Yaniverse

The great razor-life test

2006-11-22T08:31:00.000-08:00

Our dedicated lab rat (me) is trying out two theories to enhance the life of razor blades.

Why?
I use a new razor blade a week, or my skin begins to complain. At $2.5/blah this is a $125 a year, or $4000 over the next 40 years. And it is clear Gillette want to sell more, not less, razors...

The Theories
Searching the web, the two 'life extension' theories that stood the Test of Duh were
- 1# Leaving razor blades in petroleum gel between uses may reduce moisture and blade deterioration
- 2# Applying alcohol-based gel hand sanitizer before use will reduce hair accumulation on the blade (and reduce damage) and also instant-treat any micro-cuts, resulting in a usable shave for longer
OR
- 3# Nothing helps

The Test
No way to use a double-blind test; my second-bet approach was:
1. For one week, use #1, #2, or #3 on right cheek
2. Report smoothness/microcuts at the end of the week
3. Use a different combo on left cheek
4. Ensure each theory is attempted on both left and right cheek

The test is already in progress.... final report due next week. Which theory do you believe in?

The best DIY energy drink known to Men - EnerT

2006-11-08T02:48:00.000-08:00

We all work out, we all need re-hydration, we all buy Gatorade... wait, stop. EnerT, this simple do it yourself tea-based energy drink, may be a better (and cheaper) option.

An energy drink needs sugar (of some form), electrolytes (mostly sodium and potassium) to accelerate absorption, and may contain other ingredients. I opted for tea as caffeine has a beneficial workout benefit, and tea provides a low-level caffeine, striking my personally preferred balanced between 'waking' and 'wired'. Any level of sugars under 8% is acceptable, but I find Gatorade to be overly caloric for those of us trying to balance increased workout performance with weight loss/maintenance.

[Note: Initial idea inspired by similar energy drink I found on the Diet Everywhere site ]

EnerT Ingredients (32 oz or about 1 liter):
2 Tea Bags
6 level teaspoon sugar (24 grams)
A pinch of salt (0.5 grams)
2 oz lemon juice (about 55 grams)
30 oz boiling water

Contains:
100 calories
500 mg Sodium
60mg of Potassium (from the lemon juice)
Caffeine varies, est 100mg-200mg caffeine (depending on the tea used and infusion duration)

Estimated Cost:
Lemon juice: $0.10
2 Tea Bags: $0.06
Sugar, Salt, water, etc: negligible

Compare to 32 oz Gatorade:
200 calories
440mg Sodium
120mg Potassium
No caffeine
Cost: $1.29

I use a lower potassium level as research indicates that Potassium loss is secondary to Sodium loss in hydration. You can add more lemon juice in, up to 4oz - if flavor allows. On the other hand, removing the lemon juice will still yield a good energy drink, but will reduce price by 66%

References:
http://www.medicdirectsport.com/sportsnutrition/default.asp?step=4&pid=81
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c20VH.html

Added per the huge amount of interest and questions:
Q: So, is this different from a regular tea?
A: Yes, but only subtly so. The quantity of salt and sugar, and lemon juice (for Potassium) are specifically set for easy absorption. But mostly, energy drinks ARE flavored sugar water. Gatorade is water, sugar, sodium, potassium, and flavor.

Walmart is not my enemy

2006-10-30T12:28:00.000-08:00

As this article describes, Walmart is not my enemy. Free competition is good, protection inefficient or price-gauging small shops is bad. Don't like Walmart? don't shop there. But I have little patience with the constant attempts to smear Walmart and other major companies in the (masked) interest of some special interest group or another, or to bend the rules to make opening a Walmart by my home all but impossible.

Inequality and could/should it be reduced?

2006-10-22T13:53:00.000-07:00

Very interesting article here. I agree.

(Oil) Conservation and CO2 emission

2006-08-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

Most global warming activists attribute apparent effects of global warming to CO2 emissions and the greenhouse effect; So the often suggested solution is 'conservation', reducing the consumption (or the growth of consumption) of oil and other fossil fuels. In this article I will point out some of the problems with this approach.

