Tue, 21 Dec 2004
Yahoo Money Manager No More
Yahoo is shutting down their Money Manager.
We regret to notify you that we are closing Yahoo! Money Manager, effective February 1, 2005, and your account will be automatically cancelled at this time. This closure means that we will no longer offer the following tools: Expense Manager, Net Worth, Finance Planner, and Account Access for banking, credit card, investment, and loan accounts.
It sounds like they're basically gutting Yahoo Finance if they're removing the ability to access investment accounts. I guess most banks offer similar services now, but Yahoo has always been good at keep a nice, simple interface.
I wonder if Google is working on something in this area.
Blockbuster Could Use Better Developers
How many stars does Napoleon Dynamite get?
Hmm, the Enhanced Widescreen Letterbox DVD version must be much better.
Update (Fri, 24 Dec 2004): I received Napoleon Dynamite from
Blockbuster. The sleeve that DVD came said that it was disc "1 of null".
Thu, 09 Dec 2004
Ending Social Security
Hans F. Sennholz has an interesting proposal for ending Social Security. The basic ideas are:
- Tell recipients how much of their contributions, including interest, they have already withdrawn with each check.
- Once they've withdrawn benefits equal to their contributions, they must apply for welfare. This would eliminate payments to those who don't need it.
- Let people opt out of contributing. Private insurance can replace Social Security for people who want to use such a system.
- Charities can take over caring for the disabled.
The holiday season is a good time to think about the 15.3% of your income that the government has taken from you to gift to others.
Time Magazine Ads
There was one ad in a recent edition of Time Magazine that caught my eye. We've been trying to figure out how to best market Postica since officially going into production in July. I'm pretty skeptical about the effectiveness of advertising in general. Since we're bombarded with so much of it, I think most people simply ignore it. But every once in a while, some advertisement will catch my eye. I don't know if the fact that I read it means that it actually increases sales of the product advertised, but it obviously can't be worse than an ad that nobody reads.
The full-page ad in Time was for men's white dress shirts. Just plain, white button-down shirts that I buy every 5 years from Ross when the one I bought five years previously no longer fits. I had never heard of the brand; it was a man's name (two first names, I think). It was one particular shirt, rather than an ad for the brand in general.
What made me read the ad was simply that I wouldn't expect to see such an ad in Time Magazine. I wonder how sales of that shirt are doing. I believe one could order the shirt in question online or by calling an 800 number, similar to ads for overpriced cds composed of the Best Love Songs of Some Period within Some Genre or "collectible" coins that aren't legal tender.
Does placing an ad where potential customers wouldn't expect to see it help sales?
