stuff

Please accept my apologies if you tried to access this site over the last 12 hours and were greeted with an unfriendly “bad_httpd_conf” error.

I have ranted about Dreamhost troubles earlier. And after all that, I still haven’t switched my service provider. I delayed switching after Dreamhost offered to put me on a different server and things looked better. I should have known better…

Anyways, this is how procrastination bites.

Note to self: LEAVE-DREAMHOST-NOW.

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Subscribe by EmailThere is nothing much to increasing subscriber numbers (aren’t most numbers silly ), but at times these numbers are a source of encouragement to keep on writing. It is always comforting to know that people are interested in this blog.

If you have already subscribed to the feed, please accept my gratitude.

Before you go away from this page, here are some articles from the past that may interest you:

• The Confusing World Of Credit Scores And Some Pointers For Getting FICO Scores For Cheap

• Interesting Facts About Social Security Numbers

• All About Watching Movies For Cheap

• Food For Thought - Education Is A Great Economic Leveler

• The Subprime Mess - All About Ignorance, Dishonesty, and Our Tendency To Look For Loopholes

• Right Turns And Other Simple Tips To Save Money And Environment

Also, check out the most popular posts if you haven’t done it yet.

I am not making any political statements with this bumper sticker; just found it amusing (it’s amusing when you read such things in Texas)…and had a camera in my hands.

Presidents will come and go; it’s up to us to make sure that we don’t make this an American legacy. Work hard, spend smart, think, and don’t make your children suffer.

Recently, we started having problems with our house keys. Initially, only my key had problems getting in the lock..and we thought that it could be because it was getting worn out or something (my wife’s key worked well). However, sometime during the last week, the other key also started giving problems and the situation deteriorated rapidly. The keys would completely go inside the lock only after much tinkering and after application of considerable physical force. After some procrastination, we decided to contact the apartment management and request them to replace the lock.

The lock that almost died

That evening, I don’t know how it came to my mind, but I thought of applying some cooking oil to my key to see if that lubricates the lock’s interiors. So I put a couple of drops of oil on either side of the key and with great hopes tried the lock again. It took about 5 or 6 cycles of inserting the key, twisting to lock and unlock, and removing the key, and after that it was all beautiful! The lock started working flawlessly with both the keys…and I am pretty certain it is working much smoother than ever before.

Encouraged by this, I also tried the oil on our lame mailbox lock (it’s really horrible) and key…and it worked wonders there too. It also seems like both locks will continue working like that for a while (the oil on the keys has vanished, but the locks are still extremely smooth).

This oil thing is not such a big deal in terms of innovation (people have done similar things for ages…oil is a common solution for most problems with moving mechanical parts), and yet it made us happy for some reason. Probably because we didn’t have to talk to our rude management about the problem, we saved a lock and a couple of keys from being trashed, and no one had to work or spend money in buying and installing a new lock (I am pretty sure they would have replaced the lock…the maintenance guys always seem to be very eager to install *new* things). In summary, those few drops of oil saved a lot of headache for everyone.

Since this lock episode, I am searching for other mechanical things in our house where I can apply this *oily* solution…but haven’t found anything yet. Will probably turn my attention to the car now…

Here is a quick and efficient money making scheme that engaged my attention for quite some time during our last trip to Sea World:

Yes, it’s about those milk bottle pyramids, stacked in a 2-1 pattern (sometimes 3-2-1 pattern), that appear so easy to knock down with a ball. OK, they are not really milk bottles now a days but, some wooden or (sometimes aluminum) fabrications that look like milk bottles. This milk bottle pyramid activity seemed very popular…not just with the kids, but also with their oh-that-looks-easy dads (believe it or not…it’s more popular with the dads than with the kids).

I spent about 20~25 minutes watching the proceedings of a milk bottle pyramid booth (with multiple terminals). In that time, at least 20 people made attempts to knock those bottles off. Only a couple of them paid $3 (because most of them appeared to be throwing the ball thrice); the rest used up 5 bucks. Not ONE of them could knock the pyramid down. Technically, a few of them did knock the pyramid down, but read the text in the above image carefully…you have to knock the bottles *off the table*, just knocking down the pyramid gets you nothing. So basically, the carny (slang for a person who works with a carnival) must have made about $90+ while I was there!

This milk bottle pyramid scheme is not new; in fact, below is an image captured from How Carnival Racketeers Fleece the Public that attempts to explain the trick - published in August 1934 (via Modern Mechanix):

However, in the 20 minutes that I spent watching the proceedings at the milk bottle pyramid booth, I realized that there is much more to it than just weighted bottles. Below, is a schematic (with a brief explanation that follows) of the issues involved (in my opinion) in the milk bottle pyramid game.

