Advanced You scored 92% Beginner, 92% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 73% Expert!

You have an extremely good understanding of beginner, intermediate, and advanced level commonly confused English words, getting at least 75% of each of these three levels' questions correct. This is an exceptional score. Remember, these are commonly confused English words, which means most people don't use them properly. You got an extremely respectable score. Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it! For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 24% on Beginner You scored higher than 20% on Intermediate You scored higher than 67% on Advanced You scored higher than 31% on Expert

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on Ok Cupid

The Cheating of America, Charles Lewis

A so-so book about tax evasion. Rather than presenting a coherent case about tax evasion, how it happens, and what legislation went into making it possible, the book is just one series of stories after another about successful tax evasion. Sure, it makes your blood boil, but after the umpteenth story, you feel kinda defeated instead of angry.

Read Perfectly Legal instead, a much better book about the same topic.

A Distant Soil 2: Ascendant, by Colleen Doran

The pace finally picks up and the story coheres. Doran steers away carefully from many adult issues, however, so the book never quite gets to the level of maturity I've seen from more seasoned writers. Again, something you should check out from the library but not buy.

Orbiter, Warren Ellis and Colleen Doran

A comic book that works too hard to inspire. I'm a science geek and I definitely believe that man should find a way to go to the stars. Having said that, glorifying the space shuttle is not the way to go. There are lots of other more innovative approaches (such as the Space Elevator) that deserve consideration that NASA's budget wouldn't allow if it was all spent taking care of the shuttle.

The Search, by John Battelle

I was eager to read this book, since I joined Google just 2 years ago, when a lot of the history had already happened. (Amongst my big questions were: what happened during the experiment with traditional engineering managers?) Unfortunately, Battelle did not get that much access to Google, and hence was unable to write a complete account. Regardless, this book is worth reading, and since it is relatively short, won't take up too much of your time.

It remains for a Google old-timer to write the definitive book about Google's early history.

Eric Schmidt comes across as a man who is comfortable in his own skin. He's been a CEO or top executive for more than two decades, having been CTO at Sun, where he mad his first small fortune, then CEO of Novell, a major IT company, where he made his second. He knows when to smile, when to be gracious, when to keep quiet, and when to answer a difficult question with self-effacing acknowledgment. He brandishes subtle and humorous double entendres like a Japanese swordsman, a trait that almost offsets the superiority complex he shares with nearly every talented engineer in the Valley.

Despite these skills, one gets the impression that Eric Schmidt has yet to get entirely comfortable with his place at Google, his title as CEO notwithstanding...

My 20% project makes the New York Times!

Sure, it's a short piece, and most of it quotes Hal Varian, who's much more of an expert on prediction markets than I ever will be, but WOOHOO! One would think that after 14 years in the industry, I would have gotten over something like this (after all, Mpath, HearMe, and Quake all got in the news quite a bit), but it's different when it's your personal 20% project, as opposed to something that's part of a corporate charter. (Though the Mpath will always be dear to my heart)

OK, now that I've hiked half-dome, I don't have to do it again. It was crowded. The hike was long and towards the end more than a little painful. I'm still sore 24 hours later (though I'll admit I'm not in great hiking shape). It might be more fun when it's less crowded, but this hike reminded me why I always do my trips from Tuoloumne Meadows and almost never visit Yosemite Valley any more.

First view of half-dome along the trail. 

Piaw after 8.2 miles of hiking. Good grief, that last stretch looks steep! 

View from the top of Half Dome: El Capitan and Yosemite Valley 

Come to Yosemite National Park. Get away from cities, crowds, traffic jams, and pollution. OK, maybe not. 

Patri provides more details on my 20% project

I'm so glad this 20% project was more than just me. I certainly don't have the ability to do the kind of analysis that he did, and I'm definitely happy to have someone show that the results are useful. Reminds of my TinyMUCK work, where I did a bunch of stuff for fun, but really didn't see the significance of it until much later.

Christine Davis' blog

Yes, Scarlet, I predict you'll be a big fan of her blog.

