Fortune says that Georgetown, Texas is great for entrepreneurs. And who am I to argue? Even though the commute into Austin is not the best part of anyone’s week, Georgetown is still a place where you can live comfortably on a lower income. Housing is cheap, and property tax rates are a full point lower than Austin or Round Rock. (The latter is entirely due to the the abundance of seniors in Sun City that pay into the school system, but whose kids are all grown up.)
The two things I’d love to see in Georgetown:
- A mass transit system to get into Austin, a la Leander’s commuter line to the city. Supposedly that’s an option down the road.
- A buildout of downtown Georgetown residential living. Georgetown’s downtown is experiencing a revitalization, with new shops and restaurants dotting the city square, all surrounding the newly-refurbed County Courthouse. Yet, living “downtown” means buying a $400K Victorian about 12 blocks away. Considering the condo / mixed-use explosion in downtown Austin, you’d think G-town might want to explore some type of residential tie-in with the commercial growth.
Share This
March 28th, 2008
Live events are a growing segment of movie theater shows (NYT).
Wonder what took them so long. You mean empty parking lots isn’t a good thing?
Share This
March 23rd, 2008
If you’ve ever wanted to compare workbooks side-by-side in Excel 2003, but realized that Windows won’t let you do that easily, there is a workaround to allow that functionality. You basically tell the computer to open a new Excel instance instead of reusing the current one.
Here’s how:
My Computer --> Tools --> File types --> Go to ".xls"
Click "Advanced..."
Select "Open"
Click "Edit"
Add "%1" to the end of the command like so:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Outlook\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"
Check "Use DDE"
That’s it. Now, when you double click on a file on your computer, you’ll get a new window and a wholly-contained Excel workbook you can drag anywhere. (You may have noticed that there are other commands to change besides the “Open” option. I haven’t messed with these, but that’ll give you something to try.)
One of the disadvantages of this hack is that the Excel instances don’t recognize each other. That’s apparent for things like when you want to copy or move tabs between two workbooks. For them to recognize each other you have to open them in the same Excel instance, which you can do by going to File –> Open within Excel.
Share This
February 24th, 2008
This Atlantic article paints a gloomy forecast for the future of suburbs. I think there is some merit to the push into urban living. The article talks about lively streets and constant stimulation in a downtown setting. I also happen to think the idea of living with less space can be seen as a welcome challenge — it forces you to look at all the stuff you’re collected and think, “what do I really need?” We’re a nation of packrats; the new living style just forces the hand.
Share This
February 23rd, 2008
Check out “The Education of Ben Bernanke” on the New York Times website when you have a chance. It dives into the history of the central bank leaders and concludes that Ben may be in over his head. A fascinating read from Roger Lowenstein.
(Mr. Lowenstein, incidentally, also gave us When Genius Failed, the story of Long Term Capital Managment hedge fund. As far as brainy books go, it’s one of my all-time favorites.)
Share This
January 17th, 2008
Renaissance hotel plans event center (Austin Business Journal).
Tangerine’s is the club that’s being displaced by the new events center. Not that it was very popular, or even respectable. Its replacement is definitely higher and better use.
Share This
January 11th, 2008
Intel Breaks Up with OLPC (Wired.com).
This is really tough to watch. I invested a lot of time in OLPC, knowing full well its potential benefits as well as the critical weaknesses. The Wired article just points out more of the obvious, that entrepreneurs with cash motivation can run circles around a nonprofit when it comes to marketing and innovation. (The defection of the display maker is a real problem — after all, they cannot milk the existing technology forever.)
Therein lies the problem. In my opinion, the OLPC project never intended to provided its member companies a big enough carrot. Had there been financial incentive, the money spent by those companies would have been serious investment dollars. As it is, that money is what it is…goodwill expense.
Negroponte is on record as saying the project is already a success — and who can argue, with all the new entrants vying for the emerging computer market. But maybe hindsight tells us it all could have been done much cheaper.
Share This
January 4th, 2008
Next Posts
Previous Posts
