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<channel>
	<title>PaulFranzen.com</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.paulfranzen.com/?feed=rss2" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.paulfranzen.com</link>
	<description>The nonsensical ravings of a loudmouthed malcontent.</description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 03 Jun 2010 05:27:21 +0000</pubDate>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5</generator>
	<language>en</language>
			<item>
		<title>Rotate</title>
		<link>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=103</link>
		<comments>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=103#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:33:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=103</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the right way to rotate a dom object in FF, using jQuery, of course, it can easily be ported to work with IE, but that&#8217;s up to you.
var angle = 40*Math.PI/180;
var cosx = Math.cos(angle);
var sinx = Math.sin(angle);
var negsinx = (Math.sin(angle)) * -1;
var rotato = cosx.toString() + &#8216;, &#8216; +  sinx.toString() + &#8216;, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>This is the right way to rotate a dom object in FF, using jQuery, of course, it can easily be ported to work with IE, but that&#8217;s up to you.</div>
<p><code>var angle = 40*Math.PI/180;<br />
var cosx = Math.cos(angle);<br />
var sinx = Math.sin(angle);<br />
var negsinx = (Math.sin(angle)) * -1;</code></p>
<p>var rotato = cosx.toString() + &#8216;, &#8216; +  sinx.toString() + &#8216;, &#8216; + negsinx.toString() + &#8216;, &#8216; + cosx.toString() + &#8216;, 0px&#8217; + &#8216;, 0px&#8217;;</p>
<p>$(&#8217;#testIMG1&#8242;).css(&#8217;-moz-transform&#8217;, &#8216;matrix(&#8217;+rotato+&#8217;)');</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?feed=rss2&amp;p=103</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How &#8220;business&#8221; destroys business pt. 1</title>
		<link>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=85</link>
		<comments>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=85#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:20:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=85</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The business of America is business
- President Calvin Coolidge
If you&#8217;ve ever talked to me about the state of business in America.  There&#8217;s is a good chance you got an earful about how stupid, inefficient and mismanaged (most of) it is. Well instead of just shooting off my mouth, I&#8217;ve decided to collect some evidence.  95% [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="resultsFor" class="round10"><em>The business of America is business</em></div>
<div class="round10">- President Calvin Coolidge</div>
<p>If you&#8217;ve ever talked to me about the state of business in America.  There&#8217;s is a good chance you got an earful about how stupid, inefficient and mismanaged (most of) it is. Well instead of just shooting off my mouth, I&#8217;ve decided to collect some evidence.  95% of this is from Wikipedia so inaccuracies may be there.</p>
<p>For the first part I&#8217;ve researched some sites, namely cnnmoney.com, portfolio.com and wsj.com and complied lists of what they say are the best / worst CEOs of all-time.  Then I looked into their backgrounds and found out the most advanced degree they held and here&#8217;s the data.</p>
<h4>First The Bad</h4>
<p>The ratings for downfall are pretty loose.</p>
<ul style="margin-left:20px;">
<li>Incompetence - Just being an idiot</li>
<li>INCOMPETENCE - Not fit to walk your dog</li>
<li>INCOMPETENCE!! - Rick Wagoner, seriously, during his tenure he lost about $80 billion dollars, more than any other CEO in history</li>
<li>D&#8217;OH! - It seemed like a good idea at the time</li>
<li>Hubris - There is no way this could backfire, after all it was my idea&#8230;</li>
<li>Criminal - Just an outright crook</li>
</ul>
<table style="font-size:80%; display:block; margin:10px;" border="1" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr style="background-color:#f3f3f3">
<td>Name</td>
<td>Company</td>
<td>Degree</td>
<td>School</td>
<td>Downfall</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ed Zander</td>
<td>Motorola</td>
<td>MBA</td>
<td>Boston</td>
<td>Incompetence</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Gary Levin</td>
<td>Time Warner</td>
<td>Law</td>
<td>Penn</td>
<td>D&#8217;OH!</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Chuck Prince</td>
<td>Citigroup</td>
<td>Law</td>
<td>Georgetown</td>
<td>Incompetence</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bab Nardelli</td>
<td>GE / Home Depot / Chrysler</td>
<td>MBA</td>
<td>Louisville</td>
<td>INCOMPETENCE</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Stan O&#8217;Neal</td>
<td>Merrill Lynch</td>
<td>MBA</td>
<td>Harvard</td>