Now I can talk about it

Every so often I'll talk to someone who knows I work at Google. Invariably, the question will come up if they're technically savvy, "Is it true that that everyone gets 1 day a week to work on whatever they like?" I answer, "Yes." "What did you do with your time?" Unfortunately, I don't usually say much. But now I can point to this, and say, "I wrote the trading engine." (Actually, I rewrote it a couple of times before getting it right)

Handling the boat in the evening near Angel Island. 

Lea enjoying herself as she maneuvers the Talisman away from San Francisco under high winds. 

Year's Best Science Fiction, 22nd Annual Collection

Ever since I let my subscription to Asimov's Science Fiction lapse, I've found the Year's Best Collections worth reading, if not buying. (I still check it out from the local library) This collection's best stories are:

• "Shiva in Shadow", Nancy Kress
  
• "Mayflower II", Stephen Baxter
  

Also of note:

• "Inappropriate Behavior", Pat Murtphy
  
• "Start the Clock", Benjamin Rosenblaum
  
• "Skin Deep", Mary Rosenblum
  
• "Men Are Trouble", James Patrick Kelly
  
• "Investments", Walter Jon Williams
  

The Rhythm Section

A quick read in the "La Femme Nikita" vein, but not great enough to continue reading further books in the series. It is very readable, but then again, so are many other reads. One interesting note is that the author does mention terrorism and Osama Bin Laden in 1999, 2 years before the world trade center attacks.

Here's the original version of the picture below. (downscaled to 1900x1200) 

This is why I'm taking so long to switch to digital. I took this picture in 2002, with Fuji Velvia on my 4 year old SLR. It was a picture with vertical orientation. I wanted a wallpaper for my 1900x1200 new monitor at work, so I cropped away 75% of the picture, rescaled the result by 50% (reducing the size of the result), and what's left looks pretty darn good.

The original image, as scanned by a CanoScan FS4000US was 4000x6000 pixels, or 24 megapixel. To provide a point of reference, Canon's top of the line digital SLR, the EOS-1Ds (full frame), provides 16 megapixel resolution, and costs well over $8000. Granted, scanning a slide loses you some clarify and resolution, so the numbers aren't directly comparable, but in many ways we still have a few more cycles of Moore's law before digital becomes the choice when highest quality is desired.

The Wright Exit Strategy

This is a great antidote to The Millionaire Next Door. If you recall, Millionaire Next Door is about how wealthy people got that way by clipping coupons and not spending money. The study was flawed with all sorts of the kind of errors described in Fooled by Randomness. However, even more distasteful to me was all these people with millions of dollars who spent their lives staying home, clipping coupons, and not actually doing anything with their money like travelling, enjoying hobbies, or doing anything for the greater society. In fact, most of them answered the question, "What is your favorite charity?" with the answer, "Myself."

OK, enough about the Millionaire Next Door. The Wright Exit Strategy reverses the question by asking you what your goals in life are. If you could have any calendar you want, and could fill it only with stuff you enjoyed doing, how would you fill it? From there, Wright gets into the details of how to hire the correct estate planning agent, how uncomplicated financial strategy actually is, and how to get over the barriers to being able to do what you truly want to do, whether it's the fear of selling your family business, or selling your highly appreciated company stock, or actually starting to give money away.

Note the the book does not at all describe how you should get that wealthy. Presumably, you do that with a combination of luck and business saavy. Naturally, most of the concerns he has (like dodging capital gains taxes or estate planning) really only apply to the ultra-rich (well above the $3 million you actually need to get a $100,000 a year income), but in any case, if you're the kind of person who's described by The Millionaire Next Door, you need to read this book so you can get a life and do what you really want to do.

There's a poignant story in this book about a successful condominium developer who had already made $20 million and was now having an aggravating time getting new real estate developed because everyone was getting on his case (environmentalists, etc, etc). After talking to him, Wright pointed out that this guy was really into it for the thrill of the hunt, but had never considered that he could get his thrills any other way, despite the ulcers and other bodily pain he was suffering from his job. Unfortunately, the guy died of a heart attack before Wright's advice could do any good. Read this book, Mr. Millionaire, and take notes!

