Geocaching, Where YOU are the search engine.

What do we do for fun when not building websites? We like to go GEOCACHING! What is geocaching you might say? (You must be a muggle!) Geocaching is people just like you, using a billion dollar satellite system to find hidden tupperware! But seriously folks, geocaching is a huge world wide phenomenon, with equal measures of search and explore built right it. Maryland recently started a state wide geocaching trail to help drive tourism. The next day an NBC reporter contacted me thru Twitter to ask me about it. ( I have been tweeting my finds and caches ) and I gave him this info.

There are 708,619 active caches worldwide.
In the last 7 days, there have been 688,000 new logs written
by 77,717 account holders.

Geocaching is fun sport that can be enjoyed where ever you may find yourself. Go to Geocaching.com, sign up for a free account, and do a search for caches in your zip code.

Remember, All who wander are not lost, some are geocachers.

HAPPY HUNTING!

Social Networking with Smule iPhone Applications

The past few weeks I have been playing with some new applications for my iPhone. There are thousands of applications available. Something to suit every-body's taste. There are apps for just about anything. Smule has four apps out now that I believe are not only fun to play with, but they are also a way of social networking. Social Networking with Smule iPhone Applications are still very new, but they have so much potential to bridge what you do in your free time with the rest of the world.

Smule's Ocarina, Sonic Lighter, and Sonic Boom all have a world mode which connects what you do with the particular application with the rest of the world. You can isolate which part of the globe you want to view or listen to. The Ocarina will record the different songs that you play and you can go online or listen to them right from your iPhone. You can watch and see who has the their Sonic Lighter burning or who is setting explosions with Sonic Boom.

No doubt in the near future we will be able to communicate directly through the application with various friends we make around the world. The Internet and the iPhone are all about connection, interaction, and Social Networking through various channels of social media. Smule's applications are on the ground floor when it comes to exciting new ways to network.

Could Napoleon be the father of Geocaching?

What do you know about geocaching? I know very little, but have you ever thought about why we have odd and even house numbers? I have to admit I don't spend a lot of time thinking about this concept, but the other evening I happened to be watching the History Channel about Napoleon and the commentator mentioned that it was Napoleon that came up with the idea of odd numbers on one side of a street and even numbers on the opposite side of the street. No big deal, you might say. But think about how this simple idea impacts your daily life: mail delivery, GPS, visitors, emergency support...the list goes on. OMG, could Napoleon be the father of Geocaching?

I am not going to bore you with a whole history of street numbering, but it occurred to me that I have lived long enough to remember life before Zip Codes (pre 1963) and I have lived in enough different communities to know how challenging life can be when you don't have a numbering system. In today's world this is akin to not having order in the World Wide Web. Order is what makes the Internet work and allows all of us to stay in touch.

The first time I learned about life with mail delivery placed in a road side box was in Anchorage, AK. It was 1983 and we were transferred to Alaska. Our house address was 15040 Platinum Circle; however, our mailing address was SRA (Star Route Assignment)Box 460, Anchorage, AK 99507. Just when I had all of our friends trained to send mail to the SRA address, the USPS decided that we had to start using our actual street address for mail. Hmmmm...wouldn't you know that was the year that I was president of the home owners association and we had to build a whole new series of postal boxes which needed to be identical in every way, clearly marked with our street addresses (as opposed to the SRA addresses), and all 20 boxes had to be attached to a sturdy metal pole system. (Thank god a number of the neighbors were engineers that worked on the North Slope - read not Dennis).

In late 1985 we moved to Conway, New Hampshire. Now one would think that since New Hampshire was one of the 13 original colonies, street numbers would be old hat. WRONG! 90% of the homes and businesses did not have street numbers, for that matter, most roads were not clearly marked or had many different names for the same road. For example, Main Street in Conway Village was also known as RT16/RT113. I worked for Indian Head Bank North which was located on Main Street. Vendors would ask me for my business address and I would simply say "Indian Head Bank North, Main St, Conway, NH 03818". The vendor would repeatedly say what is the street number and I would simply say "we don't have street numbers!"

By late 1986 we purchased our country inn on Kearsarge Rd, Village of Kearsarge, Town of Conway, Carroll County, New Hampshire. We did not have a street number. Our mail went to P O Box 1194, North Conway, NH 03860 (only because for marketing purposes more people recognized North Conway, as opposed to Kearsarge Village, which had its own zip code, 03847). Are you confused yet? In late 1996 Conway Town Officials decided we all needed to put street numbers on our homes and businesses, because if we were to dial 911 the fire, rescue and police needed to know how to find us. You don't want to know how many properties burned to the ground in the old days when buildings had no addresses and we depended on volunteer fire departments. So in 1996, Cranmore Mountain Lodge received its street number: 859 Kearsarge Rd, Kearsarge, NH 03847. 175 years after Napoleon's death(1821)!

So today when you are searching for an address using the Internet, your GPS navigation system, your iPhone, or GeoCaching...thank Napoleon for being so practical. For fun here is a YouTube video called Geocaching Napoleon. I have no idea what it is about, because I don't speak French, but maybe it is fitting.

