As credit card companies continue to tighten their lending standards on card users, some are using purchasing data — gleaned from millions of card transactions processed daily — to weed out who may or may not be good credit risks.

Have you used your credit card at merchants specializing in secondhand clothing, retread tires, bail bond services, massages, casino gambling or betting? Your credit card issuer may be taking note — and making decisions about your creditworthiness based on your purchasing behavior. The reason: Buying used clothing or retread tires may be an indication of financial distress and a preamble to missed credit card payments or defaults.

via What You Buy Affects Your Credit – WalletPop.

Creates a link on YouTube video pages that you can use to pop out the video into a separate window (sort of like GTalk’s pop-out feature)

via YouTube Pop-out for Greasemonkey.

Cisco’s Next-Generation Workforce

* Cisco employees spend about 63 percent of their time communicating and collaborating.

* 40 percent of Cisco employees say they are not located in the same city as their manager.

* The average Cisco employee now telecommutes 2.0 days per week.

* 60 percent of the time saved by telecommuting is spent working and 40 percent is spent on personal time.

Key Findings/Highlights

* Cisco conducted the survey in late 2008 to evaluate a number of telecommuting topics, including commuting patterns, technology barriers, work quality and productivity, environmental impacts, and advantages and disadvantages of the flexible lifestyle, as well as overall employee satisfaction.

* 1,992 Cisco employees across five regions (Asia Pacific, emerging markets, European markets, Japan and U.S./Canada) participated in the study.

Productivity and Collaboration

* Approximately 69 percent of the employees surveyed cited higher productivity when working remote, and 75 percent of those surveyed said the timeliness of their work improved.

* By telecommuting, 83 percent of employees said their ability to communicate and collaborate with co-workers was the same as, if not better than, it was when working on-site.

* 67 percent of survey respondents said their overall work quality improved when telecommuting.

* An improved quality of life through telecommuting was cited by 80 percent of survey respondents.

* Telecommuting can also lead to a higher employee retention rate, as more than 91 percent of respondents say telecommuting is somewhat or very important to their overall satisfaction.

Going Green

* In 2008, Cisco teleworkers prevented approximately 47,320 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from being released into the environment due to avoided travel.

* The average distance for round-trip commutes varied among global regions: employees in U.S. and Canada reported on average a 30-mile round-trip commute; Asia Pacific employees cited a distance of about 14 miles; Japanese employees cited a 26-mile commute; employees in emerging markets commute an average of 16 miles; and European employees reported a 46-mile commute.

* Cisco employees report a fuel cost savings of $10.3 million per year due to telecommuting.

via Cisco Study Finds Telecommuting Significantly Increases Employee Productivity, Work-Life Flexibility and Job Satisfaction -> News@Cisco.

WWIII Propaganda: Torrent Your MP3s on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

I started up a planted tank a little over a month ago. Initially I just dumped a bunch of potting soil, sand, plants, fishies in it. After a while, it was basically mud and never really cleared up.

So, I pulled out the plants and inhabitants and dumped out the potting soil, and replaced it with Flourite.  Here’s what it looks like four days later – big improvement.

YouTube – Fashion & Style: The 52 Blocks – nytimes.com/video.

I’ve been tracking the swine flu since 5/13 from the cdc.gov’s H1N1 site using google docs. Here’s my projection.

On September 11, 2009:
Infected will be: 342,762. Dead will be: 1474.

Best on headphones.

Kick_It-%28WZRDZ_Remix%29.mp3

I’m tired of pouring hot coffee over ice cubes, or making hot coffee then letting it sit in the fridge overnight. Tomorrow, I’m trying a french press cold coffee method.

Cold Brewed Coffee using a French Press.