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Cameron's Note: You would think that by being GM of a radio station, I would be fairly opinionated about music.  It shouldn't be hard to compose my own "BEST OF 2008" album list, right?  Not so fast on that assumption my friends, because I don't think I could ever know enough about music to actually judge it accurately.  Even if I did compile my own list, it would only consist of bands like Fall Out Boy, Metro Station, and All Time Low.  You know, bands that only pre-teen girls and Cameron Banga care about.  Luckily, my roommate Chris knows quite a bit about music and is much better at putting together a top album list.  I tend to agree with most of Chris's top 20 (although I do think Oracular Spectacular should be higher), so I asked if he would guest post the list on my blog.  I hope you enjoy Chris's top 20 albums of 2008 and definitely suggest you check out these bands as well.

Chris Zaplatosch's Top 20 Albums of 2008
By Chris Zaplatosch

So, I found a link to this video of a speech by Malcolm Gladwell on Kevin Rose's blog this afternoon. 



While I know that 18 minutes is super long for a YouTube video, I definitely recommend that you check it out in its entirety.  I was really able to take a lot out of the video, specifically with regards to perceived notions as to how one should treat the preferences or desires of others.  We're all individuals and to run a successful business plan, you must cater to the individual and not society.  Leave me a comment or e-mail (Cameron@CameronBanga.com) to let me know what you think of Gladwell's ideas, I am really curious to see what others think.

So, I have decided that it may make sense for me to get some personal business cards.  I figure that since I am going to "enter the real world" here in the next year in a half, it would make sense to hand out a card with my contact information to potential employers.

I found this sweet site called Wordle today and I think I want to use a similar style of art for my business card.

Here is an idea of what I want it to look like.  Colors will most likely change and I will add my phone number, but this is a good example.


What do you guys think?  Any suggestions or opinions?  I would love to hear them, so just send me an e-mail to Cameron@CameronBanga.com or leave a comment.

I was checking out President-Elect Barack Obama's weekly address to the nation on YouTube this afternoon and several interesting points were brought up with regards to his plan to create jobs and push pass this recession.



It is real encouraging to see a direct emphasis placed upon increasing widespread use of broadband technologies here in the USA.  We are considered by many to be the most industrialized nation in the world and it's crazy to think that we are trailing so many countries with regards to broadband speed and availability.  As a tech nerd, it's reassuring to see a president who will be devoted toward fixing internet related issues.

I am also interested in learning more of Obama's plan to spend a considerable amount of resources on infrastructure and energy conservation.  I see this idea much more preferable than the idea of rebate checks or tax breaks because it will help to place money back into the economy while also making significant improvements on building or road efficiency.  To get out of this recession, we really need to start spending money as a nation and the best way to jump start that is to get the government spending.  In any economy, money sees a multiplier effect and a dollar spent is not necesarily an exact dollar for dollar transaction.  As money is saved in banking, a small percentage of it goes into reserves and the rest is typically lent out by banks to others for spending.  For example, when banks are forced to keep 20% reserves, a $100 has a total lending power of around $450.  Thus, it is important to have banks lending and have people willing to borrow money in order to reach reach maximun spending potential and have a thriving economy.  As people spend and save, that money is passed along and through lending a single dollar can have the power of nearly five dollars.  However, when people aren't spending or lending (as is typically the case during a recession), a dollar doesn't see that passed on benefit and we lose out on perceived wealth.

Obviously this recession is the result of many bad decisions over the last five to ten years and fixing the economy isn't as simple as going out and forcing banks to lend.  In fact, we've been trying these methods and they haven't really been working.  Many might remember that the government passed a tax refund last summer which gave each taxpayer up to $600.  Why didn't this money see a significant multiplication effect and benefit the economy?  Well, studies have shown that people didn't actually spend the money they were given.  Instead, they used the money to pay off credit cards, car loans, or mortgages.  That may be spending money, but it doesn't have much of a multiplier effect because it goes toward paying off debt and not toward making expendatures which benefit the economy as a whole.  We don't see the multiplier effect either because the money nevers goes to banks, so it isn't allowed to be lent out and given a chance to multiply.  It just goes into the pockets of credit or mortgage companies.

