Holy Crap Guys.

So I bought a computer yesterday. I was only kinda in the market, but NewEgg sent me this deal that I just couldn't pass up. Like seriously, I just couldn't stop thinking about it so I had to pull the trigger if only so my brain could get around to the other tasks I had. Anyway, I just got my invoice email a few minutes ago which contained a tracking link. Here's my status:

Sweet jebus! You almost delivered the machine before the email telling me it was coming. And that was on the cheapest shipping option. What happens if you pick the $76 one? Would it have arrived last Monday?

Keep Gas Expensive.

Have you seen a gas station lately? Its like they're giving that mess away. I'm half tempted to rub some in my armpits so I can savor the savings all day long. But that would be wasteful, and maybe a little bit dangerous. So I don't.

I do use Fuelly to track my miles per gallon over time and compare with my cohorts. But sometimes getting so wrapped up in MPG confuses just how much you're getting screwed over the price of gas. Did you get accustomed to paying $3.70 and thinking you were doing pretty damn well for yourself? Yeah me too.

I'd wistfully recall the good old days when I could top off and President Jackson would have my back. But at a little over $4 a gallon I've got Grant on a search party for Lincoln to cover the cost. Not really a prospect that makes you smile, but since you're accustomed, why not leverage it?

• Tip #6: Use gas prices to become your own hedge fund | I Will Teach You To Be Rich

This article describes "fuel hedging" as airlines typically do to protect themselves from rate increases. (you may be able to do the same with your heating oil company) Hedging on your gasoline costs involves the same type of though process, although you won't be saving because of the mass scale of your purchases. Its more like a method to highlight how much you're saving, rather than let that money slip away on beer and cotton candy.

Ramit suggests tracking cost per week, but I'm using the average cost of a tank per month instead. (mostly because my expenditures aren't exactly linear; granted there are variations like the actual amount in a 'tank' but I'm willing to sacrifice for simplicity's sake) I've looked at my recent purchases and decided that I'm fairly comfortable with paying $40 for a tank of gas. Oddly enough that's well under what's been going on for the past few months.

If we take a peek at last year in comparison, a $40 hedge might seem excessive. Especially since I started the year paying about $25 a tank. (I did start buying 93 octane in April, but that's not the sole factor here)

So you can see the basic trend, when gas prices are low, I'd be pocketing the difference into a special account. And when its expensive I'd have money already set aside. Well, I haven't been running this hedge fund since 2007, but if I'd been prescient enough to realize that gas would top $4.60 here's what it would look like.

And here's this year taking into account the outstanding surplus I'd attained in 2007.

That's right, paying $40 a tank for the past two years would still come up short after the shenanigans this summer. You could make the case that I'm just tricking myself not to spend that money somewhere else, and you'd be absolutely right. But I also factor the hedge savings into my fuel budget, artificially keeping the price high. Americans set record lows for miles driven this summer, mainly because of the cost per mile. So this should motivate me to drive less and save more, but instead of handing those excesses over to the oil companies I could start saving for my next, more efficient vehicle.

The Ants Screw Me Again.

Okay, so I've got a bit of history with ants. Honestly, these dudes are annoying, right? Well some kinda researchers think that ants may be the solution to some of our traffic congestion woes.

When the narrow route, as expected, became congested, ants know to tell each other to redirect their travels. An ant returning from the congested narrow route encounters another ant heading up that route and pushes that ant towards the wider lane.

• Ants May Teach Us How to Drive Better | EcoGeek - Clean Technology

Seems like it'd make sense, right? Individuals who've just traveled on a path can communicate with those headed the opposite direction into the observed conditions. Oddly enough this eerily reminds me of an idea I postmarked on 2/21/07. Take a look:

Wireless Real-time Itinerant Social Traffic System

A mobile system that uses social information, made publicly available, to
compile useful individual results for a single entity of the entire
social group.


The system would harvest speed, congestion and general flow
information from a vehicle's on-board sensors and create a recent
database track with geographic locations, times and infrastructure
conditions. No optical or radio traffic monitoring equipment (to gather data on opposing cars
without WRISTS installed) is required, but may enhance the overall
community performance if present. As the vehicle proceeds on its route
it actively searches with a wireless connection for oncoming vehicles
also equipped with a compatible system.