<td>INCOMPETENCE</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Dick Fuld</td>
<td>Lehman Bros.</td>
<td>MBA</td>
<td>NYU</td>
<td>Hubris</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Kerry Killinger</td>
<td>WaMu</td>
<td>MBA</td>
<td>Iowa</td>
<td>INCOMPETENCE</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Rick Wagoner</td>
<td>GM</td>
<td>MBA</td>
<td>Harvard</td>
<td>INCOMPETENCE!!</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Gary Forsee</td>
<td>Sprint</td>
<td>BS?</td>
<td>Missouri</td>
<td>D&#8217;OH!</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ken Lay</td>
<td>Enron</td>
<td>PHD</td>
<td>Philosophy (Wha?!)</td>
<td>Criminal</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bernie Ebbers</td>
<td>WorldComm</td>
<td>?</td>
<td>Mississippi</td>
<td>Criminal</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Richard Scrushy</td>
<td>HealthSouth</td>
<td>?</td>
<td>UAB</td>
<td>Criminal</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Angelo Mozilo</td>
<td>Countrywide</td>
<td>BS</td>
<td>Fordham</td>
<td>Incompetent &amp; a crook!</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&#8220;Chainsaw&#8221; Al Dunlap</td>
<td>Sunbeam</td>
<td></td>
<td>West Point</td>
<td>Incompetent</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Jimmy Cayne</td>
<td>Bear Stearns</td>
<td>Dropout</td>
<td>Purdue</td>
<td>INCOMPETENT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>John Sculley</td>
<td>Apple</td>
<td>MBA</td>
<td>Penn</td>
<td>INCOMPETENT</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>You&#8217;ll notice there are seven MBA&#8217;s and none of them even had the good sense to be crooks.  You&#8217;ll notice an almost complete lack of engineering, technical degrees or arts degrees. Although, to be fair, some of these folks have undergrad degrees in those fields (You&#8217;ll also notice a complete lack of women). Also, lots of these guys had wins in the past, but blew something huge, so its &#8220;not fair to judge them like that.&#8221; You know what else isn&#8217;t fair? Losing your job / 401(k) / pension.</p>
<h4>Now the good</h4>
<table style="font-size:80%; display:block; margin:10px;" border="1" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr style="background-color:#f3f3f3">
<td>Name</td>
<td>Company</td>
<td>Degree</td>
<td>School</td>
<td>Claim to fame</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>James Skinner</td>
<td>Mickey D&#8217;s</td>
<td>No Degree</td>
<td>Navy</td>
<td>McDonald&#8217;s kicked butt in the recession. I know all FF companies did, but not as much Ronald</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reed Hastings</td>
<td>Netflix</td>
<td>Math</td>
<td>Bowdoin</td>
<td>Founded Netflix, still kicking butt even with stiff competition from streaming. Continued innovation</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Steve Jobs</td>
<td>Apple</td>
<td>Dropout</td>
<td>Reed college</td>
<td>Seriously?!</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Herb Kelleher</td>
<td>Southwest</td>
<td>JD</td>
<td>NYU</td>
<td>Southwest, also chain-smoked KOOLs and drank wild turkey</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Lee Iacocca</td>
<td>Chrysler</td>
<td>Industrial Engineering</td>
<td>LeHigh</td>
<td>Quintessential CEO</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bill Gates</td>
<td>Microsoft</td>
<td>Dropout</td>
<td>Harvard</td>
<td>Seriously?!</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Katherine Graham</td>
<td>Washington Post</td>
<td>History</td>
<td>University of Chicago</td>
<td>Made the WaPo what it is (was)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Warren Buffet</td>
<td>Berkshire Hathaway</td>
<td>MS Economics</td>
<td>Columbia</td>
<td>Seriously?!</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reuben Mark</td>
<td>Colgate</td>
<td>MBA</td>
<td>Harvard</td>
<td>Did the &#8220;small stuff&#8221; best</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Andy Grove</td>
<td>Intel</td>
<td>PHD</td>
<td>Chemical Engineering</td>
<td>Pentiums</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Michael Bloomberg</td>
<td>Salomon Brothers</td>
<td>MBA</td>
<td>Harvard</td>
<td>Investing</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sam Walton</td>
<td>Wal-Mart</td>
<td>Economics</td>
<td>Missouri</td>
<td>Wal-Mart</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Looks a bit different, doesn&#8217;t it?  There are going to be lots of naysayers. Naysaying away about judging and over-simplification but here is something anecdotal for you:</p>
<p>1. You&#8217;ll notice Steve Jobs on the best and John Sculley on the worst. Well, there&#8217;s a reason. Jobs started the company, was essentially forced out for a more &#8220;business savvy&#8221; alternative (BTW, he went away and built Pixar), the business guy ran the company into the ground and Jobs came back to the rescue. With, wait for it&#8230;good products! Amazing! Who would have thought!</p>
