What Ralph Knows

Ten principles for a Black Swan-proof world

2009-05-08T13:20:47Z

FT.com: Ten principles for a Black Swan-proof world – this is an excellent article on how to fix this financial system by not resorting to the solutions of the past which failed. It makes perfect sense but is largely ignored.

Jeff Bezos Works In Kentucky Distribution Center For A Week (AMZN)

2009-03-29T12:43:44Z

Jeff Bezos worked in Amazon’s distribution center in Kentucky for a week recently. This was not a press stunt; he actually worked with the hourly employees. Bezos is reportedly a micro-manager and the company culture is fast lean and frugal. But, he is able to achieve good results by paying attention to details. I am sure he was find new opportunities for improvement which is especially important in a recession.

The White House - Blog Post - Weekly Address: Toward a Better Day

2009-03-07T20:06:13Z

The White House - Blog Post - Weekly Address: Toward a Better Day: Barack Obama continues the good practice of talking to American’s about the economic crisis and his plans to stimulate the economy. Even if all his plans do not work, he his moving quickly to solve problems.

Great Crash of 2008-2009

2009-03-06T03:57:22Z

The stock market is falling faster and farther than the market did in 1929. As of today the Dow is down –56%.

from Clusterstock

TARP Loses 55% on Investments already!

2009-02-26T14:41:32Z

The government, as of market close on Friday, had lost 54.9% on its original $195.5 billion in capital investments through the Troubled Asset Relief Program. So much for making money on these assets as some in congress pledged. All of us taxpayers foot the bill for Wall Street’s innovation!

PowerPoint Tips: How not to use it!

2009-02-26T01:28:43Z

Wow, I have seen all these mistakes and more. Do you think the laugh track makes the video funnier?

Robots are poised for warfare

2009-02-24T17:29:00Z

Beware the killer robots posted in global post by Tom Abate explains how warfare technology will change to include weapons design to fight on their own. It is not far fetched. The growing use of semi-autonomous military robots has occurred, but when will robots make the life and death decisions?

RGE - 'Nationalize' the Banks

2009-02-21T17:45:10Z

‘Nationalize’ the Banks Again, my favorite economist is talking sense. Nouriel Roubini advocates a temporary nationalization of banks to clean them up and then sell them back to to the public Sector.

SlideShare becomes more powerful

2009-02-02T06:47:32Z

SlideShare has introduced a number of new features that makes the platform even more useful for publishing and distributing presentations.

1. SlideShare will now allow users to embed YouTube videos into their Flash-based presentations. This provides a way to include video that enriches the content in presentations.

YouTube videos inside SlideShare

View more presentations from rashmi. (tags: slides presentations)

2. SlideShare has launched a cloud-based feature that allows users to tie their native Microsoft PowerPoint client to your SlideShare account.

Meet the SlideShare ribbon for PowerPoint

View more presentations from rashmi. (tags: slideshare microsoft)

Find broken links on your site with Xenu's Link Sleuth (TM)

2009-01-31T15:19:23Z

Xenu's Link Sleuth is a great tool! It finds broken or compromised links in your website. I have over 1000 entries in this blog from as far back as 2002. Some of the links are broken. The remarkable thing is that if I go back and do a little sleuthing, I can usually find the articles and the links that I was interested in. Many of the these bloggers are still writing and very active in their fields. It is so exciting to reconnect! I have found lots of new people I can follow on Twitter, because, everyone, of course is there now.

Recession Consequences for Executive Hiring: LA_RECESION_EN_USA.flv

2009-01-31T04:26:11Z

The vision of executive recruiting in the future.

B. Felt

2009-01-23T16:40:41Z

My wife Barbara is starting a new business selling Felt, Felting Supplies and Wool. She has built a lovely site at www.bfelt.com. In addition, she has a Etsy store where you shop for materials and felted jewelry, scarves, shawls and 3-D sculpture.

Flickr

2009-01-11T14:53:53Z

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

2009 May be the Nail in Newspaper’s Coffins

2009-01-05T04:12:51Z

I still read the Boston Globe and the New York Times every morning. I don’t read news online unless it is very current. I still find the serendipity of newspapers satisfying it is hard to get the same experience online.

But, Patrick Smith’s article on paidContent:UK entitled Online Or Bust: Why 2009 May Be The Nail In Newspapers’ Coffins makes a convincing argument that the current business model is broken and that classified advertising is evaporating.

This trend may present good opportunities for online journalism.

Simple Collaboration via Google Docs

2008-11-23T13:39:00Z

This little video from Beyond the Edge demonstrates how Google docs is used to make collaboration on documents easier. Even for people who use other collaboration tools, Google docs is sooo much simpler!