Prosper Article

I just ran across an article in the Wall Street Journal on Prosper. You can read it here.

Other

No riding for me this chilly, windy weekend! I wasn't even doing technology things too much. There were 2 things happenin' this weekend, wood in the eye and scoring a Wii.

Saturday I was working on my shelving project in the garage doing a lot of cutting and putting together. *Most* of the time I'm really good about safety. Wearing safety glasses, treating the saws with respect, unplugging things when I'm done. One time I forgot the glasses and just before the cut thought "it's just a little cut, I'll be fine" - famous last words! Something flew into (onto) my eyeball. Usually if you tear up some it'll go away, but not this time. It felt like I had a splinter the size of Vermont under my upper lid. I let my eyes water, I looked for something in the mirror, I used a Qtip to try to remove whatever I couldn't see to no avail. Finally about 8 Saturday night we went to the med center. They used dye to try and see if I had a scratch, did the same Qtip trick, couldn't find a thing. Then he used what I like to call the "magic eyedrop"! Oh it felt great to have pain relief, even if it was only for 10 minutes. They sent us home $45 dollars later and Sunday it was much better.

Since I was better on Sunday we went to WalMart to do some grocery shopping. I know, I should be supporting Hardings. Actually there are things I must by at Hardings & some I must by at Hardings (blocks of Colby - Walmart, local eggs & meat - Hardings.) Anyway, after becoming frustrated with my slow spouse I left to check out a mini-fridge for the project above. On the way I passed electronics & thought I'd take the 23rd unsucessful look for a Wii. They had 3! Holy Crap! I found the guy, asked if they were really Wii's & told him to wrap it up. I promised the boys I'd get one when I could find one. The FAMILY played bowling, baseball and tennis the rest of the evening. That was pretty cool. Oh, it's also the newest member of the home wireless network - cool.

* 5/1 - quick update - I forgot to metion it takes SD memory cards. (remember the standards posting)

Standards

Ugh! Standards! Typical IT guy thing to talk about isn't it? Actually yes, and I thought it'd be boring until I thought about what they (standards) mean to me at home too. Standards are important for many reasons both in a big company and at in your house too.

I'll mix some home and corporate print reasons below so we all don't fall asleep.

Home: I adopted a memory chip standard at home. Sound crazy? I can swap cards among both cameras, Taylor's Ipaq, 2 MP3 players and only need one type of reader for the computers.

Work: Buying devices from one vendor significantly reduces the number of models of (printer, PC, copier, etc.) Support takes less time & costs less, cost of consummables is lower, install time is lower.

Home: Buying devices from one vendor significantly reduces the number of models of (printer, PC, copier, etc.) Support takes less time & costs less, cost of consummables is lower, install time is lower. Doh! Wait a sec, it's the same as above! It applies.

Work: Placement standards. If you let everyone buy devices whenever they want and place them whereever they want you end up with a mess! Place devices with a set of standards and a plan and the run rate for your company will go down, in some cases significantly.

Home: I use one guy to work on my cars. I trust them. They know what I have, know what's been done and make sure I have a reliable vehicle.

Work: Support was mentioned earlier, imagine having 1000 printers to manage. Now, would you prefer them to be 3 models from the same vendor or flavor of the day? Can you imagine that some companies buy flavor of the day? Sounds obvious doesn't it? Lack of standards can kill ya!

Home: Speaking of kill ya . . . Don't underestimate the importance of electrical standards. I've run into speaker wire or lamp wire too many times to know people do. If you don't know how to do electrical things correctly in your home hire someone. Is saving $200 worth putting yourself and family in danger?

