Links
These are links and articles that I find
useful. I have split them among several categories:
New York Research Investing and
finance Journalism Personal Links
New York
Manhattan
User's Guide. When I moved to New York from Paris in 1997, I
subscribed to a newsletter called Manhattan User's Guide. It told you stuff
like where to go out to dinner, who to call when you had a plumbing problem,
and what was on sale where. Sadly, it went out of business a couple of years
later, but it was resurrected in February 2003 as a free website.
Dinner Broker
and Open Table. These are two reservation
services that will help you get restaurant seats in major cities. Dinner
Broker not only makes reservations at the restaurants in its network, but
it can get you a discount during slow times and, for a premium, can get you
seated at otherwise full spots during peak hours. Open Table specializes
in high-end restaurants, and you earn points that can be redeemed for dining
certificates. Each company works with restaurants that have signed up for
its services.
Empire State Building Lighting Schedule. In case you're wondering
what the colors mean.
Hop Stop This site does for public transportation what MapQuest does for driving directions: You tell it where you are and where you are going, and it gives you directions by subway/bus/foot for getting there. New York is up and running, and as of early 2006, there were beta versions for Boston, San Francisco and the District of Columbia.
Research
Internet Slang Dictionary & Translator
Just what it says; you type in web/phone text slang, it tells you what it means. Doesn't know the old wire-service codes, but idk, wfm though ymmv.
Am I Annoying?
One Saturday morning, I turned on the TV and there was an infomercial with
Billy Mays shouting at the top of his lungs about Orange Clean.
I like that product, but I wondered who the hell Billy Mays was and
what qualified him to scream about household cleaning products on the
cable TV I was paying too much for. So I Googled him and came across this
website, which has thousands of quick bios of the famous, the near-famous
and the famous-for-being famous, including an even-handed analysis of why
they might or might not be annoying. Billy's name annoys other people too
-- no Giant he, not even a Met -- but he has a cult following among a certain
substratum of gay culture who consider him a "bear," which if you've ever
seen him (and if you have a TV, how could you not?) you'll understand why.
Where else can you learn these things but the Internet?
Building-Cost.net.
This site lets you estimate the cost of building a home anywhere in the United
States. It has enough variables to be useful but it only takes a few minutes
(good if you have a book of plans and want to figure out what they will
cost to execute).
Dictionary.com
Who uses printed dictionaries anymore?
Power Reporting.
A site for journalists, but anybody can use it. Best for the people finders
if you're looking for somebody.
Urban Legends. Next time you
get a petition by email, check here to see if it's real. This site also
debunks all kinds of allegedly common knowledge. Paul is dead? At the end
of Strawberry Fields, Lennon said "cranberry sauce."
Public Records
On-Line. There aren't all that many of them yet, but this site keeps
you up to date on what there is.
A Plan for Spam. This is
a speech given in the summer of 2002 by Paul Graham, a programmer who
is creating a spam filter based on probability principles described by
Thomas Bayes, an 18th-century British minister. The speech is interesting
because it seems like Graham has come up with a good method of limiting
spam while not filtering out messages you might want and also because it
gives some insight into the techniques of spammers. If you are wondering
about Thomas Bayes, whose ideas have applications in web searching, here
is an article
that I edited about him for the International Herald Tribune's Money Report
in 1999. You can read the rest of the section here.
Taking on Prostate Cancer. This is a 1996 article by Andy
Grove, the chairman of Intel Corp., about his experience with a diagnosis
of prostate cancer. The medicine may be out of date, but if you are worried
about any kind of unnecessary surgery, it is a must-read. Grove investigated
alternatives to surgery, which was strongly recommended by his doctors, and
ended up having successful radiation treatment. This had far fewer side effects
than would have been the case with surgery. Grove is a genius and a billionaire,
which put him in a better position than most people to challenge the medical
estabishment.
Investing and
finance
Max Funds.
An excellent place to research (American) mutual funds, and the 50s-style
design is visual comfort food. I interviewed
the founder once, his advice was pretty good.
Marketocracy. This is a kind of game
for would-be mutual-fund managers. If you are looking for investment ideas,
you can piggyback on the most-popular stocks. I run a portfolio
based largely on articles I have written or edited.
Social Security Benefits
calculator. This is a program that you download (Mac or Windows) and
run on your computer, using data from the annual statement that the Social
Security Administration sends out. It is especially useful for Americans
who worked overseas (or foreign nationals who worked some years in America)
and want to plan for retirement.
Journalism
Know your journalists.
A 2003 demographic study of American journalists.
personal links.
My articles for the International Herald
Tribune: you can see a list of the 500-odd articles I wrote for the Trib after mid-1991 by clicking here.
My first big project for Forbes was
the 2003 A-List,
our list of the 400 best big companies in the world. I did a short video
interview to support it.
The
Bronx Board. For displaced, misplaced, and nostalgic ex-Bronxites.
We're special. See a picture of my sixth-grade class. I'm on the bottom right.
Other
Mitchell Martins
If you are wondering why my url is mitchellmartin.net,
it is because Mitchell/Martin Inc. got www.mitchellmartin.com
Want to live in a manufactured home community in Arizona? Then take a look
at Mitchell Martin and George Arnold Desert
Sky Ranch. If Gainesville, Florida, is more your speed, there is a Mitchell
Martin who is a real estate broker there.
Through no fault of my own, Mitch Martin
is the name of a character in the movie Old School. Also in
the entertainment world, there is an actor named Kevin Mitchell Martin.
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