For the impatients among us, here's the summery - Economic reasoning shows that the human race is likely to utilize the entire existing quantity of fossil fuel. As the greenhouse effect is essentially a function of total CO2 emissions, this indicates that reducing the rate of consumption will not diminish this effect.

The best things in life aren't free

2006-05-14T08:31:00.000-07:00

Proof positive - now that my income has increased (congratulations to me!), I am much happier.

Scientific? no. True? I think so.

Why I do not trust NPR anymore

2005-10-09T02:26:00.000-07:00

I was just listening to NPR's coverage of 'how much should local govronment be responsible for Katrina failures'. Very deep, impressive coverage.
Wait. I don't recall hearing this tone when Katrina was on the news. No sirree. Back then, it was FEMA this and Bush that.
Anything to get at the President.
Well, I'm disillusioned now. I will probably keep listening - the anchors have cultured, intellectual accents, and there are no commercials. But I will never make the mistake of trusting NPR again - they are no more than a partisan voice, far cry from any claims of fairness they may make.

A modest (flood damage prevention) proposal

2005-09-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

When the Katrina rescue efforts are at last over, the inhabitants of New Orleans would no doubt want to rebuild.
Should they?
In fact, people building houses on mud hills, in flood plains, and other danger zones places a burden on the ret of society. It is their right to do as they wish with their property, but it is our obligation to see that the true costs of those decisions lay on those who opt for it. Maybe houses on the flooding riverfront should not be so common. Here's my proposal, which of course would not be popular with propery owners in risky areas:
1. A risk criteria will be federally established, defining areas as low, medium, and high risks.
2. All building in medium and high risk area will require adherance to standards (we have this, but the standards are low)
3. All sale and rent of property (houses and land) in medium or high risk must have the seller disclosure and the buyer's written acknoledgement (e.g. a line in the contract) that the property is in a high risk area. Not doing so is a criminal offense.
4. All built properties in medium and high risks should be assessed a federal 'mandatory rescue costs' tax, maybe 0.25% or more. This should be structured so over time, those taxes would pay the cost of rescue, federal help, and other damages to the US economy from building in those areas.

That's it. Maybe half of New Orleans should not have been built on. and no, federal help for drainage or levy building was not appropriate. If the true cost of a $100,000 home in New Orleans was $100K + $30K in infrastructure cost, this cost should be borne by those living there, not by the entire country.

Being risk averse

2005-07-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

I saw this post on chaostheory and it really made me think - how risk averse are people in general (and me in particular?)

I think trading $1000 for 60% chance of $2000 might make sense, but trading $1000 for 0.06% for $2,000,000 does not, for me. There are two ways to look at this:

1. Expected resulting satisfaction: I will be happy if I win the 2 million, of course. but not a thausand times more. and most likely I'll be disappointed. If I try this 100 times, I will quickly 'learn' that this is too much frustration and not enough (or any) gain

2. Declining value of money: The value of the $10,000 between $100,000 and $110,000 me is quite high, as it would affect my investment.
The value of the difference between $1,000,000 and $1,010,000 is low. Therefore, the value of a dollar is a function of how much I already have, nd declines with wealth (duh?). So $1,000,000 does not really offer twice as much benefit as $500,000 do, just as ten Mars bars do not offer ten times as much benefit as one bar.

On profiling and game theory

2005-07-24T17:48:00.000-07:00

Two sources I've encountered this weekend were this paper, which uses 'quality control' logic to show (among other points) why profiling is effective, and Bruce Schneier's post which raised the legitimate point that profiling based on some attributes (say, ethnicity) will motivate terrorists to masquerade those attributes (e.g. dye their hair blonde). However, this possibility does not mean that profiling is ineffective. Since the opponents have finite resources, and since masquerading has an associated cost (for example, the supply of likely terrorists might be reduced if they would need to take accent-reduction classes, or learn to convincingly masquerade their origin.
It is easy to see that while the approach of ‘only inspect people with suspect attributes’ is ineffective, equilibrium (at max probability of screening) is reached when the screening strategy chooses people of ‘profiled’ attributes more often than people without it.