Essentially, the $700 billion dollar bailout of Wall Street was suppose to work because the government was giving large sums of money to lending firms under the pretense that these companies would in turn give the money to businesses for spending.  Should work and give us that wonderful multiplier effect as these companies spend the money and it goes back into banks for further lending, right?  Well, not so fast.  Instead of making this bailout money available for lending, many of these banks have been holding onto the cash in anticipation of needing it over the next two years to pay their own expenses.  Again, no lending or spending and no growth for the economy.

So back to the topic at hand, how will infrastructure and green technologies help the economy?  I think we can all agree that higher aggregate spending is good for the economy, so now we just need to figure out which way is best to kickstart that spending.  Rebate checks didn't work and it doesn't seem that the bailout of Wall Street has done much either.  One way or another, it's going to take more money from the government and lots of it.  So, bascially what Barack Obama and his administration is suggesting is that we take the addition money that we need to spend and instead of giving another bailout or rebate check, we spend the money on improving our infrastructure and energy efficiency.  The federal government will take proposals on how to best spend money on the improvement of roads or building efficiency and then give that money to those with the best proposals. 

How does this help get us out of the recession?  Well, states will receive this money and then contract out local construction firms to build roads, engineers to develop new bridges, heating specialists to make buildings more energy effiecient, etc.  The money directly goes into the hands of American workers while also providing a lot of new jobs to help bring down our growing unemployment rate.  Workers then receive paychecks for their work and spend it at local businesses who then save the money in banks.  Hopefully then we will see our multiplier effect and a greater perceived level of wealth as well. 

So what if this plan doesn't work and we don't see such an effect, like with the bailout or rebate checks?  Here is the additional benefit this plan, we still get new roads, bridges, better buildings, and additional jobs for American workers.  The saved money each year on road repair or energy bills will help pay for the costs of these projects alone in the long run. 

It's basically the "New New Deal" and a similar plan to that which Franklin D. Roosevelt proprosed which helped the nation recover during the Great Depression.  While Obama may have history on his side, we can only hope that this plan has similar positive effects on our current economic situation and brings us out of this steepening recession.

(EDIT: Quick note, just wanted to stress that I'm not looking at this as a "definite fix" to get us out of our current economic situation, but instead as a quick commentary on how Obama's plans in the video could benefit our current situation. Obviously, the problem is much larger and deeper than this and many other factors which go into fixing an economy.)

So, I saw this post earlier today on TwiTip and it's follow up post which can be found here on the topic of top Twitter users to follow, specifically if you fit into a certain niche. 

As a college student and frequent Twitter user who is really into technology, I could definitely put together a list of Twitter users I find useful to follow.  This top 10 isn't sorted in a specific order, but instead as ten solid users anyone who is into tech and of college age should follow.

@zappos - Zappos may have the best service of any company in the nation and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh gives great commentary on how he does it through his Twitter account.
@cnn - Definitely worth having for mobile updates.  It's hip to stay informed and CNN's Twitter will keep you up to date with all important news headlines.
@pleasedressme - PleaseDress.me may change how we buy clothes in the future.  Definitely worth keeping up with the future of online sales.
@mashable - Mashable has all the greatest stories on web start-ups and is definitely worth keeping up with if you want to be on top of all the latest web trends.
@problogger - Darren at ProBlogger writes the best content for anyone who keeps a blog.  If you want to be successful at blogging (or the internet in general), you need to read his posts.
@cobracommander - With recent tweets like "Used Bluetooth headset during conference call today. Was informed later that it was clearly evident I was sitting on a toilet during meeting", CobraCommander delivers great comic relief between serious tweets.
@tinybuddha - Nothing makes my day more than getting a tinybuddha tweet on my cellphone.  Great quotes which can really apply to everyday life.  I only wish the account would tweet a little more often.
@kevinrose - Kevin Rose is what every guy like me (nerd into blogging and web stuff) wants to be.
@peterrojas - Peter has been the man behind Engadget, Joystiq, RCRD LBL, Gizmodo and more.  This guy knows his stuff and is definitely worth a follow.
@nikolez - Every nerdy guy needs to know a nerdy girl who makes us feel a little more comfortable about our livestyles and to give us hope that we may one day have a chance with a female.  NikoleZ is cute, hip, and can give us hope that we may one day find a girl who enjoys our ability to hum the Tetris theme.
@cameronbanga - I know this is number 11 but I had to include myself in my list.  I'm cool, right?  I really don't know how to classify my posts but I do know that my posts contain no MSG or preservatives. 

Did I forget anyone?  Let me know by sending me an e-mail to Cameron@CameronBanga.com.

-CB