(Though I'm fond of saying: Wealth is wasted on the wealthy!)

Castle Waiting

The best of the recent graphic novels I've read. It's a whimsical fairy tale, filled with references to your nursery rhyme stories, including the 3 little pigs, the goose that lay the golden egg, amongst others. Entertaining. Vol. 1 hasn't provided much by way of plot yet, but this volume has as much promise as the early issues of Bone.

A Distant Soil

Colleen Doran started this comic when she was 13, and it shows. Now, Daniel Keys Moran started his novel series when he was 13 as well, but his characters are compelling, and his plots exciting. But Doran applied no form of filtering whatsoever to her work. The characters don't develop well, and the plot is barely comprehensible. Despite that, she won numerous awards for her work. Why? Because she was one of the leading wave of independent publishers, and probably the only woman in the field who has had any form of success.

Oh, and she draws really well. Her layouts are very pretty, and I enjoy looking at her pictures. Definitely worth my time to borrow the next two volumes from the library.

Batman: Child of Dreams

Kia Asamiya draws a Batman manga. It's not very good. Of course, he couldn't resist putting in a cute Japanese girl, but more importantly, the guy just can't draw a good Bruce Wayne. I don't normally look at guys, but isn't Bruce Wayne supposed to be a good looking guy?

Not recommended.

Which D&D Character Are You?

I Am A: Lawful Good Halfling Bard


Alignment:
Lawful Good characters are the epitome of all that is just and good. They believe in order and governments that work for the benefit of all, and generally do not mind doing direct work to further their beliefs.


Race:
Halflings are short and fat, like minuature people. (Think 'Hobbits') They enjoy the easy life, but aren't averse to the idea of an adventure from time to time. They get along with all races, and are known for their senses of humor. Halflings also tend to be light of foot, and can move quietly when necessary.


Primary Class:
Bards are the entertainers. They sing, dance, and play instruments to make other people happy, and, frequently, make money. They also tend to dabble in magic a bit.


Secondary Class:
Monks are strange and generally not understood by the world at large. They live apart from people, and follow strict codes that restrain their behavior and lifestyle. They have an exceptionally calm outlook on life, and generally do not resort to violence unless absolutely necessary. Even when they do, their code of conduct forbids the use of all weapons - except their hands. As such, monks are extremely skilled at hand-to-hand combat, and no other style.


Deity:
Avoreen is the Lawful Good halfling god of war, defense, and vigilance. He is also known as the Defender and the Vigilant Guardian. Followers of Avoreen are devoted to the defense of the halfling race, and spend their days drilling and preparing other halflings for the defense of their homes, if necessary. Their preferred weapon is the short sword. Avoreen's symbol is a pair of crossed short swords.


Find out What D&D Character Are You?, courtesy ofNeppyMan (e-mail)

Constantine

OK, I guess I might as well do mini movie reviews too. The best thing about the advance of Computer Graphics is that comic-book movies are now visually stunning. The worst thing is that they can't make actors better. Keenau Reeves isn't a great actor to portray John Constantine (since Constantine in the comics looks exactly like Sting), on the other hand, I didn't feel like he ruined the entire movie.

It's a good watch, especially for someone getting over an sore throat and a bad cold. All that coughing Reeves does reminds you that you're likely to get well.

Hanging out with the Dream King: Interviews with Neil Gaiman and his collaborators

Halfway through this book I realized that I didn't really like Neil Gaiman that much as a writer. His Sandman series was excellent, and probably the most brilliant of his work, followed by a few good short novellas such as Stardust.

I found his stint on Miracleman after Alan Moore took over to be less than stellar, and he hasn't done any other comic books since.

But his novels? Good Omens left me cold, as did American Gods. Neverwhere was OK, but not ground breaking.

