For the past few months I've been working on web apps. The first was a mobile site based on jQuery Mobile. While it was "cool", it quickly dawned on me that it wouldn't get any significant usership. For one, it was like a clone of 4square and Scvngr - and who really uses that? I'd peer into the lists of checkins, and it wasn't looking too encouraging. People use it when they're bored and alone, and my scenario didn't involve either of those situations.

I know the Net Neutrality people on either side don't consider older folks part of the information revolution (despite the fact that all the early inventors of it are now of retirement age), but seniors are directly impacted by high prices for wireless, landlines, and DSL. A bits-is-bits model would help make telecom cheaper for seniors. With these cuts to Medicare and Social Security the Republicans want...

So I'm an inactive Amazon Associate (that's the term for their affiliate program) and I get this email from Amazon.

Recently, I saw an ad on Craigslist that described a job, and stated that they would not accept telecommuters, all work was on-site, and "independent contractor." This ad might have been illegal, because there are laws about what defines an independent contractor and what defines an employee. Small businesses that misclassify workers can get an unfriendly visit from the tax man.

Tomorrow is May Day! In Los Angeles, this means an annual Los Angeles May Day march for immigrant worker rights.

Every political season, if you are a voter, you'll get political calls and mailers. Here's how to mitigate the number of calls.

Citi contacted Doug Henwood of LBO demanding that a memo from early 2009 be taken off his site. They cited the DMCA. Econ blogger Bradford DeLong argues that the document is part of the historical record, of how Citi perceived the government's response to the economic crisis.

Attached to this blog post is another copy of this memo. It basically says the Citi analysts thought the government was going pretty easy on banks, and that they were predicting high unemployment in 2009 and 2010, along with huge price declines in house prices. So, they knew what was happening all along.

Andrew Leonard at Salon has an enriched telling of the story.

Update April 3, 2011: Citibank has sent a takedown notice (a DMCA thing). So to avoid a lawsuit, I'm going to comply. I'll post more information about the specifics of the takedown later. Hopefully, someone else has a copy of this document to share.

A tax-exempt savings account is just like a savings account at a bank, except that any money put into it isn't taxed, and the money can be spent only for specific, eligible expenses.

(It's ok to click the links. These are not affiliate links.)

Turbo Tax maker Intuit, again, is mired in political turmoil: Intuit was upset that John Chiang, our State Controller, had been making electronic tax filing software free to people. Intuit wanted the State to use a different system that worked with Intuit's commercial software.

We've already had two terms of an obstructionist governor and legislature that can't compromise. The race will probably come down to Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown.

Here's something funny from Facts for Working People, and I assume the unemployed as well.

The NYT, LAT, and Huffpost have made a big issue of Obama eating spam musubi.

@HuffPo

This is a shocking entry in Wikipedia, but it shows how far racists will go to ensure that they can continue to segregate.