This is really common sense, however.

Possibly in a future post I will run some simulations with fictitious numbers to demonstrate how the numbers work out.

When will blogging peak?

2005-07-23T19:26:00.000-07:00

see this article - I agree, blogging can't be that important forever, not when half the bloggers out there would figure 5 people are reading them :)

Fallacies - How arguments lie

2005-07-22T13:24:00.000-07:00

this webpage discusses a classification of fallacies. While I don't care how you classify them, the list of fallacies (or misleading ways of arguing) is very helpful.
My favorites:
Ad hominem - we use this one all the time. While an interested party may make biased *decisions*, his logic should stand (or fall) on its own merits.
and
black&white thinking - all or nothing thinging.

I highly recomend you read the website above - and I know you trust my judgement

Tags:Opinions Philosophy Logic

Job choice is like the stock market

2005-07-21T16:26:00.000-07:00

Look what I found here:
I thought education and career are like stock exchange, you should always buy low and sell high, but most people tend to buy high and sell low.

Wedding Bills

2005-07-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

"Maybe there's a good reason that so many people shed a tear or two at weddings while the rest bear a grin of pure schadenfreude. The average cost of a traditional wedding in the U.S. is now up to $25,000" says the Christian Science Monitor.

Link brought to my attention on Plastic.com

The food we eat

2005-07-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

This link discusses how deceptive labeling is hiding the true content of the food we eat. While I usually am more pro-business than pro-newage-liberalism, this is at least somewhat alarming. They are out to get you, or at least, get their profit margines.

MCSE certification hurts salary? really?

2005-07-14T02:05:00.000-07:00

This blog post discusses how MCSE holders aherage $10K less than people who hold no certification. "The title is a little misleading, but this article is a pretty interesting read."

Actually, statistical analysis shows that those numbers mean little for the person trying to decide whether to get certified. It stands to reason that people who feel the need to get MCSE are less credentialed (or otherwise less successful) than those who do not - no-one who was just promoted to a development manager, for example, would have the time or inclination for a resume-building effort. It is those who did not get the promotion/job/assignments they wanted who will. And those are just the people who would be paid less.
Yet, stands to reason isn't statistics, and reason is often wrong. My take? inconclusive. an interesting double blind would be to have half of a group (randomly chosen) get certified, and the other half not, revisit them in 2 years and see their salary delta. Double blind? not quite, but almost. Is this experiment going to happen? I thinketh not.

Prisoner Dilemma: Tit for Tat or Suicide Bombing?

2005-07-14T01:14:00.000-07:00

As described in this article, the latest prisoner dilemma competition (game theory is very cool) was won not by the usually 'tit for tat' algorithm ("be nice, fair, but tough") but by a "identify your friends, collude with them, walk over everyone else" system.

This shows that, in this game theory problem at least, there is a balance and there are weaknesses. Overly-altruistic (say-civilized) are vulnerable to overly aggressive approaches; as the number of aggressors increases, cooperation gives a competitive advantage, turning the tide.

Also read this plastic article

Firecalc and retirement

2005-07-09T19:34:00.000-07:00

using firecalc, a tool that calculates the probability of being able to withraw a specific pension from fixed savings based on past stock market behavior, I got the following:
assuming a desired withdrawal of 30K, the probability per initial investment is:
700k - 89%
650k - 78%
600k - 72%
550k - 56%
500k - 51%

What is morality?

2005-07-09T15:14:00.000-07:00

This quiz is an interesting way to get a good insight on what you consider moral. Thanks to Paula and Ruth who had the original link (or link to link, or...).

