Shane's Randomness http://shanem.net/randomness/ A few thoughts from me. en-US Copyright 2008 Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:25:00 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Pay Me Less, More Often
I got used to the odd pay periods pretty quickly, I still get the same amount each month by the end of the month, it just comes in in smaller amount and more often, but the same amount. However I then started to notice some benefits from this.

I usually do all my money changing at the end of the month, pay bills, transfer to savings, done. But now that I get a pay check in the first half of the month I realized I could transfer money to savings earlier and earn a bit more savings on it. If I know I can put a minimum of $500 in savings at the end of the month then, on average, I can put that money in savings 3 weeks earlier. It's not a huge extra amount of interest, but it's an extra 5.7% of your interest rate. At the end of the month I just then put in whatever extra money is left over into savings as I would normally do.

The other thing is that if you look at paydays on the calendar you'll notice there's two months with three of them! That's right, twice a year you "make" 150% your normal pay! These occur during May and October. What this means is that you make "less" most months than you would if you just divided your salary by 12. This is effectively making you save 8% a month. This has two very nice side effects.

1. This 8% less you make means you must tighten your belt in general and therefor spend a little more wiser than you might. Most people may realize they should do this anyway, but this is actually making it a reality.

2. You have effectively been forced to save a months worth of money. This mimics setting aside money each month for a particular purpose, say a vacation, or a new HD TV without the headache of actually doing it and having to account for it in your monthly budget, which is a big barrier to entry.

So go out and find a job that pays bi-weekly and enjoy the benefits. ]]> http://shanem.net/randomness/2008/03/pay-me-less-more-often.html http://shanem.net/randomness/2008/03/pay-me-less-more-often.html money Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:25:00 -0600 Magellan Maestro 3100 GPS: $250
The Basics
This system does it's job well, it just doesn't do a whole lot more.  If you give it an address, it'll find you a way to that location.   Its nice feminine voice will guide you with with helpful voice prompts and should you stray from your path it will auto reroute.  The system has a decent 750,000 entry Points of Interest database though not as large as the Tom Tom's > 1M.  It tends to know big chains, but don't expect it to find you many coffee shops other than Starbucks.  It comes with a suction cup mount that works nicely on my windshield and a battery that lasts a few hours on a recharge.

The Good
The Maestro 3100 is the cheapest name brand system I found.  It's $250 retail but at the time Amazon offered it for $200, ( however it is currently listed at $250 ) this made it $60 cheaper than the cheapest Tom Tom and it was sold from Amazon directly, always a bonus in my book.  It performs it's basic task of knowing where you are and getting to elsewhere well.

The menu system is flat and fairly discoverable in general.  The Address book is the deepest of the menus, but I quickly was able to navigate to a saved location in just 2 or 3 seconds.  The system is responsive for the average case and tends to only slow down when it's acquiring a GPS signal which usually only happens when you first start up the system.

The system automatically changes it's color scheme to reduce the brightness of the unit at night.  This is a must have, you'd be blinded otherwise.

The Bad
The main bad items are in what this unit is lacking, which I'm sure more expensive units cover.  So I will be specific to this units offerings

2D is the new 3D
The map offers both 3D and 2D views.  The 3D view is nice to look at, however it is impossible to do anything interactive in it; moving the map around is simply slow and it's usually not possible to actually navigate enough to see what you want.  The 2D view is almost preferred in all cases just for ease.  Another sorely missing feature is the inability to see an entire route easily, there really should be.

Wasted Space
The Maestro offers a 'Plan a Trip' feature, however this amounts to nothing more than a list of way points.  There is no special navigation, or hand off between points.  You could easily just put each point in the Address Book and just choose the next one to navigate to on your trip.


Nagging Features
This unit comes with a 'preview' option that you can turn on where, when you start a route, it will ask if you want to preview it with a fly over.  The problem with this feature is, any time it recalculates the route it prompts you if you want to see a preview before you can get actual directions.  So any time you take an access road instead of the highway, or turn earlier or later than it wants, or take a slightly different route, you gotta fiddle with the box.  That is just annoying and simply unsafe.

Also, the preview fly-by feature is useless.  It doesn't go fast enough, and is a poor substitute for a full route view.


The Review
This unit is a good buy overall; you can get it with a warranty for less than a Tom Tom.  It'll get you where you're going for the cheapest you'll find a name brand unit.  The mount is very useful and aside from a few initial drops from my windshield it's held fast.  The battery should last long enough to get you around the city for the day if you use it to get your bearing when your lost.  As well, it even fit in my blue jean's pocket.  Maybe not the most comfortable, but it works.


Amazon.com Links
This Item:
    Magellan Maestro 3100
    2 Year Warranty
Other Units:
    Magellan Maestro 3140 - "SayWhere" functionality says street names in addition to directions, Bluetooth, 4.5 Million Points of Interest
    Magellan Maestro 4000 - 1.5 Million Points of Interest, AAA TourBook integration
    Magellan Maestro 4040 - "SayWhere" functionality, 4.5 Million Points of Interest, AAA TourBook.  Additional Costs: Voice command, Traffic aware
    Magellan Maestro 4050 - 4.5 Million Points of Interest, AAA TourBook.  Additional Costs: Voice command, Traffic aware


]]> http://shanem.net/randomness/2007/08/magellan-maestro-4040-gps-200.html http://shanem.net/randomness/2007/08/magellan-maestro-4040-gps-200.html GPS Maestro Magellan reviews Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:25:39 -0600 The Memory of Things Radio Lab about memory and one of the ideas in it really stuck with me as being very interesting, equally very sensical, almost in an obvious way.   Not obvious in the 'I could have thought of that' way, but in that 'ah that explains a lot' way.

The bit of information was about what happens when we remember something.  The basic idea is that, when you remember a memory, you destroy it, gone, poof!   The only way to be able to remember it again is to resave it.  So there you go, read from memory bank A, experience, write to memory bank B.  Only, you didn't write it exactly the same, you've changed it a little, you have just lived inside your head a little bit.

The ahhhh part of this for me, is that this is very powerful, and affects us in very powerful ways.   The more you think about something, the more you change it to the way you perceive it.  Every little thought about it is a little more oomph behind it.  This I believe is the power behind wishful thinking, behind downward spirals, perhaps behind fear and eternity.

The more we really really want something the more thinking about it justifies the thought to us.  The more we worry about something, the more the fear it drives builds.  This is what makes Joel in Eternal Sunshine want to forget.   The flip side though is, the more we remember pleasantness, the more pleasant it becomes.  The more pleasant the memories we make about something, the more it becomes eternal.  This, is what makes Joel want it all back.
]]> http://shanem.net/randomness/2007/07/the-memory-of-things.html http://shanem.net/randomness/2007/07/the-memory-of-things.html thoughts Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:11:55 -0600