My conclusion is that Gaiman had a brilliant creative spurt in his career and Sandman, which spawned the Goth movement amongst other things, is definitely an outstanding achievement (though I still consider Gaiman's work a pale shadow of what Alan Moore is capable of --- and Moore is still creatively involved in comic books and shows no sign of his talent slacking off), but his novels sell only because he's made a name for himself in comics. Sure, he's better than a lot of the other dreck out there, but that doesn't say much, since Sturgeon's law applies in novels as easily as it does in Comics. The difference is that Gaiman is probably in the top 5% in comics while he's at most in the top 20% in novels.

The nature of the business, though is that novels are a lot more lucrative (and require less collaboration) than comics, so we're unlikely to see Gaiman work on any more comics, which is a pity.

Astonishing X-Men: Gifted

Joss Wheldon writes the X-men. It's a decent start, but not a mind blowing entry the way Alan Moore was. Joss brings out the "high school" part of the X-men quite well, but makes a few elementary comic book mistakes (like having dialog spread over a page turn, a definite no-no) that I wouldn't expect from someone as smart as he is.

Will wait for the next installment to show up at the library before reading.

Republicans are Evil Part II

Howard Dean, chairman of the DNC, sends an email:

Hurricane Katrina: How to Help: […] Many stayed behind and suffered devastating loss and injuries — nearly a hundred have died that we know of, and hundreds of thousands need our help. America is at its best when we realize that we are one community — that we’re all in this together. That means that each one of us has the responsibility to do what we can to help the relief effort. The Red Cross is a great place to start

We are still learning the full story of the devastation, but there is no time to wait. Please do something now.


Ken Mehlman, chairman of the RNC, sends an email:

When they return from their August recess, Senators will consider a key issue: elimination of the death tax.

Will you help bring tax relief to more hard-working Americans? Call Senator Voinovich today and ask them to eliminate the death tax.


Clearly George Bush and Paris Hilton are both hard-working Americans.

Time up Old La Honda Road: 24:55

According to the Western Wheelers Ride Rating System, that's barely enough to qualify me as an "E" rider, but when I ride with the "Ds", I'm barely keeping up with the front group, which tells you the kind of grade deflation that's been happening in the Western Wheelers.

For your reference, Lisa & I did this 2 years ago and came in at 31 minutes on the tandem, a solid "C" pace, but on hilly rides, the same thing happens --- we barely keep up with the group.

What a great trip

When the New York Times travel section does a story about biking, it's usually by folks who charter a tour, and have someone else carry their lugguage somewhere through Europe. Clearly, this is an exception and an amazing one. They carried their own lugguage, and were on a tandem. Their experience parallels the experience Lisa & I had in South Africa in 2001, though we did ours over less rugged terrain.

Chain replacement

My chain is worn out already on my commute bike. It took one and a half hours to remove the cranks, clean the chainrings, take a part the rear deraileurs and clean the pulleys (extremely yucky --- does anyone know why hair gets into the pulleys?), the front deraileur (the least icky part of the job), and the cogs. And then I went and put my new wheel on it just so I could make sure that I'd built it right (I did). I'll put a couple of commutes on it and then go back to my old wheel.

Mavic MA-3 rims suck. After just 2 rainy seasons of riding the eyelets are already rusted causing the click-click-click sound. (I know it's the wheel because the new wheel does not make the sound) I'm tempted to replace the rim.

The difference between Liberals and Conservative

And I'll add my own bit: Liberals believe that a society as a whole should be judged by how it treats the worst-off (unluckiest, etc) in it. Conservatives believe that a societ as a whole should be judged by the best-off (luckiest, etc) in it. Liberals believe that estate taxes are a fair and equitable way of funding government, while conservatives believe that George Bush and Paris Hilton are deserving of their wealth because they clearly did a better job of choosing their parents than most people.

Paul Graham makes republican mistake #1

The problem with wealthy entrepreneurs who got lucky is that they attribute their success and wealth to their skill, intelligence and risk taking ability, while a lot of their wealth actually comes from luck. But because they can't admit that (since that would be an admission that they do not deserve their wealth), they have to come up with justifications as to why the universe made them a multi-millionaire.