So what do I think? I think almost nothing which harms no-body is immoral; and I don't believe the source of morality is some higher power. And yet - society has the right to prohibit behavior which isn't strictly immoral.
--- if you plan on taking the quiz, do it before reading the rest of the post ---

The results analysis discusses 'the yuk factor', the tendency to call something disgusting 'immoral'. That is human nature - delude yourself as to the reason of your actions.
However, it is hard to take this test's results seriously. They do specify in the question that "you should assume the action does no harm". But that reminds me a story:
Q. How many wheels do 10 SUVs have?
A. 40
Q. If I told you an SUV has 6 wheels, how many wheels would 10 SUVs have?
A. 40
It does not matter what they claim the results of an action is, the reader must (and will) reject unreasonable assumptions. "Assume you kill all the bad guys and only them, noone ever gets hurt" is a fine question. But we do know that this isn't reality; someone will get hurt, and the bad guys have friends.
In actuality, when we read a statement such as 'assume this has no consequences' we read 'assume you were told this has no consequences'. Which leads many people to 'well, I assume I was told wrong'.

Unequivocality

2005-07-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

More and more it seems some people insist on seeing the terrorists' side of things. "They only kill innocents because that is their only way of expression".
Fvck that.
If your only way to fight a war is to murder innocent civilians, you shouldn't be fighting. you lost. There is no justification to terror, of course they have reasons, people always have reasons, Hitler had reasons, I'm sure the Devil (if I believed in him) had reasons, so what?
The word 'understanding' has two, conflicting meanings.
Understanding the enemy point of view in order to best defeat him, that is one meaning. That's good. understanding the enemy in order to explain away immorality, that's an equine of another color.
.. and now, Hollywood wants to make a 911 movie. just great.

How much is your time worth?

2005-07-08T19:01:00.000-07:00

This article states you should look at the value of your time; spending a lot of time today to save $10 does not make sense - because an hour today is worth 3 when you're retired; so you'd better use said time now.
The suggestion? decide on a value for your time (maybe based on your after-tax hourly wage) and use it to make decisions.

Tags: time tagtag

Salary Analysis - US software developers

2005-07-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

using this data, across all industries, using median salary:

US: $75,000.00
Greencard holders: $87,000.00
[possible explanation: imported programmers are more talented than average since mostly very talented programmers are imported]
Greencard holders 10-15 years of experience: $91,000.00

By experience years:
0-2 : $50,000.00
3-5 : $60,000.00
6-10 : $80,000.00
10-15: $85,000.00

Software consulting rates - US

2005-07-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

Below is a breakdown and analysis of consulting rates based on this rate statistics page, for industry=Computer-software:

Median Rate: $63.50 [134 responses]
By experience years:
0-2 : Median Rate: $45.00 [43 responses]
3-5 : Median Rate: $52.00 [16 responses]
6-10 : Median Rate: $65.00 [419 responses]
11-15: Median Rate: $75.00 [33 responses]

Median Broker Cut (for the ~45% who use brokers) by experience:
3 - 29% | 6 - 27% | 10 - 21%

Quit your job? why should you?

2005-07-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

This freshmeat article suggests that better programmers don't get equivalently better compensation. I guess the lesson of this is - if you are much, much better than average, you should work hard to get a better deal, since no-one will hand one to you.

How to be a millionaire?

2005-07-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

Beats me. But this guy offers some advice.

Are US salaries headed down?

2005-07-05T11:03:00.000-07:00

This Blog claims average wages in the US are going down. good read. One thing to notice is that the rely on the same source of data - BLS - that I referred to in my post about salaries of software engineers.

Software Engineer Salaries: Average

2005-07-02T19:28:00.000-07:00

Based on the gov data: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Using employment code 15-1031:Computer software engineers, applications [2004]

Area: Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA PMSA
Total Employees: 14480
Mean Income: 82900
Median Income: 79790
75% percentile: 97150
90% percentile: 115360

Tags:
software Programmers Salary

Poverty isn't widespread?

2005-07-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

Poverty is widespread, right? umm, no.
according to this goveronment analysis of how many people stayed in poverty for 4 years, we see that only 2.0% of the population stayed in what the govronment defines as 'poverty' for the entire period, as opposed to much higher numbers (12%) of poverty statistics for 'poverty per month'. But being poor for a month just means low income for the period, it does not prove impossible hardship.

