's nothing else you need to know. Kerry explained his vote against it because it did not make necessary allowances in certain cases. I know many people see abortion as black and white, but there are a lot of gray shades there. Bush's inability to see or admit those shades is insane. ...