The problem with Paul's thesis is that I can think of many many ways you can reduce inequality without reducing risk-taking behavior. Here's an example: supposed you provide universal healthcare. A large proportion of U.S. bankruptcies are driven by medical bills due to lack of health insurance. Suddenly, anyone who wanted to start a business can do so without losing their healthcare. I'd argue that more people would start businesses and take more risks than a national policy where your healthcare is tied to your job, effectively locking you to that job if you don't have a lot of money and have one or more pre-existing conditions.

There's an obvious place to tax people if you truly believe Paul's thesis (which I don't buy into --- I've seen too many folks luck into wealth to think that wealth is in any form "deserved" by most people who make that kind of money): inter-generational transfers. In other words, we should tax inheritances heavily and severely. But of course, the Republicans we see in congress are the ones most enthusiastic about eliminating the estate tax.

Flight Vol 2

Not nearly as good as the first one, mostly because the large number of artists/writers contributing such disjoint visions brings into focus how the graphic strip art form needs many more pages to provide character and narrative. Nevertheless, there are a few good pieces: The Robot and the Sparrow, Jake Parker, Destiny Xpress Jen Wang, The Orange Grove, Kazu Kibuishi, Dust on the Shelves, Banniester, The Flying Bride, Giuseppe Ferrario.

Once again, I don't feel like I want to own this book, but I'm glad I did see read it once. If the really good artists here start producing their own books, it might be worth following up on them.

A tough ride

Went on a Western Wheelers ride today. Everyone was scary fast! Sure, it's the end of the summer, so folks are as fit as they're going to be, but I'd just done a Tour of the Alps not that long ago, and it's scary how much fitter everyone else was. Of course, I could use the excuse that I planned my peak for that tour, but seriously, I'm a recreational rider. I don't peak.

I did meet someone I rode with 13 years ago, when I first started riding with the Western Wheelers, but before I dropped out. It was funny when I first said, "oh we rode together 10 years ago", she interrupted and said, "No, it's longer than that. It was 6 boyfriends ago." Thinking back upon it, I'd had 6 jobs (well, 2 at the same company) since then as well, so it's nice to know that some people switch boyfriends as often as I switch jobs.

Anyway, I'm now incredibly exhausted, despite having only ridden 72 miles with 7500' of climb. As they say, it's not the distance or the climb, it's the pace --- we did it all in 6 hours, and that's including stops!

Dealers of Lightning, Michael Hiltzik

Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) invented the concepts that went into the modern computer that we use today. Mice, icon based bitmapped displays, WYSIWIG word processors, ethernet, file servers, object-oriented programming, and the laser printer. Yet Xerox did not make money from any of these inventions except the laser printer, and even then fumbled it by introducing it too late. This book is an indictment of Xerox's corporate culture, its short-sighted executives, and is the perfect illustration of my thesis that a technology company (or any company affected by technology) that is not mature must be run by engineers for it to be successful beyond the short term. Of course, that's not the only factor. Everything else also has to be done right (marketing, sales, etc), but if the key executives do not have the vision to pursue technological break-throughs and turn them into product, you might as well not bother funding an R&D lab.

Xerox's top executives were for the most part salesmen of copy machines. From these leased behemoths the revenue stream was as tangible as the "click" of the meters counting of copies, for which the customer paid Xerox so many cents per page (and from which Xerox paid its salespersons their commissions). Noticing their eyes narrow, Ellenby could almost hear them thinking: "If there is no paper to be copies, where's the `click'?" In other words: "How will I get paid?"

Google driving up the cost of Silicon Valley talent?

Google, Mr. Hoffman said, has caused "across the board a 25 to 50 percent salary inflation for engineers in Silicon Valley" - or at least those in a position to weigh competing offers. A sought-after computer programmer can now expect to make more than $150,000 a year.

I think most people have it wrong: software engineering talent has been too cheap for too long. Today, to entice someone to study software engineering, you would have to offer sufficient incentive to:

1. overcome the fear that 4-6 years studying computer science would be rewarded by all the good jobs going to India
   
2. medical school and law school all have potentially higher rewards, and are also more highly regarded professions (with also a more balanced male/female ratio)
   
3. the fact that winner-takes-all is even more prevalent in computer science than anywhere else
   
4. the average career of a Silicon Valley engineer is around 7 years, shorter than that of many pro atheletes!
   