Now let's examine the impact of life choices on poverty. Seems obvious that bad choices do, and should, lead to bad outcomes. So lets look at this table once more - among highschool graduates, a sustained 'poverty' goes down to 1.5%, and to 0.5% among people with one or more years of college.
Similarly, without work disability, sustained poverty level go down to 0.9%; since we do not expect the gov. to keep disabled people on the same standard of living as working people (that would be discouraging to working people), that is an important number. The number also goes down to 0.5% to 0.7% (with kids) in married couples.
Also it is 0.1% among 'employed fulltime' and 0.5% among 'employed parttime'.

I extrapolate a 0.1% or lower sustained poverty numbers for people who: graduated highschool, attempt to get a job, and don't choose to raise kids alone (or don't choose to have kids at the age of 25 or lower).

Retirement Planning Calculator, Tables

2005-06-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

Max spending per $100K assuming 5% inflation-adjusted return
Needed income assumed 30K/year

Years	Max Withrawal	Savings needed
5	28200	106K
10	14069	213K
15	10102	297K
20	8274	363K
25	7246	414K
30	6604	455K
35	6175	486K
999	5000	600K

Recently I've been mildly obsessed about retiring (early, very early) or at least, achieving financial independence (=you don't have to work anymore to sustain your lifestyle). I am a stong believer in living below your means as a tradeoff for freedom.
Anyhow, how much money do I need? I assume 10% average return on investement (average stock market returns have been 10.7% in the last 50 years or so). I also assume 3.5% inflation, so that's 6.5%. then you have to take out taxes, such as capital gains. Great. but it isn't so bad, if you plan on spending 30K/year - since part of the money is capital, only part of it is considered income. In some scenarios I ran, that was a 15K income, which would mostly be covered by standard deduction. SO I use 6% as net returns.This means that I believe on average 6% would be my return.
However, most of us don't care about averages - 50% of the time we'll be below average (umm, kinda). To achieve 90% complex analysis of market ups and down, I calculated a return of 4% should be assumed; 5% would give you an 80% chance - fail enough.
The last question is - how long do I plan to live? so here goes - the table below shows, for each number of years, what's your max withrawal per $100K. Obviously you can withraw more than the interest unless you plan to live forever - but how much more?

(Summary Part IV) - What Color Is Your Parachute?

2005-06-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

Secrets of Salary Negotiation

1. Never discuss salary only at the end of the
interviewing process, when they have definitely said
they will hire you.
2. The purpose of salary negotiation is to find out
the most that an employer is willing to pay to get
you.
3. Never be the first to mention a salary figure.
4. Decide in advance/research how much you will need per
month.
5. Research salaries in your field or
in that organization.
6. Define a range the employer may have in mind, and
a range for yourself.
7. Don't leave it hanging. Bring the salary
negotiation to a close. Get it in writing.

.......[-----]..... : Employer range
...[-------]....... : Your range
.......[---]....... : Possible agreement range
..........X........ : where you want to be
........X.......... : where the employer wants to be

(Summary Part III) - What Color Is Your Parachute?

2005-06-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

Twenty three job tips
1. No-one owes you a job, you have to hunt for it - hard.
2. Job hunting success is proportional to job hunting effort.
3. You have to change your tactics if they don't work
4. Talk to successful job-hunters you know
5. You already have a job - job hunting. treat hunting as a fulltime job.
6. Be prepared for your job hunting to last longer than you expect - mentally and financially.
7. Persist until you find a job
8. You won't necessarily be able to find exactly the kind of job you had,m or you wanted.
9. Forget 'what's out there'. Go after the job you really want.
10. Tell all your friends that you are looking, and what you are looking for.
11. You can use your answering machine to advertise you are job hunting.
12. Team up with other job hunters.
13. Go after many different organizations. Don't stop hunting until your first day at work - some promised jobs just evaporate.
14. Try any place you want to work, even if there is no known vacancy. Many vacancies are not published immediately.
15. Concentrate on smaller organizations - 20 or fewer people
16. Meet 4 employers a day, or call 40 a day, or send hundreds of resumes. Most job hunters do much less.
17. Use the phone. Before calling, write out exactly what you'd say (script). Talk when standing up and smiling (use a mirror to verify). Try calling before 8am, before noon, or after 5pm - you'll get the boss. When connected, ask to speak to the manager. Have a one liner top achievement to start. "Your name was given to me by X. I am an experienced Z". Deal with objections using "I understand/I see your point/Of course..however".
18. Knock on doors.
19. Look at different kind of jobs - parttime, contract, etc.
20. Most of us think we have some handicap that would prevent us from getting the jobs we like. However, everyone does, and a major group of employers wouldn't care about your specific hump. Don't worry about the other group.
21. Expect many, many, many, many rejections.
22. After every interview, write a thank-you note and send it that same day. Use it to remind the interviewer who you are, and if there was anythign you forgot to say. Do it even if the interview went bad. It's crucial.
23. Treat every employer with courtesy.

