The guys in my fantasy football league got together this weekend to do our annual fantasy football draft. There’s nothing quite like 10 guys sitting in a garage, drinking beer, grilling burgers and sausages, and talking football. It makes for a memorable afternoon – even if your team doesn’t end up doing well over the course of the season. Of course, if it does, then you have bragging rights for months to come!
Want to start your own fantasy football league? Then head on over to Yahoo! and sign up for a free fantasy football team. This year Yahoo! is giving all fantasy football players StatTracker for free, which allows you to follow your team in real time (and even talk trash if your league mates are also online). It’s a lot of fun, and the price is right! You can read more about Yahoo! Fantasy Football, or sign up for a free fantasy football league.
Recommended Financial and Career Articles
- What’s the Difference Between High-Income Earners and Low-Income Earners?. JD handles this topic very well, and there is added value in the comments.
- 11 Ways To Market Yourself at Work to Increase Your Salary. Or set yourself up for a promotion. Solid tips.
- Advance Your Career Through Networking. Solid advice, especially in light of the current recession and depressed job market.
- Would You Retake An Old Job You Were Previously Laid-Off From? I know someone who recently did this. Of course they are looking for a new position and will take the first good offer that comes along. There is a trust factor involved.
- Four Rules of Thumb In Need of Refreshing. Great tips. Rules of thumb are good for a stsarting point, but shouldn’t be considered gospel. Do what works for you.
- Why AT&T Killed Google Voice. Very interesting read. I think we will continue to see big changes in the telecommunications industry… hopefully including the end of exclusive phones on certain networks.
- Dave talks about why he thinks the recession needs to continue for a while.
- The Latte Factor: Does it Work? It does! Check out how much money you can save and/or earn.
- I’ll Do It Tomorrow. I can’t tell you how often I say these words. But I’ve gotten better over the years, and these tips can help anyone reduce procrastination and improve efficiency.
- How to Qualify for Social Security Disability Benefits – Eligibility Requirements. Good information if you or someone you know becomes disabled and cannot work.
- Money Management Tips for the New Military Recruits. Basic money management tips for people going out into the “real world” for the first time. This article applies to new military recruits and recent college graduates.
This week’s carnivals
- The Carnival of Money Stories: The ‘It’s All Stories’ Edition @ Almost Frugal.
- Carnival of Twenty Something Finances: Personal Finance Communities Edition @ Realm of Prosperity.
- Festival of Frugality @ Frugal Upstate.
- Money Hacks Carnival #78 – Looking Back At Summer Edition @ Studenomics.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I clicked on the link to the ‘why AT&T killed Google Voice’ article, expecting to agree strong with what it said. Wow, I couldn’t've been more wrong. While the article starts out decently and accurately enough as to what is currently wrong, when it gets into specifics of what should change, I can’t believe what he read.
I feel like I’m either horribly uneducated (and I think I understand technology pretty well) or he is… or, skeptically, maybe he’s proposing things for shock value and not actual value.
Let me hit some of them.
- End phone exclusivity – I would fully support a requirement for all phone to be unlocked, but saying that ‘every phone should work on every network’ is either sloppy wording or shows a lack of understanding. There are different protocols and technologies used by different companies. Even unlocking phone wouldn’t prevent that. However, if I give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he knows that and just poorly worded it, then he’s mostly on the mark here.
- Not owning airwaves – Here he uses WiFi to say that unlicensed frequencies work. It may work when you’re trying to send a signal a hundred feet or so for personal use. But when you’re trying to cover a city with towers and need to invest millions to do it, no one is going to do it if someone else can come along and interfere with their signal, and have nothing to do about it. This seems totally off the wall.
- Faster and faster data connection – In this final bit, he claims that data connection should double more than every two years? Why? Says who? Why exactly do people need anything more than ~10 mpbs anyway? I love progress, but who exactly do you state this as some kind of a rule of nature without any explanation, defense, or apparent logic behind it.
Sorry, I guess it’s a bit off topic, but that article really got me bugged. The WSJ can be very good, but they can be incredibly off the mark sometimes too.
fredct, I’m not the biggest techie in the world, so I can’t comment on the details. And to be honest, I don’t think the details are the most important part of the article (at least not he part I am interested in). Cell phone service and data plans are more or less a commodity, and cell phone carriers use exclusive phones as a crutch to keep customers, instead of innovation and customer service. Ending phone exclusivity would generate more competition and force carriers to offer better value or customer service instead of better phones. And I think innovation and improved service was the focal point of the article.
And you’re right – I think he missed a major point… not all phones would work on all carriers because some use different technologies.
Oh no, not your fault, please. It was an interesting read, and gives me a chance to express some righteous indignation at the WSJ
I am perfectly capable of criticizing the author without criticizing the poster.
Ryan, you’re right and the author is right about locked phones. It’s silly, unnecessary & should be done away with. I don’t take any objection to that other than the point that he’s missing about different technologies. They locks are unnecessary because the contracts & termination fees exist anyway.
That brings me to the bigger problem that would still remain – contracts – and that’s one that exists entirely by the collective consumer’s choosing. People (generally) refuse to put up much money up front for a phone, and insist that the carriers subsidize the phones by, typically, around $200. As such, the carriers need a contract to ensure they get their money back.
Overall I would think both the carriers & consumers would benefit from eliminating phone subsidies, but carriers won’t do it and consumers don’t want it. The market is stuck in a bad model.
However, the *rest* of the his suggestions seem like very bad ideas. They are undefended and would lead to all sorts of unnecessary consequences. And the whole double-speed-every-two-years thing is completely out of left field. I’m not sure if it’s a massive misrepresentation of Moore’s law or what, but it’s really weird.
The phone locking this is fine, minus one detail, but the rest of it seems like it shouldn’t have gotten by a reasonable editorial board.
fredct, You’re right. I was more impressed with the first half of the article, which discussed some of the things wrong with the industry. I read the solutions more or less as “dreams in a perfect world.”
Ryan-Thanks for the mention! Hope everything is going well.
Thanks for the link Ryan!
Just noticed… Thanks for the link to my article on Moolanomy about networking!