Uh, are you kidding me?
I just received an invitation spam from HSBC Direct. Apparently, they want me to open a $25,000 or more CD with a craptacular 3.10% APY, and to encourage me to do it in the next six days, they're going to reward me with an extra $75. I know, a whole $75!
Let's do a simple calculation: $75 / $25,000 = 0.003. So, on a 3.10% APY CD, they're going to give me a three-tenths of a percent bonus for letting them use my $25k for the next six months.
FAIL.
Edited to correct my decimal place error.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Spending Other People's Time
I screwed up today.
In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a big deal, but my screw-up cost someone else time. And time is money, frustration, distraction from other tasks, and all of that.
Someone from another work area needed some help and wanted to use some code I had already written. So we debugged the application to figure out what was needed and then I provided the appropriate code to plug into their application. The work on their end should have taken five minutes or so. But the developer just came back to me saying he was having problems, so I went to help him debug his application. As it turns out, I forgot to paste in a necessary function when I emailed the code earlier today. So he spent about an hour trying things in code he was unfamiliar with, wondering if there were other problems, and generally wasting time. His time.
It's a lesson in completeness and attention to detail.
In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a big deal, but my screw-up cost someone else time. And time is money, frustration, distraction from other tasks, and all of that.
Someone from another work area needed some help and wanted to use some code I had already written. So we debugged the application to figure out what was needed and then I provided the appropriate code to plug into their application. The work on their end should have taken five minutes or so. But the developer just came back to me saying he was having problems, so I went to help him debug his application. As it turns out, I forgot to paste in a necessary function when I emailed the code earlier today. So he spent about an hour trying things in code he was unfamiliar with, wondering if there were other problems, and generally wasting time. His time.
It's a lesson in completeness and attention to detail.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Hong Kong
Just returned from a short visit to Hong Kong with my brother. Each time I go back, I'm amazed at how much can be squeezed into such a small area (7m people in an area 25% the size of NYC). I know it's not the most densely-populated place on Earth, but at times it feels like it.
The weather was gorgeous and the food and sights were worth the price of admission, as always. I love how nearly everything you need can be found within a block or two from wherever you're at. And the public transit is just great; I think the Hong Kong MTR is kept cleaner than the Singapore subway system, and that's saying something.
Definitely a place to keep coming back to.
The weather was gorgeous and the food and sights were worth the price of admission, as always. I love how nearly everything you need can be found within a block or two from wherever you're at. And the public transit is just great; I think the Hong Kong MTR is kept cleaner than the Singapore subway system, and that's saying something.
Definitely a place to keep coming back to.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Friday Afternoon Apathy
It's Friday afternoon. Only on a Friday afternoon would I be able to tolerate Hall & Oates.
"You're outta touch, I'm outta time..."
Some things probably deserve to be left in the '80s.
"You're outta touch, I'm outta time..."
Some things probably deserve to be left in the '80s.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Internet FTW
As an addendum to last night, the Internet also won big. Largest period of news traffic ever. See the pic below:
Source: http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/nui/news/index.html
Source: http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/nui/news/index.html
Wow
Wow.
Whatever your politics are, you have to admit that last night, something pretty amazing happened. In the country which once enslaved blacks, counted them as 3/5 of a person, and not until 43 years ago were they fully guaranteed the right to vote, we have elected by a majority vote an African-American President.
It shouldn't be an issue. We shouldn't be marveling at our progress. But we have to, if only for a little while.
Whatever your politics are, you have to admit that last night, something pretty amazing happened. In the country which once enslaved blacks, counted them as 3/5 of a person, and not until 43 years ago were they fully guaranteed the right to vote, we have elected by a majority vote an African-American President.
It shouldn't be an issue. We shouldn't be marveling at our progress. But we have to, if only for a little while.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Improving the Electoral Process (Part 1)
As Americans -- in expected record-numbers -- flock to the polls today, I introduce the first installment of my one-part series on how to improve the American electoral process.
A few precursors: First, the voting process should be easy. It should not be a burden to actually vote. Second, voting should be accessible. It shouldn't matter where you live, it should be just as easy for you or for someone across town to vote. Third, you shouldn't feel hassled. Either because of the limited time before or after work, or because of fears of voter intimidation.
With that, I offer some simple suggestions that we could apply on a national scale, not just state-by-state:
* Mail-in voting: other states do this and they have record turnouts. And it solves all of the above three precursors.
* More polling places: we simply need to increase the bandwidth. Long lines are a great sign of voter enthusiasm, but it doesn't have to be that way.
* Change the date of the election: Many other civilized nations operate their elections over the span of a Saturday and Sunday. Or make it Tuesday/Wednesday for Americans. More time to vote encourages higher turnout.
* Make Election Day a national holiday: Perhaps the simplest solution of all is to make it a holiday. People will have much less to worry about and the reasons for not voting are almost eliminated.
If voting is so important that people fight wars to protect it, the least we can do is make sure everyone has an easy, fair, and simple means to vote.
A few precursors: First, the voting process should be easy. It should not be a burden to actually vote. Second, voting should be accessible. It shouldn't matter where you live, it should be just as easy for you or for someone across town to vote. Third, you shouldn't feel hassled. Either because of the limited time before or after work, or because of fears of voter intimidation.
With that, I offer some simple suggestions that we could apply on a national scale, not just state-by-state:
* Mail-in voting: other states do this and they have record turnouts. And it solves all of the above three precursors.
* More polling places: we simply need to increase the bandwidth. Long lines are a great sign of voter enthusiasm, but it doesn't have to be that way.
* Change the date of the election: Many other civilized nations operate their elections over the span of a Saturday and Sunday. Or make it Tuesday/Wednesday for Americans. More time to vote encourages higher turnout.
* Make Election Day a national holiday: Perhaps the simplest solution of all is to make it a holiday. People will have much less to worry about and the reasons for not voting are almost eliminated.
If voting is so important that people fight wars to protect it, the least we can do is make sure everyone has an easy, fair, and simple means to vote.
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