<p>2. You&#8217;ll notice Bill Gates on the best and (in about 3 years, Steve Ballmer on the worst).  Well, there&#8217;s a reason. Gates started the company, was essentially <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9960626-7.html" target="_blank">forced out</a> for a more &#8220;business savvy&#8221; alternative (BTW, he went on to found <a href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org" target="_blank">The Gates Foundation</a>) the ending is still missing, but you can see a pattern emerging.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:80%">One more thing: here&#8217;s a <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=MSFT#chart1:symbol=msft;range=my;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined" target="_blank">Stock Chart</a> of Microsoft&#8217;s, 2000 is the year Ballmer replaced Gates as CEO. Worth a thousand words I think.</span></p>
<p>I know you think I hate MBA&#8217;s and I&#8217;m angry, and unrealistic, and all CEOs can&#8217;t be Steve Jobs, after all.  But I&#8217;ll refer you to the title.  The question that business has to ask itself is this, &#8220;Should our COO be our CEO?&#8221; If the answer is, &#8220;yes.&#8221; Then please continue manufacturing plastic forks and pretty, pretty, please, don&#8217;t forget what happened when you&#8217;re CEO said, &#8220;Hey, what if we combine a spoon and fork? It&#8217;ll be cheaper than doing them separate!&#8221;.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?feed=rss2&amp;p=85</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How to tell if a &#8220;newspaper person&#8221; authored a blog post about newspaper websites</title>
		<link>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=83</link>
		<comments>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=83#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 2009 01:48:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=83</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Rating the top 25 Newspaper Websites
Clue #1: If a blog post about good websites refers to users as readers. For example: People &#8220;read&#8221; the newspaper and &#8220;use&#8221; a website. You think I&#8217;m being pretentious, but when&#8217;s the last time you said, &#8220;I&#8217;m gonna go read the internet.&#8221; And don&#8217;t give me that, &#8220;I read the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://247wallst.com/2009/06/15/rating-the-top-25-newspaper-websites-2009/">Rating the top 25 Newspaper Websites</a><br />
Clue #1: If a blog post about good websites refers to users as readers. For example: People &#8220;read&#8221; the newspaper and &#8220;use&#8221; a website. You think I&#8217;m being pretentious, but when&#8217;s the last time you said, &#8220;I&#8217;m gonna go read the internet.&#8221; And don&#8217;t give me that, &#8220;I <em>read</em> the paper online&#8221; line. Average time on site for the NY Times is <a href="http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/nytimes.com">4.6 minutes</a>, that&#8217;s 15 million serious speed readers a month.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>MTVMusic.com</title>
		<link>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=81</link>
		<comments>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=81#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2009 04:21:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[communication]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=81</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Radiohead &#124;MTV Music
Another great example of the EPS (elite-popular-specialized) model
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtvmusic.com:60603" width="320" height="271" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashVars="dist=http://www.mtvmusic.com" allowFullScreen="true" AllowScriptAccess="always"></embed></p>
<div style="margin:0; text-align:center; width:320px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10px;"><a style="color:#000000;" href="http://www.mtvmusic.com/radiohead">Radiohead</a> |<a style="color:#000000;" href="http://www.mtvmusic.com/">MTV Music</a></div>
<p>Another great example of the EPS (elite-popular-specialized) model</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?feed=rss2&amp;p=81</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Business idea: Film cameras for celebrities</title>
		<link>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=78</link>
		<comments>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=78#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:04:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[celebrities]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=78</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A nice stylish, film camera, so you can take all the embarassing pictures you want while minimizing the chances they&#8217;ll be leaked. Also, a super-discreet (expensive) developing service Snail mail based!