2nd biggest hill in Kent County

I was there this morning! 92nd and Eastern! I understand it's the second highest point in Kent County. Within a mile it goes from a low of 824 to a high of 961 feet - I climbed 137 feet up! What do you get to do when you've climbed to the top? Go down! It's funny going directly from 1st gear to the top gear. It just started rolling down from the top, I was resting for a few. It's stepped on the way down, so it's not directly down. I watched the first drop take me from 4 to 20 to 30ish, then a short straight, then down again. With momentum and a little more pedaling I saw 40 mph. What a rush! I'd be scared silly on my 2 wheeled bikes, 3 wheels rock. My previous fastest was 34. I would imagine that going home - if the wind doesn't slow me down I should top that. It's a straight shot down from 961 to 824 feet. 45 anyone? Now I can't wait for Jubilee's 6 mile 1300 feet climb/descent in Death Valley. That's going t be an "E" ticket ride.
Oh, one more thing - for you bike riders - go to the West MI JDRF Ride Team website & find the link to my friend Danielle's blog on the right. Completely worth reading - she's a mountain bike racer and a good writer.

Speed your computer up!

As the resident techie in the family (or is that computer geek?) I end up with other people's computers on occasion. Usually it's running too slow and they're at a loss. Here's some free advice on how to get squared away:

1. 1. Figure out what's runnin'. When you install programs many of them want to run something in the background every time you start up your computer. That slows down startup and sucks up your memory. Go to START > RUN and type in MSCONFIG and hit the OK button. This is not a utility to experiment in, do as I say. Click on the "startup" tab. Find stuff you know about and uncheck it - for example iTunesHelper, qttask, HP monitors, AIM, Yahoo messenger. When you're done restart the computer and see how things run. Any problems - recheck those boxes.


2. Now that less stuff is in memory do some housekeeping. Remove old programs you don't use anymore. START > Control Panel > Add or remove programs It should tell you what it is, how often a program is used, when it was used last. If the kids haven't played "Jimmy's Ant Hunt" game in 6 months get it outta there! When you're done restart the computer.


3. Defrag. When your computer does stuff it's about as efficient about putting files away as a 5 year old is about putting away toys. Defrag is the Mom that puts it all back and helps things run smoother. START > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter Click on the Defragment button and walk away for a while. Once it's done close it and restart the computer.


4. What's the status of your virus software? Out of date? Don't have any? No worries, get it FREE! First uninstall the old, out of date copy of whatever you have. Go to http://www.avast.com/ and download their home edition. I use it & it rocks. Install it & you're set.


5. Clean up the spyware! There are a few FREE flavors, I like Spybot Search and Destroy http://www.safer-networking.org/. Install it (without tea timer or the IE protection), update it and run it. You'll be amazed at how much stuff you'll clean off.


6. Still slow? You may just have a slow machine. One common problem is not enough memory. Make sure you have at least 256 meg for Windows 2000, 512 meg for Windows XP. How do you find that stuff? START > Control Panel > System - it'll tell you under the "General" tab. While you're at it - if you're connected via a fast connection go to the "Automatic Updates" tab and make sure "Automatic" is selected. Keep stuff current.

RIP Campcar

Well, that's it. Longbeach is over, the DP01's are . . . retired? I didn't watch, didn't even tape it. It didn't exactly matter did it? Couldn't believe the cheezy headlines this morning "Power surges", "Era ends with Power cut", blech.

I did watch a little of the American LeMans series this weekend.

I wish I would have caught Danica Patrick taking her first win at Motegi Japan. One thing I've always liked to see is a new winner. Sure it's great when my favorites win, but it's great to see someone who's been really working at it win. Say what you will about Danica but she won at one of the highest levels of racing. Hats of to her. Speaking of the girls, I see Katherine Legge (Champcar alumni) is driving for Audi in a series called DTM? I'm not sure what that is other than an European road racing stock car series. Go Kathrine!

