I haven't ever read one of those "get rich" books. But I suspect that any reputable one would have a graph or chart or something that looks something like the above. The difference between wealthy people and non-wealthy people is the above. Wealthy people build assets, non-wealthy-people don't.  If you're not using your company's 401K plan or investing in your IRA, then you won't ever be wealthy.  If your excuse is "I can't afford to invest" then you are choosing to never be wea...

Once upon a time... There was a man with a garden. He worked very hard tending his garden and produced far more vegetables than he would ever be able to eat. So he gave some of his vegetables away to up and coming gardeners who used the seeds to start their own gardens in exchange for the gardener getting a tiny percent of the profits they generated. But then one day, the king decided socialism was a more "humane" way of doing things. He forced all the gardeners to give him all the extra v...

We're very pleased with the response Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar / Gold Edition have received.  Well over 95 out of 100 people appear to be glad they got it based on the poll. We've also gotten some very good feedback from players that we have turned into the first of many free updates to the game.  There's a lot here to digest but some of the big changes are to how the AI plays (strategies updated are based on expert player feedback) as well as a new "garbage collection"...

This past week I had a very interesting debate with JoeUser's resident socialist, Col Gene. He is always trying to find new and creative ways to advocate higher taxes on anyone who makes more money than he does. His argument always boils down to the deficit and that rich people can afford it.  The former argument is nonsensical because politicans will simply spend all they get and more. The latter is a classic socialist argument.  Below is some of the conversation. Socialist claim: W...

It takes a lot more integrity, character, and courage to be a conservative than it does to be a liberal. That's because at its most basic level, liberalism is nothing more than childlike emotionalism applied to adult issues. Going to war is mean, so we shouldn't do it. That person is poor and it would be nice to give him money, so the government should do it. Somebody wants to have an abortion, have a gay marriage, or wants to come into the U.S. illegally and it would be mean to say, "no," ...

Since 1975, the mean average recorded temperature world wide has increased slightly. Prior to that, it was actually cooling. That is, between 1940 and 1975 the earth was cooling. Now, it could indeed turn out that the reason temperatures have increased is due to human impact on the environment.  CO2 is a greenhouse gas. And we're putting a lot of it in the air. We've significantly increased the amount in the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolusion. What isn't known, h...

Yesterday Stardock released DeskScapes 1.0, the extension to Windows DreamScene (animated wallpaper feature for Windows Vista Ultimate) that allows it to use .dream files which have a lot more capability. And in less than 24 hours, over 60,000 copies of it were downloaded and the initial 3 .dream files received thousands of downloads. Next week, Object Desktop users will get an exclusive look at some of the first dynamic wallpaper. With so much interest in so little time, it's pret...

Resident JoeUser communist, Col Gene  writes a steady stream of left-wing anti-Bush, anti-Capitalistic articles that are very interesting to read in that they really show the point of view of the very far left in this country and elsewhere. In a recent article, he discussed how Exon's profits should be taxed at an exceptional rate because of their recent $30+ billion profit (on $300+ billion in revenue).  The article could be boiled down to this: Exxon is greedy and the government ...

Europe is dying. It will take awhile. But in the course of a few decades, the Europe that we know and love will be gone.  Even today, the world of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is largely something that can only exist in fiction. Any Greeks reading this? How many brothers and sisters do you have? Any? Below is a table of the birth-death rate for selected countries from the year that just ended:   Birth rate Death rate Country 2006 2006 ...

I like Gov Granholm. She's the kind of politican that few states are lucky to have -- honest, friendly, reasonable. I also think she's intelligent. But it is, IMO, her intelligence that had led her economic policies to disaster. Simply put, when she doesn't know something, she relies on her intelligence to function as a form of intuition. And for whatever reason, she just has some sort of block when it comes to business. In her 2007 state of the state speech, she advocates raising taxes to...

If you have a JoeUser blog you can mirror your blog on WinCustomize.com right now. To do this follow these instructions: 1) Go to www.wincustomize.com 2) Sign in with the same UserID and PW you have on JU 3) On the right you'll have a "Create personal page". Click on it and follow instructions 4) You will now have a personal page that has the same content as your JoeUser blog.  When you go to your personal page, there are blue tabs that let you go through various o...

  A Guided Tour of Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar. A reintroduction to Galactic Civilizations Galactic Civilizations is a turn-based strategy game set in the 23rd century. Players take on the role of leader of an interstellar civilization. The player must explore and expand into the galaxy and balancing their manufacturing, economic, political, cultural, and military resources in order to survive in a hostile galaxy. Players can win the game through military conquest, dip...

The Korath are the warriors supreme of the Drengin Empire. When the Drengin Empire absolutely positively has to win, the call goes out and the Korath always answer. The Korath always win. The Korath were the ones who took the Torian home world thousands of years ago. If the Drengin are a bunch of ruthless, evil, conquerors, the Korath are that to the nth degree. As the Terran Alliance was about to celebrate its victory over the Dread Lords, it was the Korath who led the charge to crush the...

Our cottage up north is about half-way done. We're so excited! Here are some pictures our friends Cathy and Carl took for us of its progress: ...

Our cottage up north is about half-way done. We're so excited! Here are some pictures our friends Cathy and Carl took for us of its progress: ...