• Weight of the ball. From what I observed, it didn’t seem like one of the bottles was heavier than the others. However, they all seemed a bit too heavy for the ball that was given to the participants. Because the ball was lighter, it didn’t transfer enough energy to the bottles to knock them “off the table”. Sure they tumbled at times, but it was more like “toppling over” than “knocking over”. Btw, some of the folks were throwing the ball with great arm movement…so they must be packing a lot of punch in it.
• Table construction. The ball and the bottles are just half the story; the features of the table seemed equally important. The table had a raised edge around the periphery. Since milk bottles are cylindrical in shape, it wouldn’t take much to roll them off the table after you topple them. The raised edge makes sure that this rolling does not happen.
• Dimensions of the bottle with respect to the table. The bottles were small enough to fit inside the raised edge of the table, if they were laid flat on the sides.
• Pyramid placement. The pyramid is placed neared to the person throwing the ball. This may seem like an advantage to the thrower, but in reality, I think it further prevents the bottles from falling off the table. If they were on the opposite side (farthest from the thrower), simply toppling them might nudge them over the table’s edge.
• Force and accuracy. People who were trying to throw the ball too fast and hard were missing the pyramid totally! Probably, too much force results in too little control over the direction of the throw.
  
• Chip on the shoulder complex. This term appears in the 1934 report (see the second image from the top) and might be a strong motivating factor for a lot of older people (kids’ dads) to try the milk bottle pyramid. “Chip on the shoulder” is defined as (source):”A belligerent attitude or grievance“. This coupled with overconfidence in throwing abilities provide plenty of good candidates for milking money.
• Bank on probability. More than a matter of skill, it seemed to me like it was a matter of probability with odds working heavily against the thrower. However, a walk around the park did prove that some folks (may be 3 or 4) managed to win prizes in such games (usually prizes are unique to certain booths…so it’s easy to figure out)…so it’s not like no one ever does it. Also, this is essential for the business, because you got to show people that they *could* win it too.

Plus, there are other things that you could do to mess with the thrower and earn more money. Things like increasing the distance between the thrower and the pyramid, making the surface of the table and the bottles a bit rougher (to increase friction), and perhaps some other innovative approaches (any suggestions?).

By the way, the activity must be providing very good return on investment (ROI), because there are hardly any capital costs (you don’t even need high school education) and operating costs. Your initial setup may cost a few hundred bucks for the bottles, table and the ball and some prizes for display, but once you start running the show, it’s almost an all-profit-no-loss venture.

So, want to be rich and successful quickly? This milk bottles-and-ball pyramid might just be your answer.

Image source: dccradio via Webshots

In the recent issue of TIME magazine, there is an interesting article by the title 51 Things We Can Do. Among the list are some sensible (and worth-a-try) things that will not only make Al Gore happy, but also help you save some money in the long run. What amused me the most was tip #45: Make One Right Turn After Another; here is an excerpt:

In 2004, UPS announced that its drivers would avoid making left turns. The time spent idling while waiting to turn against oncoming traffic burns fuel and costs millions each year.

In metro New York, UPS has reduced CO2 emissions by 1,000 metric tons since January. Today 83% of UPS facilities are heading in the right direction; within two years, the policy will be adopted nationwide.

If you have difficulty in visualizing it, here is a graphic (MS Office clip art rocks) that might be worth a thought:

The image compares two overly-simplified (for the purpose of comparison) ways of making a to and fro journey. In both cases you travel the same distance, but in all probability, choosing the route with all left turns will take more time (unless you are lucky enough to catch protected left green signals at all three intersections).

Huh?…but how’s one vehicle making right turns going to help?

Towards that, here is a bit of insight into why UPS is trying this out (source):

“It seems small, but when you multiply it across 88,0000 vehicles making nearly 15 million deliveries every day during the course of a year, it adds up.”

If 88,000 vehicles making more right turns mean millions of dollars for UPS, it will certainly mean something significant for the US as a whole with about 240,000,000+ vehicles.

Obviously, right turns are nice only in US (and other right-hand traffic countries); similar logic applies to left turns in UK, Japan, and other left-hand traffic countries.

Other handy tips

The TIME article mentions other common sense tips that are worth trying. Some of these tips must have been repeated a million times on different blogs and websites, but TIME’s interesting numbers adds a better perspective from the point of view of motivating people towards applying these tips. Not all of the 51 things mentioned in the article can be easily implemented by the common man, but here are some that most of us can try without drastically altering our lifestyle:

• Give up those incandescent (filament) light bulbs.

CFLs cost three to five times as much as conventional incandescent bulbs yet use one-quarter the electricity and last several years longer.