1st ride with the JDRF team

Sunday I had my first ride with the team. I was curious about how I'm doing compared with the rest of the group on the new recumbent. Some days it feels like I'm really struggling so I wasn't sure if I could keep up well. Surprise! I did fine.The ride was out of Johnson Park in GR and took a 27 mile route North. I was slow on the up hills, although not that much slower than everyone else. On the flat road I was going about the same speed as everyone else. Going downhill - that was another matter. With the fairing (bubble up front) cutting my wind resistance I flew down the hills . . . until I had to climb another. I was last, I was first, I was in the middle. Overall, great ride, far better than the old road bike. I heard some of the others complaining about their posteriors, shoulders and backs. I had no problems like that. I did have a problem where the outside 1/4 of my foot would go numb. I'll attribute that to not having proper footwear. I should probably (definately) invest in a clipless pedal and shoe combo. However, I've spent far more than my alotted amount of bike money for the year.

After the ride we had drinks, cookies and salsa / chips. Salsa from a jar . . . I've got to make some JDRF salsa (my traditional Steelcase fundraiser) for the next outing!

My home network

For those of you who are curious to know what my home network looks like:
Cable modem
Wireless Router
(2) Desktop computers, one with a wireless card
(2) Laptops, both wireless
(1) Small Windows CE device, wireless
(3) Small wireless game devices that are internet capable
(2) Laser printers, B&W & Color

My internet connection comes into the house via my cable account. It hooks to the back of the cable modem. The cable modem is connected to the wireless router via a regular network cable (RJ45.) My desktop is directly connected to the wireless router via RJ45 as are both printers. The other devices are wireless.
We also subscribe to the cable company's VOIP phone service. Yes my cable bill is kinda big, but much smaller than what it had cost for separate TV/Internet/Phone service.

Network my printer!

So you've got more than one machine at home and want to network your printer? There are a couple ways to go about it, sharing and networking.
First things first, prerequisites:

• You need a home network. I won't cover that here, but one of the many benefits of having a home network is the sharing of resources between computers.
• You need a couple computers and a printer
• You need to know your computer's name (Start > Control Panel > System > "Computer Name" tab.)
  

Shared or networked? They both let you use the printer but in different ways.
Sharing is cheap with one big drawback. Basically sharing allows you to "share" a printer that's attached to your computer. That's great you say? The drawback is that the computer it's attached to MUST be on in order for it to work. You may be prompted to enable file and printer sharing on your computer during all this - follow the prompts and do it. You'll need to follow these directions.

Networked is how I'd suggest you do it. However, you need to either buy a networked printer or pick up a little box to network you printer. The advantage here is that the printer is always available to your users. If you've done either, plug it in and get the IP address from the configuration page! All you need to do now is this.

That's it! Do the same on any other computers you want to have using that device.

Be the Banker

Prosper supports my Death Valley ride


I am the banker! No really, I am. It's not a scam, it's not a pyramid scheme, I don't need to get you to sell stuff (I think I hate that more than anyone!) I've heard Prosper self described as an EBay for money. There are people who apply for loans at Prosper, and people who "bid" some amount of money to fulfill the loans of their choosing. In other words, I've lent a bunch of people a bit of money over the Internet.
There are risks, there is no FDIC guarantee, there are people who don't pay. However, use your head and the information given and you can do alright. I like it as an alternate source of income (I have pulled some funds from it a couple times,) not as a replacement for investment. You'll find it addicting too.
Getting in is easy, the minimum bid for a lender is $50. A little bit at a time I took my spare lunch money and have created a Prosper portfolio out of it. Beyond the cold numbers it also feels good helping some folks out. Right now my Prosper portfolio is doing much better than my stock picks (or 401k.) Officially on Prosper they have me pegged at about a 15% return. However, that doesn't take in a lot of variables, I'd guess more around 9-10% currently.
If it sounds interesting click through my links so I can get a referral bonus. If you're going to borrow let me know! An endorsement on Prosper can be important to getting a lower rate - being a long time lender I have lending friends to help fulfill loans.
Most of all be cautious, ask me some questions before diving in.

Longest Ride

I took my longest ride on the new bike last night. I took the cruiser on a 12 mile trek from Wayland threw Bradley to Shelbyville and back. It was the first ride where I had any idea of my speed - shakedown of the new speedometer. My spliced, hacked speedometer worked like a champ. The information from it's pretty sparse, but it seemed like I averaged about 15. I bought a very cheap model in case I ruined it when I spliced things (read: no average speed readout.) The highest speed I saw was down a little hill I got it to 30.