When a peer is found the systems trade recent databases,
merging current road condition information. Each vehicle now possesses
a complete local traffic map of the area with reliability ratings pertaining to data recency and surety of diagnosis. (some traffic
patterns are easier to diagnose) Vehicles may also choose to rate
personally collected data higher, or flag data, so that inconsistencies
can be leveled out of the network should errors arise.


The in-vehicle system will then use this information in its on
screen navigation, creating alternate routes to minimize travel time
(or another variable at the users discretion) to way-points in the
infrastructure. The information may be displayed on the navigation
screen by classifying roads into color groups, or may be used silently
by the system to reroute traffic.


Systems will need to be self tuning, calibrating for how long
data may be used before it is no longer representative and must be
discarded. In some areas 2 hours and 100 miles of data may be useful,
while in other areas 15 minutes and 4 miles is the maximum lifespan.

The system will also learn tendencies of specific roads over
time for personal use, should a user frequent a particular area. This
will allow for general prediction of traffic
flows in routing. So if a thoroughfare is clear at 7:30, but is
usually full at 8:10, the system can compute ETA to the hot spot and
smartly disregard "road clear" information that it calculates likely to
be out of date on arrival. This average road condition prediction is
not for social use, only recently harvested information is transmitted
throughout the network. In addition existing traffic broadcast systems or fixed traffic
counters may be integrated into routing because they mark known
accidents and closures, but this information is for personal use, not
socially distributed. This is intended to maintain the purity of the
network so that only fresh and near-firsthand information is used which
will eventually result in better local response times than widely
aggregated reports of a metropolitan area.


With multiple users an entire area of main thoroughfares can be mapped fairly quickly, depending on traffic speed and transmission range. The more users there are, the more current and ubiquitous the data will be.

When enough users are enabled, oncoming traffic will act as a conduit for road information to stopped traffic. For example(figure 2): A car (A) in a traffic
jam can pass information to car (B) as it proceeds in the opposite
direction. Car (B) will in turn pass information to car (C) which is
pointed the same direction as car (A) and in the same traffic jam. Car (C) can then use information passed backwards down the traffic jam to decide whether to reroute or to wait for traffic to clear.


In more advanced situations cars with similar repeated tracks may suggest "bond" may also communicate destination way-points.

To
study: minimum number of devices for system to function. Effect of
congestion avoidance on quality of data, multiple concurrent reroutes.
Make extrapolated congestion based on routes and reported trends
public? (figure1: assume traffic is red between 7:12 and 7:17 links)

Freaking ants stole my idea and sold it to some German Scientists! And you call me crazy when I rant about ladybugs trying to kill me and not being able to trust insects.

The Wrongly Accused.

Well that election is over, finally.  So there's a lot less stuff out there to get my ire up.  But of course there's always the old standby, mobile phones.  Slate has an article this morning about the things Google stole from Apple when designing Android.  Now, I'm the first to call myself a Google fanboy or an Apple hater, so I'm definitely biased in this exchange.  But COME ON!

The author starts by referring to the font technology that Steve Jobs developed and quickly spread to all graphical computers.  Fair enough, I spose that may well be true.  But I'm not sure that basic typography and formatting wouldn't have spread to computers, especially as they became more mainstream.  Next he brings up Google's Android font, custom designed by a font contractor, claiming that it is usable and stylish which makes it reminiscent of Apple.  Odd, I'd think Google would get original 'cred' for not using the same fonts as other companies, but creating a fresh set with a particular use in mind.  Unless of course Apple has cornered the market on making anything stylish and usable... they don't have a copyright on making well designed things do they?  Whatever, font is small potatoes, what else you got?

The G1 and the Android operating system are not copies of the iPhone and its software... But in a deeper sense, everything about the Google phone seems inspired and indebted to the iPhone... like the iPhone, the Google phone's best feature is its attractive, well-designed interface.

Wha... what? Still on this noise? Android is biting on the iPhone because it has usable software?

You turn it on to see a bright, uncluttered main menu that features a handful of icons for frequently used apps. To load one up, simply tap the screen with your finger—yup, just like you've seen people do on those iPhone commercials.