Given all those disadvantages, the question should be why there are smart, talented, hardworking folks in software engineering at all. Well, the answer is typically that there is a chance for a big pay-off, if you work for the right company! The rising incomes of top Silicon Valley engineers needs to reflect that when all is said and done, Google is the only software company I've worked for in the last 10 years that can be said to have been almost completely engineering driven. That means that a similar offer from Google would be preferred by the discerning, intelligent software engineer than an equivalent offer from anywhere else. The following quote from the same article highlights the similarities to Microsoft in the 1990s:

Bill Gates certainly sees similarities between Google and his own company. This spring, in an interview with Fortune, Mr. Gates, Microsoft's chairman, said that Google was "more like us than anyone else we have ever competed with."

I will note that Microsoft was also in many ways, managed by smart engineers more than its competitors (like Borland, Lotus, IBM, Apple, or Netscape). They had more technical people in the upper ranks than their competitors, and perhaps that is why they had an edge --- the deep understanding of technology is important when technology is the battleground. Companies that pick non-technical CEOs too early in their lifecycle risk stunting their future growth.

Thoughts about the Canon 5D

With a full frame sensor and nearly 13 megapixel, this is the first digital SLR that I will consider dumping my film cameras for. Previous SLRs were either too expensive, have the nasty tiny sensor, not compatible with my EOS lenses, or were too heavy. (Or a combination of the above) At $3300, it's still expensive, but Moore's law will get it to about $2000 in 18 months, so that's probably the point at which the case for switching over to digital entirely becomes compelling.

The 24-105/4L, however, is almost certainly a must have. When the price drops a bit next year, I will definitely buy one and ditch my long loved 24-85.

Lacing a new rear wheel 

Thomas Marsten 

Cyclists enjoy the sunrise from the Jeanne Meadows memorial bench 

Bob & Betty 

Self-portrait: Piaw, Lisa, and the Tandem (aka Yellow Totoro) 

Piaw & Radek enjoying the Sunrise 

The San Antonio Valley shrouded with Fog 

Piaw & Lisa on Mt. Hamilton during Civil Twilight 

Flight Vol 1

An anthology of short comic strips. The problem with a short comic strip is that it's very difficult to develop all but the simplest characters in a few pages, even with the help of illustrations. While a lot of the strips in this book are very good, many are just mediocre, or unsatisfying. I like it, but not enough to buy it.

I never paid attention to people like you, either, although I knew who a lot of you were. Your names were all over the halls...

A Fire Upon The Deep, Vernor Vinge

I first read this book about 10 or so years ago when it won the Hugo award (and was unjustly denied a Nebula award). It is still just as good a read today as it was 10 years ago. The space opera is fun, the characters are fun, and the universe as postulated entertaining, even though it's every bit as far fetched as the E. E. Doc Smith universes. (At least the writing is much better)

Somewhere barriers slipped aside, the final failing of Old One's control, or a final gift. It did not matter which now, for whatever the ghost said, the truth was obvious to Pham Nuwen and he would not be denied:

Canberrra, Cindi, the centuries avoyaging with Qeng Ho, the final flight of the Wild Goose. It was all real.

Planning the next trip

The next trip is likely to be an inn-to-inn walking trip in England's lake district. As usual, I'm starting out by planning this as a nice long walk, without any such distractions as museums or other cultural artifacts and let the folks who are coming along force me into visiting Wordsworth's birthplace or some such.

Suggestions, etc are welcome. And due to Lisa's school, the timing is forced: late May/early June. That makes planning and buying plane tickets easy.

