Ingenious Solution to a Horrible Problem

01. Jul 2008 Comments 0 comments

One of the more horrible weapons humanity has conceived is the antipersonnel landmines. While we have plenty of ways to kill each other, those devices are intentionally designed

to injure rather than kill in order to increase the logistical support (evacuation, medical) burden on the opposing force

(Wikipedia)

There is a treaty to ban AP landmines. Embarrassingly enough, [...]

More rent vs. buy calculators

24. Jun 2008 Comments 0 comments

Chris Parnin1 recently pointed me to the NY Times buy vs. rent calculator

I do like the fact that it allows you to take a lot of factors into account - tax rate, inflation, appreciation, rent increase, return on investment, you name it. It also allows you to interactively modify the settings - move a slider [...]

Wedding Equality - Let’s Keep it that Way

17. Jun 2008 Comments 2 comments

Today is a wonderful day in California. Hundreds of couples finally got their permission to marry each other. It’s wonderful to see people who’ve been living together for 55 years can finally marry. Yes, it’s an extreme example. But if you’ve been to West Hollywood today, you have seen a lot of really happy people [...]

Should I Rent Or Should I Buy?

11. Jun 2008 Comments 2 comments

That’s a question that I need answered before I will commit to buying - after all, what’s the point of buying if it breaks the bank in the long run?

There are plenty of factors to take into account - inflation, investment earnings, mortgage rates, HOA dues, and tons more. Sitting down and doing math sounds [...]

Faxing from your Computer

02. Jun 2008 Comments 4 comments

Sometimes, you still have to send faxes. And until digital signing becomes more mainstream, that will probably stay the case. So the question is, how do you do that without having a fax machine?

If you have a MacBook and an analog phone line, it’s easy - it’s built right into your print dialog, under the [...]

Breaking through Resistance

27. May 2008 Comments 2 comments

Every e-mail seems like another obstacle that will take too much time. Yesterday, faced with a 100+ mails in my inbox, I set out to find out why it’s so hard to deal with them.

Lying with Graphs

24. May 2008 Comments 0 comments

Finally catching up on my RSS feeds, I ran across a post on Dare Obosanjo’s blog. He posted a comparison chart for the stock prices of Apple, Microsoft, and Google, under the catchy title “Race to the bottom”

This didn’t exactly jive with my recollection - I follow these stocks on a daily basis (and hold [...]

How to Deal With a Stolen Credit Card

21. May 2008 Comments 1 comment

Recently I got a call from my attorney that you really don’t want to get. No, I didn’t lose a law suit. Instead, his office was broken into, and part of the records stolen include my credit card info.

So the question is, how to deal with this - and how to prepare for the next [...]

That’s Chutzpah, Purina!

06. May 2008 Comments 1 comment

This morning I stumbled over a tweet announcing Purina’s site LongLiveYourDog.com. Really, Purina? You dare make that your motto? After being repeatedly involved in poisoned pet food recalls?

How about you fire your marketing guys who cooked that up and invest in quality control instead? Maybe the next time when you “save” a few cents by [...]