How will you stimulate the economy?

The big "Economic Stimulus Plan" has passed, and it looks like all the John & Jane Q. Tax-payers out there (even those that don't pay the Fed) will be a little richer come summer time. Here's how it boils down...

(from Consumerist.com)

• Workers making at least $3000 but not paying federal income taxes: $300


• Income tax paying individuals: $600


• Working couples: $1200


• People with children: extra $300 per child


• Individuals making $87,000 and couples up to $174,000: partial rebates


• etc...

Now, I'm not one to turn down free money, nor am I any kind of economist. I may have an excel-spreadsheet budget, but I wouldn't want to begin to understand the complexities behind running the budget for you know, an entire country. I plan on putting my money directly into the bank. When we put our down payment on our first house, we'll have to send a thank you letter to the US Government I suppose. If we don't get weaseled out of the rebate by some ridiculous loop-hole. At any rate it's new TV's, PS3's, Xbox's, Wii's, Car Down Payment's, Computers, etc...for everyone! America F-Yeah!

Oh wait, what?

It could potentially double last year's budget deficit of $163 Billion.

"I am concerned that in our rush to help, we talk ourselves into a quick, feel-good hit today that will leave us with a bigger budgetary hangover tomorrow," said Rep Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the senior Republican on the House Budget Committee.

Sorry Grand kids. It just gets gloomier and gloomier for you.

Sources:
Consumerist.com
Tax Rebate Deal Could Mean Checks by May | AP
Deal Reached in US Economic Plan |BBC News

To quote Styx...

To much time on my hands! (this guy does)

Solid Friggin' Songs....

So I'm going to start out a new feature today called "Solid Friggin' Songs", enjoy.

Sitting at work today, listening to Sirius Satellite radio in our edit suite a total blast from my musical past hit me like a ton of bricks. Soul Asylum's "Black Gold." I had to stop reading what I was reading and start whistling. Good song. In hindsight, much better than "Runaway Train" or that other hit of theirs with Claire Daines in the music video. Enjoy the music video below, you have to love the early-nineties of it all.

Apple TV Take 2 - Get it?

So this year's Apple Keynote was today. The new MacBook Air looks pretty sweet at first glance, but not having a user-replaceable battery is a pretty big strike against it. With a computer this tiny however, I personally couldn't see myself doing anything on it which would have me missing it for a few days when the battery needs replacing 2 years from now. It's the total net-surfing, paper-writing-while-sitting-on-the-couch machine.

There was also an update to the iPhone, which was not all that earth-shattering. Also a "companion" to Time Machine called Time Capsule - which really is just an AirPort Extreme with a hard drive. In reality though, shouldn't I be able to use Time Machine with an external hard drive that I have hooked up to my AirPort Extreme? Lame.

What really stuck out for me was the new features / price for Apple TV & movie rentals. While it's awesome I can rent movies directly through Apple TV and watch them on my wide screen and/or HD Television (I still need to get both an Apple TV & HD set), I still wish the Apple TV worked more like a Tivo or other DVR. Record my favorite TV shows automatically, and let me watch them when I want. With the Apple TV in its current state though, there is nothing stopping me from acquiring said TV shows from the Internet and transferring them over my network to the Apple TV to watch them on our nice new couch on our future television. The Apple TV seems to be inching closer and closer to being a pretty awesome media hub for your home theater it's just not completely there yet....

To wrap it up, not a bad couple of new products/features, but nothing to write home about really. I'll have to check out a MacBook Air at a store to get a final opinion on it. If you can live without DVR capabilities AppleTV is worth the plunge.

Links:
Watch the Keynote : Apple.com
The Unofficial Apple Weblog's Coverage
Engadget

Would Anyone Like to Buy Me This?

My PowerMac G5 is getting a little long in the tooth...

New 8-Core Mac Pro

Seriously though, it seems like Apple is slapping new processors into their computers as fast as they can. Or maybe time is just going by really fast. At any rate, I don't think I've had a computer for as long as I've had my current one - I got my first/current Power Mac in October of 2003. Remarkably, with all the advances in tech in the last few years my computer hasn't skipped a beat and runs just as good as any today. The only thing I've had to replace so far is the DVD-Rom (couldn't take the 4x speed anymore, and it began to refuse reading certain discs). All in all solid as a friggin' rock, so no real need for a new one, but you must agree the new Mac Pro's look amazing. That's all.

Turns out, he's just a regular dude.

Over at Gizmodo, they have a three part interview with Bill Gates from this year CES. The interviews, while short, offer a different look at one of the richest men in the world. Definitely worth checking out regardless of what side of the Apple/Linux/Microsoft 3-sided die you land on (unfortunately, this die wont protect you from a +25 Orc, but will ad +2 to all Healing Spells). In the interview he offers honest answers, which is a nice change of pace in the PR infested world we live in. Follow the link below to check the 3 part video out.


Link: Holy Crap: Did Bill Gates Just Say Windows Sucks?
(Source: Gizmodo)

This isn't going to be pretty...

Well, as you can probably tell, this isn't a "new" blog - but rather, an abandoned blog. I started it back in June/July as a way to occupy myself during the dull summer days working in the Detroit Advertising Market®. At least that's how it should have been....turns out right around the time I "launched" this blog, our little edit suite was rocked with work. While all the agencies normally should have been out filming, something got mixed up and suddenly we were in hot demand.

Being such hot commodities leaves little extra time to design, code, and write entries. Sure, I could have taken the easy route - pick a template page from Blogger's website and just write. That's never really been my style however, I love to create and get a kick out of CSS & HTML. So essentially what happens is things get put off until I feel I can focus just enough energy towards them. No blog should be published if it isn't "finished". The only problem though, is I never felt like I had sufficient time to finish it. You dig?

It's a New Year however, and since I set this blog up I kept thinking, "I'll get to that this weekend!" or "Maybe next week would be good". Well, I've decided (and you can call it a New Year's resolution, though I wouldn't) that I'm going to stop putting things off. Surely I can take my time and update both design and entries. With the Internet pretty much acessible anywhere these days, I think it should be pretty easy.

When my wife Gloria & I were planning our wedding we had a blog called The Cool Team. Basically that kept wedding guests up to date on how things were going with the planning, menu choices, directions on how to get there, etc. Simmilarly aim for this blog is not just to talk about what I think is cool or interesting, but to also keep a record of progresses made throughout the year, hence the title "You Can't Sop Progress" - thanks Clutch. Who knows what form it will take, but I'll do my best to keep it updated.

So here we are, this page will be a little ugly for sometime. Heck, it might even be ugly by the time I finish it. Hopefully this little experiment works. Thanks for reading!