Amy Platt's Blog

Climate Crash: Abrupt Climate Change And What It Means For Our Future

A few years ago, I read an article about climate change: the concern was that climate change might not be a continuous process as most folks might believe (naively), but that it could flip-flop between cold and warm states for unknown, chaotically driven reasons. I was extremely skeptical that such theories would in fact pan out, given the recent history of climate change, but this book (which is more about the theory behind abrupt climate change and less about the implications) shows how the theory has become more than just speculation and is now the primary theory behind the history of Earth's climates.

Of course, my pessimism about the human race says that we won't do anything about it until it's too late.

Down in the core below 2750 meters, in ice that the Europeans were confident represented the period of Eemian warmth about 120,000 years ago, oxygen isotope data showed two especially large and sudden plunges towards ice age cold. In one episode, average temperatures apparently plunged 25 degrees F for about 70 years. The only period of relative stability during the Eemian came during the last 2,000 years of its warmest stage.

"The unexpected finding that the remainder of the Eemian period was interrupted by a series of oscillations, apparently reflecting reversals to a `mid-glacial' climate, is extremely difficult to explain," the Euroepans wrote. "Perhaps the most pressing question is why similar oscillations do not persist today, as the Eemian period is often considered an analogue for a world slightly warmer than today's." Given the history of the last 150,000 years, they wrote, the past 8000 years "has been strangely stable."

At the granite portions of the ten lakes hike 

At the top of the climb! 

Stream feeding into the main lake 

The second highest of the ten lakes 

Piaw & Lisa waiting for the evening alpenglow 

Evening reflection on the first of the ten lakes 

Ridges from the climb up from ten lakes 

Lisa enjoys fields of flowers on the ten lakes hike 

Fooled by Randomness, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

This is probably the best financial book I've read all year. (Which doesn't say much, I admit) It's not for anyone who hasn't read any of the classics (like Malkiel's Random Walk Down Wall Street), but it's very much worth reading since even for those of us who have a decent mathematical background, interpreting the results of the mathematics in real world terms is a rare and useful skill, and Taleb has a good knack for explaining how to do it.

I have no large desires to sacrifice much of my personal habits, intellectual pleasures, and personal standards in order to become a billionaire like Warren Buffett, and I certainly do not see the point of becoming one if I were to adopt Spartan (even miserly) habits and live in my starter house... Becoming rich is not directly a moral achievement, but that is now where the severe flaw in the book lies.
Note: the book in question is The Millionaire Next Door.

Why I am a die-hard Canon loyalist

After Lisa broke the camera on a sailing trip, I thought that was the end of it. My brother gave me the customer service # for Canon, and I called them. They gave me an address to send the camera to, I printed out the receipt (from Amazon.com), and sent the camera, box and all to them, expecting a hefty repair bill at the end.

I got the camera back yesterday. The lens unit had been replaced, the camera had been cleaned (though the scratches from my tour of the alps are still in evident, so it was clearly not a new camera), and the camera had been restored to working condition.

The charge: $0. They considered this a warranty repair.

A fabulous Joss Wheldon interview

You own a “Speed” poster on which your writing credit remains.

I do.

Was it a misprint? Was a teaser poster issued before the Writers Guild arbitrated that credit away?
It was “the” poster. And they put it out and then the arbitration happened kind of late. And so they pulled it and changed it.

So there are maybe a lot of those floating around out there somewhere?
I don’t know if they were actually up or if this was just the final mock-up. I just know that I have a copy of it. The arbitration was a great sticking point with me. I’ve always just disagreed with the WGA’s policy that says you can write every line of dialogue for a movie – and they literally say this – and not deserve credit on it. Because I think that makes no sense of any kind. Writers get very protective of themselves. They’re worried that some producer will want to add a line so he can put his name on it. But what they can do is throw writers at it forever without putting their names on it because of this rule. So I actually don’t think it works for writers. It certainly didn’t work for me.

Graham Yost [who received the sole screenplay credit for “Speed”] has always been very polite to me and very sweet but he did say to me, “You would have done the same thing.” And all I could say to him at the time was, “Well, I guess we don’t know if that’s true.” Because I’d never been in his situation. Then more than a year later John Lasseter called me and said, “I want to give all the animators who worked on the story credit on ‘Toy Story.’” And I said, “Sure.” And there are entire episodes of “Buffy” that I have written every word of that my name is not on. Which is gratifying to me because it means I finally have an answer to that. Which is, “No, I wouldn’t.”