Seriously?  Pressing icons to open a program. I thought we were past Apple owning the concept of a GUI.  In application design components should be familiar and or intuitive.  I'm inclined to believe that pressing an icon or button and having something happen is intuitive.  And even if it wasn't, the iPhone is not the device that made it familiar.  People have been clicking and pressing buttons on screens for years.  I still remember using the card catalog touch screen at the library when I was like 8.  Mostly I think this slate author needs to acquaint himself with some other touchscreen offerings, or perhaps contemplate the multitude of non-telephony ancestors of present day innovation.  What do you think we mean when we say convergence device?

The iPhone lists all of your apps on its main menu; you don't need to navigate any deeper menus to get to them. But the G1 hides its many preloaded apps...

Uh, listing off differences in the interface implementation kinda undermines your whole point, don't you think? And honestly, this drives me crazy. My iPod Touch has 5 screens of icons that I have to flip thorough to find the one I want. If I could organize them into some type of folder structure or menu I'd be a happy camper. But no, Apple has made the decision for me that this is the easiest way to find what I'm looking for.

Google's best Android idea is filched directly from Apple: Android Market

That's a shame. The market place, while strikingly similar to the App Store, is not the overwhelming innovation. Android is a revolution because it is an open source mobile phone operating system created by a software company who's primary goal is organizing information. Google decided that there was no reason mobile operators should continue to pump out crappy software as the status quo.  It integrates cloud computing with mobile access in a way that is intended to pervade the entire mobile handset industry.  You don't have to get a G1, there will be hundreds of options with a familiar and usable interface.

On to the Market... I had a phone in high school that could download and run BREW apps; for a fee of course. Hell my phone now downloads games and apps that were 3rd party developed, approved by my carrier and placed in a central repository.  A great idea sure, but not as revolutionary as you think, so much as as evolutionary.  (ironically, iTunes on a mobile device is a newer and more exciting development, rather than an application warehouse)

I believe there is good reason for the overwhelming success of the App Store in comparison to its earlier predecessors.  Its slick implementation and the hardware features of the iPhone may help, but the App Store's real secret lies in several 'inferior' generations of iPods and the rabid hacker turned developer community which grew as a result.  That's the reason I drank the koolaid and bought a Touch, and that's the real hurdle that Google will have to overcome to make a serious 3rd party Marketplace.  Luckily, Apple is setting up a walled garden approach a la early 90's AOL, which leaves the real mobile processing market available.

Apple has a good thing going in the "just works" niche, but that naturally limits customization and adaptation.  Luckily Apple has no problem telling people what they want; and we have no problem being told apparently.  Really, would you see the iPhone the same without that confidence and swagger that this is the solution?  I don't think so.  Which is the real magic of the iPhone that Google just can't steal.

• What the Google phone stole from the iPhone. - By Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine

So THAT's What a VP Does....

I got to this government transition manual from change.gov, the president-elect's official transition website. It seems to describe the various jobs and positions that need to be filled by a new administration. Kinda like a "Running the US Government for dummies" book. I have just one question though, did Dick Chaney read this when he took his job?

THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES Dick Cheney
Article II, section I, of the Constitution provides that the President "shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years . . . together with the Vice President . . . ." In addition to his role as President of the Senate, the Vice President is empowered [[Page 88]] to succeed to the Presidency, pursuant to Article II and the 20th and 25th amendments to the Constitution. The executive functions of the Vice President include participation in Cabinet meetings and, by statute, membership on the National Security Council and the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2008_government_manual&docid=214669tx_xxx-18

Opportunity Or Lunacy?

Okay, so this one has been sitting in my inbox since April.  I figure by now you're either forgotten about or just never saw it to begin with.  So lets say you're of the burgling persuasion.  You're on your way to burgle the crap out of someone when you spot an alligator by the side of the road.  What do you do?


Yeah, you probably wrestle the reptile into the back seat of your Buick and then continue the burgle.  I mean, sure stealing a TV is sweet, but stealing a TV and an alligator?  Irresistible!  I feel like you might be verging on kleptomaniac when you start stealing wildlife in the middle of your other heists.  What's next, rolling up to a bank robbery with 15 squirrels and an armadillo in a taxi?

