JonathanRyan.org

Via Neatorama

A few months ago, I signed up for Prosper. It is a peer-to-peer lending service that offers completive rates for borrowers, and good income for lenders. The “How it works” page of their site explains it pretty well:

Lisa Barron needs a small loan. So she posts a listing for a loan with the amount she needs at a rate she can afford.

Joe Davis has a little bit of money to lend. Joe, along with other lenders, bids down Lisa’s rate by bidding the amount he’s willing to lend at a rate he thinks is fair.

When the listing ends, the bids with the lowest rates are combined into a single 3-year loan for Lisa. Each month, Lisa’s payment is deducted from her bank account and deposited into her lender’s accounts until the loan is repayed.

So far, I’m really impressed with the service. I’ve invested $500 over 10 loans, and am getting back about $18 a month. If everything goes well, the loans will pay out at about $650. Even if 2 of the loans default with no payments (well over the historical default rate for the credit range I’m lending to), I’ll make a profit.

Not only is it a great source of passive income, but it is addicting. I find myself checking every few days to see who has made payments, what my ROI is (it is still unstable, since I’ve only got a few months of data), and how long it will be till I can reinvest the interest.

The only real complaint I have is that money invested in Prosper is locked in loans, you can’t just cash out. The best you could do is get a loan and use the payments from Prosper to pay it off. If you’re lucky, the Prosper community will fund it!

And now, since I’ve just ranted about how great I think it is, here is the link for you to sign up:

Now, I’m the first one to say that you can forge a deep, meaningful relationship over the Internet.  To some extent the article I’m about to link supports me, though with a sarcastic enough voice I’m sure it’s not his intent.  Lines like “Ever since we crawled out of the mud and started hitting each other over the head with rocks, attraction has worked this way: I see you across the room. You see me. Something clicks. We approach. We talk. If there’s some kind of connection between our inner selves — even if it’s just a mutual desire to rub chocolate pudding over each other’s naughty bits — we get on with the business at hand. But the Internet has turned things upside down. Now, things work the other way around. Our inner selves meet and connect, and then we get to the raw, physical-attraction thing.”

Still, this story reminds me why you always have to be cautious in what you do online.  While a deep, meaningful relationship can come from AIM Chats and webcams, there’s also a more sinister side.  If it’s too good to be true…  I probably is.

Also, Harlan Ellison is a character.  This simply further reaffirms my respect and admiration for the man.  Of course, I have no idea whether or not this article is factual or not, though being in News for the LA Weekly, I suspect it is.

 The Life and Death of Jessie James

Read.  Be frightened.  Be amused.  Believe it, or not.

Overall, you scored as follows:

0% scored higher (more computer geeky),
0% scored the same, and
100% scored lower (less geeky).

Apparently I am the geekiest person ever to take this quiz.

John Walkenbach is considering making a mug with his top commenters listed on it.

I’m already acknowledged in his Excel 2007 Bible. :)

Via DeputyDog

Go leave some messages for my friend.  He only has 2,000, which is a bit short of his goal.

Link

The Western Herald ran a story about the parking lot complaints that Dustin and I have been organizing. The article did a great job of expressing how many students are in support of our efforts and the final plans for our effort, something that other local media hasn’t really covered.

When we went to add a link to the article to the press section of the greenspace website, we discovered that the online edition of the Herald omitted the article, even though the rest of the front page articles were there. The negative editorial about the lot was featured, and listed as the most popular article.

I called up the office and spoke to someone who said they would talk to the proper people about the omission. I also left a quick email for the web editor. Today the article is still not up, so I find it hard to believe that this is a simple mistake on their part.

If the Herald is allowing WMU to control them by not letting them post articles critical of the administration (which would show up on the page all students use to access online resources from WMU), then they obviously do not show the journalistic integrity that should be taught to all of the Journalism majors at our university.

UPDATE: The Herald is going to be putting it up online.  They claim it was an honest mistake.

A: He sits on an acorn and waits.

Or, for a quicker solution he can use this device patented by Hermann Reiche in 1891.

[The invention enables] heavy quadrupeds to walk up and mount the top of the platform, as shown by the elephant in the drawings, or, in other words, “to enable an elephant to climb up a tree.”

Via Dis and Pandemonium

Dinosaur Comics reminded me of an awesome story that everyone should read.

Read the story online here.  I’m pretty sure I have a book by Asimov where he says this is one of his favourites, but I could be making that up.