The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Comment Bug Edition

Earlier this week, I found an issue with the software I was using to manage comments for The Simple Dollar. I deleted a single character in a single line of code, breathed in deep, refreshed the page…

… and 7,000 (!) comments appeared in the moderation queue.

The bug was a simple one. Ordinarily, comments that need to be moderated are assigned a particular number in the database – let’s say it’s a 1. If I approve the comment, the number becomes 0. If I don’t approve it, the comment gets the number 99 and effectively vanishes.

The bug essentially revolved around the fact that some comments for moderation were being assigned the number -1 instead of the number 1. In a code edit, a – sign had been stuck into the code in front of a 1, effectively turning it into a -1. Thus, when I would view the comments that need moderated, I would only see the ones with a 1 and not see the ones with a -1. I’m not sure what percentage of comments this was affecting, but I’d estimate around 25% of them.

Anyway, I’ve got a lot of comments to deal with. I’m going to go through these in batches because it would take several days of nothing but comment moderation to deal with that many comments.

Here are some personal finance articles of interest. This past week, I spent a lot of time reading some lesser-known personal finance blogs and I’ve chose to highlight some of them this week.

Recipe for Survival: 23 Ways Restaurants Save Money This article summarizes very clearly why I don’t like eating out unless we’re eating out someplace quite nice. I simply have much more confidence in the food I cook at home. (@ coupon sherpa)

I don’t want to retire I think the biggest problem for many of us when it comes to talking about retirement savings is that we simply don’t want to “retire,” because often the word “retire” comes with a sense of being old and idle and incapable, whether that’s actually true or not. We don’t want to think about being the generic definition of a retiree. (@ a gai shan life)

When Pigs Fly: How I Fought My Parking Ticket and Beat City Hall A very humorous story about fighting a parking ticket with some good advice to boot, this article mostly made me wonder whether or not it was really worth the time. I think it’s more about the principle of the thing. (@ len penzo)

10 Frugal Ways to get Fit this Winter My frugal way of staying fit during the winter has been EA Active. (@ squawk fox)

Also, I’ve had several articles of mine appear on OPEN Forum, and I’ll be linking to them over the next few weeks. These articles usually focus on small business issues. Here are three recent ones.

Efficient Billing: A Big Key to Solving Cash Flow Problems Being organized when you’re running a small business is key, particularly when it comes to efficiently billing your customers. Here’s some advice on how to do that.

Six Steps to Audit-Proofing Your Small Business The most effective way to audit-proof yourself? Keep a paper trail of every dime going in and out of your business. Here are some effective ways to do just that.

Two Key Numbers You Need to Know to Manage Your Small Business These two key numbers come back to two key elements of a successful small business: cash in hand and effective billing. It’s all about the cash flow, after all.

Continue reading The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Comment Bug Edition …

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January 27, 2010 | Filed Under Frugal Living | Leave a Comment

The Sleeping Fox Catches No Poultry

I love reading essays, and I have a collection of essays that have truly inspired me and made me think. Among these is Benjamin Franklin’s classic The Way to Wealth – something I often read when I need a piece of financial inspiration. If the circa-1750 language is rough on your eyes, here are the principles summarized well by Art of Manliness.

Just a few days ago, I read The Way to Wealth again. I was inspired to read it by our survival of the “summer of low income” – I made a tough choice to switch my advertising revenues for The Simple Dollar that resulted in basically no income during the summer, but we made it through to the other side with little problem.

As I was reading through The Way to Wealth, one phrase really stood out at me this time:

The sleeping fox catches no poultry.

What exactly does that little phrase mean in terms of our modern lives? I see it as a call to five things.

It’s a call to be alert. Our world is full of opportunities. Sales. Small investment opportunities. People trying to get rid of things. New jobs. New careers. Love interests. Friendships. Ideas. Purely lucky events, like finding fifty dollars in a parking lot. Every day, we’re brushed with many of these things. If we’re alert, we can see them – and if we choose to, we can take advantage of them, jumping in with abandon. You’ve got to keep your eyes open and see the world as a field of blossoming opportunities.

It’s a call to have resources in reserve. Of course, many of those opportunities are hard to pluck if you don’t have anything to pluck them with. It’s incredibly useful to have some money in reserve. However, money is just one of many resources that’s useful to have in reserve. Do you have relationships you can tap for advice or other things? Do you have time – are you not booked to the maximum with no flexibility in your schedule? Do you have patience to wait for good things to come? Do you have skills and talents that you can apply and share? Resources mean more than just money – much more.

It’s a call to know what you want. The fox sleeps outside the henhouse because he has a hunger for chickens. What are you hungry for? What are your passions? Figure them out and follow them, because when you’re chasing your passions, you’re showing others – and yourself – that this is a life direction that you want. You see more opportunities because you’re passionate, and you’re able to follow up more often because of the knowledge and insight you’ve picked up chasing your passions.

It’s a call to be aggressive. If you’re sleeping, you’re letting the world pass you by. Instead, seek out the opportunities in life. Instead of glancing at that yard sale, stop there. Instead of debating whether to pay $35 for that oak desk, offer $20 for it. Instead of thinking how fantastic that job would be, ask for it. Learn how to be assertive and go after the things you want.

It’s a call to get out there and DO something. Today.

Are you the sleeping fox? Or are you out there, alert, aware, drawing on all of your resources, and catching those hens that you hunger for?