• Offbeat News: Burglary Suspect Caught With Six Foot Alligator Copilot

At Long Freaking Last!

Wow, I was beginning to think this day would never come. A day of hope and enlightenment for all. Real change in the way business gets done in DC. Yes, today Google released Street View Data for Washington DC and Baltimore! Let the people pour from their buildings and dance in the streets! Hooray!

• GOOGLE Lat Long BLog: Street View Elects DC, Baltimore and Seattle

and holy crap is there a lot of coverage.

Holy Moses.

Well, I dropped by my polling place this morning. Wow. That's quite a few people that'd like to cast a ballot. The red line below represents the salivating public about to get its vote on.Actually it wasn't a big deal at all to see since the poll is literally connected to my building. My plan was to head down and see if there was a long wait and head to work if there was. But I really didn't expect anything like this. There were people stacked up out the front of the NOAA building, through the green space, down the sidewalk, under the drive-up portico, down the length of my building and around the back. Adding insult to injury, the line did not appear to be moving in the slightest.

It can't be this bad all day, so I hopped back in the elevator and went down to the parking deck to get my car. The voters scuttled out of the way as I exited and proceeded to work. So the new plan is to call the concierge desk and ask how long the line is after everyone's lunch hour is over. I just can't rationalize standing in a line that long when I work 15 minutes away, have someone who can tell me if there's a line and live in a building that touches the poll.

Who knows maybe I'll end up standing in that line at 8:00 tonight because it doesn't get any shorter. But I doubt it.

Update:
Yeah, uhh... so at 3:13 there's absolutely no line at my polling place. I heard that a friend stood in that line for three hours this morning. Ouch. It took me just about 6 minutes to tally my vote, including the walk from my lobby. I also thoroughly enjoy that my front door is closer to the polls than electioneering materials. At least I didn't see any.

Who needs car seats? That normal seatbe

Who needs car seats? That normal seatbelt seems to do just fine. Of course when you stop-short with a bottle of wiskey, your aarm might actually help it stay put.

The One That Spammed Away.

Complement of the day,

Although you might be apprehensive about my email as we have not met
before,My name is Mr Song Li le I work with the Hang Seng Bank.I have a
business proposal in the tune of $19.5m to be transferred to an offshore
account with your assistance.

That is why I ask that we work together so as to have the sun transfered out of my bank into your account.

Note that all is well planned as we shall do this inline with all legal and banking requirements. All I need from you is your willingness, trust and commitment. Once the funds have been transferred to your nominated bank account we shall then share in the ratio of 70% for me, 30% for you.

Should you be interested please send me your,
1,Full names,
2,private phone number,
3,current residential address,

Finally after that I shall provide you with more details of this
operation.my email address is [Redacted]

Kind Regards,
Mr Song Lile.

Well, compliment of the day to you, sir. I hope the weather is treating you well and that you don't fall down any stairs today.

I really like how you start out by shining the spotlight on my obvious distrust of people I haven't met, but push right past into the meat of your argument. None of that "inheritance" or "unclaimed funds" crap. "There is money and you could have some" is all I need to know. But a 70/30 split? Come on! I've never been scammed for so little. At least meet me a 60/40 here. You're lucky I don't just take all 19 million and leave you for dead in Burma. (You most likely know it as Myanmar, but it will always be Burma to me.)

As far as I can tell the "business proposal" here is legally receiving funds. Are you sure we're not doing something just a tad illegal? That'd make it more exciting... But that doesn't matter anyway since I only accept business opportunities in the tune of "the itsy bitsy spider". Also, you must have a huge deposit box if you can fit the whole Sun in there.

Lastly, what the hell is up with the commas you're throwing everywhere in your numbered list? You keep that up and someone's bound to lose an eye.

I kindly away the answers to the above inquiries before I pack up my willingness, trust and commitment and send them to you like toddlers into a grizzly's mouth.

Mild salutations,
your mom

P.S. It really hurts your credibility when you hijack someone else's email account and request replies to another, even sketchier "yahoo.com.hk" address. (Hey, Brian K Rose at the University of Kentucky, this douchebag is sending spam with your name at the top. Just in case you care.)