weareallgoingtodie.com

Way back in the dark ages, during the heady days of the Internet bubble, I had an phone interview, with The Motley Fool.  The guy interviewing me asked me the hexidecimal value for red to test whether I know HTML, WTFF0000?!?  I answered, correctly and I was on a terrible cell phone and the call was dropped.  He called me back and said in a weird jokey voice, something like “I knew you hadn’t hung up on me on purpose, that would have been a huge mistake. Haha”.  That was the tip-off that all this bullshit about being a “fool” and how it was supposed to be ironic, was actually true.  These people were retards.  Just to confirm my suspicions the interviewer continued on a path where he seemed compelled to tell me about how this was the best company in the world, and that it was a lifestyle and in Old Town and blah blah blah. But I kept thinking, I don’t like this guy, and don’t want him to be my boss. I wound up saying exactly that.

And here we are 12 years later and the company …. still sucks.

Haha!

Here is the proof.  I am shorting BIDU today, and there was a headline next to the stock that read: The One Stock You Must Buy. Now I knew this was bullshit, but I like to click on bullshit links.

Here is  quote from the article, I’ll put the text in red, to prove that I can:

Here, however, is a litmus test to gauge every stock tip you come across. Simply ask: Does this company bear any resemblance at all to Apple, Amazon, eBay, or Baidu before they were big names?

Uh, that’s stupid.

The article continues to put this list, not once, but twice in the article:

1. Small.
2. Led by a dedicated founder(s).
3. Fiscally conservative.
4. Profiting from a wide market opportunity.

So where is “The One Stock You Must Buy”?

If you’d like to take a look at the companies we’ve found that meet the four criteria mentioned, click here to join Hidden Gems free for 30 days.

Right…..

That is not only stupid, that is fucking stupid.
It is exactly the same type of bait-and-switch bullshit that I look for in my financial advice.
Give us your credit card number and I’ll tell you the secret to getting rich.

I stand by my decision to tell the hiring guy from The Fool to “Fuck off”. I think time has proven who made the right choice. From an ethical standpoint, I am happy to not work for a company that cons people into subscription services for crappy returns.

The wikipedia article on them is pretty interesting, the Motley Fool has become a electronic boiler room touting overpriced stocks for subpar returns.

I’ve been trying out a number of different notepads to see which ones I like and do the best work.

Before I get into it, allow me to answer this:
Now why would I do this, and why wouldn’t I use Google Docs?

I wasted numerous hours of my life (which I will never get back) doing this for a number of reasons.

I am developer, which means I sometimes work from Internet cafes in dodgy places. While I don’t like to do this, if a client needs an emergency fix on something, (usually meaning lack of planning on their part, rather than a lack of quality code ion my part) the last thing I want to do is enter any sensitive data into a public computer. They could easily have keyloggers or other such malicious software.

I don’t worry about FTP stuff so much, I use good security and cary a client with me, on a jumpdrive, with encrypted junk.

Anyway.

So I like to keep my notes in someplace where I can find them from anywhere. And although google docs is great, it is also a bit of overkill if I am someplace that has crappy bandwidth. Also, I will NEVER make a PowerPoint presentation. Ever. It is against my religion.

So here you go:

HeliPad: This thing is u-g-l-y, it has got no alibi, it’s ugly. You can tell this was made by a couple of guys where drank deeply from the Kool-Aid well of “AJAX!!!”. Then thought, shit, we should try to make some money. 5 documents, 8.2 KB (0.80%). I haven’t done the math on this, but it doesn’t look like a lot of storage. So to get more you must pay. Not good.

GearPad: This was obviously written by a very good programmer as a proof-of-concept for a much bigger product. I love this thing. It is super-easy, without a lot of buttons to push. Just like how I like my women! But Aaron, what happened? Did you abandon this thing? I can’t change my password. It keeps erroring out on me. And since the whole point of this is to be able to change your password (the review, not the software) it would be really good if I could DO that.

Backpack: This one is brought to you by the productivity nerds at 37Signals.com I don’t know what it is, but those guys just rub me the wrong way. They are so fucking smug about how much they get done. Well, I am NOT that organized. I struggle man! Life is hard and it’s not gonna get easier through fucking small business collaboration tools. I could neckpunch these guys. But, their software is my favorite. Up until I need to pay for it, then “adios amigos”, I’ll figure something else out. Like opening a thisisabullshitaddress@gmail.com address and using Google Docs, which would have been easiest, I guess. I don’t like the way some links say “Now you must pay” in order to use a feature. But I guess we all need to make money to exchange for goods and services. Wah. The limitations on the free account are: no calendar (fine), and only 5 pages of notes. Look if I have more than 5 pages of notes, I should delete one.