Love my iPad. I use it at home exclusively. But I've found that my tablet is limited to only consumption. I can't stand coding or writing on it and really only use it for internet browsing and book reading.
If google allowed paid links that passed on page rank, SEO instantly becomes pay to play. Preventing a situation where it only takes money to rank is in Google's best interest because it promotes a healthy internet ecosystem.
Studied economics in college. The two books we read on information economics were Rethinking the Network Economy by S J Liebowitz and Information Rules by Varian and Shapiro.
I found Information Rules to be the superior text. They are both around 10 years old however, something more current may be more desirable.
We mail a real letter to your representatives in congress. The growing disconnect between congress and citizenry is disconcerting. We make it easier to have a voice in policy.
We've partnered with a few groups for letter writing campaigns and see a little organic traffic as well.
Thanks for the feedback! The errors are manually seeded into the passages. We've built approximately 30 hours worth of lessons at: http://www.quill.org/lessons
Ugg. who decided to re-implement dropdowns without typeaheads/type a letter to jump to that part/any sort of keyboard bindings and use it for Select Your State?
Kind of a confusing link because the template letter is about supporting HR 3309 in Congress, but the House already passed that (sadly my representative is owned by Qualcomm and the UC school system and voted no regardless of my opinion) and the Rackspace article is talking follow-up debate to that HR within the Senate.
The letter lists the name (The Innovation Act) and HR for reference. The SR is yet to be determined. As soon as I find that information, the letter will be updated.
- For the Rep lookup, you should probably plug the user's address into a geocoder, and figure out who their rep is - I'll be the vast majority (maybe even 90% or more?) of voters aren't sure who their rep is. You should also remind them that they can and should write to both senators.
- Also, you might want to include a mad-lib style fill-in-the-blanks template on some major issues of the day, for those people who are extremely short on time, and even ask submitters if you can share their letters anonymously with others as a template. Even add popularity ratings for later users to easily get to the most popular letters.
This is a very interesting idea. After the cost of stamps, paper, ink, etc., are you making ~1 dollar per letter sent? What inspired you to build the site?
I built the site because the only way to get what you want is by voicing that you want it. It's especially important presently due to an increasing disconnect between Congress and citizens. Our system of government functions best with a politically active population. Otherwise the will of the people is impossible to express and the laws become the will of the few.
I've mailed several letters to lawmakers and it's a tedious process, but ultimately necessary as letters actually stand out, while email blends into the noise. Removing the encumbrance of mailing the letter enables participation in government, something I believe in very strongly.
Have you thought about extending this to say city councils or mayor's office also.
There are tons of local small problems, which can be sorted out by city offices, only if they are pointed out in a positive manner, but people do not do so.
I worked my way through university from 2006-2010. I was able to pay for my freshman year due to a gift from grandparents and random saving (2005-2006). Spring 2006 I got a full time job with the university. I worked for the school because they give great benefits to full time employees. My tuition was cut from ~6k/semester to ~2k.
I was making more than minimum wage, nearly double at the time at $13/hour. This helped, but I kept everything cheap. My apartment was $300/mo, phone, food, and insurance was less than $400. That left me with nearly $1000 left each month.
It wasn't easy and it wasn't glamourous. I worked 8-5 every day and went to class in the evenings until 8 or 9.
How did you do assignments? I was given about 2hrs work per lecture, and usually a long term project as well so would do around 5-6hrs of after school work often longer if I was stuck on some essay writing. Phil essay/argument to write, 2 chapters in Phys to do, 2 Math chapters, write a polisci essay and read 3 chapters, then churning out a small program while working on the midterm larger program was a typical night.
The business can go anywhere to look for employees, an employee can't move to SE Asia and work at Foxconn.
This is not outsourcing, its geographical arbitrage. Barriers to the current employees make this possible.