(Summary Part II) - What Color Is Your Parachute?

2005-06-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

Notice - 96% of all job seekers found their job offline
Reason 1: everyone and their system is posting their resume online, too.
Reason 2: you should expect tens or hundreds of rejections before a successful response.
You risk having you self-esteem crushed if you expect quick or mostly positive responses.

to succeed in your job search, you should avoid misplaced energy by focusing your energy where it helps most.

[notice the advice is for general jobs. IT jobs might do better on the internet]

Worse ways
Post on the internet: 4%
mailing out resumes at random: 7% [estimated one jobb for every 1400 resumes sent]
Answering ads in trade journals: 7%
Answering ads in the local newspaper: 5%-24%
Going to private employment agencies: 5%-28%

Best ways
Ask for leads from friends, family, people at the community, people in the local career center, etc - 33%
Knocking on the doors of every employer that interests you, whether they are known to have vacancies or not - 47%
Using the yellow pages to identify relevant employers, then call them to find out if they are looking for employees - 69%
Using the yellow pages in a group of job seekers - 84%

Conslusion: rely on more than one method, and make sure you use at least one active method in your job search.

Employers prefer to hire in a different way than employees want to get hired. Their preference is:
1. Hire from within - promote a fulltime or a parttime employee, or hire a contractor.
2. Using proof - seeing a proof of the prospective employee work
3. By reference of a best friend or a business collegue
4. Using an agency they trust
5. Using an ad they placed
6. using a resume

Many employers want you to find them - they prefer you email them from their website or to an ad they placed, rather than read a resume you posted.

(Summary Part I) What Color Is Your Parachute?

2005-06-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

This post summarizes the first two chapters of the book,
and covers very basic job-hunting tips.

Identify if you are looking for a job change
or a career change
If a career change (referred to as 'life changing career move') is desired, consider going gradually (e.g by changing title but not industry or changing industry but not title) first.

Prepare your resume well
Recommended urls:
jobstar
capital
damngood
professional (=for fee) resume writers: http://www.resumewriters.com/

Emphasize archievement, such as an obstancle, means to tackle it, and the result.

Post resume on a career website
www.monster.com
www.careerbuilder.com
http://hotjobs.yahoo.com
www.eurojobs.com

Open Source Shoes

2005-06-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

If you bought Open Source Shoes:
- The shoes would be free, given to you by people who want to be paid $150/hr to help you put the shoes on

- Everyone in the street would be allowed to take your shoes

..and

- If you wear the GPL shoes, all your clothes are public property

Ideas provided by friends and .. more friends? let me know if you have more 'if OSS were shoes' ideas

The Open Groceries Movement!

2005-06-16T11:48:00.000-07:00

Open Source. What a great idea - work on software for free, and give it to anyone - for free.
And of course, all this is done by developers - the people who would like to make a living writing software. Hmmmm.

Seeing the success of the OSS movement, I propose the Open Groceries Movement (OGM). Groceries want to be free! free like freedom, free like Fritos. I call on all grocery store chains to offer their groceries for free - they can charge on support - if you aren't sure how to fry your free steaks, you can call, and for $4.99 a minute, a chef would explain the secrets of pan-frying.

Some people on ZDnet agree. What do you think?

What is Art?

2005-06-13T22:24:00.000-07:00

This definition is based in part on one of Tom Wolfe's articles in "Hooking up". While I have a lot to say about this book (and most of it less than flattering), that specific article made me think. so here goes:

Art is the use of skill to create a new thing of beauty

Did Your Waitress Screw You Over?