One thing that's become a little challenge I hadn't thought of when I bought it is obstacle avoidance. It's not too difficult for the brain to get around stuff in the way of the front wheels. However, you can't see the back wheel & it's not directly behind the front ones, so it makes things a little more difficult - especially potholes! There are some things you just don't want to go over - like roadkill - where I have to quickly check the mirrors & put myself further out in the road than I like. Hopefully I can manage to keep that from becoming excitement.
People are continuing to give me plenty of room. There was a couple times where people were backing from their driveways and I wasn't sure if they could see me coming past them. There weren't any close calls, but I'll have to keep that in mind.
Nice weather this week, hope to get out a lot.

Lost racing fan

Long Beach is just 10 days away, last Champcar race. Until yesterday I was pretty much against watching. I read yesterday on crash.net that Jimmy Vasser's going to be coming out of his 2 year rest to participate, sounds interesting. I met Jimmy once briefly. Really nice guy. However, without Tracy and Forsythe and some of the other driver team combo's it just doesn't feel like something I want to watch. Oh, I also read that Grahm Rahal won his first IRL race with N/H/L. He seems a fitting sucessor to Sebastian, another driver I didn't care much for. Okay, enough bitching.
I did run across an ad from Peak Antifreeze racing the other day. I clicked on it and to my surprise I was treated with pictures of Danika. Seems odd to be attracted to a race car driver, but she has really nice hair.

Printers @ home

So, being the ex-printer guy at a big company you might wonder what I have at home. Put simply I have 2 lasers, one black and white and one color and a MFP with no ink in it. Both lasers are network connected so anyone in the house (on our network) can use 'em. All 3 happen to be HP's. The color laser is the latest addition and cost me $200 refurbished (400 prints before it got to me.) If you can swing the initial cost a laser is the way to go. My kids could go through an inkjet cartridge (the MFP) in a week printing crap! Afterall, it's free to them! Mind you, laser cartridges aren't cheap either, but the cost per page is much lower and I won't have to replace them very often.
So, with the printers I have I don't need or expect the highest quality. We just don't require that. I've not seen many lasers that can rival the quality of a really good inkjet. Cost per page is much higher on my list, thus my choices.
Some strategy - we have 4 PC's of various types at home and I did set the default printer to our black and white laser on all of 'em. That way everyone has to deliberately select the color machine to get it. One trick I learned from doing this for a living is that you never put a color printer next to a user. They'll print their black and white on it all day long (in addition to some color.) Too convenient! Both my network lasers are tucked away in the "computer room".

Bike

I took the new rig out in the middle of last week. To be honest, I was amazed at the climbing ability. I took a route with a good sized hill. I had very limited gearing on the old black bike. On the new bike I found a good granny gear, then I found another and then another and then the last granny gear! Holy Crap! Crawling up Jubilee just got easier! Going down hill was interesting. It's not like an upright where you feel more balanced at speed. There are 2 wheels doing the steering and I hear it takes a bit to get the hang of keeping everything still. I can't say it felt darty, just not as comfortable as I'd like. I'm glad I didn't get the direct steer! The steering should normally be on center, so less input is actually supposed to be better. I've just got to get used to that idea!
Another thing that's amazing me is how much room cars give me. I have both a flag and my bright yellow pannier covers in the back, so I'm plenty visible. I've had no cars coming close enough to make me uncomfortable so far. I've read that to be the case for most trike riders. Let's hope it stays true!
Getting a bike computer on the new bike - how difficult could it be! I'm trying to figure out how to get a bike computer on the new trike! I talked to the manufacturer and it was almost as if they had never heard of a bike computer before!? If you look at the bike I have no front forks, so nothing to mount it on. I read up on the WizWheelz Yahoo forum that folks had done everything from splicing wires (easiest mount is on the back wheel) to fabricating a bracket to hold the sensor to the magnet on a front wheel to going whole hog with a GPS. I'm currently thinking some flavor of option number 2. I'm pretty good at rigging stuff so I should be able to make it work - if not temporarily.