NFL Playoff Update

At the beginning of the NFL season, I made some personal picks of who would make the playoffs. These were the teams I thought would be strong and win their divisions. Well, my Superbowl pick was one ESPN analysts most disappointing team- the Jacksonville Jaguars. This was for good reason as the Jag's offensive line was injured the majority out the season. Therefore their ground game, which is the team's strength was never at full strength. I'll keep my day job.

The playoffs matches up like this:
NFC
Falcons @ Cardinals
Eagles @ Vikings
Byes- Giants and Panthers

AFC
Colts @ Chargers
Ravens @ Dolphins
Byes- Titans and Steelers

To my credit, 5 of my 8 picks from the beginning of the season did make it to the post-season. The short story in my opinion for each conference is this-- the AFC is defense heavy and should be decided with low scoring games, whereas the NFC will be more fun to watch with more explosive offenses.

Superbowl Prediction- Panthers over Steelers

Testing Simple Investment Ideas in 2009

2008 was certainly a bad year for almost all investors. 2009 may be bad also, or not. However, if you sit out then you will miss the recovery, when and if it ever happens.

I thought it would be fun to track some investment ideas in 2009. Tools such as the portfolio at Google finance make this easy to do. For all of our portfolios we will hypothetically invest $10,000 and charge ourselves a discount brokers fee of $10 per transaction. We will also start with the closing prices as of December 31, 2008. Here are the initial set ups:

1. A portfolio of 10 stocks from the December 12 issue of Fortune Magazine. Fortune picked 10 stocks to own in 2009. We will buy $990 worth of each and use up our mythical $10,000 with the brokerage fee. Fortune did make these picks earlier in December and there has been some price movement since then.

Here is our starting value:

Name	Symbol	Last price	Shares	Mkt value
Altria Group, Inc.	MO	15.06	65.74	990
Annaly Capital Management, Inc.	NLY	15.87	62.38	990
Dell Inc.	DELL	10.24	96.68	990
Devon Energy Corporation	DVN	65.71	15.07	990
Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc.	DO	58.94	16.8	990
Fluor Corporation (NEW)	FLR	44.87	22.06	990
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	59.83	16.55	990
Medco Health Solutions Inc.	MHS	41.91	23.62	990
Pfizer Inc.	PFE	17.71	55.9	990
Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (USA)	POT	73.22	13.52	990
Valuation				9900

2. A "low risk" portfolio suggested by Daniel R. Solin in his book The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read. The portfolio consists of a total stock market index fund, a total international index fund, and an bond index fund, weighted 28%, 12% and 60%. We will use index funds from Charles Schwab.

Name Symbol Last price Shares Mkt value Schwab Total Stock Market Index In SWTIX 15.37 181.52 2790 Schwab International Index SWINX 13.16 90.43 1190 Schwab Total Bond Market SWLBX 8.93 670.77 5990 Valuation 9970

3. A "medium risk" porfolio also suggested by Daniel R. Solin in his book The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read. This is similar to the low risk portfolio except it is weighted 42%, 18% and 40%. For fun, we will use Vanguard Funds rather than Schwab.

			Name Symbol Last price Shares Mkt value Vanguard Total Bond Market Index VBMFX 10.21 390.79 3990 Vanguard Total Intl Stock Index VGTSX 10.68 167.6 1790 Vanguard Total Stock Mkt Idx VTSMX 21.44 195.43 4190 Valuation 9970

4. Rebalance. We will start with 50% cash and 50% an S and P 500 exchange traded fund. Each month we will rebalance to the 50-50 allocation, spending $10 to make the trade.

Name	Symbol	Last price	Shares	Mkt value
iShares S&P 500 Index (ETF)	IVV	90.31	55.31	4995
Cash		4995		4995
Portfolio				9990

I plan to post on the first Wednesday of each month the standings of each portfolio. I may add one or more in January, but the idea is to track these ideas going forward.

Do you have any you want to add?

Let the games begin.

2008 The Year Twitter Rocketed into the Mainstream

Social Media has gone mainstream and one needs to look no further than Youtube, or Twitter to see that. With a budding new war in the middle east Israel has taken to these social media sites not just to get their message out but to also to take part in the conversation. The democratization of information is in full swing folks, if you are waiting for someone else to get your message out, WHO ARE YOU WAITING FOR? With tools like Blogger, Youtube and Twitter anyone can easily take part in the conversation.

In 2009 don't be shy, click the comment button, take part in the conversation, you will be glad you did.

Is Second Life Where Social Media Meets the Future?

Second Life Strategies for Companies and Future Uses



Second Life is a virtual world built on line by the community members. 3-D models of spaces and characters (avatars) interact. There is even an active economy with its own currency.

Seems pretty far out there?

Dell, Nike, Starwood Hotels are some large corporations checking out Second Life. Experimentation with these virtual worlds is in its infancy.

Current applications which businesses have found helpful are:

Using the virtual space in Second Life to hold meetings and career fairs.

Create prototypes in Second Life and receive feedback on designs and plans.

Large scale planning projects such as city planning can be done in Second Life.

Second Life can even improve your health.