2005-06-12T17:07:00.000-07:00

You know how, at the end of a meal out, you spend a few painful seconds deciding on the appropriate tip? it might not matter.
This happend to me in a restaurant somewhere in Texas. After disappointing service, I left a 10% tip, about $2.50. The waitress, it seemed, thoguht a $4.50 tip would make her happier. And you did notice they swipe the card *before* you write the tip? which means, of course, that they -manually type in- the new total amount. Guess which number she typed in?
A month or so later, reviewing my credit card bill, I found the petty theft. It was obnoxious. Of course I got my $2 back, but hey, this would probably go undertected with most people. Probably does.

Why do I mention this -now-? recently I found a very simple way to keep your mind working while ensuring this is not likely to happen.
What I do with restaurants now is use the cents digit as a 'checksum' digit.
To do that, I sum up the digits (not including cents), and take the singles digit as my checksum. An example would explain this:
Original amout including tip: 24.32
Checksum: 2 + 4 = 6
Amount I write down: 24.326

Original amout including tip: 29.18
Checksum: 2 + 9 = 11 (use '1')
Amount I write down: 29.186

As you can see, if a waitress/waiter/whomever writes in a whatever number, I have 9/10 chance of spotting this. And if they simply (as most people would do) add a dollar or two, the checksum would -always- not match, alterting me to this.

Of course, if they changed the checksum digit, they'd be able to fool me. But people with the brains to do that (and the knowledge of my system - whcih is now public, but still) have the brains not to risk jail time over a theft of a few dollars.

if you have javascript enabled (most people do), I created this calculator - enjoy

What color is my parachute? - book review[1]

2005-06-09T12:48:00.000-07:00

I've read the 2005 revision recently, and I have mixed feelings.
Pro: The book offers some excellent advice
Cons: The author now added 'look at me I'm so great' testimonials, making one feel he is reading a sales presentation. Also, he started adding his religious views - specifically, shoving them down my throat, both in a whole 2 chapters about 'spirituality' and throughout the book. that's not what I paid for.

Solution: I will post a summary of the good advice in the book soon. Really, there isn't more than 2-5 pages of good advice in this book, so that should be enough so you don't have to actually buy that book or fully read it.

Dating: Job Interview or Sales on Commission?

2005-06-08T00:53:00.000-07:00

The ideas behind this post were formed over a long time, but they just crystalized when a friend of mine told me her latest lovelife plight (Thanks D!)

Dating: Job Interview or Sales on Commission?
It has long been clear that men and women approach dating differently.

For women, a date is like a job interview, with the woman as the interviewer. The woman tries to decide whether the guy qualifies (handsome enough, rich enough, successful enough, funny enough, trustworthy enough, nice enough, and not-nice enough). The prize - immediate or delayed - is sex. She might go home with the guy at the end of the date. Or she might not. But womens usually are the arbitrers and gatekeepers of sex - partially, of course, because a man would not even ask out a woman they are not attracted to (translation for readers of the fairer sex: "men would not ask out a woman he would not want to have sex with").

Men, on the other hand, have to push their case, with some level of subtelty. Men are supposed to initiate - in other words, sell the women on the idea of their attractiveness, encourage them to make a buying decision ("lets go to my place and listen to some music") and stir clear of objections ("yeah, it might be late, but you don't have to work until 11, do you? besides, you arent tired enough to sleep").

The result is - women feel like they have just walked into RadioShack, where every sales person is on comission - try to shake one and you'll see what I mean. But they do buy - when you go shopping, a purchase is certain, it is the logo on your shopping bag that is in question.
And men - men feel like this is much too much effort. And it is - interviews are hard, and in the dating scene, just like in many interviews, the results of the interviews may be determined in the first 5 minutes. Not the way for a stress free gettogther!

Interesting article: Shamnesty International

2005-06-07T12:18:00.000-07:00

This article is worth reading. I had long had misgivings over the motivation of Amnesty, and I fear people just do not understand what is involved in engaging war. I will post about this topic soon.