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A nice stylish, film camera, so you can take all the embarassing pictures you want while minimizing the chances they&#8217;ll be leaked. Also, a super-discreet (expensive) developing service Snail mail based!</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?feed=rss2&amp;p=78</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>JQuery /OAS/ Flash interstitial ad</title>
		<link>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=75</link>
		<comments>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=75#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:16:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[tech]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ads]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[jquery]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[oas]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=75</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For those of you familiar with OAS (open ad stream) you know it can a be a bit of pain to work with / troubleshoot / hack.  SO for your benefit I&#8217;m posting a little code snippet. This combines JQuery with the OAS tracking tags and some basic flash to build an interstitial ad. Downlad [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>For those of you familiar with OAS (open ad stream) you know it can a be a bit of pain to work with / troubleshoot / hack.  SO for your benefit I&#8217;m posting a little code snippet. This combines JQuery with the OAS tracking tags and some basic flash to build an interstitial ad. Downlad here: <a href="http://www.paulfranzen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/st-interstitial.html">interstitial</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?feed=rss2&amp;p=75</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Simple, JQuery select all check box</title>
		<link>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=70</link>
		<comments>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=70#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:56:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[javascript]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[jquery]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[select all]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[tech]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=70</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Seriously, this is a snippet that should be out there, jeez:

function selectAllChecks(){
if( $(this).attr('checked') == true ){
$(':checkbox:not(this)').attr('checked', true);
}
else{
$(':checkbox:not(this)').attr('checked', false);
}
}
$(document).ready(function(){
$(&#8217;input#selectAll&#8217;).bind(&#8221;click&#8221;,selectAllChecks);
}); //end document.ready function
Obviously, you want your select all checkbox to have an id of &#8220;selectAll&#8221;
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><code>Seriously, this is a snippet that should be out there, jeez:</code></p>
<p><code><br />
function selectAllChecks(){<br />
if( $(this).attr('checked') == true ){<br />
$(':checkbox:not(this)').attr('checked', true);<br />
}<br />
else{<br />
$(':checkbox:not(this)').attr('checked', false);<br />
}<br />
}</code></p>
<p>$(document).ready(function(){<br />
$(&#8217;input#selectAll&#8217;).bind(&#8221;click&#8221;,selectAllChecks);<br />
}); //end document.ready function</p>
<p>Obviously, you want your select all checkbox to have an id of &#8220;selectAll&#8221;</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Google Maps API version 3</title>
		<link>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=68</link>
		<comments>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=68#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:14:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[tech]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=68</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[New version of the Google Maps API
My mouth is watering&#8230;
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>New version of the <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/v3/">Google Maps API</a></p>
<p>My mouth is watering&#8230;</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Stir Chicago</title>
		<link>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=66</link>
		<comments>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=66#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:58:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[stirchicago]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=66</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Well I launched a &#8220;fully-functioning&#8221; version of stirchicago.com a little while ago. I&#8217;ve gotten pretty positive feedback on the site, but I need to build a more professional module to handle the aggregrated results from the topics.  I also need to clean everything up, build some nicer code to handle a lot of the display. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Well I launched a &#8220;fully-functioning&#8221; version of <a title="StirChicago.com" href="http://stirchicago.com">stirchicago.com</a> a little while ago. I&#8217;ve gotten pretty positive feedback on the site, but I need to build a more professional module to handle the aggregrated results from the topics.  I also need to clean everything up, build some nicer code to handle a lot of the display. So there is still plenty of work to be done before its out of beta.</p>
<p>I think I might have to find some more consistently paying work before I go any further.   I swear to God collecting money from people is like pulling teeth.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Setting Goals</title>
		<link>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=63</link>
		<comments>http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=63#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:15:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[funny]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.paulfranzen.com/?p=63</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The problem with setting goals for yoursef is that there are no consequences to not acheiving them.  I think you start every goal with, &#8220;If I don&#8217;t do blank, I&#8217;m going to kill myself.&#8221; I bet people would be alot more careful about goals.
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The problem with setting goals for yoursef is that there are no consequences to not acheiving them.  I think you start every goal with, &#8220;If I don&#8217;t do blank, I&#8217;m going to kill myself.&#8221; I bet people would be alot more careful about goals.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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