This is not a man with a blog.

Saying Goodbye California Sun, Hello Midwest – New York Times

By Shabbir | November 8, 2005 | Comments Off on Saying Goodbye California Sun, Hello Midwest – New York Times

In a recent article in the New York Times, "Saying Goodbye California Sun, Hello Midwest", the current diaspora of of people from cities with expensive housing to cities with cheaper housing. This is something we’ve seen with people moving out of NYC and Washington DC to Philly, or to more rural parts of Virginia, and…

Turn off the e-mail

By Shabbir | November 7, 2005 | Comments Off on Turn off the e-mail

Everyone with a new Windows PC and a freshly updated copy of Outlook has noticed that neat little feature at the bottom right.  When you receive a new e-mail, it slowly fades into view, shows you the subject line, the sender, and gives you some options to open it up or delete it on the spot.

I’ve been experimenting with my productivity for a few months now with it both on and off, seeing which setting makes me more productive.  My advice: turn the fucker off.

Cruise ship Britons attacked by pirates – Sunday Times – Times Online

By Shabbir | November 6, 2005 | Comments Off on Cruise ship Britons attacked by pirates – Sunday Times – Times Online

From 1650 to 1750 in the Caribbean, piracy was a growth business.  Although it paid terribly, there were thousands of men flocking to it as an occupation, or in some cases being pressed into it. Historically it wasn’t a fair fight.  The pirates carried more guns and men than the ships they targeted.  They were also significantly faster.

Yay! I cashed!

By Shabbir | November 5, 2005 | Comments Off on Yay! I cashed!

After Katie’s $7,000 win, her urgings to me to play the $50,000 guaranteed tourney on the site with the awful players seemed like good advice.   Katie, I, and 735 others sat down this past Sunday and played no limit Hold’em.   Throughout the tournament we were never at the same table, but instant messaged constantly, talking about the general mood of the players, and when the blinds were getting too expensive to just sit back and wait for cards.  For the most of the tourney our stacks were almost exactly the same.

Moving up in limits

By Shabbir | November 4, 2005 | Comments Off on Moving up in limits

I’ve been hanging around the lower limits of Omaha 8 or better for several months now.  I play best at a full ring, and so I’ve been sticking to 9 and 10 handed table as much as I can.  I finally moved up to $5/$10 limits.  This means that the early bets are all $5 each, and the later bets are all $10 each.  The most I can lose in a single hand, if I bet like an idiot and had someone else betting with me, would be $120.

Pakistani death toll rises to 73,000

By Shabbir | November 3, 2005 | Comments Off on Pakistani death toll rises to 73,000

I had held off on posting a specific plea for people to donate to aid organizations for the Pakistani quake, but the news just gets worse and worse. The death toll has risen to 73,000.  When we’re shocked by hundreds of people dying in a hurricane, I am confident in saying that it’s almost impossible to imagine what it would mean to lose 73,000.

It’s my job, stupid.

By Shabbir | November 1, 2005 | Comments Off on It’s my job, stupid.

My job at Mindshare has had a million incarnations. 

Well, maybe not a million, four exactly.

Being married to a poker player

By Shabbir | October 29, 2005 | Comments Off on Being married to a poker player

Thomas ‘Thunder’ Keller is a young player who won a World Series of Poker event this year only days after getting married.  He interviews his wife on what it’s like ot be married to a professional poker player in this two part series.  My favorite quote: When you go through big swings, I go through…

With friends like these…

By Shabbir | October 28, 2005 | Comments Off on With friends like these…

About two weeks ago we had politically astute friends over for dinner and the subject of Harriet Miers came up.  "She’ll withdraw her nomination, they’ll make some excuse about family obligations" I prognosticated.  "But she has no family!" my friends replied.  "Good point, but it will be an excuse of some sort.  People who insult the egos of Senators don’t get a pass, even with a note from the White House."

So I was half right.

Creative Technology profits plummet

By Shabbir | October 27, 2005 | Comments Off on Creative Technology profits plummet

My reporter friend Aaron Pressman was good enough to feed my schadenfreud by sending along this note about Creative Technology, which makes MP3 players that pretend to compete with the IPod.

Chief Executive Sim Wong Hoo told an
analysts’ conference that Creative won’t aggressively seek a greater share of
the MP3 market. He also said the company is willing to let market share fall to
help Creative improve financial results by the end of 2005 — a shift from last
November, when Mr. Sim unveiled a $100 million marketing campaign he predicted
would give Creative a 40% share of the MP3 market.

I predicted this one
several months back.