Jason Unger

Ben Folds Plays Chat Roulette in Charlotte Concert

Posted by junger - 03/21/10 at 07:03:18 pm

Here's Ben's ode to Merton, the piano improv chat roulette guy that I still don't think is Ben Folds.

(via Geekosystem)

Is Piano Chat Roulete Guy Really Ben Folds?

Posted by junger - 03/16/10 at 06:03:36 pm

Is this guy Ben Folds in disguise?

Debbie said it was from the start, but I'm not so sure. What do you think?

3 Observations About Seemingly Unrelated Items

Posted by junger - 11/19/09 at 06:11:00 pm

I haven't blogged for, what, a few weeks now? That's not a total shocker, per se, since I've always tended to go through peaks and valleys of creativity.

But as my life has started getting into a new routine (did I mention I started a new job? Press release coming soon), I've realized a few things about my priorities.

I don't need to stay as connected to the news as I thought
I've talked about selective ignorance before, but for the past few weeks, I've lived it. I've spent a total of about 5 minutes in my Google Reader over the past 2 weeks. And boy, a lot of stuff happens. And most of it is useless.

How much time are you wasting trying to know everything?

It's way easier to be productive to music than to podcasts
I love podcasts. But I only have a certain amount of time in my day to half-pay attention to them. And that's OK, since my time is probably the most valuable thing I have (after my family).

Rather than trying to listen to what all of my podcasts are talking about, playing music in the background is way more conducive to getting things done.

And, PS, I love Pandora.

There's only so many things you can do at a time
I haven't done jack with Automatic Finances in the past few weeks. I just haven't had the time, and that bothers me. Part of me thinks that it should be merged into this site, but I don't want to be pegged solely as the personal finance guy.

But since I started the new job, am now recording two podcasts a week — Tech Blab and This Week in This Week in Tech (TwiTwit) — and thoroughly enjoy it all, prioritization becomes even more important.

There's only so much lifehacking you can do (I already killed my commute) to make all this happen.

Same Blab Time, Same Blab Channel

Posted by junger - 10/23/09 at 07:10:54 am

I have an argument that I am going to make about why net neutrality is a bad idea as it is currently being pushed through Congress.

It's controversial, will definitely stir up some comments, and — in my humble opinion — a win-win situation for both service providers and customers.

But I can't write it right now. It'd be like a major brain dump, into a post, with no coherent path to lead you through.

So I'm not going to write it. Right now.

But I will soon, since I want to be able to discuss it on next week's episode of TechBlab. You know, the podcast where I make fun of Blogger Bob, the guy who writes on the TSA's blog, and end up getting called out by a listener — and the TSA themselves!

While you're waiting, listen to the episode. It's a good one. And let me know what you think.

Click to play

It's Time To End the Membership Site Craze

Posted by junger - 10/16/09 at 05:10:54 pm

Is it just me, or is everyone and their brother trying to get rich launching a membership-based teaching site?

You're right. It's not just me.

But I am tired of it. The people trying to start these businesses — especially targeted Web-savvy Internet entrepreneurs — are already behind the eight ball.

If you're not familiar with these types of sites, here's how they normally do it:

• See that people are making money selling programs that teach freedom, automated income and Internet success
• Coin a new phrase, like freedom rockstar or 4-hour business, to describe what you offer
• Connect with other ninjas and set up an affiliate program, boasting about how you're so generous to share your success with everyone else, for only $99 a month!

Look, if really had an automated income stream that allowed you to live a life of complete freedom, why are you investing so much time in a for-profit business?

You're not that nice, trust me. If you were, you'd give your program away for free. You've already got the money you need, right?

Oh, no.

Quite honestly (if I wasn't being honest enough), I gave major props to one of my favorite Web entrepreneurs, Brian Clark of Copyblogger, for starting this craze. He managed to develop the model, market it and profit from it before everyone else jumped in the market.

And then he moved on to develop the next big thing. That's brilliance.

You don't always have to be first in the market to be the best, but it doesn't hurt to own the market before the competition arrives.

The market has been saturated. It's time to end the program.

But seriously. If I see one more training program promising me the world, only at $99 a month, or all of my contacts on Twitter and the blog world whoring out the same product, I'm unsubscribing.

For real.