Entries from October 2008
Warren Buffett on buying American:
A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.
I tried to log into my AT&T Wireless account this morning. (I wasn’t exactly dying to find out how much I’d spend in London, but…)
After login, I was prompted to choose “account security questions”. Here’s a screengrab highlighting two of the questions:
The idea behind security questions is that, if you were ever to forget your actual account password, you might be able to retrieve it by answering these questions to which (supposedly) only you know the answers.
My issue with the security question approach is that it doesn’t completely solve the problem of forgotten passwords. Each drop down prompts you with a choice between five questions. Some questions (like the “pet” one) don’t have any meaning in my life. I’ve never had pets. If I make something up, I’m bound to forget the answer to the secret question later. Other questions are too “loose”. The answer to the “country” question might change in the next couple of weeks: a) i might visit the country or b) some other country might take its place.
On top of all this, it’s created more work for me and wasted quite a lot of time. Frustating.
My friend Shawn wrote to me today about his State-by-State project:
As you know, Judy is seven months pregnant, and we’re kind of stranded in our tiny apartment in Brooklyn. So this fall, instead of vacationing somewhere exotic, we’re taking a virtual road trip of our great country by reading the book State by State, an anthology of 50 essays on our 50 glorious states.
I _love_ the idea.
The state-by-state reminds me of a small project I did a couple of years ago called simply “The 50 States” [1]. In April 2006, I became a citizen of the US and I decided to throw a party to celebrate. I didn’t have much time to travel cross-country (that was another thought) so I figured I’d make the states come to me. Everyone was told to “dress up” as a state. Tons of people played along – although not everyone understood the online “reservations” component. Anyway…memories.
Shawn + Judy’s site looks amazing – the first couple of entries have pointed me to some interesting stories and backgrounds. I’ve started following the feed. I’m looking forward to learning more about the states in the coming weeks.
Notes:
1. The inpiration for “The 50 States” came from a couple of close friends I was talking to in early April 2006. Some of the other ideas included a throwing a ball or having some sort of open “Americana” theme. Some of the energy also came from Sufjan Stevens’ effort to create an album for every state in the union.