S&S couplers considered useless

My issue with the couplers are that they're expensive and take forever to use. My first tandem had couplers and disassembly took 2 hours (with two of us on it), and assembly took an hour. And this was after we'd gotten good at it! And of course, take pictures when you first get the bike or you'll never be able to pack it away in the boxes ever again!

Anyway, after I'd had enough of this, we finally sold the bike, and bought an uncoupled tandem. We took it to Europe, and this time, wrapped pipe insulation around the tubes and took it with us on the plane unboxed. They bent the deraileur hanger, which cost me 5 Euros and 15 minutes to fix at a local bike shop. On the way back I removed the deraileur and had no damage to the bike. Packing time: 5 minutes. Unpacking time: 5 minutes. (Removing and putting pedals back on) All through Europe the trains took our tandem and us, no problems. All the
hotels also found a place to keep our bike.

When we flew to Colorado last year for a tour, we had to box up the bike. On the way there, we got a Santana cardboard box (cost: $45), and took it with us on the plane ($80). Packing time: 20 minutes. On the way back, we rode to the Denver International Airport, bought 2
United Airlines boxes ($20), packed the bike there and then (20 minutes), and brought it back to San Jose International. The airline scratched the front saddle and gave us a $20 United airlines coupon for a minor scratch, we reassembled the bike (10 minutes), and rode
home. In Colorado we just kept our bikes in the hotel room with us.

Both my experiences travelling with the uncoupled tandem were superior to travelling with the coupled tandem in a hard case. We spent less time packing, and more time enjoying the biking. (but note: we don't have a carbon fiber bike --- those might be more fragile, in which case you might have no choice but to go S&S)

Finally, this year, I went to Europe again on my single. One of my friends brought a single bike with ritchey breakaway coupler. It took him more than an hour to assemble the bike! And more than 1.5 hours to take it apart at the airport. For myself, I would not pay the extra cost in either time or money, just to save the 15 Swiss Francs (30 for a tandem) it costs to take a bike on the train.

One of the couples in the club I'm in has both an S&S Santana and an uncoupled Calfee. They're signed up for 2 Erickson tours this September, and guess which bike they're bringing? The uncoupled Calfee. Even though they're retired and have lots of time, it's still less fun assembling and disassembling bikes than riding them, and they'd rather risk damaging their $10,000 bike.

I ran into a cyclist last year who said he surveyed every tandem couple he met while riding because he was shopping for a tandem. He said that whenever he asked about couplers for couples that had them, the usual response was "We thought they'd be a good idea, but we've
never used them." For those couples, maybe the cost of the couplers meant they didn't have any left over to take a vacation, but still.

There are a few good applications for couplers:

1. Private plane owners. You're not going to fit a full sized tandem on a propellor plane, no matter what. (When travelling, every time I could have taken a prop plane I could also have taken a ferry, so it's not an issue that comes up unless you're a private pilot)
2. Cruises. This was what S&S was designed for --- so you can bring your bike into your stateroom disassembled, get off the cruise boat, and assemble your bike and ride around town. A folding bike is probably cheaper for this task than adding S&S couplers to your Calfee.
3. Frequent domestic flights. At $80 a pop, if you take 13 domestic flights, you've made back the cost of the couplers. ($2000 after you throw in the suit cases) Of course, after you've done the assembly once or twice, you might discover (as some folks I know did), that you'd rather *drive* to your domestic destination than go through the assembly/disassembly process again.
4. You can't bear the thought of a $10,000 bike being protected by a $20 cardboard box, even though in my experience the $20 cardboard box in 10 years of travelling has never failed me.
   

I suspect that in practice, reason #4 is why folks buy S&S couplers.

[Update: there have been recent reports that even coupled S&S tandems are no longer escaping airline domestic charges. In addition, real world experiences have vindicated this article over and over again, as described in a later blog entry]