If you are worried about whether it makes economical sense to buy the expensive compact fluorescent (CF) bulbs, read this: Save Money On Light Bulbs. With some reasonable assumptions, CF bulbs will actually save you money in the long run. By the way, a similar logic also applies to appliances. Compare appliances based on their power consumption (look for kWh or kilowatt-hour ratings), and extend the comparison over a few years down the line. Power efficient appliances may be expensive at first glance, but may turn out to be cheaper when it comes to operational costs. Also, the rule of thumb is: less power consumption = more environmentally friendly.

• Some tips for every household.

Open a window instead of running the AC. Adjust the thermostat a couple of degrees higher in the summer and lower in the winter. Caulk and weatherstrip all your doors and windows. Insulate your walls and ceilings. Use the dishwasher only when it’s full. Install low-flow showerheads. Wash your clothes in warm or cold water. Turn down the thermostat on the water heater. At the end of the year, don’t be surprised if your house feels lighter. It just lost 4,000 lbs. of carbon dioxide.

Forget about the 4,000 lbs of CO2 for a while…you will save a ton of money by implementing these tips. So if you are not so much of a *green-person*, at least try it for the sake of money. And if you don’t care about the savings, think about how much you can contribute towards the environment by reducing 4,000 lbs of CO2.

• Insulate your water heater

Wrapping your heater in an insulated blanket—one costs about $10 to $20 at home centers—could save your household about 250 lbs. in CO2 emissions annually. Most water heaters more than five years old are constantly losing heat and wasting energy because they lack internal insulation. If the surface feels warm to the touch, get your heater an extra blankie. You’ll both feel better.

This is something I have never thought about…and due to my procrastinating tendency, this will take me some time to implement…but it sounds like a sensible thing to do, so go ahead and try it.

• Switch off your computers, lights, and other electronic equipment when not in use.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 75% of all the electricity consumed in the home is standby power used to keep electronics running when those TVs, DVRs, computers, monitors and stereos are “off.” The average desktop computer, not including the monitor, consumes from 60 to 250 watts a day. Compared with a machine left on 24/7, a computer that is in use four hours a day and turned off the rest of the time would save you about $70 a year. The carbon impact would be even greater. Shutting it off would reduce the machine’s CO2 emissions 83%, to just 63 kg a year.

I see this happening day in and day out. I don’t think anyone in my entire building switches of their computers before leaving for the day. There must be more than a 1000 computers in here. Recently, after the university started adding an *energy surcharge* in our tuition bills, some people have started switching off the lights…but only about 25% of the people are doing it.

• Check tire pressure regularly and get your car tuned-up periodically.

If you can boost your gas mileage from 20 to 24 m.p.g., your old heap will put 200 fewer pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.

Tire pressure gages costs about a dollar in most stores, air is free at most gas stations, and it doesn’t take more than five minutes to check your tire pressure. I think procrastination is the only barrier here. Drive sensibly; speeding eats up a lot of gas and is not very efficient. Better mileage = more savings, reducing 200 lbs of CO2 = cleaner conscience.

• Manage and pay your bills online.

If every U.S. home viewed and paid its bills online, the switch would cut solid waste by 1.6 billion tons a year and curb greenhouse-gas emissions by 2.1 million tons a year, according to Javelin Strategy & Research.

Apart from the environmental concerns, there is also an organizational factor associated with this. With online transactions, you don’t need to sort important pieces of mail from a ton of junk ones, or worry about shredding paper statements, or worry about USPS not delivering your payment check on time…all small things, but with major *headache* potential. This also saves a small amount of money on postage stamps.

• Say no to plastic grocery bags and yes to cloth or paper bags (this one won’t save you money..but it’s worth doing it for the environment).

Every year, more than 500 billion plastic bags are distributed, and less than 3% of those bags are recycled. They are typically made of polyethylene and can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade in landfills that emit harmful greenhouse gases. Reducing your contribution to plastic-bag pollution is as simple as using a cloth bag (or one made of biodegradable plant-based materials) instead of wasting plastic ones.

Just saying “I use recyclable plastic bags” is not enough. Even recycling plants take up a lot of energy. Therefore, it makes sense to reuse them as much as possible before recycling. Thin plastic bags won’t last long when you start reusing them…that’s where reusable cloth and paper bags (paper bags made from recycled paper) come into picture. Try them, they are not expensive at all.

• Live a sensible life.

Live simply. Meditate. Consume less. Think more. Get to know your neighbors. Borrow when you need to and lend when asked.

This is tip #51 in the list…sounds exceedingly simple and yet it’s the most difficult thing to act on. I would modify the words “consume less” to “consume sensibly”. Live your life well…but live it sensibly. Hey! wait a minute, it says…”Think more”? But, aren’t we Americans?