Open Wheel Racing

Today I received a note from Dale Coyne Racing doing some fan marketing. Nobody I know probably cares, but last month I learned that the IRL has merged back in with CART. Maybe eaten is a better word.
The only sport I've watched religously in my adult life is racing. My favorite flavor was CART or Champcar. My favorite racing series was gobbled up by a rival and someone out there wants me as a fan to be okay with it. They want me to all of a sudden like IRL. To be honest it all depresses me. I feel abandoned in a way. Where do I go for my motorsports fix?

• Nascar - a little to country music for me if you know what I mean. There are however some familiar names and the "car of tomorrow" appeals to me technically.
• F1 - it's a little to foreign. Hard for me to get excited about something that happens on the other side of the world most of the time.
• ALMS - Maybe. It's hard to find on the dial.

Maybe I'll just see where PT goes and watch that for a while. It's difficult to watch something so close to you die suddenly.

Mr. Printer

I've been a "computer guy" for years, currently a project manager. However, most of my expertise is in the area of electronic printing. I think this will be the third leg of my Blog stool, talking about print.
Printing is kind of funny in the Computing (Information Technology, IT) world. Nobody thinks much about it until they need it. It's not important until you can't do it. It is the redheaded stepchild of IT. Actually I think that perception has been good for my career. Nobody else wanted to do it!
So, what's so interesting about it? Let's be clear, I've done very little unpacking, plugging in, setup kind of stuff. My niche has always been strategy. How to place devices (devices being printers, multifunction devices, fax machines, copiers, etc.) and how to place them efficiently to save the corporation money. Since printing is an ignored corner if IT nobody thinks about the costs either. Corporations waste millions via poor placement, over placement, not sticking to a standard and not having a strategy. You'd be amazed. Think your inkjet cartridge is expensive to replace every other month? Think about what a corporation with 500 inkjets spends. Sounds like a good Blog post for another day.

New Recumbent

Last month when gas hit $3.45 I saw it as a sign to buy what I've been after for a couple years - a recumbent! I saw a Wizwheelz trike on a trail a couple years ago and thought it looked really cool. I looked them up and found out they're Michigan based, actually just up the road from where I work!

Last year I commuted to work a few times, this year I'd like to do it more (thus the relation to the gas price.) Door to door it's about 17 miles each way. I was a long ride on the road bike, my upper body was recovering from the double broken arms. Recumbents don't place near the strain on your upper body as a standard bike and I can't go over the handlebars! Actually on the Wizwheels Cruiser I bought I sit over the handlebars already. Last year I logged just over 1,000 miles on the bike(s).

Ride reports on the Cruiser to follow.

Prosper

What's this Prosper thing on my blog? I usually don't "advertise" my affiliation with Prosper too much. I don't like to talk to other people about money. However, online I'm a Prosper affiliate. When you sign up through one of my links & make the minimum deposit I get something. Sounds like a good idea.

(Me on the right in my Prosper tshirt. $50 of my ride came from Prosper.)
Prosper is a P2P lending website. Think of it as an ebay for money. I lend money to borrowers over the internet! Yikes! Lest you think it a fly-by-night organization or a trick, I've been doing it for over two years now. I've actually visited the brick and morter offices in SF CA when on a business trip.
I've liked the fact that I can invest as little as $50 to get going. Right now I have somewhere around 100 different loans I've bid $50 on. From those loans I get about . . . $2 a month each. Not a bad deal eh? As me more if you get interested or just follow one of the links below.

In the beginning . . . .

This popped out of my head this morning. I saw the "create Blog" link and followed it. I always have something bouncing around in my head, maybe someone will find it interesting. We'll see!