On job performance reviews and promotions

2005-06-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

Performance reviews are a common event in today's Corporate America.
So common, in fact, the we stopped thinking whether it measures what we think it's measuring.
To get promoted to a more responsible position, you are expected to show a track record of excellent reviews. Sounds reasonable.
Or is it?

Skill set
The set of skills needed to be, say, a team lead, is not similar to the set of skills that make a junior employee. For example, in the software industry, a development lead needs leadership and managerial skills that are irrelevant to a programmer. A good leader who is an OK programmer would see slow promotion; an excellent programmer with no people skill would soon be in management. This is the flip side of the Peter Pyramid.

Motivation
But that's not all. Junior programmers get the 'junior' tasks - the repetitive, less inspired, and less interesting. If a person with the skills and creativity is a junior developer, he is less likely to be interested and motivated, and thus will get at-best average reviews. If the same person were to start as a senior developer, his reviews would be better.

Employees as numbers
The root of all evil, of course, is employers treating their employees as numbers. "I want five level-IV developers" can be heard in management meetings. But developers are people, with skills, aspirations, and strengths, and should be managed as such.

Jump a hurdle
Of course, performance reviews do serve some purpose in determining performance - it's the ol' Hurdle Principle. If you put whatever hurdle, those who can jump it would be better motivated, and probably more qualified, than those who do not. But this is such a wasteful way
to sort the winners from the losers!

And a personal lesson
So what's the personal career note people should take from this? simple.
Don't undersell yourself. Taking on a lower position because 'you'd soon prove yourself and move up' is a fantasy. If you must, job markets being as they are, take a lower position. But don't get comfortable. Move on as soon as you can, before you start believing, as your boss does, that all you are is indeed a level-IV developer.

Democrats and Teachers

2005-06-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

A quote from
Jerry Pournelle - I really have nothing to add.

It won't be that hard to narrow the minority gap in educational achievement, the goal of the No Child Left Behind Act, though actually closing it is far beyond any educational technology the schools can adopt. The reason is that Democrats do not genuinely care about racial equality. Rather, they care about jobs for teachers, since a major part of their support is teachers' unions. So, teaching jobs are protected. But too many incompetent teachers in middle-class schools would provoke a revolt from the middle class. What happens is that the most incompetent teachers, as well as the most incompetent administrators, are never fired but safely sent to the what are called underserved schools (a term never given an operational definition), whose parents go to the polls in far lesser percentages than middle-class parents. Every now and then, some oversocialized (the Unabomber's term) liberal observes the hypocrisy, but he is ignored. What counts for voter support is the promise of equality, not the results.

I really liked this art blog

2005-06-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

the one on http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ - my favorite is:

Why I love Walmart

2005-06-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

People keep the hatefest against Walmart based on ignorance, malvolence, and socialism.

..now that I've upset half my readership, I should go on and upset the other half...

Walmart is portrayed as evil and abusive by not paying the so-called living wages unions demand. Walmart rewards its customers with lower prices. Those facts are not disputed. But is it moral?
Taken the other way, is it moral for Target, one of Walmart's competitors, to charge more for the exact same can of Campbels soup? I think not. Is it moral for some small stores, the proverbial mom and pop stores, to charge twice as much for the same can? they used to do just that in rural areas, before Walmart and other like-minded chains expanded to prevent this robbing the public blind.

Case in point- Hawaii. Stores in Hawaii charged me (May/05) 50%-60% or than mainland stores did. Walmart in Hawaii, however, was only 5% more expensive than the Walmarts I know in Washington state. Love Walmart? I sure do.

One last issue is the so-called living wage. This new branding attempt for increasing the minimal wage (which economists showed time and time again to be detrimental) makes no sense to me.
Someone would, by definition, be paid the lower wages, however you arrange the economy. Should it be the highly-productive members of society who took jobs requiring skills, gifts, and high motivation? or should it be the Walmart employees of the world? you tell me.

Yaniverse blog created

2005-06-02T15:07:00.000-07:00

Hello all!
This blog will discuss anything and nothing. But mostly anything.