Finally, the results of the giveaway are here (after much procrastination). I intended to do this over the weekend, but didn’t want to post it on 1st April for obvious reasons.

In the two weeks that the contest was open for entries, the giveaway post received 22 comments.

Here are the names (and links if applicable) of all the commentators and the assigned numbers (starting from 1 for the first comment and increasing in the order in which the comments were received):

1 . Sun, 2. Mrs. Shari Lynn Hall, 3. Arthur, 4. Rebel, 5. Aaron, 6. Super Saver, 7. ISPF, 8. Linda, 9. MoneyFwd, 10. Shannon Sensei, 11. Tricia, 12. Peggy, 13. Jerry, 14. Jason, 15. Savy Steward, 16. Mary, 17. Blaine, 18. Magazine_Lover, 19. Melvyn, 20. Michael, 21. Zen, and 22. Shouldbeworking.

From these assigned numbers, four random numbers between 1-22 (inclusive) were then generated using Research Randomizer algorithm.

Here is an image showing the results:

So there you go…the winners are: 2. Mrs. Shari Lynn Hall, 11. Tricia, 14. Jason, and 20. Michael …Congratulations!

Others, thank you for participating…you made the giveaway successful. Better luck next time. Check back to see if I have some more giveaways in store (there will be at least one pretty soon )

Yeah…those are all the knives we have in our kitchen, and incredibly only two of them are *good* enough to be used for cutting anything.

Here is what Wikipedia says about the term “knife”:

A knife is a sharp-edged hand tool used for cutting. A minimal knife is a blade and some method of gripping it. Knives have been used as tools and weapons since the Stone Age.

For something that has been used since Stone Age, and for something that is used almost everyday in almost every household in the world, one would expect quite some sophistication and advancement in the art of making such a tool. However, it doesn’t look like the knife-making activity has been getting enough attention (even computers are cheaper than some knives). Most Walmart brands (the ones we students can afford), generally become worthless after a few weeks of moderate cutting. And the brands in other stores (Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc.) that *look* like they will slice our veggies and meat very well for a long time are also quite capable of cutting big holes in our pockets.

In short, here is our knife story:

In the image below, are our two latest hopes (again from Walmart; Farberware brand); the bigger one (”santoku” knife) is about 10 bucks and the smaller one (”perfect tomato knife”) is about 7~8 bucks. The knives have behaved very well till now; the santoku even sliced through a huge loaf of garlic bread like nobody’s business (even though it does not have serrations - like bread knives have) and the tomato knife has allowed us to dice our tomatoes to record small sizes. But, I have no idea how long this knife-honeymoon is going to last.

May be we are buying really *cheap* knives, may be we are not taking good care of our knives…or may be we should invest in some kind of a knife sharpening device…I am not really sure. What’s your experience with kitchen knives? Any good recommendation? Is anyone using a knife sharpening device that seems like worth it?

On a related note, I was searching for “good quality” kitchen knives and came across the following product on this website:

For a better perspective, the retail price for that set is about as much worth as our junker car or about as much as 3 ounces of gold! Just how rich does one have to be in order to buy that stuff?

Note: If you are using Google Reader with Firefox, at times, you will see only the image description in place of the images. To view the images, right click on the image description and select “view image”. I am trying to figure out how to solve this problem.

Some interesting stuff to read on identity theft:

• Federal Trade Commission on Identity Theft. Here is a brief intro to what this is about:
  

  Each year, millions of Americans have their identity stolen. The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, wants you to have the information you need to protect yourself against identity theft. This information is summed up in the FTC’s clear and concise message on identity theft: Deter, Detect, Defend.

  There are 3~4 pdf files on the this website that explain, in a very simple language, the preventive and remedial measures against identity theft. This is a must read, if you haven’t seen it yet.

• Also, I will take this chance to draw your attention to Dateline’s interesting identity theft investigation series aired by MSNBC. If you missed it last Tuesday, here is a link through which you can catch up. The concluding part of the series will be aired on the coming Tuesday @ 8:00 pm EST. Don’t miss it this time.

In other news, our tax returns are done and both of us will be getting two digit returns this year. Without the $30 standard credit for Telephone Excise Tax refund, my total came to only $12!…not even enough for a pizza. Man, I had some lofty dreams of fattening up our savings account with the tax return.

Also, on a totally different note, I figured out that my blog is not accessible in China (and probably many other wordpress.com blogs are blocked too). Check out if your blog is also blocked in China on this website - Great Firewall of China. [hat tip: Weblog Tools Collection] No wonder the traffic levels are low